Age of Aquarius – part three or when does the New Age begin?

In the earlier texts that now make up the trilogy of the coming Age of Aquarius, we have dealt with the qualities of this Age through various symbolic representations. Thus, in the first part we looked at the age of Aquarius through the prism of mythology and esoteric philosophy, and the second part was concerned with astrological symbolism of the coming change. In this final part, I will try to come up with an answer to the question that has caused many brainy astrologers to sit and wonder, and that is when does this New Age actually begins?

The Aquarius era is considered to be a spiritual turning point – for society as well as for each individual. There is a lot of speculation about its beginning. Has it already begun, is it yet to come, or is humanity already in the middle of that Era? Opinions are completely divided, so that International Astronomical Union (IAU) takes the year 2601 as the starting date, some astrologers declare that the year 2375 is the beginning, and, as we are about to see, the opinions are equally incoherent among various mystics.

Our quest is hindered by the fact that the transition period during the shift of such long periods of time  takes quite a long time in itself as well. In this sense, I think that we can freely accept one of the fundamental astrological principles here, which is that when a planet or a horoscope point finds itself in the last five degrees of one sign, it already partially assumes the characteristics of the next. Why are these five degrees important now? Precisely because, according to generally accepted astrological calculations, the precession point of equinox is now at five degrees Pisces. Therefore, this may also be the reason why we are already feeling this coming change, as described above, so I think that in essence, no fixed date of this change can be determined, but that we are rather speaking of gradual flow directed by different turning points. One such point is the primary theme of this text.

It is worth revisiting here this famous precession of the equinoxes and what does it really mean? The Sun completely circles the zodiac every year and returns to the point from which it began – the spring equinox – and every year it misses a little to make a complete circle in the sky within the prescribed time. As a result, it crosses the equator slightly behind where it was last year in the zodiac circle. Each zodiac sign consists of thirty degrees and, as the Sun loses one degree every 72 years, it returns through the entire constellation (or sign) in approximately 2160 years (which represents one Age), and through the Zodiac in 25920 years. . This retrograde movement is called the precession of the equinoxes. This means that over the course of about 25,920 years, which makes one Great Solar or Platonic Year, each of the twelve signs occupies a position at the spring equinox for almost 2160 years, and then it shifts to the previous sign.

age of aquarius
Precession of the Equinoxes

This definition provides us with an essential information, namely that an astrological age lasts approximately 2160 years. So to determine when will Aquarius take the throne it would be important to know when the Pisces age began, and to measure 2160 years from that point. In this search, it seems to me that many have overlooked a very obvious reference, and this is precisely the calendar that we use. This calendar takes as its starting point the birth of Jesus Christ and is marked as a Christian era, a new era, that is, dividing time into that before and after Christ. When we remember that the current age of Pisces symbolically matches Christianity, we can quite clearly identify the concepts of the Christian era and the age of Pisces. From this setting, the calculation would be very simple, the Aquarius era begins in 2160.

Why is it that the religion is so significant in this story? According to Abu Ma’shar, “religion” is what precedes the formation of any ruling dynasty and, accordingly, it is the fundamental principle of every social order. It should be noted that he doesn’t refer to “religion” as being of non-secular type; it is a simple explanation that religion inspires people’s faith in the laws that stem from it. These laws in turn allow and give legitimacy to the formation of dynasties from which rulers are recruited. After the establishment of religion and its laws, it is possible to predict changes in centers of power between nations, even within the same nation, ie. between different ruling families. (1)

Thus, the true causes of the greatest changes in social order are not the shifts of individual rulers, but changes of religion that has primary power in establishing a new order. When we refer to “religion” we are usually inclined to think of some esoteric doctrine that necessarily contains the concept of “god.” But it is easily forgotten that everything that requires to be fatefully accepted is a religious doctrine, whether it is belief in some “higher power” or that human ethics and morality are the highest authority (“democracy”). The only difference between these is that one is secular, the other is not.

