Sunday, January 3, 2010

Chiron’s Key Word Corner: Teacher and Wounded Healer—and the Reason for Winter



©1994-2010 by Joyce Mason

The Chiron of myth was both a teacher and a wounded healer because our wound is our best teacher.

Few of us come to the quest for wholeness when everything is hunky dory. In the knot of our pain is everything we need to work through in order to feel at one with ourselves—and everyone else. Many of us—maybe most of us—would never have bothered to do any deep, inner work if it weren’t for emotional or physical agony.

Maybe coming to Earth where pain gets stuck in your body, and hurts like hell if you don’t do something with it, is only way to get us to deal with our stuff. I’ve heard it two ways. One of my teachers says they cry on the Other Side when someone has to come to Earth and rejoice when they die and “come home.” From another, I’ve heard that no matter how hard it is, souls are lined up to incarnate here. It has something to do with our planet’s unique attributes as a boot camp for emerging souls.


The holidays and winter often bring depression because it is a time of dying.

Like the trees and flowers, we have shed our leaves and feel barren inside. We must hibernate. This is as close as we come to feeling the separation again that we first experienced when we came to Earth—being literally wrenched from our mother and the disorientation of feeling alone in the world.

Winter is a Chironic time when we feel painfully misfit and unrelated. Yet, Chiron’s time in the cave—alone—is where he turned to his teacher within and gained enough wisdom to tutor future greats.


This winter, relish your cave time.
If you are in pain, wallow in it until you hear what it’s trying to teach you. The illusion of separation must be felt acutely so that, like Chiron, we will reach out to others and foster their greatness, just as we discover our own when we finally slow down enough to face ourselves.

That’s what winter is for.

~~~

This Key Word Corner was first published in Chironicles in December 1994.

Photo Credit: WINTER SCENE © 4dings
Dreamstime.com


Celebrate Epiphany, Jan. 6th! The Coming of the Three Astrologers. Visit my post, Epiphanies, on Hot Flashbacks, Cool Insights, full of information about the Magi, their role as astrologers, and the deep symbolism of this holiday. Three astrologers were among the privileged few to witness the newborn Christ child.

2 comments:

Susannah said...

Really nice post Joyce and such a good and timely reminder.

You are so right in your observations of why most of us begin our quest for wholeness. I love the line - "In the knot of our pain is everything we need to work through in order to feel at one with ourselves". - Wow, isn't that true and so simply put - thank you.

I also liked "If you are in pain, wallow in it until you hear what it’s trying to teach you." that too is such good advice. People have a tendancy to shut out pain, to distract themselves, to do anything but feel it.

As you so rightly say, our wound is our best teacher - the way to our wholeness is in listening to and then integrating it. We can then find the postive expression "the teaching we can share".

Lots of love to you Joyce this winter time and thank you for a beautiful post.

Susannah x

Joyce Mason said...

Hi, Susannah! Thank you for this very specific feedback. There's no greater joy to a writer than knowing which lines hit home!

One of the blessings of maturity is "going to the cave" willingly because I have finally realized its gifts. Even though my body balks at our damp, marrow chilling winters (Northern California is not the beach!), I look forward to this sacred time every winter to let the old die in preparation for the birth of the new in spring. I'm so thankful to finally realize that most of my life direction comes at this more meditative time. I had a particularly major spiritual turnaround last year that was an aha of major proportions! It happened in February and colored all of 2009--and probably the rest of my life!

Lots love back to you!
Joyce