Your comments?

In this week's NorthPoint Journal, I invited you to share your experience of Monday's grand sextile/Star of David/diamond tetrahedron. If you're in the mood to share, please click on the word "comments" in purple at the end of this post, and write away!

Grand sextile aka "Star of David" formation

I've been so focused on this grand trine in July, I didn't even realize there was an even rarer configuration this month -- a grand sextile, also called a "Star of David" formation. But, thanks to an email from a reader who asked about it, I'm now looking forward to our experience of this configuration on Monday, July 29.

A grand sextile is basically two grand trines superimposed over each other, one with the point of the triangle up, and the other with the point down. I've been talking about the effects of the Grand Water Trine in the past two NorthPoint Journals, and on July 29 we add the energy of a Grand Earth Trine to the mix.

There is the same ease of flow between the planets in this second grand trine (Pluto, Venus and the Moon), but being in earth signs, the effect is to ground, comfort and calm us. This sounds like a very good thing, especially given the increase in the effects of the Pluto-Uranus square we will be expecting around the same time.

Since the fast-moving Moon is one of the planets involved in this grand sextile, the effects will last only for the one day. The chart I've run for the event is timed at 2:48pm PDT, when the Moon is exactly trine Venus and applying to the trine with Pluto. The energies should be strongest then, through the next few hours as the Moon then also exactly trines Pluto.

Here's what astrologer Bil Tierney writes in his book Dynamics of Aspect Analysis about a grand sextile involving a Grand Water Trine and a Grand Earth Trine:

"...a highly productive power that can realistically benefit many areas of the individual's life. Talents and opportunities indicated are pursued with a desire for practical application as well as emotional gratification and material security. The stability and purposefulness of the sensible earth signs minimize the danger of this Grand Sextile swinging off into too many scattered directions at once.

"Because of the presence of both a Grand Earth Trine and a Grand Water Trine, the sensual nature is apt to be very well-developed and able to be channeled in highly imaginative ways. Whatever routines are necessary for the thorough development of creative enterprises are more easily accepted and undertaken."

There is a bit more push to this energy than a grand trine by itself, because the overlapping of the two grand trines creates oppositions between some of the planets. There is still great opportunity, as with the Grand Water Trine, but perhaps less tendency to sleep through the experience! Still, to take advantage of this energy, we need to engage with life -- as Mr. Tierney also writes, "the creative resources are abundant and need to be actively tapped. Here exists an enormous overload of capacity which demands to be actively exploited."

We have a full week to consider how we might tap into the energies of this rarely-seen configuration. Any ideas?

When you wish upon a star

While I was moving wood yesterday, I saw a small cricket perched on one piece.

Crickets are not the rarest of animals, but I do not see them very often where I live, on a wooded lot in a suburb northeast of Seattle. I saw them a lot growing up in California, and cricket songs filled the air every night in the summer in my youth.

It always catches my attention when I see an animal that I don't see every day. So, like a good symbol-watcher, I visited my favorite "animal symbols" website (www.starstuffs.com) and checked out what cricket represents. I especially appreciated this part of the description:

"Cricket will attune to new vibrations and will aid in heightening intuition, sensitivity and awareness. Crickets can teach effective communication techniques and subconscious communication cues to obtain what is needed or wanted. Crickets are about resurrection and transformation from stages as in the molting process. Is it time to shed old ideas to make way for the new? Expect changes and new developments that will bring growth through reflection and patience as the sensitivity to mental, emotional and physical challenges are coming your way."

I share this with you today because another piece of the puzzle clicked into place this morning, that I believe makes the message of Cricket one we should all hear.

My dog and I were taking our early-morning walk in the nearby woods, and I started wondering what I might write for this week's Journal. In particular, I started thinking about the New Moon in the very early hours of Monday morning, which happens to align with the star Sirius.

Click.

Cricket ... Jiminy Cricket ... "When You Wish Upon a Star" ... the star Sirius ... New Moon ... "shedding the old to make way for the new" ...

Click click click.

If you participated in my recent teleclass, you've already heard a bit about Sirius and this New Moon -- and I will, of course, write more about it in tomorrow's Journal. But I wanted to share my cricket experience with you and encourage us all to contemplate the importance of this upcoming lunation. As the Sun and Moon align, they will bring through and enhance the energy of Sirius, which has been called "the great star of initiation," "the source of wisdom," and "the Great Instructor of humankind."

Not a bad way to start the new lunar cycle, eh?