AGE 51: THE WOUNDED HEALER #METOO; THE CHIRON RETURN
Between the ages of 50-52, usually closer to 51, we experience the Chiron Return. Chiron is the archetype of the Wounded Healer. He was a mythological centaur who could never heal his wounds but in searching and learning about healing he acquired so much wisdom that the other centaurs would come to him for advice and healing. He was a well- respected teacher and healer who overcame a lifetime of being rejected by his parents.
And so, we, at this point in our lives, come to under- stand that we too are wounded and more importantly, that we can finally accept it and allow it to deepen our lives.
With the unmasking of our false personas and acceptance of our imperfections and woundedness we can become more truly who we are. Personal empower- ment and a quiet charisma are the result of successfully moving through your Chiron Return. This transit is a call to extend yourself...to turn your woundedness into a gift you freely give to others.
Chiron’s wound speaks to the vulnerable parts of ourselves that we believe can’t be healed. Wounds we endured when we felt powerless. We all carry wounds from childhood, and throughout our youth when we didn’t feel confident or capable. But we also have wounds that simply can’t be healed until the time is right—until we are strong enough and supported by others around us as we reveal and release the pain. Usually the wound remains unconscious until a crisis or a physical challenge comes along to strip the Teflon coating off our psyches revealing a raw wound.
So, what happens at this time? For many women, recently, that wound was pierced and shown to the world through the internet Facebook sharing of #METOO It was a huge Chironic moment for women, admitting what they’d been hiding—a wound they thought they could never heal. The first step in healing a wound is to acknowledge it exists and expose it. Then the healing begins....
What else might happen? Perhaps you finally ‘come out’ with your sexuality, or you confront your father with his incest. Or maybe you have a teenage daughter now who is repeating a bad lifestyle you had at that age; so, you share your story of drug use and abortion with her and your relationship changes dramatically.
Chiron is also worth a deeper look into the “closets” of the family karmic inheritance. Underneath the deep wounds of childhood we all carry a family karmic inheritance, such as I wrote about with John F. Kennedy’s life in my book: North Node Astrology. Kennedy had Chiron at 29 degrees Pisces which suggests that he embodied parts of this archetype with the dramatic mythic story of his life. In particular, he too had hidden wounds (his spine, his family pressures that have been called a curse, and his womanizing) which he never healed, and yet he still chose to take the high road and became a speaker, teacher, leader, and healer for his time and country. He inspired his genera- tion and was looked up to as the iconic hero of his time in history.
Each age, each transit, ushers in a new chapter in your life with a specific agenda, and it’s important to remember again that “no transit happens before it’s time.” You are meant to remember things now you may have repressed. In your life, ask yourself questions such as: what was the pain of my childhood, the time when I felt vulnerable and unempowered to make a change? Is there any way I can see it echoing in my life now?
So, Chiron in your astrology chart has the shape of a key as its symbol, and it is a key to unlocking secrets. It plays a part in coming to understand what you’ve repressed and your own family karmic inheritance.
James Hollis, author and Jungian analyst, continually reminds us in his books how we will automatically live out the unlived lives of our parents until we bring more consciousness to what we’re doing---“Whose life am I living?” is a great question to ask yourself again at this time. Too often the answer is: the unlived or unconscious life of your parents, or even grandparents—or you’re reacting to the unspoken pain and rage that has been handed down as the family karmic inheritance.
We saw this awareness coming to surface at the Uranus Opposition 10 years ago but not everyone made changes then based on this revelation. So, it’s still a question to ask yourself: Are you living a life in reaction to not becoming who they were, or are you living out a dream they were never able to live? Ask yourself: what was the emotional lineage my parents and grand- parents came out of, and how did they pass this on to me? (Did they survive a tough immigration to where you now live? Can you feel more compassion for them in light of their suffering?) Big questions like this are never answered fully all at once but come around in a spiral for re-questioning as we age.
Have you noticed too, that it’s often people who complain the loudest about their parents who actually are living in reaction to them? They may have a split off part of their personality that has a life of its own, robbing them of energy and causing them to repeat the same patterns over and over. The Soul however is always urging each of us on to a larger and truer life, whether we like it or not—and it’s at the collisions between the past and the future at these turning point transits that we have another chance for a richer, fuller life.
But how do you heal the Chiron wound that may have been passed down through the generations? Astrologically, one could say that we are meant to heal our karmic wounds by following the path of our North Node; the positive attributes of the sign of your North Node. Another obvious but profound thought, is to embrace more of the qualities of your Sun sign.
Liz Greene, Jungian analyst and author, wrote about living out our Sun sign destiny; as the Sun itself, like the God Apollo, is our solar heroic Self: “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.” Apollo was also a teacher of Chiron in the myth. Think about your Sun sign for a moment. Think about the positive strengths in that sign and how you’ve used those in your life. (Continued)
EXCERPT from new book on amazon.com "Astrology for the Third Act of Life" It's here: Http://www.amazon.com/dp/1727202198 Available in Kindle & Paperback...and Audible!
