“Milton was right. The choice of every lost soul can be expressed in the words “Better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven.” There is always something they insist on keeping even at the price of misery.”
–C. S. Lewis
Peppermint made some comments on the Intro To Chiron blog that helped me to refine my thinking about Chiron’s function in the chart. I was reminded of the movie What Dreams May Come and a particular character who was the navigator on a trip into hell. I thought of him as a chironic character, but in fact all three of the characters making the trip into hell were functioning in that capacity, but for three different reasons. Each was acting out of a different wounding.
The focus of the trip was to bring back a fourth character, rescue her from hell. The only way to rescue her was to get her to realize she actually WAS in hell and isolating herself in her pain. The danger to the others was that if they were to lose their reality of a higher connectedness and purpose they would also become stuck in an isolated, painful existence in hell. They were only able to find and reach her because they understood her isolation and pain through their own experience. They were able to rescue her from the self-imposed isolation of her own mind and in doing so found catharsis for their own wounds.
Chiron in the natal chart expresses the nature of this wound. There are lots of other ways pain and adversity can be mapped in the chart. The Chiron wound is the one that causes us to feel separated or isolated from humanity. If we isolate we avoid redemption. It is in acting through our woundedness and helping others to the light that we fully explore our own healing. There is a divine alchemy seen in higher Chiron expression. While the Chiron wound begins in culling us from the herd and isolating us, it is also where we are able, with effort, to manifest our most divine connectedness.
In the earlier post many of you shared your Chiron placement and its meaning in your life. Can you identify with the isolation versus connectedness aspect of this position?
Interested in the meaning of the asteroids in your chart? Get a personalized reading here – Deluxe Asteroids Report.
I admit to not having a good handle on Chiron in my chart. My Chiron is in Pisces in the 10th house conjunct Saturn opposite the Moon.
Should Chiron be considered an event that wounded us, or is it an aspect of our personalities?
Lovely post. I need to think about this.
And thanks for tying this film “What Dreams May Come” to Chiron. It makes perfect sense! When I was on a ‘shamanic’ retreat last year this was the film they selected to entertain us. I’d never seen it before but thought it was interesting. I’ll have to dig it out again before I return.
Yes this confuses me too – I have it retrograde in Pisces in the 6th.
That movie makes me cry every time I see it, or even read about it like I just did here. Thank you for this connection, that really drives home the meaning of Chiron.
I’m still trying to place my own wound, because for the difficulties I’ve had in life, I still don’t feel like a proper “teacher” or “healer” in regards to my Chiron conjunction to the Ascendant. I’ll get there, perhaps.
I think it’s representative of the event or quality that delivers the wound. a wound is just something that debilitates us. the personality forms around that wound like scar tissue. so I suppose it affects the personality but I see it as much an encapsulation as anything.
a wounding doesn’t have to be horrific. one can be debilitated quietly by a lack of something necessary for growth, like adversity, or an overabundance of something considered beneficial, like wealth.
Thanks Satori!
The beauty of all this is that YES it does take more than one character to maneuver this. One of my characters was Pluto. I think it’s funny you where posting this as I was posting So Right. It was exactly seven years ago when t. pluto was sitting exactly on top on my nn when the cascade of events was set off, t. chiron was on top of my Pallas, t. mercury was on top of my n. Saturn again, all of them exact. It was a moment of Deja Vu, OMG these feelings they suck, I have experienced them before, but when and where, are you going to face them once and for all, or are you finally going to face them. The average human brain has to hear a lesson 3-4 times before it truly *gets* it. Thank Gawd for rx, the lessons are there and we can learn them, and if we don’t well Saturn and Chiron will be around to remind us
I haven’t seen the movie, but have added it to my ‘must see’ list…
I think that isolation/seperate feeling you’re talking about is that overwhelming feeling that we sometimes have in crisis, ‘that we’re the ONLY one that has ever experienced this before syndrom’. The healing part is discovering that no, you aren’t alone, and there are other people suffering the same hurts, and now that you’ve gotten a handle on it, maybe you can help them.
