Chiron: When it is Good to be ‘Bad’

A review of hit musical fantasy movie Wicked

By Alejo López

© Alejo López - published by The Astrological Journal, 2024 / The Astrological Association of Great Britain / 03.03.2025

(Please, bear in mind that this article includes spoilers)

From my grave I wake in peace.
From deep down I know now, and I am not lost.
Ingeborg Brachmann’s poem, ‘Bohemia Lies by the Sea’

Chiron, a centaur unlike any other, was born of an illegal union: Chronos, a mighty titan or (Saturn, as the Romans called it) and either the nymph Philira or Naïs. Her mother, ashamed of his awkwardness and dual nature (half a horse, half a man) abandoned him. His first memory is that of rejection.

As we dive into Wicked, the musical film recently directed by Jon M. Chu, we enter the land of Oz, where magic is real, and animals can talk. And we quickly learn that Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, recently defeated, shared with Chiron similar memories. Born of an illegal, secret, hidden (and might we say wicked union) between a mysterious man and the wife of the governor, Elphaba might be considered doomed to be wicked. Her green skin repulsed her father. Thus, her first memory is also that of rejection.

Chiron was raised by Apollo and Elphaba by a bear. Their identity was built on shame: the feeling of being awkward, different, broken, hurt or needing to be fixed. Both of them were qualified as monsters. Full of shame but unable to hide who she was, Elphaba longed nothing but to be normal. And in secret, she might have feared to believe that indeed “her green skin is just an outward manifestation of her twisted nature”.

In anyone’s chart, Chiron may represent aspects that we reject of ourselves. Parts of us that we find faulty and are ashamed to show openly. And we might see these characteristics as our own twisted nature. But because we all have Chiron in our horoscope, we are all ‘wicked’ in one way or another. As a defence mechanism, we usually try to excel in the area where the asteroid is placed. Paradoxically, others may see us as masters in this aspect of life.

In Wicked [the US movie musical released in 2024 and titled onscreen as Wicked: Part 1] Elphaba is invited to study magic at Shiz University. And even though she is ostracised by her peers, they seem to believe that she excels at being authentic, not caring for what others think of her. The only one who sees behind this defence is Glinda who is constantly worried about her public persona. Perhaps she sees some of herself in her. Towards the middle of the movie, in the scene of the ball in which all are laughing at Elphaba, Glinda, out of compassion, stands up for her. Thus, their friendship begins, one between unique, authentic people. To underline this, director Chu creates a Shiz University rule that no two students wear the same exact outfit. But students still look so alike that their differences are hard to recognise, except for Glinda and Elphaba. Their outfits distinguish them. This movie is about a Chironic journey into authenticity. And while most students think they are authentic, only Glinda and Elphaba truly are.

Elphaba is green and her lizard-like skin reminds us of frogs and swampy creatures. According to Joseph Campbell, fairy tales portrayed these amphibious creatures as guardians of the door to the unconscious. We can see them as ugly if we project on them all of our unconscious fears and rejected aspects of ourselves; or we could find them attractive if we recognise the power that they are heralding us towards.

In the same way, astrological Chiron offers opposite approaches. We may feel disgraced and ashamed of our faults, seeing ourselves as ugly or deformed. Or, with compassion, understanding, humility and self-acceptance, we may let Chiron act as a bridge between two realities so that what made us weak becomes our strength; what makes us ugly exposes our beauty and what makes us ashamed is our jewel of pride. Chiron is of a dual nature: half centaur, half human, being able to bridge all contradictions and paradoxes. The path he shows is that of humility and self-acceptance. The path is to choose to accept oneself, no matter what that means. It is the path of pride instead of shame.

But Elphaba has a long way to go before she reaches that point. Born green, her deepest wish is to meet the Wizard of Oz so that she can become ‘normal’. Because the Wizard had built a city all in green (Emerald City), she dreams that he may love her, share his magic and fix her.

Author and astrologer Melanie Reinhardt speaks of Chiron as a humbling process, a sort of grounding into our bodies, and an acceptance of our limitations and our unique qualities. As Wicked progresses, there is something in Elphaba’s wickedness that starts to feel okay. And there is something about Oz that starts to feel wicked. “Something has changed within me”, Elphaba sighs towards the end, “Something is not the same”, her face showing fear and uncertainty but also inner conviction. There is a rot in Oz, a force that silently drives people toward conformity and stifles dissenting voices.