Whether they have been aware of this important fact or not, but many esoteric and other traditions have emerged, proclaiming their religion or teaching as a paradigm of the new age, and that it is their doctrine that represents the new world religion that will usher in the Age of Aquarius. We described many of these currents in the first part of this trilogy, when we stated that we did not see them wrong or contradictory, but as different aspects of one current.

age of aquarius
Atu XX – Aeon – from “Non Est Secundus Quia Unus Est”, book of Tarot archetypes by Richard Moult

Thus, for example, Aleister Crowley proclaimed that the New Age began on April 8, 1904, when he received an obscure publication called the Liber Al Vel Legis (‘Book of Laws’) from the “celestial powers” in the period between April 8 to April 10, proclaiming it to be the “Bible” of the new era. At that time, according to his interpretation, the “Aeon of a Murdered God” (Osiris) was replaced by the “Aeon of the Crowned and Victorious Child” (Horus). In the 1938 issue of Liber Legis, in connection with the arrival of the Horus Aeon, Crowley considers: “ He rules the present period of 2,000 years, beginning in 1904. Everywhere his government is taking root. Observe for yourselves the decay of the sense of sin, the growth of innocence and irresponsibility, the strange modifications of the reproductive instinct with a tendency to become bisexual or epicene, the childlike confidence in progress combined with nightmare fear of catastrophe, against which we are yet half unwilling to take precautions. ” Similarly, Anton Szandor LaVey founded the Church of Satan in 1966, also as the religion of the new aeon. Furthermore, the Theosophists tell us, through Alice Bailey, that according to Tibetan teacher Djwhal Khul, behind whom the Eastern Hierarchy of the “Master of Wisdom” powerfully stood, Aquarius was inaugurated in June 1945. on the full moon when, at the strongest energy base beneath the Gobi Desert, Christ-Maitreya assumed the scepter of power, becoming supposedly the World Master and Leader for the next 2,500 years: “In the center of this triangle / = Light, Love and Power / Christ has taken His position : from this point His work begins in the Age of Aquarius, and will last for 2,500 years. Thus, He began a new age, and a new world religion began to form on the inner spiritual levels. ” According to Jungian astrology, it is on February 7, 1962 that we entered the Aquarius era: at that time, most of the planets of the solar system were grouped in Aquarius. Divine clairvoyant Jean Dixon (USA) stated that on February 5, 1962, the Great Antichrist was born – “A child born somewhere in the Middle East shortly before 7:00 A.M. (EST) on February 5, 1962 will revolutionize the world. Before the close of this century, he will bring together all mankind in one all embracing faith. This will be the foundation of a new Christianity, with every sect and creed united through this man who will walk among the people to spread the wisdom of the almighty powers.” In the sixties and seventies of the twentieth century, there was a certain awakening among humankind, Aquarius was everywhere present; but the nature of this movement was rather raw, rebellious and enthusiastic, best exemplified by the hippie movement, which sought to make opium and psychedelics a religion for the people; but it should be said that in those eccentric hippies who anemically and anecdotally imitated Christ, some saw those who are “preparing” the coming of Aquarius in all its power.

Now it would be worthwhile to consider some methods of mundane astrology, especially the so-called Great Conjunction of chronocrators – Jupiter and Saturn, which can give us significant insights in this regard. So, in the first chapter of the first part of his work “On Great Conjunctions”, Abu Ma’shar states what elements for the purposes of mundane predictions need to be analyzed.

The first place / level takes the transition ie. the return of the JU / SA conjunction into signs of fiery triplicity and this is the so-called Great Conjunction. Abu says that this new beginning occurs in the sign of Aries every 960 years, but if we look at the series of conjunctions of the chronocrators 7000 years back, we will see that it never happened in Aries, but all were without exception in Leo (except the last one, which happened 1663 to Saggitarius). This period does not last for 960 years, but for the period from 795 to 854 years.

