Meet Eris, the Goddess Behind Marianne Williamson
This essay was featured and highlighted in Marianne Williamson’s TRANSFORM, along with The Intercept and The Leah McSweeney Show (start at 53:02).
I waited a long time to write this essay. An anthropologist by training, I often write about topics found off the beaten path for those who want more than the homogenizing program of mainstream narratives and seek a deeper look at the issues facing our lives and society, along with the real possibility of resolving them through the power of conscious action.
After listening to dozens of people across America talk about why they’re supporting Marianne Williamson, I realized I could no longer keep quiet. Establishment Democrats, neoliberals, nihilists, and anyone who thinks they are the only game in town have been cynical and pompous, laughing about the aura and making crystal ball jokes.
In reality, the Establishment is terrified of Marianne Williamson. In less than four weeks, Marianne has risen to double digits in the polling, outpacing Bernie Sanders’ polling at this time during his 2015 campaign. Even in a near system-wide media blackout, Marianne is gaining popularity. Her positions are popular among Americans, she recognizes what’s going on in America and, unlike many politicians, she cares. The Establishment is nervous because Marianne has solutions for America’s underlying sickness, and because if enough were to learn about her, she could have a shot at the presidency, and it might change everything.
But what explains the phenomenon that is Marianne Williamson, not only throughout her career but also on the campaign trail? I’ve been listening to many people about their experience of Marianne Williamson, and I’ve identified the common thread that explains why so many people are perplexed, annoyed, or profoundly inspired by her: there is a goddess behind the force that is Marianne Williamson, and her name is Eris.
Eris is known as the goddess of strife and discord in Greek mythology. Even Marianne, well-read as she is, has scarcely been aware of this force until recently. When I spoke with Marianne at a fireside chat, I told her why I thought everyone was issuing smears and all kinds of assumptions about her. It has much less to do with the substance of her policies, I said, and even though many of us recognize there’s a level of cynicism and misogyny, that’s not exactly it, either, though they’re certainly getting in the way. The real issue, I told her, is what happens when someone tells the truth.
“I think your running is kicking up the unhealed parts of the country. I’ve been doing a study on a Greek goddess named Eris, and I think her story is extremely relevant to your campaign. When a truth-teller enters the scene, she reveals the darker underbellies of the collective that many people would rather ignore. Are you familiar with her?”
“No, but I’m fascinated.”
Meet Eris, The Metagoddess
The Judgment of Paris, the starting point for The Iliad, The Aeneid, and The Odyssey
Known as the Greek goddess of strife and discord, Eris was snubbed by the Greek Establishment. Excluded from the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, she inscribed the words “for the fairest” on a golden apple and threw the apple into the wedding. This golden apple was given to Paris of Troy, who would award the apple to the most beautiful woman of them all. Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, enamored with the prospect of being named most beautiful, stripped naked and attempted to bribe Paris with their abilities.
Sound familiar, especially as you think about American politics? There are stunning parallels to what we see in the Democratic Establishment today. A bunch of gods and goddesses—we might call them Biden, Kamala, Pete, Amy, or others — are vying for status and power, doing relatively little for the people (read: East Palestine, Ohio), while the outsider, derided as “not having enough experience,” can see the situation more clearly than anyone.
Everyone in the Establishment blames Eris for causing trouble, and even scholars blame Eris for starting the Trojan War. She did, after all, throw a golden apple into the wedding. But any person who understands this situation would recognize that it wasn’t the apple that started the war but the pettiness and self-absorption of the gods and goddesses. This event, known as the Judgment of Paris, was one of the most pivotal events in Greek mythology. The events set in motion by that decision were immortalized in the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid, but it all started because only some were allowed to feast.
Eris may have been known as a minor goddess canonically, but in the 21st century, where our converging crises (known in many circles as the global polycrisis or metacrisis) are as chaotic as the Trojan War, her role will be pivotal. Anyone who studies astronomy or astrology and goes beyond traditional astrology likely knows that Eris was discovered in 2005, and when a planet is discovered, its significations gain tremendous power in the collective. No surprise, then, that Marianne Williamson, an advocate of an integrative, 21st-century approach to politics, has entered the chat.
Eris is the missing psychospiritual link to a post-collapse, pluralistic world. If you’re interested in understand the Eris archetype in detail, our Woman Warrior course walks you through the entire system that compromises Eris’ influence on the 21st century and shows you the pathway from polarization and chaos to pluralism and harmony. There is a system, and it is not unpredictable. Learn more about the course here.
Eris Is Nobody's Fool: Waking Up to Hidden Realities
These days, many people have been deluded by the Establishment into only seeing the visible or what is on the outside. Like the gods and goddesses at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, they deal in the shallows as they bask in unearned privilege. Those from the dominant culture enjoy immense privileges, while those living underneath a dominant culture have been so oppressed that they think picking someone based on an identity to uphold the same unjust systems as before is good enough. (The illusion of neoliberalism is the belief that we can separate cause and effect.)
Even as we need stronger and more equitable representation in leadership, old paradigm leadership can now be occupied by a person of color, a woman, or a person of any social identity one can imagine. Ours is an age where diversity is leveraged to maintain the status quo and impede the goals of racial and social justice. People are led to view things exclusively through the filter of identity and don’t consider whether a person has been bought or if the same oppressive dynamics have simply taken a new shape. In my industry, we call this DEI-washing, creating the illusion of equity while maintaining the same oppressive behaviors and systems.
