Personally, Chiron is one of my favorite objects in space! Extraordinarily interesting, there are many wonders to this wonky, odd space rock that makes Chiron completely unique.
Chiron in Science:
Once thought to be an asteroid by global science, Chiron is technically what is known as a minor planet. If you, like me, had never heard of the term minor planet, it is basically a dwarf planet, which is too large to be an asteroid, but too small to be considered a major planet. Larger than 99% of all other asteroids, some scientists still consider Chiron to be an asteroid, while it is about the size of the USA state of Massachusetts. Therefore, in astrology we also consider Chiron an asteroid.
Located between the planets Saturn and Uranus within the Kuiper belt, Chiron is not a viable planet to host life as we know it and is made up of ammonia, cobalt, iron, nickel, nitrogen, and water. While it takes Chiron about 51 years to make an orbit around the sun, it completes it’s daily rotation in only about six hours. The most interesting fact about this asteroid is that it has an orbit that sort of forms the shape of an egg.
Chiron in Mythology:
In astrology, Chiron is often referred to as the wounded healer. He gets his name from the centaur, Chiron, from Greek mythology, who was a teacher, musician, philosopher, and healer. Ironically, Chiron couldn’t heal himself, no matter how skilled he was at healing others. Even worse, his life was weighed down by the knowledge of being a product of rape. He was the son of the Titan Cronus and the sea nymph Philyra, who abandoned him. He was raised, however, by Apollo and Artemis, who could not have children of their own blood.
Being a centaur, Chiron was often mocked, but he was known as being incredibly gentle and did not believe in violence. He taught many important figures in Greek mythology and is known as the wisest of them all.
Unfortunately, due to another healer, known as Prometheus, and his transgressions, Chiron was caught in the line of fire. Because Chiron’s father was a Titan, this meant that naturally, Chiron was immortal. Because of the trouble Prometheus caused, Heracles was given orders by Zeus to kill him. Chiron greatly suffered throughout his life and although he healed many, he was chained down by deep trauma within himself. After bartering Prometheus’ life with Zeus, Heracles instead killed Chiron to take the place of Prometheus and therefore, Chiron no longer suffered the fate of immortality and was finally able to rest.
Chiron in Astrology:
Because of his wounds, suffering, and trauma, in astrology Chiron points to the wounded healer in us all. It shines a light on the trauma we carry with us throughout our lives. For many, these sources of deep pain are mainly from our childhoods and oftentimes due to our parents. This asteroid shows us where we struggle to heal and much of the time this is due to us not acknowledging this pain as existing or running from it and unconsciously giving it more power.
Like Chiron, we all have the potential to use our trauma as a tool to assist in healing others. Being more difficult to do if the source of the suffering isn’t identified, however, we continuously suffer. Depending on the house Chiron is on, this can give us an idea of who and what caused the trauma. Which sign the asteroid Chiron falls into can point to where the wound is most apparent within our lives and conversely where we can be in service to others to help heal their traumas as well.
In short, Chiron shows us where we may be guilty of hypocrisy and are projecting things onto others that we need to improve and heal within ourselves.
Chiron Through the Signs:
Chiron in Aries: Almost always appearing tough and brave, you are a hero to the underdog. Really great at motivating and uplifting others in their time of need, you’re great at giving others more confidence in their moment of darkness or doubt. What others may not know, however, is that you’re filled with doubt in yourself too and this unwillingness to express your troubles, because you don’t want to be perceived as weak, keeps you from healing what hurts. You want to make sure everyone around you feels that they have at least you in their corner, but you don’t always feel appreciated for it or that anyone is there for you, but it may help to consider whether you’re letting them. People can’t give you support for what they’re unaware of.
Chiron in Taurus: You have a deep need for security and you enjoy things that are familiar and safe, but you hold so much weight, feeling guilty for taking pleasure in luxury. This could be indicative of at one point being a victim of neglect, creating feeling of unworthiness. Perhaps someone who bounces between both over-indulging and then under-indulging due to these negative feelings, you’re likely a person who can hype others up for doing nice things for themselves and encourage people to find self-love. There could be the feeling of a type of void inside of you, in which you try to cover with things you desire for the moment. Creating a routine with a healthy balance may greatly assist your healing.
Chiron in Gemini: Sometimes, you’re a chatterbox, but during other times, you’re as quiet as a mouse. It all depends upon your comfort level in the moment and you have some insecurity in expressing yourself due to shyness, uncertainty, or a lack of confidence. You struggle not to always compare yourself to everyone else. Regardless, you truly believe in the power of your words and this can sometimes mean that you can be overly-cautious in what is said or you could have a habit of lying. Your friends may call you a great listener who gives the best advice, but the people in your life also want to hear what you have to say. Speaking up isn’t about anyone’s reaction to your words, but about your personal, authentic, and unique expression.
