What Your Chiron Sign Reveals About Your Greatest Strengths & Weakness

Chiron is a minor planet that can have a major impact on an astrology reading. Also known as the "wounded healer," Chiron's placement in your natal chart reveals a core wound that may take a lifetime to work through.

When Chiron was first discovered in 1977, it was classified as an asteroid. In the years since, it's gone through a bit of an identity crisis and is now considered a minor planet and part of Centaur—a class of celestial bodies orbiting between the asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt.

Chiron orbits between two intensely oppositional planets—uptight, restrictive Saturn and liberated, revolutionary Uranus—and serves as a metaphysical mediator. It asks questions like: Where do we hold ourselves back (Saturn), and where can we be destructively rebellious (Uranus)? We must understand both extremes in order to find the middle ground.

In Astrology and the Rising of Kundalini, author Barbara Hand Clow refers to Chiron as the "rainbow bridge" between Saturn and Uranus. Aptly named, since integrating the full spectrum of emotions is the key to wholeness.

In modern astrology, Chiron represents our core wounds and how we can overcome them.

Chiron is named after a Greek healer, philosopher, and teacher who, ironically, could not heal himself, and is symbolized by a key, demonstrating the importance of unlocking this minor planet's major lessons.

In many ways, our Chiron placement is our secret power. As we grapple with pain, we gain wisdom that we can pass onto others like a magical salve.

Chiron generally stays in a single zodiac sign for eight years. (However, when he enters Saturn’s orbit, he can buzz through a single sign in under two years. It’s up to him whether he wants to undergo outpatient surgery or opt for a longer course of therapy.)

Since Chiron takes approximately 49 years to journey through all 12 zodiac signs, we all go through a "Chiron return" near our 50th birthdays.

Wounds: Anger management, lack of self-worth, aloofness and isolationism, cutthroat competition style, needing to be No. 1 or refusing to participate, comparing and despairing

Wounds: Stubborn resistance to (and fear of) change, following the flock instead of forming your own values and beliefs, addiction to comforts like eating and drinking, materialism and money struggles

Wounds: Fear of being alone (without a "Twin"), approval-seeking, nervous chatter or addiction to gossip, constant pivoting that makes it impossible to finish what you start, anxiety about being judged, sibling rivalry

Wounds: Trouble feeling "at home" or safe—both in your body and in the world, hoarding resources and money, emotional eating, xenophobia and "stranger danger," family dysfunction (possibly with the mother)

Wounds: Need for validation, presenting a false front, addiction to drama and intensity, romance/love addiction

Wounds: Debilitating perfectionism, people-pleasing, distorted self-image (body image), anxiety about people’s judgments, being excessively critical of others, hypochondria

Wounds: Inability to commit to relationships, paralyzing indecision, romanticizing, trying to force peace at any price, trouble ending relationships

Wounds: Nihilism, power struggles, jealousy and obsession, trouble leaving bad relationships

Wounds: Fanatical or zealous beliefs, disruptive nomadic tendencies, aggressive or tactless communication style, chasing the "high" of the next big thing

Wounds: Obsessive ambition, using career as an escape, fixation on gaining status and approval, family dysfunction (possibly showing up as daddy issues)

Wounds: Destructive rebellion, scientific detachment from emotions, trying to "fit in"

Wounds: Fear of asserting boundaries, escapism, denial/not living in reality