Signs in the Heavens
A Grand Cross for Yule
Diviner’s General Disclaimer
No form of divination, by cards, stars or any other device dictates what will happen. All signs, auspicious or malefic, indicate only what might be. It is up to us to read the signs with as much care as we can and lean into what ever we imagine the most fortuitous indication to be. If we believe the wandering stars to be the calling cards of living Gods, if we are animists, then perhaps, reading the signs they place before us, we might petition their favor to act in our own.
Above is a chart I cast for the exact moment of the Winter Solstice. As The Sun enters Capricorn and we enter a new solar year, the cosmos will grace us with a “Grand Cross”. If we think of the Winter Solstice as the “Birthday of the Sun” and New Year, then this Grand Cross will be baked into the “personality” of 2025. Because one corner of this grand cross will be held down by The Moon at 13° Virgo, this will be a short lived configuration lasting just over 16 hours (from 5:15 pm on Friday the 20 until 9:25 am on the 21st.)[i] A beautiful synchronicity, especially for those of us who live in, or ajacent to the U.S. Eastern Time Zone.
A Grand Cross forms when four planets occupy places approximately 90° apart in the zodiac.[ii] This particular Grand Cross finds The Moon in Virgo, Mercury in Sagittarius, Saturn in Pisces and Jupiter in Gemini. All four mutable signs are represented. The mutable signs represent transitional or liminal phases for each of their respective elements. This indicates that we will experience significant change at the physical (Virgo/Earth), emotional (Pisces/Water), intelectual (Gemini/Air) and passionate (Sagittarius/Fire) levels of our collective and individual lives in the coming year. Mutable signs are especially adept at negotiating change withoug pushing or clinging. We therefore have a chance to weather these changes with neuance, flexability and the equiniminity that comes with a profound awareness of the impermanance of all things. Finally, The Grand Cross (or Grand Square) is a highly stable configuration. Stability through change will therefore be a watch word for the coming year.
The Grand Cross aspect is composed of two oppositions. we see Jupiter in Gemini opposite Mercury in Sagittarius and The Moon in Virgo opposite Saturn in Pisces. Each of these oppositions mediates and regulates the change we can expect to see.
Starting with the Jupiter/Mercury opposition, we see that these two planets are in the opposite sign from their rulership.[iii] Both planets are said to be “debilitated” in these signs but since this debility occurs in one another’s signs, the two planets are in a position to assist one another through mutual reception.[iv] Jupiter is concerned with big ideas, political, philosophical and religious. He likes to build and maintain institutional power through these ideas and, if he were at home in Sagittarius, he would set about preaching and teaching. Instead, he finds himself in Gemini, sign of experimentation and deconstruction. Gemini, being one of Mercury’s domiciles, is a place of questioning and critical analysis, sometimes just for the pure hell of it. Jupiter doesn’t like such questioning but neither does Mercury (in Jupiters sign) like the wrote learning of received, institutionally approved “wisdom”. But in this situation, Mercury can help Jupiter see the contingency of his doctrines. Jupiter, for his part, can help Mercury see that even the most skeptical and deconstructive work still rests on logic and, at the very least, the possibility of truth. This opposition provides at least the possibility of institutional reform through a kind of Socratic questioning aimed at discovering the difference (if any) between truth and mere opinion. Jupiter in Gemini opposite Mercury in Sagittarius is said to correspond with major upheavals in institutional structures. These could be as overarching as governments or as personal as marriage and family relationships. This opposition alone would explain a lot of what we have been experiencing in the wider world (and perhaps in our personal lives) of late. Such transitions can be violent, disruptive and generally unpleasant. We are fortunate that on this longest night of the year, another opposition cuts cleanly across this wrecker of old orders.
In the Saturn/Moon oppositions we see that Saturn floats in the disolving waters of Pisces.[v] Saturn like clear boundaries between things. Pisces is about as inhospitable to boundaries as any sign could be. Pisces has a reputation for dreaminess, even drunkenness. Saturn has been struggling for well over a year now to get a foothold here. The Moon represents our bodies, memories, traditions, routiens and culture. She is in the careful and miticulous Virgo, sign of practicality, detail and logical connections. Interestingly, Virgo is the other domicile of Mercury, but rather than the abstract airieness of Gemini, we are looking at a kind of nuts and bolts precision in which Mercury also revels. The Moon, being the fastest moving of all the Wandering Stars, has just over 16 hours in which to signal to water logged Saturn, the grounding potential of practical steps meant to achieve practical ends. She asks us to do the same.
The best possible use we might make of this short lived but very powerful allignment will consist in stepping our from what ever silo of ideology we may have been living within and judging the world from, and into the open commons of every day, practical concerns. Jupiter and Mercury will help us to recognize that all of our philosophical and ideological posturing ammount to nothing more than intelectual “fancy footwork” (remember those wings on Herme’s sandals) designed to make us certain of our own convictions while laying snares for those who justify theirs by different lights. But this alone would only leave us intelectually homeless if it weren’t for the Moon/Saturn opposition. Saturn has lost much of its “edge” while soaking in the waters of Pisces. Instead of building up yet more ideological armor that will only continue to rust in these mutable waters, we have the opportunity to see what we hold in common (The Moon stands for the common people). We all need practical things, a place to live and care for our people, food and the real renewing work of rest and repair. Let us give the Moon the opportunity to remind us of these things which make us more alike than different. This is more than just a nice idea. The stars dictate that a time of sweeping change is upon us. Whether we spend this time continuing to play gatcha games with our political, religious, philosophical and ideological opponents or trying to figure out the most efficient way for people to meet their most basic needs is of little concern to those stars. As I said at the start of this essay, the stars only show us what might happen. It is up to us – all of us – do decide what WILL.
Blessed Yule and a happy and prosperous New Year from Little Meadow
December 10,2024
[i] The Moon covers approximately 13° of the zodiac each day. Any aspect formed between The Moon and other bodies will, therefore, be short lived.
[ii] A Grand Cross can, in fact, involve more than four planets through conjunctions between the primary four planets and other bodies.
[iii] Jupiter rules Sagittarius and Pisces while Mercury rules Gemini and Virgo.
[iv] Mutual Reception occurs when two planets occupy one another’s “domiciles” i.e. one of the signs ruled by the other planet. In this case, Jupiter “rules” Sagittarius while Mercury rules Gemini. Although planets in signs opposite their domiciles are said to suffer debility, when they are opposite another planet in a similarly debilitated state, the two planets can assist one another.
[v] It is interesting to note that Pisces is the other of Jupiter’s domiciles. But while in Sagittarius, Jupiter shows his expansiveness in the form of philosophical doctrine, in Pisces it is the expansive, even boundless imagination of Jupiter that we see. This is why Saturn, who like limits, boundaries and regular patterns is uncomfortable here. Mercury too is said to be “depressed” in that, Pisces is opposite Virgo, Mercury’s more practical domicile.