Layering Lessons from Multiple Astrological Events

The past couple of weeks have been a bit intense astrologically, with the April 15th Lunar Eclipse, April 23rd Cardinal Grand Cross, and April 29th Solar Eclipse all making waves, especially for people with prominent Cardinal sign placements in their natal charts. Reverberations from such events continue in our lives for some time after the initial event, with eclipses in particular setting the tone for the next six months in whatever areas of life they impact, as represented by the houses and signs they fall into in our natal charts, progressed charts, and relocation charts. Since I have both luminaries and multiple planets in Cardinal signs and those signs fall in the angular houses of my natal chart, I’ve been feeling the effects of the square/opposition aspects leading up to that Grand Cross for some time (primarily since the Pluto/Uranus squares started in June of 2012). These effects have been most distinctly expressed in the dynamic between my interpersonal relationships and my livelihood and the drastic restructuring of both. Since astrology is one of the tools I use for making sense of the universe in the midst of significant life-changes, layering in the lessons of the eclipses over the next six months seems like a useful mid-range planning tool for navigating the larger life lessons that have come to a head with the Cardinal Grand Cross (and we Capricorns love our plans!).

The Lunar Eclipse started things out with Venus in Pisces trine Jupiter in Cancer amping up sensory values, and the Moon conjunct Ceres on the North Node in Libra opposed by the Sun on the South Node in Aries. There was a sense of fateful choice here, concerning abundance and nurturing in particular (as represented by Ceres), with the ego (Sun) sticking to the patterns of the past (South Node) and the emotions/instincts (Moon) leading toward a more fruitful future, if we could just get over our fear of change long enough to embrace it! In my case, the eclipse fell across my 1st/7th house axis, governing my identity and my relationships, with the Moon/Ceres/North Node in my 1st house. In connection with the Cardinal Grand Cross and the impact of the ongoing Pluto/Uranus squares on my natal chart, the Lunar Eclipse emphasized the sense of being at a major crossroads in my life.

I’ve briefly discussed the Cardinal Grand Cross here, with a heavy emphasis on Pluto because its ongoing transit through my natal 4th house and impending transit of my natal Venus, Sun, and Mercury is much on my mind lately and fueling my current Pluto studies. Whether natal or transiting, a Grand Cross is covering all four elements in either cardinal, fixed, or mutable signs, with the energy invoked going in all four directions at once, which can emphasize a sense of being stuck or trapped. With cardinal energy the trapped feeling especially is emphasized, as cardinal energy is initiatory, action-oriented, and so it’s looking for a place to go but being both pulled and pushed in all four directions at once it can’t really commit to going anywhere. With Uranus in the mix, I found that this energy felt alternately frenetic then pinned in place by Plutonian control, so the actual day of the Grand Cross I wound up being much more energetic and social than I expected, but then spent the next several days in a hectic work/social schedule that was clearly too much for me, as evidenced by the fairly drastic lupus flare-up that I experienced as soon as I got a full night’s sleep after all that activity (Pluto putting the kibosh on all that rampant Uranian electricity!). Uranus in Aries has been slowly moving out of conjunction to my natal Moon and opposition to my natal Uranus on my Ascendant/Descendant axis, and at the time of Cardinal Grand Cross was almost exactly conjunct my natal Vertex in the 7th house. So the sense of a fateful crossroads being invoked in the Lunar Eclipse was even more emphasized for me by the Cardinal Grand Cross, as the Vertex represents a twist of fate in relation to a person, place, or event. In addition, Mars retrograde transiting my 1st house and conjoining my natal Uranus/Ascendant has had my fiery lunar Aries temper bubbling just under the surface and constantly in danger of erupting every time I feel as though my forward progress is being thwarted, which during Mars retrograde in Libra seems to be most of the time! Thus, a lot of the reverberations of the Grand Cross for me have involved finding ways to channel my energy and agitation when my conscious will comes to an impasse. There is a strong feeling here of the need to rewrite the rules under which I have been living (Pluto), and side-step old patterns of dealing with problems, like Alexander slicing through the Gordian knot (the thought of which always has my inner comic book geek quoting Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias of The Watchmen: “Lateral thinking, you see. Centuries ahead of his time.”). This is heightened by Jupiter in my 10th house opposing Pluto and demanding that I re-make my career with more faith and vision.

The Solar Eclipse’s Mercury/Sun in Taurus conjoining my natal Saturn trined Pluto in Capricorn beginning its transit of my natal Venus/Sun/Mercury in my 4th house. Since a Solar Eclipse happens during a New Moon, it has an initiatory quality to it, a time of new beginnings characterized by the occultation of the ego by emotions and instincts and then the ego’s subsequent revelation after the darkness – as if our natures are revealed more fully by first hiding them and then drawing the curtain away again, emphasizing what was hidden. This is all the more true when it taps into Pluto, which governs mysteries and secrets. Mercury conjoining the Sun and Moon in Taurus emphasizes communication of Venusian matters (since Taurus is ruled by Venus). These include our values, love, pleasure, the arts, and creature comforts. Since all of this is occurring in my natal 8th house, there is the potential for deeply transformative results from this kind of communication, and since this eclipse conjuncts my natal Saturn, that challenges my inhibitions and feelings of limitation. Yet Saturn never challenges us without also giving us the strength and discipline to overcome those challenges, so here I have to face my ego, emotions/instincts, and my modes of expression in both a practical and artistic manner (Taurus/Venus) in order to work through Saturn’s challenges. A tall order perhaps, but one in keeping with the challenge of my North Node in Pisces in the 6th house, as discussed in this blog’s first post. In connection with Mercury’s propensity for connecting duality and oppositions, this is even more appropriate to my natal chart and my Nodal Axis, given the opposite placement of signs in all of my houses.

These three configurations are emphasizing an ongoing pattern of life-lessons I’ve been wrestling with over the past couple of years, with the changes required by those lessons about to come to a head over the next few months – right across that six-month swath of eclipse influence. If I had to distill their underlying message for myself in a nutshell, it would most likely end up being some variation on Neil Gaiman’s advice to “Make Good Art.” 😉 Everything in my life may be going through a major overhaul, and the path before me is murky at best, but all of that trapped cardinal energy looking for an outlet has the creative engine seriously fired up, so I’ll take that as a good thing. 🙂