Crystal Grids, Crystals, Light-Code Artwork, etc.

Happy New Year! These days I am thinking a lot about Eris, daughter of Nyx (Night), Greek deity of Strife and Discord, said to be Ares' (Mars') companion. So, she is a female war goddess. Eris is also the name of a recently discovered planet out by Pluto. When first discovered, the body was named Xena (for the T.V. character).

In the astrology of the coming year, so I hear, Eris will be featured all year in a close aspect with the planet Uranus, who is said to bring upheaval, electrifiying change, even revolution.

A friend of mine sent me a stone not long ago, which her sister picked up on the Greek Island of Pireaus, site of some temple ruins that apparently are layered, one on another, and at different times were consecrated to a variety of deities. I don't know if Eris was one of those deities, but for some reason my friend and I both began calling the little rock "the Eris stone" -- I suppose because we'd been talking about Eris when the stone arrived.

Hesiod is the main ancient authority on Eris, from what I have read, and he held that there are two Erises, one bad and one of benefit if humans take up her challenge. I read this to imply that when strife and discord arise, how we individually respond is going to determine much.

If we join in the fray, take up arms of words or acts, Eris may do as she did on the battlefield of Troy, and grow huge from feeding on anger and anguish if not directly on our blood.

Yes, Happy New Year. We have spent a lot of human energy, as a race, feeding the bad Eris, it seems. We are reaping that harvest. Perhaps we still have choices. Perhaps we can still, as Victor Frankl would teach us, choose to act in accordance with what we know is right, kind, and good, regardless of what others may do, even to us. The more we feed the bad Eris, the harder that becomes. I imagine you, like I do, know that from personal experience. It can get pretty difficult to starve out that one and take up the rough training of the good Eris, who can instruct us in how to make peace even on a battlefield. Or at least she can on our personal battlefields.

The stone I have, that we're calling the Eris stone, in fact resembles a kneeling woman, wrapped in a white robe, with her head lifted. I fancy Eris also is asking for a better way, for release from her ancient service, for liberation from the fields of war, whether bloody great battles of nations and armies, or the wars we fight in our homes and hearts.

Eris, may you be released now from your bindings, and go free into a realm of peace, where the strong bones you have built can find delight in works of kindness instead of what has trapped you, and us, for these long eons.

Be it so.