THOUGHTS ON THE CURRENT CARDINAL CROSS

I was prompted to write on this topic by astrologer Robert Phoenix who included my offering (below) along with his own thoughts and articles by other astrologers in his blog last weekend.

In case a passing non-astro reader feels curious, the planetary configuration in question is a currently slow-forming "cross" within a "square", outlined by 2 sets of 2 planets in opposition, with all 4 in 90 degree square aspect to one another. Such a configuration isn't that uncommon - it's often found in natal charts. In the current case though, the configuration is more notable because it is being formed in the 4 Cardinal signs (Aries/Cancer/Libra/Capricorn) known as dynamic initiators - and by some slow-moving planets known from experience as "heavy hitters", tending to reflect their situation on the world at large rather than on an individual: Pluto, Uranus, Saturn and Mars, with other planets involved at various stages. The configuration will be forming gradually from June to a completion in early August, then very slowly moving apart again. My own thoughts on the current cardinal cross follow:

Coming from the perspective of a non-professional astrologer, but one who has watched astrological events and their results with interest over many years, first thoughts on the upcoming cardinal cross are: it will not augur any single, immediately dire, event.

My view on astrology generally is that, at its core, there's something very, very important still to be discovered, but on its periphery there are rather too many assumptions held. I do note these titanic alignments and configurations, remain aware that there'll be something radically different in the astrological atmosphere, but without a clear idea of what that might be, or of what it could lead to.....or when.

Whatever alarms, changes or transformation might be indicated by the upcoming configuration of planets, I doubt that much will come to a head at the exact time the planets form this cardinal cross in early August. Things have been coming to "boiling point" for some years, and will continue to retain a lot of heat for some years more. Events have been stacking up: earthquakes, oil spills/leaks, volcano eruptions, political unrest. The same trend is likely to continue. We're talking about an era rather than a few days or weeks of this summer. The cardinal cross of 2010 is akin to a very loud thunder-clap during a storm as it passes right overhead.

Cardinal signs linked together indicate something of a climax. The planets involved can be heavy hitters. I tend to respect predictions based on Pluto, Uranus and Saturn more than most others. All three are involved here. Astrologers' predictions related to the cardinal cross need to be kept in mind, though not with an expectation of massive and immediate upheaval. A climax does not need to be all that dramatic, it can simply be a point at which there's a turn-around. In 100 years or so, when historians and astrologers look back, they'll be able to pinpoint a span of around 10 years when things on Earth, and lifestyles for its inhabitants, changed irreversibly. The summer of 2010 will, I suspect, be at center of that span.

In matters of the environment, energy, politics, the corporatocracy, militarism, religion there have been areas of serious concern building for some years. This cardinal cross could simply be a reflection of what we've been living through, and will continue to live through for a while longer.

We are in a period of gradual change, but then we always have been. The now isn't a lot different from any other time in history. We should try to avoid hyperbole, remain hopeful and remember John Steinbeck's words in "The Grapes of Wrath":

"This you may say of man – when theories change ... and crash, when schools, philosophies, when narrow dark alleys of thought, national, religious, economic, grow and disintegrate, man reaches, stumbles forward, painfully, mistakenly sometimes. Having stepped forward, he may slip back, but only half a step, never the full step back."

With a nod to Douglas Adams, the best advice of all....always: