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Pisces Solar Eclipse: Wounds and Healers

FlightSickBed
“Flight of the Sick Bed” by Claudia Fernety

I have some thoughts to share about this Solar Eclipse in Pisces, I promise. But to get there, I have to begin with Chiron.

For those of you who are not familiar with it, Chiron is a planetoid that has become widely used in contemporary astrology. I don’t use it. In fact, I actively dislike it.

Here’s why.

Chiron is inevitably described as symbolizing the “wounded healer.” But too many of Chiron’s most zealous fans embrace only one half of that phrase: wounded. It seems to be a way for some (not all – please hold your email fury) to set themselves apart as special and tragic  – “I’m so wounded,” with the back of the hand pressed to the forehead, sinking to a fainting couch.

And that’s when something cold and hard in me rises up and bares its teeth.

Here’s where I have to come clean. In my birth chart, Chiron is alone in Pisces, in a close opposition to Pluto in Virgo. In a chart heavy with Leo and Virgo planets and many hard aspects to Neptune, Pisces is veiled, mysterious valley to me. Yet my life is filled with scads of jolly, Tigger-like, Sun in Pisces friends who wouldn’t give a fainting couch a second look (except perhaps, a little longingly, as a spot for a good afternoon nap). They tend to symbolize the very best Pisces qualities of empathy, kindness, and flexibility.

But the shadow side to the Pisces archetype is the victim. The martyr. It’s said the things that bother us most in others are the things we deny in ourselves. And while it makes me furious to entertain the notion, I suppose there must be some disowned little part of me that longs to sink to the fainting couch with my smelling salts and hear someone say, “There, there.” It is the part of me that overextends myself and then feels victimized when my contributions are overlooked or criticized. It is the cowering little kid cringing from my inner looming, shouty adult.

Now. Here is what it has to do with you, and all of us, and eclipses in Pisces, which we’ll see more of over the next couple of years.

There is, in our culture, an escalating cruelty toward those who are authentically and tragically disadvantaged, who are living with injustice and poverty and violence. There are those who sneer at them and disparage their unwillingness to pull themselves up by their nonexistent bootstraps. A great cold, hard hand rises up again and again, determined to smack down those who are already down about as far as they can go.

I never feel that way toward the poor, or those who are treated badly because of their background or orientation. On the contrary, I try to put myself between them and that awful, punishing fist. It’s hard to understand the mindset of those who judge and hate others simply for being disadvantaged.

And yet, I must understand it. Because there is a cold, dark hand in me, too, and judgment that won’t let my heart soften in empathy. There is some cruel corner of my heart that judges me, too, and finds me wanting.

During the next couple of years, eclipses will fall in Pisces, but also in Virgo. It’s important to have standards for ourselves and hold ourselves accountable. Eclipses in Virgo will help us examine where we could stand some improvement.

For now, let’s stay with Pisces, and give the sorrowful wound its due. But while it takes courage to acknowledge that it’s there, acknowledgement is not enough. We have to let ourselves grieve for our suffering, let ourselves be vulnerable to it—and then alchemize it into something useful. Solar Eclipses herald a change point, and eclipses in Pisces will bring moments that can potentially transform the wounded into healers. But Pisces whispers that what has to change first are the clenched fist and the hardened heart.

© 2015 by April Elliott Kent

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18 comments to " Pisces Solar Eclipse: Wounds and Healers "

  • Suzanne

    I recently read that the poor and disadvantaged used to be referred to as “unfortunates” instead of the current idea that they are “Welfare queens,” or losers. Unfortunate seems like a kinder, and probably more accurate, term when one considers how much weight luck of birth counts in life outcomes.

    As always, your insights are colored by kindness.

  • Beautifully written, April!
    From a Venus in Pisces in the first conjunct Chiron!
    Blessings,
    Alecs

  • EXCELLENT!
    Just fyi–I review books for the ISAR Journal…if you’d like to send me a copy I’d be happy to read & review Astrological Transits. Thanks for your good work.

  • hettie

    im Venus in pisces with Chiron in my 5th house. As much as I hate to admit it, I have been a “woe is me”, but I don’t know what has happened as I no longer feel like that , and am embarking on a Reiki course and Crystal healing/ Stress Management course.

  • April, as usual your writing sears and soars on the way to the bull’s eye on the target. Thank you for a ruthlessly honest truth about where our hard heartedness and clenched fists arise from. I can always count on you to apply astrology with down-home common sense while puling the wisdoms of the ages into this new one!
    Bravo! From a fellow Leo/Virgo empowered Capricorn! Saturn rules!
    Suzanne

  • Clairessense

    Once again you have captured the pure essence of truth April … I love the way you write. I actually enjoyed my laughing out loud with your introduction and then fully embraced the honesty and clarity of your insights. With my cluster of Virgo and abundance of veiled Pisces I so strongly identify and appreciate your words. Looks like I had better get my pre order happening. Keep on keeping on my Sista. You’re on fire (in the best possible way of course … LOL! ) Love and blessings♡ Clairessense

  • Paula

    I have Chiron (29 Pisc) conjunction my Sun (2 Ari). This eclipse is going to hit my Chiron full-on and I can assure you, Chiron is no “woe-is-me” joke. Astrologers have his archetype all wrong, IMO. Chiron is not the wounded healer. Chiron was a healer first, then was wounded so deeply his only out was assisted suicide. After his assisted suicide, Zeus transformed him into the stars of Sagittarius.

