Are you a wounded healer? ♐️

By Lian Brook-Tyler

This is not something I ever intended to write - the wounded healer is the archetype I’ve spent a lifetime attempting to deny, even just accepting the role of healer has been an excruciating journey, requiring me to let go of everything I had clung to for security and to open to everything I had pushed away for sanity’s sake.

But try as I might to keep it lost to the inky depths of the unconscious, the myth of Chiron, the archetypal wounded healer, has been emerging into my awareness over the past few years until finally, he stood before me, his bright truth illuminating his rose-quartz cave, and no longer could I deny that his myth is a vital part of my own soul’s myth and that of so many who are called onto the path of becoming their medicine.

Chiron was a demigod and centaur, but unlike the other centaurs who were savage, he was an oracle, knowledgeable about medicine, and a wise teacher to Heracles, Jason, Achilles and other prominent figures of the time.

One day, in a dreadful twist of fate, he was accidentally struck by Heracles’ poisoned arrow. For all of his healing skill and knowledge, the wound was incurable and the pain so great, he retreated to the cave to suffer for eternity - being immortal, death offered him no escape.

Finally, he went to Zeus, king of the Gods, and agreed to give up his immortality for the release of Prometheus, who had been bound for all eternity to a rock for stealing fire from the gods and giving it to humankind. Prometheus was freed and Chiron’s soul was released from the pain of his body.

Chiron can be seen now, lighting up the night sky, a North Star for the souls who came to live out the myth of the wounded healer.

So who are the wounded healers?

We are the ones who have had great challenges, immense trauma, and are undeniably (try as we might to deny it) different to others in ways that have caused isolation, struggle and pain.

We are also the healers, guides, teachers, and catalysts for change, and if we’re truly living our soul’s purpose, at the heart of our work is our deepest wound.

Astrologically, we often have rare and difficult Chiron placements, such as aspects related to our sun or 1st house (or both, like me), representing a wound in our very sense of self.

You may have often heard me say that our medicine is found in our wounds, so why then is the wounded healer such a difficult archetype to accept?

Because, like Chiron, it means accepting that our wound was not only fated but also will never fully be healed… We are never the same as before we sustained the wound - we bear the scar until death, what’s been lost stays lost, and we don’t magically become like others and fit in in the ways we always longed to, we remain apart.

And just like Chiron who went to Zeus and asked to become mortal, we need to come to Spirit and submit fully to life and death, which means to accept our fate, even the most seemingly unfair twists and painful turns, and live into our destiny.

If we can look honestly into our wounds, accept them and the way they have uniquely shaped us, then, and only then, they can become medicine, and we become the wounded healer who can help others to heal from the same wounds we endured.

It’s far from an easy path that our souls chose but at least we get to live a mythical life in a cave of rose-quartz.

All my love,

Lian

♥️

P.S. Enrollment for Medicine ‘24 opens very soon, it’s the crucible in which you’ll uncover your soul’s purpose and become your unique Medicine… For now, you can register your interest via this link.

Art: Sagittarius by Boris Vallejo (an artist who is one of my guilty pleasures ☺️)

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