Asteroid Chariklo – Asteroid Number 10199 – Discovered on February 15, 1997

How to Read Asteroid Chariklo in a Natal Chart (things she might want to express):
-States of transition or being in a state of flux
-Where one may not get the “credit” they deserve (or may not give themselves the credit they deserve)
-Devotion, duty, and love (and being devoted, dutiful, and loving in relationships)
-Healing with feminine/receptive energy (and transmutation of pain)
-“Wise Woman” archetype (or just “wise female/receptive energy”)
**Even a place where the feminine and masculine sides of energy are blended
-Boundaries
-Doing things (all of the above and more!) with grace and tact
**The name Chariklo means “Graceful Spinner”

As I have started going through the motions of cleaning stuff up across the board (on the site, on the YouTube channel, etc.), it was noticed that THIS blog post was started two years ago and never finished. Absolutely unacceptable on my end because I love Chariklo so much (I really, really do!). Also, I recently had a client with Chariklo prominently placed in her chart which we spent a good part of the reading talking about.

To say she’s been on my mind lately is an understatement, lol.

It’s also been a long time since I’ve done a blog post….and it’s about damn time I did one. Chariklo seemed like the perfect subject with which to jump back in.

Side note: What is a prominent Chariklo (or any asteroid) in a natal chart? In my opinion, you would want to see Chariklo conjunct a natal planet, angle, North or South Node…things like that. Conjunctions should be kept to 3-degrees or less (applying or separating).

Who was Chariklo in mythology? There really isn’t much known about her on her own (which makes her own mythology/origin story a little harder to pin down). What IS known of her comes from the mythology of Vesta, Pallas, and most importantly Chiron with whom she was partnered. The relational quality of her mythology (and her being best known as the partner of Chiron) makes her tie to relationships important in a chart regardless of where she falls.
**There is more that I’ll say about the relational aspect further into this post, but because she doesn’t have much of her own mythology (which feels criminal) she does feel like a place in the natal chart where one might not get the credit that they deserve from other people, in relationships, etc. She also seems like a place in the chart where one might not give themselves the credit they deserve, either.

Her origin story is a little different depending on what version(s) of someone else’s mythology you read. In some versions she is said to be a water nymph, in some versions she is a “shapeshifter,” in some versions she is a centaur herself…and in some versions she is a shapeshifter that turned into a Centaur. Regardless of HOW she started out or what she actually was, there is a transitional quality or state of flux to her because ALL of these possible ways of being have some kind of transitional quality to them. She is thought of as being healing for people who are in a state of transition (HOW that healing can come about depends on the sign Chariklo falls in the chart and WHERE this comes about by house). Chariklo can also point to where (by house) one might find themselves in a state of transition or a state of flux in different ways throughout the course of life.

She is also thought to deal with boundaries. Her orbit happens to fall between Saturn and Uranus (like the other Centaurs), but her orbit never crosses over into either of the orbits of Saturn and Uranus (some of the other Centaur orbits do). This tells me that she can stay in her own lane, so to speak. Another thing about boundaries –  Chariklo was a friend/aid to Vesta. Not just anyone was allowed into Vesta’s temple and not just anyone was allowed to “know” Vesta, either. For this reason, Vesta has always seemed to deal with boundaries (among other things), and it does make sense to think that the characters she allowed to know her probably knew boundaries, too.
*A shadow of all of this, the boundary thing, might be someone who doesn’t stay in their own lane like they should, or even someone who has their own boundaries constantly crossed (or doesn’t know how to enforce boundaries in the first place).

Chariklo was also a friend/aid of Pallas (and Pallas also has a transitional quality to her, ideally in trying to find a balance between masculine and feminine energy (that’s a whole other thing I’m not getting into right now hahaha)). Pallas also deals with creative intelligence, seeing patterns, connecting dots…things like that. While Pallas did know how to be diplomatic, she didn’t always hit the mark with this (sometimes she was a little more “ferocious” for whatever reason). All these qualities make me think that Pallas wouldn’t have had Chariklo as a friend (or even just an aid) if she hadn’t been intelligent herself (Pallas was too smart to hang around a dumbass), hence the “wise woman” (or wise female energy) archetype. It also seems that because Pallas was a more “masculine” female (or a female more tapped into the masculine side of energy), she probably would’ve needed a friend or an aid to AT LEAST be able to tap into this energy as well. Chariklo (to me) has always felt more feminine/receptive than masculine, but her transitional nature makes me think that she can probably blend the masculine and feminine ends of energy nicely (perhaps in an even more natural/fluid way than Pallas might be able…though it is important for Pallas to figure out how to do this as well).
**As a side note, when I talk about “masculine” and “feminine” energy, I am NOT talking about sex and/or gender. I am talking about the kind of energy that we ALL have inside of us (or can tap into) regardless of gender or sex.

