there's also the question of ceres... located in the asteroid belt, and also considered a dwarf planet. maybe virgo's ruler? or maybe the scientific definition of a planet doesn't necessarily coincide with astrology. but ceres, to me, makes sense for virgo... being nurturing, and motherly. you also have to look at the negative aspects of motherhood... overbearingness, nitpicking, safety and cleanliness ruling over life, home and image oriented... sounds pretty virgo-ish to me. and most virgos i've known are really more motherly than any cancer i've known. i'm not about to jump to any conclusions, just thoughts.

I don't think Eris has much to do with 'war' personally, more strife for the sake of creating conflict, but more pranksterish than 'warlike' (war is more Ares/Mars thing). Or as the saying goes "Stirring up shit."

For example, one myth that contains Eris that I recall has eris sending a golden apple to Olympus, which was to be given to the "Most Beautiful of the Goddseses". Well of course, Hera, Aphrodite and one other.. Minerva? it escapes me at the moment, all felt that THEY were the most beautiful. And of course they started fighting over it. Eris sat back and just laughed (or at least, that's what I imagine she did.)

I read into Discordianism when I was younger (not that I'm terribly old now...) but in Discordianism the main goddess worshiped is Discordia/Eris (same god in the Greek and Roman names). One philosophy I found interested is how there are two polar opposites. Order-Chaos and Creative-Destructive. Our society deems Order good and Chaos to be bad. But Discordian philosophy says that that's actually where most of our societies problems come form, because if you deem Order to be Good, you have to accept both Creative Order and Distructive Order. Just like there is Creative Order and Destructive order, there is also Creative and Destructive Chaos. The book I was reading suggests that it would be wiser to consider 'CREATIVE' to be 'good' and 'DESTRUCTIVE' to be bad. That way the pole shifts so that Creative Order and Creative Disorder are both revered, while Destructive Order (beaurocracies and laws that opress people) and Destructive Chaos (Anarchy, strife and crime) are both on the 'evil' spectrum.

How is that relavent to this discussion? I don't know! But if you're looking for the mythical meaning of a planet in astrology, it helps to look at the myths and teachings behind the deity the planet is named after. I agree that it feels like a Libra planet to me.

Hmm fascinating how much of that I remembered, I'll have to start reading about Discordianism again :) I'm pleased that they named one of the 'new' planets after Eris.

thanks, zane... you have a way of coming in with a more researched knowledge to make me feel more at ease with my uranian "a-ha" kind of connections that are ultimately unfounded... i always have to be somewhat suspicious of jumping to conclusions. but after these posts on ceres and eris, i'm definitely going to start experimenting with them as rulers of virgo and libra (i'm really a fan of phasing out the whole "sub-ruler" thing). the more i think and talk about it, the more it makes sense. i'll definitely have to look into those articles and web pages.

Excellent! I can't wait to read your article... :D

I've definitely enjoyed following your research, and I think you have a lot of good thoughts on the subject.