Eerie archetypes

Keiron Le Grice is a collegue of Richard Tarnas within the field of "archetypal cosmology", a fusion of modern astrology, transpersonal psychology and Jungianism. "Discovering Eris" is a book speculating about the possible astrological/psychological meaning of Eris, a newly discovered "dwarf planet" and "Plutoid" beyond the orbit of Pluto.

Le Grice reaches the conclusion that Eris (named after the Greek goddess of strife) represent Heraclitean strife and conflict between opposites, something the author regards as the fundamental fact of existence and the ultimate driving force behind evolution. Eris was discovered shortly after terrorism (in the form of 9/11) and climate change became widely recognized problems, both being examples of strife threatening our civilization (itself the result of strife between Nature and Man), and hence calling out for a resolution...or else! Note that the author regards climate change as strife caused by Mother Nature, apparently a kind of semi-conscious "revenge of Gaia".Thus, Eris is both a harbinger of death and destruction, and a challenge to humanity to mend its ways, and hence turn strife into a force for higher good. The Eris archetype also works on the level of the individual, as both the ultimate ground of personal evolution and the ultimate goal of individuation on a higher level.

While Le Grice is pretty "esoteric" compared to your friendly neighborhood astrologer, he also makes a couple of nods in that direction. In astrology, every zodiac sign has a planetary ruler. Where does Eris fit? The most obvious choice would be Scorpio, but that sign is already occupied by Pluto (and, traditionally, Mars). Eventually, Le Grice assigns Eris to Libra, but only at the expense of reinterpreting the friendly, lovely nature of Librans to something more depressive! He also analyzes the horoscopes of Nietzsche, William Blake and Alan Watts, taking Eris into consideration.

While the book is interesting and very well written, I admit that I don't buy the author's Jungian-derived perspective where evil is simply a necessary opposite of good, and both has to be "integrated" for "individuation" to happen. But perhaps that's how far we can get, if we don't look beyond Eris to something even greater... ;-)