INTRODUCTION
Chiron and Psychoastrology®
A school shooting; a drunk driver taking an innocent life; the loss of a job, a loved one, or a relationship . . . now more than ever people turn to therapists, spiritual healers, and countless other professionals for support and healing. Yet those of us who work to relieve the emotional pain of humanity have shortcomings of our own—even as we serve our highest calling.
Chiron was discovered in 1977 by American astronomer Charles T. Kowal from images taken at Palomar Observatory in San Diego, California. Chiron has the unusual characteristic of features like both an asteroid and a comet. It was recognized as the first object in the centaur class. Centaurs are objects with unstable orbits, and Chiron remains one of the largest such worlds known. It was initially classified as an asteroid and as a minor planet, 2060 Chiron. Today it is classified as both a minor planet and a comet and is known by the cometary designation 95P/Chiron. This book that you are now holding accurately identifies twelve areas of core wounding, diagnosed by the astrological placement of Chiron in the reader’s birth chart. It is this placement of Chiron that identifies the causes for people to repeat painful, unconscious patterns.
In our astrological natal chart, also our called birth chart, the location of Chiron reveals these core wounds, which block our capacity to have self-empathy and to forgive. Lack of empathy and compassion for ourselves and others obstructs our ability to both create and allow our desires. By working with Chiron, I was able to come to understand the correlation between my deepest inner wounding and my greatest challenges. I trademarked the modality Psychoastrology® to demarcate the interrelationship between our personal psychology and our natal astrology. The insights and healing I have found for myself inspired me to share them with you, the reader, so that you, too, will be equipped to identify and heal your core wounds through an empowerment process. Thus you can then remove obstacles and blocks and, in doing so, create the life you really want to live through your conscious choices.
Why Chiron?
In Greek mythology, Chiron the centaur is acknowledged as being the founding father and discoverer of the healing arts, botany, pharmacy, the science of herbs, and medicine. Chiron tutored Achilles and Asclepius in the medical and healing arts. He enjoyed a good life on Mt. Pelion until one fateful day.
As the story goes, an arrow poisoned by the blood of the Hydra mistakenly struck Chiron in his leg, causing him excruciating pain. The agony he experienced put him in touch with the fragility of humanity. Finding it unbearable to live with the pain he experienced continually and unable to heal himself, Chiron asked Zeus if he could trade his immortality with Prometheus and give up his life. Zeus granted his wish.
Chiron took his place among the gods, where he became the archetype of the wounded healer.
Being a centaur, Chiron embodies both human consciousness and animal instinct. When we are wounded our innate animalistic instinct for self-protection kicks in as a means of survival. Initially this is a natural and necessary coping strategy. But many of us dwell too long in this space, therefore separating ourselves from our source of inner wisdom and intuition.
The mythological story of Chiron represents the psychoastrological invitation to journey inward and bring greater understanding, healing, and power to your life. Almost everyone has an aspect of life wherein they seem to repeat the same frustrating patterns and, at the same time, continuously wonder how to change.
In early psychoanalytic literature Freud was the first to name these recurring and painful, cyclical patterns. The repetition compulsion has been written about in various ways since Freud coined the term in 1914. Erik Erikson, the renowned psychoanalyst who fathered the stages of psychosocial development, wrote about destiny neurosis in Childhood and Society, “the way that some people make the same mistakes over and over . . . the individual unconsciously arranges for variations of an original theme which he has not learned either to overcome or to live with.” Object relations theory teaches that object relations (the relationships we had with our primary caretakers) early in life may be unconsciously repeated. In his book Further Learning from the Patient, British psychoanalyst Patrick Casement notes, “Unresolved conflicts continue to generate attempts at solutions which do not really work . . . until a genuine solution is found.” And attachment theorists believe that early development patterns form schemas of relationship that are repeated. A schema is the mental representation of relationships, which becomes organized and encoded as experiential and cognitive data.
In the astrological chart, Chiron is found in one of the twelve signs of the zodiac: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, or Pisces. The placement of Chiron in a zodiac sign reveals the specific core wound that causes recurring issues, themes, and problems that result in persistent, painful challenges and patterns as a result.
