Untangling & tending to the collective wounds of unworthiness & insecurity: Chiron in Taurus

I started writing this post a couple days ago, but it’s taken its sweet time to come together (at least it’s felt that way to me). Sparked by a realization that couldn’t be hashed out until I sat with my own experience, actually felt it. A few technology & full system reboots, two nights of “sleeping on it.” It was only once I heard music that cued the movement my body needed that this message fully landed. And I’m realizing now that this process was a real time experience of how Chiron in Taurus manifests; a process we all will undergo in some iteration over the upcoming years. Let me explain…

For the last 7 years, since 2018 really, we’ve been working with the astrological transit of Chiron in Aries. Chiron is classified as a minor planet/comet and represents our core wound. Often referred to as the “wounded healer” in astrology, it represents how, when we tend to these core wounds, our precious gifts are often revealed—the very experiences that broke us can later fuel us to help others in a similar capacity. On a collective level, whatever sign Chiron is moving through is the universal issue that we’ll need to pay attention to in order to alchemize that pain into something worthwhile. 

While Chiron has been in Aries, the wounded masculine has been at the forefront. The ways we strive, force and push. The ways we have “othered” and separated ourselves from each other. It’s highlighted our wounds of “not enough-ness”, and how we’ve continued to chase approval from this place, only to continually come up short. It’s shown us the ways that we have been outsourcing our own authority, allowing others dictate how to live our lives. Even dodged self-responsibility by waiting for others to make decisions for us. 

For me, this transit highlighted my drive to get sh*t done & my hyper-independence. With my natal Mars in Aries, I’ve always had a lot of drive and determination. And I was raised with the belief system that no one’s going to wait for you, so you better get going. If you want something, you better speak up, man up, make it happen because, at the end of the day… no one else is responsible for you. And this striving won me many accolades. I got good grades, was high-achieving, thin, and assumed leadership roles in nearly every job I took. My friends knew that if they needed something to happen, I was their go-to girl. 

But what happens when things are (inevitably) out of my control? What happens when it isn’t on me to make it happen? When it’s something I can’t (and shouldn’t!) will into being? Well, turns out we can’t control other people, and many of these over-working tendencies showed up in my relationships as me either giving too much or being domineering so that I could feel safe. Behind the scenes of what appeared to be a “successful,” put-together woman by societal standards, was a girl crumbling under perfectionism, tending to everyone but herself, with a clenched nervous system that couldn’t settle. I took on more responsibility than was mine, had a very hard time allowing support from others, and was on a one-way track to burn out. 

And let me tell you, I’ve done a lot of work in these areas in the last 7 years. I’ve been forced to surrender, losing a long-term relationship. Taken an honest look (many times over) at the ways I was trying to make too much happen, pulling more than was my weight, and still blaming myself. I folded into self-compassion, asking for help, and actually receiving if I wanted to stop this painful cycle and find a truly reciprocal relationship (in any area of life). 

I’ve learned to fully embrace my incredibly sensitive nature, and turn toward the little girl in me. The one underneath all of that striving that was exhausted, and simply wanted to be accepted. Learned to listen to the version of me that craves stillness, time in Nature, and smelling the roses. Open space to soften and create. Not from a place of forcing, but genuine enjoyment. 

And still, when I first sat down to write this, I realized that I was waiting on that rainy day to give me permission to slow down and relax without guilt. I still had a narrative playing in my head that if my partner came home to me simply sitting on the couch, then I must not be contributing anything of value. And if he thought that, well… then maybe he’d decide that I wasn’t of value to him either.

That’s the thing about these deep wounds—I don’t know that they ever fully leave us. They require many passes over, reminders to ourselves, and ongoing love. It’s not one-and-done. And the patterns we may have been able to address in one context can often show up in another, in a different way. And that’s part of what Chiron represents: the path we forge in our own healing process ultimately becomes our medicine to share with the world. It doesn’t go away—it’s transmuted and channeled into purpose. A key difference being how we respond to it—my ability to recognize this wound for what it was, and also extend compassion to that part. Because ultimately, I know that only one who can truly give me permission to simply be is me. 

And I can also recognize the deeper layer here now—what was driving this need to be so productive and over-ride my internal cues? On one level, my need for approval, yes, but it was also my sense of worth. My sense of safety. Because for humans, connection equates to safety. This is the deeper layer, and this is what we’re moving into with Chiron now shifting into Taurus. Because while Chiron in Aries showed us the wounded masculine, and how we outsourced our own authority, Chiron in Taurus calls for the rise of the empowered feminine, and will show us where we outsource our sense of safety and worthiness. 

Some of the themes this transit will illuminate are: When you slow down, what comes up for you? Where do you feel that in your body? How connected are you to your felt experience, your sensuality? What’s your relationship to Nature? What grounds and centers you? What do you value? What’s your relationship to money and the material world? And, fundamentally, where do you derive safety? Where do you source your sense of self-worth? 

A lot to sort through, (and 7 years for it all to unravel) but what’s for certain: the way forward will not be through doing more. Will not be through doing things alone. We’ve already learned this from Chiron’s passage through Aries. This will be about getting in right relationship with our bodies and the Earth herself. 

Many of us have never experienced a sense of felt safety in our nervous systems, and this is something we’ll need to develop. It will be through a slower, more intentional way of being. Through choosing the relationships, spaces and places that feel good to us & reflect our inherent value. In forging systems that value integrity and a just distribution of resources. Reciprocity over exploitation. Food security, access to healthcare, and the preservation of Nature. Cultivating a cultural understanding that anything worth building takes time. And that real, sustainable progress comes from how resourced in pleasure we are. 

Sound like a world you want to live in? Me too. And it starts with us & how we choose to show up. Developing this felt sense of safety and truly embodying our values is part of what I coach women on (learn more here). Let’s build this world, together.