wounded healer

Chiron and Neptune – the final dance

Chiron and Neptune are within twelve minutes of a conjunction now, about as close as they are going to come before finally separating in late November.  Although their conjunction is not exactly at the same degree, the influence of these two planets has been making itself known since early 2009.  Chiron is the healer of the soul, and Neptune connects us to our transcendent, creative and spiritual selves so these two planets together are a powerful pair.

Over the past eighteen months since Chiron and Neptune have been traveling in tandem there has been a powerful urge in the collective psyche for healing and reparations of all kinds.  See this link for other articles about this planetary combination.

On a personal level, many of us have had deep emotional experiences of release that freed us from the past, or which helped us to break through a longstanding block.  For others this has been a time filled with emotional pain and worry as we struggled to hold on, not realizing that it’s the letting go which ultimately frees us.

In any case, as Chiron and Neptune, both retrograde, take their final bow we may find ourselves looking back to see where there might be wounds that still haunt us; that still prevent us from truly evolving.  These two great spiritual teachers can provide the wisdom that we need to release the stuck energy of the past.

Quoting myself from an earlier article at the dawn of the conjunction:

Both Chiron and Neptune pose difficulty for the expression of the ego. Chiron requires that we process the wounds of the psyche before the ego can manifest in a truly healthy form, and […]

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By |2022-09-13T12:43:24-04:00October 19th, 2010|Consciousness|Comments Off on Chiron and Neptune – the final dance

Chiron in Pisces: The bliss of healing

Chiron in PiscesChiron moves into the sign of Pisces today.  Chiron is an interesting planetary body whose orbit lies in the Kuiper belt.  But just as Chiron was not an ordinary Centaur even though he was half horse and half man, Chiron is not just an ordinary KBO (Kuiper Belt Object).  For more information on the planetary properties of Chiron visit this earlier article, and here you’ll find more information on the astrological Chiron.

Today Chiron leaves Aquarius for the sign of Pisces.  In its role as the Wounded Healer, Chiron shows where are deepest wounds lie, and where we will find the keys to healing.  A soul that has experienced the intensity of experience in emotional or physical pain has an opportunity to gain greater wisdom and a depth of consciousness and awareness by delving deep into the wound that is not available without these experiences.

Chiron is the guide on this journey, giving us the courage to open our hearts despite the fear and pain that may make this process excrutiatingly difficult in some cases.

While Chiron was in Aquarius from 2005 until next year (Chiron will retrograde back into Aquarius in July to complete the process) we have seen the ways in which technology, one of the domains of Aquarius, has created wounds and intensified experiences of loneliness and isolation in the midst of 1,000 Facebook friends.  Aquarius, with its double rulership of Saturn (rules and isolation) and Uranus (the collective) has a tendency to become somewhat disconnected from the heart and soul, living primarily in the head and the realm of thoughts and ideas.

The period of Chiron traveling through Aquarius completes itself with […]

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By |2019-11-10T19:32:01-05:00April 21st, 2010|Planetary cycles|5 Comments

Jayson Blair reinvents himself: An inspiring tale of the Wounded Healer

Jayson Blair, the New York Times journalist who was forced to resign in 2003 when it was discovered that he had plagiarized and simply made up some of his stories, is back in the news having reinvented himself as a life coach.  Blair now has a position with Ashburn Psychological Services in Virginia as a certified coach, something that has caused more than a few raised eyebrows in the media.

The story of Jayson Blair embodies the soul of the Chironic journey that we call the “Wounded Healer.”  This archetype is well-known in the psychological field and originated in the work of Carl Jung who is quoted as saying “Only the wounded physician heals.”  It is the experience of being wounded that provides the compassion required to assist others in their own healing journey.

