Sagittarius

The Wounded Healer

November 22^nd — December 21^st

by Elikozoe

The Wounded Healer, by Elikozoe

Chiron (Greek hand) was by all accounts the wisest of the centaurs, one of the last survivor of his species. Abiding in Mount Pelion, he had many heroes as pupils, Asclepius, Theseus, Achilles, Jason and Heracles.

Mortally wounded by Heracles’ arrows poisoned by the blood of the Hydra, he was allowed by the gods to bestow his immortality to Prometheus thus freeing him from an unbearable pain. He then became known as the constellation Centaurus.

He was a master of healing arts, an oracle, but among his many talents, his greatest gift was perhaps his ability to guide his pupils towards knowledge of the Self, and allow them to realize their potentials, and fulfill their destiny.

The myth attached to Chiron is encapsulated in the term Wounded Healer, as an epitome of the therapist the most able to heal, for he has been through the very torments he is asked to heal.

This same quality is generally associated in astrology to the celestial body named after him. Orbiting in the Kuiper Belt, between Saturn and Uranus, his double nature of asteroid and comet reminds us of the centaur nature.

The Wound

I am a wounded healer
in the best tradition of shamans,
who knows a path of suffering and being and healing.
I have a wound and celebrate the wisdom it gives me.
I honor it -
it travels with me and I give it freedom
to open and fester and complain and heal.
It is an ally.
I take a shaman path of experiencing and listening
and find strength and wisdom in suffering  
and living fully.
I see joy and light and being as one ‐
even this volcanic wound
with lava ribbons oozing exploding.
I suffer people and myself ignoring the wound
and castigating and delegating it to a trash heap,
but it never disappears.
It festers and irritates
until experienced and respected.
It is wisdom and life itself
like a volcano
opening to the heart core of tenderness
and the sun within.

Peter Pynchon