The Grand Fixed Cross Eclipse - August 11th 1999
TO FEAR OR NOT TO FEAR?!
Maggie Kerr (AAT.Dip.Couns.)

I received a phone call from an astrologer friend in Melbourne a few months ago warning me that a “very good psychic” had warned through the media that the “big wave” was going to hit the east coast of Oz. in the week of July 7th, and that she was ensuring that all her friends and family were well away from the coast. Now I’ve been hearing these kinds of warnings for 20 years or more now (disasters, stock market crashes et. al.), but I thought I’d run it past two of my psychic friends - both of them said almost exactly the same thing…no big wave, but rather a gradual erosion of our coast lines over the next few years. Well sure enough over the past few weeks we have indeed experienced a high degree of erosion of our beautiful beaches…however, I’m still sitting here writing this above the water level!

The point of my little story? We are living in Millennium times, which assures us that the collective belief in the Armageddon or the end of the world is up and running once more, just as it does every thousand years. Hollywood is rising to the occasion pumping out comet movies, and deadly virus movies, and all sorts of expressions of our dark collective fears, and this little Aquarian Astrologer is sitting back pondering the deeper and more mystical aspect of this global phenomena.

I mean the word Millennium has become very trendy and is on everybody’s lips these days, however, my observation is that most people really don’t have a clue as to the deeper implications or meaning of this cyclic turn of the wheel. And when we add the August 11 eclipse to the scenario, with all sorts of folks analysing Nostradamas’ quatrain - the “The great king of terror will come from the sky” and coming up with all kinds of disaster scenarios, it is easy to see why so many people are worried, confused and somewhat disorientated right now!

So I’d like to present a few ideas here which I’ve gradually pondered lately, and I’m not claiming any particularly profound insight, but rather I seek to rationalise and make sense of some territory which can feel quite irrational, when one comes from a fear based perspective.
Firstly there is the matter of inside world/outside world time and space - the metaphysical perspective. Now up until quite recent times, the collective of humanity did not have a perception of the causal relationship between our thoughts and our realities.

Until the advent of the psychological movement a century ago, humankind was bounded by the Saturnine belief that the outside world was all that mattered, and that getting safe in it was a matter of power, control, aggression and conflict! The Neptunian movement of the late 18th century opened the crown Chakra potential as the next evolutionary stage in our journey, and since then we have all been challenged to begin to evolve into more Spiritualised beings, which involves taking up personal self responsibility as the next step in the Saturnine ladder.

A good example here is the one used by Liz Greene which goes something like …in the 1520s (a half millennium point and a Neptune Pluto synod point…they meet every 493 years or so) there occurred a Grand Stellium of 6 planets meeting in Pisces. So many Astrologers throughout Europe compared notes, and the general consensus was that the world would end by flood…logical stuff when you still have a world view which is completely externalised! Apparently some of them even built arks! Well the Pisces stellium came and went, and no flood. But what did happen was a German monk named Martin Luther tacked up his list of grievances against the Holy Mother Church on a church door in Gothenburg. Thus began the Protestant reformation which has had such a centralising effect upon the momentous historical progress over the past 500 years.

So world shaking events which alter and direct human evolution do not always happen in the outside world…the great king of terror coming from the sky may indeed play himself out as the space station Mira falling from its’ orbit and landing on Paris (apparently the designer Paco Rabonne has announced that this will be his last collection because Paris will not be here next year!). Or another scenario from Roderick Kidston in the Wellbeing article on the eclipse, where he tells us that the Cassini Mission to Saturn is due for its' slingshot around Venus on August 16th,, and is anything goes wrong said rocket will come hurtling our way complete with Plutonium payload.

There are many many ways we can imagine this very archetypal king of terror manifesting himself depending on own unique fears. And here is the point of the discussion thus far. If I analyse this archetype as an inner psychological experience then we can have some fun!

Metaphorically and symbolically the sky is “consciousness” - the conscious stream. The king of terror is our own inner demons and dragons which dwell beneath the thresh hold of our consciousness, and play themselves out as our fears and limitations. I also feel it important to play in the shadowland here. We all contain shadow…the Jungian term for our non integrated or unlived self, which ultimately demands expression if we are ever to become whole and fully conscious.

