TEMPLE OF MYSTERY
MOON CYCLE : 12 LAMAT
August 11,1999 to September 9, 1999
TWELVE
Complex stability. Universalism. Announcements and arrivals. The coming. Inauguration. Free spirit. Status, recognition and success. Athletics. Good sportsmanship. Anger.
LAMAT
Barter, wisdom, starseed, maturity, ripeness, the sage, the octave, wayshower, negotiations, expanded love, clear perspective, beneficial combinations.
THE ASTROLOGICAL GRAND CROSS
OF AUGUST 11, 1999
As I have indicated previously, one of the things that has kept me on track with The Lightning Path has been the periodic recurrence of synchronicities like those encountered on my journey to Teotihuacan/Tula. They substantiated for me a clear connnection between the symbolism of the Tzolkin and my own direct experience over the years. That experience has been getting progressively more and more collective in nature and perhaps nowhere on The Lightning Path has the experience of congruency between map and territory been more graphic and empowering than during passage through The Temple of Mystery (Sept 20 1998 to Oct 9, 1999). That passage coincided with what is considered by many astrologers to be one of the most significant astrological events of the 20th century: the Grand Cross Alignment of August 11,1999.
Astrologers and astronomers map the heavens onto a 360 degree circular grid called the zodiac and it is from this grid that the twelve astrological signs are derived. Each sign characterizes one of three distinct forms of energy: cardinal (initiating), fixed (concentrating) or mutable (distributing). The zodiac maps the cyclic play of these energies over the course of a Solar year. Cardinal times of the zodiacal year correspond directly to the seasonal quadrature delineated by the equinoxes and solstices. They are characterized astrologically by what are known as the cardinal signs: Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn. The fixed signs of the zodiac are Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius. They correspond to the times of the year when energies released during cardinal months are given more permanent and powerful form. The four remaining mutable signs, Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Capricorn, distribute the energies concentrated in fixed signs.
The Grand Cross of 1999 formed when ten planetary bodies gathered into a quadrature linking only the fixed signs of the zodiac. Astrologically, it was a complex, rare and very powerful concentration of celestial power that was consolidated at the exact moment of the Solar eclipse when the Moon, final piece of the alignment puzzle, came into position between the Sun and the Earth. Because the Sun and Moon are included in this particular Grand Cross, its occurrence signals a powerful synchronicity between the symbolism of The Lightning Path and the ongoing celestial dynamics of the solar system. Why? Because the charts I laboriously constructed that integrated Moon cycles and Tzolkin for the years 1895 to 2012, and which make up the basis of The Lightning Path, alerted me years in advance that The Lightning Path assigned hieroglyph LAMAT and number 12 to the lunation cycle within which the Grand Cross was to occur. To this day, I can think of no more apt a combination of number and hieroglyph to signify such a powerful celestial phenomenon! My reasons for thinking this are twofold:
1) The hieroglyphic symbol for LAMAT is also called “ star harmony.” Its quadrapartite pattern is in complete resonance with the Grand Cross alignment chart shown below, wherein all but two planets were grouped into the four fixed signs of the zodiac.
2) The Grand Cross of August 1999 occurred during a Lightning Path Moon cycle characterized by number 12, sometimes referred to simply as "complex stability". Astrologically, a Grand Cross linking planets in any signs is stable but a Grand Cross in fixed signs, which is what we have here, is considered to be the most stable of all! Just how complex a pattern a Grand Cross really is can be understood when we realize that its “squareness” is not simply a static phenomenon. Rather, it is a brief stage in a much larger process. Included in that process are a host of constituent sub cycles, each as important as any other. Each planet in the pattern is in cyclic relationship to each and every other planet and with the Grand Cross, a number of these planetary pairs have positioned themselves in one of four different aspect relationships: conjunction, opposition, waxing square, waning square. In other words, there are many relationships involved here and they are all at various stages of development.
12 LAMAT
Grand Cross August 11, 1999
Upon having discovered this striking correspondence between number, hieroglyph and astrological configuration, I asked myself “What other mysteries lay within this integration of symbolic systems? What larger story is hidden amongst the warp and woof of this mythological tapestry?” Sure enough, as I began to look deeper, a story began to unfold. It goes something like this: I had anticipated the arrival of this Grand Cross for a decade previous. It had persisted in my awareness as a kind of beacon that caused me to enquire repeatedly as to its possible significance. As the actual day of the Grand Cross arrived, one planetary pair within the configuration stood out clearly in my mind: Saturn and Uranus.
