“The most direct way to the light inside of you is through the dark inside of you.” Adam Gainsburg, Chiron: The Wisdom if a Deeply Open Heart
If I were to summarize the whole point of “What’s Going On,” I would say that all of humanity is being forced to see and feel its wounds. Why? In order to heal them. Our collective consciousness is so overwhelmed by pain that we can’t think clearly, we can’t sustain compassion, we can’t see the glorious possibilities that lie beyond our pain. We can’t see our own light because we are engulfed in darkness, and too many are trying to deny it, escape from it, avert their eyes, cling to illusion, immerse themselves in virtual reality.
While we focus on the political drama, a far greater spiritual purpose is at work in our unconscious. We are being propelled by the Evolutionary Impulse toward a higher state of consciousness, a collective quantum leap into a more enlightened awareness, and we’ve run into the brick wall of our pain. We can’t fight our way back upstream against the forces of Evolution. The only way to the light is through our darkness, as mentioned in Adam’s quote above.
We’ve been taking a tour of our collective darkness, getting to know the territory, preparing ourselves to go deeper into our own pain so we can do the work we came here to do – heal ourselves and make our way to the Light. And more, become the torch bearers to light the way for others. Before we proceed further into the dark, let’s gain some hope and encouragement from Chiron.
Chiron is a cosmic object called a Centaur. These bodies are born in the Kuiper Belt. They are hard to classify. Some astronomers call them Kuiper Belt Objects or TNO’s – trans-Neptunian objects. Some call them planetoids and others suggest that they are high gravity comets. A few of these mysterious objects have entered our solar system. One of them is Chiron.
I view Chiron as a messenger from the Cosmos, a harbinger of Enlightenment. He was discovered in 1977, spotted serendipitously after the turbulent 60’s when our nation was healing from social upheaval. When an astronomical object is first detected, it’s a sign that another aspect of our psyche is ready to reveal itself. Chiron brings the energy of healing. His orbit lies between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus. Astrologers see his function as bridging the gap between personal/social consciousness and transpersonal realms; between physical and spiritual dimensions.
There are many versions of the Chiron myth. Here’s mine:
One day the Titan god Cronos was scouting the landscape and spotted the nymph Philyra. Struck by her beauty he incarnated and attempted to possess her. Philyra fled, but Cronos caught up to her so she changed herself into a horse to escape. Cronos transformed into a more powerful stallion, overtook and raped her.
When Philyra gave birth she was horrified to see that her offspring was half horse, half human. She recoiled from him, demanding that the abomination be removed from her sight. Chiron was rescued and raised by Apollo and Artemis who taught him music, archery, medicine and prophecy. Chiron became a tutor to illustrious Greek sages and heroes like Asclepius, Achilles and Hercules.
One day Chiron was poisoning some arrows for Achilles, as one does, and accidentally dropped one on his foot. The poison entered his body, but because he was immortal, the son of a god, he could not die. Instead, Chiron suffered unending pain. He sought healing and while he learned to heal others, he was unable to end his own suffering. At last, after years of service as mentor, astrologer and healer, he besought Zeus to allow him to take the place of Prometheus who had been chained to a rock and tormented by an eagle devouring his liver.
It is important to know that Prometheus was the god who gave fire to mankind against the will of Zeus. Chiron bargained for the release of Prometheus so he could once more bring light into the world. Zeus agreed. Chiron was allowed to die, his final act in service of humanity.
Chiron’s life began with the wound of rejection. He was cast out by his mother. His second wound was a manifestation of the original wounding. Pain and suffering inhabited his body. Chiron’s nobility lay in his dedication to service, despite his pain.
Chiron’s orbit takes approximately 50 years. We all have a Chiron return around 50. It is no coincidence that women go into menopause around this time. As Chiron returns, he brings awareness of our wounds in order to teach us how to heal them.
The USA Chiron is in Aries and in 2025, Chiron will return to its natal spot. So Chiron is bringing healing to our nation. What does he have to teach? First of all that every birth is a death to a former state of being. He represents our shock when we first discovered our separateness. This is the wound symbolized in the Christian story of our expulsion from the Garden – the moment we became aware of our nakedness and were cast out of Paradise, separated from the Divine.
I remember my original wound vividly. I was three and a half years old, walking around the outside of what seemed to be an impenetrable fortress of high-backed chairs. The extended family had gathered at the dining room table to honor my newly-born brother on his Christening day. The adults were talking and laughing, celebrating this baby in his high-chair. I was on the outside, completely ignored. Then I heard my grandmother say to my father, “Oh, Jim. At last we have a son!” I froze and realized in a second that I was not a son. I was not special, wanted, valuable. I was an outsider. That wound to my self-worth set me off on an errant track of anger, resentment and rebellion that created more and more pain in my life. My immediate response, however, was to get a big wooden spoon from the kitchen and bop my brother on his little head.
The original wound establishes themes in our lives and our responses become patterns of behavior. Because its roots are so deep, we can be unaware of why we do what we do; why we keep creating the same painful relationships; why we keep repeating the same mistakes. We all have our own story, our original wound. This is what needs to heal and the path to healing goes through our wounds, through our darkness into the Light. Chiron is there to show the way. He dwells in the inner cave of our psyche waiting to be asked.
Adam Gainsburg sums up the symbolism for us:
“Chiron owned his wound and ultimately devoted his life to the benefit of humanity so that it would learn to claim its own spiritual fire (Prometheus) and balance its animal and human natures. Indeed an empowering way to understand the massive transformation of collective consciousness occurring on and in the planet now is to see all the transformations as a radical attempt to own one’s own reality; that is, to develop the energetic capacity to include every experience one has or has had, rather than discounting, blaming, victimizing, manipulating, or in any other way separating oneself from truth or actual reality.”
We will explore Chiron’s path to healing in greater depth in my next series, “Practicing the Future.” For now, take Adam’s words to heart and seek out your own original wound. It might help to know where Chiron is in your own chart. If you’re curious, contact me for a reading.
So who took care of Chiron while he was suffering so deeply? At last we come to Chariklo. I think we’ll look at her next time. That’s enough to digest this week.
Leave a Reply