However, the actual number of years is a side matter, the essential idea is that the return of the conjunction of the chronocrators in the sign of fiery triplicity becomes an indicator of a universal new beginning, a radical change in the structure of the previous order of things. The last such change occurred in 1663, so it is interesting to note that it was followed by social and political changes that almost perfectly fit into the symbolism of Aquarius. Thus came the Age of Reason, the Enlightenment, and numerous revolutions such as the French and the emergence of the United States of America, which in a sense can be considered the epitome of that “new democracy” stemming from the maxim of the French revolution “Liberté, égalité, fraternité” a guiding idea in this brave new world. There is also the industrial revolution, which, in only few hundred years, was inherited by the enormous breakthrough and advancement of science and technology, up to the quantum physics and information age we are witnessing today. However, this “new democracy” faces many adversities, so we cannot quite accept that it is this new religion of the coming age.

On the second level, we have the so-called „medium conjunctions“ ie. those that transition from triplicity to triplicity, representing a change over a period between 179 to 238 years, as the series of 12-13 conjunctions of chronocrators last in signs of the same triplicity. This indicator provides information on developments in religions, kingdoms and dynasties, and announces the birth of a new religion or dynasty. The second level is contained in the first and not vice versa; the former gives indications of the latter, but the latter cannot give indications of the former, which points to a clear hierarchical principle upon which this theory rests – in accordance with the philosophy of astrology as a whole. It is especially interesting that such a change, that is, the transition of the great conjunction into Air triplicity, occurs precisely on the winter solstice in 2020, namely at 0 Aquarius!

What could all this change bring? In the sense of the foregoing, I think it is worth recalling that the shift of this conjunction into water triplicity, more precisely in Scorpio, led to the birth of a new religion – Islam. Can we then interpret this next conjunction, though this time in air triplicity, as predicting of the emergence of a new religion or a new doctrine that is so necessary in the Age of Aquarius? What we can find in the sources of the astrological tradition is that Abu Ma’shar gives an overview of the strength of conjunctions depending on the sign in which they occur, and explains how the transition of conjunction to the new triplicity generally reflects the geographical shift of centers of power / influence. Conjunction in airl triplicity symbolizes the rise of the peoples of the northern regions, the strongest of those conjunctions being in Aquarius, medium in Libra and weakest in Gemini. As conjunction occurs in Aquarius, traditionally, this sign is related to the following areas: according to Ptolemy, Asian Russia, the wider area around the Amu Darje River on the northern border of nowdays Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan all the way to the Aral Sea, Arabian Peninsula, whole East Africa. According to Vettius Valens, places symbolized by Aquarius are: the Red Sea and Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Libya and northeast Europe above the borders of ancient Thrace. The same parts of the US and Canada belong in the subdivision to this sign. That is, all northeastern parts of any geographical entity can be assigned to aerial signs so that the northern parts always belong to Aquarius, south to Gemini, and Libra to the easternmost.

In general, these would be some areas where significant changes could occur and that are most likely to  shape the main stream of the currents of this new Aquarius’ age. By this I do not want to proclaim 2020 as the year of the beginning of the Age of Aquarius, but merely point out this important symbolic representation as being particularly indicative of the new age. Without any intent to announce some extremely apocalyptic scenarios, I still think it is important to keep in mind that the possibilities are indeed numerous – it may be the birth of a new world religion, the creation of a new bloc or alliance of states, perhaps the birth of a new leader, some revolutionary scientific discovery, or something similar. The modality in itself is not that important, as much as the fact that this is something that will essentialy and decisively direct the development of humanity towards the symbolic representations of the Aquarius era, the qualities of which have been discussed in the previous section. It is through this symbolism and characteristics, with the above geographical and formative references, that we can follow the events in the period after 21.12.2020. for the said change will represent their strongest sublimation. That is, some new religion or doctrine will have all the features described above and will emerge among the peoples of the north, and I would say that it will be the most important impulse in unwinding of this shift towards the Age of Aquarius. This will create fruitful ground for the emergence of new archetypes, mythos, new urban legends with ancient rural legends restored, which will open a portal to something still mysterious that cannot be accurately described by the known words, so we look for it in the language of symbolism. The process of gradually discovering this spiritual impulse is both collective and individual, marked by various turning points. Mankind as a whole goes through this process, just like any individual human being. Accordingly, this observation of mine may only be yet another of such points, which ultimately doesn’t have to prove as being so important, although, due to its temporal reference and symbolic significance, in conclusion, I would describe it as being of strongest influence so far.

