A First Look at Eris
Any interpretive material about Eris, new as she is to us, is
necessarily at best speculative. Should she even be considered by
astrologers as a major planet? Of course we shouldn’t tie ourselves to
the definitions and rulings created by astronomers. If we did we
wouldn’t be practicing astrology in the first place. Despite the public
demotion by the astronomical committees, Pluto is still very much a
planet to any good modern astrologer. Eris, being larger than Pluto and
having a moon, at least deserves consideration. I’m just going out on a
limb here to offer some observations that I hope may contribute to
understanding the new planet. Any of this may be either validated or
struck down by further observations. So, just as a hypothesis, let’s
look at Eris as a full fledged planet.
First of all, considering her orbit of over half-a millenium I think the
best perspective for clues is in geo-political astrology and to see how
she functions in the sweep of centuries. Having been in Aries since
the mid-1920's almost everyone alive -- certainly anyone under the age
of 80 -- has Eris in Aries. I hope soon to have examples of Eris in
natal charts online -- looking at aspects and house placements -- but
this first look at the new planet will be geo-political.
Looking at planetary rulership I am assuming that if she is indeed an
astrological planet she should be the ruler of Libra. This is based on
the “ladder” arrangement that has prevailed for millennia and been
adapted since the discovery of the modern planets, Uranus, Neptune, and
Pluto. To illustrate this the table below shows the traditional
rulers in the center column, the signs of the zodiac flanking it on
either side, and the modern rulers on the outside.
| Modern Ruler | Sign | Traditional Ruler | Sign | Modern Ruler |
| Uranus | Aquarius | Saturn | Capricorn | |
| Neptune | Pisces | Jupiter | Sagittarius | |
| Aries | Mars | Scorpio | Pluto |
| Taurus | Venus | Libra | Eris? |
| Gemini | Mercury | Virgo | |
| Cancer | Moon | Sun | Leo | |
As the arrangement shows from bottom to top the planets (including the
luminaries) from the center of our system towards the outer reaches, the
modern planets return from top to bottom. At each rung of this ladder
the outer planet rules the more psycho-socially complex sign. Uranus
rules modernist, inventive Aquarius rather than traditionalist, cautious
Capricorn. Neptune rules mystical, intuitive Pisces rather than
up-front, straightforward Sagittarius. Scorpio is clearly deeper, more
complex than Aries so the “descent” switches across to Scorpio, and the
next planet would likely rule Taurus or Libra, but as the slower outer
planets deal with larger issues of social complexity, Libra is the
preferred candidate. And if Eris does rule Libra then her detriment is
in Aries. During the 1920’s Eris moved into Aries and is now at about
20 degrees.
As new planets deal with new concepts we may need some time to flesh out
the actual significance of Eris. She may even rule principles we
haven’t discovered or conceived of quite yet, as happened with the other
three outer planets, but a Libran planet should certainly have a lot to
do with social/cultural relationships and structures.
MYTHOLOGY OF ERIS (A CAVEAT)
I want to caution here that I don’t really hold with the notion that the
name that astronomers give a planet necessarily defines it. Remember
that according to the astronomers, Pluto and Eris aren’t even full
fledged planets right now.
Uranus could have appropriately been named Prometheus, and I do think
Bacchus would be a better name for Neptune. We relate a lot to the
mythological gods through our experience of the planets, and we
attribute a lot to Uranus that frankly had nothing to do with the Greek
Myth. We also see a lot to Neptune that the Greeks and Romans didn’t.
And it’s perfectly fine to update the myths to contemporary realities.
We are starting from scratch and can at least use the mythic Eris as a
touchstone for beginning investigations. We should be familiar with at
least a general sense of her classic myths, but as a clue towards
understanding her, not as a full definition.
So let’s look at the sister of Ares, the queen of chaos, the Roman
Discordia as a touchstone, not as a guiding light. Of course, if she is
a Libran planet, how discordian can Eris be? But what I do see here
with the so-called goddess of strife, is in fact striving, competition.
