Dateline: Monday April 15, 2019 and completed on Tuesday/Wednesday April 16 – 17, 2019
Waking up this morning to see the great gothic cathedral on fire in the heart of Paris — the Earth’s City of Lights — was shocking, emotionally jarring and deeply upsetting on so many levels. Not only did the live images remind all who tuned in of the World Trade Center disaster of September 11, 2001, but for some American watchers other catastrophes in the last 100 years that will always haunt the soul of humanity via film or television — the Oklahoma City bombing, the Waco, Texas inferno, the destruction of the Challenger Space Shuttle, the assassination of President Kennedy, the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, and the explosion of the Hindenburg.
From the perspective of history and because of our technological ability in the 21st century to “see” so much of our home planet as well as the cosmos, the near destruction of this iconic religious center and pilgrimage site connects the dots of a series of recent events in a synchronistically astrological, psychological and spiritual manner. However, in order to get a big-picture view of what I am writing about here — a tapestry of astounding happenings of the last week and what is about to occur soon — one needs to return to the ancient axiom associated with astrology “As Above, So Below,” said to be originally articulated in ancient Egypt by the legendary Hermes Trismegistus or the thrice-great Hermes. As Above, So Below can be explained by the longer concept that gives power and meaning to astrology — what’s true in the Macrocosm (the larger universe) is reflected in truth in the Microcosm (what is manifested on Earth). What’s important in today’s startling images is that no one died (as in the events mentioned a few paragraphs earlier) and the “attack” was not via religious-political-social based terrorism, but by the element of Fire —ravaging a physically-solid and simultaneously spiritually-symbolic well-spring of civilization, artistry and the deep human instinct to align itself with divinity.
As billions around the globe looked on, hundreds of firefighters risked their lives using the element of Water to combat the flames devouring the Earthy insides of this magnificent cathedral while prayers, crying and songs rippled for hours through the Air waves. Thus, the four main elements of the zodiac — in which we all live, move and have our being — were all on display, starring in this international drama. Now how this riveting battle to save Notre Dame “connects the dots” astrologically to other recent experiences and historical events will be explained.
More Than a Fire at a World-Famous Cathedral
In order to interpret a major event in one’s existence or on the world’s stage, my suggestion is as follows: Make believe the event is a vivid dream and you have just awakened — feeling an urgent need to figure out what it means. Using this approach, the scenes, characters and story-line offer a deeper significance than if you are just a witness to what most consider so-called “reality.” Therefore, the imaginatively symbolic nature of the “reality” comes alive in a different way and you often can relate it strongly to past and future events. So, with this in mind, here is a list of recent and near-future happenings that have an astro-psychic resonance with the personal, French, European and Planet Earth sense of shock in experiencing the burning of Notre Dame Cathedral.
Events in Sync with the Notre Dame Cathedral Fire
For many months riots were happening in France where the protestors were out in droves angry about fuel hikes and the pro-business approach of President Macron’s government, and, every so often, starting fires around cars and at kiosks, banks and restaurants. We are in the Solar Aries fiery time-period of the year with — very significantly — the start of the astrological year on March 20 (when the Sun entered Aries) containing the first of two Aries-Libra Full Moons.
In esoteric circles around the globe, the full moon each year at this time is associated with Shamballa, that mysterious center located etherically in the area of the Gobi desert where “the Will of God is Known,” and certainly connected with the Fire principle – and with 2019 having two full moons with Sun in Aries and Moon in Libra (March 20 and April 19). Newsweek magazine reported late on April 15 that simultaneously happening with the flames consuming Notre Dame’s roof, spire and wooden interior, a fire broke out in a prayer room at the third most holy mosque in the world — Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem. This obviously connects the cathedral fire in the heart of Paris to the initial crusades that preceded the placing of the cornerstone at Notre Dame in 1163 with King Louis VII of France and Pope Alexander III in attendance. The placing of the cornerstone for Notre Dame occurred 856 years ago which equals 45 cycles of the fate-destiny Lunar Nodes, revealing that the anciently-named Dragon’s Head and Dragon’s Tail are now back to where they were in the spring of 1163. According to one news source, the cornerstone was laid between March 24 and April 25 in 1163. If we use the time-period on or close to April 15, 1163, there was a Venus-Pluto conjunction in Gemini and the transiting red planet Mars (key ruling planet of fires, inflammation and burns) is right now on that Venus-Pluto union in 1163. In The Destiny of the Nations by Alice A. Bailey (overlighted and inspired by the Tibetan Master D.K.), the zodiacal signs Pisces and Leo are offered as ruling the soul and personality vibrations of France while Virgo and Capricorn are offered as ruling the soul and personality vibrations of Paris. Furthermore, on pages 72 - 73, there is this profound statement: “The forces of crystallisation pour through Paris which is ruled by Capricorn in its personality and yet the soul of the French nation is nurtured in that great capital through the soul of the city, energized by Virgo and, forget not, that Virgo is the polar opposite of Pisces and the infant Christ in Virgo comes to full flower in Pisces.” The transiting Moon at the current Fire is located in Virgo. This lunar focus in early Virgo for the fire is exactly on the Pluto placement in Virgo from the birth of the French Fifth Republic on October 5, 1958 — the current ruling chart for France. Note: Nations reincarnate like people, so countries often have more than one birth chart.
