The influence of dwarf planet Eris is again on the rise. Throughout 2016 and 2017, Eris perfected to a self-actualizing and individuating conjunction to Uranus in Aries. This transit occurred during the culminating phase of the 7 epic squares from Uranus to Pluto, which have rocked our world.
As the perfection of Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn approaches on January 12, 2020, “Discord and Strife”, as Eris is fondly remembered, will be a tight square to the conjunction of the patriarchal giants, Saturn and Pluto. Over the next 2 years Saturn will square Eris once, Pluto will square Eris 5 times… something that has not happened since The Axial Age.
The approaching Saturn Pluto conjunction forms the backdrop to current fate-driven events. It is the Eris interruption that is responsible for the bending and torquing of our Earthbound experience.
Eris is particularly comfortable in her brother Ares’ domicile of Aries. As a matter of fact she spends the longest stretch of her 500 year orbit in his sign ~ on average 120 years.
Goddess of Strife and Discord?
Eris was born of Nyx, the Night. And it was her offspring that brought all of the misery, hatred, and duplicity into the world. According to Hesiod the siblings of Eris were Doom, Violent Death, Sleep, Dreams, Blame, Misery, The Fates, Envy, Deceit, Friendship, and Old Age.
Eris herself gave birth to Toil, Forgetfulness, Starvation, Pains, Fightings, Battles, Murders, Manslaughters, Quarrels, Lies, Disputes, Lawlessness, Ruin, and Oath “who does more damage than any other to earthly men, when anyone, of his knowledge, swears to a false oath.”
Homer’s poetic portrait holds no less abhorrance for Eris. In “The Iliad”, he portrays her as a goddess of war, sister to Ares,
“Enyo, sacker of cities…Strife whose wrath is relentless, she is the sister and companion of murderous Ares, she who is only a little thing at the first, but thereafter grows until she strides on the earth with her head striking heaven. She then hurled down bitterness equally between both sides as she walked through the onslaught making men’s pain heavier…
Homer “The Iliad”
Homer tells of her intervention during the Trojan Wars,
“Ares drove the Trojans on and Phobos (Terror) drove them, and Deimos (Fear), and Eris (Hate) whose wrath is relentless, she is the sister and companion of murderous Ares, she who is only a little thing at the first, but thereafter grows until she strides on the earth with her head striking heaven. She then hurled down bitterness equally between both sides as she walked through the onslaught making men’s pain heavier… And with him followed the Trojan battalions in their strength; and Ares led them with the goddess Enyo, she carrying with her the turmoil of shameless hatred.”
Homer “The Iliad”
Who invited “Discord and Strife” anyway?
The most familiar story about Eris is about her culpability for instigating the Trojan War. The story goes that Zeus held a banquet in celebration of the marriage of the future parents of Achilles. Chiron, who sent the invitations, did not care for Eris and snubbed her. Eris showed up anyway and tossed into the wedding party a golden apple inscribed, “To the Fairest One” – which ignited a quarrel between Hera, Pallas Athena, and Aphrodite. Paris, son of Priam, King of Troy, who was chosen to be the judge. He chose Aphrodite, who rewarded him with Helen, wife of Menelaus, King of Sparta. Paris abducted Helen and took her to Troy… the event that “launch’d a thousand ships, and burnt the topless towers of Ilium.”
“She pushes the shiftless man to work, for all his laziness”
Just as there are two versions of her birth, one by Zeus and Hera, the other by Zeus and Nyx (Night), there is yet another perspective…
“It was never true that there was only one Eris. There have always been two on earth. There is one you could like when you understand her. The other is hateful. The two Erites have separate natures. There is one Eris who builds up evil war, and slaughter. She is harsh; no man loves her, but under compulsion and by will of the immortals, men promote this rough Eris.”
Hesiod continues,
“But the other one was born the elder daughter of black Nyx. Zeus, who sits on high and dwells in the bright air set her in the roots of the earth and among men; she is far kinder. She pushes the shiftless man to work, for all his laziness. A man looks at his neighbour, who is rich: then he too wants work; for the rich man presses on with his ploughing and planting and ordering of his estate. So the neighbour envies the neighbour who presses on toward wealth. Such Eris is a good friend to mortals.”