Eris initiates a systems-level transformation often invisible to the naked eye. But Americans have been poorly trained in inner vision, especially in the last 50 years where goods, services, and financial prosperity — and, in more traditional communities, religions — have been used to numb the difficult emotions that have been there since the nation’s founding. The United States has a history of slavery, colonization, and genocide. Having never atoned for these crimes and instead using the national GDP to make assertions that everything is great while Black and Indigenous Americans continue to suffer the weight of systemic racism is to not only control the narrative in a way that upholds colonial violence but also to manipulate people’s emotions and restrict their freedom and agency.
Eris will not be mocked. She recognizes that reality is what lies underneath the veneer. She knows that in a society that has worshipped the god of rationalism and systematically oppressed additional forms of knowledge like experience, intuition, and revelation to manipulate and control, the pathway to freedom is everything that the system has conditioned people to distrust: the qualitative, the feminine, and that which lies within. Most people are afraid to go beyond what they‘ve known; they’ve been bribed, oppressed, gaslit, privileged, and controlled into submission to antiquated forms of thought. Eris wants nothing to do with this. Eris wants more.
As Marianne Williamson often says on the campaign trail, the American people have been trained to expect too little.
Eris: An Evolutionary Force for the 21st Century
As goddess of strife, discord, and inclusion, Eris spurs evolution to correct injustice
Marianne often spoke about how Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated in 1968 and how the bullets that struck these men “psychologically struck us all,” numbing a generation and sending them away from politics and into the private sector. This was a perfect setup for the trickle-down economic policies instituted in the 1980s that created the oppression, polarization, and rise of fascism we have today. Many are worried that the Establishment and its conspirators will play that game again, to take down those that would stand for justice. I have coached many leaders who have expressed that same fear when they stand up to an oppressive, dehumanizing, and violent system. They tell me about what happened to MLK and Robert Francis Kennedy, and I can feel their fear.
But I have reason to believe that though the Democratic Establishment may attempt to suppress true equity, inclusion, and justice and atomize and divide the populace, it’s powerless against the primal, elemental force that we are seeing all around us. Even though our problems are bigger than just one system, there’s also a rising tide of individuals who are sick and tired of being downtrodden by a sociopathic economic system and waking up to the reality of the situation. Both social psychology research and even shows on Netflix show how when people come together, they can overcome even the most sinister forces, as demonstrated in this scene from Cobra Kai. That’s what the Establishment doesn’t want you to know — and what Eris does.
Eris spurs the evolution of systems toward justice, and entire generations are waking up to the fact that the system was designed to oppress, extract, and neglect. Gen Z in particular has noticed Marianne Williamson, whose TikTok following has grown from 60,000 to more than 350,000 followers in four weeks. Old systems will always try and resist change, but every philosopher and sage, from Buddha to Heraclitus, recognizes that change is the only constant. The Establishment is scrambling to maintain the old guard, and it will come down—but how long it takes to get there depends on how many people are willing to summon the primal forces within them and say to the neoliberal Establishment and their authoritarian conspirators: “you’re done. It’s our turn.”
Understanding and Embracing the Metagoddess
Civilizations are sustained by massive amounts of energy, and neoliberal economics and many of the forms that work alongside it, including theocracy and plantation slavery, have been sustained through the energy that has been given to them. You sacrifice your autonomy or dignity, and I’ll pay you a salary or tell you you’re “worthy.” All that is about to change because people are awakening to the fact that they have power and agency—far more than they’ve been made to believe. As Marianne Williamson would say, “our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our greatest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.” As Eris would say, “I have come to tell you that you are free.” The question is, do you believe?
If you feel angry about the rampant injustices in our world; if you are tired of being exploited and weighed down; if you want to understand how systemic change is underway and how it will move to completion; if you want to join a rising tide of people pushing back against the status quo, and if you want to bend the moral arc of the universe towards justice, meet Eris. A friend to the marginalized and the oppressed, Eris is the force that will begin to correct so much of what has gone wrong and lead us through our time between worlds.
To create a path through a dying paradigm and into a new era, we need an uprising of consciousness. To enable that consciousness, knowing and channeling Eris will be critical. If you are beginning to sense the possibility this goddess presents to transition all of our systems toward true equity, justice, and inclusion, and you want to be part of the change, get to know her. You’ll begin to see how she shows up not only in Marianne Williamson but in leader after leader disrupting the system, freeing us from antiquated thought forms, and pushing back against the status quo.
Eris is alive in Marianne Williamson, and I think anyone who wants change should consider supporting Marianne’s platform. But as Marianne says, “This is so much bigger than electing me.” So by all means, let’s support Marianne and create a movement. But let’s also recognize that Eris is a critical piece of the 21st century, and we won’t get peace and justice unless we all rise. Eris is a force of nature that lives within us, and her story will come alive if we can find it, recognize it, and, as Williamson often says, “harness it for political purposes.”
Eris is one of the most powerful 21st century archetypes. Understanding her makes the difference between a fractured world of collapse and chaos and one where all can belong and evolve together. If you’re interested in bringing about justice, turning the culture wars into something generative, or understanding how to do activism and paradigm change in a way that actually works—enroll in our full masterclass. You’ll see instantly the animating forces of our historical moment and how to overcome them.
