Chiron: A Clue to Your Creativity

by Hudson Comet March 03, 2010 04:48 PM EST We often here of the asteroid Chiron as the "wounded healer" though the myth and its significance in interpreting the birth chart are much more complex. Our talent, surprisingly or not, often arises from the same place as our wound. Upon seeing the tears of her acting students, borne of frustration for the craft or obstacles beyond working in a scene, a famous acting teacher would declare (roughly) - "That is your talent! That is your talent coming out of you!" The idea that our talent comes from our pain parallels the idea that Chiron represents that part of us that offers great gifts through the affliction of a great wound. The myth of Chiron, the centaur, has many components from which we draw meaning from his placement in our own charts. For one, he was said to be the orphaned and bastard child of Saturn (Cronos) and the sea-nymph Philyra whom were so embarrassed by his "misshapenness" that he was abandoned near a cave for fear they would be linked to this gross progeny of theirs. Saturn was married to his sister Rhea at the time and thus Chiron starts his journey through life as one who is not only shamed for his very being but the product of an adulteress union. Already we can perhaps see that the "wounded healer" is many layers deep. Chiron's character eventually rose above his shame-soaked beginnings and he productively spent his time learning and became known as a wise teacher, healer and mentor to some of the great heroes like Jason of the Golden Fleece. His death offers the ultimate metaphor for the surrender he made to a greater purpose which in myth is the bringing of fire to mankind. Unable to heal himself after being struck by a poisoned arrow, he was said to give up his immortality in exchange that Prometheus, the bringer of fire, could be be granted eternal life. If we are to set our creativity free, what sort of shameful inheritance must we confront and ultimately transform so that we can release that fire into mankind? Where must we be willing to learn and what attitudes can we sacrifice so that we can access the power and grace of the centaur? It is a gift that will not thrive if tied to selfish motives but one which is willing to go farther than anyone ever suspected simply by making a commitment to offer your creativity -- your gift -- as service to others without a disposition of grandeur. The sign that Chiron lies in as well as it's relationship to other planets and its house position will give you an idea of where your own myth lies and what sort of tools you have at your disposable to vanquish self-scrutiny or pity in the name of something that will benefit those around you.

Wounding and the Will to Live by Liz Greene

"Apollon", August 1999 Since Chiron's discovery in 1977, astrologers have been experiencing and exploring his themes, listening to new tales that resound to his ancient myth, and coming to some understanding of his archetypal impact. Now, over twenty years later, Liz Greene sees Chiron as essential in deepening our understanding of solar consciousness; for in order to choose to live life to the full, we have to face that part in us that would rather seek death. The will to live is a great mystery. Every medical practitioner, with any experience of lifethreatening illness, knows that the will to live can affect physical as well as psychological well-being, and survival often depends upon the sick person's desire for life, rather than on the doctor's ministrations. Nor is the will to live necessarily what we claim we feel. We may cry out that we want life; but somewhere inside, we want to go home, and this longing for oblivion may be more powerful than any conscious declaration of intent to "get better". Some people react to conflict, pain and disappointment with a creative response that transforms their perspective and even their circumstances. Other people become bitter and hopeless and live in a grey twilight world, or entirely lose their will to live. There are not only active suicides amongst those who have inwardly given up, but also those self-architected "accidental" deaths which, although unconscious, are nevertheless fuelled by a powerful yearning to bring an end to suffering and unhappiness. Self-destructive behaviour does not always involve the obvious gesture of the bottle of pills or the knife slash to the wrist. There is no easy formula to determine why some individuals rise to life's challenges, despite severe misfortunes and handicaps, while others turn their backs on the future, even if fortune favours them. Moreover, loss of the will to live may not always result in self-destruction. It may be expressed as the urge to destroy others, as though, on some deep and inaccessible level, the projection of hopelessness and victimisation onto another gives the suffering individual the illusion that he or she is strong and in control of life. Thus the individual who has, secretly, lost the will to live may, in extremis, try to deprive others of joy -and perhaps even of life - by finding a scapegoat who can be burdened with all the despair that is felt within. This mystery may have its origin, as so many mysteries do, in the enigma of inherent individual character, and the birth chart can provide us with many insights into the patterns which underpin that character. With any polarity in life, we, as astrologers, always need to look at a polarity of planets; and the polarity of hope versus despair, the will to live versus hopelessness, may be illuminated - at least in part - through the symbolism of the polarity of the Sun and Chiron. I do not believe we can really understand either of these planets without considering the meaning of the other one. Although they are not in actual aspect in every individual's chart, nevertheless they are both present in every chart, and they form an energy dynamic within the personality. A direct aspect sharpens this dynamic and often becomes the focus of the individual's journey, but the polarity exists in each of us regardless. All the planets, up to and including Saturn, serve the development of the individual ego, best symbolised by the Sun itself; in fact, we might even say that the personal planets "serve" the Sun as the centre of individuality. But Chiron lies at the interface between Saturn and the outer planets, and