Hesiod “Works and Days”
Let’s leave our discussion of Eris on this hopeful note,
“It’s all going to be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s because it is not the end.” –Sonny Kapoor (Dev Patel) The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
The conjunction of Saturn and Pluto
Saturn and Pluto conjoin only 3 times each century. I was born under the last Saturn conjunct Pluto. It has been the lifelong generator of cycles of personal growth and reinvention ~ new career, new life… new me, more than once. Saturn builds out structure and form. Pluto is the evolutionary engine. He is constantly redesigning the existing structure to match our concurrently evolving Soul. We all have Saturn and Pluto in our charts and even if they are not in aspect that are in relationship by house, sign, or lunar phase. The conjunction brings presents the alpha-omega point. This is liminal space that is diffusive, often obfuscated, and as a result, bewildering. A meetup between the planet that structures our consciousness, Saturn, and the planet the holds our karmic blueprint, Pluto.
On a mundane level this is going to refer to how power and authority are distributed, shared/not shared in the world. How power is exercised. How authority is used. We do not have to look hard to find discomforting examples of the offspring of Eris…lawlessness, pain, starvations, fighting, battles, lies, and quarrels.
The last Saturn Pluto conjunction in Capricorn was in 1518
- The Spanish Inquisition
- The Conquistadors explore The Americas while at the same time causing the genocide of the indigenous people through warfare and disease
- Magellan circumnavigates the globe
- Protestant Reformation: Martin Luther posts his 95 Theses.
- Mughal Empire established in India rule for the next 350 years.
- Guru Nanak the beginning and spreading of the 5th largest religion in the world ~ Sikhism.
- Michelangelo begins work on the statue David.
- Michelangelo paints the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
- Leonardo da Vinci begins painting the Mona Lisa.
- Copernicus publishes his theory that the Earth and the other planets revolve around the Sun
- Machiavelli writes The Prince, a treatise about political philosophy
- The Church of England breaks away from the Roman Catholic Church
Pluto in Capricorn will form a last quarter square to Eris in Aries 5 times in 2020-1. Dane Rudyhar termed this event a “crisis in consciousness”,
“Social decisions are made. Revolution or reform results. Catabolic activity is noted. Building of strong, tight groups dedicated to ushering in the new cycle yet to come is undertaken. Negatively, dictatorial attitude and ruthlessness come to the fore.”
https://www.khaldea.com/rudhyar/astroarticles/lunationbirthday_3.php
Jeffrey Wolf Green describes this aspect,
There is only a single instance of this particular event occurring in recorded history. The last exact square between Pluto in Capricorn and Eris in Aries Pluto in Capricorn and Eris in Aries occurred 7 times in 691 BC.
- This was the middle of the Axial Age ~ the emergence of five major thought streams springing from five great thinkers in different parts of the world:
- Buddha in India
- Zoroaster in Persia
- Pythagoras in Greece
- Confucius in China
- Hesiod writes Theogony
- Upanishads
- A climate change affects all the Bronze Age cultures in Europe with colder and wetter climate, and tribes from the Scandinavian Nordic Bronze Age cultures are pushed downwards into the European continent.
- Mesopotamian power transferred from Assyria to Babylon with the fall of Nineveh
- The Chinese invent printing.
Time and Space = Reality?
Old Man Time stands at the center of all of this. Right now, Capricorn is the “party house”.The action is grounded in Capricorn. Saturn and Pluto are both there, as is the Lunar South Node, portal to the past. At the conjunction of Saturn and Pluto, The Sun, Mercury, Jupiter, and asteroid Ceres will all be present and under Saturn’s governance.
Many opinions, many versions of truth, and many versions reality emerge or are outed.
Authoritative power will emerge, working to open the space for powerful beliefs, potentially challenging authority from the top down or from the bottom up. Polarities entrench and with vocal intensity and turbulence. Emotional riptides
Many opinions, many versions of truth, and many versions reality emerge or are outed. There is an increasing urgency to speak out about what has been lost, wounded, disempowered
Occurring in the last decan of Capricorn, this is a powerhouse combination of well developed Capricorn energy. In 36 Faces Austin Coppock describes this decan,
“not the struggle to build, but to administer the world…The dynamic seen in this face is the struggle for control between an individual and their world.”
Austin Coppock 36 Faces
Demetra George had this to say about this phase,
There is a apocryphal proverb that says that “we are blessed to be born in ‘interesting’ times.” History does not repeat, but it rhymes. The turmoil, despair, and pain of our world is perhaps simply the transitional phase towards a more conscious world. Let us hope and pray this is true.
© Daniel Fiverson. All rights reserved.