I have a chart that causes astrologers to say “I’m sorry,” or as one reacted when my sister Elsa showed my chart to her, “How does she live with this?” I have plenty of aspects but what stands out to most astrologers is my Grand Cross in mutable signs. They wonder how I deal, what my life has been like and what sort of a train wreck I am! I’m not a train wreck and in fact I have a way of looking at life and at oppositions in particular that works for me and works for my chart! I’m happier than most people think and I’m very experienced in some tough things as people would expect. I’ve also been blessed where others are not so lucky and it’s all due to my Grand Cross and the action in my chart.
Opposition means balance. When one has a Grand Cross in their natal chart it means that a person is going to learn about balance and learn in a very deep way! When people of opposite signs learn to tolerate each other it is a high form of love and when a person learns to live with opposites in their chart at all times one learns to be open and have love for everyone and themselves as well. It’s interesting I worked and studied so hard to be a dancer when you think of the fact that dance is the hardest sport on the human body according to a Harvard study. Yes, one is a perfectionist when they study dance for they are looking in the mirror at all times seeing their mistakes and flaws mirrored back at them in living color. A Grand cross in your natal chart is much like this because any time you go too far to to one side or the edge you will see the mistake right away and you must correct it to go on! It’s all about balance, as dance is, so is the Grand Cross in your natal chart.
I have been forced to live a life of balance and if I ever go too far to one side of the cross, for example, become too emotional or too earthy, I’m going to suffer for it and I’m going to have to correct it! Rarely do you get in any trouble with a Grand Cross in your chart because life corrects you before things get too messy! If I have my Sun in Pisces I had better think of what a Virgo would say too because I have the opposition in my chart and the Virgo planet is going to have its say whether I like it or not. If I get too Sagittarius I can count on my planet in Gemini yelling out in one form or the other for attention until I hear it loud and clear and consider its lessons! Oh yes, it is a very balanced life and one is reminded of the saying “Everything in moderation.” If I act out I’m going to get caught and I’m never going to get away with anything, but on the other hand no one seems to get away with causing me problems either! It is a system of checks and balances where I see others “get their dues” when they “do me wrong” while I see those that do the right thing in my life rewarded greatly for it! I used to think it was all out of my hands until I mastered my chart enough to own some of the energy inside myself.
When I was younger and had a problem with a Scorpio, for example, a Taurus that was very strong would appear and befriend me and help me along through my problem with the Scorpio! I had to learn to do these things for myself but to this day I will have the same experience. If one sign gives me too many problems the universe sends me a person in my life that can advise me on how to handle the problem I have with a person of that sign hassling me! These people have appeared in the guise of lawyers, doctors and Indian chiefs. These helpmates have been of every sign but always a sign that is opposite the one I am having problems with and I end up learning how to “win the day” from the person that appears of the opposite sign.
I now have learned to act on the opposite side of my chart when having problems with someone or something and no longer do I find a person filling this role, or less and less a person has needed to appear. It is as if I’ve had angels that have come into my life to help me get out of trouble and they come in the sign that I have neglected to think like or about…. Since I have internalized some of this ability to be that balance myself I have needed fewer angels but they still appear when the issue is too much for me or something I have no experience with.
Accidents have occurred. If I am too Sagittarius I can expect an accident of some sort to befall me but it will be just enough to teach me the lesson of the Gemini inside of me and there will be balance restored. Being frightened of oppositions is not something I have ever suffered from for I can count on this action to take place in my life and in my chart so I know I will land on my feet. However I know not to push the gambler in my Sagittarius or go to far into my head when the Gemini is pulling on me too hard! If I am too Pisces I can count on a Virgo lesson to pop up that is just strong enough to balance my thinking out and set my life straight!
To the outsider it may look like my life has been tough but I have had the very best life has to offer and the very worse as I learned to balance my life according to my chart’s demands. I’ve had it horrible and the next day I’ve been fine. I’ve landed on my feet more times than my cat has in his life! I have more than nine lives because my chart will correct itself and therefore, myself before I know it. This has given me great faith and a deep knowledge of myself that comes from studying everything one can study with a Grand Cross.
I’ve had psychotherapy for twelve years to get to know myself and I’ve studied tarot, astrology, numerology and other practices. I’ve had to do all this to understand myself and make sense of life with the Grand Cross living in my chart! There are also “ways out” that are key aspects that help me escape the Grand Cross if I need to and transcend everything. For example, I’ve Sun trine Neptune and if I go there it all can disappear for I am peaceful, sure of my beliefs and able to relax. Still I will have to return to the lessons of the Grand Cross whose lessons are very powerful.
The Grand Cross teaches us to allow for another’s ideas and thoughts. It shows us that other’s ideas and opinions may be valid for something we need to know in life. The Grand Cross in your natal chart teaches you that people are very important in your life and that you should honor them for who they are. Most of all the Grand Cross teaches one that life is large and open and we can all do just about whatever we want to do so long as we have thought it out, felt it out and most all, stay open! When there is a Grand Cross in the sky it is our opportunity to find our balance again and right our wrongs.