Age of Aquarius – part one

Aquarius and its age are one of the major astrological, but not only astrological, debates. Starting with the hippie movement of the 1960s and the famous Age of Aquarius theme, we wonder when this “golden age” will come, whether it is already here, what will mark its beginning, etc. According to some authors, the main symbolic lines are already present, and although there are promising aspects in the form of spiritual liberation and the like, we can also note some negative trends. This is especially true of the fact that the 20th century was marked by the greatest casualties in human history (60 million in World War II, and another 40 million during Mao Tse Tung), the atomic bomb and the most devastating weapons ever, but also by rapid scientific and technological advances, man first set foot in space, so the conclusions of that new age are at least ambivalent. Of particular importance is the paradigm that will be dominant in this age, since it depends on how further scientific advances will be employed, which will in many respects also determine the main trends. In this quest, we decided to follow the path of symbolic representations, beginning with mythological, religious, esoteric and of course astrological, as the most relevant, given that all currents of human history have their roots and origins in them.

As the deepest symbolic meanings on a particular topic can be obtained from relevant mythological material, we will first address the myth that lies behing the constellation Aquarius. This is so because all the symbolic threads that form the later basic features of what they represent, be it on individual lever, or on the level of certain nation(s), state(s) or even of one Age, are woven into the myth. This stems from a kind of dialectical connection between Mythos and Ethos, in which Ethos (to put it simply – ethics) actually imparts the basic symbolism of myth to the level of applicable, and more importantly adopted social rules at the level of collective consciousness, from which  more concrete principles and rules derive that so form reality. For us, this relation may be best observed  in the relation of the Myth of Kosovo and the Serbian people, whose complete ethics and faith are built on that Myth. Likewise, the Aquarius myth certainly offers us enough symbolism to interpret its future ethos and thus to discover the key aspects of the coming age.

Aquarius is based on the myth of Ganymede. Ganymede is known as a classic mythological figure from the heroic age of ancient Greece. The myth is first mentioned in Homer, who presents Ganymede as one of Troy’s three sons, the legendary founder of Troy. Because of its extraordinary beauty, Ganymede is abducted by the gods to be a cupbearer to Zeus and enjoy the life of an immortal. As is common with Greek myths, different forms of story have developed – some heroes are referred to as the fathers of Ganymede, who is abducted by the gods, or even Zeus himself, or on his command. When the kidnapper is Zeus, he appears either as a mortal, or takes the form of an eagle, or orders the eagle to grab the boy as he leads his flocks to Mount Ida. All the gods rejoiced in his coming except Hera who despised him. Hera, in fact, complained that this offended both her and her daughter Heba, who had until then served the gods with wine; however, she only managed to anger Zeus, who put Ganymede among the stars as Aquarius. Some mythographers claim that this was the reason why Hera was against the Trojans in the Trojan War. Ganymede’s father mourned for his son. With regret, Zeus sent Hermes with two horses that were so fast that they could even run on water. Hermes convinced Troy that his son was immortal and that he now serves wine to the gods, and that he did not need to worry. It is also interesting to observe that aspect of Zeus’ love for Ganymede, which is often cited in ancient sources. At an early age, god and boy were considered archetypal lovers. Sophocles (fifth century BC) writes of Ganymede, who “inflames the power of Zeus with his thighs.” This couple also served to justify the homoerotic tradition. Hence the sixth century BC Teognis speaks of Zeus and Ganymede as an example of the joy of love with a boy, and ends one short poem with the words: “So, Simonide, don’t be surprised that I knelt in love with a wonderful boy.” The myth was inspiring for poetry, and we find it in Ibikus in the sixth century, and in Pindar and Euripides in the fifth century A.D. When Xenophon (fourth century) portrayed Socrates condemning copulation between men, he felt it necessary to remove all the appeal of the myth of Ganymede by interpreting Ganymede’s name (Ganymede is in Greek a compound of the adjective ganos – great and medea – male genitals but also prudence, cunning) as referring to someone who is of “tempting reasoning” rather than “tempting body” (or genitalia), which would be a more relevant interpretation. As we can see, the Ganymede myth has been interpreted in different ways. Plato believed that the myth was invented by the Creteans to justify love relationships with boys or young men. Xenophon explained this myth as a moral allegory that signifies the superiority of the spirit in comparison with the body (the etymological basis already mentioned), which would prove that intellectual rather than physical advantages gain the favor of the gods and ensure immortality. The Renaissance interprets this myth in connection with the Neoplatonist doctrine of furor divinus. In his commentary on Dante’s Purgatorio, Landino explicitly draws the line between Neoplatonic and Christian interpretation. Plato says that his abduction is “cleavage from the body, and since he forgets material things, he focuses fully on contemplating the mysteries of heaven.” In this respect, I am particularly interested in the symbol of the eagle, since the Eagle is one of the forms of the constellation of Scorpio, though the rarest. As Scorpio is a sign of occult initiation, the flying eagle – the king of birds – represents the highest and most spiritual type of scorpion in which it transcends the poisonous terrestrial insect. We will return to this reference later when we talk about astrological symbolism and its interpretations.

