Venus conjunct Eris
I hope you are enjoying today's Venus sextile Mars. The two planets of relationship are working together today. And Venus is also conjunct Eris, bringing an inclusive, individual rights energy to our relationships and values.
Neptune is also closely semi-sextile this conjunction, potentially clouding the issue with doubt, or encouraging us to get lost in daydreams. Or, if we're lucky, inspiring us with a vision of how to change our values and relationships to make them more inclusive. And thereby, through the sextile to Mars, empower our action.
The Big Softie
Eris has a bad rep because she encourages us to look at ourselves in an uncompromising way, and to be inclusive in our world view. But she's a big softie at heart, because she is really teaching us how to maintain a steady spirit through all crises by being open to the promptings of love and sympathy.
In mythology she is the warrior sister of Mars, and they are always in battle together. And we know Pluto is the higher octave of Mars, so we can look at Eris as the higher octave of Pluto. She steps up his transformative energy to a fierce grace through which everything in our lives is opened to the light.
And where Pluto cuts through the ecliptic plane of all the inner planets at 17 degrees, Eris cuts through at 44 degrees, the most of any planet, again stepping up her existential challenge for openness and accountability in our lives.
If we are still at the personal planet level of consciousness however and sensing this influence unconsciously, we are likely to mouth off, whether this is appropriate or not, which is why she has her reputation as the goddess of discord. At this level she is teaching us to stop being fooled, or to stop fooling ourselves.
At this level, she is likely also encouraging us to be competitive, and to take any advantage when we can, because ‘everyone else does!’. Or we might go to any lengths to be included in some enterprise or social group, so we compromise ourselves in the process. Or we could go the other way and feel alienated and excluded from any meaningful social interaction.
As we adopt a more spiritual approach we understand that our strife can be dealt with by accepting opposing points of view. And that without strife, we can live in harmony. At this level she enables us to see clearly without preconceptions, and helps us keep body and mind in harmony so that health and happiness prevails.
And at the spiritually evolved level we can understand her ‘harsh light of reality’ for the transmuted love that it is. And this gives us a power that we can bring to bear in our lives, a power which rises to meet the needs of any challenge. When we embrace her fierce grace, we become a truth-telling trickster, able to get our message through by crafting it perfectly for each person and moment. At this level we value everyone as they are, accepting everything and neither comparing nor judging.
Eris 101
A good way to make our most radical dwarf goddess a friend and embrace her power, is by studying her action in your chart and life. And our next 6-week course on Eris is doing exactly that. It starts after the next Mercury retrograde on the 20th May and, to encourage you, I have a limited number of scholarship places available. And this will the only opportunity to get this popular course at the scholarship rate, so be quick to lock it in.
Join us if you are able, and thanks for your work on-boarding these new consciousness energies in your life.
Love and laughter
Alan
I absolutely loved the class! As a first time student of astrology, I can honestly say that aside from Alan (a wonderful teacher and guide), every one of the students in the class was a teacher for me. I learned so much and can’t wait for the next class to begin. - Mary Anne Pitt, USA