Additionally, the astrological house that Chiron is found in represents one of twelve distinct sectors/areas of one’s life wherein one’s core wound manifests. Here is an overview: The first house relates to our physical body and our personality; the second house has to do with our finances and moral value system; the third house deals with communication, siblings, and childhood; the fourth house pertains to how we were nurtured and conditioned, our home (both family of origin home and our current home); the fifth house relates to creativity, romance, legacy, and play; the sixth house has to do with work, health, and our routines (structure); the seventh house addresses contracts—both intimate (marriage and relationships) and professional; the eighth house has to do with power, sex, and other people’s money; the ninth house involves religion, philosophy, foreign travel, and education; the tenth house has to do with career, reputation, and image; the eleventh house is all about friends, groups, associates, and community; and last, the twelfth house has to do with the unconscious mind, shadow self (addictions, jails, hospitals), and spirituality.
Like a raw nerve, the house placement of Chiron describes what parts of our lives we might edit or hide for fear of being rejected or not accepted by others. Chiron’s house placement also reveals the areas of sensitivity where we are triggered. Like a soothing balm, Chiron’s placement in one of the twelve houses has the potential—and the power—to heal our negative reactivity to both the outside world and within ourselves.
Using the twelve signs of the zodiac and the twelve houses of our natal chart, we can locate Chiron’s core wounding in our lives and identify specific personal challenges as they pertain to our particular wounds. Through this understanding of psychoastrology you will discover how the root causes of your wounding can become the source of your greatest healing and empowerment.
The purpose of this book is twofold. The first purpose is, again, to reveal the unconscious patterns sourced in your core wounding. The second purpose is to learn how to heal those places through empathy and self-forgiveness. In this psychoastrological process there is hope that you will resolve much of your suffering, end self-sabotage, and finally be free to create and allow your life to unfold in new ways. You can use this information for yourself, your partner, or a loved one or in your practice as a healing professional.
By having the courage and taking the time to progressively attend to the wounded parts of myself, I continue to undergo profound transformation. By working with Chiron we find the ability to cultivate great psychological, emotional, and spiritual strength formerly inaccessible to us. The Chiron Effect reveals how to transcend the shadowed restrictive limitations that cause unhappiness and deplete our power.
It seems significant that the legend of Chiron tells of a poisonous arrow mistakenly striking our hero of the healing arts. Of course, in modern times one would not be literally struck with an arrow shot from a bow. However, being struck by an arrow is a metaphor for the unexpected—when something seems to come out of nowhere!
Chiron asked Zeus if he could die because the pain of his unexpected trauma was too much to bear. How often have you in your own heart and mind wished for an ending of pain created by circumstances beyond your ability to cope? Some of you reading this now may have wanted to take your life in order to stop the pain created by others or yourself. The gift of Chiron’s psychoastrology is that it’s within our ability to heal through empathy and self-forgiveness. As we heal, comfort is found through the inner voice that offers us understanding, encouragement, and compassion.
The Chiron Effect
The Chiron effect is a term I developed to describe the magnetic pull or orbit we have in and around specific areas of core wounding and vulnerability. The problems we have typically cluster around core issues and themes. An orbit is a pattern that we have grown accustomed to living within, thus becoming a set frequency. Effect is defined as a change that is a result or consequence of an action or other cause. Therefore, when we change our orbit, we affect our frequency. We are beings of habituation; ourselves orbiting our surroundings, as well as being orbit-surrounded by people, places, and things. Our routine, habits, people, places, and things make up the orbit that we inhabit through our actions and choices. Notice the people in your life, the experiences that you find yourself in consistently; this is the orbit that gravitates toward and surrounds you. We are each planets in the solar system of our own lives.
The Chiron effect offers you a way of decoding the underlying factors influencing the magnetic pull (orbit) that keeps you in the same pattern and frequency of your identified problems. Second, you are invited into a depth-process of healing to shift your current frequency.
Let’s take a look at ourselves through the lens of Chiron. Everyone has wounds. Everyone has experienced loss, disappointment, sadness, depression, rejection, or a taking away of or a letting go of what was once meaningful to us. We are each acquainted with suffering. We have all felt pain—whether it’s physical, emotional, mental, spiritual—or any combination thereof.
