A few years back I had a bad accident. In a moment of stupidity and miscalculation, I broke my arm and dislocated my shoulder in the ocean — an injury that was bad enough to warrant surgery and a plate of titanium permanently screwed into my left humeral head. I had this accident just a day or so shy of Chiron turning retrograde.
It was one of those moments as an astrologer that I got a deeper understanding of Chiron, a more recent discovery and addition to the astrological lexicon. When people are first learning and exploring Chiron in their chart, one of the concepts they learn is “the wound that never heals” owing to the Greek myth of Chiron and his incurable leg wound.
Although I have a physical wound that still brings a fair degree of physical discomfort and suffering, I think astrological Chiron speaks to something deeper, something psychic, those wounds and knots that bind us and choke at our hearts. My wound was a manifestation of psychic wound. The morning of the accident I even dared it to happen when I told Spirit I wanted to know who would be there for me in an emergency because, at that point in time, I though I had no one. When I pulled myself out of of the ocean later that afternoon, I realized I was about to find out.
Today Chiron turned retrograde in Pisces, the sign of the cosmic ocean, which is why my own experiences are present in my thoughts. We all have Chiron somewhere in our birth chart, the map we come in with in this life. We all have somewhere or something that is persistently tender. Maybe you’re feeling your aches and emotional knots today.
When a planet stations, which is to say that it turns direction and appears to stand still, we really feel the archetype of the planet. Think of the days that Mercury flips direction and the chaos that seemingly ensues. But Chiron isn’t a mundane planet, it doesn’t speak to everyday life. With Chiron we’re looking at the level of the soul, the level of karma.
On Friday I said that with this week’s impending Mars station, too, we need to be gentle on ourselves as Mars can be caustic. We need to be gentle because Chiron is present in the mix. This week it’s not just a broken arm, it’s a jagged, throbbing metaphor made physical.
Pisces is a sign that makes us feel everything. It’s also a sign that has within it the promise of release, purification, and redemption … and the illusion of feeling alone in this world. It’s my belief that some wounds do heal. Pisces says that source of that healing is not in this world; it’s in the beyond.
As a New Yorker, I carry a lot. You’re always on the go, easily walking a couple miles a day, so you have everything you could need stuffed into your purse. Lately my arm has been aching more than usual and, as a result, I’ve been frustrated with having to carry so much. I realized that my frustrated thought was another metaphor for my pain. Spirit even said to me, then don’t carry so much.
Maybe today is a good day to let things go.
I really love your take on astrology, it speaks to my soul. Thank you, just wanted to send some love your way. Namaste.