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Dear Readers:

This weekend, the Sun is conjunct the newly discovered planet Eris. I know that I mention a lot of newly discovered planets, but Eris (discovered and named between 2003 and 2006) so magnificently qualified as the official '10th planet' that its discovery compelled astronomers to shake up their organizational model of the solar system, create a new category, 'demote' Pluto and define the word planet for the first time. Technically Eris and Pluto (and Ceres, along with a few others) are now known as drwarf planets.

Rachel Maddow has political leanings.

Amidst the literally hundreds of thousands of bits, bobs and blobs orbiting our Sun, Eris stands tall as a key discovery: a genuine scientific breakthrough. She's bigger and brighter than Pluto, and is currently (because her orbit is so egg-shaped) the most distant object orbiting our Sun known to science. Given that we've only known about Eris, by name and reputation, since late 2006, we have not had much time to make up our minds about what it's about, though I have some ideas.

How do astrologers develop the meaning of newly discovered bodies? On the simplest level, the name (chosen by the discovery team) evokes a myth. Eris was the goddess of discord and has a positively terrible reputation in Greek mythology as the one who started the Trojan War. Going directly from the mythology to the delineation doesn't usually work in astrology; looked at one way, the myth has to be understood in a fairly complex way and the elements of the story applied to 'real life'. Sometimes, though, the mythology carries through pretty well. With Eris my hunch is that it would be wise to take a more circumspect approach.

My take is that Eris, the astrological concept, uses the 'chaos', war and discord factor as a personality metaphor. Eris is in Aries for nearly every person on the planet, except for a few folks still around who were born in the early 20th century. Aries is the sign of identity; the sign of "I Am." One thing you can say about our time in history is that there's a lot of confusion going around on the 'who we are' theme. This is a long-term transit, which will have lasted about 110 years when it finally ends.

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Weekly Horoscope for Friday, April 9, 2010, #811 - BY ERIC FRANCIS

Aries Confidential	The point is not to be different for its own sake, but rather to recognize that you are a distinct entity, and that is the truth of who you are. Acknowledging this can send plenty of people into a tailspin; for you, ignoring the simple fact that you're different, that you have something to say and that you have an agenda for your life, are much likelier to cause you to lose your grip on the road. The confusing part is that you don't necessarily feel like one person all the time; you have so many personas and facets of yourself that you may not be sure which one is true. What is true, initially, is what these facets of self have in common. Beneath the surface level of experience, there is one solid core of existence that you are being invited to tap into right now.
Aries Birthday Audio by Eric Francis is available. Check this link for more information.