It is our human condition to experience wounding on the earthly plane of existence. It is our celestial condition to embody healing during our earthly tenure of existence. To extrapolate from the famous philosopher and Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, because we are spiritual beings having a human experience, the dissemination of healing is administered in each of three dimensions composing the self: body, soul, and spirit.
When undertaking to heal in this way, initially it is very important to ensure that we have reliable and varied coping mechanisms, self-care strategies, and natural supports in place before and during our exploration of core wounding. We need to expose and explore these deep wounds carefully and gently while developing adequate natural supports and concrete practices of self-nurturing. Thus, a toolbox of coping strategies and an array of self-soothing behaviors and practices are some of the first things to develop and implement. Creating a quiet and peaceful emotional environment to do this healing work is your first step. Identify a comfortable location, utilize a notebook or journal, and perhaps ensure that you have a special candle to light as you work through the stages of healing that this book will walk you through.
Healing your core wounds begins with allowing a space for forgiveness within yourself and is reinforced by creating a supportive external environment for your journey.
In addition to identifying and healing your specific psychoastrology of core wounding—illuminated by the sign and house placement of Chiron in your natal chart—Chiron will bring other dynamics to the forefront of your awareness. These include the shadow-aspect dynamics of self-defeating practices, patterns, and behaviors, which will be highlighted so that you may see how they have been operating in the background of your life.
How to Approach This Book
Every chapter in this book is written to build on the next. It is not unlike cooking a complex dish whereby layers of flavors are built on each other—such as salt, smoke, spice, sugar, citrus, or umami. In order to create a balanced end result, and if you wish to glean the most life-changing and long-lasting benefits, it is important to read from the first page onward without skipping any passages.
I have found that I relate to every sign placement of Chiron in some fashion. My main issues come from the placement of Chiron in a specific sign and house; however, we heal ancillary wounds by studying all of the sign and house placements of Chiron. This thorough knowledge of psychoastrology makes us more adaptable, resilient, and prepared. Each chapter offers insights, approaches, and techniques for healing that I have researched and utilized over the past two decades as a licensed clinical social worker. I want you to master self-healing so that you can live happily in the present moment, thereby being open to all that is available to you.
Personal growth and development are a lot like baking; both are an art and a science. You can’t rush a cake to bake no matter how long you may stand over it, watching it or turning up the temperature to rush it along. Either the person watching it will become frustrated or the bottom of the cake will burn and leave the center cold. Similarly, invest the requisite time to learn about your core wounds presented within these pages.
As stated in William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.” I use astrology as the diagnostic tool to identify core wounding, but the prescription and remediation involve a combination of psychology, spirituality, and personal responsibility. This is the inner journey into your own psychoastrology. Awareness is the first step in awakening to Chiron, the beautiful inner healer. I wrote this book because I want to encourage you to express your dreams. I want to inspire you to speak your voice, live into your life; this one life that you have to create on this time/space continuum. Honor your existence by completing what you came here for. Don’t cave inward for longer than the time it takes to regroup and rise to greet your challenges with the resilience that is embedded within your heart. Don’t compromise your voice, vision, or values. Do be open to new ideas and suggestions.
Refute the information of those who tell you your dream isn’t possible, it’s too costly or impractical, or they . . . simply can’t help you. Lean inward to find the reservoir of unlimited potential that you possess. Close your eyes, and play the music in your heart. Deeply root yourself into your value and worth because you are good enough right now. Even when you don’t feel good enough or haven’t done your best, you are a spiritually perfect being and you are lovable.
I personally and professionally became frustrated with lengthy assessment and treatment processes that involved years of rehashing troubling and traumatic memories. Rehashing the past only produced gnawing feelings of disempowerment. With a desire to address my own core wounding, I sought alternative assessment methods and turned to meditation.
During meditation I received a message: Research Chiron and expand upon the wounded healer mythology. I was invited to familiarize myself with all aspects related to this archetype, especially the notion of individual core wounding. Finally, I was encouraged to add to the narrative of healing by sharing my research and personal journey in this book. I found that in developing The Chiron Effect, what is offered here works in concert with the alternative and prevailing methodologies known to date.
