Eris… answering a reader…

I’m reprinting what the reader Abra wrote. I agree that whenever we look at new rulerships we should not end old ones because both are true. Eris ruler of Libra isn’t saying that Venus isn’t a co-ruler, I do think it explains why Libras are very intellectual and tactical as well as being artistic. I don’t think this side of Libra has been properly examined and perhaps as we move forward Libras will utilize these abilities even more and our world will have a need for this in ways we can’t yet imagine.

Planets/celestial bodies are found during certain periods of time for a reason. Eris was found when we were at war in the Iraq and Afghanistan and shortly after the largest act of terrorism was every perpetrated, the game went up another notch. Now there were actually a lot of planetoids found during this period, so each will have to be sorted for what it all means. But what the Goddess Eris did was a form of guerrilla warfare and one can see the parallel. I won’t go into all of it because I don’t think it will fairly represent my point about Eris to bring up what happened that terrible day.

However, to those who felt marginalized and left behind while the rest of the world was enjoying prosperity and moving forward, that tactic did work to set in motion a ghost war – a war against a tiny invisible beast that we could never find the head of. However if one were on the side of those who felt invisible and marginalized the moment was a triumph against what felt like some sort of oppression through projection, better known as jealousy, very much the same motivation which led Eris to throw the apple into the wedding party.

So if one is a Libra or has strong Libra in the chart (and more Americans have Libra rising than any other sign) then perhaps this was a wake-up call to our own darker nature. We are competitive to the point of squashing all competition – just look at why the banks and almost all of our industry is failing. It isn’t just greed, it’s an insipid need to do better, be better than the next person. One has to wonder why? Perhaps the gentler nature of Venus who was a guide for so long to this sign, has receded due to our darker nature.

We as a whole have the chance now to look at what all of this means from all sides and use the powers of Eris for good or Evil (as in the case of 9/11). Eris energy itself isn’t either – simply put the Goddess represents strife which is just a human condition, it’s how we deal with that strife that elevates us and gives us the opportunity to move to a higher level of consciousness.

Here are the messages from the reader Abra:

Abra: I am a libra w/a Aries asc…and I love to cook, love good wine, am sensual. I am direct and prefer to be above board. I can relate to being a fighter but I don’t think I want to give up Venus as my ruling planet. According to ancient Maya, Venus sitings were associated with war/aggression. On a side note, when my mother started taking astrology classes when I was 9, I learned that my ruling planet was Venus…..so I told everyone in my 3rd grade class that I was from Venus. The teacher called home needless to say :)
Ever loving the Morning Star/Evening Star,
Abra

* Let me just note she has an Aries ascendant. The ascendant is actually more important in facilitating how one interacts with the world than anything else in a person’s chart. Aries people are very open and direct, and are willing to fight for what they believe in.

Abra:

I looked @ another website that called Eris Nibiru….now that’s a name I am very familiar with.

Interesting the association with Enoch and UFOs. Eris the planetoid was named after the ancient Greek Goddess of Strife who was the sister of Aries. But thanks for the tip there could be more information hidden in the name and it makes sense with what I’ve found so far. There will be more encoded in her name than I have figured out and am prepared to spend a lifetime studying it. If one looks up Eris Nibiru, one will find a connection to global warming, UFOs and Enoch who ancient astronaut theorists have linked to aliens. Having worked with that energy I can tell you, I’m sure it is alien. It does not feel human at all – in fact it has a rather cold and hyper-intellectual energy that feels as if one is tapping into a much more highly evolved intelligence than our own. It however does not feel angelic to me. At first I wasn’t sure, but after working with angelic energy as well, angelic energy is much more akin to human energy. They aren’t emotionally cold and heady like Enochian energies.

Best wishes,

Denise

Eris… answering a reader…

Eris – Rulership and Rehabilitation

After an astrologer friend suggested the notion that Eris was the true ruler of Libra I thought about it (for a very long time – about a year now). It was her opinion that Venus didn’t seem to be the true ruler of Libra but rather Taurus and we talked at length over the course of this year about the legend of Eris and some of the qualities that really don’t fit Libra. First of all there are more Libra generals than pretty much any other sign, they are amazing tacticians and well-known for being fierce competitors, and in my experience they are the most competitive of all signs. They are creative and visual, no doubt which is why they fell under the purview of Venus for so long. However they are not sensual like Venus, Taurus however is. Taurus loves great food, fine wine, beautiful things, and has a curvy sensuality that Libra is missing. Libras are more intellectual, more in their head and often disconnected from their bodies. While it is true that they like nice things as long as they are intellectually stimulated they can do without them. Taurus however needs to eat a great meal no matter how little money they have they will use what little they have on the perfect gourmet spice or amazing wine. They are also willing to work for other people without taking this on as their identity. They can separate work, seeing it as a means to an end – the end being a nice lifestyle where as a Libra would rather be a pauper who works for himself doing what he loves than a rich man who works for a paycheck just to support himself in a luxurious lifestyle. Now I’m not saying all Taurus people live a life of luxury, I’m just saying that work is work and their lives are not defined by it in the same way – it’s just a job. To a Libra its time wasted when they could be busy daydreaming or working on something of value to them personally.

