A date that is not on the Time Spiral—August 11, 1999—has been garnering tremendous interest among those who study transformational cycles and markers. This date will bring a full solar eclipse, the last of the century and millennium. The astrological chart for this event (see diagram) includes a fixed grand cross, one of the most potent astrological configurations. A grand cross signifies a crisis requiring the integration of energies and issues that seem mutually exclusive, conflicting, or at cross-purposes.

The August 11 configuration aligns with the zodiacal signs that form the axis of the precessional cycle, creating a resonance with the various precessional cycles previously discussed. This energetic configuration, then, will be further amplified by the galactic, universal and omni-universal energy influx with which it entrains. Remembering the root meanings of the word crisis, we can view this time as holding both danger and opportunity.

With the Sun, Moon and Moon’s North Node all conjunct in Leo at the top of the chart, the issues appear to center around a shift in power and leadership. Dane Rudhyar’s Sabian symbol interpretation for 18 degrees Leo (from An Astrological Mandala) refers to "… man [sic], as an agent of the collectivity of human beings, approaching nature in terms of the possibility of transforming it in order to satisfy his needs or his wants. At the highest level of this activity one can speak of Alchemy." It is tempting to speculate about the crises requiring resolution at the time of this eclipse. Perhaps humanity will no longer be able to avoid facing the consequences of the ways in which the few have impacted nature to satisfy their own "needs." Could this eclipse signal the beginning of major Earth changes?

As is becoming increasingly apparent to more and more people, humanity’s current relationship with the planet isn’t sustainable, or what many would term soulful. To turn this around, we would be wise to investigate the principles of alchemy, the art and science of transmutation. Alchemy begins with shifts in consciousness; only then will outer changes be real and lasting—not simply Band-Aids over the gaping wounds we have created in our ignorance. The August 11, 1999 eclipse chart strongly indicates the evolutionary imperative to transcend our current paradigm, and warns that considerable conflict and difficulty may ensue if we stubbornly persist in clinging to our old, obsolete ways.

Many of us have wondered whether, and to what degree, humanity can make these enormous evolutionary shifts without experiencing the cataclysmic Earth changes so widely predicted. How thoroughly can we surrender our third-dimensional identities—how fully can we allow ourselves to die to who we have been? Resistance distorts the rhythmic flow and timing of cycles, and creates stress within subtle energy fields—our own and those of the Earth. When the stress exceeds the organism’s ability to adapt to it, it must out-picture—as disease and physical death on a personal level, and as Earth imbalances and cataclysms on a planetary scale. Conversely, as our awareness opens and our consciousness shifts, our physical bodies, and presumably the body of Earth, likewise harmonize.