I’m watching Lady Gaga’s “Alejandro” music video at the moment. Its stark black-white-and-red imagery saturated with sex, war, and Catholicism is so very Scorpio, in direct square to the video’s Aquarian themes of platonic love, gay brotherhood, and the singer’s own self-confessed inability to connect with one person. (See what she had to say about the video here.

I love Gaga because in true Mercury in Pisces fashion, she is consistently spot-on to the moment showing the emotional currents of the collective, while presenting her material in a bold, shocking new way (Sun in Aries). And for a lot of us, what’s going on right now is an intensely frustrating process of being caught in the crossfire of energies that square and oppose each other. To see that played on on-screen in a creative way provides a stark relief of recognition.

Her style and presentation annoy a good many people, but she provides a public service– and perhaps it is just that the people who dislike her are also the type who dislike seeing emotions broadcast at large. It is my personal opinion that if someone doesn’t reflect the frustrated creativity we are all feeling, it will fester.

Although the current Grand Cross is composed of cardinal energies, who isn’t feeling it in some way or another? If it’s not running roughshod over your own chart, it’s probably affecting someone you love or work with. Saturn in Libra says, “Everyone has to play.” So we can see the mutable Scorpio-Aquarius square of the “Alejandro” video as evidence of the kind of intense, provocative creative energy we are all facing at the moment.

As a personal anecdote, my Moon and Mars are conjunct in Libra. My deepest emotional need and drive for partnership are being ground through the gears of this cross (or, more aptly, “cross-hairs”). Due to some difficult personal and economic circumstances impacting my Capricorn Sun and Mercury, I ended up across the country this spring, thinking my relationship with my Aquarius fiance was over.

I met a Taurus, started dating him, and then went through another bout of economic collapse. Moved back to my origins and reconciled with ex-fiance, who cautioned me he couldn’t provide me with the emotional support my Taurus was giving me. Yet the Taurus wanted to smother certain inalienable freedoms I claim, due to my Leo rising/Aquarius descendant.

I’ve struggled all my life with my need for a committed relationship versus my need to be free as well. This is a perfect example of the current situation at large. How do you reconcile opposite needs?

So I proposed a three-way relationship. Creative, right?

All of you who have been intimate with Taurus energy know how well that went over. Stalemate! As I expected, actually.

But I also know that this particular Taurus guy has a Moon in Aries, which loves the very independence and freedom I proposed. I suspect that I haven’t seen the last of Mr. Taurus. I also haven’t seen the last of Mr. Aquarius, but the question is, just how much of him will I ever get to see?

The trick here is to be patient, to wait and see how the push-pull of the current oppositions move my situation forward. First Jupiter/Uranus in Aries make a move– “I want what I want!” Then Saturn in Libra encourages a better solution: “Can you think of something works for everyone?” Currently, my situation rests in Aries again, with everyone saying, “I only want to do it my way!” Soon enough, it will come back to Libra energy: “But I do want partnership and connection. So how can we all make this work?”

The best way to sum up the energy of the Cardinal Grand Cross is that it feels like giving birth while holding still. Just remember that while you may not think you are making progress, the creative energies at work are engaged in a process like taffy-pulling. We will all be pretty limp and stretched out by the end of it, but we’ll also be ready to bust out with something new and amazing, both on a personal level and in the public sphere. And that kind of progress, my friends, is long overdue for everyone.

- Shaina