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The Age of Aquarius
by Julie Gillentine
"When the Moon is in the seventh house, and Jupiter
aligns with Mars,
then peace will guide the planets, and love will steer the stars."
When will it dawn, and
what can we expect?
Aquarius is the
eleventh zodiacal sign, and this ancient constellation has retained
a consistent mythical theme through various cultural transformations.
The Babylonians saw the water jar as an overflowing urn, and associated
Aquarius with their eleventh month, equivalent to our January-Feburary,
translating to "curse of rain." Aquarius is the first constellation
in both the Chinese and Indian calendars and is associated with
water in both. The Egyptians saw the figure representing Hapi, god
of the Nile, who distributed the waters of life.
In the seventies
the Broadway musical HAIR informed us of the dawning of the"Age
of Aquarius." We sang along, most of us blissfully unaware what
an age was. Before modern clocks and calendars the sun, moon and
stars were the way we "told time." The sun's apparent movement across
the sky became the day. The moon's phases around the earth gave
us the month. Earth's longer passage around the sky gave us the
year. As ancient sky watchers pondered the heavens over thousands
of years larger divisions of time called ages evolved.
What is an
age?
Astronomically
an age is defined by the constellation which provides the back drop
for spring equinox sunrise in the northern hemisphere. Earth wobbles
on her axis of rotation, causing spring equinox sunrise to inch
backward through the solar sequence of constellations. There are
twelve ages, one for each zodiacal constellation, "precessing" from
Pisces to Aries at the rate of one degree in seventy-two years,
and delineating the passage of a Great Year of 25,920 years.Dividing
by twelve each age lasts roughly 2,160 years .
Astrologically an
age is characterized by the archetypal energies of the constellation.
At present the equinox sunrise straddles the modern boundaries of
Pisces and Aquarius, and the stellar backdrop is the omega star
in the constellation of Pisces. As the backward march shifts, the
"dawning of the Age of Aquarius" will be heralded as this constellation
moves to center stage and defines the new world age.
But when will the
aeonian changing of the guards occur? According to the Cambridge
Guide to the Constellations, the Age of Aquarius is eight hundred
years in the future. Audubon's Field Guide to the Night Sky
gives a figure of six hundred years. Astrologers differ on when
the momentous dawning will occur, and some sources believe the new
age has already begun.
Unanswered
Questions
If the duration
of an age is 2,160 years, and we know the starting point, then the
answer is simple arithmetic. However, we don't know for certain
when the age of Pisces began, and there are conflicting opinions.
Is the duration of an age uniform like an astrological sign, or
is the length based on the breadth of the constellation? Constellations
are not uniform in size; the constellations of Pisces and Aquarius
overlap like the terrestrial states of Texas and Oklahoma. It is
also conceivable that over a nearly twenty-six thousand year period
the rate of movement might not be constant.
Perhaps the ages
are defined by heliacal (before the sun) risings of certain fixed
stars. There may also be some subtle mechanism, working as temporal
cogs in the Great Wheel, which we have forgotten. If we accept the
assumption that the ancients delineated the boundaries of the ages
by solar alignments with certain stars, we are still left with the
puzzle that the constellations as we configure them today have altered
over time. Where do we look for an ancient benchmark?
How did the
ancients measure the ages?
Using the SKYGLOBE
astronomy program as a window into the past, and certain fixed stars
and points in time as probable markers, a pattern seems to emerge.
Tracking the spring equinox sunrise along the ecliptic (apparent
path of the sun) shows the sun's relationship to certain bright
stars which would have risen heliacally (before the sun) at past
points in time.
4,300 years ago,
toward the end of the age of Taurus, the Pleiades, in the constellation
of Taurus, rose before the sun at spring equinox. The bright star
Alcyone, shining before dawn, would have aligned with spring sunrise.
Some two thousand years later, during the age of Aries, Hamal, alpha
Aries, would have risen before the sun. Today, as we contemplate
the closing of the age of Pisces, the omega star of Pisces holds
the place of spring equinox sunrise.
When do we
change our star clocks?
2000?
Some researchers
believe the current age of Pisces may have begun before the accepted
birth of Christ around 111 BCE. The equinox sun was then aligned
with the star Al Rescha, "The Knot," which is now the alpha star
of Pisces. If that conjunction signaled the beginning of the Piscean
age, adding 2,160 years places us close to the Aquarian age.
2,160?
If we accept the
timeframe of historical zero as the beginning of the last age, then
simple arithmetic places the onset of the age of Aquarius as 2,160
CE. In 0 CE, Xi Pisces, an unnamed star, rose before the sun. In
2,160 the sun will rise after the Iota star in Pisces, also unnamed.
