Chiron in the Eighth House: Part 1: Wounding

Chiron in the Eighth House: Part 1: Wounding

Copyright by Carmen Turner Schott, Author

I want to discuss the energy of having Chiron in the eighth astrological house. I've had several people contact me in the past wanting to understand this placement and know more about how it impacts them. I have been on my own journey trying to understand Chiron and was questioning if it actually has an impact on our lives. It took me awhile to understand the impact that Chiron has, but now I realize it has a transforming effect. When I first started studying astrology, I did not pay much attention to this asteroid. I started researching Chiron later on and I'm going to share my personal experience with Chiron in the eighth, because I have this placement and it's conjunct my Moon and Jupiter.

For the past twelve years I have been through many transforming and painful experiences and witnessed the same stories and experiences from others who have shared with me. The first thing that I noticed was that many people call Chiron the wounded healer. What does the wounded healer really mean? I wanted to figure out for myself what the difference between Chiron and Pluto was. The planet Pluto also represents where we have a wound as well and where we have potential to heal and grow and heal that wound. I've realized with Chiron that the wound is always there. It’s not that you can't overcome it and become a stronger person from it, but the wounds of Chiron often never truly go away. They stay with us as a reminder of what we have been through. An imprint on our soul, like a tattoo that we always see and feel.

When Chiron is in the eighth house there is often a cycle of being wounded and often by the same people that we care about or trust. Feeling wounded can manifest in many ways. It can be verbally, emotionally, sexually, physically, energetically. What I do know is that there's some type of wound that continually tends to happen for people with Chiron the eighth house. The wounding typically happens when we are involved with someone in an intimate relationship or on an intimate level. It can start out at a young age such as being bullied or picked on as a child causing wounds with peers. When we look at the eighth house, we understand that it's the house of death, the house of sex, the house of intimacy, the house of sacrifice, the house of other people's resources and the house of deep and intense things.

The wound of Chiron often involves death, loss and intimacy. These wounds tend to develop through intimate relationships with people who are in our inner circle and with those who we have chosen to trust and have relationships with. The wounds that are experienced in the eighth house create a person that develops a lot of depth, it’s like through each wound the experience makes them stronger, braver and more courageous. The karmic learning of each wound makes them realize that they are different from other people. When you have Chiron in the eighth house, you realize this from a young age that there's something about you that makes other people want to hurt you. This is how many people with Chiron in the eighth house feel, but what they need to understand is that sometimes it has nothing to do with us. There are times that we can never understand what makes other people behave the way they do; we are just much more empathic and sensitive than most and these wounds leave lasting marks on our hearts and memories.

I truly believe that Chiron in the eighth house brings a certain special energy around a person. Many people with this placement have told me that they feel like other people only want to hurt them and are never loyal. They often tell me that they feel that others are always trying to take their kindness for granted or they see their kindness as a weakness, or they feel that others try to find their weaknesses so they can pinpoint them and take advantage of them.

These feelings and wounds create a person who is very deep, compassionate and kind which ignites an even deeper desire to heal those that have similar pain and suffering. Through the process of being wounded, Chiron in the eighth house people develop a very passionate desire for helping others. Since many with this placement are wounded through intimacy, they always have a special understanding of other people’s loss and heartache. It’s like the wound is always with them, right on the surface and it's like a scar that heals. It often looks better on the outside, but the scar is a constant reminder of the battles that the person has survived, and they've grown from it. I realize that these scars actually give us power. The power behind Chiron and the eighth house is that you have a magnetic healing energy that others are naturally drawn to. Now, if people aren't comfortable with metaphysics, psychology or astrology, and they're just normal people with wounds of their own they won’t understand why they are attracted to you. They may not realize what it is, but they're going to be very drawn to people with Chiron in the eighth house people.

Anyone that has any type of wound or unhealed pain will be attracted to eighth house people because it’s like the eighth house person’s energy is the cure that they seek. People with unhealed pain are drawn to eight house Chiron people because they are like lights in the dark and the moths are attracted to the light and it's healing. Many people are seeking healing from Chiron in the eighth house people and this can be a lonely placement, because they often feel that they give a lot. They constantly help others heal in a deep way, but they feel like no one really helps them heal. Sometimes they feel used after they help someone, because often the very person they heal turns there back on them and wounds them in some way. The wound can come through feeling abandoned, tossed out and betrayed. It can often be karmic and unconscious issues that make the Chiron is in the eighth house person feel that way.

