{"id":62079,"date":"2012-10-15T00:01:51","date_gmt":"2012-10-15T04:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=62079"},"modified":"2012-10-15T08:07:56","modified_gmt":"2012-10-15T12:07:56","slug":"libra-new-moon-proving-moment-for-eris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/astro-daily\/libra-new-moon-proving-moment-for-eris\/","title":{"rendered":"Libra New Moon: Proving Moment for Eris"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday at 8:02 am EDT is the Libra New Moon — the Sun and Moon making their monthly conjunction, this time in the sign Libra. What’s distinctive about this Libra New Moon is that it’s opposite Eris. This is the planetary discovery that informed everyone that the minor planets exist — and which was in part responsible for the demotion of Pluto (that is, becoming minor planet (134340) Pluto). The number in parentheses is the minor planet catalog number, stated in formal notation.<\/p>\n

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Artist’s impression of Eris, created by L. Cal\u00e7ada of the European Space Organization (ESO). Top right is covered in shadow; the planet, the most distant in the solar system, is a sphere.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nobody doubts that Pluto is just as potent as ever, despite being a ‘minor’ planet; now it’s time to consider a more recent discovery — (136199) Eris, a body about the size of Pluto, with an orbit more than twice as long. At this point, Eris is so far from the Sun that it’s spending more than a century in Aries, a factor that’s feeding the sense of identity chaos that is so prevalent in our phase of history.<\/p>\n

In an article in the current issue of The Mountain Astrologer<\/a><\/em>, I describe the process of figuring out what new planets mean and how they work. I give numerous examples of what I call “proving moments” — significant news or personal events where the newly discovered point is involved in something like a New Moon or a Full Moon, especially when there is an unusually tight alignment, say, two degrees or less. When this happens, it’s possible to witness the expression of the deeper nature of the newly discovered point (and by newly, I mean within the past 20 years or so) reveal itself.<\/p>\n

We are about to have just such a proving moment with Eris. What we witness over the next few days will be expressive on some level of what Eris is about. In fact what we’ve been witnessing over the past week is offering some insight, though recently an asteroid called Psyche has been very active as well, lending itself to an atmosphere of healing crisis in personal relationships, deep self-doubts and the quest for authentic faith in ourselves and one another.<\/p>\n

I’ve proposed that the Moon-Sun conjunction in Libra represents an idealized view of relationships. Libra is one of the signs that most vividly describes relating to others (it’s the sign opposite Aries, which is about self-focus). What we’re seeing, though, is that prefab views on relationships are not working so well; people behave differently from how the rules say they’re supposed to. In fact the rules seem to be a cover-up of actual behavior.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

And that’s coming under special focus now. Eris in Aries is a factor that stirs up chaos within the psyche, the sensation that “I don’t know who I am, this is so confusing, who am I, what do I want.” One typical way to try to resolve that is to shift one’s identity into a relationship, and ‘find oneself’ there.<\/p>\n

We invest so much energy in relationships, often to persistent disappointments. We can learn something about this from Libra. This is an unusual sign, having two rather different planets associated with it: Venus (its ruler) and Saturn (which is exalted there). Libra at its best is a perfect morph of both: the attractiveness, emotional affinity and creativity of Venus, melded with the structure, firmness and respect of Saturn. We need both of these in relationships.<\/p>\n

Most of the time, we fake it — often in support of maintaining an image, or a struggle to handle intimacy. Now, these appearances are being challenged by forces emerging from deep in the psyche.<\/p>\n

Named for the Greek goddess of discord and chaos (the direct translation is ‘strife’), Eris often does have this quality when you study it in news charts. It can also represent the sly move, subterfuge and the covert long-term plan for domination (whether political or in the politics of love). Its motto in such cases is “by any means necessary,” regardless of whether the goal itself is legitimate or necessary.<\/p>\n

In personal charts, Eris seems to be about the factor of identity chaos that we’re experiencing here in the postmodern world (that’s to say, the modern world, with the rug pulled out from underneath logic). We spend a lot of time wondering who we are these days, going through identity crises, transforming ourselves and collecting business cards for the various things we might identify as. We’ve all met the person who is the bank vice president, the Reiki master, the doll clothing designer and the house organizer. That’s a reminder that Eris is in Aries.<\/p>\n

I’ve proposed that the Moon-Sun conjunction in Libra represents an idealized view of relationships. Libra is one of the signs that most vividly describes relating to others (it’s the sign opposite Aries, which is about self-focus). What we’re seeing, though, is that prefab views on relationships are not working so well; people behave differently from how the rules say they’re supposed to. In fact the rules seem to be a cover-up of actual behavior.<\/p>\n

Yet Eris is saying that you have to be yourself, and that it’s not possible to use a relationship to substitute for that. The usual chameleon-like attempts to ‘be the person’ you think your partner wants you to be are not going to work so well under the stress of this opposition, and you may start to figure out that they’re not going to work at all, if they ever did. You might call Eris in this context “the thin line beyond which you really can’t fake.”<\/p>\n

However, when this method suddenly stops working, that can leave you feeling like you don’t know who you are — perhaps with the sensation of vertigo, or your world crumbling. That sense of not knowing can be profoundly unsettling and disorienting. Removing the false foundation can lead directly to feeling like you don’t have any foundation at all.<\/p>\n

This is part of why, in my view, many people stay in relationships that don’t support their growth. At least they are supported on the level of ego identity, even if it comes at the expense of their independence and freedom. Notably it also saves many people from the responsibilities of independence and freedom. Many people have spent their lives going from relationship to relationship, trying to establish their stability there, yet at the expense of their growth and evolution.<\/p>\n

Things can get really weird when one person or the other in the relationship reaches the point where they can no longer remain static. If one person’s identity is ‘founded’ on that of another person, both people can become unstable when either one of them starts to grow. Often there’s a reaction — to suppress the growth. Eventually, that’s likely to fail, and then there can be a collapse, meltdown, drama or crisis. That crisis might involve jealousy, which is one of the ultimate threats to the microcosm of a relationship, which is substituted for having a life.<\/p>\n

And it looks like this particular pattern is what comes into focus with Monday’s Libra New Moon opposite Eris in Aries. I said earlier that this is a proving moment, when we get to observe what’s happening to us personally, and watch the world around us for information about Eris and what it represents. I’ve made a few observations here that I trust you can take into consideration and still study yourself and your environment for more information.<\/p>\n

One last thing about today’s astrology — there is a square between Mars and Chiron. That’s about working through sexual and creative blocks, which is the perfect assistance for today’s Libra New Moon. I cover that in greater detail in Sunday’s edition of Planet Waves, below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yet Eris is saying that you have to be yourself, and that it’s not possible to use a relationship to substitute for that. The usual chameleon-like attempts to ‘be the person’ you think your partner wants you to be are not going to work so well under the stress of this opposition, and you may start to figure out that they’re not going to work at all, if they ever did. You might call Eris in this context “the thin line beyond which you really can’t fake.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1734],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62079"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62079\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}