The mythology where Chariklo gets mentioned the most is in that of Chiron, where she is described as the dutiful, devoted and loving partner to the “wounded healer.”Ahhh, the notions of devotion, duty, and loving! Let’s talk about this:
-Chariklo in a chart could show where (by house) one feels a sense of devotion and/or duty (in relationships, specifically), and how this might manifest would be indicated by the sign that Chariklo falls. Here’s the thing about devotion and duty – sometimes we feel that we must be devoted or have a sense of duty towards something/someone that we don’t want or that isn’t good for us (or that isn’t as devoted, or duty bound to us as we are to them). This could manifest as a shadow of Chariklo (devotion and duty towards something that we don’t want to be devoted or have a sense of duty towards, something that isn’t in our best interest, etc.). However, when that devotion and/or duty IS wanted (and is “good” for a person), Chariklo can do devotion and duty in the most loving and giving of ways.
–There is nothing in the mythology to suggest that Chariklo didn’t want to be devoted, dutiful, and loving towards Chiron, but it still seems like something that needed to be brought up as a possible shadow since there is a “light” and a “shadow” to everything.
**Vesta was also incredibly devoted, so this notion of devotion is another alignment between the energy of Chariklo and Vesta.

While it is never explicitly stated that Chariklo was a healing force herself (like it is for Chiron), it stands to reason that Chiron probably would’ve needed be in a partnership with someone who was like him in this regard. For this reason, I do think of Chariklo as a healing force herself, and as a place of healing in the chart (and a place where healing can transpire). I think there is even something to be said about Chariklo in a natal chart being a place where an individual’s Chironic wounding can be healed (maybe not universally, but I have seen this in a lot of the charts of people I’ve read for). The thing about the healing quality of Chariklo; she can’t be used as a “trashcan” for Chiron’s wounding (or for the wounding of another person in relationship with us). Since we never read in the mythology about Chiron being “healing” for Chariklo or having the same sense of duty/devotion to her as she had to him, this part does need to be brought up here as a possible shadow of Chariklo – being a possible place in the chart where we take on the pain/wounding of someone (or something else), functioning as a dumpster for the pain of wounded people or a wounded something or another (and also being healing for someone else when they only wound us in turn). This needs to be watched by everyone, but for those that have a prominent Chariklo in their natal chart this REALLY needs to be watched. At the same time, though, I do think Chariklo is a place where one can be healing for other people (just like Chiron can be). Any pain that may be taken on from other people has to be transmuted into something else (and the same thing could be said about Chiron’s wounding in a natal chart being healed by Chariklo, and Chariklo needing to transmute this as well).
–How this transmutation would “best” take place would depend on the chart in question.

Chariklo can do things with grace and tact – her name translates to “graceful spinner”. This makes me think that she can do ALL the things mentioned above with, well, grace and tact. She also has the innate wisdom to know how to do the above.  We ALL have this asteroid in our charts somewhere – how and where we tap into all of the above depends on where she falls in your chart. If you want me to read Chariklo in your chart (or any kind of astrology reading), click here! Curious about a reading but not sure what you’re looking for or if I do the kind of reading you want (I probably do!), shoot me an email at [email protected]

As a personal side note: I really am a huge fan of Chariklo and she has been SO healing for me to tap into. She popped into my radar in 2021 when I was in a state of flux myself (waiting for myself or my ex-husband to pull the trigger on the start of divorce proceedings). Once she was in my frame of reference I started working with her and NOT ignoring her. We started divorce proceedings in February of 2022 which was around the time I filmed the first video I made about Chariklo and really started talking about her rather than just working with her on my own (you can find the second video I filmed about Chariklo here). Interestingly enough, the video I filmed about Chariklo was the last one I ever wore my wedding ring while filming – in fact, it was right after I filmed that video that I took it off for good and never put it back on. I think, just by talking about her at that time, I was able to further tap into her energy when I needed her wisdom more than anything (and to be able to see the “wise woman” in myself, too).