The eighth house Chiron person often has no idea what happened and often feels guilt that they did something wrong, but the truth is that they did nothing wrong. They gave freely and helped someone in need. This energetic cycle tends to occur like a circle or loop throughout their life at different times in their life. One of the biggest things that happen with this placement is that eighth house Chiron people know that they tend to be very open and very vulnerable to those in need. They are very sensitive people, very compassionate and kind, and they feel people's pain. They can truly put themselves in other people’s shoes. The act of being vulnerable and bearing your soul and your body to someone in a deep eighth house, truthful kind of way is a risk. It’s like showing the dark parts of yourself to someone, parts of you that you didn't even know were there and then you feel them backfire on you.

When we open up and share with someone else the very deep parts of ourselves, this is when Chiron is ignited, and its energy transforms us. We allow ourselves to feel vulnerable and completely trust another living being with our most precious feelings, emotions and dreams. We share things with them that we never have shared with anyone else before. In our mind, this is destiny. We found our soul mate or at least we thought we did. We found love. Being vulnerable means that you express parts of yourself that you normally would never would and love makes us believe anything is possible. A lot of people don't even know about the real you and through that process, Chiron in the eighth house people often feel betrayed. They're wounded, they're abandoned. People they loved deeply begin to push them away. People are flat out mean to them or treat them very badly for no apparent reason. I think the hardest thing about this placement is often the feeling that our trust is betrayed. When this happens and that vulnerability wound is ignited and that wound develops, we often struggle to overcome it. It sticks with us throughout our life. Those scars are a constant reminder of what we have been through and of how strong we are. Like the Phoenix rising from the ashes, the eighth house Chiron person will rise, transform and be reborn.

Abandonment is often associated with Chiron, as he was abandoned by his parents and then hurt by Hercules, he retreats into his cave to try to heal his wounds by himself. No matter what he does the wounds are still there, serving as a reminder of what he went through. These wounds remain a part of him, his scars a reminder of his true purpose. His true purpose is to become a wounded healer. Chiron becomes known as a teacher and healer for many people. This is the same destiny for people with Chiron in the eighth house. They are destined to become “wounded healers”.

Eighth house Chiron people find their way through feeling needed and feeling that they have deep connections with others. They have a very calming effect upon other people. People say their energy is very calming and that is one reason people are drawn to them. As they begin to draw people into their lives, this helps them heal inside the deep trust issues, the deep vulnerability issues that they have been struggling with. They begin to learn to love themselves and trust their own intuition again. They stop before they sacrifice themselves for others. They learn not to sacrifice their happiness and be a martyr, even when they attract all these people that have a lot of problems that just take, take, take from them. Chiron in the eighth house people develop a sense of aloneness and this can be a strength which leads to independence. They realize that they don't need anyone to fulfill them, and that their own happiness and healing and understanding and growth comes from within. That is their superpower.

The true power of Chiron is that special healing energy that lives within a person. It emanates out into our environment and draws people in. When Chiron is in the eighth house there is a constant inner healing at all times that we are experiencing. You know that we are constantly being reborn. The old self is stripped away, the old personality is stripped away. The emotions change and feel like they have died and changed overnight. Chiron in the eighth house people are reborn daily, like the Phoenix shredding and shedding its old skin they morph into a whole new person. Eventually this cycle will happen again and again.

When their wounds are ignited, they will realize that they are meant to heal. I don’t want anyone to be afraid of this placement. You can be happy, but you will need to embrace the wounding and healing cycle in your life that often involves people, family, friends, and loved ones. Wherever Chiron is, there will be a wound. Having Chiron in the eighth house is actually an amazing place to have it, because it truly heals us from the inside out. It is something that we need to embrace and believe that it is a part of our soul journey and that our soul chose this placement for learning.

I really believe that Chiron is a powerful placement in our natal chart, even though for years I thought, “Oh, it's just an asteroid. It's no big deal”. I've studied it now and the more I've learned about this energy I realize it’s even more powerful of a healing agent than Pluto. I think another lesson that I learned about having Chiron in the eighth house was that we often give our power away. We try to find our happiness through another person through intimacy, through sex, through a deep bond but what we realize is that we often experience that anyone we ever deeply bonded with in that way hurts us. The true lesson is that we have to learn to depend on ourselves and making ourselves happy and learn to have that deep bond we are seeking with our own self.