A reclusive centaur became a healer

Apr 24, 2010, 12.00am IST

MARGUERITE THEOPHIL.


Illness is almost always seen as a wicked intrusion, whether it is something that appears out of the blue, or is caused by less than wholesome lifestyle choices.

One way we are invited to look at serious illnesses or accidents is as a ‘sacred messenger’. Now that might seem really odd. Illness as a sacred messenger is one that brings in its path experiences, insight and knowledge we could not have achieved in any other way. When we accept its message, it alters us from inside out; connecting us with a life path beneficial to ourselves and to all we connect with.

If this is true for patients, it is even more relevant to doctors and healers - who have been or will be patients themselves at some point of their lives. But when these people come through on the other side, they bear the gift of being ‘Wounded Healers’. Though modern psychologists following C G Jung popularized the notion of the wounded healer, the concept goes back to Plato, who held that the most skilful physicians, rather than being models of good health, are those who have suffered from all sorts of illnesses.

As always, the Greek myths provide us with valuable lessons. The story of the centaur Chiron, half man, half horse, is instructive.Unlike other centaurs that were a rowdy lot, indulgent drinkers, often given to violence, Chiron was intelligent, gentle and kind. Abandoned at birth, he was adopted by the sun god Apollo, who reared him and taught him all he knew. Chiron was once wounded by a poisoned arrow from Hercules’ bow, but did not die, since as his father was the god Kronos, he was immortal. This ‘gift’ now became his curse, and he was doomed to suffer excruciating pain for the rest of his eternal days.

Chiron became a recluse, withdrawing to the mountainside to tend his wound and search for release from his suffering. While he could not find his own cure, he became wise in the use of all forms of healing herbs and compassionate to the suffering of others. He welcomed, treated and brought comfort to all who suffered in any way. In fact, from Chiron’s name is perhaps derived the French word ‘chirurgie’, or ‘surgery’ in English.

For priests and ministers of the church, often referred to as ‘doctors of the soul’, Henri Nouven’s message in his hope-filled book, ‘The Wounded Healer’ offers a radical interpretation of modern priesthood - ministers are called to identify the suffering in their own hearts and make that the starting point of their service. They must be willing to go beyond their professional, somewhat aloof role, leaving themselves open and vulnerable, as fellow human beings with the same wounds and suffering as those they serve.
We need to stay mindful of the fact that as wounded healers, we become transformed when we understand that while our wound may be completely personal and uniquely our own, it simultaneously is a shared, universal, non-personal process. We heal ourselves, and others from our wounds. Identifying ourselves as wounded healers teaches us that it is only by being willing to face up to, consciously experience and go through our physical, psychological or spiritual wounds that we receive its blessing. To go through our wound involves saying ‘yes’ to the mysteriously painful new place in ourselves the wound is sure to lead us to. Going through our wound, we can allow ourselves to be re-created by it and to be of wholesome service to those who seek healing through us.