There have been a lot of words printed in astrological circles recently about the “Big Cardinal Cross” that’s forming on our doorstep. This summer is supposed to be a volatile one. Everyone is wondering how these major conflicting energies are going to effect them personally, particularly those of us with early cardinal planets. No one likes grand crosses–ask anyone who was born with one (like poor Robert Downey Jr., whose chart we’ve 
been working in our progressions class). Four different energies opposed and square, fighting one another for expression. The more volatile planets can act as a trigger, lighting the fuse for the built up tension–particularly when transited by the classic ‘triggers, Sun, Moon, Mars, and the transiting nodes. Natally, it is a bit like an explosion waiting to happen, and progressions, followed by transits, will tell us when we’re most under the thumb of developmental stress.
How we will cope with the upcoming stress transits has a lot to do with the condition of the planet or planets they touch in our charts. Transits do not happen in a vacuum. We have to analyze both our natal and progressed charts before we can really understand what a transit will mean. This goes for the cardinal cross, too. There may be global repercussions from this cross, but they will effect us all in different ways.
For a rational discussion of what’s to come, I’m going to turn you over to the competent hands of my friend, astrologer Anne Whitaker, who is writing a series about the cross on her blog. Anne is the author of the book “Jupiter Meets Uranus” which I featured on this site (read the feature here). One of my favorite things about Anne’s work is that she neither inflates nor diminishes the possible impact of changes in store. (I have been VERY disappointed with some heretofore reasonable astrologers who should know better than to scaremonger.) Please read part one of her series here, and don’t forget to follow up when she posts part two and three.
The crucial date we’re discussing is June 8, 2010. Not only do we have a cross, but Mars is opposite Chiron, also at 0 degrees, and in the afternoon here at EDT, the cross will be on the angles and the transiting Moon will hit 0 degrees Taurus. (If you click the image you will get a larger picture. Use your back button to get back here.)
Am I concerned with all this conflicting energy? Not particularly. Change is certainly afoot, and there will be activity, that’s what the these planets are all about. The planetary energy indicates a tearing down of the old and outdated and a new perspective on how we relate. But the cardinal mode is also about movement. It’s about initiation, about implementation. It’s about making something real out of a new creative impulse. (Aries initiates, Cancer joins it to matter, Libra refines and balances and Capricorn builds.) I would be more concerned, I think, if this confuration was occuring in fixed signs. Jupiter/Uranus spends the summer in Aries before dipping back into Piscean waters for a long time (Jupiter goes way back to 23 Pisces). What happens in the summer will have something to do with recapturing some of the lessons we may have missed as both planets passed through the twelfth sign. And I’m more interested in what will happen at the end of the year, from October, when the transiting Nodes will hit Pluto in the early degrees of Capricorn/Cancer and eventually come to the midpoint of a Pluto/Mars conjunction. There’s a doozy of an eclipse in December, too.
Am I planning to do anything differently in the next six months? No. Well, Jupiter/Uranus is spending a lot of time on my Descendant, so perhaps the possibility of being abducted by an alien lover is close at hand, and I should keep a packed bag under my bed just in case. (I’m hoping for David Bowie in The Man Who Fell to Earth, or Doctor Who, not Mork.) Seriously, the one thing I am doing is backing up my hard drive on something solid, not virtual. But that’s always good advice, grand cardinal cross or no.
Goodness, that chart looks like my natal chart. I haven’t had the leisure of investigating this impending grand cross save to be aware that it is coming. Thanks for addressing it, keeping it light and sending us elsewhere to learn more. I enjoy your blog. Peace. Love. Light.
Hi Dawn
just logged in – currently away again in the wild and beautiful North West of Scotland, doing some walking in beautiful woods and hill country by the sea, forgetting all about whether the sky will fall in or not early in June!
Thanks for this measured piece, and for the heads-up. If I see any alien lovers who seem keen on doing a spot of abducting, I’ll send them your way!
Mind you, Jupiter/Uranus squares my Mars come June…….might find one for myself too….
If no one hears from us in a couple of months they’ll know why.
Hi Dawn,
Thanks for addressing this! I’m very excited for this cross. My NN is at 0 Aries and my ASC at 1 Aries. I also have a lot of other natal placements that are being exactly aspected by the cardinal cross. Anyway, lots of changes already seem to be in motion for me but get this! June 8, the day you mentioned, I am scheduled to have surgery to finally correct the effects of an bad accident I was in when I was younger. Considering Mars and Chiron’s placements that day (as well as my own natal Mars at 0 Scorpio and the NN and axes positions I mentioned), I’m amazed! I didn’t even know about those placements when I was scheduled for that day.
Sorry, but where is this big cardinal cross? I don’t see anything in Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn which is on opposition or square? Yes, we have Mars opp. Chiron, but it’s in mutable Virgo-Pisces signs, and again nothing in Gemini-Saggitarius? Could you, please, explain which big cardinal cross on June 8th do you mentioned about?
// Sorry for my – probably – terrible English 🙂
Vladimir,
First of all, your English is wonderful. Secondly, I have to blame a late night and sloppy writing for not saying quite what I intended to say. Thirdly, you’ve hit on something I wanted to discuss, but didn’t have the energy to write about at the time, so thank you for pointing it out. In fact, contrary to popular belief, there IS NO big cardinal cross. That’s why I think this is all a lot of hooey (English slang for garbage). These planets never cross in cardinal signs. What we have here, this summer, is the first Jupiter/Uranus conjunction in Aries squaring Pluto in Cap, with Saturn squaring, but still in Virgo. June 8th is the day that astrologers are considering the beginning of the time these conflicting energies fall into place, due to the Jupiter/Uranus conjunction at 0 Aries–they’re thinking about the big T-square as a major pattern, and then anything moving into early Cancer to complete the square can trigger it (Moon, Sun, asteroids, stardust). But honestly, as I said, I think this is all nonsense, and I’m more concerned about the transiting Nodes hitting a Pluto/Mars conjunction later in the year.
Pluto in Capricorn is set out to destroy outdated structures, Jupiter/Uranus will urge it on and Saturn will fight it. And yes, anything that opposes Pluto from Cancer will trigger a fight. (On June 21st, the Sun moves there, and this is the closest we get to a real cardinal cross.) We’re in for change, and those who refuse change will have it thrust upon them. But there has been too much talk about this non-existent so-called “cardinal” cross in the field, particularly from those who are hinting at apocalyptic scenarios without offering any reasonable advice.
The truth is that Saturn enters zero Libra on July 21st. We spend a tense couple of months with this volatile T-square, but by early September Jupiter and Uranus retro and dip back into Pisces. I think, if we do have any trouble, it will be in late September when the Sun joins Saturn in squaring the Nodes; Pluto will be conjunct the transiting NN and the Sun will still be in orb of opposing Jupiter and Uranus. But anything is possible during this time, (certainly with Jupiter/Uranus involved) and its just as likely that someone will find a cure for a major disease.
Hi again!
Your note is more than informative, I understand now what do you mean. Thank you for this answers.
I’m a subscriber to the blog’s RSS and when I have enough time I’m reading your articles with interest, thank you!