T-Squares and Grand Crosses

Margery asks what it might feel like when a Natal T-Square is “Completed” by a Transiting planet to make the T-Square into a Grand Cross. The answer is really the same when a Transiting T-Square is Completed by a Natal planet.*

* Astrologuese to English: “Natal” means at Birth. “Transiting” or “Transit” means in the Sky now, or if you’re looking at a different time, in the Sky at that time. A “T-Square” is two planets on Opposite sides of the Zodiac, with a third at a Midpoint between them. A “Grand Cross” is four planets more or less equally spaced around the Zodiac. “Completed” means that, when added to a chart, a planet from another chart converts an Unstable Configuration like a T-Square into a Stable Configuration like a Grand Cross. The additional planet can be from any other chart, including another person’s chart, a chart for the current moment, or any other moment. The Completed Configuration applies to the “Group Soul,” ie, the Entity Created by the Combination, in psychic time or space, of the Entities represented by the two charts.

The “Native” is the Entity represented by a Natal astrological chart. Note that for a Transit, the Native is the Moment for which the chart is drawn. The “Missing” planet, or the place where the Completing planet would be, is called the “Vacancy” of the Unstable Configuration. The “Sabian or Chandra Symbol” is a reading for an individual Degree; see for instance Dane Rudhyar’s An Astrological Mandala, or Ellias Lonsdale’s 360 Degrees of Your Star Destiny.

A Self-Resolving T-Square, aka a Diamond Star, consists of a T-Square and a Finger of the Goddess both having their Focus at the same place in a chart. It looks a little like an Angel, minus the Halo. The Focus of a T-Square is the planet that’s halfway between the other two, the one that’s at the 90° Degree Angle. Both the T-Square and the Finger are triangles with a third planet at the Midpoint between the other two.

In a T-Square, usually drawn in red, the “other two” are 180° apart. In a Finger, the “other two” are only 60° apart (a Sextile) and the Midpoint used is the Far Midpoint, the one that’s five Signs from each end of the Sextile. We usually refer to a Finger as a “Wedge” because it’s a very Acute Triangle. We usually draw them in green. The Focus of a Finger of the Goddess is the Far Midpoint. The picture illustrates a Diamond Star.

The T-Square has two fundamental Challenges. First, it’s Unstable or Unbalanced.

A Stable Configuration is one that “Fills” the Zodiac. If you “flip” a T-Square by rotating it through a third Dimension (up or down relative to the two-Dimensional chart surface) around its Opposition or long axis, you get another T-Square, pointing in the opposite Direction from the original Focus. It’s a Ghost of the original T-Square, like the missing half of a Twin Soul. The Ghost resides in the Unconscious. Adding the Ghost to the original T-Square, you get a Grand Cross, four planets approximately equally spaced around the Zodiac. It’s Stable or Balanced because it has no Ghost. A Diamond Star is also Stable or Balanced, because it also Fills the Zodiac. You can rotate a Grand Cross or a Diamond Star any way you like, and the Configuration doesn’t change.

Stability or Balance applies to both astrology and to the Entity to which the chart applies, so a T-Square is astrologically Unstable or Out of Balance, and can be interpreted as an Emotional Instability, though in No sense is it pathological or worthy of anybody’s DSM. The Instability in a T-Square is usually Chronic Dissatisfaction, though of course that can have subsequent consequences, depending on the planets and Signs involved, the rest of the chart, the Cultural Milieu, and the Entity’s Reactions to the Chronic Dissatisfaction. Since the Chronic Dissatisfaction dates from the Birth of the Entity, we can assume it’s Karmic, or an Inertial Habit Pattern brought in by Choice by the Entity’s Soul, as a Heuristic, or Learning Device. The Instability is an Attention-Getting Device, to make sure that the Ego doesn’t Ignore that Element of their Constitution which the Focus of the T-Square indicates, as modified by the nature of the Debate between the other two planets that Oppose one another.

Stability is Created astrologically by Completing the Grand Cross. The Moon does this for several hours every month, and the Native can Learn what the Completed Configuration, and relative Satisfaction, feels like by Remembering what they Feel when the Moon fills the Vacancy. Similarly, the Sun, Mercury, and Venus Complete the Grand Cross annually, Mars every two years, the asteroids every four years, and so on, providing more Opportunities for the Native to Grow their Consciousness.

