Internet publication date: May 2000.

The alignment of seven celestial bodies in a conjunction is not a rare event, happening every few years, with the tightest recent one occurring in January 1994. Astrologers have seen many charts with this formation (called a stellium) and I, myself, was born under such a configuration.

When one considers that Venus and Mercury are never far from the Sun, and the Moon joins in once a month, there are often four celestial bodies close together. The Mars cycle is about two years, adding the fifth planet. Jupiter is in focus once every twelve years. The extras come when this group also conjunct the slower moving outer planets. When one considers that the solar system is billions of years old, with this sort of thing happening regularly, there is not going to be an end of the world scenario in association with such an alignment.

The effect of this configuration is to intensify influences both within the environment and individual. When malefic planets are involved such as Saturn, Uranus, Mars and the "unknown" quantity of Neptune, there are likely to be an increased number of human disasters such as earthquakes, fires, accidents.

A tight major alignment occurred in January 1994 when the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Uranus and Neptune were in a tighter orb of conjunction than the current one. In fact, all of the planets were within 90 degree orb in one quadrant of the solar system, representing a far more "unbalanced" pattern than the forthcoming one. There were predictions of doom and gloom then, as with the last solar eclipse, but life has gone on and amateurs look for another goal upon which to hang Armageddon.

© Copyright, Alison Moroney, 2000