A Personal Chiron Tale

My recent and ongoing experience with the firestorm in the western states of the US hit me at home when my temporary home in Talent, Oregon (just north of Ashland in the Rogue Valley) was under threat from an intense fire.

I evacuated with my housemate, cats and her dog north and west to Medford up highway 99. The plume of smoke and gusty winds were too much for firefighters to prevent hundreds of homes from being incinerated by the fire (which is under investigation for arson). The highway our two cars rode upon became the epicenter of the firestorm, destroying more homes and businesses and (the highway) is still closed to traffic as of the time of this writing.

I landed with friends in a home in North Medford and here I am writing from their home. I am grateful and feel blessed each day in this new phase of my Chiron and Uranus initiation. It dawned on me that the Chiron return was the primary party here at this moment with home and family due to my natal Chiron sitting in my fourth house, the astrological house of home and family.

My Chiron Return began officially on May 29, 2020 and continues until March 2, 2022. A Chiron Return takes place in a human life between the ages of 48 ½ and 51+. Chiron is an asteroid-minor planetary body that orbits between Saturn and Uranus and is classified astronomically as a “centaur”. The cycle can last anywhere from 11 months to over 18 months depending upon the retrograde loop of Chiron and a person’s natal placement of Chiron.

The intention of a Chiron Return is to digest one’s life up to the point of the Return cycle. A focus of that intention are the wounds associated with one’s fracture point, which Chiron represents in Shamanic Astrology. It can vary depending upon the house position of Chiron and a bit from the natal Chiron sign as well. Some common wounds around this are self-sabotage, perfectionism, victimization, betrayal, lack of self-love, abandonment and others.

Early on in my life, self-sabotage tended to be common for me along with some perfectionism too. But I have found in recent years that I have navigated and dove into those intentionally to heal and not allow those wounds to dictate my life. In recent years, when Saturn and now Jupiter in conjunction with my Ascendant (in Capricorn) has allowed me to place great attention on truly showing up for myself and my path to be of service in ways that have granted me a deeper confidence than at any time in my life.

But a filament that has been dancing in my field and within my soul is the feeling of no home in the physical sense. The truth is that the closest I feel at home is when I open to the stars and planets in the sky. This is in no way testimony to the amazing beings or places I’ve lived with or have been located over the decades. It’s just never truly felt at home (though a few times it has come close).

The firestorm has placed things into a soulful perspective of feeling unlike what I’ve experienced before up to this point. A part of me is reeling from the impact not just on the displacement of myself but of thousands of others who’ve experienced some trauma related to the fire. I’ve experienced an evacuation before, but I was a teenager then and had little responsibility or maturity to truly understand the impact. Now at the mid-life passage or phase, this hits home very deeply.

The intention for Chiron is to not only digest our wounds fully but to heal ourselves through that digestion of our life story up until that point of initiation. Since I have more than a year to go of this initiation (cycle), it is a long haul to work on this and I am more ready now that I was before the fire.

I feel this fire will have untold benefits even though it was a traumatic experience. From a larger community perspective, I think it will help us all be able to place some focus on our relationship to Earth and how we can better live in partnership with the planet. Climate change continues to be an evolving crisis for humanity and many of are having an up close and personal impact of the sometimes-dramatic changes that occur.

Chiron in Aries, by itself is also teacher in the ways of our relationship with the “warrior” archetype and the powerful wars that we haven’t fully grieved or healed from, including here in the United States. Our fascination with conquering, fighting, the duality of good vs evil and carrying enormous armies and mega-destructive weapons have taken a toll on the psyche and soul of humanity. How can we re-purpose the warrior beyond wars and WMDs? How can we really heal from recent wars? Or even those from the centuries past?

I believe that part of it is having an awareness of how we value each other in our communities, other cultures and nations and spiritual beliefs. That awareness of how much more in common we have with each other and our value of life itself can go a long way toward finding greater opportunities for peace. At the minimum, it could help us promote healthy grieving and healing from the burdens of the past and unending warring we’ve become used to around the world.

On a personal level, it is in finding the soul fractures or wounds around our own individual mission and purpose and if that has created an opportunity to heal.

The firestorm of September in Oregon has been the most personally changing for me since I originally moved to Oregon in 1997 from Los Angeles. The climate has gotten more extreme and most summers are hotter than they have been even from the 1990s. My displacement has activated my 4th house Chiron fracture and I am grateful for the education and humility as well as further respect for elements of fire and air.

As intense tragedy as struck this State (along with California in a severe way and to a lesser extent Washington, Colorado and Arizona) there is a powerful crossroad that has appeared. Obviously, healing and grieving need to be given a chance, but also in our relationship with Earth and her rivers, forests, shrubs and grasses. A collaborative and co-creative effort to work on that relationship is needed and the opportunity is here, more than ever and more critical than ever.

The powerful images I’ve seen of the neighborhoods annihiliated in Talent and Phoenix and Ashland and elsewhere across the Western US has touched me deeply with all heart, but also sense of perseverence and Aries’ ability to overcome destruction.  I believe Chiron is showing us that Earth our ability to heal greatly depends upon healing Earth.  Can we choose another way?  

Earth is our home. Perhaps part of my own Chiron Return is to work with the warrior-defender spirit toward healing our home and us at the same time.