The Native can also Play with Consciously providing the Energy of the Vacancy, or Integrating the Ghost, by Learning the Sabian or Chandra Symbol (or both) of the Vacancy, and Applying it to their Dissatisfaction. One can use the Direct Opposite of the T-Square’s Focus, or one can use the Actual Midpoint. For instance, a T-Square may have planets at 7 and 9 Degrees in it’s base, and at the Focus a third planet at 10 Degrees. All three are within our usual 3 Degrees of Orb or Sensitivity. The Anti-Focus would be 10 Degrees, while the Actual Midpoint would be 8 Degrees. Both Degrees would provide useful information.*

There are thousands of asteroids, so it makes little sense to include them all. We for instance Choose only the asteroids which directly apply to our Enlightenment or Ascension, or which are well known and well connected to the chart we’re examining. But all of the other asteroids are in the your chart, whether you look at them or not, or at least as soon as you look at them (to use a Quantum distinction). So if you can find a new (to you) asteroid that Fills your Vacancy, and Study its Energy, you’re likely to also Learn more about the Ghost in your Unconscious.

The Native can also Plan their Activities to take advantage of a Transiting planet filling the Vacancy for a short while, in hopes that it will provide greater Satisfaction. However, since the Spiritual Purpose of a T-Square is to bring Attention to the Karmic Expectations, this may, to their Chagrin, Illuminate the Dissatisfaction and Compound it. From the Educational Perspective, that’s Excellent, as the Native’s aim “should be” (if they’re at all concerned with their Self-Knowledge or Enlightenment) to replace their Dissatisfaction with Appreciation for the SuperPower that the T-Square represents. As an Apparently Unsolvable Problem for the Native, they have more Experience with the Issue, and therefore know more about How Not to Approach it.

I’m sure it’s not the only, but one Powerful interpretation of the Chronic Dissatisfaction associated with a T-Square is that the Native is born with Unrealistic Expectations or Perfect Pictures about the Element of their Constitution and the Issues surrounding the Focus and the ongoing Debate in the T-Square’s base. Perfect Pictures are really Easy to pick up from one’s Programmers, especially when we’re Punished for not Conforming to our Programmer’s Perfect Pictures. The closer they are to our Karma, the more Challenging they will be to dislodge.

There is a recognition in modern Management Theory that Failure provides the best education possible, providing one Responds to Failure “appropriately.” Modern Management Theory embodies the worst facets of the Patriarchy, however, so needs to be taken with a bucket of Salt. Like any other Theory (Thoughts about the World rather than Feelings about it – therefore Love is never involved, and as Darshana is so wisely wont to say, Love Is the Answer, No Matter What the Question), it can be useful, but like any other Thought, with great care that Assumptions are Known and Realistic, and Values are not Violated.

But if the Native can Appreciate the Educational Value of meeting Imperfect Reactions to their Perfect Pictures, and eventually come to Realize that the Underlying Problem is that Perfection is a 2D Thought Ideal based on Separation that will never Match the Unitary and Multifarious (≥5D) Nature of Reality, they will Honor every “Failure” of their Perfect Pictures and every Dissatisfaction of their T-Square, as more Experience with the Issue – more Grist for the Mill as Ram Dass would put it. The same could be said for any Expectation, though it takes a lot more Ascension to Achieve No Expectations At All. Eventually the Native may Learn to Live through their nD Heart instead of Surviving through their 2D Mind.

A Native might even eventually Choose Yintegrity over Yangtegrity, and add their Energy to the Cumulative Death of the Patriarchy. Yangtegrity is when we Do what we said we were going to Do, when we said we were going to Do it. Yintegrity means that We Do what we damn well Feel like Doing When we Feel Like Doing it. That is, we Trust our Intuition. While the World is still trapped in Yangtegrity, this means that we have to Minimize our Commitments, Renegotiate when we can, and Make Amends when we can’t, if the Relationship is Worth the Effort. There is a thread in the Radical Integrity literature that avers that we should also Say what we Feel Like Saying, when we Feel Like Saying it. In most cases, that’s a great way to collect Enemies. We much prefer an NVC-like approach, which takes a lot of Retraining and Practice, but is Worth it; see Bibliography under Marshall Rosenberg.

The second fundamental Challenge with the T-Square occurs in Western Civilization and its Clones, where Dominion is misinterpreted to mean Control. The T-Square is a Fourth Harmonic Angle (360° / 4 = 90°). The Corresponding Principle in the Tarot Major Arcana is The Emperor. The namesakes of the asteroid Damocles and the dwarf planet Pholus illustrate the difference between Dominion and Domination or Control.

