The Beginning of the End:  Considering the Wounded Healer’s Cave as Chiron Station Approaches

Friday, January 2, 2025

Chiron Station Direct at 22 Aries 9:38 AM EST

It is once again time for Chiron, the Wounded Healer, to reach it’s point of Station…and this time, between this point and the next Retrograde, it WILL ingress from Aries to Taurus, where the underlying nature of what wounds us will shift and the path to healing will evolve from Cardinal Fire to Fixed Earth.  Chiron in Aries people?  Congratulations, your Chiron Return period is almost over, Gen X.  Chiron in Taurus tail end of Gen X, Xennials and Elder Millennials?  Get ready, because you’re up next.  This point of Station Direct is not the FINAL Station in Aries, we will have one more because Chiron will dip back into Aries at the end of 2026 in October during its Retrograde path, but this one is the point that does BEGIN to culminate these lessons for all of us.  I’m working on my bigger analysis of the Chiron Station Direct chart, but I feel like beforehand it’s imperative to revisit for everyone what Chiron does in this sign, and offer points of reflection.   Let’s revisit things I’ve said about the general nature of Chiron in Aries, taken from the piece I wrote all the way back on April 8, 2024, when we had that major Total Solar Eclipse exactly conjunct Chiron at 19 degrees Aries.  I’ve removed the bulk of what pertained specifically and only to that Eclipse, but this is a solid primer on the nature of Chiron in Aries and you can see a framework for how I’ve worked with it in a deeper client context for those experiencing their Chiron Returns in this sign, for perspective. 

“The Wounded Warrior

That which wounds us makes us stronger, but not until we endure the Fire Walk of Chiron in Aries.  Aries is the sign of ego, of individuality and the SELF.  Chiron in Aries is about the nature of battle and competition, of learning that we can’t always have what we want when or the way that we want it, and the wounds that we suffer here are directly related to self-concept and the EGO.  Wounds in the Chiron journey are unavoidable, regardless of how we may try to protect ourselves.  In Aries, these are the things that we’ve raged against, that have been provocative and may have come, since Libra is the opposing sign on the axis, with a profound sense of INJUSTICE.  Chiron in Aries experiences the pain we do not think that we deserve, and coming to terms that all battle involves risk, that all anger is not justified is part of the process.  The Warrior takes the risk because of either choice in aggression or because there is no option except to fight, and this is how we learn that we will not always win, that sometimes what we think is “fair” or just is simply not a part of reality.  These are the battles that regardless of how we fight, no matter how passionate or how motivated we are, we inevitably confront competition that outmaneuvers, outsmarts, or overpowers us.  Confronting where we are weak is never easy, and the Aries response is not acceptance…it’s to double down and go harder, and harder until we burn out and spin out…or, conversely, the response may be FEAR and a pattern that leads us to disengage and refuse assertion, to refuse to act and it becomes a severe limitation when we need to be assertive.  This is the more complex of the two, because we won’t openly admit FEAR.  The journey to healing, in either regard, must come from realizations of our own volition and of our own conscious pursuit.  

 Time and again we refuse to accept failure, and we encounter further damage every time.  Chiron in Aries may carry significant battle scars, and each one layered upon the last only serves to harden us further, reinforcing the frustration we encounter and the experiences we endure where we do not win, where the effort that we feel we make does not manifest in what we think we deserve.  There is a sense of entitlement that is a danger here, the more we are denied that which we desire, the more intensely we are willing to wage war in an effort to conquer and conquest.  The less we believe that we deserve what is rightfully ours because of loss-based insecurity, the more we engage in self-sabotage and limit our own potential.  There is no satisfaction in getting what we want when it’s merely symbolic of overcoming previous wounds of loss and devastation…this creates only a black hole of emptiness that will see us continue to search for that magic thing or person that will fulfill this empty place if only we can have what’s rightfully ours.  Chiron wounds cut to the core, and often are part of what is holding us back, they manifest in getting in our own way as a subconscious response.  This statement isn’t to engage victim blame so much as it is to explain why these complex behavior patterns arise in the first place.  Defining and attributing them to the patterns of hurt we’ve experienced can be helpful in changing the dynamic.  We cannot control the things to which we’ve been subjected, but we can seek to control how we respond to them, and we can shift perspective where needed.  No one can tell us what we’re fighting, and no one else gets to decide how that battle must be fought.  Chiron in Aries is the Warrior who takes charge, who takes the initiative and pursuit.”

“Redefining Healing

 The second part of the Chiron process is that of healing, but it’s elusive.  Cardinal signs must always be an ACTIVE process, nothing happens here without asserting effort, consciously and with direction of WILL in Aries.  Chiron embodies the wound that DOES NOT HEAL, these are the places where we’ve been subjected to things that we cannot control, that we could not help, and that wrought what they wrought against our will.  Aries is the sign of I AM, of the embodiment of pure will and desire.  This healing is a process of, rather than overcoming or magically finding relief, learning to live with that which we’ve suffered, and accepting the nature of how we have been changed by what we’ve experienced, what we’ve lost and where we’ve been defeated.  Aries often has difficulty redefining the self-concept in terms of these losses, but if we’re going to begin the healing journey, admitting them is necessary to the process. This is the conscious realization, the ultimate confrontation with all of the underlying blame whether for self or others, and the demand for accountability from the only person for whom we can rightfully expect that it be taken:  SELF.   Did we play a role in our own issues?  How did the LIBRA end of the axis lead us here, whether complacency or appeasement patterns or negotiating without self-regard?  For Chiron in Aries, this accountability only happens after we accept defeat, and after we stop trying to rationalize, to take on other battles, to rage and rant and create a personal mythology that resounds in what “should have been” or “never was” or “was rightfully mine.”   So, how does Chiron in SELF-driven ARIES redefine healing?  

