Home About Astrology Consultations Reports Software
Articles Testimonials About Me Contact Me
Chiron and the CentaursOn November 1, 1977 at the Hale Observatory in Pasadena, California, Charles Kowal discovered a new body in our solar system which was later named Chiron.(1) In the past decade, other bodies similar to Chiron have also been discovered and classified as the Centaurs. Because Chiron and the Centaurs’ discoveries are so recent, we have an opportunity to observe the process of how their meaning unfolds. Not much is known yet about the more recently discovered Centaurs. However, by looking at issues occurring during the time of Chiron’s discovery, its mythology and observations of how it is affecting clients in their astrology charts, astrologers are gaining more insight into its role as the wounded healer. Kowal noted that Chiron had a highly eccentric, elliptical orbit mostly between Saturn and Uranus, taking 51 years to make its path around the Sun.(2) To Kowal, Chiron was an unusual body in that it was too large to be a comet and much too bright to be a minor planet. Hence, the confusion and subsequent debate began as to the exact classification of Chiron. Zane Stein, an astrologer and leading researcher of Chiron and the Centaurs since their discoveries, said that in the late 1980s it was determined, based on mounting evidence, that Chiron was a large comet.(3) Still it would have to be classified as an unusually large comet, about 50,000 times the size of a normal comet, 148 to 208 km in size, and in fact almost the size of an asteroid. Because Chiron didn’t really fit the classic description of a comet, the debate continued. Then on January 9, 1992 an astronomer named David Rabinowitz discovered a new body and named it Pholus “after the brother of Chiron”.(4) On April 25, 1993, Rabinowitz discovered yet another body which was named Nessus. Pholus’ and Nessus’ orbits are similar to that of Chiron, also being very eccentric. Pholus orbits between Saturn and Neptune, taking 92 years to circle the Sun, and Nessus orbits between Saturn and Pluto, taking 123 years to circle the Sun. As of April 2002 there have been 34 bodies officially discovered in our solar system that are of a nature like Chiron, Nessus and Pholus. These bodies have now officially been named the Centaurs. Only three others of the 34 bodies have been named thus far: Asbolus, Chariklo and Hylonome.(5) It has been theorized that Chiron and the Centaurs are objects that escaped from what is known as the Kuiper Belt, which contains a disk of objects orbiting beyond Pluto. This Kuiper Belt was described by one scientific magazine as the pristine remains of the nebula that originally formed our solar system.(6) Melanie Reinhart says in her book, “Millions of Chirons may orbit in the cold, dark reaches of the Kuiper disc, extending from 38 astronomical units out to 200.”(7) There are at least 35,000 objects in this belt making it like another asteroid belt.(8) Every so often, theoretically, one of these objects from the Kuiper Belt breaks its orbit and comes into our solar system. Reinhart believes Chiron, Pholus and Nessus and the other centaurs are like “refugees, escapees or messengers”(9) from this Plutonian Underworld of the Kuiper Belt.(10) Today Chiron, although classified as a Centaur, remains in a bit of a class of his own since it is classified as both a comet and a minor planet while the other Centaurs are classified as minor planets.(11) When a planet is discovered, to develop an understanding of its meaning, it is traditional to review what is happening on Earth at the time of the discovery. For example, in 1930 when Pluto, ruler of the underworld, death and destruction, was discovered, we were dealing with dark figures such as Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin with their programs of death.(12) In 1781 Uranus, the planet of revolution, independence and rebellion, was discovered. The French and American Revolutions are attributed to the influence of Uranus. Barbara Hand Clow associates the discovery of Chiron with “channeling, divination, body/mind healing, homeopathic medicine and multi-dimensional perceptual skills” as these activities were starting to surface around the time of Chiron’s siting in 1977.(13) She also notes that the concepts of co-dependency and the wounded inner child were starting to emerge at that time. There was talk of the split between body and spirit and subsequently the beginning of a great deal of emphasis being placed on healing this split.(14) Clow speaks of Chiron as being a key in this healing process. Another way to determine the meaning of a planet is to look at its mythology. It should be noted that a question arises with respect to the mythology of a planet and its meaning: Why is it that the meaning of the planet refers to its mythology when usually the astronomer who named it does not have that in mind? And further no one knows what the planet means astrologically at its discovery and subsequent naming either. This is a good question and one to which I have not been able to find an answer. Perhaps the answer is synchronicity?(15) In mythology, Chiron was a centaur, a half man half horse creature and was called the wounded healer. He was a healer, “astrologer and alternative medical practitioner”.