The Big Bad Grand Cross is Coming…

Ok… it’s big but not necessarily so bad, but I see a fair number of astrologers these days getting all hot and bothered over it, so I wanted to address it.

Every now and then, 4 or more planets in the sky get into a configuration we refer to as a Grand Cross. This consists of at least two planets on opposite sides of the sky that are 90º from at least two other planets on opposite sides of the sky. If you were to draw a line between these planets, it would form a cross, and so we call it a Grand Cross.

And so, roughly from April 20th to April 27th, 2014, Pluto will be at 13º Capricorn opposing Jupiter at 13º – 14º Cancer, while Uranus will be at 13º Aries opposing Mars at 14º -12º Libra. And Pluto & Jupiter are squaring Uranus & Mars. Now, due to the slow speed of both Pluto & Uranus, the square between them has activated a few times so far and besides getting trigger with the Grand Cross, that square will activate a couple of more times yet.

So let’s look at that square as a starting point. Pluto symbolizes major transformation & change. Uranus symbolizes freedom, new ideas and some chaos. This square has been with us since June 2012 and will be recurring until its last connection in March 2015. Pluto is transformation, Uranus is often surprising change, and over the past couple of years we have had transformative & surprising change in attitudes & laws regarding the rights of homosexuals to marry, and the legal status of marijuana. We have seen a Pope elected that is espousing some remarkably different ideas than the public has come to expect from a Pope. I am sure you can look around you & see more radical transforming changes lately.

But this time around, in April, Jupiter opposing Pluto, and Mars opposing Uranus, will augment the Pluto/Uranus square.. And on the 20th the Moon will be hanging out with Pluto, and on the 27th, it will be next to Uranus. This IS a heady mix. And if you have any planets in your chart at 12º to 16º of a cardinal sign (Aries, Cancer. Libra and Capricorn) you will feel this Grand Cross personally too.

My general advice is, stay as loose and as flexible as possible. Change is afoot and being adaptable is an easier way to adjust to change. And this is deep change, Plutonian change, not just throwing a new coat of paint on something to spruce it up. This is change down in the root systems.

An astrological colleague of mine really put it succinctly and poetically in her blog, which I have extracted and quoted below (italics and bold are mine). “The Cardinal signs are all about control… it comes down to this: if you don’t run your life, someone else will. Be aware that we are going to be dealing with a Cardinal T-square all the way into July 2014. Some may groan, but I see this as a chance to set your life up the way you want it. To work with this energy, your philosophy (Jupiter) may have to change (Uranus), drastically (Pluto). But any effort (Mars) you make to liberate yourself is likely to pay long term dividends.“ ~ Elsa Panizzon from http://www.elsaelsa.com