At first I resisted the idea that Eris was the ruler of Libra after all she isn’t really considered a very “nice” Goddess and Libras are generally thought to be very nice – they avoid conflict, they don’t like disharmony and I have Mars in Libra and have many Libra friends so I felt sort of bad thrusting this sort of odd ball Goddess on them. However after much thought I think my friend’s observation is correct. Eris is the sister of Aries. Aries is the other side of the astrological coin to Libra. And in many ways she fits the Libra traits if we strip away some of the judgment put upon her by the ancients.

The legend or myth basically tells the story of a wedding in which all the Gods were invited except Eris (due to her association with disharmony). She was upset by this and came up with a strategy to get even in a very clever and covert way, she threw a golden apple into the proceedings which read: To the fairest. Of course all the egotistical Goddesses thought it was for them, Hera, Aphrodite and Athena. The three women fought over it and then asked Zeus to judge who the apple was for, being the father and husband he decided it wasn’t a good move to judge such a competition and asked Paris to do the honors. Each of the Goddesses offered him a bribe. Aphrodite’s won out and he was given the most beautiful mortal woman in the world to take as his wife Helen of Troy. This of course caused the Trojan war.

Now on the surface this is kind of a nasty thing to do, however one must admit that Eris was prejudged and instead of internalizing the hurt she turned it around in a clever way to make a point. She waged a war against those who had castigated her. If she had been a man, this would have been a sign of strength – she was in fact a warrior. Her strategy used psychology and surprise – very modern war methodology, in fact it very much resembles the Trojan horse that was to come in the wake of this supposed event. She used her enemies vanity and megalomania against them and in fact they are the ones who chose to respond with bribery and promises in order to win this imaginary and empty competition. She used her understanding of psychology to manipulate those who had hurt her, in order to teach them a lesson – after all they had been unfair to her.

Now her strategic genius would make sense in relationship with Libra. It would explain why there are so many generals who have been Libras and (I believe famous chess players as well). It would also explain the competitive spirit Libras have – the challenge they find and need to fuel them in their work, whether it is competing with themselves to do better, or with a rival they want to show up.

I was told by a prominent astrologer I studied with early on (many, many, many years ago) that there were more people born with Libra rising in the US than any other sign. He said it was something close to 50 percent (or something of that nature) totally out of balance with what one would expect, due to the fact that we are far north, and Libra rises for the longest period of time during most of the year. And we are by far the most competitive people on the planet, we take great pride in our work and love being entrepeneurs and working for ourselves.

In many ways Libras have much in common with Aries people, except Libras, instead of being direct and straightforward, work behind the scenes, get their ducks in a row and then strike. They don’t like being in the center of an arguments especially prolonged ones. They prefer to plan their attack and then let nature take its course. This can upset the apple cart, but that’s OK as long as they aren’t there when it turns over (much like Eris).

So instead of seeing Eris as the Goddess of Discord I prefer to take her back to what I imagine was probably her proper place – before her power was taken away due to the change from a matriarchal society into a patriarchal, and think of her as a supreme warrior and brilliant strategist capable of winning even when all the odds and all the Gods were against her!

I’ll dissect how it affects people as individuals and what it means in people’s charts in the next post on her.

Best wishes and many blessings,

Denise

Eris – Rulership and Rehabilitation

Back Again to Basic Astrology

Over the next few posts I’m going to deconstruct some charts and give some tips for those who are interested in learning the art of astrology better. I will do this hopefully, as clearly as possible and also talk about transits and how they effect us and our charts. The subjects will be anonymous for their privacy. I’ll start with this chart:

Picture 18Let’s start with the basics. On the far left, the symbol that looks like a Roman number II but joined together is the symbol of Gemini. The house it rules is the first house, meaning at the time this person was born Gemini was the constellation rising in the east. The glyph that is a circle with a dot inside is the sun and this person’s sun is in Libra in the 5th house.

The house systems can be difficult to understand so I’ll break it down into very practical easy to understand mechanics. Each house represents a different time of day, always.

At the top of the chart, the culmination point or 10th house, represents, the mid-point of the day. Here’s where charts seem counter-intuitive; the sun actually rises from the east or 1st house and then goes into the 12th house, the 11th house, 10th, 9th and so on. Why the western chart was set up like this, I have no idea.

