Eris Direct

  El Juicio de Paris (The Judgment of Paris) by Smnt

Dwarf planet Eris will go direct at 6:49 in the evening of Tuesday January 8th (UT/+0 time) at 21 Aries.

Currently accounted as the 9th most massive object in our solar system, Eris carries weight literally, and thus metaphysically. Or maybe I should put it like this...Eris is 27% larger than Pluto. And if you know anything about astrology, you know that Pluto (before and after its scientific “demotion”!) is a big astrological deal!

So given all this, with all the many objects out there to be studied, it’s not that surprising that Eris has caught the attention of so many astrologers.

It's also why Eris stations are times to pay attention to.

Or maybe it's just the nature of Eris...? You know, like Pluto - an object which fascinated so many astrologers virtually from the time of its discovery (in February of 1930)...maybe Eris gets so much attention because Eris is Eris?

Put simply, Eris is “discord.” Or if you prefer, ‘disruption.’ The long-form Eris story is interesting enough that if you’re not familiar with it, reading a bit about the Eris myth may be useful to you or illuminating in the greater sense, especially when it comes to why Eris acts the way it does by transit.

(And yes, that would be by transit to your personal chart or in the sense of general or ‘mundane’ global transit, such as we’re discussing here.)

Link to “ERIS DISCORDANT:

MASTERING OUR OWN WEAKEST MOMENTS”

This is a ‘way out there’ object – at its’ farthest from us (and the Sun), Eris is more than twice as far away as Pluto. As for what controls Eris’ orbit, Eris is sometimes classed ‘just’ as a dwarf planet, and sometimes as a Plutoid, which is to say an object whose orbit is governed by Neptune’s truly vast magnetic resonance.

Having observed Eris and its effects now for half a dozen years or so on a fairly steady basis, yours truly tends to think Eris’ astrological effects only seem Neptunian in that they come from “so far out into left field” that we are often shocked to realize what we didn’t understand about life yet.

That quality of ‘revelation’ or ‘dissolving our former sense of reality’ is yes, very Neptunian. But in the most defined or refined sense, everything beyond Neptune seems to carry something of that Neptunian ability to dissolve our former perspective.

So Eris must be something somewhat different. And when compared with acknowledged (Neptune-controlled) Plutinos Pluto or Ixion for instance, Eris doesn’t seem to test our sense of 'reality'…the what’s real, what’s an ideal or fantasy...or what’s actually possible. That ‘not knowing but being very convinced’ quality is the very ‘Neptune quotient’ we see in Ixion and Pluto and other Plutinos like Orcus and Huya. They’re all part of our process of learning what reality is, often through tempting us to ignore reality - or think the 'real answer' is something other than it is.

And that’s not how Eris seems to work. Eris tends to manifest in our lives with a sudden ‘burst’ of recognition or experience, which makes it’s turn to direct at a 3rd decanate ‘worldly’ degree like 21 Aries a time when we can and maybe should expect life to thrust new things upon us that we didn’t suspect could (or would) happen.

Considering this is Aries we’re talking about, the effects are personal. Or at least they feel personal. Thus this time can be one when we feel vulnerable. Or upset. Or amazed. Or intrigued. The variables and variations here are all about how closely Eris aspects anything in your chart…the closer the aspect, the more likely it will be that you’ll feel the ‘Eris Effect,’ that sudden ‘blowing apart’ of your former viewpoint on life, your world or your life in general.

Because this is Aries we’re talking about, we look to the ruler of Aries: Mars. As Eris goes direct, Mars is in Aquarius, a societal sign which is all about our effect on the world and its effect on us, whether that’s what it throws in our path or how it rewards us for what we have or haven’t done.

As a degree, 21 Aries has something of an odd reputation in that it both emphasizes the ‘notice me!’ quality so often associated with Aries as well as a sensitivity to others. That the Sabian Symbol is THE GATE TO THE GARDEN OF ALL-FULFILLED DESIRES which astrologer Marc Edmund Jones typified so nicely as ‘Abundance made possible by human togetherness and cooperation’ sounds like a positive.

And yet, this is Eris we’re talking about. So those who cling too closely to others may now realize the flaw with that. Those who are loners may not recognize the flaw with that. Some will realize that they are allied with the wrong people, even if the idea of alliance is fine. Some who think they ‘have it made’ will realize the poverty of their positions…or even be attacked for a life where they fulfill their own desires while ignoring others.