age of aquarius
The Abduction of Ganymede

The Aquarius constellation, identified with Ganymede, first represented the Egyptian god who ruled over the well of the Nile, pouring water rather than wine from the condy (Pindar: Fragment 110). More specifically, it is Osiris, the symbolic god of the Nile. The Nile would float in late July and is associated with Leo, during a full moon in Aquarius. This act symbolized Osiris’s dominance over the earth, who was then killed and torn apart, to eventually resurrect. Aquarius is therefore a vital force that renews and fertilizes all things.

What exactly is the precession of the equinoxes, and what are the principles on which it resides? The Sun completely circles the zodiac every year and returns to the point from which it began – the spring equinox – and every year it misses a little to make a complete circle in the sky within the prescribed time. As a result, it crosses the equator slightly behind where it was last year in the zodiac circle. Each zodiac sign consists of thirty degrees and, as the sun loses one degree every 72 years, it returns throughout the entire constellation (or sign) in approximately 2160 years (which represents one age), and throughout the zodiac for 25920 years. . This retrograde movement is called the precession of the equinoxes. This means that over the course of about 25,920 years, which makes one Great Solar or Platonic Year, each of the twelve signs occupies a position at the spring equinox for almost 2160 years, and then passes the place to the previous sign.

For the ancient peoples, the Sun always symbolized the shape and nature of the constellations through which it passed to the spring equinox. For the last nearly 2000 years the Sun has shifted to the Pisces constellation (two Pisces) at the spring equinox. 2160 years before it had passed through the constellation Aries. Previously, the spring equinox was in the sign of Taurus. During these times, or eras (aeons), religious worship takes the form of a corresponding celestial sign – of the one that the sun takes as his personality, in the same way that the spirit takes over the body. During this period, in ancient Egypt, Apis (bull) was dedicated to the sun-god, worshiped through the animal equivalent of the celestial sign, which, at the time of his passage into the northern hemisphere, was filled with his presence. This is the meaning of the ancient saying that the celestial Taurus “broke the egg of the year with its horns.” Then the Sun took over the body of Apis, and the Bull became dedicated to Osiris. In the Old Testament, we find a reference to this shift of aeons, when Moses, upon his return from Mount Sinai, found his followers glorifying the Golden Calf, which he then destroyed by throwing it into the fire (which signifies purification and rebirth), and then, as we find in Genesis 22:13 : “ Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.” During the Age of Aries, the Lamb was considered sacred and the priests were called shepherds. Sheep and goats were sacrificed on the altars, and the scapegoat was designated to bear the sins of Israel. During Pisces, the fish was a symbol of divinity, as the Sun God fed the crowd with two small fish. Not only is Jesus often called the Fisherman of the People, but, as John P. Landy writes: “The word Fish is an abbreviation for the whole name, „Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior and Cross“, or as St. Augustine says: “If you combine the initial letters of the five Greek words Ιησούς Χριστός Θεού Υιός Σωτήρ, you get ΙΧΘΥΣ, which means Pisces, a word through which Christ is mystically understood, because he was able to live in the abyss of this mortality, as in the depth of water, but without sin ”. Aquarius is the name for the man with the pitcher of water on his shoulder referred to in the New Testament (Luke 22:10; Mark 14:13), when the apostles should prepare the Last Supper, and Jesus instructs them to follow the man carrying a mug of water. It is also referred to as the “Face of Man” in the Book of Revelation, as one of the fixed signs of the Zodiac. From a mystical point of view, this can also be seen as a guideline, since the apostles have traditionally been associated with the 12 signs, the so called houses of the Sun, so the entry into the house where a man with a jug of water leads them, can also be seen as a reference to entering in the age of Aquarius, especially if the myth of Christ is taken as a symbolic representation of the whole age of Pisces, or Christianity. He is sometimes portrayed as an angelic character, supposedly androgynous, who either pours water from an urn or carries a pot on his shoulder. Among the Oriental peoples only a water bowl is used. According to all this, the Sun will still take the form of the zodiacal sign in which it is located, ie. Aquarius, which is a human sign, hence the emphasis on humanism and the age itself will adopt the symbolism of this constellation, both in religious worship and in ethics.

