Chiron in astronomy
Small asteroid of 166 km in diameter, it orbits eccentrically and irregularly between Saturn and Uranus, its revolution duration is about 50 years.
It was, and still is, partially considered as a comet.
It’s this duality that gave it its name, Chiron being a famous centaur half-man half-horse.
See: Asteroid Chiron on Wikipedia
Chiron in mythology
Chiron is the most famous of centaurs, these half-man half-horse beings, often drunk, with a boorish temperament and sometimes violent, bestial, but fierce warriors.
However Chiron is different, on the contrary, it’s a wise scholar. After having mastered hunting, medicine, music and divination by the stars (a very versatile character), he becomes a civilizing hero and illustrates himself by his talents as a teacher.
Incurably wounded by a poisoned arrow and no longer able to bear the intolerable atrocious pain, although immortal, he asked the Gods for death, which they granted him…
In homage to this exceptional being, Zeus formed the constellation of the Centaur after his death.
See : Centaur Chiron in mythology on Wikipedia
Chiron, astrological “planet”
Chiron in Birth Chart represents our deep and incurable wound, often even unconscious, but which is the source of our greatest aspirations and of the ideals that derive from them, of transcendence.
Behind relative suffering, Chiron is the initiation value, the awakening to be produced in our existence at the end of an initiatory process. Chiron invites us to pass to a higher octave of consciousness in the domain it enhances. Where it is in the sky is a place of nobility, of spontaneity, and globally of questioning of one part of our psychic mechanisms (in principle at least, except particular dissonances or afflictions). It’s also a place of “versatility” and adaptability, of empiricism, of self-taught learnings, like the mythical centaur mastering a number of domains, we are led to explore things, to test, to better master certain parts of our chart that it values.
By its nature as a centaur, it evokes within each person the duality between our humanity and our bestiality, between the utopia to be achieved and the concrete daily reality.
But unlike Sagittarius, also a centaur, who is in optimism, extroversion, excesses, and philosophical quest, Chiron is in reflection, suffering and self-control.
Chiron is in lucidity, in instantaneity, its wisdom and its permanent deep introspection allow it to initiate spontaneous right acts.
It should be kept in mind that it’s the mortality that it asked to the Gods since its wound that produced its evolution; thus showing us that death is a factor of our evolution as much spiritual and individual, as for the whole species.
Both healer and wise, it opposes its own animal nature and masters it, even if it’s this nature that will cause its loss, it shows the way to healing.
Chiron shows us the force, the will, it catalyzes the souls healing and aims to end the suffering of the body.
Chiron is an instinctive ideal of justice, of benevolence, in that it represents more the path of healing than the wound itself. The wound is deduced, underlying any process of incarnation.
It’s a warrior’s mental whose honor and intelligence resides in understanding and accepting the fatefulness of destiny, in its quest to put an end to its incurable suffering, then in the sublimation of its state (refusing immortality and accepting death), by this concrete example it teaches us and shows us the valiant path (benevolence, empathy, to heal, to teach, to civilize), it embodies the opposite of cowardice by the full acceptance of ineluctability.
Its irregular orbit between Saturn and Uranus allows us to analyze its symbolism through these 2 Planets, it weaves a bridge between the structuring, the rigors, the Saturnian wisdom, and the Uranian revolt, freedom, originality, it acts as a messenger between these different planetary functions, it has a function of weighting the values of these 2 giants, supporting more or less according to the Signs, between the social and collective function of Saturn, and the transpersonal function of Uranus. In this sense, Chiron personifies transcendence, it embodies the sublimation of matter through the extracting process of its own condition.
Chiron in sign indicates the type of wound and therefore the means of healing to be applied, how to behave in front of it, how to receive it, but keeping in mind that this wound will always remain partly open and incurable…
Chiron in Houses is the place of activity where one assumes responsibility, where part of the wound is expressed and where one must act, and deploy one’s perceptions. However this house is rarely a place of real gravity (again except dissonant Aspects), on the contrary it’s a place of development and fulfillment.
Keep in mind, however, that we lack hindsight on the astrological analysis of this asteroid, Chiron was only formally discovered in 1977.
I know that some astrologers and astrological currents attach great importance to asteroids and midpoints or other fictitious points. For me, I prefer a more traditional basic approach, asteroids and other points are analyzed in parallel to the traditional classical Planets / Signs / Houses / Aspects analysis.