Damocles was a courtier who was so impressed by the Luxuries that the Emperor Enjoyed, that he asked the Emperor if he could for one day sit on his throne. The Emperor agreed, but before Damocles could sit, he hung a sword above the chair, suspended by a single horsehair. Damocles was too terrified by this to Enjoy his Sojourn. The Emperor was illustrating the other side of the Coin of Luxury that he Enjoyed – the hard work of Managing the Territory under his Dominion, Resolving Conflicts among the People under his Dominion Fairly, and Defending the Territory and People against External Threats. In other words, Dominion hangs by a thread, and Failure is Catastrophic. Sounds familiar, but we aren’t even Doing Dominion, we’re trying to get by on Control!

Centaur Pholus hosted Heracles while Heracles was one of Zeus’s Hit Men for remnants of the Matriarchy as Zeus made Space for his Patriarchy. We can hardly Blame Pholus for not thinking of Everything, but failing to Lock Up the Wine that was Sacred to his Fellow Centaurs was a fairly serious Betrayal to the Mission his Compatriots had entrusted in him. While Pholus was running errands, Heracles found and Opened the Sacred Wine, Intending to refresh himself (or Intending as a Hit Man the eventual result!). The Centaurs smelled the Opened Wine immediately and went Ballistic. A terrible war resulted, with the Death of many Hupers and most of the Centaurs, and the Unhealable Wounding of Chiron. Control might work for a while, but it’s impossible to Control Everything.

Dominion means Taking Care Of, while Domination means Assuming Autocratic Control Over without even Soliciting Consent, including Uncaring Control over Life and Death. The Early Popes Declared that so-called “Christians” were to have Domination over All who would not Submit to their Old-Testament God. That included Hupers and All Others. Often the Missionaries read the Popes’ Proclamations to Indigenous Tribes in unknown European languages, and their Iron-Clad Companions summarily slaughtered all who didn’t immediately take a knee.

Consequently, we grew up with Patriarchic models for our T-Squares. We’re Programmed to Bully our way through Chronic Dissatisfaction through Blame and Abuse of the Scapegoats whom we’re Programmed to Choose by propaganda from our Patriarchic Masters. Like Abandonment and Suffocation, the Feeling of Chronic Dissatisfaction is never our Feeling, it’s always “Caused by” someone or something else. Like 🦨Pootin’ or 🦖T.rump, or if you’re otherwise inclined, Choose any Demons in Faux News Denunciations like AOC, or those coming out of the pieholes of the MTG and LOB Karens in Congress, or Governors Abbot and DiCostello, or “Woke” weirdos like us.

Then there’s the Grand Cross, which we make when we Complete a T-Square. We Expect that Completing our T-Squares permanently, one way or another (as suggested above), to Convert our basic Attitudes toward the Issues Focused by our Natal T-Squares and their underlying Debates, will be a great Boon to Raising our Vibration and Contributing to the general Élan that we bring into our Manifestations.

Remember that the Content of our Manifestation Exercises is just more Thoughts About Our Feelings, and what we’re most likely to Manifest is More of What We’re Feeling While We Express Our Manifestations. We don’t want to Manifest the Red Convertible or the Big Payoff, we want to Manifest What We Expect to Feel When We’re Driving Around in Our Red Convertible, before it breaks down again, and What We Expect to Feel When We Harvest the Big Payoff, before we have to Spend it all on Fixing our Red Convertible.

Our Most Important Manifestations are always What Our Natal T-Squares Make Most Difficult. As long as we Manifest from Chronic Dissatisfaction, guess what we’re going to Co-Create More of! This is why Dane Rudhyar regarded the T-Square as the Evolutionary Edge for Huperity. Look at what “our” Cultures are Manifesting – more Genocide, more Famine, more Inequality, more Extreme Weather, etc. etc. Our Chronic Dissatisfaction Contributes to this. Think about how many times you’ve Felt too Cold, versus how many times you’ve Felt too Hot or Just Right. Assuming all of the other Several Billion Unconscious Manifesters on the planet have been Feeling similarly, could just that have made a Contribution to Global Balming et al?