Most of all when we meet someone of the opposite sign of our own we would do well to remember that they may have something to teach us that will better our lives!
Let’s just say I go to great extent to improve my health with eating, flushing, cleansing, bodywork, exercise…..
About radical health practices… I have taken self-care to its ultimate end point, after twenty years of do-or-die focus left me run down. At this point I have practical solutions to nearly any health issue. So in a way “taking up my cross” led me to take up another cross in healing as a sort of counterbalance — healing both myself and others. I feel this is another instance of the grand cross get-it-done perseverance. It’s another instance also of the protection available to us: if I hadn’t sought self-care I certainly would have died prematurely as some in my family have. The angels reached out and led me to still waters, green pastures. So after a lifetime of neglect at the hands of my parents and then wearing myself down, I am in better health than I have ever known.
How is that for protection?
Tears forming. I have a mutable Grand cross too. This is the best and most informative post I’ve discovered. I am now thinking about the angels the universe has sent me. I’ve been through a lot of ups and downs compared to most people I’ve met and yet I feel that these struggles were just natural forces that I accepted and understood. I almost feel like this post seems like future me. I appreciate the time and your openness to help others like me with your experiences.
I desperately have been trying to figure mine out. I am a little confused and really could use the guidance. I am exhausted from battling with it all. Please help!
I know the angst. Here are some tips: an easier aspect pattern within your chart can give you a kind of “time out” from the challenge of the cross. Say if you have a triangle or a cradle or even a yod connected to one of the points of the cross, that aspect pattern can lend support or even a place of rest and refuge. For example I have a Star of David connected to my fixed cross and that grants guidance that is always available.
Second, look to what modality the cross is in; mutable crosses make it easier to adapt to the challenges that occur as you “surf” each hard angle over time. For example the square in Gemini would naturally find it easier to play the angles since juggling is a talent of that sign. In contrast, my experience with a fixed cross is that it’s quite flummoxing to shift gears when the cross forces an adjustment. Say if a relationship requires surrender and patience, my Venus in Aquarius makes it hard for me to resist “forcing” things into place through mind-control (ha!) rather than shifting to, say, my Jupiter in Taurus. It’s as if a wholesale transformation has to occur rather than just shifting my focus.
As mentioned above, become an expert in self-care. You control your chart, not the other way around. The inner spark that makes you, you, is divine and has entirely free will, including that over the stars. So provide yourself extra mothering or fathering, rest and nourishment, and just try to laugh at it all once in awhile. Harder said than done but truly a valuable skill.
Thanks for the response. Cardinal is mine. Moon, chiron, Saturn, mercury and Uranus. Weeeeeee. And now mercury is messing with Capricorn yay!
As a fixed cross these days it’s been so hard to breathe that I can’t get out of bed. Thinking back on my relationship challenges it almost seems impossible that I’ll ever be in a good relationship. In my 20s I was so guarded and couldn’t connect with anyone. It was long distance, non-committal, unconsummated, or drugged up and on-and-off. In my 30s it was disastrous: home wrecking (of live-in relationships, not of marriages), car wrecks and adulterous. In my 40s it’s been the most painful of all. The very thing that destroyed my childhood: lying, cheating and stealing. I had a miscarriage during a fling with a pathological liar, the shadiest person I’ve ever met; a fling with someone who’d cheated in his previous marriage ended in betrayal with him trysting and covering it up; a one-night stand from several years ago seems like he wants to get together now that I’m completely damaged and still emotionally bonded to the liar.
It’s like life knows how to show me the maximum pain possible. The things I absolutely cannot abide show up on my doorstep. Distance, disaster, destruction. I can’t breathe.
The adultery was just an unsolicited kiss from a married man. I’m not a cheater. But why I’m surrounded by liars and cheats right now just breaks my heart.
It’s like the things I want – intimacy, or guidance, or roots – come with lessons that are walking on coal. I pray for something, and the highest price is exacted from me. I know I’m being asked to draw upon faith to follow through. I have been through this brutal rodeo time and again. Yet it doesn’t stop from grinding me to dust and rubbing my nose in ashes. Does anyone know what I mean?
It sounds like you have been through a lot of terrible stuff. I have a fixed grand cross, late-degree, except one corner in early Gemini. Not nearly the same experience as you, like an earlier post said, look to easier aspects in your chart. I also had a miscarriage in my 30’s. My health and infertility have been the hardest part, but in my 60’s I seem to be healthier than ever. I hope you are getting professional help and have supportive women around you to get through this to the other side.
The miscarriage may require a D&C, three months after the fact. Or it’s that the whole shebang set off a mess with my fibroids. I’m going back to the hospital (past all the Covid barriers ugh) and reconnecting with my sisters now. So yes, thanks for the guidance.
