Grand Cross - 2005

The current outlook as back drop to the nations' charts:

Aries Mercury has now reached the opposition to Jupiter and communications might be exaggerated for a day or two, and then Mercury starts to move into a newer territory after its retro loop. We still want to realize new concepts quickly and be fast in our communications.

From June to December 2003 Mars was last in Pisces. In a few days Mars enters again into Pisces, and will pass Uranus at 11 degrees on May 15th. That moment might define what will follow later. It is hard to predict what the moment itself can hold in store for the world. It will be a revealing and surprising time, only few weeks away. Then a time of shapeshifting begins. It could well be that after 2006 we will not recognize the reality we are in now.

The climate we had in the 2nd half of 2003 - an almost motionless or still phase - will be played out again soon in May 2005. The action will not be very visible, rather mystical, in some cases even misguided because Mars is really not "at home" in Pisces. It is a good phase though for inner growth and metaphysical pursuits, hence this memo, and the fast pace of the last weeks will resume for a brief phasing when Mars moves into its own sign Aries by June 12th and until July 28th. Mark mid June to end of July for a month of important new actions!

Mars is the tracking point to see actions begin, unfold, and end. The cycle that began by the end of 2003 ends on June 11th. Alignments while Mars is in Pisces are favorable this time, but generally Mars in Pisces is the moment when actions ought to be completed. After June 12th the climate changes. Jupiter will resume direct motion in Libra and Saturn (more of that one below!) moves into Leo shortly therafter, after the tedious two years of Cancer Saturn, this might be a very welcome change...

By October 26th Jupiter enters Scorpio and Mars will find itself in a long half year retro and forward phase in Taurus, in opposition to Jupiter, which means the tensions and exaggerations will begin by mid October to mid December. Saturn will move into Leo on July 16th, so that the following picture emerges by year end of 2005, with a grand square or grand cross in the four fixed energy signs, Taurus (Mars), Leo (Saturn), Scorpio (Jupiter), and Aquarius (Neptune).

A square in these signs made by these four planets means we will be in a way at a standstill and the strategy of tensions might become visible, which will show evidently in world affairs. The year thereafter is all about conflict management. I would estimate that by mid to end October this year, things will turn serious. The square alone between Jupiter and Saturn is to be read by experience as a downturn in economy, or at least a reality check point of what resources and the sharing of them are all about.

The square Saturn to Mars - in effect from mid November 2005 to mid January 2006 - makes it difficult to get actions to grip at all. A lot of negotiations will take place and Mars is quasi held in check by Saturn. Acceleration will not really take place during this phase. Many activities will center around the issues of safety, and maybe only very conventional or traditional approaches will yield immediate results. We can say that lines will be drawn and positions will be taken.

The opposition Saturn to Neptune brings over time (a year at least) a new reality and the understanding of different quantum realities. There can be a merging of realties or of dimensions during this phase taking place. While we will have had a comparatively easy ride with Jupiter in Libra, as of end of October the psychological atmosphere will gradually transform into a climate of potential toughness, probably due to fears of the unknown.

Neptune rules and deals with that which we can summarize as the surreal, visionary, illusionary and the ephemeral, or unreal whereas Saturn is interested in what is 'real', or cold hard measurable reality than can be grasped and quantified. Saturn is also separation whereas Neptune is merger. On the other hand Neptune dissolves and Saturns limits. SO... When Saturn moves into a hard or challenging open aspect with another outer planet, then it tends to bring out into the open the negative side of that planet and the sign the planet is in. We saw this in 2001-2003 with the Saturn Pluto opposition.

Neptune holds sway also over issues such as precognitions, psychism, mind control, movie industry, photography, high art, oil industries, water, oceans, leaks, floods, delusions, illusions, dreams, denials, and so many more things hard to pinpoint really. Whereas Saturn, as we know, is lord of the tangible reality check point, order, law, structure, governments, architecture, space and time, and then somewhere in quantum physics it joins Neptune's shamanism. It is this where limitation meets that which has no boundary.