So a Grand Cross is four T-Squares Cozied up to one another like they were at a Swingers Party. Four Chronic Dissatisfactions Dissatisfying one another. But the Grand Cross is Balanced, Stable. It doesn’t suffer from those many shades of Problem that the T-Square faces from its first Challenge. It’s Self-Resolving, it Fills the Zodiac. Each of those T-Squares, rather than Big Chronically Dissatisfying Problems, become much smaller Irritating Hassles. And if we Leave Them Alone, the Irritating Hassles Balance one another, and we end up being an Irritated Multitasker. And since Multitasking is Admired in our Patriarchic Culture where we have so Much to Do, most Multitaskers are Proud of it, and long since past their Irritation. It becomes Eustress, Positive Stress.

Yes, you can gain Self-Knowledge by Examining each of the four T-Squares, but the Focus of the original T-Square is far more Important, because in the case of a Transit Completing a Natal T-Square, the other three T-Squares are Ghosts. Yes, you want to Know your Ghosts, because eventually you’ll have to Integrate them. But the Transiting Planet is Temporary and Singular, it may not well Represent the Totality of the Vacancy, and it may lead you to Focus on the Temporary Impact of its two T-Squares more than on the Ghost.

I’m reading Lonsdale’s Chandra Symbols for the Degrees of the Vacancy in my major Challenge of a T-Square, one I’ve over the course of my Life only partially been able to Honor as a SuperPower. Writing this makes me Realize how Not-Done I am with this task, as I’m seeing how several Chronic Anxieties fit in where I hadn’t Noticed the Connection before. There are several planets involved, so there are several relevant Degrees, including their Average. I haven’t yet read the Degrees of the Squares to the planets in the base of this T-Square.

From two of the three Symbols I read, I had the Reaction that, OMG, I really Do That! I’d never Thought of it That Way Before. I Felt more Trusting of Myself after reading each, as the Readings organized for me what were scattered fragments of my Self a few minutes ago. The third Symbol, I wasn’t sure that I Recognized myself in it while I was reading it. But as I got to the end of the Symbol, it was more OMG, I need to read this many more times! It seems to point to a part of Myself that I don’t even Recognize, but which at the same time appears to be part of Me.

This third Symbol Opposed the Ignored secondary asteroid that’s Merged with the Major Planet whose Impact on the Challenge I so Clearly Recognize. So I’ve never given it much Attention, and it seems appropriate that this “Sub-Vacancy” hold Promise to Open Myself up to an almost-totally Unknown part of Myself. I haven’t looked at Rudhyar’s Sabian Symbols yet, but based on this Experience I highly Recommend at least Londale’s interpretation of your Vacancies.

I did find one asteroid – an obscure recently-discovered Trans-Neptunian Iceball. In addition to Opposing the “Ignored secondary asteroid” in the Max-Challenge T-Square at my Birth, at its Discovery it Conjoined my Natal asteroid Karma. The three Diamond Stars in its Discovery chart did add information to the Surprising third Lonsdale reading, the one for the Vacancy Opposite the same Ignored secondary asteroid. More than Coincidence, so that’s one Independent verification of the Unknown-asteroid-Filling-the-Vacancy thesis.

Natal Planet in a Transiting Vacancy

“Transiting” means in the sky now, versus “Natal” which means when you were born.  A good deal of astrology is done by studying the relationships between the Transiting planets and your Natal planets.  We don’t do that here because we don’t know where your Natal planets are, unless we do a reading for you.  We just work with the Transiting planets because we’re all under their spell.

A loyal reader asks, “So when a natal planet fills in a vacancy?“

Right on, that’s a Biggie!

First of all, for the rest of the World, you deliver the Energy in the Configuration, in this case the Grand Sextile.  A Transiting five-planet-almost-Grand-Sextile is like everyone’s walking around starving, or walking around in the winter without a coat, and they don’t know what it’s like to eat or be warm – they know there’s something really scrumptious just out of sight, but they have no idea what it is.  Imagine a movie where everybody knows something really Big is about to happen, but nobody knows what, and everybody’s running around asking everybody else what they think it might be and getting all hyped up with Expectation and literally, Lust, for something they know is so good they can taste it.  But nobody knows what it is.

Then you walk in, with your Transiting-Vacany-filling Natal planet.  Everybody runs to you because you exude the Energy of knowing what it is.  Doesn’t matter whether you do or don’t (it’s all too multidimensional for most Perceptions anyway), you just find that suddenly everyone’s falling all over you, because you personify the plug for the Whole in the Universe.  You don’t have to do anything – you’re it, it all happens without your consent or, in most cases, knowledge.  You just wonder why suddenly everybody’s sucking up to you.  It’d make a great Steve Martin movie.