So the 12th house actually represents the period of time just after dawn for about 2 hours, the 11th house the morning and the 10th from approximately 10AM to 12 PM, the 9th house is usually from about 12-2 PM, the 8th 2-4 PM, the 7th 4-6PM, 6th 6-8 PM, 5th 8-10 PM, 4th 10PM – Midnight, 3rd Midnight – 2:00 AM, 2nd house 2-4 AM, the first house 4-6 AM. These times are approximate depending on the time of year and the exact time the sun rises that day. So if it rises at 6:11 AM then the 12th house is from about 6:11 AM – abouy 8:11 AM and the rest of the chart of course adjusts accordingly.

So an astrologer, based on the time of year, place and date of your birth should have a pretty good idea of what house your sun will fall in and a narrowed down idea of what your rising is. For example if  a client was born at 11:00 AM on February 3rd you would know immediately their sun was in the 10th house because the houses in the chart revolve around the placement of the sun. Meaning, depending on where the sun was in the sky, it will fall into a particular house, like this fake client who has sun in the 10th near the culmination point of the day. The signs or constellations in general move through a house in approximately 2 hours, hence the breakdown of the houses. The closer a person is born to the equator the more equal the houses will be, meaning each sign will move at about the same speed through the sky therefore making the houses fairly equal in size (by degree). However the closer a person is born to the north or south pole the more unequal the signs move, and they actually sort of pile up on each other causing what is known as an interception. An interception is when more than one sign occupies the same house or place in time/space at once. This creates uneven houses where some houses are very large and others small in a person’s chart. For example someone with Virgo at 0 degrees intercepted in their 2nd house will have an opposite interception on the other side at 0 degrees of the 8th house as these two houses are mirror opposites of one another in the sky or to put it simply; the 2nd house is 2-4 AM and the 8th house represents 2-4 PM. The second house occupies a parallel place below the horizon of the rising as the 8th house above the horizon of the rising.

So to get back to the fake client born 2/3 at 11:00 AM we know they have a 10th house sun and if they were born in Central America they you count backwards 2 signs and they would have an Aries rising. If however they were born far North or South it becomes a bit trickier to tell right off the bat. However if someone was born on the equator in winter, or summer or anytime of year it would always be the 2 hour interval. This is what makes astrology complex mathematically. All I can say is I’m happy to use a computer to do the calculations, it’s a million times faster. I used to do them many years ago and it was fatiguing. But it did help me understand the basic dynamics of how the stars, constellations and planets fall in a chart and see the patterns in it rather than it being a crazy bunch of glyphs that had no relation to one another. So enough super technical stuff, let’s dissect the chart a bit and I’d love it if other people would use their intuition and knowledge of astrology to point out things and explain them in the comments section. 

Even though there is no birthdate or time on the chart I posted we know immediately this is a young person because he/she has the outer planets in a configuration only seen during the 1980s. The outer planets are Neptune, Uranus and Pluto. They are generational planets. Some astrologers have argued because they move slowly and effect such large groups of people they are not relevant to individuals. I however completely disagree with this notion. People are products of the time they grow up in and are just as influenced by their peer group as they are by their families. We are complex beings. Especially when a person has an outer planet making either intense aspects or rules the sun, moon or rising, this intensifies the individuals connection to their peer group. 

Some basic explanations here readership’s are the planet that rules the constellation. So:

Mars rules Aries and the 1st house

Venus rules both Libra and Taurus and the 2nd and 7th houses

Mercury rules Gemini, Virgo and the 3rd and 6th house

Moon rules Cancer and the 4th house

Sun rules Leo and the 5th house

Pluto rules Scorpio and the 8th house

Jupiter rules Sagittarius and the 9th house

Saturn rules Capricorn and the 10th house

Uranus rules Aquarius and the 11th house

Neptune rules Pisces and the 12th house

This means that the 12th house has Piscean qualities and so does Neptune, same with all the other associations given above.

So back to the chart above we see a strong grouping of planets in this persons 5th and 6th house. This means these areas of his/her life will be more emphasized in this person’s chart then in most. This person needs a creative outlet as the 5th house rules Leo things like children, hobbies, creativity, the arts, drama, acting, theater, performing and gambling. The 6th house is more practical and has Virgo elements in common such as: service, a person’s job, health, health care, nutrition. With Mercury and Venus in the 6th house (Mercury is the natural ruler of this house although in this person’s chart Pluto rules it as Scorpio is on the cusp) making a trine or positive aspect (approximately 120 degrees apart makes a trine) this person has good communication with their mother who is likely to be from a foreign land (not born in the same country as the child) and with Venus conjunct Mercury in Scorpio also included in this trine to the Moon Jupiter conjunction, this person is likely to be very intuitive, perhaps psychic especially in relationships with women and their mother. This person is likely to be highly sensitive to his/he environment and this sensitivity because it is in the 6th house can lead to health problems. Ok, I’m going to go more into this tomorrow, it’s getting really late and this is going to take awhile to explain…

Best wishes and many blessings to all you kind souls,

Denise

Back Again to Basic Astrology