(16) For extensive information about the mythology of Chiron, see Chiron and the Healing Journey by Melanie Reinhart. Here we will explore a few of the main themes. Melanie Reinhart says: “Chiron became a wise man, prophet, physician, teacher and musician. His ministry included the unruly Centaurs themselves...Chiron taught them everything from riding, archery, hunting, the arts of war and medicine, to ethics, music, religious rituals and the beginnings of natural science.”(17) It is important to note that the Centaurs were a wild bunch of untamed beasts who were famous for their drinking, raping, plundering and sodomizing. We start to see the theme of Chiron as being different from other centaurs, more in control of his lower or animal nature and interested in helping others to heal their uncontrolled passions.(18) We can see echos of the difference between him and the other centaurs in Chiron’s classification where, although he is classified with the centaurs, he is different because he is considered both a comet and a minor planet whereas the other centaurs are simply classified as minor planets. In the mythological story of Chiron, he accidently dropped one of Hercules’ poisonous arrows on his foot, an arrow that he had taught Hercules how to make. Because he was immortal he could not die and had to suffer the pain of this wound until he was ultimately freed through an act of compassion where he gave his life for another who was also suffering.(19) Looking a little deeper into Chiron’s wound, we see that his wound was self-inflicted, both directly and indirectly. First, he was the one who dropped the arrow on his own foot. And second, he was the one who had taught Hercules how to make the poisonous arrow in the first place. This theme of self-inflicted wounds or self-wounding behavior becomes apparent as we look further into Chiron’s role in an astrology chart. Melanie Reinhart describes an interesting phenomena that happens with respect to the area of woundedness that Chiron represents in an astrology chart. She speaks of a pattern where people have a tendency to go back and repeat their self-wounding activity in an effort to heal it, all the while making the wound deeper. Reinhart refers to this process as “repetition compulsion”. She says, “The memory of a painful feeling, stored in the unconscious, will tend to attract to it situations in the present which repeat the same ingredients and thus reactivate the old wound. These cycles of repetition occur because a wound is still seeking healing.”(20) This process of “repetition compulsion” is likened to homeopathic healing, which operates under the premise that like cures like, where a small dose of the poison is introduced in order to heal the problem. In the process of repeating the wound, or introducing the poison back into the psyche, a person has an opportunity to experience the pain and eventually learn to stop the self-wounding behavior that is causing it. Otherwise, as in homeopathy if too much of the remedy is given, if too much of the behavior is repeated, the wound can become deeper just as with homeopathy, too much of the original toxin can become poisonous. Relating this to Chiron’s mythological story, the poison he helped to create was injected back into his own system and then he was forced to learn how to deal with the consequences. He spent his life trying to heal his pain and found in the end that his inspiration to help another was the ultimate key that lead to his own salvation. Chiron in an astrology chart shows where people have deep soul wounds and pain associated with those wounds. Every person’s personal “wound” is slightly different. Yet at the core of each is the same Chironic concept of self-wounding and repetition compulsion. The deep soul pain or soul wound leads a person to engage in behavior that temporarily gives them relief from that pain but in reality makes the wound deeper and corresponding pain greater. People have reported that when they reversed and healed their self-wounding behavior, the deep soul pain subsided. Another important factor spoken of with respect to Chiron has to do with important cycles of Chiron transits, specifically where Chiron squares, opposes and conjoins its natal position in a person’s chart. Because of the erratic orbit of Chiron, it is in some signs for a very short time and in others for a long time. Therefore, depending on where it is placed in a person’s natal chart will depend on how soon they will experience their first Chiron square. For some this occurs in young adulthood and in others it occurs at a very young age.(22) Just as was previously described by Reinharts repetition compulsion, with the awakening of these patterns through these transits, a person often finds themselves initially repeating their wounding patterns before learning how to transcend the behavior patterns and corresponding pain. For some children, depending on the issues and surrounding circumstances involved, this can be traumatic.(23) As for Pholus and Nessus, there is not a great deal of information available about them yet. Generally speaking, Pholus seems to involve deeper issues associated with more extreme Neptunian themes of drug and alcohol addiction, escapism and perhaps escaping inner feelings of pain through these manners. Nessus relates to more extreme Plutonian themes of sexuality, death, revenge and jealousy.