This Year’s Chiron Retrograde Cycles and Stations

Chiron is currently direct (i.e. moving forwards)

You’ve likely heard of Mercury Retrograde, the celestial event most discussed by the astrological layman. But did you know that other planets go retrograde as well?

When Chiron, the wounded healer, goes retrograde, it can mark a period of reliving old wounds. But this period can also be a deeply healing one, if you know how to handle it.

What is Chiron Retrograde?

“Retrograde” means “moving backwards.” That means that when Chiron is retrograde, it is moving backwards in apparent motion from our viewpoint here on Earth.  In other words, instead of progressing forward through the zodiac, Chiron is actually backing up.  It may be a visual illusion, but it’s a meaningful and measurable one.

What is a Chiron Station?

Chiron spends more than half of every year moving forwards (or “direct”, as astrologers say), but when Chiron slows, stops, and changes direction, we call that moment a “station.”  When Chiron ceases moving forwards and is in the process of changing direction, we say, “Chiron is stationing retrograde.” On the other hand, when Chiron has stopped backwards motion and is in the process of turning forwards, we say “Chiron is stationary direct.”

I call these stations “pivotal days.” That’s because the planet in question is literally pivoting. In addition, stations tend to lead to pivotal events for those of us Earthlings who are most affected by them.  These pivotal events trigger changes of a Chiron nature.

Chiron Transits: Parallel Wounds of Past and Present

During a Chiron transit, we are wounded. We may feel that a fresh wound is occurring in in the present, and that we are being broken open.  However, if we examine the situation more deeply, we find that it actually reminds us of something painful from the past. In fact, it is the past wound that has surged up to blend uncannily with the present one.

The nature of a Chiron transit is that we experience both wounds at once, but that may not be immediately apparent. Consciousness and self-reflection is required to piece together the past and the present. Through our wounding, Chiron alerts us to our need for healing in order to become fully present again.

Healing and Wholeness Through Chiron Retrograde

In fact, Chiron’s entire purpose is to restore wholeness. Chiron reconnects things that have been separated or broken apart, in order that they may be mended and ultimately, reintegrated with each other. When Chiron mends broken pieces in your psyche, some call it soul retrieval.

Similarly, Chiron can mend broken homes (Moon), broken reputations (Saturn), or broken relationships (Venus). Really, it all depends on where Chiron functions in your chart, where it is transiting, and what natal house it rules. In order to heal us, Chiron must remind us of the earlier time when the thing got broken. But if we allow the process to happen instead of fighting it, we can integrate old wounds. As a result, we feel more whole than we ever have before.

Chiron Retrograde in Aries: Wounds to Self-Assertion and Independence

Chiron has been in Aries since February 2019. Since then, we have been exploring our wounds in relation to selfhood, independence, impulsivity, physical activity, masculinity, and self-assertion. Chiron retrograde in Aries brings us face-to-face with blockages to our courage in the past and present. Finally, through Chiron’s healing process, we recover access to our heroic spirit.

Chiron will leave Aries in 2027, when it will move fully into Taurus. At that point, our attention will shift into wounding surrounding self-esteem, self-sufficiency, stability, and attachment.

The Span of Chiron Retrograde and Stations this year:

In 2023, Chiron travels forward to 19° Aries, then stations retrograde and travels backward to 15° Aries, stations direct, and travels forward past 19° Aries again. Then it moves into the next patch of degrees, where it will do the same thing next year.

How does Chiron Retrograde affect you?

This means that if you have any planet in 15° to 19° of Aries, that planet will strongly feel Chiron’s influence this year. Because Chiron in Aries forms a challenging aspect to Cancer, Libra and Capricorn, if you have any planet in 15° to 19° degrees of any of those signs, Chiron is also transiting that planet.

Peaks in the intensity of Chiron’s transit:

We feel a transit the most strongly when it’s exact to the degree. Additionally, we feel transits most strongly during their stations, or pivotal days. For example, if you have Mars at 17° Capricorn, you’ll feel Chiron’s influence the most strongly when Chiron is passing through 17° Aries, and also on the days it turns retrograde and direct.

Understanding the Chiron cycle can help you
integrate and process past and present wounds,
and allow you to live your life in a more whole way.

To learn how Chiron functions in your chart
and how to use the retrograde cycle to your advantage,
Contact Pandora Astrology for a Natal and Transits Reading.

How to handle your Chiron transit:

How can we weather the storm of Chiron’s lessons?

Welcome the discomfort. Invite it in like an old friend. Evidently, some old and broken part of you is ready to be restored. So, set a place at your table for it. Ask yourself meaningful questions. For example, “how did this part get cut off in the first place?” Or, “what have I been missing out on as a result of this wound?”

If you’ve been repressing the pain, let it wash over you now. In fact, really take time for this. Emotions and pain are processed through the body. So we must fully feel difficult feelings in our bodies in order to fully process them.

It makes sense, then, that Chiron transits can sometimes be accompanied by physical illness. Consequently, we must take especially good care of our health during Chiron transits. Indeed, our bodies may be trying to tell us something. Any illness we experience might have deeper meaning.  At the end of it all, we will feel bigger, with access to more of ourselves than we had before.

The Healer’s Reckoning: The Chiron Return

One of the most important Chiron transits we experience is the Chiron Return. That’s when Chiron has travelled all the way around the zodiac, returning for the first time to where it was when we were born.

Interestingly enough, Chiron Returns happens when we turn 50. That might explain why 50 tends to be such a painful age, fraught with regret. However, for true healers, integrators, whole-makers and bridge-builders, it is a coming of age.

Go Deeper

What Is Chiron, Anyway?
All about Chiron in Aries.
Learn about all the transiting planets in signs this year.
Here’s how to know if you’re having a transit this year: Are You Currently In Transition? Or, cast your own chart here.
Read my Frequently Asked Questions about astrology.