I am conscious and respectful of the diversity within our humanity, and I want to acknowledge those differences among us now. My work is applicable to and inclusive of one’s race, ethnicity, gender identification, age, national orientation, sexual orientation, disability, socioeconomic background, status, religious belief, and spiritual practice. I want to bring us together through a dialogue of healing. I am a student of A Course in Miracles, a book scribed by Helen Schucman and published in 1976 by the Foundation for Inner Peace. It is a curriculum for those seeking spiritual transformation by shifting from a thought system based on fear to a thought system based on love. Meditation and prayer are a part of my daily self-care, and I enjoy studying the metaphysical, spiritual, psychological, and quantum fields. I call upon God/Universal Intelligence/Source Energy/Jesus/Spirit to be with me and assist me in all aspects of my personal and professional lives. I appreciate that everyone has different belief systems.
I want to acknowledge your diversity in thought and the belief systems that accompany you as my reader, and I invite you to apply your own belief system to this work. There are many names, ways, and paths that may be utilized to arrive at a common destination. I encourage you to tailor the language in this book to assist and serve you.
Finding Safety in an Unsafe World
When our familiar way of living (i.e., people, places, or things) falls apart there is a breakdown in trusting that we are safe and grounded. There is a fractured sense of stability in realizing that our predictable world is no more. This phenomenon is most often experienced as emotional distress, much like when grieving a loss or a death.
As the initial shock and disbelief of what’s happened begins to wear off, there is a sense of disorientation from opposing feelings of numbness alternating with a flood of emotions. Our prior operating system becomes obsolete, and we are left standing in unknown territory.
As humans we have been conditioned to react to and fear what is challenging or unfamiliar. Commonly known as “fight, flight, or freeze,” these automatic responses do not align with feelings of stability, security, and safety—all of which are needed to function optimally.
It takes courage to go within and face fear, panic, and unexpected shifts that suddenly change the landscape and the predictable knowledge of our world. However, when we move closer to our inner wounding, we come nearer to our deepest needs and desires, which have often been stuck in a holding pattern yearning to be noticed, seen, and heard. I encourage you to give yourself permission to feel into this information that is available and contained within your core wounding.
Initially, moving closer to our inner wounding feels counterintuitive, but it holds the key to our complete healing. Through this process we begin to repattern ourselves. We gain clarity and develop inner strength.
For example, when we touch a hand to a hot stove, the natural and instinctive biological response is to pull our hand away immediately and never revisit that experience again. It is an appropriate biological defense to keep us from being burned repeatedly.
Emotionally speaking, people may stay in an unfulfilling relationship (a metaphor for a hand on the hot stove) for so long that their emotions (nerve endings) become numb or even deadened. What started as a pang of warning becomes full-blown hurt that can numb you emotionally over time, given that you may have minimized or even ignored your intuition. Instead of choosing to face the many fears that naturally and inherently accompany change, this pain-point experience can become the norm for you as the gradual slide into self-deception begins in order to maintain the relationship rather than using your energy to start over or be single again.
Our wounds are the way in which the Divine makes contact with us in order to wake us up to an aspect of self that needs to be excavated and healed. We experience this communication through our body. The body is a symptom bearer of how we are living. Chronic physical and emotional problems are communicating imbalances or wounds to get our attention.
These sensitive places need to be addressed and explored with compassion. Our wounding activates a deeper transpersonal process within that is discoverable through an understanding of the psychoastrology of Chiron. Often it is through pain that we focus our attention on what’s really needed. With curiosity and concern, this deeper look within is the path that actually leads us to our happiness.
Awakening
Chiron is both the gateway for, and invitation to, the development of empathy. Carl Jung describes the wounded healer as embodying both the spirit of compassion and of selflessness. In its most positive aspect, the wounded healer symbolizes the potentially transformative power within that is ready and willing to heal our core wounds.
Unaddressed, the wounds of Chiron play like a hidden narrative running in the backdrop of our lives, creating problems that we don’t understand. Psychiatrist Carl Jung wrote in Memories, Dreams, Reflections, “until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” Chiron encourages us to take personal responsibility for our own fate. In recognizing our shared bond of human vulnerability, we become a wellspring of compassion and support for ourselves and also for those whose lives we touch.