THE WOUNDED HEALER

This is the story of Chiron .

In Greek Mythology , Chiron ( kee – ron ) was a centaur – half human , half horse . You must have caught a glimpse of him while reading your horoscope . He is the symbolic representation of Sagittarius , with the lower body of a horse , and torso , arms and face of a human . Also known as The Archer in astrology for he is shown holding bow and arrow .

Chiron was son of Philyra , a sea nymph , and Cronos , immortal god representing time . Cronos ( known as Saturn to Romans ) 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 .
Cronos at once became fascinated by Phylira’s beauty . He tried to seduce her but she refused his advances . He pursued her . To escape his ardent desire , Philyra changed herself into a mare . Much to her dismay, it was to no success ! Cronos deceived her by turning himself into a horse and thus reached his goal in mating with her . So , was born Chiron , half human , half horse . He was the first centaur .
By the time Chiron was born , Cronos has left . Philyra did not want this ugly beast . She called her child an abomination and abandoned Chiron in a cave on Mount Pelion . She could not rid herself of the repugnance she felt. She pleaded and prayed with a deep inner blaze of desire , to be anything than what she was . She wished to be transformed . Zues obliged by changing her into a lime tree – which is what her name means .
Being one-half god , Chiron was immortal and thus survived this early abandonment by his parents . He went on to study with Apollo , the sun god , who became his foster father and teacher . Apollo was a god of music , prophecy , poetry and healing - a noble paragon of youth , beauty , wisdom , and justice . From him Chiron learned all the arts , especially of music and healing , as well as skills such as archery , hunting , and the martial arts .
Although Chiron was a Centaur , he is very different from other Centaurs in mythology who were known for their drunken worship of the wine and Dionysus , their insatiable sexual appetites and enthusiasm for fighting . Supposedly children of Centaurus , a monstrous being who mated with the wild mares of Mount Pelion in Magnesia , they were indeed a savage crew , creatures of brutal and lascivious habits .
Chiron became a wise man , physician , teacher and musician . He also guided others by means of prophecy . He was entrusted with the education of many Greek heroes . He was the mentor of some of the greatest legends . Hercules , Jason , Achilles , Aclepius and Actaeon were among his students . Chiron taught them riding , archery , hunting , the arts of war , medicine (survival skills) , ethics , music , religious rites , and the beginnings of natural science .
Hercules , his most popular student , plays a vital role in Chiron’s myth .
During his persuit of the Erymanthian Boar ( one of his famous twelve labours ) , Hercules was being entertained by the centaur Pholus in a cave on Cape Malea . He was given roast meat but no wine , although there was an unopened jar in the cave . A fight broke out between Hercules and the Centaurs over this jar of wine and Hercules had to drive them off with his arrows , which were poisoned with Medusa’s venomous blood . Many centaurs were killed , others fled . One , Elatus took refuge in Chiron’s cave after being wounded , and Chiron , in trying to heal him , was scratched by the arrow .
Chiron did not die since he was partly immortal , but the pain from the wound which would surely have killed a mortal , was unbearable . He was overcome by the unceasing agony . Following the instructions of Chiron , Hercules attended to the wound but because the arrow’s tip bore the poison of the Medusa ( the frightful female creature – half serpent , which had snakes on her head instead of hair ) the wound was incurable. In great pain , Chiron wandered the earth for many years searching for any herb which would cure the wound . Nothing would stem the pain or heal the wound . Chiron was able to cure everyone but himself .

In the final act of his tragedy , Chiron and Hercules came across Prometheus , bound to a rock , condemned by Zeus to have his liver eaten daily by a huge bird known as Griffin ( for the offence of stealing fire from gods and giving it to mortal humans ) and grow back overnight , to be eaten again the next day , till eternity . His only escape from this continual torture would be if an immortal offered him his own immortality - an unlikely event !
Sacrifice was the answer to Chiron’s dilemma . He traded his divine nature for Prometheus’ mortality , and took his place on the rock . Zeus was so impressed by Chiron’s gift that he honored the trade , and then immortalized Chiron again , in the constellation Sagittarius .


Chiron is associated with the archetype of the “ wounded healer “ . He also embodies our dualities ( half man – half animal ) and inner contradictions : where we have the potential to be both godlike and human ; instinctive and logical ; body and soul ; animal and human . Where we feel most rejected and ashamed , but where , too , we have the capacity to heal .

Chiron’s grandparents were Uranus ( the sky-father ) and Gaia ( the earth-mother ) . These are symbolic of Spirit and Matter , God and the Creation , actuality and reality , time and space , respectively . Chiron was descendent from both aspects and therefore contains both aspects , as we all do . This was Chiron’s duality . This was his contradicton – just as it is ours .

Chiron was abandoned by his mother due to her disgust at his appearance . This was the first wound – first psychological scar . This mirrors the wound of abandonment we all bear in the depths of our being , the feeling of being abandoned by the Universe , exiled in a place which we little understand , the dualistic material condition – where we feel cut off from Contact , Meaning and Love .

Chiron never knew his father . This mirrors our deep questioning concerning the existence of a God or Creator , the existence of Spirit . In each of us , even hidden within the staunchest atheist , there is an eternal quest to discover God , to return to our Creator , to return to the Spirit . There is an eternal longing to Return Home to our divine origins .

Chiron , having become a master healer himself , taught Aesclepius , the father of medicine . This mirrors the nature of our journey of “ Healing “ and “ Evolution of Consciousness “ . We receive the Light and then we pass on the Light . As we heal , so we heal others . As we learn , so we teach others .

But remember that although Chiron became a master healer of others , his own physical wound remained paradoxically unhealed .

This is the eternal pain . This “ Wound “ drives us ever onward towards greater healing , greater consciousness , greater awakening , greater truth , greater Oneness and greater Love . We never actually ‘get there’ . We approach these states logarithmically , but never arrive .

Such is the essence of the WOUND THAT WILL NOT HEAL .

The wound that will not heal represents the Gift that drives us on our journey of healing and evolution of consciousness . Being an infinite journey towards the infinite , if we were ever to think we had arrived , it would be making the infinite into a finite.

The exchange of Chiron’s ‘ life ’ for Prometheus’ release is symbolic of the release of our immortal consciousness from the bonds of incarnate mortal existence . It symbolizes Healing and the Evolution of Consciousness beyond the material and dualistic illusions . It symbolizes transcendence from the transient and changing world of forms in favor of the eternal and unchanging world of Spirit . Prometheus’s fire symbolizes the fire of Spirit . The constellation of Sagittarius , being located in the direction of the galactic center of the Milky Way , symbolizes the greater consciousness of the galactic Being , the center , beyond the limited consciousness of our local solar system , beyond the consciousness of the planet Earth ( Gaia ) .

It represents the potential for a Return to Truth , Oneness and Love .