Origin 1977
Chiron was discovered by Charles Kowal in 1977, orbiting between Saturn and Uranus, and its glyph was devised by the astrologer Al H. Morrison. It is drawn as a key, and it doubles as a monogram of the letters O and K for Object Kowal, the provisional designation the body carried before it was named; the symbol is used almost entirely among astrologers rather than astronomers. The key is apt for the mythic figure: Chiron was the learned centaur, tutor of Asclepius, Achilles and others, who suffered an incurable wound from a poisoned arrow and, being immortal, could not die of it, and who finally surrendered his immortality on Prometheus's behalf. Astrologically the body is read accordingly, as the wounded healer, marking the injury a person cannot cure in themselves but through which they gain the capacity to teach and to heal in others.
Facts
Form
Type of SymbolAstral figure: sun, moon or planet 1 Geometric FormA key-like figure, a circle beneath the letter K. 1 Origins
Origin Period Place of OriginDiscovered in the United States; used in modern Western astrology. 1 Learn More
A Minor Body in Astrology
Chiron is a small icy body orbiting between Saturn and Uranus, one of the class of objects known as centaurs, bodies that cross the orbits of the outer planets on unstable, eventually short-lived paths. It carries the dual designation of minor planet 2060 and comet 95P, since it has been observed to develop a faint coma.
Modern astrology adopted it as a distinct point soon after its discovery, naming it for the wise centaur of Greek myth, teacher of heroes and, in the story, a healer who could not heal his own wound. Its adoption came at a moment when Western astrology was also absorbing the four major asteroids into regular practice, and Chiron was folded into that same wave of interest in newly catalogued minor bodies, quickly acquiring both a body of interpretive literature and a dedicated glyph distinct from anything used for the planets or the earlier asteroid symbols.
Kowal found it on photographic plates taken at Palomar Observatory, and the object was announced first under the provisional designation 1977 UB before receiving both the minor-planet number 2060 and, once its faint cometary activity was observed decades later, the additional comet catalogue number 95P, an unusual double status that later centaur discoveries would share.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Achilles directly: "learned centaur, tutor of Asclepius, Achilles and others, who suffered an incurable wound from a poisoned arrow and, being immortal, could not die of it, and who finally surrendered his immortality..."
This source names Asclepius directly: "was the learned centaur, tutor of Asclepius, Achilles and others, who suffered an incurable wound from a poisoned arrow and, being immortal, could not die of it, and who finally surrendered his..."
This source names Saturn directly: "Kowal in 1977, orbiting between Saturn and Uranus, and its glyph was devised by the astrologer Al H."
Symbol Of
The symbol's own cited description identifies its glyph as that of this planet.
Sources
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