I see her as an agent of group dynamics, how we define ourselves
vis-à-vis others, not just as individuals but also as Libran team-mates,
as members of a group within a larger group. At the wedding of Peleus
and Thetis she introduced a competition that set off the Trojan War.
But she’s only directly responsible for the competition; not the war!
Graves says that as the sister of Ares (Mars) spreads rumors and
jealousy feeding the urge to war, but that she favors no side. On one
occasion Zeus wanted to reverse the path of the Sun which he wasn’t able
to do himself, but he enlisted his daughter Eris and together they were
able to achieve the impossible. And that’s about it from Robert
Graves!
Hesiod identifies another “Eris”
… the elder daughter of dark Night (Nyx),… far kinder to men. She stirs
up even the shiftless to toil; for a man grows eager to work when he
considers his neighbour, a rich man who hastens to plough and plant and
put his house in good order; and neighbour vies with his neighbour as he
hurries after wealth. This Strife is wholesome for men. And potter is
angry with potter, and craftsman with craftsman, and beggar is jealous
of beggar, and minstrel of minstrel.
New planets connect with new ideas and new social forces.
We live in an era that is accommodating itself to multi-culturalism, a
global society where we are as never before in constant contact and
awareness of other cultures. Turn on the television and there are
stations in different languages. Every nation in the world has
immigrants and/or refugees from abroad, except for nations that are so
devasted that they only have people fleeing, and even those countries
have foreign aid workers.
National governments are linking together in supra-national groupings,
relinquishing elements of sovereignty, as in the EU, or Mercosur, NAFTA,
and the WTO.
Good Eris is about competition, bad Eris is strife, but can striving and
strife really be separated? Aren’t these just two sides of the
balance?
And recalling Hesiod’s second Eris, we may wonder, is competitive
striving really to our benefit? The viability of our economy in
Capitalism is measured by how much profit is generated, the flip side of
that being how completely we consume our resources, and the competition
has built up to multi-national corporations drawing nations together in
economic networks, contributing to globalizing multi-culturalism. Part
of the challenge of Eris may be to live in balance and to re-examine
how competition can be brought into balance, away from today's
cut-throat selfishness and heedless ravaging of the earth.
Eris in Aries
A recent article about the failure of science in Islamic countries
alerted me to the issue there of self-perception vis-à-vis an
oppositional culture, very much suggesting a ruler-of-Libra in Aries.
History of the mid-east shows tremendous records of scientific
achievement in the Abassid dynasty, and great flourishes of culture with
the Ottomans and the Persians. Historically Islam is far from hostile
to science and art. But now military and religious dictatorships in
Muslim nations seem devoted to asserting ignorance and asceticism.
Modern Muslim nations are, with rare (if any) exception, post-colonial
nations that have been exploited and dominated by imperial powers and
continue to be exploited in neo-colonial economies with the help of
military dictatorships supported by diplomatic and trade arrangements
with the (post-)colonial powers. Many of the modern Arab states were,
in fact, created and defined by the colonial powers largely during the
passage of Eris through Pisces (1845 – 1926) and gained independence
with Eris in Aries.
Let me interject here, from Wikipedia “The modern history of petroleum
began in 1846, with the discovery of the process of refining kerosene …
The first modern oil well was drilled in 1848” Of course this is also
when Neptune was discovered. But petroleum based fuels were not new.
What was new was the technology launching a new industry and
competitions for oil that continue to rack the world.
In these post-colonial Muslim states there is a problematic struggle for
assertion of power and place in the community of nations. They are
struggling to define and empower the values and cultures of their own
people having been long overshadowed by colonial powers and now being
swamped with international chains and media outlets. Saudi Arabia may
restrict western travelers and ban churches, but they still get
McDonalds in their malls and Britney Spears on satellite TV. Capitalist
marketing offers a relentlessly chaotic kaleidoscope of colors and
music. As the mad, excessive indulgence of western commercialism and
individualism pushes into the life of cultures that traditionally value
consensus and modesty, the reaction has been, in effect to throw the
baby out with the bathwater.