From my currently out-of-print book Mysteries of Venus (self-published by the Great Bear Press in 1986), The Star of the World shows a five-pointed star overlaid on the Earth with France at the top of the star while the other four points refer to China and the UK, the USA and USSR (now Russia) — these 5 nations also being the 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council. Why did I put France at the apex of the upright Pentagram? According to the Tibetan Master D.K. overlighting Alice Bailey in The Destiny of the Nations, the 5th Ray of Knowledge (see my writings over the decades or visit Lucis Trust online) is the Soul Ray of France, whose spiritual keynote to the world is “I release the Light” (page 50). Plus, from page 73: “You will remember perhaps that some years ago I indicated that from France will come a great psychological or soul revelation which will bring illumination to world thought.
Synchronistically, on Sunday April 14 — while storms ravaged the USA southeast, destroying towns and killing at least 8 people, and Tiger Woods fairly miraculously won his 5th Masters tournament 22 years after his first victory in Augusta, GA in 1997 — Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana (where the famous University of Notre Dame is located) made his official declaration for the American presidency. All of Sunday’s powerful events in our country took place under the awesome transiting Grand Triangle in fire signs composed of the Sun in Aries, the Moon in Leo, and Ceres plus Jupiter in Sagittarius. Note: Today, April 16, the University of Notre Dame in South Bend has indicated it will donate $100,000 to the rebuilding of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris while President Macron in France announced to his nation that Notre Dame will be rebuilt in “5 years.” The planet Venus, which is the ruling body of the 5th Ray, forms a Pentagram in the zodiac over an 8-year time-period. These ideas originated with the great seer Rudolf Steiner in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and through his Anthroposophical teachings and lectures as well as his revolutionary Waldorf School curriculum. Just last week on Monday April 8 the largest asteroid Ceres made a station and turned retrograde in fiery Sagittarius and on Wednesday April 10 the largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter, made a station and turned retrograde in fiery Sagittarius. Stations of celestial bodies increase their potency in earthly affairs to an enormous degree. And as those stations took place, elections in Israel gave right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu another victory while the first actual picture of a black hole (from the M-87 galaxy 55 million light-years away from Earth) stunned not only astronomers and scientists, but everyone around the globe. Of course, it is in Israel where the birth of Christianity took place, the Jesus-Mary and Pisces-Virgo dynamic of this 2,160-year Zodiacal Age is still centered, and where the deeply-challenging issues of the Palestinian-Jewish division and possible two-state solution remain at white-hot intensity.
The fire at Notre Dame took place on the day of a Venus-Jupiter square or 90-degree frictional-tense aspect from watery Pisces to fiery Sagittarius. These two planets have always been considered the “benefics” in the field of astrology and associated, when positive in influence, with everything artistic, educational, beautiful, refined, noble, elegant and striving toward the heights of humane, social and cultural advancement. Venus is exalted when located in Pisces and Jupiter is at home when traveling in Sagittarius every 12 years. The Venus-Jupiter discordant square exactly happening as the world’s focus zoomed in on Paris is a most-notable example of the axiom “As Above, So Below.” Finally, as we near Good Friday, the second Full Moon of Aries-Libra on Friday April 19 (including the anniversaries of the Battle of Lexington & Concord in 1775, the Waco Inferno and Oklahoma City bombing in 1993 and 1995, and the Columbine High School shootings in 1999), the beginning of the Passover and Easter holidays, Pluto and Saturn (whose combined energies equate with the need for a serious, prolonged look at Humanity’s stewardship role regarding the animal, plant and mineral realms) are both slowing down in the third earth sign of Capricorn, with Pluto to become stationary and turn retrograde on April 24 and Saturn to do the same on April 29. And significantly next Monday April 22 is Earth Day with the Moon and Ceres united in fiery Sagittarius while the Sun makes its annual rendezvous with radical-change agent Uranus in Taurus. The esoteric keynote of Taurus is “I see and when the Eye is open, all is Light.” Ironically or again in sync with this entire scenario, the coming conflagration and constitutional crisis between the U.S. Congress (more particularly the currently Democratic Party dominated House of Representatives) and The White House (along with the new Attorney General William Barr and U.S. Department of Justice) is about to heat up this Thursday April 18 with the redacted version release of the Mueller Report on the day of the monthly lunar union with Pallas Athena (see my most recent Earth Aquarius News feature on The Mueller’s Report Rush to Judgment – so powerfully aligned with the asteroid Pallas and the archetypes associated in ancient mythology with the goddess Athena). There is actually much more to this story since current astrological transits (especially the Sun, Moon and Venus) at the Notre Dame Cathedral fire also ignite the chart for the birth of European Civilization from December 25, 800 when Charlemagne of France was crowned the Holy Roman Emperor at Noon by Pope Leo III in Rome in a grand ceremony. With the recent migration of people from the Middle East into Europe we are experiencing a kind of reverse-crusade as the Piscean-Virgo Age veers toward its conclusion – giving birth over the next few hundred years to the yearned for dawning of the Age of Aquarius (remember the song by, you guessed it, the 5th Dimension). Stay tuned to this online channel for updates and late-breaking AstroFlash and Global Hotspot features.
P.S. I visited Notre Dame Cathedral in June 1971 and then during the fall of 1978. 50 years ago while I was columnist on the Michigan State News university newspaper (then the top college newspaper in the USA) I wrote about the student revolutions in France in May 1968 in a retrospective feature that appeared during Thanksgiving 1969. Selections from my book Mysteries of Venus appeared several times in the newspaper-version of my astrology journal Welcome to Planet Earth in 1986 and 1987.
The three charts included below (slideshow) are for the approximate time on April 15, 2019 for the start of the cathedral fire, the birth of the French Fifth Republic on October 5, 1958, and the general time-period in spring 1163 when the cornerstone of the cathedral was placed.
Copyright 2019 by Mark Lerner and Great Bear Enterprises, Ltd. All rights reserved.