And since it’s a Grand Sextile, you have the Midas Touch – you see everything that’s just about to fall into place, and you can give it that little Sextile Shove that converts it from Potential to Creative Grace.  You can Heal, grant Wishes.  You are rightly in demand, because others don’t have that Vision.  Don’t take it for granted, or let it go to your head – by October somebody else will be It.  Milk it for all it’s worth, the rest of us need your far-sightedness!

Second of all, for the “Native” (you, the one with the Natal planet in the Vacancy), it puts a huge emphasis on that planet, like it’s the Star of a really big Show in Las Vegas.  In the case of a Grand Sextile, it’s a huge blessing descending on whatever that planet means in your Natal chart.  Suppose it was a planet in the Eighth House, for instance.  The Eighth House is about Power.  With an Eighth-House planet lit up like a skyrocket, people will be hanging on your every word, looking for any little way that a little of all that Power might rub off on them.  You know the way it was in high school, where everybody tried to elbow their way into the good graces of the ones with the Power.  In high school that was the cheerleaders and quarterbacks.

Just for review, Power is the same word as Politics and Ego.  Most of us work with good old “Office Politics,” the grown-up version of high school, in one way or another.  For some people, it goes to their head, either positively or negatively.  They think of their role in the organization as King or Queen, or Jester or Serf or Maid, or the one with the Golden Apple.  We always have to balance our revulsion for the Politics with whatever gain we can eke out from rubbing elbows with Power.  Most folks admire a Big Ego, and some folks are pretty good at helping to polish it.  Folks say they’re disgusted by Big Egos, but watch how they behave around one.

Watch to see how your own Ego reacts this month, as you encounter folks who want to hobnob in case a crumb of Power falls their way, and folks who are inexplicably bitter because they resent your ease with Power.  Not that Power is something you’re necessarily familiar with.  Maybe this huge Blessing will be about your coming into Consciousness about Power.  Just because you have it doesn’t mean you know you have it.  And don’t forget that Power is changing – the Olde Male model of Power is waning.  Lilith/Eris Power is replacing it – Standing Firm to Protect the Innocent.  Unwavering because you’re Standing in Truth.

And don’t throw away the fruits!  You’re likely to be blessed with new Responsibilities and/or Authority and/or Compensation.  Politics is a two-way street.  With a Natal planet in the Eighth you’re no rookie, but those who dole out the Power aren’t either.  Don’t take Responsibility without Authority and Compensation; that’s always their first offer.  It’s a test of your own Power, to see whether you’re willing to Stand Firm for yourself.  Ever wonder why there are so many mismatches between Responsibility, Authority, and Compensation in any organization?  It’s because nobody every gives Power; it’s always taken.

Just to pick a planet at random, for an example, suppose your Natal Vacancy-Filler was Pluto.  Whoa, Pluto in the Eighth!  You live and breathe Power!  And now it completes a Transiting Grand Sextile!  Are you thinking of running for Governor?  There’s a Huge Gift here!  And just to embellish our imaginary Natal chart, suppose Pluto was Conjunct your Natal Sun.  Wouldn’t that be a stunner!  With Sun-Pluto you wouldn’t be Living your Life, rather Your Life would be Living You.  You’d be left running to try to catch up with it.  If you were in Resistance to that, it’d be a living Hell.  You just have to put your canoe in and let it go.  You can steer – Pluto is Transformation as well as Inevitability, but it’s not you that decides where you’re heading.

So maybe the Huge Gift here is that you finally stop Resisting, and let Power take you where it will.  Like Don Juan compared to Castaneda.  Jumping on your Ally’s back and hanging on for the ride!

“Sometimes you can trip out so far that you never get back to know that you’ve left,” as Kesey put it. Why not?

I mean, what is there to lose?  Your sense of Control is only imaginary anyway.  It’s an outstanding chart.  Nothing in it to Fear except, as Winnie said, Fear itself.  Or was it FDR.  I know, it takes your Breath away, but since the decisions aren’t really yours to make, there are no wrong choices.  Totally benevolent, just fast-paced.  Hard to relax when you’re always out of Breath, but that’s your task.  Tap on it.  The World needs you to stop hiding your Light under the bushel.  The World needs your Power in a bigger arena, and it’s likely to fall out of the sky into your kitchen.  Go for it!  Easy for me to say, but we need you!  We need ALL of us to stop hiding!