(24) Whereas Chiron seems to be symbolic of the healing of the split in man between his higher and lower selves, the rational and irrational parts of his soul as described by Plato(25) and symbolized by Chiron as half man and half animal, Pholus and Nessus seem to represent specific elements of that split or perhaps specific behavior contributing to it. The discovery and subsequent inclusion of Chiron in astrological interpretation has the potential to give astrologers greater insight into the psychological mechanism of self-wounding and the resulting pain associated with it. Chiron can also bring a greater awareness of the cause of psychic or soul pain for people and its healing. Perhaps the knowledge of Chiron will someday be a valuable key for those practicing psychological astrology. Chiron’s symbol in astrology is a key. The awareness it brings could be the key for a person to open the door for healing their wounds and inner pain, leading to the life of peace and happiness they seek. BibliographyClow, Barbara Hand, Liquid Light of Sex: Understanding Your Key Life Passages (Sante Fe, NM: Bear & Company, Inc., 1991). Main, Roderick, Jung on Synchronicity and the Paranormal (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997.) Nolle, Richard, Chiron: The New Planet in Your Horoscope (Tempe, AZ: The American Federation of Astrologers, 1997). Pottenter, Maritha, All About Astrology 15: Chiron in Houses, Signs and Aspects (San Diego, CA: ACS Publications, 1994). Reinhart, Melanie, Chiron and the Healing Journey: An Astrological and Psychological Perspective (London, England: Penguin Books, 1989, 1998). Reinhart, Melanie, To the Edge and Beyond, Volume 4 (London, England: The Center for Psychological Astrology Press, 1996). Stein, Zane, Essence & Application: A View from Chiron (Lansford, PA: Copyright 1995, Zane B. Stein). Footnotes2. Clow, Barbara Hand, Chiron: Rainbow Bridge Between the Inner and Outer Planets (St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1987, 1995, p. xvii). 3. Stein, Zane, “What is Chiron: Astronomy”, http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7969/page2.htm. 4. Stein, Zane, “What is Chiron: Astronomy”, http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7969/page2.htm. 5. Stein, Zane, “What is Chiron: Astronomy”, http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7969/page2.htm. 6. Reinhart, Melanie, To the Edge and Beyond, Volume 4 (London, England: The Center for Psychological Astrology Press, 1996, p. 110). 7. Stern, Alan, Astronomy, August 1994, p. 33. 8. Reinhart, Melanie, To the Edge and Beyond, Volume 4 (London, England: The Center for Psychological Astrology Press, 1996, p. 111). 9. Reinhart, Melanie, To the Edge and Beyond, Volume 4 (London, England: The Center for Psychological Astrology Press, 1996, p. 113). 10. Reinhart, Melanie, Chiron and the Healing Journey: An Astrological and Psychological Perspective (London, England: Penguin Books, 1989, 1998, p. 2). 11. Stein, Zane, “What is Chiron: Astronomy”, http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7969/page2.htm. 12. Clow, Barbara Hand, Chiron: Rainbow Bridge Between the Inner and Outer Planets (St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1987, 1995, p. xiii). 13. Clow, Barbara Hand, Chiron: Rainbow Bridge Between the Inner and Outer Planets (St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1987, 1995, p. xiv). 14. Clow, Barbara Hand, Liquid Light of Sex: Understanding Your Key Life Passages (Sante Fe, NM: Bear & Company, Inc., 1991, p. 135). 15. Main, Roderick, Jung on Synchronicity and the Paranormal (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997.) 16. Clow, Barbara Hand, Chiron: Rainbow Bridge Between the Inner and Outer Planets (St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1987, 1995, p. xiv). 17. Reinhart, Melanie, To the Edge and Beyond, Volume 4 (London, England: The Center for Psychological Astrology Press, 1996, p. 25). 18. Clow, Barbara Hand, Liquid Light of Sex: Understanding Your Key Life Passages (Sante Fe, NM: Bear & Company, Inc., 1991, p. 133.). 19. Nolle, Richard, Chiron: The New Planet in Your Horoscope (Tempe, AZ: The American Federation of Astrologers, 1997, p. 14). 20. Reinhart, Melanie, To the Edge and Beyond, Volume 4 (London, England: The Center for Psychological Astrology Press, 1996, p. 24 & 25). 21. Reinhart, Melanie, Chiron and the Healing Journey: An Astrological and Psychological Perspective (London, England: Penguin Books, 1989, 1998, p. 231). 22. Clow, Barbara Hand, Liquid Light of Sex: Understanding Your Key Life Passages (Sante Fe, NM: Bear & Company, Inc., 1991, p. 137.). 23. Reinhart, Melanie, To the Edge and Beyond, Volume 4 (London, England: The Center for Psychological Astrology Press, 1996, p. 267). 24. Reinhart, Melanie, To the Edge and Beyond, Volume 4 (London, England: The Center for Psychological Astrology Press, 1996, p. 192-231). 25. Plato, The Republic, Jowett Translation, http://plato.evansville.edu/texts/jowett/republic.htm, ref. 439d. Back to "Articles" |
Home About Astrology Consultations Reports Software
Articles Testimonials About Me Contact Me