therefore mediates collective issues which impinge on and wound the individual. By its nature, Chiron's collective implications signify something collectively "unhealable", because the wound exists in the collective and is ancestral. By its nature, the Sun reflects each individual's sense of purpose and meaning in life, and these are intimately bound up with the will to live and to become oneself. Each of these planets needs the other; but if the balance tips too far to one or the other, certain psychological difficulties may ensue. Following are a list of "keywords" which may be helpful in understanding the relationship between the Sun and Chiron. I would like to explore these in more detail first, and then look at what can happen when the Sun works against Chiron, and what can happen when they work together. After this brief assessment of the two planets, an example chart may help to illustrate the mysterious dynamic between the Sun and Chiron. The meaning of the Sun I will not spend too much time on describing the meaning of the Sun, as I have done this elsewhere. In short, the Sun represents the essence of the living individual - godhead (or, if a less "spiritual" term is preferred, the life force) incarnated in human form for a particular lifespan, and expressing itself with a specific nature and purpose. Through the Sun we experience ourselves as unique, special, and born with something to contribute to life. To paraphrase a statement Charles Harvey once made in a conference lecture, the Sun within us makes us feel connected with the macrocosm, and we experience ourselves as part of something eternal. This inner experience conveys, not "happiness" in the ordinary colloquial sense, but the profound serenity and hopefulness which arise from a feeling of living a useful and meaningful life. We could call this an experience of "individual destiny", because the Sun reflects that in us which knows we are here to live a specific purpose. Apollo was, in Greek myth, the deity who dispelled the darkness of the family curse, and freed the individual from the burden of ancestral "sin". A sense of individual meaning and purpose can indeed free us from the feeling of entrapment in the family past. The Sun also gives us a sense of an individual future, a faith in our purpose, and an inner conviction that we are "going somewhere". It is the Sun which allows us to fight free of feelings of futility and pointlessness, and which affirms our unique value even if our circumstances are painful. The inner experience of individual destiny, meaning and hope, in turn, gives us confidence in ourselves and a belief in the essential goodness of life, and this can be a powerful healing force on both physical and psychological levels. If the expression of the Sun is blocked, stifled, or undeveloped for any reason - through childhood wounds, for example, or through internal conflicts reflected in the birth chart - the individual may find it more difficult to connect with this sense of having the right to be alive as oneself. Life's difficulties may then be amplified because there is no inner sense of specialness and hope on which to draw. The power to create depends on the Sun in the chart, because when we create anything we give ourselves over to something "other" inside us which we trust will bring forth fruit. Creativity requires an act of trust. So too does play, where we give ourselves over to a flow of imaginative power which makes us feel joyful. The most ancient symbol of this creative and playful solar power is the image of the divine child, which personifies something eternally youthful and indestructible within us. The meaning of Chiron

In Greco-Roman art, Chiron is almost always shown carrying a child on his back. But despite this emblem of hope, the figure of the King of the Centaurs is a tragic one. It is worth reiterating the myth, which is often distorted or wrongly told because it is such a painful one. In myth, Chiron did not become a healer because he was wounded. That is an optimistic reinterpretation which attempts to make sense of life's pain by assigning it a specific purpose and meaning - to develop the compassion and wisdom to heal others because of one's own pain. This reinterpretation of the myth is valid as a way of working with one's own wounds. But Chiron's pain serves no such noble purpose in the story. He is already a teacher and a healer, before he is wounded. It could be assumed that he is already wounded because he suffers isolation; although he is a Centaur, and therefore one of a tribe of creatures who symbolise natural instinctual powers, he is himself civilised, and has thus separated himself from his tribe. Chiron in this context represents the wise animal, a natural power which of its own volition has chosen to serve human evolution and consciousness, rather than remain blindly subject to the instinctual compulsions of the animal kingdom. Like the "helpful animal" in fairy tales, Chiron turns his back on the savagery of his instinctual nature, in order to serve the evolutionary pattern which he deems to be the way forward for the whole of life. But Chiron is in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is caught between Herakles, the solar hero who personifies the strength of the human ego, and the wild, untamed Centaurs whom Chiron himself has left behind. While the battle rages, Chiron takes no part; he has sympathy for both. Perhaps because of this mediating role, which deprives him of his natural aggression, he is accidentally wounded by a poisoned arrow aimed at another Centaur, and the wound does not heal, no matter what healing methods he applies to it. Ultimately he retires to his cave howling in anguish, begging for death. Zeus and Prometheus take pity on him, and grant him the boon of mortality, allowing him to die in peace like any mortal, although once he was a god. This terrible story implies a state of unfairness in life which is hard for any individual, and perhaps even harder for the idealistic individual involved in studies such as astrology, to countenance. We want to believe that life is fair, and that goodness is rewarded and evil punished, at least in some other incarnation if not in this one. Here is a good creature who suffers through no fault of his own, a victim of the inevitable battle between evolution and inertia, consciousness and blind instinctuality. Chiron is an image of that in us which has been wounded unfairly by life, and by inescapable conditions which reflect failings and flaws in a collective psyche which is unfailingly clumsy in its efforts to progress. Because human beings are both solar hero and wild animal, and because our efforts to civilise ourselves over history have so often produced disastrous results, we have a legacy of unfairly inflicted pain which produces repercussions through the generations. Physical and psychological damage whose causes lie, not in any individual or even parental failing, but in genetic inheritance, or collective disasters such as the Holocaust and the present nightmare in Kosovo, belong to the realm of Chiron. In these spheres our individual strivings, fired by the Sun, refined and focused by the inner planets, and given form and strength by Saturn, are thwarted or damaged by forces in life, in history, in society, and in the collective psyche over which we have no control and for which, as individuals, we cannot be blamed. Such collisions with the inescapable flaws of the collective can leave us full of bitterness and cynicism. We may punish others because we feel maimed, wounded and irredeemable. Or we may punish ourselves. But if we can progress beyond this black bile of bitterness, and if we are persistent enough in our search for answers, we may indeed find an answer - even if the answer is that there is no answer, and that we must accept the limits of mortal existence. Acceptance is

