Epoch Eclipse Now - Page 2
by Emmett Chapman © July 1999

The New Epoch
Let's now get ourselves settled and take a good long look at the current astrological event of greatest proportions, a second cross, this time a fixed cross - cross fixed, crucifix! It's not a tangible and material cross as used in the crucifixion of the ultimate sacrificial Lamb, but rather a symbolic cross of huge planetary proportions to transform collective consciousness once again to the next level in the precessed astrological cycle. (Remember, Aquarius was regarded as the potent male expression of Saturn, the stern judge and scientific realist, a harshly different image than the feminine expression of Jupiter.)

As in Biblical prophesy of the Second Coming, every eye shall look to the sky and see this symbol of the second cross, or at least many eyes shall see it, that is, those eyes from the southwest coast of England through southeastern Europe and all the way to India's east coast, witnessing the total eclipse of the Sun along its umbral path during "daylight" hours on August 11th. What they will not see, but may somehow be aware of, is how this exact Sun/Moon mid Leo conjunction is powered by a grand cross in the middle degrees of the other fixed signs, and is reinforced by a T-square in the early degrees of fixed signs. The bull, lion, eagle and man symbols are known by astrologers to represent the four fixed signs, and are cited as the "beasts" in the fourth Book of Revelation, seventh verse. (I was raised with this beastly symbol of the apocalypse in a small San Fernando Valley Pentecostal "Four Square" church in the late '40s, where every Bible displayed the square logo with the heads of these four creatures protruding from each side of the square.)

Now the Epoch Eclipse is in self-assembly, the slowest planets moving into place first. A slow and newly direct Mars in Scorpio opposes Jupiter in Taurus from July 5th forward, with Neptune squaring from Aquarius. Saturn in Taurus squares Uranus in Aquarius from July 8th forward. Sun enters its Leo rulership on July 23rd, and is opposed by an eclipsed Moon in Aquarius on July 28th, the day of the first powerful "take" on the fixed cross as it jells toward final form. Significantly, Venus goes retrograde in Virgo on July 30th and is thereby the only planet to be sidetracked from any further involvement in the fixed signs and the grand cross. (I don't consider Pluto/Charon to play a part here, or even to be a member of the Sun's planetary system for that matter, certainly not a super Mars, as I feel that it more properly belongs to the huge Kuiper belt of icy proto-comets and asteroids recently discovered beyond Neptune.) All else, however, is integrated on the cross as the so-called malefics Mars and Saturn lock into sharp opposition on August 9th, two days before the "Eclipse of the New Epoch".

The Polarities
What is interesting is how the "polarities" of successive pairs of planets (successive in orbital distance from the Sun) are arranged on this August 11th chart. As I see it, these planetary polarities express themselves as male and female, but less so as you move away from the Sun. Thus you have the primary polarity, Sun and Moon, in exact conjunction and parallel (the eclipse itself) on the grand cross. Then you have Mars and Venus, also highly polarized by gender, but with only a Scorpio Mars on the cross, Venus being separated by the sign of its "fall", Virgo, and also retrograde in motion. Then you have Saturn and Jupiter together by sign in Taurus, with Saturn as part of the fixed cross and Jupiter as part of the accompanying fixed T-square. Finally, you have Neptune and Uranus together by sign in the remaining fixed sign of Aquarius, with Uranus as part of the cross and Neptune as part of the T-square.

The gender characteristics of these polarities seem to grow less pronounced with distance from the Sun, the Sun/Moon polarity itself possessing the greatest sexual contrast, followed by Venus/Mars, of course. (Mercury is suitably left out of this scheme, having no gender and thus no polar opposite in is shuttle operation around the Sun.) I like to think of Jupiter as the somewhat more female counterpart of a more masculinized Saturn in this ancient system of balanced opposites, and of Neptune as subtly more female in influence than its vaguely male counterpart Uranus.

Sexual or not, these pairs can nevertheless be considered as polarities, that is, similar opposites, and each polarized pair happens to be joined together by sign on this summer's grand cross, each partner in each pair strengthening and tempering its opposite gender, all except for Mars which stands alone in its sign of rulership.

