June 21: Summer Solstice and Grand Cross: At this auspicious solstice an authentic grand cross forms in fixed signs among the Moon in Taurus, Mars in Leo, Jupiter in Scorpio and Chiron in Aquarius. Mercury in Cancer is sextile to Venus in Taurus.

Unlike other arguable “grand crosses” of 2006 – 2008, in which planets are aspected at wide orbs of 7° or even more; or in which the Moon’s Nodes are needed to complete the four legs of the cross, this Summer Solstice Grand Cross of June 2006 is the genuine article, with the four planets all in the narrow band of 9° - 11° in their respective signs. While it is easy to notice the conflictive features of this grand cross, especially in marital and religious discord and resistance to authority, we may find it more useful now to focus on inner struggles that now occur as people begin to see and clear the separatist demands of the ego that impede the legitimate aims of the soul. This is especially true now that the Dragon’s Head is about to enter Pisces (see next), and encourage deeper heart and soul perceptions of the mystical bond that connect the group, the community and all sentient beings.

June 22: Moon’s Nodes enter Pisces - Virgo (through December, 2007): On this day both Moon’s Nodes change their sign positions: the North Node (Dragon’s Head) moves back from Aries into Pisces; the South Node (Dragon’s Tail) from Libra into Virgo. The Nodes are square to the Sun in Cancer at this transition. The Nodes also form trines and sextiles to Mercury in late Cancer and Venus in late Taurus.

The two Moon’s Nodes – the North Node (Dragon’s Head) and the South Node (Dragon’s Tail) – are not actual planetary bodies, but are points on the ecliptic, the Sun’s route through the zodiac, where the Moon crosses from north to south latitude, and vice versa. In Western and even more in Vedic astrology, the Nodes are regarded as points of very high importance that represent, among other things, one’s “positive” possibilities and karmic challenges (Dragon’s Head) and the “negative” weight of karma (Dragon’s Tail), both involving, always, relationships with groups more than with individuals.

The Nodes take about a year and a half to move backward through each sign, so the North Node will be in Pisces, the South Node in Virgo, until December, 2007. What this means for our practical purposes is that communal activities of spirit, especially as they celebrate the mystical oneness of things in Piscean rites of music and dance, are much favored now. This will also be a time when karmic wounds – both the ones that each one still carries, and the ones he or she has inflicted on others – come up for clearing. Those who are willing to face the wounds, and their own choices and responsibility for them, will get through this process most lightly.

July 11: Dragon’s Head square Pluto (through Nov. 24): The Moon's Nodes in Pisces (North Node) and Virgo (South) now move into a T-cross with Pluto in Sagittarius, for the next four months and more. The squares (90° angles) are exact on Oct. 25, at the center of a powerful energy cluster in which Mercury and Jupiter, conjunct in Scorpio, are both trine (120° from) the Dragon's Head. At the same time Saturn in Leo squares these two Scorpio planets (at 90°) and is trine to Pluto.

This long-running Dragon's Head - Pluto square may be the climax of the Awakening Phase of 2003 - 2006, insofar as we can now expect both clearer recognition and a beginning of rupture in the accumulating stresses between the social mass of individuals and institutions of power (governments, military hierarchies, religions and corporations) that no longer represent or respond to them. Whether or not one believes in such notions as karma or destiny, there is a strong sense in the second half of 2006 that collective issues of justice, and applicable payments of debt, have come due.

August 9: Full Moon and Saturn opposite Neptune: This Full Moon is very highly charged, as Saturn in Leo conjoins the Sun while Neptune in Aquarius conjoins the Moon. Between these two opposite conjunctions, Jupiter in Scorpio will be considered by some astrologers the middle leg of a dynamic T-cross. While this is going on, the Dragon’s Head in Pisces is square to Pluto in Sagittarius and trine Mercury and Venus in Cancer, while Mars in Virgo opposes Uranus in Pisces. Chiron in Aquarius is square Jupiter.

At this Full Moon all the planets and the Moon’s Nodes are connected in a single very intricate and volatile design. The enduring key and motor of it is the Saturn-Neptune opposition, which is exact on Aug. 31, runs through Sept. 22 and recurs twice next year.

August 10: Jupiter trine Uranus: August 10 – Sept. 19: The third and final trine in this series forms now, and is exact on Aug. 29, then fades through mid-September. “Inner” planets in Leo appear now as stressors, as Mercury (Aug. 16 – 20) and Venus (Aug. 20 – 26) form consecutive squares with Jupiter in Scorpio, and Mars in Virgo (Aug. 9 – 18) opposes Uranus in Pisces.

The general significance of this aspect is lucky. While the happy energy of the trine is undercut for its first two weeks by less-than-thrilling transits by inner planets, the next half of the trine from late August through Sept. 10 is clear of interference, and much happier.

