“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, this the dawning of the Age of Aquarius..”
No doubt the idea of the Age of Aquarius became known in the whole world by this text from the hit song “Aquarius”, also outside astrological circles. It is one of the most famous song texts from the hippie musical “Hair”and who doesn’t know it? “’Hair” was originally a small-scale “off-broadway”’ production which was made really big by Milos Forman’s later film adaption.The song text and the whole musical reflect the feeling then, people really believed that a new time of peace, love and understanding would begin in the Age of Aquarius, an idea still fostered by many astrologers and New Agers.
It is to be expected that this idea will again be given much more attention, as not only the recent Great Conjunction fell in the first degree of Aquarius, on top of that on Thursday there will be six planets in the sign of the Water-Bearer. That is extraordinary, the last time this happened was on 4 February 1962, the birthday of the author of this post. Only then all the seven real planets were placed in the fixed Air sign. So it is a good time to ask what this could mean? For all clarity, the “New Age” and the “Age of Aquarius” are not exactly the same concepts, but they both refer to the idea that we are entering a much better, new time in which many awful old things will be left behind. Sounds really nice doesn’t it
The idea of Ages, connected to the signs originally came from theosophy. Theosophy was fiercely anti-Christian and tried to present itself as the future world religion at the end of the Nineteenth Century. Christ was associated with Pisces – for Christ is Ichtos, the Fish – and the new times of theosophy with Aquarius,so it was a smart piece of religious marketing, later picked up again by the hippies and the New Agers. It was said that the Vernal Equinox Point (VEP) was moving into Aquarius and that therefore inevitably Christianity was over and the time for theosophy had come. The big problem is: it is factually not true. It is baffling that for 130 years astrologers accepted this idea totally uncritically.
Astro-populism
It is is true that constellations – visible star groups – are moving over the Vernal Equinox Point (VEP), but that is all you can say. The idea that we can have Ages of about 2000 years connected to signs is so problematical that these many problems cannot be discussed in this post. Not the least problem is that the VEP is still in Pisces and it will be for more than 800 years! So if you hear people saying that the Age of Aquarius is really dawning now, ask them if they know where the VEP is. They will not be able to give you an answer as they have never studied it. Most astrologers have no idea how the precession works.
It is very instructive to see this, it is a form of astro-populism, without any factual foundation it plays on emotions and people stop thinking critically. Donald Trump must have learnt a lot from theosophy. And then this: how could anyone who knows something about the mythological symbolism of the Water-Bearer say that a time of universal love, unity and freedom has come in which nasty, old thing will be left behind? Aquarius has Water in his jar, Water is desire, so he controls and disciplines desire. That is why the sign is ruled by Saturn. Now look again at Hair, it must be clear that Aquarius could not possibly have anything to do with that. And if you still don’t believe me, look around you! Now that Saturn disposes of six planets half the world is locked down! A sign ruled by grumpy, old Saturn cannot possibly herald a period of wonderful, new things could it? So every symbolism and every technique is distorted and mispresented in order to have this idea of the Age of Aquarius.