Who is Chiron?
In Greek Mythology, it was Chiron who taught humanity the constellations. That’s huge. Chiron is our celestial teacher. In Greek mythology, Chiron is a Centaur: half man, half horse. While most Centaurs were considered menacing, Chiron was “famous for his wisdom and knowledge of medicine.”
Chiron is a centaur, and the myth goes that Chiron was abandoned at birth and left to fend for himself. It was through this wound of abandonment and difficult upbringing that he was able to rise up and turn its wounds into powerful portals of healing.
Chiron won’t heal your suffering. He will, however, show you where it is and walk you down the path to your own realization. Kind of like with Saturn, the great teacher, you have to do the work.
Chiron’s role as the “wounded healer” is a testament to the transformative power of pain. Just as Chiron couldn’t heal his own wound but used his suffering to heal others, we are called to transform our deepest hurts into our greatest strengths. It’s like turning lead into gold in the alchemical process of personal growth.
Chiron the asteroid
Chiron is not technically a planet but an asteroid that orbits between Saturn and Uranus. Even though Chiron is not a planet, in astrology, it is still a significant cosmic energy to work with.
Some astrologers consider Chiron a celestial enigma. This portrays a sense of the mystical. Mystics were born of suffering. Their lives were not easy. It was only through the lessons of the challenges they faced that they obtained certain supernatural abilities: gifts.
The position of Chiron between Saturn and Uranus is also significant to understanding the energy it brings.
Saturn is a very grounded, rooted energy, whereas Uranus is considered a planet of a higher vibration. Uranus’ energy can also bring about awakenings and the rise of kundalini energy.
Chiron can act as a bridge between these two states of being and is sometimes referred to as the Rainbow Bridge. The Rainbow bridge signifies the linking between one state of consciousness
Chiron the Myth
Chiron is a centaur; a half man and half horse entity. While the centaurs are traced to King Ixion and nymph Nephele, Chiron was the son of Cronos and the Oceanid Philyra. His parentage makes him a brother to the Olympian gods and puts him above other centaurs.
According to the myth, Cronus had turned himself into a horse to escape his jealous wife, Rhea, and seduced Philyra. From this union, Chiron was born – a centaur, half-horse, half-human.
His parentage significantly influenced his personality and life. Unlike other centaurs who were often depicted as wild, lustful, and chaotic, Chiron was wise, civilized, and kind.
Chiron gained the knowledge and wisdom he later shared with many famous mythological characters from Apollo. After Chiron’s mother abandoned him as a child, Apollo found, adopted and educated him. Thus, Chiron’s skills resemble those of the god of prophecy. Among his areas of expertise, other than the mentioned ability to prophesize, were other domains of Apollo – music, medicine and hunting. According to some accounts Artemis also had a say in his education. Namely, in his archery and hunting skills.
Chiron took his knowledge of medicinal herbs to such a masterful level that he later became a teacher of the famous physician of Greek mythology – the son of Apollo, Asclepius. But the list of famous heroes tutored by Chiron is much longer than that. He is credited for teaching Achilles, Jason, Heracles, Theseus and Peleus.
As a son of Cronus, Chiron was blessed with immortality. And as a great healer, he was in a favourable position. But none of those two things saved him from his fate. One day he found himself in the middle of a fight between angered centaurs and Heracles – his old student. An arrow not meant for him flew from Heracles’s bow and landed in Chiron’s knee.Full of guilt and concern, Heracles took out the arrow and Chiron himself applied medicine to the wound. But the arrow was poisoned and so it caused the centaur great pain. Eventually, the pain became unbearable and Chiron agreed to trade his immortal life for the relief of death. He arranged to give away his immortality to Prometheus and passed away. Some versions of the myth claim that it wasn’t the pain but the long life he already lived that made him wish for death.
How to work with Chiron
When Chiron is is active and influencing the collective it is the perfect time to focus on your inner healing and transformation. And I mean it is time to really focus and go deep. This is the time to look at those things you know are there but, have still been putting of and avoiding to work thru and deal with. Chiron is here to guide you thru that work and on to the path you were meant to walk. Chiron will guide you with wisdom thru the portal of pain and your deepest wounds and out into the wide open expansive space of your sacred purpose and contract.
How you do this with him is thru very intentional shadow work. There are many ways to do this whether you do it thru, auto scripting to receive messages, journaling, getting yourself into therapy, divination, or entering a meditative state while working thru specific shadow prompts for the wounds you are trying to heal and transform into purpose and power.
Let Chiron guide you thru the portal of pain by working thru your wounds to transform yourself and enter your sacred purpose to better serve the collective as Chiron did.
If you need to know more about how to do shadow work you can check out my resource section of the website for a study guide and class I have already done on shadow work and keep an eye out for blog posts to come!