CArRiE, make sure you have a box of tissues handy when you watch that movie. Let me know when you’ve seen it and your eyes are not puffy 3 days later.
I LOVE what dreams may come, one of my fav movies and often suggest my spiritual healing students watch it, sooooooo insightful. Anyhow yeah, mines in 4th and I have always felt i didnt belong in my family coz they are from earth and I am from neptune lol! so isolation whether with them or away from them been my experiencs in early days. It did surface and I have been working on it and finding i am able to be in their company without feeling ruffled or uncomfortable since last weekend and the healing i did on myself, so now will see if anything else comes at me to know if ive got all the festering pus and its cause out of the wound thats been there since birth and had sand rubbed in it too many times than i care to recall, home free now i hope….
I can relate – my Chiron there in 4th, in Aquarius – have never felt At Home ANYwhere….
Oh yes, I have felt isolated from the world and isolated myself from almost all others (7th) and family (Cancer) due feeling wounded. I didn’t gain perspective and awareness of caring people until later.
This is really enlightening Satori, thanks. Chiron is, I think, the most aspected body in my chart, and the isolation theme also appears in about six different ways in my chart. I’ve a strong feeling now about where the Return will take me.
ThankYou Satori Great Post !!!
Chiron 8th house Piscis conjunction Jupiter !!!
Isolation & Connectedness in the way i think about death and about Sex at the same time !!!
Blessings !!!
thanks for another inspiring post, Satori!
[i’ve never heard of that movie What Dreams May Come – but now i’ll try to find it :-)]
–
i’ve chiron wide cnj mc, cnj sun cnj jupiter, in pisces, in 10th. pluto opp both chiron/sun. but i’ve commented on that in a couple of other threads.
a) for the wounding. i’d say the wound is real & it’s inhibiting. i don’t think it can be healed – but it can be purged & transformed. Chiron himself, immortal, in the end choose to change roles with Prometheus, mortal – the guy the gods condemned to be chained to a rock (as he had brought fire to humanity), with a vulture feeding on his liver…, day by day…
b) imho, a lot of chironic wounds come with a “feeling” of shame (“i’m not as good as i should be”, YMMV) – & that enforces tendency for separation/isolation. but the very moment, one accepts/acknowledges “the wound” & one no longer carries it around as a _personal_ burden/damnation… (strangely?) it evolves into blessings/skills to share. once i had learned to accept the pain/inhibition/wound, it became easier & easier to detect it in others – & to gently guide them to come out of their “personal hell”.
i’m an excellent counselor & project-manager, i’m good at empowering people to touch well of their heart & walk along their unique path – but if you look at my personal professional life: in standard terms it’s a mess. i enjoy it 🙂
–
imho, if Chironic people share their “wounds”, just by sharing, they’ll come out of the separation rut.
Thanks for commenting further Satori on the role Chiron plays in our charts. Very enlightening.
I am now conscious of the fact that I’m in an isolation-hell of my own making (took me forever to become conscious of that fact LOL), have tried a few times to climb out, got part way there, but now am both waiting for my guide(s) and continuing to light my own slow way, like the hermit. I know that the isolation can’t last forever, but have days when I worry about getting stuck there anyway.
Have ordered the movie online – my box of tissues and I have a movie date coming up 🙂
I am also very fortunate to have been given responsibilities for teaching, supporting and healing women and girls through an ancient Moon-related sacred object of my people – I consider this to be the other half of my 4thH Aqua Chiron (rx and tightly conj. IC) – the teacher/healer half. This object has helped me and many many other women and is what connects me and counter acts the isolation.
Am also researching how my Chiron has contributed to the ‘scapegoat’ role my mother/ family assigned to me. It was only this summer that I finally realized most still see me that way – Neptune (12thH) on the Ascendant sq Chiron!
Thanks for these great articles Satori – hope you have a wonderful day today!
Someone once compared me to the girl in What Dreams May Come. He said that nothing could be said by him about my potential that would make me believe that I have talent (thanks, OCD belief/”intuition” that I’ll never be a good writer). I have Sun/Chiron and Chiron/Lilith. I don’t know what either mean.