Grand Cross to Bear ~ 22 Aug 2009


In addition to the recent run of planets to the 21st degree that constituted the Yod Squad featured in last week’s GT, how about the recent and ongoing grand cross!? Are you feeling it or is it just me because my chart is so enmeshed in the pattern? (It’s not just me)


Mars in Gemini recently squared Saturn in Virgo and did the same to Uranus in Pisces. Still in orb with Uranus, Mars now navigates toward an opposition to Pluto, and for all intents and purposes, that orb is now in play, too. Add to the mixture the quicksilver guy Mercury who approaches squares to both Mars and Pluto and the grand square is complete.


Actually the mutable part of the configuration is behind us. Mars certainly stirred and agitated the town hall meetings on health care in the United States. Mars to Saturn and Uranus brought forward contentious comments of people wanting their country back or shouting, “show me the change” and more and worse. Mars to Uranus brought my state of residence into lead news stories as the right to be arms - a Mars to Uranus kind of thing - made the news as people showed up to greet the President sporting assault rifles and other weapons. Of course, nothing could be done... that would have been an infringement on individual rights. Mars turned up the heat during the Saturn-Uranus aspects by bringing bean ball incidents to a boil in Major League Baseball. As well, there was the election in Afghanistan and the agreement of “talks” between North Korean and U. S. diplomats in New Mexico.


So prior to the very inciting cardinal qualities to come, perhaps a review of what we have learned with the mutable elements serves insight purposes well. For instance, if you’re going to comment on a movie or book, it is helpful to actually see the film or read the literary work. As for legislation, don’t take the word of someone on one side of an issue. The bill is online. Read the good parts and decide for yourself. Along the same line, know the facts. Do research. Establish an individualized and firmly footed position that works for you and stick to your guns. Think creatively and critically; critically in this context not to be confused with criticalness or judgmental profiling. Critical thinking asks questions that make logical sense and indicate thoughtful contemplation. For instance, one of my favorite examples involves both Saturn and Uranus: If the outermost planet of the solar system represents boundaries, effective limits and the range of responsibility, why didn’t Uranus take on the qualities of Saturn when discovered? Why are those qualities not assigned to Eris or Sedna given the present state of the solar system? When Pluto was discovered, a consensus astrological question (according to the writings of Manly P. Hall) that circulated with wild speculation was: For which planet is Pluto an octave? Hall’s question of the question: “Why does it have to be an octave at all?” Within the Gemini nature of Mars, the concept of holding a view contrary to your own in objective consideration comes up for an objectivity test. If someone showed you indisputable evidence of something that contradicted your beliefs, how well would you fare?


Given all that, early next week Mars and Mercury enter cardinal signs, Cancer and Libra respectively, and march into tense alignments with Pluto, lord of the underworld, greed and ultimately transformation and resurrection who now retrogrades in the first degree of the worldly sign of Capricorn. Who knows? Maybe on the heels of the emotional instability following the recent trinity of eclipses the Dow (apologies to international readers, I can barely wrap around the NY stock strangeness let alone Nikkei and ASX and others) can hit 10K and reinstate the illusion of prosperity. Maybe well chosen words can take the “sticks and stones” out of the air. Then again, if a person feels disadvantaged or hijacked by circumstance, thoughtless words may find the escape value of an over-boiled psyche.


But let’s consider two subtleties of the planet patterns to Pluto. Mercury enjoyed a special relationship with Pluto’s domain. In exchange for leading people to the brink of the underworld where they could be evaluated for entry, Mercury enjoyed an unlimited hall pass. Mercury could come and go within the underworld as he pleased. The souls he led to the underworld faced a choice of sorts - part of that choice out of their hands; the conscious choice to follow Mercury to the shores of the River Styx already transacted. There is conscious choice - a clear Mercury thing, but when Pluto is involved, choice demands to be made based upon information that is not available. So an extrapolation of one’s consciousness, experience and wisdom must guide decisions where unknown variables lurk. The good news: There is no law that says if you make a decision and engage a path that you must stick to that path (written contracts and deals with the devil excluded) if the outcome does not agree with you. Still, the agenda of Mercury-Pluto provides you with scenarios around which you must reckon, knowing that you don’t know everything about that situation yet. The ultimate justification appears in the rationalization that no matter what, the experience will prove to be transformational.


Then there’s the Mars-Pluto thing. According to those who address planetary rulership, you’ll find some that figure both Mars and Pluto refer to the sign of Scorpio. Classical and Vedic astrologers alike tend to give only Mars to Scorpio’s rulership and the evolutionary, transformative sorts favor Pluto as lord over Scorpio. Regardless, Mars and Pluto confer next week through an angle of intrinsic testiness. It’s a matter of mundane vs. the evolving needs of consciousness. Which force will win? Sacred or profane? That depends, doesn’t it? Conflict-based action and shoving in line ala Mars likely add hostility to the air. Can the high road be taken when consensus reality appears so antithetical to anything insightful?


One thing for sure, the metaphors that life dishes up are often quite hysterical. A short while ago while watching the evening news the commentators reported a breaking news story that a fire below ground in a sewer line caused an explosion and forced the evacuation of a nearby neighborhood... a very nearby neighborhood. This occurred when the present position of Pluto very exactly aligned with Mars in my horoscope. I thought I’d better survey the scene. Standing in the yard I could see emergency vehicles and their stroboscopic flashing lights punctuating the night air. As I gazed upward following the light that tried to slice the night to ribbons, there it was. Directly over the emergency scene stood the constellation of Scorpio. Despite the prevailing challenges of the Pluto to Mars passage, I could find the humor in the situation.


Humor notwithstanding and the heavenly cross above, what to do personally? Know your bottom line. Establish what is worth it and what is not. Speak your truth and your spirituality with intractable resolve, allowing for differing views to hold their place. Fortify your spirit such that you are not shaken from your foundation by social pressures or economic temptations. Fight no battle that lacks merit. Display impeccable consistency in your consciousness. Be motivated by passion for your causes. Take time for renewal. Feed your creativity. Be your own model of excellence and emulate nothing that is not exceptional. Finally, to honor Eris, work to create a life worth living by carrying what you value and honor close to your heart.


An amazing dwarf planet event happened the other night. In 1994 Kevin Costner directed a movie entitled Rapa Nui, which portrayed with reasonable accuracy the bird man lore of Easter Island (Rapa Nui) and the birdman’s namesake and dwarf planet, Makemake. Since the naming of Makemake I scoured online for a DVD copy. The only ones I found came from Thailand and had to be played on a computer. Just as the movie reached the second act climax, the DVD went bonkers. Dang! So the other night with Mercury at 23 Virgo 02, just short of Makemake at 24 Virgo 36, one of the Encore cable channels broadcast Rapa Nui! If you can have someone who can Tevo this for you, it’s worth watching. Plus, this movie addresses the themes of Saturn to Makemake; we find issues of population vs. available resources, interpretation of omens and global warming effects. Meanwhile, we also learn that transits to dwarf planets work and on the applying side at an orb of at least a degree and a half.