Chiron in Cancer: You are loyal to those you love and the biggest cheerleader for whom you care for and anyone else in need of tender, loving care. You’re highly in-tune to the needs and feelings of others. So much so, in fact, that you’re willing to give up your own needs to attend to them, leaving yourself with little. There can be a danger here of others taking advantage of your kind nature and you don’t always stop them or even see it until it’s done. This could be due to not feeling like you deserve the love of others and you may believe somewhere deep inside of you that something is wrong with you, when the truth is that you simply need to love yourself the way you do others because there’s so much to love!
Chiron in Leo: While you fully believe in living up to your creative expression with a unique and independent flair, you are also afraid of standing out too much and getting attention from others, but only because you’re afraid you’ll fall flat on your face at that very moment. You’re great at helping your loved ones see their potential and motivating them to go after their dreams without shame, but you’re often afraid of what others think. You feel silly for seeking approval and yet you may need the validation to remind you that you’re special too. Likely having experienced quite of bit of harsh criticism or negative and unnecessary judgements, you’re now afraid to truly shine. Keep in mind that all of that inspiration you give to others applies to you too!
Chiron in Virgo: When it comes to organizing, you’re the one people go to to help to get them in order and you love having a chance to show your natural skills. Having an eye for pulling things together neatly is your area of expertise, but others may not know that you often feel like a complete wreck. Although you always say yes to giving others a hand in finding order, you’re already feeling overwhelmed. Truthfully, in comparison to others, you’re incredibly structured, but this could be due to a hidden drive toward perfection, in which can never be achieved. This high expectation you have for yourself can leave you feeling inadequate and drained, making you unable to relax and enjoy life. Breathing practices, meditation, and massages may do wonders for you.
Chiron in Libra: You’re the one who plays devil’s advocate because you know there’s always two sides to a story and both will tell you two truths and a lie. Having a talent at getting others to a place where they also understand another’s side is what you’re best at. When you have your own side to a story though, that all may fall away and you feel that you can’t possibly be wrong and may react defensively, as if another’s opinion was a personal attack. This may be due to a tendency to form codependent relationships, where you attempt (unconsciously) to blend with another individual. In result, any disagreements make you feel as if you’ve betrayed yourself. You may really benefit from writing letters during arguments, so you channel your natural harmony instead of reacting out of fear.
Chiron in Scorpio: You’re an absolute master at reading intention, emotion, and even secrets sometimes. Being afraid to have your psyche penetrated, however, the way you do to others means that you keep people at arms length. Not to mention, if they get too close, you risk getting attached, which inevitably means loss. Loss and abandonment are things you’re likely quite familiar with and have a lot of fear in feeling them again. Having been through many sudden, profound, earth-shattering experiences, you don’t know how to trust the world in which you live and because of that, you have a tendency to isolate. When you don’t, you may come off as intense or brooding, so you’d prefer being alone, where you feel safer. You perhaps need to heal a deeply-rooted knowing that nothing lasts forever and find peace in it by trying to be grateful for everything you’ve ever had.
Chiron in Sagittarius: Never looking just on the surface, you see some deeper meaning in nearly all things. To you, everything feels philosophical in a way and you’re great at helping others see it too. A positive and cheerful outlook on life, you’re able to get your friends out of storms. Although you’re quest is a search for truth, you frequently doubt your own beliefs and struggle with feeling naïve. If this isn’t true for you, you could be type B with this placement, having no strong spiritual beliefs, denying any “weird” experiences you may have, which you feel can always point to some logical explanation. As far as spirituality is concerned, you could come off as being callous and judgmental toward those who claim to have transcendental types of journeys, believing that they are liars or that the story is a total hoax. If this is you, it may help to at least start by dropping your preconceived ideas of others and be more open to their truth because even one’s imagination is still a sort of personal truth.
Chiron in Capricorn: When others lack motivation, determination, and drive to achieve their goals and dreams, you help them stay challenged, focused, and structured. Without having to say much, people in your life often wish they had your willpower to keep moving up. What they may not see, however, is that you’re likely always quite stressed and tired. Chances are that you never slow down enough to attend to your needs and at this point, you may not even know what your needs are. For so long, you’ve likely been distracting yourself from your issues by keeping yourself incredibly busy, unconsciously searching for the inner validation that you’re good enough. Until you stop searching for it outside of yourself, you may never heal the voice in your head and you can begin doing this by simply allowing yourself a moment to just pause and be still, allowing yourself to feel truly feel what’s deep inside.