one of Chiron's gifts, and it is different from self-pitying resignation. Chiron's boon of death may be understood as a symbol of the acceptance of being mortal, and it constitutes a transformation which, even if it cannot heal the unhealable or alter the past, can radically change our perspective on life. Through it we learn compassion, albeit of a limited kind. Chiron's compassion is the compassion of one lame person for another. We may feel deep empathy for those who are wounded like ourselves. But without the Sun's warmth and light, we may not find the generosity to move beyond the narrow circle of those whose specific pain mirrors our own, and see that life hurts us all, in one way or another. Chiron as scapegoater: the wounded becomes the wounder There are many stages in the process which Chiron represents, beginning with his wounding, and ending with his transformation into mortality and his release from suffering. These stages encompass rage, fury, the desire to injure others, bitter resignation, self-pity, feelings of victimisation, and, at last, the dawning of a wish to understand the universal patterns that lie beyond one's personal pain. At any of these stages, if we fail to face and comprehend what is happening to us, we may become stuck and act out some of Chiron's less attractive features. Chiron is, after all, wounded in his animal half, and animals are not known for their philosphical attitude when injured. Those which have the strength tend to bite back. As it is so relevant to the present world situation, I have chosen to briefly review the relationship between the Sun and Chiron in the chart of Slobodan Milosevic, who, at the time of writing this article, bears the dubious honour of personifying all we find most abhorrent in human nature. Not long ago, Adolf Hitler had this honour; no doubt others, equally qualified, will follow in the future. Whether or not Milosevic is truly evil as some claim, or a human being damaged unbearably and thus transformed into a destructive force, is not a question I can answer. This question forms the subject of endless debate in the healing professions, and raises the impossible conundrum of whether the will to destroy is a matter of inherent character or a matter of childhood damage taken to appalling extremes. As with all such conundrums, the answer probably lies in a combination of both. But it seems to me, viewing this chart in the context of the present situation in Yugoslavia, that we can learn a great deal from it about what happens if the wounds of Chiron are not dealt with on an inner level. Milosevic has exhibited no obvious loss of the will to live. He is, apparently, quite the opposite: a tough survivor who will find any way to retain his position of power whatever the cost to others. It is others who, at his hands, have lost not only the will to live, but their actual lives. Yet the inner picture is rather different.

Slobodan Milosevic Aug 20 1941, 22.00 MET Pozarevac, Yugoslavia Source: Hans Hinrich Taeger, Internationales Horoscope Lexikon, Band 4, Verlag Hermann Bauer, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1998. Taeger classes this chart as Group 2P, meaning it is fairly reliable and derived from autobiographical statements. Enlarge Horoscope

In this chart Chiron is not aspecting the Sun. It is, however, powerful through its conjunctions with the Moon and Pluto in Leo; all these planets are placed in the 4th house and square the Taurus Ascendant. The Sun is in the 5th house, in its own sign of Leo, and is therefore the dispositor of Chiron. The dynamic relationship between the Sun and Chiron in this birth chart is not through direct aspect, but through the polarisation of the self-expressive, self-mythologising 5th house Sun in Leo and the shadowed, injured Moon in the 4th, with its inheritance not only of death and destruction in the immediate family, but also of the ancient memory of grievances in the collective psyche into which Milosevic was born. Many Serbs nurse a centuries-old anger toward the Muslim world because of the occupation of their land by the Ottoman Turks in the 13th century. The Muslim Albanian community is perceived as merely a continuation of this ancient outrage. 4th house Moons feel such things personally, as though they have ingested these archaic memories through their mothers' milk. The oppression of Tito's communist regime is also relevant here, with its repudiation of Leonine individuality. Milosevic himself is, of course, a communist, and the only outlet for a double Leo with such a political agenda is power. But although power might satisfy the Sun's drive to create, it cannot heal the hurt of the Moon in Leo, longing to be special and loved. This individual, with no water in the birth chart and the harsh internal discipline of a Saturn-Uranus conjunction square the Sun and Mercury, is not likely to recognise or acknowledge the source of his suffering, because any emotions, especially those of the vulnerable victim, are frightening. One does not survive if one feels. One survives if one fights; the Sun is trine a dignified Mars in Aries in the 12th, itself a channel for a dream of collective ancestral heroism. The Pluto-Chiron power which injures the Moon is perceived outside, in a vulnerable people who are seen as a powerful enemy. As always when one projects bits of oneself outside, Milosevic lives in a hall of mirrors. Analysing the motives of an individual like Milosevic can teach us a great deal about ourselves. It is, of course, easy, with hindsight, to say, "Ah, naturally he behaved like this, because his whatnot is in thingey aspecting ding-ding." This is a game all astrologers play, especially when it allows us to feel superior. However, the conjunction in Milosevic's 4th house speaks not of inevitable behaviour, but of a deep ancestral wound, transmitted and enacted through the immediate family. Milosevic's parents both committed suicide, a fact which has no doubt exacerbated, or played into, the dark flavour of this conjunction. This man confronted death and total abandonment in very early life, and survival cannot therefore ever be taken for granted.