Blair, an African-American, was blessed with a trail of success beginning with his stint as editor-in-chief of the student newspaper in college and continuing through his meteoric rise at the New York Times.  But his entire career he was dogged by questions and accusations of fabrication and reporting errors that were largely ignored until April 2003, when he was fired from the Times.  Blair’s rise through the Times was largely attributed to the desire for a more diverse workplace and the Blair story led to a lively national debate on the merits of affirmative action although Blair’s career paralleled that of Stephen Glass, a white reporter with the New Republic whose demise was chronicled in the film “Shattered Glass.”

According to Jayson Blair’s birthchart (March 23, 1976, time unknown, Columbia Maryland), he has the Sun in Aries and it form a challenging square to Mars, the ruler of Aries.  Mars and Aries are both fiery influences that […]

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By |2009-08-24T09:59:51-04:00August 24th, 2009|Health & Healing, Inspiration|Comments Off on Jayson Blair reinvents himself: An inspiring tale of the Wounded Healer

Is Chiron an asteroid? A comet? Or what?

Chiron the healer

Chiron was discovered in the late 1970s, and although many astrologers still seem not to include it in their practice, it has been an important part of my work for over 20 years.

Chiron is an important part of the planetary energy that is taking place right now since it is locked into the conjunction with Neptuneand the soon to be separating Jupiter.  You can read more about the astrological Chiron here.  Astrologers sometimes categorize Chiron with the other asteroids: Vesta, Juno, Hygeia, Astraea, and thousands more but Chiron is technically not an asteroid.

Chiron’s astrological qualities include the alchemical transformation of matter into spirit in our own consciousness, and while its irregular orbit can take it anywhere between Jupiter and Neptune it is most commonly found between Saturn and Uranus, bridging the personal planets (through Saturn) and the transpersonal (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto).  The alchemical process that Chiron teaches reveals the inner wounds in the body, mind, spirit system and helps to facilitate healing.

Astronomers originally classified Chiron as an asteroid with a strange orbit.  But as they observed Chiron they discovered a comet-like tail, and it was reclassified as a comet.  Astrologer Zane Stein is widely respected as the astrology world’s expert on the discovery of Chiron.  He queried Dr. Marsden, director of the IAU Minor Planet Center on this subject and posts the response on his website:

Chiron, originally given the very temporary title “Slow-Moving Object Kowal”, was given the provisional minor planet designation 1977 UB. Later it was given the permanent minor planet number and name (2060) Chiron. All along, there were discussions it might be a comet, and definite cometary activity was noticed, at least some of the time, beginning around 1988. […]

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By |2020-11-03T13:35:11-05:00July 8th, 2009|Astrology|Comments Off on Is Chiron an asteroid? A comet? Or what?

Banishing the Chiron Monsters

No matter how much wisdom we attempt to muster when we are approaching a difficult transit, there is no way to make it easy.  Sometimes, though, reframing the way we approach the challenge can turn the entire experience around for us.

In a flash of blogchronicity, Beth Owl’s Daughter has a post from yesterday on just this subject. Beth is guiding her readers through The Artist’s Way, Beth writes:

In today’s installment, we are encouraged to select one of our monster stories, and write it down in detail. You may have already started this, the way Thalia’s utterly despicable experience in first grade came to mind for her.

It needn’t be overly long, but make it as specific as you can remember. Julia advises, “Do jot down whatever details come back to you – the room you were in, the way people looked at you, the way you felt, what your parent said or didn’t say when you told them about it. Include whatever rankles you about the incident: ‘And then I remember she gave me this real fakey smile and patted my head…’ ”

Seen now as adults with some distance and experience behind us, some of these memories are outrageous. Go ahead. Feel that rage. Feel the grief, if that’s what is triggered. Allow those feelings to come right up, because they are the stirrings of your POWER. The adversities imposed on us by our monsters can give us the traction that will launch us towards even more brilliant future fulfillment!

read more here...

Beth is describing quite accurately the process that Chiron teaches us.  We can weep and wail and run from our monsters, or we can face them head on and discover that really, our monsters are not […]

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By |2022-10-15T13:32:00-04:00March 13th, 2009|Inspiration|Comments Off on Banishing the Chiron Monsters