This week, Mars passes through the Chiron-Eris conjunction. It did this most recently in 2024; before then the conunction was not within close orb. In my process of delineating minor plants, I use the concept of the proving moment. Not proof like in a geometric theorem but rather like in homeopathy, where a population takes a new remedy and then effects are observed and rubrics created.
With Eris, we are still working with a new influence — it was named less than 20 years ago and, unlike Chiron at the outset, was subjected to relatively little focused or collective study. (As usual, Eris was in many ways excluded from focused study and even counted as an asteroid.)
For the past two years, we’ve been experiencing the first Mars-Eris conjunction in Aries since the 1970s and the first Aries pair since the 15th century (at the dawn of the printing press).
Mars has passed through Chiron-Eris once before in our era, around May 29, 2024. So we have a somewhat distinct moment to observe right now.
The core of my Eris theory is that the discord, disruption and chaos are rooted in fragmentation of psyche and identity due to the imposition of new media environments. Eris in Aries for this go-around takes us from the dawn of commercial radio through television, high-def TV, digital, internet, and social media to the present A.I. era.
When slow-movers pass through, effects are enhanced; when personal planets join the slow movers, the effects are brought closer to home. Though he was not an astrologer, I think that Eric McLuhan, son of Marshall, has written the best delineation of Eris in Aries. Note that he describes the psychic effects as secondary to the imposition of electrical media on the body.
“The body is everywhere assaulted by all of our new media, a state which has resulted in deep disorientation of intellect and destabilization of culture throughout the world. In the age of disembodied communication, the meaning and significance and experience of the body is utterly transformed and distorted.”
The influence of Chiron is opposite this: it’s about whole making and the holistic principle. Chiron is holographic: the whole is contained in the parts, the parts are contained in the whole. Chiron is about integration and reintegration.
Mars, the Masculine Principle
Add Mars and you have the principle of masculine self-assertion. This will be redoubled in Aries. Most people these days have been conditioned to connect “masculine” with the idea of “toxic,” but how far does that get anyone? Is it true, or is it political speech? Mars in whatever form will get to assert itself into the environmental conditions of Chiron-Eris.
We are now in a meaningful proving moment for the Eris in Aries and for the Chiron-Eris conjunction. We will experience the effects first in various electronic media environments, and second, in consciousness, sensation and feeling.
“Media studies” may seem like something for doctoral students and an odd topic for astrology. For us today, it’s a study in basic psychic and emotional health, a study of the mental environment and more than anything, an investigation into our relationships.
Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ —
