We have been wounded at one point in our lives, one way or another. Perhaps even several times. It may be a wound brought about by a criticism, an abuse, a break-up, an unrequited love, or a loss of a love one. In each of these situations, we are always given two choices - one is to heal and another is to remain in suffering.
Spiritual literature teaches us to love and be compassionate towards one's perpetrator or circumstances. While this is wisdom, people often forget to honor their feelings whether it is hatred, sadness or grief. Our band aid solution has always been to snap out of the negative feeling and pretend one is ok because we are told to stay out of the negative. The New Age literature is so rich with this material - tools to drown our unpleasant feelings with feel-good affirmations.
We all know that band aid solutions do not really last for a long time. They make you feel better today and they wreak havoc in your life a week after or so. And once the skeletons have awakened from the grave, the vibrant life as you know it comes crumbling down to pieces and you become devastated. Band aid solutions never heal the wound; they keep the wounds fresh and deep masked by a happy face. But for how long can you hold the pieces of your 'ok' life together?
Chiron, the symbol of the Wounded Healer in astrology, is now in retrograde motion and revisits the sign of Aquarius. Because astrological transits mirror our internal processes (as above, so below) and often catalyzes a healing crisis, many may have felt as if somebody has touched their old wounds and a painful memory of the past suddenly swims back to waking awareness.
I know. It is not easy to relive these memories - memories that remind us of how we were badly treated or abused in the past. Yet, the Universe doesn't intend to torture us by replaying our personal tragedy.
Chiron in Aquarius brings to our attention those wounds that we've neglected for a long time. If the issue or pain was not adequately addressed or honored in the past, it will show up and will demand our undivided attention like a child. The energy tends to shake up the ground that we are standing on so to speak so we can wake up from our deep emotional slumber. The Universe wants us to truly heal and bring this healing work down to the deepest parts of our soul.
But before any lasting healing can occur, the first step in the healing journey is one of acknowledgment - acknowledging to one's self that one was/is hurt instead of numbing the pain. To do this, you may want to write a letter to your perpetrator or address it to a particular life event telling him/her/it how it made you feel at that time and asking for a closure (even if that closure meant symbolic or one that involves only your participation). Feel into the feeling instead of denying it.
However, the Universe does not interfere with our personal freewill. When we opt to deny the lesson and the opportunity presented to us, Life will find other ways to get our attention by mirroring our issues through the form of other people or external circumstances. And our personal suffering continues.
Chiron in Aquarius teaches us that the path to wholeness is not a path that is only filled with light; it is a path where light and darkness are intertwined in a dance of oneness. Unconditional love is the key to wholeness. By unconditional love, we do not deny the existence of the negative, of sorrow, of pain. By denying the shadow, we become fragmented and when we experience a fragmentation we lose our power. When we embark on a quest for wholeness, we welcome the shadow back to our life and integrate it into a healing wholeness.
In one of my journeys to what shaman practitioners call non-ordinary reality, a being of the ocean said to me, "to feel is truly a gift." The gift of feeling gives us the opportunity to experience and appreciate how it is truly interesting to become a human. Through the gift of feeling we can experience the depths and heights of life as well as a myriad of emotional hues associated with our human experiences. The ability to feel (empathy) allows us, if we wish to, to be in unison with every rock, tree, bird, fish, person, ocean, sky, and the rest of Creation.
And this merging with another life form gives us the opportunity to be in another person's "shoes" and understand where that person is coming from. We may discover that our own perpetrators are also victims of their own past. And with this awareness we cultivate a sense of compassion - a desire to heal the wounds of that person with the understanding that there is no separation and that as we heal we are also healed. Healing always comes in full circle.
Spiritual alchemy is perhaps the greatest gift that Chiron can offer to us. Our own very wounds can be a source of our healing gifts and when transformed, turn to a potent panacea capable of healing another person's wound if and only if we can extract the wisdom out of our painful experiences. Like what I've said in the past, great healers are not born but are made by their life circumstances. Healers like my self draw power not necessarily from the wealth of healing techniques I've learned but most specially from the compassion that springs forth from the memory of my difficult life experiences. It is also my belief that the deeper or greater the person's wound is, the greater his/her potential to become a powerful healer.
While it is truly important to honor one's feelings Chiron in Aquarius also reminds us to remain grounded in the here now; that whatever pain we may have experienced belong to the past...not to the present, and definitely not to the future.
Chiron will also be making a connection to Neptune (the higher octave of Venus and represents Universal love) in Aquarius. Neptune will infuse the themes of transcendence, cosmic love, and divine inspiration to the already healing qualities of Chiron. Chiron and Neptune's partnership teaches us that we are not alone in our healing journey; we are constantly supported by the entire Universe.
May this Chiron retrograde in Aquarius touch you to transform another person's pain and move past the invisible walls that keep all of us wounded.
Photo from: http://www.stariel.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/chiron-new-centaur.jpg