Such an unrestrained Mars occupying a lone position on the cross, with polarized planetary pairs at all other legs of the cross, must have been on Nostradamus' mind when he said about this astrological event (which he placed "in the year 1999 in the seventh month") that "Mars shall reign supreme", that "Mars rules triumphantly", and, "From the sky there comes a great king of terror." A severely weakened Venus is separated from this fixed grand cross/T-square configuration, and is therefore not available as a balance to Mars.

A grand cross is regarded by astrologers as allowing no way out, and therefore remaining strangely stable under stress, that is, until it acts explosively. Mars in its Scorpio rulership, minus its feminine counterpart Venus, could be the imperfection in the "crystalline" structure, the crack in the squared framework, that sets it off. A T-square, on the other hand, acts always to provide a particular goal, and like a bow and arrow it aims its driving discord at the missing sign, which again is Scorpio as seen from the T-square portion of the crossed chart. This must be why Nostradamus predicted events of this summer in such martial terms.

The Method
My daughter Diana and I, trying to be wise astrologers, started looking for coordinates to find where this world event would have a focus of expression. Should we cast a solar chart with the eclipse at the degree of the ascendant? No, a total eclipse is a highly visible and dramatic event, especially at midday. Should we cast many charts for the moment of exact eclipse as seen from major cities around the world? No, all houses, cusps and angles would end up in the aggregate as being equally important. We figured that in order to gain any additional information about an astrological event that is supposed to affect the world, we must have a single horoscope of an actual location, with a definite placement of the fixed cross on the standard matrix of houses, cusps and angles.

We decided to observe the ancient method of "the three wise men" and make a midheaven chart for the most exact moment of the solar eclipse, wherever in the world it would be seen directly overhead. We found that the eclipse would exactly conjunct the midheaven at 13 East 49 degrees of longitude, somewhere in middle Europe. We looked up and down that longitude and found Rome (12 East 29) to be the major city closest to the line. A horoscope for Rome puts the midheaven at 17 Leo 0', within one and a third degrees of the solar eclipse at 18 Leo 21'. (The most exact midheaven point for the eclipse at Rome's latitude falls some 60 miles east of Rome in the central mountainous spine of Italy at 13 East 50.)

We knew that the eclipsed Sun's shadow path would sweep east-southeastward across middle and southern Europe, crossing the line of Rome's longitude with the umbral center some six degrees north of Rome in latitude, close enough for those in Rome (and in the Vatican City just two miles west of Rome city center) to see over 80% of the Sun eclipsed at the midheaven.

We first engaged in what I would like to call "honest discovery", casting midheaven charts for "significant" cities, moving eastward from Belgrade to Leningrad, Jerusalem, Baghdad and Tehran. We actually missed Rome, and when nothing meshed at midheaven and angles for these other cities we finally found the perfect correspondences at Rome.

On August 11th, 1:10 PM CED, the exact solar eclipse is one degree from the midheaven at Rome and in the 10th house at 18 Leo 21'. Mars is angular and conjunct the ascendant at 16 Scorpio 51'. Saturn is angular and conjunct the descendant at 16 Taurus 52'. And Uranus is angular, retrograde, and conjunct the nadir at 14 Aquarius 39'. This is a sharp grand cross, very close by degree, angular in position, and occupying middle degrees of the fixed signs. And it's reinforced by the T-square of Mercury at 0 Leo 9', Jupiter at 4 Taurus 40', and Neptune retrograde at 2 Aquarius 33'. If you give a wide orb to the ascendant at 8 Scorpio 33', you have another grand cross out of this T-square, again angular by sign. In fact, the entire chart for Rome is angular by sign, except for Venus (and not including Pluto).

"Why Rome?", we asked each other. We're not Catholics. And I left all those Four Square evangelists' prophesies behind me long ago as I moved on into rational adulthood, or so I thought. Rome? The Vatican? I felt disappointment that the Age of Pisces would have such a "boilerplate" ending (reminiscent of fundamentalist prophesies I'd heard since childhood). Nevertheless, Rome is the place where the Sun will be eclipsed at solar noon in its own sign, and where the crosses of this magnificent planetary configuration and of the cardinal points engage each other, greatly amplifying the fixed quality of this chart.

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