As western nations have in recent centuries led the way in sciences,
Muslim descendants of those who established much of the foundation for
modern science are now left way behind. Rather than competing
effectively in the scientific fields many assert the Qur’an as the key
to any scientific understanding. With Eris in Aries a once-great
culture, since disadvantaged under colonialization, is now asserting
itself not by reviving the teachings that it has shared with the world,
but by aggressively rejecting that shared heritage and valuing what
remains, piety lacking balance of reason and context.
A similar phenomenon has been happening in the USA where poor, young
African-Americans and Latinos deride hard work and study as “white” and
the problems of poverty are culturally elevated to assert self-value in a
hostile, racist society.
Even in wealthier sectors of American society the social contract is
breaking down as individual aggression becomes more culturally accepted.
I was about to note that in the post-colonial nations military and
religious domination of culture has crippled scientific and critical
thinking, but in America, too, the rise of militarism and fundamental
religion has squelched public education. The scientific puzzle of
evolution is being rejected for religious tales. Public education has
long been considered an effective agent for social integration, but more
and more Americans are pulling away from the mix of public schools and
opting for more parochial education. With Eris in Aries they are
pulling back from the realities of multi-culturism to affirm their own
core values against the evidence of science and diversity.
On various fronts we are seeing a retreat from Libran principles of
social integration and co-operation, the willingness to embrace the
other in cultural exchanges. The selfishness, ethnocentrism, and
militarism of our age may be in large part connected with Libra’s ruler
spending a century in Aries. During the 1920’s as Eris entered Aries
the fascist parties of Europe took over. While the ascendancy of Nazism
and Stalinism is much associated with Pluto’s discovery in 1931, the
historical record shows these militarist and nationalist societies
rising with the ingress of Eris into Aries. Although those totalitarian
societies were also vanquished in this period and governments with
democratic processes have spread throughout the world, nationalism and
militarism continue with genocidal outbursts as in Bosnia, Rwanda,
Darfur, and Cambodia.
Is this all related to Eris in Aries? It’s too early to say anything
for certain. Looking for an overriding social theme to fit the
symbolism of a new Libran planet that has been in Aries since the 1920’s
all of this seems to fit, and I can only hope that this will provide a
piece in the puzzle of understanding our new planet.
| SIGN | Year of | ingress | (approx.) |
| Aries | 339 | 866 | 1393 | 1925 |
| Taurus | 457 | 989 | 1521 | 2048 |
| Gemini | 510 | 1058 | 1606 | |
| Cancer | 534 | 1088 | 1642 | |
| Leo | 552 | 1107 | 1662 | |
| Virgo | 567 | 1122 | 1677 | |
| Libra | 585 | 1139 | 1693 | |
| Scorpio | 609 | 1161 | 1714 | |
| Sagittarius | 637 | 1188 | 1740 | |
| Capricorn | 667 | 1217 | 1768 | |
| Aquarius | 704 | 1251 | 1800 | |
| Pisces | 763 | 1303 | 1846 | |
For those who want to look for further cultural themes that may fit
Eris’s transits through the signs here is a table of her orbit. Of
course there is some overlap as she retrogrades over the same point
repeatedly and will cross a cusp several times as she changes signs.
There are also a few discrepancies and irregularities that mathematical
nitpickers may notice. Whether those are due to some peculiarity of
Eris' orbit, or problems in the ephemeris I'm not qualified to answer. I
remember that when I was beginning my astrological studies around 1970
there were still corrections being made in Pluto's ephemerides, so we
may have some wrinkles to iron out here:
Eris in Pisces 1845-1926
The rise of idealism in various forms of new social organization. This
is when we saw the rise of ideals of sharing and collective action and
ownership. Industrialization had shaken up the Western nations that
left people looking for new ideals where people could join together in
common cause spiritually and socially as they had industrially.
Socialism emerged as a political expression in this period, and in
religion we saw the beginning of Missionary societies that helped to
legitimize colonialism to the masses in industrial societies. These
missionary societies, using their spiritual mission, dissolved
traditional societies in Africa and Asia and synthesized new approaches
to religion. Mystical and transcendental societies also built a social
network for personal spiritual perspectives outside the mainstream
churches.
