Chiron: the Wounded Healer
Placed between Saturn, the last planet visible with the naked eye, and Uranus, the first planet discovered with a telescope, Chiron sits at the boundary between the material, 3D reality and the transpersonal one. While Saturn is connected to the world of form, traditional systems and hierarchies, and the way we have been programmed or conditioned by family, society, and culture, Uranus represents the impulse to individuate, break free from all that, and create something radically new. Because of his position within the Solar System, Chiron is considered to be a key player in our individuation process, the journey of becoming all that we are.
Named after the mythological Centaur, a healer and teacher struck by an incurable wound, Chiron in Astrology is associated with our deepest wounds, vulnerabilities, and sensitive spots. This celestial body is also associated with our capacity to heal both ourselves and others, which depends on our willingness to feel our pain and let it open our hearts. Only when we come into a conscious relationship with our pain, with those wounds that keep opening and bleeding throughout our life, are we able to access our medicine and share it with others.
Instead of wondering whether being perfectly healed is truly possible, Chiron teaches that some wounds may never fully heal, but we can relate to our pain and vulnerabilities without letting them define us and hold us back.
Chiron in Aries: Reclaiming Our Right to Exist
Chiron needs approximately 50 years to travel through the entire Zodiac Wheel, and his orb is irregular, which means he spends more time in certain signs than in others. Aries is one of the signs where the Wounded Healer stays the longest: we have been experiencing this energy since 2018. In the sign of the Ram, Chiron has been highlighting wounds connected to having the right to exist, take up space, take action, and be who we are.
As the first archetype of the Zodiac wheel, Aries represents our first emergence into life as separate beings: it is the impulse that allows us to be born, to exist, and to move forward. It is associated with instinct, desire, autonomy, and our ability to initiate and act independently.
During the past years, we have been confronted with questions surrounding identity, autonomy, courage, anger, and self-assertion. Chiron in Aries triggered old wounds that, to this day, have been preventing us from taking up space, expressing our anger, standing up for ourselves, and going after what we desire with courage and confidence.
Experiences of rejection, inadequacy, and invisibility might have brought us back to the past, and we had chances to come into a new relationship with the parts of us that feel weak, ineffectual, dependent, scared, and inherently wrong. This transit has exposed the places where we feel we need permission to exist as ourselves, to act on our desires, to pursue what moves us, and carve our own path through life.
The Courage to Be Ourselves
Chiron in Aries taught us that being ourselves, being true to who we are, requires courage: it takes courage to be authentic, to trust our urges, to risk disappointing others. Moreover, Aries is not concerned with perfection: it is concerned with getting things into motion. This sign learns by doing, by engaging in trial and error, by making mistakes and adjusting on the go.
Hence, the Wounded Healer traveling here can confront us with the fear of making mistakes, of being wrong, of taking risks, of being excluded and alone, of uncertainty. This transit is an opportunity to question what is behind our indecision, hesitation, self-consciousness, or difficulties asserting ourselves and our boundaries.
Chiron in Aries has been teaching us that we don’t need to be fearless in order to act: we don’t need to get rid of our vulnerability or insecurities to make a move. We can be uncertain and still begin. We can be afraid and still be true to ourselves. We can be insecure and still take up space. We don’t need anyone’s permission or approval to exist.