Chiron-Pluto is also a generation marker, as is the Saturn-Uranus conjunction, and both occurred during, and reflected, the chaos and horror of the Second World War. Those children born with this pair of conjunctions know well, in their blood and bones, that life is not safe, and that innocence and goodness are no guarantee for survival. This applies even if one has been born in a relatively "safe" environment, outside the arena of war. Beyond the Saturnian skin of individuality, the collective psyche ensures that all of us participate in and embody, on some level - dark or light - the times into which we are born. That Milosevic is a deeply, savagely, perhaps irrevocably wounded man is beyond doubt. That he has always had a choice in how to deal with that wound is also beyond doubt; and we all know how he chose to express it. The savagery of the inner wound is proportionate to the wound he has inflicted on hundreds of thousands of innocent people. Chiron, its pain inflamed by Pluto's savage fight for survival, here suggests a profound conviction that only through the deaths of those perceived as destroyers can the individual's own survival be ensured. Hopefully the readers of this article are not inclined to take Milosevic's path. He is easy to despise and even hate. Yet we may be more like him than we think - in little ways which we deem unimportant yet which reveal the painful struggle we experience in facing our own wounds honestly, and bearing them, rather than finding someone else to whom we can feel superior and in whose suffering we can secretly take delight. Struggle and synthesis The psychoanalyst Michael Balint3 wrote that, at the core of every illness, physical as well as psychological, there is a fundamental wound - a struggle or inner conflict which seems insurmountable and which can generate bitterness and rage, and the loss of the will to live. While there is no implication in this statement of any individual culpability, there is a suggestion that, if the conflict could be brought into consciousness, there is a good chance that the course of many physical and psychological illnesses could be altered, or faced in a different and more positive spirit. If Chiron works against and overwhelms the Sun, the result can be depression, loss of confidence, and a sense of permanent damage or wounding. One becomes cynical - as Goethe's Mephistopheles says, "I am the spirit of negation." One expects failure, and because one expects it, one may very likely find it. A sense of being victimised or scapegoated can be very intense; or one may project one's woundedness on others and victimise or scapegoat them. If we fail to acknowledge this inner sense of bitterness and wounding, we may become arrogant and bask in our greater spiritual achievement, looking down on those whom we deem to be less evolved than ourselves. We may also become intolerant, and even cruel, toward those who inadvertently remind us that we are hurting. And so the wound festers in the darkness. Yet the Greco-Roman image of Chiron bearing the divine child on his back also tells us that these two antithetical symbols can work together. Chiron is the child's teacher in myth - the one to whom is given the care and education of the prince who will become king. This is a rich and hopeful image of the role our unhealable hurts can play in the education of the individual we are in process of becoming. We may find a quality of serenity and wisdom, which emerge from patience in the face of that which cannot be changed. We may also develop toughness and grit, and lose the sentimentality that makes so many idealists so utterly ineffectual in realising their dreams. We may also get a glimpse of bigger, deeper patterns - the slow, painful evolution of the collective, of which we are a part, and with which we have to share responsibility. Collective disasters and mistakes are not "their" fault - human messes belong to us all. We may revile

Milosevic, and rightly so, yet each time we sneer with contempt at any racial, religious, or social minority group, or slyly try to make life more difficult for those individuals who remind us of our own imperfections, we are displaying a little bit of him ourselves. I have known some very vociferously politically correct people who, when they retire behind the closed doors of their own abodes, transform into little Adolfs and Slobos toward their partners and children. And it may be wise to remember that collectives choose their leaders, and when these little bits of the maimed scapegoater in each of us aggregate together, then we are inclined to put into power an individual who will do the will of the wounded and wounder in all of us. Before we allocate the source of all present evil to figures like Milosevic, we would do well to look in the mirror. The melancholy which Chiron can generate, warmed by the light of the Sun, may also lead us to have depth of thought and feeling, and stir in us a determination to make a contribution to the welfare of others. We may find a different kind of compassion - not just for those who have been hurt in the same way as ourselves, but for people whose experiences do not necessarily match our own, yet who merit compassion merely because we are all human. If one has lost an eye, it is easy to feel sympathy for those half-blind like ourselves, and to hate those who are fortunate enough to enjoy complete sight. The Sun working with Chiron can generate enough generosity of spirit to recognise that all human beings suffer merely because they are alone and mortal, and that one specific kind of wound is not more "special" or deserving of compassion than another. Those who are loudest in their declarations of compassion toward the Kosovo Albanians may also be those who have little compassion for their black or gay or Jewish or Pakistani neighbour, or who are prepared to kick the dog merely to alleviate stress. The Sun working with Chiron cuts through such hypocrisy to the shared essence of the human heart hidden within. Most importantly, the Sun working with Chiron can activate the will to live - not merely on a blind organic or egotistical level, but because one's sense of individual purpose has combined with a feeling of empathy for the slow and painful struggle toward the light which exists in every living thing. The Sun and Chiron in direct aspect Those with the Sun in direct aspect to Chiron may know on a profound level how the unfairness of life can damage the spirit; and if they are able to take on the challenge of this combination of planets, they may also dedicate their considerable energy and strength toward leaving the world a much better place than it was when they entered it. There are many examples of "famous" people with Sun-Chiron aspects who illustrate this point; any compendium of birth charts, such as Taeger's Internationales Horoskope Lexikon, is worth perusing to this end. But rather than dwelling on the famous, I would like to briefly mention two people personally known to me, both chart clients, and both with the Sun conjunct Chiron, who exemplify the very particular kind of pain Sun-Chiron may suffer. One of these also exemplifies the kind of creative resolution which is possible. The first, a woman with the Sun conjunct Chiron in Capricorn in the 9th house, experienced Chiron's wounding first in the religious sphere (as might be expected with this 9th house placement), by being born into an orthodox Jewish family many of whose members had died in the Holocaust. She had inherited a profound bitterness and distrust of people and life, based only partly on her own experience, but also on an inherited perception of being a scapegoat in a hostile world. This wound also encompassed a prevalent orthodox Jewish attitude about the inferiority of women, exhibited in certain taboos about the body. An amalgamation of