We have been passing through a collective process during the past 30 years or so since the Uranus Pluto conjunction of the mid 1960s, which offers us all the opportunity to integrate shadow and begin to live a more conscious life. This process demands that we begin to overcome the lower nature with its' egoic fears, and transcend into a more trusting and faith filled place within our beings, so enough of us can do a quantum leap in consciousness, in time to do some real work to save and heal our planet after the year 2000!

Now the August 11th eclipse is only one in a series of 5 eclipses in the fixed signs of Leo and Aquarius…and therefore the fixed cross. The first one was in August 1998, and the last will be in February 2000. The big fuss about the August 11th affair is that there is a quite mean set up of some of the more malific planets involved, all falling in hard aspect to each other in the fixed signs. To be specific a new Moon with the Sun/Moon at 18 Leo opposing Uranus at 14 Aquarius - squared by Mars at 16 Scorpio which is opposed by Saturn at 16 Taurus.

The Esoteric Fixed Cross is called the “Cross of Devotion and Will”, and its’ Soul centered lesson contains the crisis in consciousness which reorients a human being toward the Soul centred life. This crisis involves purging and purifying (Scorpio) the ego (Leo) so that the personal worth and value (Taurus) is found in serving humanity or the collective (Aquarius). The downside here is the old purifying stage of the process…it hurts! Facing our Saturnine “Ring Pass Not” complete with all the old pain and suffering we’ve been collecting and storing in our cells for countless lifetimes is a very painful process. And yet this is the reality of the Path of Discipleship through all the Alchemical and Hermetic traditions.

So the news is folks - it’s all up!!…and the really good news is that once you face the demons of the unconscious the gift is the alchemical gold - the open heart centre of Leo - a non egoic expression of the creative impulse which dwells within each of us! So the journey through the Fixed Cross is the alchemical opus…the work of the lifetime. Interesting here to mention the Sabian Symbol for 18 Leo which is:
“A chemist conducts an experiment for his students - Keynote: In inquiring into the hidden process of nature, the human mind experiences the thrill of discovery.
Here we reach the level of intellectual analysis and the human ability to control natural processes. This ability is based on the inherited knowledge acquired by a community of men, generation after generation. The symbol stresses this fact, as it presents a teaching situation. The individual demonstrates his power, which is founded on a long series of efforts. He is one link in an ancestral chain which his activity prolongs into the future. At the highest level of this activity one can speak of ALCHEMY.”

“The individual demonstrates his power, which is founded on a long series of efforts”…I like this bit!! And it takes me a little closer to wrapping up to the point of my ponderings. The fixed cross alchemical process is about coming into power, and as far as I am concerned this is the remarkable opportunity on offer through this next eclipse. The Astrological system is a model containing the recipe for the alchemical journey to conscious expression - both personally and collectively. It is also a philosophy containing the Hermetic tradition of discipleship toward a Spiritually inspired life. The planetary energies which will alchemise on August 11th will give us all a huge kick in the second sacral plexus Chakra…to get on with it!!

This is very exciting and wonderful and fills me with hope! It marks a time of enormous change, both on an inside and outside level. It is essential not to resist it, but rather to embrace it and to get excited about yourself as never before. If you still have unexpressed and unresolved fears about your personal worth and power (Saturn in Taurus opposition Mars in Scorpio), then there’s a good chance they will leap up in front of your face in the months to come. The point again is to embrace the process immediately and to face any of your old “stuff” and heal it up ASAP!

Because there is a quantum leap door of opportunity opening within the next month, which can change your life! Dare to dream your dreams and believe your power to create them! Come into faith in the future, and excitement at your potential to participate in it more fully and consciously than ever before. Celebrate your unique individuality - is not this the essence of a New Moon in Leo opposed by Uranus. The time has come for us all to “get over” all the ways we block our power and get on with it! There is no more room for victim consciousness if we are to evolve into a clearer more Soul centred reality…so give it up. There is no-one out there to blame any more for why your life does not look the way you want it to! There is only self responsibility - on the deepest unconscious level we all create our own realities.

The king of terror is the Anti Christ - the antithesis of the Messiah. The Armageddon mythology contains the belief in both sides of the shadow being in conflict within our psyche. So maybe it’s time to heal your antichrist and invite your inner Messiah - the part of you which is filled with love and compassion - who has transcended judgment of others and playing power games to control them - the part of you who is ready to teach others by example and is delighted to share your knowledge - the part of you who is ready to love…and be loved!

Onward and upward everybody - have a great eclipse. Love Maggie

Copyright © Maggie Kerr