The current cycle of relationship joining Saturn and Uranus began in 1988 and correlates to major socio-political changes on the world stage. According to this point-of-view, Saturn represents the Status Quo and the psychological function of forming well-defined, clearly limited boundaries and logical, rational systems of thought. In the outer world, Saturn is Big Government, Big Business and all well-established enterprises. Uranus, on the other hand, represents all that serves to disrupt the Status Quo. It represents wildness and freedom, transformation and sudden change. Uranus is the signifier of revolution and is the great disturber of all that is seemingly settled and secure. Uranus has long been referred to as the Great Awakener.
During the Grand Cross of 1999, Saturn and Uranus positioned themselves exactly 90 degrees apart from one another, thus forming what astrologers call a waxing square aspect. In other words, the relationship between Saturn and Uranus had progressed from a conjunction in 1988, where they occupied the same position in the zodiac, to a point where they were exactly ninety degrees apart, thus creating one of the most astrologically stable periods in their current 42 year relationship. To me, this formation added substance to the characterization of the Moon cycle within which the Grand Cross occurred as number 12, corresponding to “complex stability.” The geometric image of the square aspect also clearly resonated with LAMAT, the designated hieroglyph of the moment.
To understand the meaning of any cycle of relationship, we must examine the moment of conjunction between the two planets making up the relationship. Identifiable "signature events” in the outer world occur simultaneous to any conjunction and embedded memories of those events subsequently impact the creation of new forms as the cycle waxes to fulfillment. When it comes to the current 45 year Saturn/Uranus cycle, I consider Harmonic Convergence, August 16, 1987, to be one of the cycle's most significant, coincidental, socio-cultural events. For, Harmonic Convergence occurred just prior to the conjunction of these two planets and clearly presented to the world at large, a revolutionary Uranian impulse standing in stark contrast to the Saturnian, Status Quo mentality of the time. It evoked through prayer, ceremony and the heart, the Dream of Harmonic Convergence, a dramatic alternative to the Dream of Endless War so prevalent throughout the world.
I consider myself fortunate to have made this link between Harmonic Convergence and the Saturn/Uranus cycle because it has provided me with a kind of sustaining, spiritual support. At the time of the Grand Cross, this manifested as a clear realization that the time for me had come to do what is most appropriate at the Waxing Square of any cycle and that is to take decisive action! For me personally, this translated as doing what I could to bring the Dream of Harmonic Convergence more concretely into form. It became clear to me that I should continue my writing and to work consciously and concertedly toward manifesting some kind of completed Work by the upcoming fulfillment stage of the cycle (2008 to 2010). My Lightning Path website constitutes a big part of what I was able to accomplish during that era. This was followed in 2012 by self-publication of my book THE LIGHTNING PATH: Hidden Promise of the Mayan Sacred Calendar. As I have discovered over many years, however, treading the Lightning Path is not so much about producing Works as it is about working on oneself.
RELATED
HOW THE DREAM OF HARMONIC CONVERGENCE RELATES TO THE SATURN/URANUS CYCLE
INNER DYNAMICS OF THE CURRENT SATURN/URANUS CYCLE 1988 - 2008
Click here or image to access download page for image.
Related Lightning Path posts: here, here.
Online resources related to August 11, 1999:
Great Eclipse and Grand Fixed Cross of August 11, 1999
THE SOLAR ECLIPSE OF 1999
Light measurements during the Total Solar eclipse of August 11th, 1999.
Tzolkinex
The Eclipse of the Millennium -- August 11, 1999
About “rare” eclipse intervals and broken periods
The Maya Astronomical Computer - Cryptome PDF
SOLAR ECLIPSE 1999 - FINAL QUEST FOR THE HOLY GRAIL
Solar eclipse of August 11, 1999 on Wikipedia
Total Solar Eclipse of 1999 August 11 (Official NASA site).
August 11 Eclipse of the sun
Exploratorium Webcast: Solar Eclipse August 11, 1999
AUGUST 11 SOLAR ECLIPSE: A COLLECTIVE AWAKENING THROUGH CRISES
An Astronomer's Magnetic Theory of Astrology: How Planetary Motion Orchestrates Solar Activity and Geomagnetism 
A CHOICE FOR LIFE: Linkage Between Grand Cross of August 11, 1999
and Grand Sextile of November 8, 2003
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WEB RESOURCES SYNCHRONOUSLY RELATED TO THIS MOON CYCLE
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August 17, 1999: İzmit earthquake (Turkey). This was directoy in the path of the Solar eclipse which took place on August 11, 1999.
