Erlewine is currently the executive vice president for strategic planning for
Alliance Entertainment Corp., of which AMG is a part. Erlewine, his wife, and his
four children live in Big Rapids, Michigan.
—Michael ErlewineEROS
Eros, asteroid 433 (the 433rd asteroid to be discovered, on August 13, 1898), was
named after the god of love in Greek mythology, the son of Ares (Mars) and
Aphrodite (Venus). It was the first known asteroid to pass inside the orbit of Mars. It
has an orbital period of 1^3 ⁄ 4 years and is 22 kilometers in diameter. Eros is one of the
more recent asteroids to be investigated by astrologers. Preliminary material on Eros
can be found in Demetra George and Douglas Bloch’s Astrology for Yourself,and an
ephemeris (table of celestial locations) for Eros can be found in the back of the second
edition of George and Bloch’s Asteroid Goddesses.Unlike the planets, which are asso-
ciated with a wide range of phenomena, the smaller asteroids are said to represent a
single principle. George and Bloch (1987) give Eros’s principle as “vitality and pas-
sion.” Zipporah Dobyns associates Eros with romantic love. J. Lee Lehman contends
that Eros is the ruler of romance and passionate attachment. Lehman contrasts Sap-
pho, which she regards as raw sexual drive, with Eros, which she sees as more men-
tal—the conceptualization of attraction. Jacob Schwartz gives the astrological signifi-
cance of this asteroid as “sexuality, eroticism, passionate romance, being ‘turned on.’”
Sources:
Dobyns, Zipporah. Expanding Astrology’s Universe.San Diego: Astro Computing Services, 1983.
George, Demetra, with Douglas Bloch. Asteroid Goddesses: The Mythology, Psychology and Astrol-
ogy of the Reemerging Feminine.2d ed. rev. San Diego: Astro Computing Services, 1990.
———. Astrology for Yourself: A Workbook for Personal Transformation.Berkeley, CA: Wingbow
Press, 1987.
Lehman, J. Lee. The Ultimate Asteroid Book.West Chester, PA: Whitford Press, 1988.
Schwartz, Jacob. Asteroid Name Encyclopedia.St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1995.
ERRATICS
The erratics, or erratic stars, was a term used in traditional astrology to refer to the
planets, as distinct from the fixed stars.
ESOTERICASTROLOGY
Esoteric (from the Greek esoteros,meaning “inner”; derived from the Greek eso,
meaning “within”) astrology is the general term for various schools of astrology whose
practitioners view themselves as studying the “ancient wisdom” behind the science of
the stars. The original sense of the word esoteric was that it was hidden from, or other-
wise inaccessible to, the uninitiated. However, contemporary esoteric astrology is
openly accessible to anyone who is able to read. The contrasting term to esoteric is
exoteric (meaning external, as opposed to the “inner” significance of the esoteric
THEASTROLOGYBOOK [225]
Esoteric Astrology