Chiron in Aquarius: You’re really great at seeing the best in people, which means you likely have tons of friends. You’re not unrealistic about who people are, but you feel that everyone deserves a chance. Excellent at integrating and creating productive communities, you always make others feel welcome. Something inside you, however, doesn’t feel you’re good enough for the groups you don’t realize you lead and this can make you feel lonely, even when you’re not alone. Conversely, you could feel unworthy of being a part of social dynamics, feeling as though you have been outcasted, paranoid that people don’t like you or that they talk behind your back. You may feel too strange to be a real part of anything, even if they’re quite inclusive and open groups. Truthfully, however, you must accept yourself before you feel confident enough to allow others to accept you and you can practice this by not projecting fear of not being accepted.
Chiron in Pisces: You’re the type of person who isn’t afraid to stop and converse with the homeless because you don’t judge them for their situation. Understanding that everyone has a backstory, you are so tender toward those in need of someone to simply listen. For whatever reason, however, you still struggle not to feel guilty when someone does you wrong and you don’t immediately sympathize and forgive. You’re good at convincing yourself that you aren’t doing enough for the world because you don’t see the world as good. You probably search for ways to escape from your perceived reality, whether it’s through addictions, relationships, diets, or entertainment. Within the back of your mind is an ever-present fear of the next worst thing to come, making you feel as though you’re a victim to life. To defeat this negative outlook, it may be beneficial to you to firstly see all the good things you’ve also experienced and then begin expecting more good things to happen for you instead of bad things to happen to you.
Chiron Through the Houses:
Chiron in the First House: You may struggle intensely with your self-identity, likely having dealt with some early wounds by being mocked by other school children, by not feeling accepted by family members, or having an abusive or absent parent. Regardless, you likely battle with the way you appear or come off to others, never truly feeling comfortable or confident, even if there’s nothing obviously wrong with you to anyone else. A perhaps lifelong struggle with severe social anxiety, it’s likely you tend to isolate, being known as a loner, refraining from family gatherings, and/or become estranged from all you once knew. Through all of your personal struggles, you seem to always end up nose to nose with your demon(s) at some point and you come out stronger and wiser every time.
Chiron in the Second House: In your early life, it’s possible you struggled with poverty, frequently moving from home to home, or perhaps you felt unsafe somehow as you grew up. As an adult, you may be afraid to have many possessions, feeling as though something or someone will take them away from you, not believing you’re actually able to own anything for yourself. If you do, you have this deep fear that it has to be too good to be true. Maybe lacking in resources or the means to get by comfortably, there never seems to be a way to find solid ground beneath you. It’s likely you feel slighted by the system, your government, or perhaps the world in general. The truth may be, however, that because of the way you grew up, you’ve adopted an attitude in which you expect instability and a feeling of lacking.
Chiron in the Third House: You may have a scar around communication or have felt rejected when expressing yourself, making you feel safer by locking up your thoughts and feelings rather than chancing them verbally. Perhaps feeling great anxiety when being presented with questions about your thoughts and feelings and being expected to talk about them, you may not honestly speak up. Instead, it’s possible you cover the truth in white lies to make you feel more secure, abstaining from negative feedback or perceived punishments. You may feel immediate regret when you do speak up honestly, dreading reactions because you think you’ve stuck your foot in your mouth by being honest. You could see others as harsh, critical, or rude, but it may help you to keep in mind that everyone is entitled to their own thoughts and feelings and you owe it to yourself to speak freely without the worry of reactions.
Chiron in the Fourth House: Likely feeling unaccepted by family or people in your home, it is likely you have a tendency to attempt to please others by doing favors for them to remain in their good graces, but it’s perhaps an endless cycle you’re stuck in. You may have felt or still feel that it is due to others that you have a place to live at all, meaning it’s possible someone has made you feel that you must depend upon them to get by and that you’re incapable of surviving on your own. It’s possible you have been homeless at some point and if not, your home as never felt like an actual home to you, where you felt safe and free. Perhaps feeling that no matter what you do, it’ll never be enough, you feel the deep sorrow of abandonment. In order to heal, it may help you to confide in friends or to create your family, understanding that you don’t have to be related to be a family and you don’t owe your blood relationships anything anymore.
Chiron in the Fifth House: In your early life, you likely experienced something that made you quite a serious adult. Perhaps you had an immature, narcissistic, disabled, or other type of unstable parent who took away your need to be a child by portraying you to be responsible for them in some way instead of them caring for you. Taking on a lot of responsibility and feeling that the world can’t possibly continue turning if you’re not being of service at every moment, you feel as if you must meet everyone’s needs first. You may not even realize how much creative talent rests inside of you, waiting for you to allow it permission to be unlocked and revealed to the world with childlike wonder, imagination, and innocence. If you do realize you’re incredibly creative, it’s possible you don’t allow yourself a chance to embellish this hidden joy. Give yourself permission to play and have fun so that you don’t burnout and build resentment!