experiences highlighting life's unfairness had created in this woman a deep poison and cynicism, and an apparently immovable conviction that she was worth nothing. As a result, she victimised herself, through compulsive eating and a chain of destructive relationships. Identification with the scapegoat, the oppression of a ferocious inner persecutor, and the sense of a flawed and inferior body, were the chief areas in which she worked in psychotherapy over several years, occasionally "reporting back" to me for a chart update. It took a very long time before she could fight her way out from under Chiron's injury, and experience the self-respect and self-love of the Sun. Yet, clinging to the experience of victimisation can sometimes be a way of feeling special. It is the mute language of a secret, unacknowledged, unconscious Sun - which, if expressed in more honest ways, can not only provide healing for one's own own wounds, but can also generate a deep recognition of the blindness and pain of a collective which turns on another collective to alleviate its own sense of woundedness. This lady has travelled a long road, and her innate grit, toughness, and lack of sentimentality about life have turned out to be not only among her greatest resources, but also one of the great strengths she has begun to offer others suffering from eating disorders, similar to that she herself once suffered from. The second example is a failed writer, a man who has all his life dreamed of publishing novels yet who invariably "shoots himself in the foot" by producing unpublishable work. He has the Sun conjunct Chiron in Leo in the 5th house. His writing style is very fine, and he has no discernible block in expressing his gift; but everything he produces is always too long, too short, too dense, or too incomprehensible, or the themes he chooses to write about are in some way politically incorrect and offensive to some specific group the publisher has reason to fear. Behind these failures in the outer world lies self-sabotage, and behind the self-sabotage lies a deep conviction that he is worth nothing, that he is stupid and inarticulate, and that if ever he does get a work into print it will be mocked, criticised, and dismissed as worthless. To date, he has not been able to utilise the insights a chart can offer, and has not fully recognised the real nature of his wound. The divine child within him was wounded by an early social and educational environment that perceived his vivid imagination as threatening and his intense self-preoccupation and selfexpressiveness as selfish. His parents, so far as I can see, cannot not be held particularly culpable; all parents blunder in one way or another, and these were no worse than most and better than many. But the educational system in which he was raised did its best to turn the divine child into a socially acceptable automaton. Many people experience such pressures and frustrations. But those with Sun-Chiron in Leo may be particularly attuned to, and more readily injured by, the narrowness and fear of originality so often found in collective educational institutions, which may unwittingly destroy the very creative spirit they profess to encourage. Life, as Chiron knows well, can be very unfair. Aspects between the Sun and Chiron are not guaranteed to offer a solution on a plate. Many individuals do not find their way through. Yet, although profoundly challenging, these contacts may also convey a special sense of how to bring wounds into consciousness, and how to teach this consciousness to others. Hard aspects between the two no doubt helped to drive Jung (Sun in Leo out-of-sign square Chiron in Aries) into formulating a psychology of the collective, and perhaps also helped to drive Dane Rudhyar (Sun in Aries opposition Chiron in Libra) into making astrology human-centred, and a tool for insight and enlightenment, rather than mere prognostication. No doubt both these men suffered, and both, on occasion, exhibited the less attractive sides of the wounded Centaur; I would not have liked to have been married to either of them. But they turned their wounds into creative power, and partook of the mythic Centaur's gift

The Centaur Chiron instructing the young Achilles. Wall painting from the basilica of Herculaneum Larousse

for teaching and healing. How did they get there? How do we avoid becoming a mini-Milosevic, and choose instead the path which favours the will to live? How do we get there? The house and sign in which Chiron is placed tell us a great deal about where, and how, life has wounded us. This is the place where, no matter how hard we seek to find a specific object for our blame, we eventually discover that the blame lies in the gap between ideal and reality, and in the inevitable flawedness of human nature. We may need to rail against life, but if we are not to sink into a corrosive bitterness which can ultimately make us distorted and ill, we need to move beyond this phase of Chiron's rage into the quest for understanding which takes us beyond identifying with the scapegoat and the victim, and beyond the attendant inclination to play the scapegoater ourselves. This understanding may require us to dispense with previous spiritual and moral convictions, and find a broader base from which to view life. We may need to give up the idea that the good guys always ride white horses and the bad guys black ones, and we may also have to accept the fact that sometimes very good, decent people suffer unfairly, and very unpleasant, nasty ones manage very nicely and die in their beds rich, comfortable, and well pleased with themselves. Chiron and Walt Disney do not make good bedfellows. How do we find this kind of understanding? How do we learn to genuinely forgive and tolerate, without that vastly superior turn-the-other-cheek smugness which masks deep unconscious resentment and rage? Chiron needs the Sun for this task. The Sun has the power to affirm the individual's specialness and lovability, and this alone can counteract the poison of self-pity. The house and sign in which the Sun is placed at birth reflect what we need to become, if we wish to feel truly alive. If the Sun is in Aries in the 5th, and we are busy being self-sacrificing and devoting our lives to others, then somewhere, something is not working, and a deep disloyalty to self may encourage Chiron's bitterness, rather than his understanding. If the Sun is in Sagittarius in the 1st, and we are busy pretending we don't wish to be noticed by anyone, then somewhere, something is not working. If the Sun is in the 10th in Taurus, and we claim we are uninterested in material security and collective recognition of our talents, then somewhere, something is not working. If the Sun is in the 12th in Cancer and we are busy pretending we do not believe in any mystical or invisible dimension of life, psychological or spiritual, then somewhere, something is

