Astrology Explored

August 20, 2008

Images of Eris, the black winged goddess of Strife recalls the images of the Sumerian goddess Innana, :

Inanna could be wily and cunning. She was a powerful warrior, who drove a war chariot, drawn by lions

Innanna ruled as a goddess during the dawn of human civlization and not only represented strength in battle, but also:

She endowed the people of Sumer with gifts that inspired and insured their growth as a people and a culture

.

The power of the feminine goddesses was displaced when the patriarchal tribes of Northern Greece over ran the Southern matriarchal tribes. All the goddesses, including Eris, suffered a reduction in power and influence as the new patriarchal religious forms supplanted the older matriarchal forms. Those goddess images that survived with good press, Venus, for instance, morphed from stronger images of War Goddesses, to more docile forms. Eris, as goddess image didn’t translate well into the new dichotomy and therefore became an “outsider” in the patriarchal Greek pantheon.

A way of looking at Eris in our charts is seeing how it defines the part of ourselves whose essential nature is as odds with our current cultural norms. This part of us stands against “what everyone does”. With Eris now recognized in our solar system and now part of our developmental path as a species, this is the time for us to recognize that true inner voice that does not bend to the will of the many. Like Innana’s gifts to her people that helped them grow as a people, Eris gives us true insights that we are to share, even though society does not want to hear them.

Here is some preliminary work of Eris in the houses.

When Eris resides in your first house, your mission is to trust yourself. You will have opinions that differ from societies’, you will do things different from other people. You will experience pain and loss here, because though you may desire to integrate fully into society, you can not. This in not a Uranian process where you discover your individuality. The Eris process dictates that your innate sense of values pits yourself against society.

With Eris in your second house of resources, it is your task to sound the alarm regarding the incorrect use of resources. You have a vastly different way handling money and wealth which involves the sharing of resources. People think you are foolish with your use of money. You are not. You realize the value of sharing cooperatively, though there is a danger of using your resources to dominate your social sphere.

In the third house of communications, Eris gives you a strong voice that sounds discordant against the sounds of the collective. You have the intellect to discern what is off balance and not in the interests of the society. You must beware of forcing your opinions on others, but it your job to tell society at large your perceptions.

When Eris resides in your fourth house of the home you have the power to recognize how past conditions have contributed to current problems. You experience through your childhood how unequal power distribution causes problems in the home. If you are wise, you will work on these dynamics in your own life, so the same bitter fruit is not born. If you do not, you will repeat the experiences of your parents.

Eris in the fifth house of romance and creativity gives you the power to create divergent forms that highlights societal problems caused by unequal power distribution. Your images, your writing, your music can inspire others with the power of your message. Likewise, if you misspend your gift, your art will devolve into pointless blame games. You must work to overcome that tendency in your life.

When Eris sits in your sixth house of health and servants, you challenges your authority with others and other people’s authority to make health care decisions for you. This latter situation can manifest as a health care crisis that is not managed correctly by the care provider calling for clarity of thinking and intervention on your part. You will have to be your own best health care advisor.

In your seventh house of partnerships Eris will create situations of unequal distribution of power that will stress your relationship. You will have to work at finding a partner that will share your goal of sharing the work and well as the joys of partnership, or suffer the consequences for failing to doing so. If you attempt to follow traditional male/female roles, your relationship will ultimately lose its vitality and strength of purpose.

Eris in your eighth house of death [transformation] creates situations where you experience people trying to take away your resources. Inheritances, insurance payments and loans can be contentious and difficult experiences, especially if you are elected to be the consevator/distributor of those funds. You may have to share a partnership role in the disbursement of funds, but do not have final say in where they are to go. In the area of sexual development you may have sexual experiences that are incomplete or unsatisfying due to one partner or the other demanding a control of the sexual experience.

With Eris in the ninth house of law and education, you may experience education and travel opportunities that are divergent from the norm. You may find the traditional educational process difficult to complete because of your urges to pursue your own line of study. Travel takes you to places where you glimpse the economic inequities of life. Even if you go to a sunny Carribean beach for vacation you might find yourself getting lost in the slums.

When Eris resides in the tenth house of authority and power, you are here to understand your role in taking care of the those with less power than you. Should you not have a natural understanding of this role, Eris will make sure you experience the consequences of the bigger fish eating the smaller fish. You will experience why some people insist on “survival of the fittest” and you will not necessarily be the one considered “fit”. When you grow in wisdom in this role, you wlll be a fine steward of the needs of the people.

Eris in the eleventh house of organizations and friends, you either do or will come to understand the necessity of a cooperative role within the group. You may be confronted with situations that place you outside the group for a time to experience the feeling of “odd man out.” In a cooperative society there is no room for pushing people to an outsider’s position. When you come to understand this yourself, you can teach the rest of your brothers and sisiters.

In the twelfth house of connection with the your higher sources, Eris gives you a voice to speak about how this dimension’s experience does not necessarily mirror all of reality. You have a powerful prophetic voice that holds much wisdom and truth. You can channel the wisdom of higher realms and have the ability to access the Akashic records without the guidance of the guardians from the other side. However, because your voice is at dissonance with the drum beat of your time, often you are not listened to, like Cassandra of Trojan War fame.

How do you find Eris in your chart. Go here for the ephemeris and look up the date closest to your birth date.

How does Eris work in your chart?

If you have a question you would like this astrologer answer on these pages, send it to starrynightastro@aol.com along with your birthday, birth place and birth time.