    IMO Chiron’s archetype is the suicide ascension. The Bible says, “if your hand offends you and causes you to sin, cut it off.” That’s Chiron. Chiron is about voluntarily “suiciding” whatever cannot be healed in your life or psyche so it doesn’t cripple you, preventing you from making progress in your life. People who don’t isolate & amputate their mortal Chiron wound can end up committing suicide. Have a look at the prominence of Chiron in various peoples’ suicide charts and you will see he is no fainting-couch, smelling-salts joke. Chiron is most definitely life threatening if not handled carefully.

    • Kim

      Your Chiron definition really resonates with me Paula. I have Chiron in Aquarius in the 10th, opposite late degree Cancer Mars/Uranus and Leo Jupiter in the 4th. After a huge betrayal and much pain I’ve had to “amputate” my family (4th house) This happened when transiting Pluto conj. my moon, then opposed my sun. (parents passing and transformation) I’m in later stages of healing, but if I bent to the family’s will (literally) I would have been “crippled”. Instead, I’m finding my own strength and path. Thanks again for your insight

      • Paula

        Kim — that is fascinating to me, I too have been making the journey from 4th to 10th house. Do you mind if I ask where your nodes are?

        • Kim

          Hi Paula, My NNode is 25 degrees Sag in the 8th conjunct my 0Cap Moon. SNode is 25 Gem in 2nd conj my Merc/Venus Gemini conjunction. So when pluto hit my moon in the 8th, my Mom passed. Siblings were executors of the will (gemini merc/venus in 2nd) and somehow a mysterious (8th) new will appeared giving them more than me. Same thing happened when my Dad died (pluto opp my 11Cancer Sun in third) Last minute will appeared practically taking me out of my inheritance, leaving most of it to my sisters. I foolishly trusted my sisters….my cap moon’s sense of integrity would never even think of doing this to them and I was incredulous. I have neptune affecting many planets….I often think people are of a much higher plane than they are. Rose-colored glasses. My family’s betrayal blew this Cancerian’s mind and upset me in a very deep way, changing the way I trust people…even family. Pluto in Cap greed isn’t only in politics unfortunately. But life is about learning, growing and loving. I’m going forward and won’t allow this to break me.

  • Rhonda

    As always April, your words shimmer with stunning love! <3

  • Beautifully written! I too struggle with working with Chiron, but the way you have worked with it in this article sheds a great light for me. Thank you!

  • Ah, this is such a brave post. Vulnerable and tender while still being smart and practical–a perfect Pisces/Virgo balance. Thank you!

  • Great post, April. I’m willing to take or leave Chiron, although given it’s exactly opposite my Moon and conjunct my Descendant it certainly adds something to the picture! Interestingly since it’s on my Descendant, I’ve ended up with a partner who is the embodiment of wounded healer in that he suffered from a serious mood disorder and went on to work with the similarly afflicted. Talk about people with a cold hard hand coming down on them, with others often telling them to just be happy and snap out of it.

  • Right on the money. I have just crystallized in my mind how to alchemize my wounds and it just happened yesterday afternoon.

  • Nicole

    Thank you for this, April! And Paula, I also love your take on this… very interesting! Kim, I’m so glad you posted this about how it personally affected your life! Great insight on how all that works…I learn so much from April and all the awesome comments! Thank you…

  • Anna

    Ironically, the assignment that came across my desk at work on the 20th was to review “self help” content for youth that featured many in their early 20s who had faced hardship and overcome it. Wounded healers.

  • Xtine

    I study astrology & bodywork, and became a crystal healer & double Reiki master (Usui and Karnuna), & took an animal chiropractic course in sheer self-defense: 12th h Chiron 26 Pisces, conj 12th h Saturn 29 Pisces; asc 6 Aries. I’ve been my friends’ (and often perfect strangers’) counselor/shrink since 7th grade. I’ve never had time for smelling salts trips meself b/c I was always helping others, sometimes men who needed the salts themselves. 😉
    The eclipse appeared on my radar, and my thoughts were NSFW. You see, I broke my leg the day after Merc went RX in Jan (2nd h Mars at 6 Gem, 3rd h Sun at 10 Gem, 3rd h Merc 29 Gem), and b/c insurance hassles, 10 long days later I got a cast. This & the myriad other horrid legwise snafus have merely induced laughter & a heretofore unseen Buddha-like calm in me despite the pain, surprising myself and everyone else.
    The 1st phys therapy appt was the day of the eclipse, and I just hope its influence is as good as that session was – the camel’s back may otherwise near breaking point! XD

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