not working. I believe we need to ask ourselves: Is the Sun shining in my life? Am I myself? Or is a fear of loneliness or not belonging making me pretend to be what I am not? Equally, we may also need to face Chiron, and ask ourselves: What is the nature of my wound? How has life hurt me, and whom do I secretly blame? What might I be doing to compensate, deny, indulge in, or project that wound? Can I feel compassion for myself, or only rage and selfpity? Where do I feel scapegoated, and where do I try to heal, or destroy, others in order to convince myself that I am not wounded? Where do I sabotage or even destroy myself because of bitterness? In order for the Sun and Chiron to work together, we need to be conscious of both. There is a profound and mysterious chemistry between these planets which, if it is working for us rather than against us, seems to mobilise the life-force, not only for our own expression, but also for the collective of which we are a part. Chiron's alienation and damage keep the Sun from becoming arrogant and insensitive; the Sun's warmth and joy keep Chiron from despair. As with all chart factors, the degree to which these dimensions of our own souls give of their best depends on how aware we are of their reality inside us. This is not a cure for life. Life will still hurt us from time to time, in one way or another, and Chiron's wounds, although we may make peace with them, inevitably rob us of our innocence. The will to live is not mobilised by a belief that life is all roses, that all we need is love, and that some kind father-mother-god will reward us if we are good. It is constellated by tougher stuff, and needs realism as well as faith and vision, if we are to exit feeling we have done our best with the gift of life, however transient, which we have been given.
CHIRON IN THE HOUSES Chiron in the First: Chironic roles are part of your identity, you will embody Chiron's energy in your sense of self and how you express. If you are able to become conscious of the energy so that you can direct it, you will be charismatic, unforgettable, a leader in unfoldment of consciousness. Possibly a New Age teacher or professional healer. Ideally, through nonattachment, the energy flows through you, and the principle of synchronicity directs your life. Chiron in the Second: You have a deep interest in balance, both achieving and maintaining it. Your values will show the influence of Chiron's nature, and you may be a builder or caretaker in some healing manner. Potentially a very beautiful, compassionate and giving nature. There is a deep need to define your values, but there may be a tendency to define values in general, an urge to proselytize, or strong opinions and judgments about others' values. Chiron in the Third: This signifies a crisis of integration that involves communication, agility and personal mastery. You likely have an unusual ability for teaching and communicating and a sensitivity to images and their applications, but possibly problems with discrimination. You learn by trial and error, and may undergo a number of seemingly wasteful experiences in the process of maturation. Great potential for using the media for the purpose of healing. Siblings may play an important role in your life.

Chiron in the Fourth: The deepest healing of the self will come through connecting with your emotional roots. You must heal your deepest roots to discover who you are. There is often suffering in childhood, and an intense, deep and brooding nature, sometimes nervous or restless. Sensitivity to the suffering of humanity in general creates an urgent need to understand emotionally that selfhealing is the path to universal healing. Potential for being an excellent counselor. Chiron in the Fifth: You have a strong sense of the child within, and issues of ego and recognition may be dominant in your life. There could be unusual sexual patterns or a tendency to sexual experimentation or obsession. You have a need to honestly face the hidden side of yourself, and to temper the demands of the inner child with a recognition of the necessary connection between sex and love. This is a very creative placement, excellent for teaching or working with children, and for tantric or spiritually conscious sexuality. Chiron in the Sixth: Your healing path is through the work experience and through finding a meaningful goal in life. Healing may well be your life work, you have a remarkable sensitivity to the energy movements in the body, and an intuitive awareness of the electrical nervous system. Until the Chironic awareness is awakened, you may be very serious, disciplined and devoted, but with pessimistic and hypochondriacal tendencies, and being or becoming healthy may seem to be a chore. Wisdom will come with experience of your ability to direct and understand the healing energies. Chiron in the Seventh: You have an enormous potential to express the collective unconscious, yet there may be confusion about who you are. You act as a mirror for the self-image of others. Your initiatory path is through relationship, as this is how you find yourself. You have a potent effect on others, and as you become aware of your effect on others, you will be able to release your gift. The key to your path is the realization that others reflect and respond to the way you see yourself. You may experience serious relationship dilemmas in your life, this is where your work, your challenge and your learning are happening. Union is the goal for seventh house, and it comes through the realization that "I am you and you are me". There is a paradox in your purpose, as balance between self and other must be achieved to complete your Chironic healing and give your gift. Chiron in the Eighth: Your path of healing and initiation may involve a major struggle with the issues of desire for sex, money, power and immortality. You are extremely perceptive of others' desires, and can read people at the deepest levels. You may be tempted to use this knowledge to manipulate or control others. This placement can endow you with the highest awareness if the desire nature can be mastered, and conversely, can manifest as an obsessive need for power and control that is very difficult to overcome. Your initiation involves learning to release deep childhood trauma so that you are able to let go of the compelling desire nature and open to the kundalini force that transforms and empowers you spiritually as you submit to its wisdom. It is especially important with this placement not to give your power away to a 'master' or teacher