 The realizations that we need to work through in the healing process of Chiron wounds are deeply personal, and will manifest according to your natal chart.  These are damaged places where trauma impacted us on a level that shaped the course of who we became.  Confrontation of these places is necessary but may be extremely difficult, often we don’t even consciously realize what shaped and guided us in our becoming.  Of course the major events stand out in our minds, but along the way, there are less obvious places where the patterns were upheld, and the journey continued…all according to our own Chiron in the natal chart.”

“The Teacher, the Guide, the Shaman 

 Implementing change in an ongoing and persistent expression of KNOWLEDGE is the final part of the Chiron journey, the great teacher didn’t begin as a great teacher, he endured the suffering that one must encounter to make it so.  There is a sense of duty and responsibility that unfolds in this final phase of the Chiron journey, and this is most likely to be where those who are experiencing their Chiron Return with Chiron in Aries are heading.  Chiron as the guide and the shaman lives life not defined by the trauma we’ve encountered, but changed by it in ways that become an imperative to HELP not harm.  This can entail active embodiment, like taking on the role of actual counselor or teacher, or passive expression such as shaping the way that we parent our children, or the living example that we show to others in how we navigate life in a general sense.  There are keys to how this phase may unfold in the natal chart, again, specific to your own Chiron story, but in a general sense in the sign of ARIES, this guides and directs how we take ACTION.  The volume of our voice when we have to raise it, the might of the sword and how (or even IF) we must wield it, these battles become far more productive when we know HOW to use it wisely.  This is where Chiron in Aries has learned the difference between assertion and aggression, and knows from hard earned experience when to assert, and when to wait or to surrender.  The thing that is gone, at this stage, is FEAR and our actions are no longer driven by it, because we’ve met the things that we fear and we are still standing, even if it’s painful.  This phase, after healing, isn’t necessarily without pain and without remembrance, but it’s a new and different place where there is no more disempowerment, after confrontation with the deeper issues in conscious processing, we now get to DECIDE how to go forward.  

 The guide doesn’t always choose the role of guide, and it’s important to remember that this position isn’t necessarily one that we go around seeking or proclaiming.  This is a living embodiment, and sometimes other people PUT us in this role, by looking to us for guidance whether we want it or not.  Sometimes part of this journey is being forced to accept that, and stepping into this type of mentorship or guidance-based relationship whether we want it or not.  This phase is also one that has its own challenges…at times, people seek to take it on before they are ready, before the knowledge is lived through experience of heard earned growth, and it’s then that we fail in the endeavor and realize that we DO still have far more work to wade through than we would have thought.  If that’s the case, it may come with stirrings of irritability and intolerance at being guided, where being told what to do or how we should operate becomes infuriating and insulting that lead us to refuse the guidance we still need, until we get to the point where we accept that we don’t know it all, and have no business trying to lead anyone else anywhere just yet.  Whatever calls those in this phase of the Chiron journey will feel compelling and undeniable for some and may feel overwhelming and intimidating for others.  It’s not a requirement to teach or to guide, and this state of active creation of life through the lens of healing is one that can be harnessed quietly, for solely SELF and SELF alone if we so choose.   This phase is one of conscious creation and embodiment that WALKS our talk, and lives by the principles we’ve forged as a result of experience.  We’ve walked through the Fire and lived to tell the tale.” 

Those three phases are the basic gist of how I have perceived and worked with Chiron in Aries, and I’m preparing to delve into the world of Chiron in Fixed Earth Taurus in the spring in a similar regard as we move toward ingress.  It won’t take an Eclipse, that just happened to be the particular influence under which I sat and thoughtfully described how I’ve perceived and worked with Chiron in Aries.  For Taurus, I’m coming as a native with a difficult Chiron configuration of my own, so that will entail discernment and experience of my own in addition to what I’ve garnered from client work over the years. 

When I do client work with intense Chiron aspects or transits, I find the story inherent within the natal chart and we go from there.  I often look to Chariklo, Centaur (minor planet that has characteristics of both asteroids and comets for those who don’t know) and mythological consort of Chiron, known in astrology as the spinner of grace.  I consider Chariklo to be a resource of unconditional positive regard, the one who supports Chiron even at a distance by holding both space and boundaries.  At this time, Chariklo is on a long transit through Aquarius of her own, but much can be discerned by looking at the natal Chariklo as well as her role in aspects when Chiron in transit has been impactful in your life and living the embodied experience of your own natal chart.   Of course, I find other helpful points within the chart to work with along the way, but I will say that planets in aspect to your natal Chiron and Chariklo tend to be the most prominent influences I see when getting to the core of Chiron’s deep cave of issues that clients navigate, especially during Chiron Return. 

As we approach Chiron Station Direct this Friday, I hope that this insight I felt compelled to put forth into the ether is helpful.  I felt strongly about it, so I know it’s intended to reach whomever it needs to reach.  I will have my analysis of the chart for Chiron Station Direct up for all levels of paid insight ahead of the celestial event, later this week.