Esoteric philosophy is the next one whose insights are worth considering in this regard. This is because precisely the different Schools of Mysteries knew how to properly understand and employ these symbolic mythological representations, often even creating individual myths themselves. Therefore, in this place, we would like to address one esoteric aspect of the time, which concerns the Age, or Aeon, as well as their succession.

In the last few centuries, since Occultism in the West experienced a renaissance and some ideas began to spread more openly – many mystical and esoteric traditions occasionally proclaimed the appearance of a New Age, naming it and describing it differently, relative to one another. Some Masonic authors have heralded the Age of Aquarius, on the basis of astro-theological heritage; The Theosophists spoke of the ages of the seven human races, relying on the Hindu tradition of the seven ages, proclaiming that we were currently living in the age of the fifth Aryan race; The Hindu tradition teaches that we live in the age of Kali-Yuga; The Order of the Nine Angles, although it has a slightly different concept from the Theosophical, also recognizes the seven ages in the development of the human species, but proclaims this present age – the Age of the Mother of Blood; Crowley and the Telemites believe that we are in the Age of Horus – a child, after the earlier times of Osiris – the father and Isis – the mother; Anton Szandor LaVey and the like proclaim the Age of Satan, etc. At first glance, studying all these teachings, of these different traditions, one might think that there must be contradiction and that all these ages are not fully compatible with each other. Needless to say, all followers of the above traditions are blindly clinging to inherited dogmas, largely denying others. We see things a little differently. We see no contradiction or genuine conflict between them all, but consider that they all speak only of different aspects of the same New Age. For example, one can already feel the coming of what the “Age of Aquarius” should represent – rapid and remarkable spiritual and technological progress, as well as a sudden break with the tradition, values ​​and religions created in the “Age of Pisces”; All these achievements have been predominantly presented by representatives of the Aryan race, if the Theosophical classifications are to be reiterated; Hypocrisy, injustice and insanity also ruleng, as described in the Hindu representations of Kali-Yuga, along with the appearance of devotional and compassionate religious forms, devoid of traditional and restrictive ritualism, both in the East and in the West; There is also an evident increase in the dominance of the female principle and female influence in society, but not that of the motherly and caring female principle from the cave age, but precisely as represented by the Order of the Nine Angles through the archetype of the Mother of Blood, manifesting itself as the judge and executioner of the patriarchal system so far. . ; Again, Crowley is correct in referring to the Age of Child-Horus, in which, as he describes it himself, there will be evidence of widespread confusion, incoherence, increased freedoms, bisexuality, homosexuality, and the outbreak of the most insane and bloody war conflicts; Of course, LaVey also accurately proclaimed the age of Satan, since Satanism as such is increasingly accepted as a perfectly legitimate religion, that Satan is publicly worshiped, and that all those things that were once “sin” and “devil’s work” are increasingly accepted as standard and something normal. So, esoterically, we see all these representations of the New Age only as different aspects of that and such an Age, which complement one another.

In the second part of this quest, we will look for answers in purely astrological symbolism, which will give us additional insights into aspects of this emerging new age.