Chiron in the Ninth: Your initiatory crisis has to do with connecting to and resonating with the Higher Self in this lifetime. You have a natural interest in philosophy and spirituality, you may feel driven to discover ultimate truths and convey them to others. You naturally embody spirituality, and though you convey great wisdom to others and may even be considered an adept, you long intensely for complete 'ensoulment', full, conscious expression of your soul essence. As you follow this quest, you may experience pronounced imbalances, you will probably follow a number of teachings and disciplines, and may be tempted to believe that the answers you have found are best for everyone. May be a tendency to fanaticism. Chiron in the Tenth: The lesson for Chiron in the Tenth has to do with finding true purpose on the Earth plane. The tenth house is about goals, achievement and recognition, and always implies a great deal of drive and motivation. When the effort is on behalf of a transpersonal vision, it becomes a sacred purpose. With Chiron here, you have authority, though you may try not to own it. You have great power, which could create conflicts in your being. Your only solution and healing are to accept the power inherent within you. This may typically happen around the time of the 'Saturn return', between the ages of 28 and 30. At that time you are more able to separate from the projections of parents and other role models from childhood. If you were pushed to achieve, you may have a reactionary aversion to success and power. The key to your Chironic realization is the mastery of power as a sacred gift. The more you can identify your power expression and live it out, the more you will both find your healing and give your ultimate gift. Chiron in the Eleventh: In this house the crisis of Chironic awareness has to do with the possibility of playing a unique role in your culture. It is imperative to give your gift, and Chiron's influence is to push you to develop your creativity and idealism. You are probably very individualistic or eccentric and have a sense of a great personal destiny. The key to fulfilling it is to release it from the hold of ego and understand that the universal energy flows when you are willing to be a conduit and not try to own it. It is likely that you are much closer to manifesting your ideal than you realize, and the only thing keeping you from fulfillment is the attachment to ego. Therefore, you need to master detachment. As you understand this you are able to activate your free will and higher purpose. Chiron in the Twelfth: This signifies the potential to experience cosmic immersion, to enter deeply into mysticism. Mysticism is a conscious choice, and one that comes naturally with this Chiron placement. The twelfth house is ruled by Neptune, who connects us with the realms beyond time and rationalism. Finding methods to develop the right brain functions [intuition, imagination, dreams and symbolism], connect us with the power of twelfth house Chiron, and bring awareness into multi-dimensional relational thought patterns. You are deeply intuitive and aware of the non-physical realms of reality. Your mind is intensely curious and probing, and you are able to give your gift as you cultivate that inner knowing and allow conscious awareness of previous lifetimes to emerge. You have come in this time to fulfill a very high purpose. The path may be a difficult one, because the goal is very high. CHIRON IN THE SIGNS

Chiron in Aries: You are on a quest to understand your identity and purpose. You are courageous, and may be a pioneer or trailblazer in some way. You are probably restless unless you are extremely active. You are impatient to be on the track of finding the answers you seek, and too much limitation can drive you crazy. You naturally resonate with the warrior/healer of Chiron, and in order to be healthy you need to find a way to take on power and give it expression within your life. Chiron in Taurus: Your life embodies a search for values on the physical plane, and it becomes critically important for you to identify what is right or wrong, permanent or ephemeral. You are likely not the initiator, but you have a strong drive to preserve the values you support in something that already exists. The house position of Chiron in Taurus shows the type of values you are interested in. Do not underestimate the value of your contribution because you are not the inventor of something new and unique in the world. Your work is as a preserver of values, and your role is crucial. You probably have the ability to do very well with very little. Chiron in Gemini: Yours is a crisis about finding new forms of perception and integration. You are a natural teacher and communicator, and the awakening process of Chiron will be an enjoyable one for you, as Gemini thrives on learning and new experiences. Your keynote is awareness, your mission is about understanding the thought patterns of your culture so that you may help to shape its changes. Your challenge is to learn that the way we think creates the reality we experience, and that we can therefore change it by consciously changing our thought patterns. You tend to be very attuned to the mass consciousness and work to effect the changes you believe in. You are very perceptive about the movement of electrical energies in the body, and are able to easily accommodate and manifest the energy of Uranus. Chiron in Cancer: Your healing crisis and/or path of initiation has to do with your cultural roots and issues of personal protection and belonging. You tend to have strong ties with the past and your ancestral roots, and may feel deeply threatened by the present Earth crisis, and the lack of security manifested in our present day culture. Your challenge is to recognize your power to create your own security, and by so doing, you will discover keys which you can share with others. Perhaps your biggest challenge is to release yourself from the patterns of fear around the issues of safety, and to resonate with the power of your own free will. Creativity, self-expression, learning to be playful and keep a sense of humor will be very helpful in your path, which could be a difficult one until the spectre of fear is mastered. The house placement of this Chiron shows the area of life in which you are seeking release from the hold of Saturn's restraints, and where the Uranian liberation is to be found. Chiron in Leo: Your healing path will be a creative and joyful one, your greatest challenge being that of identifying personal will and ego as opposed to the 'higher will', or soul-essence. The greater your level of creativity, the more tempting it is to claim it for the personal ego, but to do so diminishes the flow of inspiration. The key is the realization that the personality