A lot of these we’ve attributed to the discovery of Neptune, but does
discovering a planet really unleash its corresponding effects or bring
these more to our attention? Or has the discovery of planets just
corresponded with ingressions of Eris that really define the emergence
of social principles? The question will come again up with the
discovery of Uranus with Eris in mid Capricorn, and soon to enter
Aquarius.
Culturally this period also saw the rise of romanticism, a Piscean
expression of ideals and mysteries, of emotional depths in response to
the new scientific age. Old structures melted away eventually yielding
different types of abstraction in painting and atonality in music.
Eris in Aquarius 1800-1847
This is when we start to see the massive dislocations of people from
villages and estates into the cities for the new factories. Aquarian
promises of a better, more modern life are more idealistic than real,
but these disruptions do make unprecedented changes in social
organization, creating innovative networks of communication, notably the
first railroads and telegraphs.
Eris in Capricorn 1767 – 1801
Of course this was a period of revolutions when the British Monarchy was
tossed out of much of North America to make way for a radically new
form of governmental authority. Shortly thereafter, the French took
revolutionary principles a bit further.
This was the time that government structures were actually put into
place recognizing individuals, not as subjects, but as citizens and
individuals were recognized as having an active relationship as
autonomous agents in relation to the larger structure of government.
This all built on the notions that came to a head with the culmination
of the enlightenment, the period of the French philosophes (Eris in
Sagittarius 1740-1768)
Eris – Pluto Aspects
Also while Eris was in Sagittarius she was conjunct Pluto in 1756. This
was when the Seven-Years War broke out. In America we know this as the
“French-Indian War” which was in fact just a local battle for what some
historians call the real first world war, as European powers battled
across their own continent and over their colonies in Asia, Africa, and
North America.
Pluto in Gemini squared Eris in Pisces in the years 1907-1912, the years
leading up to the officially designated Word War One. In these years
complicated networks of treaties were coming into place so that one
archduke’s assassination in a small Balkan state would touch off a
global conflagration.
The opposition took place in 1977-1978 with Pluto in Libra and Eris in
Aries. While these years don’t scream out as a major turning point in
history, a number of significant events show up in the aftermath of
colonial policies and the re-ordering of conflicts that dominate the
present. In fact, while the world’s predominant political struggle then
was between the US and the USSR, these are, in retrospect, the years in
which events in the mid-east would shift to set the scene for today’s
overriding struggles.
A coup in Afghanistan ended a long peace in that country, starting the
super-power struggle between American and Soviet supported factions,
leading to a Soviet invasion that would become Russia’s “Vietnam” and
leave Afghanistan in war-torn chaos leading eventually to the Taliban
rule. This was also the impetus for American funding for the Islamic
Mujahedeen who would eventually turn on their masters.
The Palestine National Council called for an independent and sovereign
Palestinian state. However, Egypt and Israel sign a peace treaty which
undercuts the largest Arab power’s support for the Palestinians.
OPEC flexed its muscle, causing an energy crisis that drove energy costs
up across the world. The US briefly became energy conscious, but a few
years later Reagan removed solar panels from the White House and
encouraged the return of the gas guzzlers.
Far from the Mid-East, the United States and China announced
establishment of full diplomatic relations. The opening of trade
between the two countries would fuel China’s industrialization and
current rush to becoming an economic super-power. China and the US are
now major trade partners, but also competitors for energy resources in
central Asia and the mid-East as well as for mineral and agricultural
resources in Africa and South America.
As we can get more accurate and reliable ephemeredes for Eris, and as
discussion develops we will be able to look more and more at her
passages through the signs historically and her aspects to other outer
planets in terms of developing forms of social organization and
relationships.
I would also encourage astrologers to look at Eris in ingression and
lunation charts to see how her aspects and house positions reinforce
Libran themes or put those into a more active principle. And of
course, this is just a sketchy opening hypothesis suggesting one line of
investigation. If indeed she is the ruler of Libra there must be other
positions to balance out!
ERIS LINKS
Zane Stein has a very good site on Eris
Ephemerides for Eris are accessible at www.karmastrology.com
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