When four or more planets occupy the vertices of an imaginary square in a chart, that planetary pattern is known as a grand—or cosmic—cross (page 53, bottom left in You and the Universe, and shown above). Consisting of two oppositions the ends of which mutually square one another, this pattern could also be described as a completed T-square or a complete "fourth harmonic syndrome."

The grand cross, perhaps along with the Wedge, is the most rare of the ten planetary patterns displayed on pages 52 and 53 (in You and the Universe). It often symbolizes a person living under a great deal of stress and facing an apparently endless series of challenges. If you have this planetary pattern in your chart, you may feel as though your life is in a constant state of tension and upheaval, and that there are many obstacles getting between you and your goals. You have a lot of energy that is certainly up to meeting your many challenges, but you need to focus it on specific issues one-at-a-time, rather than allowing it to be diffused over many, simultaneous targets. People experience you as having a great intensity just beneath the surface, waiting to be released.

The fixed cross symbolizes the quadruplicity of will, and has the most difficult challenges to meet and overcome of all three seasons or crosses: cardinal, fixed and mutable. My first teacher, Isabelle Hickey, claimed that fixed squares and oppositions represent lessons we have failed to learn over many lifetimes due to our own self-will, and that have therefore become deeply ingrained patterns of behavior. If you have a fixed cross, I recommend that you first become conscious of these problematic and willful parts of your identity that you believe you must hold on to and cannot lose – and see how they are self-willed; that is, become aware of how it is that you, originally very innocently, are now their engine. Then consider the possibility of surrendering them up to the way things are. This doesn’t mean willfully destroying those parts of you. You cannot do this, nor is it even advisable. Rather it means allowing life outside of you to interact and mix with these willful aspects, making them available to growth and change. Surrender may be a bitter pill for you to swallow, but letting go of some of your stubbornness here is necessary for your integration, growth and health.

 Celebrities with grand crosses are/were Anna Maria Alberghetti (mutable), Simon Bolivar (cardinal), John Coltrane (fixed), Bobby Darin (mutable), Geena Davis (fixed), Miles Davis (fixed), Angie Dickinson (cardinal), Isadora Duncan (fixed), Mia Farrow (cardinal), Dennis Hopper (mutable), Steve Jobs (cardinal), John Knowles (fixed), Jack London (fixed), Bill Maher (fixed), Mickey Mantle (cardinal), Jayne Meadows (fixed), and Allan Sandage (fixed; astronomer: expanding universe).