Chiron was the son of Cronus (Saturn) and the nymph Phylira, daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. In the mythology Cronus met Phylira in Thessaly while he was looking for his baby son Zeus, who had been hidden from him by his wife Rhea. She was weary of him because of his repeated devouring of their children. To escape from Cronus Phylira changed herself into a horse, but that did not stop him from pursuing her and he in turn deceived her by also turning into a horse and thus he successfully mated with her. Eventually, a child of this union was born who was called Chiron. He was the first Centaur, so called, because he had the body and legs of a horse and the torso and arms of a man. Phylria did not want this ugly beast and abandoned Chiron, later to be found by Apollo who became his foster-father and teacher and taught him many skills.

Apollo, the Sun God much revered by the Greeks, was God of music, prophecy, poetry and healing, a noble paragon of youth, beauty, wisdom and justice. He also offered divine protection against wild animals and disease. Under his influence Chiron became a wise man, prophet, physician, teacher and musician. He was respected and was the mentor of many famous Greek heroes including Jason, Achilles, Hercules and Asclepius. Chiron taught them everything from riding to music and medicine.

Chiron earned the title of wounded healer when he was shot in the foot by one of Hercules’ arrows, which had been dipped in the poisoned blood of the Hydra. This created an incurable wound and as Chiron was immortal he suffered a long time, until Prometheus offered to take his place so that Chiron could die and be placed in the heavens in Sagittarius.

Charles Kowal discovered the first Centaur in 1977. The orbit of Chiron lies between Saturn and Uranus and it takes about 50 years to complete its cycle. It has a very elliptical orbit staying in signs from 1 year to anything up to 7.75 years. All Centaurs partake of the energy of the planets they orbit, so with Chiron there is a Saturn-Uranus influence indicating that it is the mediator between Uranian energy with its associated high-voltage new ideas entering the mind and the Saturnine influence of processing them and bringing them into reality.

In the birth chart Chiron is indicative of a deep wound. Aspects to Chiron show the nature of the wound and how it may affect us. For instance, Chiron in aspect to the Moon may indicate a wounding in our relationship with Mother since the Moon represents her in our natal chart. In aspect to Jupiter it may be that our philosophy and optimism is wounded. Wherever Chiron is there is also a danger of becoming obsessed by some idea, belief or purpose, which may perpetuate our own wounding and can lead us on to try and convince others of this ‘truth’. However, this is not to belittle the immense contributions to humanity that have been made by people motivated by their own wounds.

It is during the transits of Chiron that we are given the opportunity to heal by initially making us aware of the wound. As Chiron suffered an agonising death and took a long time to die, so do the Chiron themes in our chart take a long time to heal. But once we have embraced our wound, we will have gained the insight and the wisdom to move beyond it and to help those with a similar wounding.

One example of this is the late Princess Diana who had Chiron at 6.5 degrees of Pisces in the 3rd house opposing the Mars-Pluto conjunction in Virgo in the 9th house. The Mars-Pluto aspect indicates that Diana was capable of putting out tremendous practical energy regarding her philosophies and beliefs, but the opposition from Chiron initially indicates wounded communication, perhaps in the form of confused thinking in what it was that she most wanted and desired. It may be that she had intense power struggles and experiences, which left her feeling very angry and that she was unable to communicate this anger for fear of hurting other people. She may have buried these feelings deep inside but they will have surfaced in various forms perhaps even through illness. The transits from Chiron will have started to make her aware of what it was she needed to let go of in order to begin her healing journey.

We know that Diana worked relentlessly to help others. In particular the work she did for those who were underprivileged i.e. the homeless, the sick, the old and bereaved and the dying. But the one area most related to this particular Chironic theme in her chart was when she travelled the world as representative of the Red Cross, communicating to government leaders about the unnecessary deaths and suffering caused by unexploded land mines. I have in mind a picture of Diana herself walking through a mine field dressed in jeans and blouse, the only protection being a cover on her chest and back, and a visor over her eyes, so typical of Mars-Pluto.

She was actively working for this cause until her tragic death in Paris in 1997, which incidentally was yet another manifestation of that Chiron 3rd house opposite Mars-Pluto 9th house aspect, i.e. the wounding to the point of death during intense activity while abroad.

Liz Seddon.