I remember an old friend telling me once that with every “season” in life the universe brings you to the “end of yourself” — and I was like “oh that’s just the end of every day for me” — feeling at a complete loss for what to do. Literally like “I just cannot go on.” Except go to bed and expect the sun to rise in the morning. And to be grateful for it, once in awhile. What a lesson in surrender (and joy somehow, I know, somewhere deep down).
I wanted to follow up that all is well. I overcame a major relationship pattern and am happy and healthy. I am grateful for that trial and proud of myself for how I handled it. I love this life. Wouldn’t change a thing!
My dearest girlfriend has a grand cross, mutable, conjunct her angles (although out of sign), and a trine to her midheaven. She is perfectly poised and balanced, without being fake or repressed. I have a major opposition that is aligned with one half of her grand cross, with trines and sextiles in my chart. She is a Scorpio with Gemini moon. I am a Taurus with a Sadge moon. This perspective makes so much sense to explain why friendship is so solid despite that fact that we’re so different. She is a friend I hope to keep for a very, very long time, and I’m glad to know we have this dynamic between us.
What a great explanation. Im just shy of a mutable grand cross. Sagittarius rising, sag in Lilith in 12th, Pisces sun, Venus, mercury in 3rd, Gemini on cusp of 6/7, Virgo full moon in 9 th. I loved your description. Life has been hard and beautiful. Intense, deep stillness. A walking contradiction yet in the contradictions comes am understanding that the perfection is in the duality. And in that perfection I find in all the apparent contradictions is this place off harmony, union, wholeness within. Their was a time I bounced back and forth btw the oppositions. Over time I have found the harmony in the still point in the center of the cross. Most of the time now, I’m the still point of the center point of the mutable cross, emanating from that still point out. I have also worked as a hospice nurse for about 15 years. Talk about heaven pisces/ earth Virgo here. Sagittarius all the different ways and beliefs/ Gemini curious about all. Until all the external finally collapsed. And none of it matters the external that is anymore. Mostly. On that still point were the mutable signs cross at the center.. Though as a hospice nurse in not normal by a long shot. This article was so refreshing and bright deeper understanding and acceptance. Thank you
this is a great description of a grand cross.i dont have a grand cross but i have learnt to deal with oppositions in the chart.the only sad part is if i’m too sagittarius i dont have any gemini or 3rd house to balance or teach me that i’m going too far. ive learnt that everyone does have every energy of all signs in their chart but to a greater dominance to lesser degree. i have gotten in many accidents, so i dont have the thinking gemini to tell me, hold up. i’ve got the service/sacrifice thing going on (virgo/pisces opposition) and it is true when i’m doing either i feel good.
My main concern is if the crosses have unveiled the essential to you?
There hasn’t been a more appropriate time for you ‘the cross bearers’ to wake up.
Once you wake up you will literally LAUGH !!!😂 And will be GRATEFUL for having it in your chart🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Not yet?!
Maybe Eckhart Tolle is for you
Not liking Tolle? Try Rupert Spira, Alan Watts, OSHO, Krishnamurti, Adyashanti, Mooji and some of the classics like Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj. Of course there are many others but these are the ones that come to my mind at the moment of writing this.
I love this explanation very much because it just makes sense.
Take life’s lemons and make lemonade and know your limits!
Wow!! This explanation has opened me to so much!!! I don’t have a grand cross but I have a t square and yod that share an apex planet (moon) and whenever something transits opposite that apex, it creates the grand cross. I REALLY relate to so much of what was said but didn’t understand the why or more so I guess I haven’t been able to see how it all fits together. This explanation just filled in A LOT of info to help me understand and process!!! Thank you so much Annalisa!!
Beautiful, thank you!
Would love to see someone with your chart dance, and see how beautifully Grand Cross energy materializes.
(don’t have a Grand Cross in the chart, but my moon is midway through Libra (it did feel sometimes like an acrobat walking on a tightrope, no wonder I like dancing and rhythm too (just for myself)), so balance became not only a necessity but a personal value, almost like it’s who I am : )
I only ever saw a t square in my chart until someone said wait a minute, the nodes are opposing each other too! Aspects to the south node are notoriously ignored and I found them to be really important.
Venus Uranus on the Leo AQ axis and the nodes across scorpio/taurus. 8-11 degrees. Moon conjunct north node in scorpio. As much as the houses are associated with signs, a Libra AC means that they are all in ‘opposing’ houses anyway and I never ever agreed with the textbook reading of oppositions and the grand cross.
I’ve also met wonderful people with a cross and unbearable ones with a grand trine. I guess it’s a case of what you are born with is familiar to you and feels natural, no matter what.
I learned from observing and from relationships, wondering why I have such a hard time to ‘get’ taurus until I saw that it’s not the strangeness that sometimes repulsed me, not that I don’t know them, it’s a familiarity, a kind of reconnaissance that I feel more than I know. South node in Taurus in the 8th became an asset to me, finally.