There is no hard and fast ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ here, only the lessons which are to be learned.

The station itself is defined as the date of the actual station (marking the change of perspective) with two days before and two days after being allotted as a modern ‘station window.’

But let’s also be realistic about the extent of this astrological affect. The farther away from Earth any object is, the slower it moves in respect to Earth. (And yes, in its orbit around the Sun.) So considering that Eris can be almost a hundred times as far from the Sun as Earth is, it’s natural that it moves through each zodiacal degree very slowly. In the case of 21 Aries, Eris retrograded back into 21 Aries (out of 22 Aries) on November 1st. And now it’s going direct in 21 Aries – again.

Here’s a chart showing Eris going in and out of 21 Aries over the past handful of years:

This is Eris’ last year of going in and out of this degree. Can we expect more of events to ‘rattle our psyches’ in the 21 Aries sort of sense between now and February 19, 2014 (Eris’ last day in 21 Aries during this 557-year cycle)?

One would think yes.

Does all the nastiness that we’ve seen (heard or maybe experienced) since November 1, 2012 give us a picture of what we can expect?

Again, one would think yes.

But remember…this has everything to do with how ‘glued’ we are to some status quo in our head, heart or spirit. So there’s some reason to suspect that Eris effects will hit those who think of the world (life) in terms of preserving ‘status quos’ or personal ‘peace’ or the ever-popular ‘it can’t happen to me’ most of all.

The unthinkable will happen. And it is likely to happen and feel unthinkable (in other words, shocking) most of all in the lives of those who either have no/less experience of shock or who think they are most immune to shock.

This isn’t popular news, I know. But astrology isn’t about just the fun stuff. It’s about understanding how life and existence works, complete with the ugly bits.

More about this particular Eris station:

For one, there’s a grand square involved.

Considering that this grand square is made up of one dwarf planet (Eris), one fixed star (Castor) and a trio of asteroids (Europa, Sisyphus and Kallisto) life’s greater challenges would seem to be about balance. We can’t just shove things aside (Castor). Band-aids, getting carried away by whatever and ‘just moving on’ (Europa) aren’t the whole solution.

Sisyphus/Kallisto in Libra and in opposition to Eris are the ‘confronting’ factor here. Sisyphus is what you can do which you shouldn’t, and Kallisto is the temptation to aim for what you want when you know you should care about others.

Eris is a positive when it’s a force for rectification and righting wrongs or misconceptions. In Aries (which is where it’s going to be for a very long time yet) Aries represents all the hard, hard lessons life deals. Here, it represents the temptation to “feather our own nest” (as it were) without caring about others. Or the system. Or the future. Or the lessons of the past.

It’s tough stuff, no question. And this Sisyphus-Kallisto factor is not just a corner in a grand square, it’s also the midpoint between the ‘Y’ of a Yod, otherwise known as the solution point.

The thing to understand about this Yod is that Eos (the dawn) in Virgo (health, work, service) is the point which is moving towards Sisyphus-Kallisto. Hebe, Huya (the servicing of those things which will serve as enriching “rainmakers” in our lives)…those are leading away from Sisyphus-Kallisto.

This tells us we are only beginning to deal with the questions of what ‘health, work, service’ really mean. AND…considering this is Libra…that it isn’t just about the ‘other guy.’ Events in life are about who we are to others as much as how others (individuals, groups, nations) act with us.

The semi-sextile from Eris to Sedna speaks to our need to stand on our own, especially when it comes to  what we think is important…or what our capacities really are.

Ras Alhague and Hidalgo (manners, protocol) in trine to Eris says this is a time which demonstrates the difference between harm and healing – and how close they actually can be.

Maybe even how entangled they actually are.

The sextile to Bellatrix and Ceres speaks to getting a plan and how hard it will be to come up with plans which really work, plus how hard they will be to get across where others are involved. Still, since sextiles represent opportunities, recognizing that we need to take on our “Bellatrix challenges” and tackle the really hard issues is the optimal thing of the moment.

This station is occurring but a couple of days before Pluto moves out of the shadow of its 2012 cycle. Not only that, but it’s occurring as Jupiter is moving towards its own station/direct point (at the end of January) which quick enough will be followed by Saturn going retrograde (in mid-February). This combination of factors suggests that where we have been trying to ‘hold onto’ something obsessively, that it’s time to let go.

And that letting go, or not letting go – that’s part of the Eris process. Our greater world and our personal worlds will reflect how well we deal with such choices.
.
.
.