Left Angle Cross of The Alpha

Find your Incarnation Cross on your free chart

Enter your birth date, time and place to see your cross and its four Gate numbers.

Look for the line that reads Left Angle Cross of The Alpha. The four numbers in brackets are the Gates of your Personality Sun and Earth, then your Design Sun and Earth, for example (31/41 | 24/44). Match them to the rotations below to see which of the two you carry. The chart symbols guide shows where the Sun and Earth sit in the two planet columns.

The Alpha cross on the BodyGraph

The four Gates sit in four different Centers: the Ajna and the Throat in the upper middle column, the Spleen on the left and the Root at the base. The voice is in the Throat; the other three feed it with thinking, instinct and pressure.

Left Angle Cross of The Alpha at a glance

Written three ways, as charts and searches write it: Alpha 1: 31/41 | 24/44, 31/41 24/44 or 31 41 24 44; Alpha 2: 41/31 | 44/24, 41/31 44/24 or 41 31 44 24.

The two rotations of the Alpha cross

Find the rotation whose first number matches your Personality Sun. The quarter it sits in gives the rotation its number, 1 or 2.

The Alpha 1 (31/41 | 24/44)

With Influence as your conscious Sun, the voice comes first: you know you are here to say what others will act on, and Contraction, the conscious Earth, keeps that voice from running ahead of what you can actually deliver. Rationalization and Alertness work on the Design side, shaping what you say before you notice.

The Alpha 2 (41/31 | 44/24)

Here Contraction is the conscious theme: you feel the pressure to start something and the discipline of doing it with less. Influence, the conscious Earth, gives that pressure somewhere to go. On the Design side, Alertness and Rationalization run underneath, so others may see your instincts and your second thoughts before you do.

The four Gates in plain language

Start with the Gate that holds your Personality Sun, then its Earth, then the Design pair.

Gate 31: Influence

Gate 31, Influence, is a Throat Gate, so it is a voice. It completes Channel 7-31 with Gate 7 in the G Center, and that Channel is named The Alpha, the same name as this cross, with the keynote of leadership for good or bad. Its lines run from Manifestation to Application, through Arrogance and Self-righteousness. As a Sun it makes your purpose the question of how your words lead others. As an Earth it grounds another theme in what you are willing to say out loud.

Gate 41: Contraction

Gate 41, Contraction, sits in the Root, the Center of pressure and drive, and it is where the wheel's year begins. Its hexagram is Decrease. It completes Channel 30-41 with Gate 30 in the Solar Plexus, keynoted as focused energy. As a Sun it is the push to begin something new while working within limits. As an Earth it keeps your influence lean and focused, and stops it from promising more than the pressure behind it can fuel. Its last line carries the title Contagion.

Gate 24: Rationalization

Gate 24, Rationalization, sits in the Ajna, the Center of concepts and certainty. Its hexagram is The Return: it goes over the same thought again until it makes sense. It completes Channel 24-61 with Gate 61 in the Head, a design of a thinker. In this cross it sits on the Design side in both rotations, so the thinking runs below awareness. Others may hear the reasoning behind your words before you know you did it.

Gate 44: Alertness

Gate 44, Alertness, sits in the Spleen, the Center of instinct that speaks once and in the present. Its hexagram is Coming to Meet. It completes Channel 26-44 with Gate 26 in the Heart, keynoted as a transmitter. Its lines move from Conditions and Management to Honesty and Manipulation, which shows how much depends on how it is used. It is on the Design side in both rotations, a quiet instinct for people that the rest of the cross relies on.

A cross that shares its name with a Channel

Gate 31 completes Channel 7-31 with Gate 7, and that Channel is called The Alpha. The cross takes its name from the same idea. The Channel's keynote is a design of leadership for good or bad, and the cross carries that theme without the guarantee of the Channel: you carry Gate 31, and Gate 7 has to come from somewhere else in your chart or from another person.

That is why the cross plays out through other people. When you meet someone with Gate 7, the Channel can complete between you, and the leadership the name promises becomes something you do together. Without that, Influence is a voice waiting for a role. Gate 7 also belongs to the Cross of The Sphinx, the cross of direction.

Two opposite pairs from two Right Angle crosses

Every cross is two opposite pairs. In The Alpha, the conscious pair, 31 and 41, is the same pair that sits in the Right Angle Cross of The Unexpected, and the Design pair, 24 and 44, comes from the Right Angle Cross of The Four Ways. A Left Angle cross takes one pair from each.

So The Alpha carries the conscious side of the unexpected, a voice and a pressure to begin, and the unconscious side of the four ways, thinking and instinct about people. The Right Angle versions live those themes for the self. Here they meet other people, which is what the Left Angle is about.

One voice and three Centers that feed it

Only one of the four Gates sits in the Throat, and it is Gate 31, the one that can speak. The other three are in Centers that do not speak: the Root brings pressure to start, the Ajna turns things over until they make sense, and the Spleen reads people in the moment.

Two of those three are awareness Centers, and the Root is both a motor and a pressure Center. That gives the voice of this cross a lot to draw on before it says anything. When the words come out right, they carry thought, instinct and drive behind them. When they come too early, they carry only the pressure.

Why the Alpha is a Left Angle cross

A Left Angle cross is transpersonal: the purpose is worked out through other people, and your life tends to be shaped by who you meet. For The Alpha that is built into the name. Influence only means something when someone is listening, and leadership only happens when others are willing to follow. The Left Angle goes with four Profiles: 5/1, 5/2, 6/2, 6/3. With one of these, these four Gates make the Left Angle cross; with a 4/1 Profile the same Gates make a Juxtaposition cross instead.

Your Sun line: how the line colors this cross

Your Personality Sun has a line as well as a Gate: the number after the dot. 31.5 means Gate 31, Line 5. Open your rotation below and find your line. The line title comes from the Rave I Ching; the sentence after it is how that line tends to color the Alpha cross.

Living the Alpha cross

At work

Alpha people often end up as the voice of a team without asking for it: the one who sums up the meeting, or the one the group sends to talk to the boss. Work goes best when that role is given to you openly, so you are speaking with the group's backing rather than pushing your own view as theirs.

In relationships

In relationships the cross works through the other person, so who you are close to shapes how your influence shows up. A partner who listens draws out your best words. Notice when you start speaking for someone instead of with them; the line between leading and deciding for others is the one this cross keeps testing.

In decisions

The Alpha gives your life a theme, not a rule for each choice. Being looked to for answers can make you feel you must have one right away. You do not.

Answer with your Type and your inner Authority, and let your influence follow from choices that were truly yours. Your Strategy and Authority are how you get there; the cross is where it leads.

When the Alpha cross is misread

Questions to sit with

One question for each Gate. Notice which one you answer quickly and which one you avoid.

1. Gate 31: Who has handed you the role of speaking for them lately, and did you accept it on purpose?
2. Gate 41: What are you feeling pressure to start right now, and what would it look like to start it smaller?
3. Gate 24: Which thought have you gone over three times this week, and what is it trying to resolve?
4. Gate 44: What did your first instinct tell you about a person recently, and did you listen to it?