When Saturn will be in Leo, measuring gold, and checking into what authority and regality are about, it will oppose Neptune for a long time. This will coincide - I bet now - with a time of maximum delusion and of mass psychotic denials, which can mean that cracking down on drugs could be one thing that will be prevalent then, but other memes do come to mind, such as tidal waves and droughts.

So in that respect the worst and the best have yet to come. Saturn makes no long standing hard aspect until then to any other OUTER planet. To me this means that by mid 2006 the mirage of everything will be high-lighted, or over, as the case may be, economy for one, but many other illusions we held dear will by then be inspected. This is why I feel the economy downturn will become clearly palpable by mid 2006.

On the other hand, Saturn in Leo opposing Neptune in Aquarius in late 2005, all of 2006 and 2007 will also determine who is leader and who is 'people', and that too will not be very clear to determine with Neptune in group orientated Aquarius. Individualism and globalism are key words of a Leo-Saturn to Aquarius-Neptune aspect. We would have to go back 250-300 years to find a corresponding aspect.

This could also be a time when the internet will become highly regulated and we want to think ahead about what we want to do about it. Visions of movies that fit the theme of Neptune opposing Saturn are Spielberg's 'Artificial Intelligence' & 'Minority Report', Philip K. Dick's 'Blade Runner', and a few others that could come to mind. Science fiction will be checked for facts. Alien stories by then will have to be in the measurable realm.

What happens also with Neptune in opposition to Saturn is that the things we want to measure and check become unmeasurable and dissolve, or the visible becomes invisible, and vice-versa, so I am not yet sure exactly how we will see this thought manifest, but Saturn in Leo will have a hard time to establish authority, if anything I feel authorities of any kind will be constantly undermined and dissolved by Neptune. It will be a time rife with false beginnings and endless endings. There is faith for the group to come together and to evict the tyrants by mid 2007, but I would not bet on it.

In politology we can point to some stand off between India (Aquarius) and Pakistan (Leo), and we will see the gold price probably go off the charts, but that too is not yet a sure thing, in fact with Neptune opposite Saturn nothing will ever be very certain, and in the end it may well be that we will move from illusion to reality and back again, in a shamanic process of diluting the seeming boundaries. It could be the end of Hegelian dialectics and the beginning of untested understanding coming from direct knowledge.

Trust is a big issue in this opposition that is in effect for a year. What will make that transit really interesting is that Jupiter will anchor a T-Square in Scorpio (which rules trust issues) to both the opposite players, for a moment, and Jupiter then tends to magnify the issues, and my feeling is it will do this subtly, thoroughly and terminally, from within the Scorpio part of the heavens.

The square Mars to Neptune involves maybe misunderstood action or underhanded and hidden action. It is a tough alignment in and by itself. A change of reality is indicated with this one aspect alone, but we must see the grand square in full context.

The square Jupiter to Neptune will mirror a probing quality and an understanding of things esoteric, spiritual, or transcendental. It will be a 'difficult' time in the sense that the shadow sides activate and we will have to be on an alert awake level of comprehension in what will come our way. Many developments will remain hidden for a long year, well into fall of 2006.

What we will experience will remain at a subtle level. The only grounded element will be Mars in Taurus, which prompts us to look into earth elements projects, building with the earth, or exploring what we can do together with what the land has to offer. It is only in February 2006 that Mars will move on into Gemini and then finally the pace will quicken dramatically, and ideas will travel very fast.

Until then things can get somewhat stuck or steady for a while and also, basically as of August this year and until February of next year, we are in a phase where we have to make do with a tenacious climate and we must find new ways of operating in newly discovered realities for many months to come. When you don't know what to do, do nothing - is an old rule...

What to do is the question? Well, now the other rule of thumb is in astrology that "Under Trine You May Act, BUT Under Square You MUST Act!" Yes, despite the tenacity of this long standing aspect, things must get to be moved... and one way or another we want to manifest something of value. Good luck with it and we will see closer to the time what this can imply when we see what has transpired by then.