and ego are conduits, the inspiration comes from beyond that level. It is not about attempting to destroy personal ego, that could be a danger for you until you have developed the ability to handle the pure Uranian energy. Chiron's role is to bridge from Saturn limitation to Uranus inspiration and liberation. These issues are brought keenly into focus wherever he appears in your chart, and the house describes the area of life in which the drama is played out. Your deepest need in this is probably to identify your purpose as clearly as possible, and to honor the creative process as your path of initiation. Your will is key, and the more you bring it into resonance with the cosmic will, the more your path will be a celebratory one. Chiron in Virgo: Chiron's passage through this sign takes only twenty months out of each fifty years, and its work here is intense and concentrated. You have a subtle and exacting nature, and may tend to be compulsive about control and a workaholic, at least until you gain mastery of the skills you feel you must have. A natural placement for people in any health-related field, but you must learn to become comfortable with the unpredictability of the work and action of the Uranian energy to allow it to flow. You have a natural understanding of the Saturnian end of the polarity, of bringing principles into form without attachment. You tend to resist the energy of Uranus, as it seems disruptive, unpredictable and at times incomprehensible. Once you are able to submit to its initiation, you can claim your natural role as warrior healer, and discover the truly remarkable healing talent you possess. You are very likely to channel healing through your hands, or to use your hands in your highest work in some way. You have an excellent sense of timing. Chiron in Libra: Your initiatory path is through relatedness, finding balance and harmony through the mirroring of relationship. You have a tendency to measure yourself by others' responses, therefore you require strong relationships which provide you with plenty of feedback. You may have an unusually strong tie with the dominant parent, and some issues about compromising with the authority figures in your environment. Your aversion to injustice may amount to almost a hatred of it, and a deep need to really know when something is unjust. You feel compelled to weigh and balance situations. Look to the house position of Chiron for clues as to the place in your life where this process is likely to be focused. You have a high level of artistic talent, and creative expression can be very helpful for you in the process of working out the polarity of self and other which is implied in this placement. Balance and justice are powerful needs for your healing work. Chiron in Scorpio: You seem to be drawn inexorably by the energy of Plutonian transformation and evolution. The driving energy for this transformation is Chiron, but the depth and intensity of the quest come from the force of Scorpio's ruler, Pluto. These influences together bring about very deep evolutionary forces that impel you on a path of regeneration and rebirth. With Chiron in Scorpio you face a death crisis or a significant choice to live relating to the issues of the house Chiron is in. You experience close encounters with death, or deep personal loss, [very possibly around the age of 30] that impassions your quest and gives it a 'life and death' significance. You have a high level of sensitivity to the 'underworld' of chthonic [occult] forces, emotional power and kundalini energy. You may well remember Earth experiences when these powers were not taboo in the culture, and you may yearn for that freedom and believe that no one can understand how you feel. The key for your initiation and healing work is owning your power, defining your values in such a way that your power is expressed

rather than repressed. Repression or avoidance of your inherent power can cause serious health problems, so it is imperative for you to embrace this energy somehow and give it expression in your life. Chiron in Sagittarius: Your challenge for Chironic transformation has to do with integrating the Higher Self, or soul essence, into your consciousness. You have an instinctive attunement to the teachers of higher knowledge, and may go on many spiritual quests and explore many paths in your search to embody this wisdom. Eventually through this searching, you come to understand that you are the conduit, the wisdom and knowledge you seek can only be found within you. Then you can cease to search the world for ascended masters, and listen to the master within your own heart. Your path is one of growing awareness, and you have the potential to learn and bring forth a new awareness of the kundalini as the healing force within our bodies. The real healing comes not through answers found by the mind, though these are necessary for you, but through integration of the electrical kundalini energy. The mind can take you only so far, and then you must make the leap of faith and submit to the process within, trusting your higher self to guide the process Chiron in Capricorn: There is a karmic crisis for you about succeeding in your quest, and the house placement of Chiron will tell you about the nature of that quest. Your challenge is finding a balance between success and nurturance. You have the potential of achieving a high degree of success early in your life, and you feel a great significance and pride in your achievements. Even if success does not come early, you never lose the faith that you will reach your goal. Though hard work is always required with Capricorn, you are highly motivated, and that part is therefore easier for you than making room in your life for nurturing, joy and humor. You need to learn to truly listen to others, and acknowledge the validity of paths other than your own. Otherwise, even though you achieve your goals, you will end up feeling unappreciated and alone. Chiron in Aquarius: Your greatest challenge is to deeply connect with the Earth, to be grounded. You naturally resonate with a galactic vibrational attunement, and you manifest a high degree of idealism. You have the ability to bring through great gifts and teachings about making the bridge between Saturn's structure and Uranus' electrical energy [called kundalini in the physical body]. You may often feel frustration with the lack of idealism in the culture, and repeated disappointments could drive you toward isolation. In order for you to fulfill your Chironic initiation and healing, it is important to learn to value experiential learning, and to practice patience and grounding. Balance of idealism and practicality is necessary for you to bring forth your highest awareness. Chiron in Pisces: Your initiatory path is about connecting with the Universal Oneness, surrender to the divine. You are highly attuned to subtle energies, and you may have a very different definition of 'reality' than is common, as you 'dance to the beat of a cosmic drummer'. Your sensitivity makes you vulnerable to astral influences, and you will feel a need to recognize the nature

of these energies. You need to be aware not to dwell in negative thought patterns, as these astral entities can attach themselves to you and be difficult to release yourself from. If this occurs, you might need assistance in clearing them, so that you may express the highest potential of this placement, which is ecstatic mysticism and oneness with all of existence. It would be well for you to learn techniques of astral protection. You are prone to have spontaneous experiences of transcendence, and carry a vision of Earth in cosmic harmony. Chiron here is a great tool, you are able to feel the heart of the Universe. Your challenge is to have patience and tolerance for those who do not have your insight and who are ruled by fear and limitation, while not allowing yourself to buy into a fear-based view of life. Opening your heart will release your great gifts.