Introduction to Eris

I always get very excited when I start talking about Eris and that’s because Eris is exciting. Goddess of chaos and discord and also the most interesting solar system discovery of the century! We are most definitely living in Erisian times right now, so let’s give her the proper introduction that she deserves.

The Pluto debacle

After talking about Pluto in a little more detail in the last post it’s worth raising the question; why did Pluto get demoted from Planet to Dwarf Planet? The one word answer to that is Eris.

The 200 word answer to that is as follows.

Eris was discovered by Mike Brown, Chad Trujillo and David Rabinowitz on the 5th of January 2005. These guys are renowned for discovering many of the more interesting Dwarf Planets and Trans-Neptunian Objects. When Eris was discovered it was thought to be larger than Pluto. In other words it was thought to be the 10th planet! Planet X that had been so elusive for so many years.

However, there had already been some discussion as to whether Pluto should really be considered a planet and the discovery of something bigger and more massive – and with the promise that there are potentially dozens of similarly sized objects out there – re-invigorated this discussion.

A year after the announcement of the Eris discovery, the International Astronomical Union decided on the definition of a planet, which had never been formally defined. This definition excluded Eris and, a little more famously, also excluded Pluto. 

The decision to define a planet in this way did not come without controversy. There are problems with the new definition, and only around 5% of the IAU were present for the vote. But the decision was made, science was done, the solar system was thrust into chaos and Pluto was deleted from the school textbooks. However, although Pluto was demoted from Planet to Dwarf Planet, Ceres was upgraded from asteroid to Dwarf Planet. Ceres being the largest asteroid in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter.

What’s in a name?

When Eris was discovered and there was still a possibility that it was going to be Planet X, the tenth planet, it meant that the discovers had to wait on giving it a name. There are strict naming protocols and procedures for Planets as well as certain types of planetoids. As a nickname around the office, Mike Brown’s team called their new discovery Xena. It began with an X, it sounded kinda mythological, and it was named after a woman – a warrior princess, in fact – which was important to Mike Brown and co. who wanted a larger feminine presence in the solar system.

The name Xena was attached to the new discovery for around a year before the official naming took place. But it’s worth diving a little deeper into this because there are some interesting synchronicities here.

The actress that played Xena the Warrior Princess is called Lucy Lawless. Eris’ Moon, named after one of the children of Eris is called Dysnomia. Dysnomia literally means Lawlessness in Ancient Greek. Also, if we look at the birth chart for Lucy Lawless we find that she was born when the Sun and the Moon were together in the sky with Eris! Lucy Lawless was born on an Eris New Moon and she later went on to act as a Warrior Princess who would inspire the nickname of Eris, as well as already having a name intrinsically tied to the Goddess of discord. I love this group of synchronicities!

Eris was the name finally proposed by the discovers because of all of the strife and discord that the planet had caused in the astronomical community, as well as it being one of Mike Brown’s favourite Goddesses.

Why does this all matter?

At its core astrology is about telling stories. When a new planet enters the scene in such a dramatic way and with such an amazing origin story we pay attention. And when the name of the planet is already packed with symbolism and reinforces its own story we are even more excited to start trying to figure out how it fits into astrology.

So far, from what we can tell from our observations, Eris really does act as the Goddess of Chaos and Discord. From my personal research I see Eris as an agent of collapsing consensus reality. She fucks with the status quo to such an extent that new realities take the place of the old.

We are just coming out of a pretty long period of Uranus in conjunction with Eris. This peaked in 2016. Do you remember that year guys? How it felt? How we are still reeling from the collapse of consensus reality? The Uranus – Eris cycle is intrinsically linked with the chaos that comes out of our rapidly advancing electrical technology.

It’s too much to go into here, but it’s pretty much agreed upon now that things like Trump and Brexit and all of the chaos and craziness that marks our time in history, would not have happened were it not for the effects of social media. The rapidly advancing technology of our pocket-sized supercomputers – our phones – has created chaos and discord in our society and continues to do so. This was symbolised by Uranus and Eris.

Uranus and Eris have separated now, but Pluto is beginning to align with Eris, in a 90 degree, square aspect that will last for the next few years.  If you’ve been following my previous posts you will know that Saturn and Pluto are coming together in the sky early next year. The reason I wanted to introduce the chaotic Eris character is that she will be in the fold too for this historic moment.

This is all a complicated way of saying Saturn, Pluto AND Eris are combining their symbolism in a very rare piece of astrology that is transforming the world as we speak.

Here is a picture of what this looks like in a birth chart, this is cast for the exact moment Saturn and Pluto conjoin on the 12th of January. The two Maroon symbols at the top with the number 22 next to them are Saturn and Pluto they are both at 22 degrees of Capricorn. Each sign is made of 30 degrees. The black symbol in the bottom left is Eris in the 23rd degree of Aries. The red line connecting them shows us that Saturn and Pluto are in a square aspect to Eris. This is the same as a half moon phase, it is one quarter of the zodiac away. This is a powerful relationship, only second to the opposition; 180 degree; “full moon” aspect and the conjunction; 0 degree; “new moon” aspect.