Eris and Chiron are both relatively new planetary bodies in the astrological pantheon. Chiron was discovered in the late 1970s and by the early 1980s when I started studying Chiron had entered the literature. It was the late 1980s before I even heard of Chiron, but immediately it beckoned to me. At the time many astronomers and astrologers thought Chiron was a comet or an asteroid, but it was later classified as a Centaur. There are lots of other Centaurs: Ixion, Pholus Nessus, etc. Because Chiron was a Centaur in mythology and classified as a Centaur astronomically, many astrologers wanted to assign the rulership of Sagittarius to Chiron. However, in mythology Chiron was NOT of the race of Centaurs; his half man/half horse form occured as the result of his parents having taken on a horse form when he was conceived. He was half immortal (thanks to the parentage of Saturn) and is associated with integrating the spirit into the body: a very different role than the rest of the Centaurs who were primarily concerned with drinking and barbaric behavior.
At any rate, other planetary bodies have come into the literature that have not spoken to me, like Sedna, Quaoar etc. That is, until Eris came along. I’m always fascinated by the synchronicity of the planetary names and the gods or goddesses which they represent, and I dug into Eris in this article from 2015. Formerly known as UB313 and then Xena, Eris was then named after the Greek goddess that set off the Trojan war by throwing the golden apple into the circle of goddesses that would ultimately be for the fairest of them all. The goddesses (Athena, Aphrodite and Hera) competed for the apple, resulting in the Trojan War. Eris is a troublemaker: the goddess of strife and discord, and her Roman name was Discordia. From my 2015 article:
The tenth planet is aptly named, because her discovery led to a great deal of discord and turned the world of astronomy on its ears and led to the declassification of Pluto. Now Eris, Pluto and Ceres all rule jointly in their new classification as “dwarf planets.” This site has a great assortment of stories from the myths about the nature of Eris from which the stories below have been taken.
Eris is a sister of Ares, the god of war, and as a nurse to dying soldiers she has been known to fill their hearts with hate and the desire for revenge. Aeschylus says, “discord is the last of the gods to close an argument.” Eris is likely to rule over the domain of revenge which has previously fallen under Pluto’s realm. The role of Eris in the Trojan War did not begin from spite but from wounded feelings since Eris was not invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis. So Eris is concerned with wounds to the ego that result in a disturbed psyche.
So we have a wounded psyche and ego of Eris, driven by a need for revenge and vengeance. Hesiod presented two attributes of Eris and called her Strife: One evil, motivating men towards war and rage; the other constructive, motivating men through rivalry and envy. This sounds a lot like our current political climate.
Eris is a very slow moving planet (it entered Aries back in 1928 and as of the latest date in the Swiss Ephemeris of 2036 is will still be at 27 degrees Aries) and I am on the fence whether or not it has much of an effect in our natal birthchart. But we have seen some powerful things to come out of transiting Eris aspects to outer planets, most notably Uranus and Pluto. Uranus in Aries conjoined Eris between 2015 and 2017, and I wrote about that here. When the planet of discord (Eris) aligns with the planet of disruption (Uranus), it’s easy to see where established paradigms and principles would be turned upside down, and we certainly saw that during this period.
In January 2020 we had the conjunction of Saturn and Pluto which brought the world to its knees under the guise of the Covid pandemic. At the time, Eris was in a very tight square alignment to both of them. From my post at that time:
The conjunction in Capricorn (societal structures) of Saturn to Pluto in January coincided with the eruption of the Covid-19 virus and was followed shortly afterwards by the square first from Saturn to Eris, and then from Pluto to Eris at the end of January. With both Saturn (tests and challenges) and Pluto (destruction that paves the way for transformation) in conflict with Eris (discord and chaos), we would not have expected those days to be smooth sailing. And in fact, there were not.
The Covid-19 virus itself seems to embody the discordant nature of Eris. It doesn’t follow any rules. It can’t be predicted in any way. It affects every patient differently. There are a myriad of symptoms that seem disconnected. It erupted, seemingly out of nowhere, quite suddenly and has spread like wildfire. Just as the golden apple of Eris began the Trojan War and transformed the political landscape of Europe and Asia, Covid-19 will likely create long-lasting transformation to global society. Since we are in the doorway to the Age of Aquarius, it seems likely that the destruction and transformation caused by the spread of this virus will pave the way for the shift in ages.
The idea that Eris throws an apple of discord into a situation that is already under stress to exacerbate a situation and force a crisis seems to be a theme here. And now Eris is conjunct Chiron, the planet of wounding and healing, to bring an unexpected and disruptive influence into the realm of health and healing. New diseases that defy categorization but lead to new discoveries. Surprising uses of psychoactive rituals for mental health. Perhaps Eris is here to remind us that like a golden apple, events are not causes in themselves, but simply occur to reveal the underlying disease. If the goddesses in the tale of Eris had not already been competing for their beauty, the apple would have been the end of the story.
During this period of Eris conjunct Chiron that continues into 2026 we may want to remember that things are not always what they seem, and sometimes the truth takes some time to reveal itself.
Dates for this conjunction: May 27th, 2025, October 9th, 2025, March 19th, 2026.
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