2,500?
Researchers Robert
Bauval and Graham Hancock provided compelling evidence that 12,500
years ago was significant to the ancient Egyptians. The authors
demonstrated a convincing sky-ground relationship at Giza, memorializing
that time. The bright star Denebola, beta Leo, rose then, marking
the Lion's tail, and ushering in the age of Leo. Astrological tradition
always says this star is unlucky. Perhaps the Egyptians recognized
that the heights of civilization reached during Zep Tepi, the First
Time, would not return for another twelve thousand years.
2,813?
Using the calculated
rate of precession, the vernal sunrise will not move through the
modern constellation of Pisces for another eight hundred years.
That seems a long expanse for a single age. The star we now call
Beta Pisces, on the westernmost border of the constellation, is
usually not connected to the "circlet" of stars forming the southern
of the two fishes. Some sources name this star Al Achsasi, "the
Fish's Mouth. In Piscean star lore, for a long time there was only
one fish. It is probable that in antiquity the stars now forming
the "circlet" of the western fish were part of what is now Aquarius.
2907?
In the Middle Ages
the year 747 CE was honored as the official birth of Christ due
to a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. Scholars of the time felt
that the spectacular conjunction bore uncanny resemblance to Matthew's
Biblical account of the star of Bethlehem. However, adding 2,160
to 747 also seems too far removed to be a serious contender.
And the winner
is . . . 2,500
I believe the most
compelling candidate for the dawn of the new age is the epoch of
2,500, exactly halfway around the Great Year from 10,500 BCE. The
unnamed theta star of Pisces marks the dawn, unremarkable from a
light show perspective. Even though no bright star will grace the
equinox horizon, the ancients may have understood the principle
of opposite energies at work in the larger scheme of precession.
They may have sent a message across time that we are now approaching
a new era of possibilities.
Comes The Dawn
We are in a long
term "watery" phase as the ages move from THE FISHES to the WATER
CARRIER and then into THE SEA GOAT. Astrologers speak of cusps and
orbs, gray areas of combined influence. While the spring equinox
sun rose in front of the stars of both Aries and Pisces, Jesus was
seen as both Lamb of God and Fisher of Men during the mingled influences
of the ages of the Ram and the Fishes. If the orb for an age is
six degrees of arc, we will feel the combined influence of Pisces
and Aquarius for more than four hundred years. New energies combine
with the death throes of the old age as it gives way to a new dispensation.
The age of Pisces
has been characterized by both hierarchy and centralization of power.
While a wise and far-sighted monarch can give people vision and
leadership, a petty tyrant wields a reign of terror. In the higher
symbolic aspect we see the sacrificial king, the crucified savior,
who takes on the collective sins of the people.
A positive legacy
of the Piscean age is a profound spiritual renaissance at work on
the planet. Many people, including scientists, are recognizing the
existence of subtle energies. Quantum theory mystifies physicists,
stretching boundaries of what's possible. Everyday people encounter
angels, experience miracles, and survive transforming near-death
experiences.
Over the course
of the next age secrecy and hierarchy will give way to a more egalitarian
decentralization of knowledge and power. I believe the age of Aquarius
will see distribution of wealth as a result of free energy and a
totally altered monetary system. This new-found freedom will bring
its own challenges. Power in the hands of the people can draw on
the gifts of each regardless of prior class or station, but can
also lead to anarchy. In the Aquarian mode the test of responsible
use of resources will rest with the individual.
The transmission
of energy and the egalitarian availability of information and education
will be ushered in by the idealistic and appropriate use of technology.
The world wide web is an early harbinger of the age of Aquarius.
Ecology and the greening of the earth will be emphasized in the
next age, and the quality of water will become paramount. The Age
of Aquarius may see change in the way we track time. The stars have
always been used for navigation. If space travel becomes commonplace
we may someday reckon by "star dates" as popularized by the Star
Trek series.
Ancient wisdom
traditions indicate that humanity is moving toward androgyny. We
see glimpses of this in "Generation X" where traditional gender
boundaries blur. Same sex marriages, transsexuals and transvestites
will be more open as we move into Aquarian energies.
Icon for a
new age
One icon of the
Aquarian age might be the urn as a sacred vessel. Another image
is the chalice, or grail, symbolizing both a vessel of spirit and
the sacred quest. Pure water, bubbling from fountains into beautiful
gardens may be the way we memorialize the Water Bearer. I believe
the "official" new age is still some time off, and we have some
time to settle into the new energies. Meanwhile we change the world
by changing ourselves.
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