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| Astronomy Quiz | Appendix 1 | Appendix 2 | Appendix 3 | Appendix 4 | Appendix 5 |

Chapter 7
THE GALACTIC ALIGNMENT, AD 1998

The Milky Way crosses the zodiac around the constellations of Ophiuchus and the Scorpion, visible in the summertime evening skies. In the clearer night skies of winter, one sees the other end of the Milky Way passing between the constellations of Gemini and the horns of Taurus. The Milky Way is a wheel that goes all the way round the sky. Through the middle of the Milky Way in the sky, astronomers draw a Great Circle called the Galactic Equator. It represents or rather is the plane in which the entire spiral of the Milky Way galaxy rotates. We are on that plane, so it appears to us as a line across the sky - just as the plane of our solar system appears as a line in the sky, viz. the ecliptic.

These two lines cross, at an angle of precisely sixty degrees, which seems rather remarkable (60º 11'). And where do they cross? Why, they intersect on the solstices - for the only time in recorded history. That is to say, they are crossing at zero degrees of Cancer-Capricorn. This alignment became exact in May of 19981. Norton's Star Atlas epoch 2000 shows this conjunction (though as an astronomy book it doesn't refer to zero Capricorn). The solstices are moving round against the stars at one degree per 72 years, one degree per 'human lifetime'. This Alignment is a very slow-moving event, and defines the uniqueness of our period of history.

The alignment is happening at more or less just the time when galactic co-ordinates have been discovered: at any previous epoch in history, no-one could have noticed it! Or at least, not with any precision: one expert on the Mayan calendar wrote to me, that he reckoned the Mayan end-date of 2012 came from their computation, that the solstice sun would then be at this point.

The 'Galactic Centre' is a point often used by astrologers, at 27°of Sagittarius, and naturally it lies on the Galactic Equator. It also happens to be near this point of intersection, about six degrees away in latitude and 3 ½° in longitude (see figure). There is some kind of White Hole (or, Black Hole, depending on one's theoretical bias) at the centre of the galaxy, but one can't see anything much in the sky as dark dust-clouds cover up this central area from our sight. One may find difficulty with the idea of the Galactic Centre affecting things because, after all, it is 30,000 light-years away, which is rather distant. On the other hand the plane of the galaxy is not a distant object but something we are in, with a galactic magnetic field aligned to it. The galaxy swirls around, in that plane. Our solar system plane happens to be roughly aligned to the Galactic Centre, as puts the latter close to the ecliptic. Such proximity may reinforce the significance of this galactic alignment.

The ancients had no evident knowledge of a centre to the galaxy. And yet, remarkably, the Galactic Centre is located spot-on the tip of the arrow of the Sagittarius constellation. That arrow of Sagittarius is the one part of the traditional zodiac constellations which really points. In addition, the tip of the tail of the Scorpion is also pointing to it, these being a few degrees apart. To quote US constellation-astrologer Diana Rosenberg, 'The arrow's tip and the Scorpion's sting are only five degrees apart; between them is the Galactic Centre2.' But, there's more! The right foot of Ophiuchus the Serpent-bearer is stepping on it. In fact the ancient constellation-images make an intriguing triangle which has the Galactic Centre in its middle. Not much is visible there on account of dark dust-clouds in the Milky Way blocking out the starlight. This constellation-triangle around the Galactic Centre may first have been described by US astrologer Raymond Mardyx3.

		Galactic Aligment, showing 60° angle between Ecliptic and Galactic Equator in the sky (Mardyx)

One needs to meditate on these themes for a bit, as they aren't easy to grasp. On the ecliptic, in our lifetime, a grand cross forms. One line is marked by zero degrees of Aries/Libra, where Earth's equator plane intersects the ecliptic, and where the zodiac begins - and the other, by a galactic axis at zero degrees of Cancer/Capricorn, to welcome in the new millenium. This happens every thirteen thousand years: 'This is the first time in the history of civilisation that either an equinox or a solstice has aligned with the Galactic Plane in this way.'4 The direction of Earth's axis, in terms of its projection onto the ecliptic, then aligns precisely with the Galactic Equator. Will we get to tune in with the Milky Way?

It may be that this event defines the apocalyptic expectations of our era. Let's quote the late Terence McKenna on this. He linked it to the Mayan calendar end-date of 2012 AD, and discerned 'a transcendental attractor located in the future' as was now pulling events towards it: 'We are literally on a collision course with an object that we cannot precisely discern, lying just below the event horizon of rational apprehendability; nevertheless, our cultural east is streaked with the blush of rosy dawn5.' Astrology sees things more in cyclic terms, and here one notes that a spate of books appeared in the 1990s concerning events in prehistory of thirteen thousand years ago, which is half of a 'Platonic year' cycle ago. The Earth's axis revolves against the stars in 25,920 years, and so half of this gives the previous time in which the solstices were aligned with the galaxy. Bestsellers by Graham Hancock and others saw significant cataclysms in this period; however they seemed not to understand the galactic alignment concept as defining our relation to that pre-historical era6.

		The Millenium Galactic Alignment

Aquarius won't dawn for several centuries, however hard astrologers may wish for it, because the Vernal Point has five more degrees to go before it exits from the Fishes (see Chapter 9). The Vernal Point, 90° round from the solstices, which we are here concerned with, is still well in the constellation of Pisces, and it will take centuries to enter the sidereal sign of Aquarius. The Earth's galactic alignment, in contrast, is a clearly astronomical event - although ignored by astronomers - is happening now, and is the unique, defining event for the turning of this millenium7.

References

1) Jean Meeus, Mathematical-Astronomical Morsels 1997 Willman-Bell US, p.303.
2) Diane Rosenberg, 'The Ground of Heaven' The Mountain Astrologer, April 1995.
3) Mardyks fine diagram has, alas, the feet of Ophiuchus the wrong way round.
4) Raymond Mardyks, 'Galactic Astrology,' Aspects (US) Winter 1995 pp.24-7.
5) The Evolutionary Mind, Trialogues at the Edge of the Unthinkable Rupert Sheldrake, Terence McKenna and Ralph Abraham 1998 p.125.
6) The old classic Hamlet's Mill, an Essay on Myth and the Frame of Time by Giorgio Santillana and Hertha von Dechend was the first to really explore this theme.
7) The Sun is reaching the Galactic Equator around 2004 an hour and forty minutes after the Solstices (the Winter Solstice then falls on December 21st, at 7.42 am EST).

Thanks to Steve Brown for computing the angle between Ecliptic and Galactic Equator.