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Why is it that our deepest wounds are often our gifts in disguise?
Chiron symbolises karmic wounds within the unconscious. Chiron helps us to remember that which we have come into this life to heal. Living as human beings, we experience suffering on many levels and it is Chiron who can guide us towards a deep reconciliation and healing with our true nature.
Once a long, long time ago Saturn, Chiron’s father was transformed into a horse when he mated with Chiron’s mother. As a result Chiron was born half-human, half-horse and disgusted by her son’s unusual appearance, his mother abandoned him.
Like a lance piercing his true innocence and nature, Chiron’s heart closed upon itself rather than feel the pain of his mother’s rejection and the shame of being different.
Not long afterwards, the Sun God Apollo adopted Chiron and taught the young centaur everything he knew from poetry and herbalism to medicine and astrology. In addition to the knowledge, experience and tutelage of his adopted father Chiron had exceptional gifts and qualities. For being half-man and half-horse not only was he able to access divine insight thanks to his half-godly nature, but he was also very much connected to the Earth and Mother Nature Herself, thanks to his half-horse nature.
Later in the story, Chiron was unintentionally wounded by Hercules, one of his students. To be released from suffering, Chiron chose to relinquish his immortality and with Hercules at his side, both master and student journeyed to Mount Elbrus where they found Prometheus held captive on a cliff face, facing pain and torture day after day.
Prometheus, the Titan God of Fire had defied the gods and stolen fire in order to help humanity.
His punishment was severe. Zeus, king of the Olympian gods sentenced Prometheus to eternal torment for his transgression. Prometheus was bound to a rock, and an eagle - emblem of Zeus - was sent each day to eat his liver (in ancient Greece, the liver was thought to be the seat of human emotions). His liver would then grow back overnight, only to be eaten again the next day in an ongoing cycle.
At last after a long and eventful journey Chiron stood before Prometheus, where filled with compassion and witnessed by Hercules, the centaur relinquished his immortality.
Suddenly, the ropes and chains that bound Prometheus dissolved and Chiron was transformed into the beautiful constellation of Centaurus, one of the biggest constellations in the sky.
A Journey of Reconciliation and Healing
From the beginning of this story we are shown how Chiron rules themes of abandonment, shame, and rejection - just because he was different. It’s those parts of ourselves where we often feel there’s something wrong with us - out of place, separate and alone.
Not only was there nothing wrong with Chiron (even if he was seen as ‘ugly’ or ‘different’ by his own mother) - it was his unique half-animal, half-divine dual nature that allowed him to become a great healer.
That’s why our deepest wounds are often our gifts in disguise. It’s exactly those parts of us that are unusual, odd, or different that allow us to be creative, and find healing or solutions where traditional methods fail.
Chiron symbolises the deep karmic wounds within the unconscious. Chiron helps us to remember that which we have come into this life to heal; he is a bridge between the material and spiritual.
Living as human beings, we experience suffering on many levels and it is Chiron who can guide us towards a deep reconciliation and healing with our true essence and nature.
Our innocence, innate creativity and capacity to love and be Love(d) is not lost. The piercing lance of rejection and abandonment did not destroy us, it remains intact yet hidden.
Over the course of my life I have embarked upon many healing journeys and yet since March 2020 I've come to realise that self love is far more than a modern day spiritual concept. It's a boots on the ground journey of adventure and heroism!
Fears triggered by external events and relationships are now embraced. Neglected aspects of self emerge to be loved - not all at once, tentatively at times, like a timid kitten. As addictions or old attention seeking behaviours and patterns - they are all ways of being that invite me to choose whether to respond or react.
I am re-membering. Day by day, moment by moment and when my inner child rears her head with feelings of fear, anger or sadness I sit with her and hold her - reminding us both that this is what it is to love. No hurry. No outcomes. Simply being, listening and loving.
Three archetypes associated with Chiron: the Wounded Healer, the Shaman, and the Alchemist
The Wounded Healer describes our first experiences with the primal wound. At this stage, the wound is not yet acknowledged.
Some people brush their wounds off for their entire lives. Lurking in the background of their unconscious, the wound sabotages them in unconscious ways.
Most of us continue living with the wound, because we’re not even aware that there’s ‘another way’.
This is when the wound is so painful, so acute, that it can no longer be ignored. This integration of the Chiron wound corresponds with the 2nd Chiron archetype, the Shaman.
We call this stage the Shaman, because a Shaman, or the Medicine Man or Medicine Woman, has the ability to travel between worlds.
This extraordinary ability bestows them with healing powers. This ability to ‘travel between worlds’ is a metaphor for the integration of the different areas of our psyche: the good, the bad, and the ugly.
When we hate our bodies, are ashamed of our secret desires, or are disturbed by our anger, envy, greed, or other ‘undesirable’ traits, we can never be whole, we can never fully be ourselves.
When all the different parts of ourselves are integrated, then, and only then, healing is found. The Shaman is the most intense Chiron developmental stage, but it’s critical to embrace it if we want to eventually alchemize our wounds into gifts and live wholesome lives.
Finally once we have healed and integrated the wound it transforms into a gift - with the Alchemist. Ease, joy and grace replace old torments and pain. We can see that all of us are on a healing journey, mirrors of each other in so many ways. It is then we recognise the truth and power of Love both for self and other.
Through this journey with Chiron, we come to realise that reconciling the conflict within and remembering who we truly are, is the path of peace not just for ourselves, for everyone.
Thank you Chiron.
Join the New Moon and Chiron Gong Bath and Sound Meditation online tonight, 8pm - 9.15pm BST. Can't make the live event? You can order the recording by email and enjoy the relaxing and healing frequencies of these powerful gongs and universal energies whenever it suits you.
Bookings at: Listings (sound-well.co.uk)
By Alexandra Simson, Storyteller and Healing Sound-Gong Practitioner at www.sound-well.co.uk
The Chiron gong made by Paiste is one of several in the Sound-Well family. It's a wonderful gong to listen to as part of any gong bath or on its own. Its tones and healing frequencies can help to release old patterns, traumas and pain that no longer serve your highest good.
For more information about the gongs please visit Gong-Well
For healing sound sessions in the community and online visit Events
Or email here to request a private gong session with Alex
May you be blessed in the holy names of those
Who, without knowing it,
Help to carry and lighten your pain.
May you know serenity
When you are called
To enter the house of suffering.
May a window of light always surprise you.
May you be granted the wisdom
To avoid false resistance;
When suffering knocks on the door of your life,
May you glimpse its eventual gifts.
May you be able to receive the fruits of suffering.
May memory bless and protect you
With the hard earned light of past travail;
To remind you that you have survived before
And though the darkness is now deep,
You will soon see approaching light.
May the grace of time heal your wounds.
May you know that though the storm may rage,
Not a hair of your head will be harmed.
By John O’Donohue,
To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings
