Age of Aquarius??

I was watching a show on Jesus of all people, and the were saying that we are in the Age of Pisces, and are working backwards throught the Zodiac, and will soon be entering the Age of Aquarius, or have entered it already. I would like to know what it means.

Thanks!

singing *when the moon is in the seventh house, and jupiter aligns with mars, then peace will guide the planets......* hee hee
couldn't resist!

we have arrived! the age of reason and the intellect. new ways of thinking, as opposed to the more traditional age of pisces.

that's just to tide you over till the experts are here to explain it. hope i got it right! LOL

The Age of Aquarius (and the Ages of Pisces, Aries, etc) are a way of describing the phenomenon of the precession of the Equinoxes. Traditional Astrology locates the vernal Equinox at the first degree of Aries. This was because around 4000 years ago the Vernal equinox did indeed occur against the zodiac background of the first degree of Aries.

However Earth's rotation around the Sun is not precisely one year and the vernal equinox does not therefore occur at exactly the same point in terms of zodiac longitude. Over time this difference grows. Approximately every 2200 years the Vernal equinox changes sign moving into the preceding sign, over 26000 years it completes an entire cycle of the Zodiac. So around 250 BCE the vernal equinox shifted into Pisces and some 2200 years after that date will shift into Aquarius.

Thus the Age of Aquarius is the time in which the Vernal equinox will occur in Aquarius and arguably bring an Aquarian slant to life. Just as the Pisces fish was a symbol of early Christianity and the Aries Ram a symbol of Egyptian religion (and in earlier times the cult of the Bull was drawn from a Taurean equinox), so the symbolism of the Water bearer will represent this 'New Age'. The individualism, interest in the unusual and off beat, the intrest in societyand human brotherhood are all Aquarian traits. Incidentally some of the activities identified as 'New Age' such as the use of drugs are far more Piscean (ruled by Neptune) than Aquarian. Peace and Love is also a Piscean rather than Aquarian concept (Pisces is a Water sign and more emotional than the airy Aquarius).

The problem with it is that no one actually knows when it will begin exactly. Some argue that it has already started, others that it will be another 100 years or so. This is partly because there is no exact point where the actual constellation of Pisces ends and that of Aquarius begins (moving backwards through the Zodiac). The constellations are not all the same size and clearly are separated by space which is difficult to allocate to one or the other.

Western astrologers have sidestepped the problem of precession by using the tropical zodiac. That is the first degree of Aries is defined as the Vernal equinox, rather than an actual zodiac backdrop. Vedic astrologers tend to use the 'sidereal' zodiac - or the actual background of the stars themselves. There is somewhere around 24 degrees difference between the two, so only if you were born in the last 6 degrees of a western sign do you have the same sun sign in both systems. For most people being born, say Libra under the Tropical system will mean that they are Virgo under the Sidereal system.

Hope this helps

Minderwiz

Minderwiz, thank you! That's the best explanation I've ever read on the situation and was really helpful to me at least.

Laurel

random related thoughts

thanks for the post, Minderwiz!

I've always gotten the impression that the Age of A is supposed to be this lovely time of hippie ideals and a return to a more egalitarian society and such like, but I agree, these seem more Piscean.

Aquarius is also a sign that's very technology-friendly so I think that's more accurate (and obvious) than say, hallucinogenics ^_~

When new paradigms arise, they carry the history of the paradigm that it arose from. Would then it be accurate to say that the 'warring' crusades of early Christianity had some old fading Aries influence?.....

Also, I wonder about how secular our society really is. I've read some ppl writing that we've already entered the Age of A. I question this when our worldview (dominion over the land, earth as a resource for us to use for our needs) and our laws (reflecting the hierarchical values of Judeo-Christian values) etc are still entrenched in Christianity, even though the power of the church is no longer at its zenith and is now in contention w/other ideologies or systems of belief (science, postmodernism etc). I get the feeling we're only at the beginning of an end here, or is this the old cycle still resonating through the new?

I agree with you on this. Firstly, as I said earlier, it is not clear exactly where Pisces ends and Aquarius begins, as far as the sidereal zodiac is concerned so it is almost impossible to say that we have entered the Age of Aquairus as a fact. However sometime soon (in cosmic terms) this will happen (if it hasn't already).

Astrologers also recognise that the cusps are not complete cut off points - i.e. the Sun changes its character immediately it moves from 29 degrees 59 minutes Cancer to 0 degrees Leo. There is some area either side of the cusp - some would say around 3 degrees before the cusp and about 5 degrees after where both signs interplay. Leo will be dominant after the cusp, Cancer before it but Leo will have an incresing effect in that lead up period and Cancer will fade out over the first degrees of Leo.

If this is correct then the transition from one 'Age' to another will also have some overlapping effects, there will be some Aquarian characteristics in the last decades (or centuries even) of Pisces and some Piscean influence in the first decades (or even centuries) of Aquarius.

In that sense it doesn't matter for the here and now whether we are in the Age of Pisces or the Age of Aquarius, at least not in the lifetimes of those alive now and possible two or three more generations. Though at a historical level we can predict that the Astrological 'flavour' of the next two milennia will be Aquarian.

Regards

Minderwiz