Sept. 10 – Oct. 10: Jupiter square Neptune: This square (90° angle) between Jupiter in Scorpio and Neptune in Aquarius begins to form on Sept. 10, and is exact on Sept. 25. Saturn in Leo exacerbates the square, forming the third leg of a T-cross in the second half of September.

For the general significance of this square, see Jan. 1 – April 15, 2006. The T-cross with Saturn adds the unstable elements of unforeseen changes and uncertain conditions, suffering caused by bad judgments and dissatisfaction with one’s circumstances, manifesting for some as stress-induced illnesses. Mercifully, this square is only a month in duration, and soon gives way to the beautiful trine that comes next. Yet it could prove exceedingly impactful, especially in financial matters, and speculative risk-tripping is exceedinly dangerous now not just for the individual investor, but for the other rice bowls that are connected to his.

Sept. 30 – Jan. 6, 2007: Saturn trine Pluto: Saturn in Leo trines Pluto in Sagittarius through the last quarter of this year, and again in the middle of 2007.

Many people will look on this long Saturn-Pluto trine, which encloses the very intense Scorpio month of 2006 (see next) as the true godsend of the year, the indicator that some things do indeed remain sacred, and that not all traditional wisdom and practice has been swept away in the swirl of passion and desire from the end of 2005 through the summer of 2006. This time strongly favors the formation of spiritual community and the teaching of ritual and myth that will resonate deeply in the memory, and the immediate concerns, of the tribes who learn them.

Oct. 24 - Nov. 21: Stellia in Scorpio: Two stellia -- that is, alignments of five or more planets in the same sign -- form in Scorpio for almost the entire Scorpio month of late October through late November. From 10/24, the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter are all in Scorpio until Venus exits into Sagittarius on 11/17. Then on 11/18, the Moon enters Scorpio, replacing Venus, forming another stellium with the other planets. As the planets in Scorpio move and conjoin each other through the month, they also form squares with Saturn in Leo and Chiron and Neptune in Aquarius, and trines with Uranus and the Moon’s North Node in Pisces.

We would need this entire page to cover in detail which planets align at what angles with what other planets on each day of this nearly four-week period. It is enough to point out here that as Scorpio is the sign of death and transformation, we will likely see now, a few days before the start of the next tun in the Galactic Creation cycle, a period of very high intensity in which the relatively easy changes that human beings have resisted the chance to make -- both personally and collectively -- will now have to be made with much more difficulty. As all the planets in the stellia are the "inner" planets that are visible to the naked eye, this moment has a paramount emphasis on the ways in which our individual lives impact mass movements, sweeping social changes and the planetary environment. Many will gain new, shocking and guilty insight into the consequences of their clueless habits and ignorance routes. Widespread changes affecting many people will occur; but the seemingly smaller personal changes are far more important, determining in ways that few can see how the great changes will play.

Nov. 24: Ninth Tun and Fifth Day in the Galactic Creation Cycle: This tun -- a period of 360 days in the Mayan Calendar -- is the "Fifth Day" in the Galactic Creation Cycle described by Swedish Mayanist Carl Johan Calleman. It begins the transition from the phase of Awakening in 2003 – 2006 into the phase of Glamour in 2007 – 2009. During this tun, new technologies of light will begin to emerge with such astounding brilliance that we may look for a moment as though we’ve all got it, and universal peace and understanding are at hand. If only it were so. We will see now such a parade of “spiritual” images, many of them illusions, that one true test of the time will be whether our hearts and our eyes have been introduced and are in accord, or whether our eyes fly off like birds on a wire to places where the heart prefers not to go. 

“Among other things,” Calleman writes about this Fifth Day, “the mechanisms by means of which banks ‘create’ credit will become transparent. The old abstract calculations of the left brain half will then no longer be consistent with the emerging values of the right brain half, which sees reality concretely. This conflict between perceptions will be the deeper and more fundamental reason that the world economy will reach a point where no further economic growth will be possible and if anything a negative downward spiral will start.”

Nov. 24: Jupiter enters Sagittarius: Jupiter enters Sagittarius, the sign of his rulership. He'll be here until December, 2007. In the coming year Jupiter will square Uranus in Pisces (January) and the Dragon’s Head (February), move trine Saturn in Leo and sextile Neptune in Aquarius (March-April), then be sextile Neptune again in October-November.

The year’s last notable synchronicity is that on the same day a new tun (previous) begins, Jupiter enters the sign where his power is greatest, and his most “positive” and “beneficent” energies are likely to prevail. The upshot of the aspects noted above is that friction in the Jupiter-ruled areas of law and government is most likely at the beginning and end of the year, when shocking revelations about official misdeeds will occur, and will alter political loyalties, both among individual citizens and in bloc alliances among factions and parties. From March to September, there will be mild relief from recent oppressive control. There will have to be, if only to forestall cataclysmic changes. The main Jupiter challenges come, however, from late next year, when Jupiter enters Capricorn and conjoins Pluto from December, 2007.