The more we embrace our wound, the more it heals. Vulnerability becomes power. Self-acceptance opens unlimited opportunities

On her first visit to Shiz University – when her power can’t be contained and peaks out, unleashed – a round wooden plaque of Oz breaks and reveals that before the wizard took over, animals who could speak oversaw this domain. As the movie progresses, Elphaba begins to understand that maybe it is not she who is supposed to change and fit into Oz. Maybe it is Oz which needs to change.

This inner journey is reflected in Elphaba’s relationship with her glasses. They are as unique as herself: their shape is the infinite symbol, forecasting her infinite power. “Unlimited…” she will sign in the last scene, swathed in power, and without glasses before her eyes. As long as she wears them, she is defined by a specific view of the world, a twisted view in which the Wizard is kind and gentle. The more Elphaba accepts her unlimited power, the less she needs her infinity-shaped glasses. And towards the middle of the movie, she stops using them.

But Chironic acceptance is not a process to be done alone. It is her friend, Glinda, who promises that she will be popular and who encourages her to change them. It is when she is offered companionship and social support that she can remove those glasses and see farther beyond. It is after the scene in which Glinda and Elphaba become friends that she stops wearing them. Movies are like dreams, “all of the characters are oneself”. So, this could mean that it is when other parts of the psyche (the other planets in the chart) stop seeing Chiron as a wounded one that true power starts to build and emerge. Or it could have a more literal meaning: we need friends on our path of self-acceptance and recognition. We need to feel loved for who we are.

In the last scene, without her glasses, Glinda and Elphaba make many choices. Chiron was also set apart as a Greek semi-god for the choices he made. The Chironic process of self-becoming may require symbolic betrayals. To become oneself is a task only one can do. Friends may support us, but the steps must be taken by us. Chiron betrays other centaurs when he takes the side of humans. And Glinda and Elphaba, in their own processes of self-recognition and self-acceptance, decide to follow separate paths. Because they can truly see each other, they can accept this and remain friends. “Together we will be unlimited,” says Elphaba.

The movie reaches its peak when Elphaba sings the well-known classic Defying Gravity. To defy gravity is wicked. Actress Cynthia Erivo, who plays Elphaba, explained in interviews that to sing, one needs ground that supports your breath control. But in this scene, she is hanging from wires, flying, defying gravity. How to sing? Erivo shared that it was accepting her own sense of vulnerability and the memories in which she felt she was the one left out, that gave her the strength and power to perform this scene, together with the support and trust of an amazing vocal coach and an encouraging stunt trainer. “It is the wizard who should be afraid of me,” Elphaba states in the film just before singing this song. She begins to fully accept her once-called wicked nature and discovers her mighty power.

That is the Chironic process. The more we sink in ourselves, the more we can expand later. The more we embrace our wound, the more it heals. Vulnerability becomes power. Self-acceptance opens unlimited opportunities. Elphaba loses fear of being different. She falls; she sees herself as a child, still wearing the glasses, still wishing to be fixed into normal, and she realises that the change she longed for was not external but internal. Chiron guides us in this process of self-acceptance. “From your ruins, you wake up,” he says. And it is at that moment that she flies, unbound.

The ending of the film informs us that everything we have seen might actually be wicked and dubious. Everything except the Wicked Witch of the West. In her full power, Elphaba flies and says: “No one, no wizard that is or ever was, will ever take me down”. We can take this literally – Elphaba is fully alive which contrasts with what we were led to believe at the start of the movie.

Or we can take it symbolically: all power given outside is taken back, all external authority is internalised, and all paradoxes are dissolved. Humbled Chiron rises proudly for being different, unique and special. And Elphaba flies high, unleashed of any judgement. And reminds us that instead of being normal, we should all rather be…wicked. And we shall fly…!

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Images

• Wicked Movie Poster: Wikipedia, fair use license

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Author: Alejo López

Alejo López is a licensed psychologist with a BA in Performing Arts. He holds the Diploma from the Faculty of Astrological Studies, where he currently serves as a tutor. He has an MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology from the Sophia Centre at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, where his dissertation on gender and astrology was awarded the Alumni Association Dissertation Prize for 2023/2024. Alejo is training to be a certified Jungian Analyst by the International Association for Analytical Psychology. He enjoys working as a consultant astrologer, a psychologist and a tutor of astrology. He is also an AA board trustee.
www.liminalcosmos.com, Instagram: @liminalcosmos