Chiron in the Sixth House: It’s possible that you experienced some type of health concerns, had a near-death experience, or felt a major threat/scare for your life when you were young. If not, you could be carrying a past life wound around your health, which has yet to be healed. You may frequently worry about your health, overanalyzing every change within your body as something being seriously wrong with you. Perhaps you’ve been called a hypochondriac, you might battle OCD, or you’ve had an eating disorder. If not, you may simply work your body very hard, reaching a point of drain and fatigue, carrying intense tension and often feeling sore. You’ve likely tried extreme diets and are quite critical toward others about what they put inside of their bodies. Until you learn to love your body and let go of fears of illness and death, you may never feel satisfied living inside of it.
Chiron in the Seventh House: With Chiron in this house, you likely either have a tendency to form codependent relationships or you choose not to get into close, personal relationships with others. Either way, you don’t trust others easily, if at all. Perhaps the type to know each other’s passwords or share a social media account, you may justify needing to know everything that happens when you’re not present. Conversely, you come off as quite secretive and stand-offish. Your projection of distrust may make people feel they can’t trust you when in reality you have the best intentions. You may have have experienced some type of betrayal within an early relationship or maybe something happened between your parents, like infidelity. Regardless, you can’t heal yourself until you learn to let go of the need to control.
Chiron in the Eighth House: Often being quite a difficult placement, you may have dealt with death incredibly early in life and was perhaps even there to witness it take place. If so, this was highly traumatic and now you’re likely afraid of loss as well as fearing getting too close. Conversely, you may have experienced some type of sexual abuse in your early life and because of this, you may struggle with sexual relationships. Either way, you easily fall into a fight or flight response and probably stay alert to possible dangers, which could enhance your psychic awareness, but it could also make you border paranoia. You may feel that other people’s intentions are always morbid or malevolent in some way, sensing danger when perhaps there is none. Until you accept that nothing is meant to last forever and that everything suffers and eventually dies, you may never have authentic personal relationships with others.
Chiron in the Nineth House: It is possible that within your early life you experienced psychic dreams or was hyperaware of a type of existential reality, in which others couldn’t perceive. Your family perhaps expressed something like disbelief or humor that made you feel dismissed or rather silly, you may struggle to trust yourself and your intuitive wisdom as a result. In fact, in your adult life, you may have turned this part of you off, leaving you with an emptiness or a feeling or disconnection to something greater than yourself. Conversely, you could have had overly-religious parents who were strict and rigid in their beliefs, not allowing you to choose your beliefs for yourself. You may reach a point in life in which you travel a great distance on the search for peace and truth and this can be incredibly healing for you.
Chiron in the Tenth House: Perhaps never feeling as though you had a choice to become who you wanted, it’s possible that either you fill the role of an inherited family business or your family put immense pressure on you to make something grand of yourself as far as business or earning steep finances. You likely made good grades and received academic rewards, but only to feel that you were never truly enough. You may have heavy doubt in yourself in your heart and mind, but this could be from a deeper place that desires something outside of the things everyone else wished for you, which leaves you feeling like a failure. Wanting to make everyone proud, you continuously do what they expect of you, although there could be a great desire to rebel to discover freedom.
Chiron in the Eleventh House: There was likely a long period of time in your early life in which you felt rejected. Something about you is quite obviously different than the rest and you just seem to naturally feel set apart from others. You don’t necessarily want to be so different, but at the same time, you just can’t help but to be who you are and you’re driven by this uniqueness. Although you desire finding like-minded individuals, it feels as though there are very few people who even give you a chance. This could have even been your family and if so, in your adult life it’s possible you have distanced yourself. To be an original without fear of not being accepted is truly brave and this makes you a great leader!
Chiron in the Twelfth House: Greatly empathetic, you can be overwhelmed by emotions that you may not even recognize as not being your own. Dealing with crippling anxiety, mood swings, confusion, and bouts of depression, you seem to be without a proper psychic shield to protect yourself and therefore, you’re likely highly sensitive to your surroundings to a point of great discomfort. You may feel sad or angry sometimes and not fully know why or where it’s coming from. Perhaps you came into this earth feeling as though you embody the entire earth, with a seriously deep desire to connect to all of it, but you may be weighed down and even afraid to make any moves toward that need to unify. It may benefit you to meditate and try visualizations to strengthen your energetic field, which will help you become more internally balanced and at ease.
From Within the Labyrinth,
-Lakin