Age of Aquarius

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The Age of Aquarius, starting around the 27th century and following to the current Age of Pisces, is one of the twelve astrological ages.

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Astrological age definition

An astrological age is the time taken for the vernal equinox to move through one constellation of the zodiac. Astrological ages occur because of a phenomenon known as the precession of the equinoxes. One complete period of this precession is called a Great Year and is about 26,000 years.

Astrological aspects

The Earth, in addition to its diurnal rotation upon its axis, incurs a precessional motion involving a slow periodic shift of the axis itself: approximately one degree every 70 years. This motion, which is caused mostly by the Moon's gravity, gives rise to the precession of the equinoxes in which the Sun's position on the ecliptic at the time of the vernal equinox, measured against the background of fixed stars, gradually changes with time.

In astrology, an astrological age is defined by the constellation in which the Sun appears at the vernal equinox. Since each sign of the zodiac subtends (on average) 30 degrees, each astrological age might be thought to last 70 × 30 = 2,100 years. This means the Sun crosses the equator at the vernal equinox moving backwards against the fixed stars from one year to the next at the rate of one degree in seventy-two years, one constellation in about 2156 years, and the whole twelve signs in about 25,868 years (called a Great Sidereal Year).

The last time the starting-point of the sidereal zodiac]agreed with the tropical zodiac occurred in AD 498. A year after these points were in exact agreement, the Sun crossed the equator about fifty seconds of space into the constellation Pisces. The year following it was one minute and forty seconds into Pisces, and so it has been creeping backwards ever since, until at the present time the Sun crosses the equator in about nine degrees in the constellation Pisces. It will thus be about 600 years before it actually crosses the celestial equator in the constellation Aquarius.

In other words, this means that the current astrological Age of Pisces began around the 5th century, since that was the last time that, astronomically, the vernal equinox occurred in the first point of the constellation Aries. Nowadays, the vernal equinox occurs astronomically in about nine degrees of the constellation Pisces and it will be about 2600 when it actually finishes moving backwards through all the 30 degrees of Pisces and enters the constellation Aquarius.

This conception is accepted by western esoteric [1] and by eastern ones, although some eastern astrology conceive that each astrological age may be led by the constellation sign in which the autumnal equinox occurs (the autumnal equinox occurs in the southern hemisphere at the same time that the vernal equinox, as used in the western astrology, is occurring in the northern hemisphere). Astrologically there have been five major "Epochs" in the evolution of mankind, with the "Fourth Epoch" being Atlantean and the present "Fifth Epoch" being Aryan. Because these concepts relate to Astrology, they are not recognized by modern science.

In current-day astrology other dates are advanced based in the astronomical division of the constellations; however, as esoteric astrologers refer, basing astrology in direct connection to constellation configuration in the sky (i.e. its borders) is not astrology but only astronomy assumptions. This perspective is also confirmed by the conclusions of the Austrian astronomer Professor Hermann Haupt who examined the question of when the Age of Aquarius begins in an article published in 1992 by the Austrian Academy of Science: with the German title Der Beginn des Wassermannzeitalters, eine astronomische Frage? (The Start of the Aquarian Age, an Astronomical Question?, see below).

Overview of the Age of Aquarius

Calculations

According to different astrologers' calculations, probable approximated dates for entering the Age of Aquarius may be AD 2638 (Elsa M. Glover), AD 2654 (Max Heindel) or AD 2680 (Shepherd Simpson); yet all of them quite close to each other, taken into consideration that they are calculations about an event taking place six centuries from now. It is also understood by astrologers that this is not a mathematical division of time but a process, titled Orb of influence, by which one age initiates its influences, in a slowly increasing way, before the end - since about the last ten degrees backwards - of the previous age (of the current Age of Pisces in this case).

In 1928, at the Conference of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in Leiden, the Netherlands, it became defined, in astronomical terms, the edges of the 88 official constellations. The edge established between Pisces and Aquarius locates the beginning of the Aquarian Age around the year 2600.

The Austrian astronomer, Professor Hermann Haupt, examined the question of when the Age of Aquarius begins in an article published in 1992 by the Austrian Academy of Science: with the German title Der Beginn des Wassermannzeitalters, eine astronomische Frage? (The Start of the Aquarian Age, an Astronomical Question?). Based on the boundaries accepted by IAU in 1928, Haupt's article investigates the start of the Age of Aquarius by calculating the entry of the spring equinox point over the parallel cycle (d = - 4°) between the constellations Pisces and Aquarius and reaches, using the usual formula of precession (Gliese, 1982), the year 2595. However Haupt concludes: "Though it cannot be expected that astrologers will follow the official boundaries of the constellations, there will be an attempt to calculate the entry of the spring equinox point into the constellation of Aquarius." and "As briefly has been shown, the results and methods of astrology in many areas, such as concerning the Aquarian age, are controversial on their own and cannot be called scientific because of the many esoteric elements."

Vedic Cosmologist Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet in "The Gnostic Circle (1972)" writes, believing that modern astrologers are wrong, that the Age of Aquarius began in 1926.

Orb of Influence

Ages are believed by some to affect mankind. For Aquarius (also called "the Water bearer"), it is reported we have already been feeling influences - titled Orb of Influence (the last ten degrees backwards of the Age of Pisces) - in the accelerated individual, social, cultural, scientific and technological development and globalization through the 20th century. This view is consistent with the popular notion of the New Age movement that regards current times as the "dawning of the Aquarian Age".

On the other hand, the Aquarian Age is thought to bring with it an era of universal brotherhood rooted in reason where it will be possible to solve social problems in a manner equitable to all and with greater opportunity for 'intellectual' and 'spiritual' improvement, since Aquarius is an airy, scientific, and intellectual sign and its ruler planet, Uranus, is associated with intuition (knowledge above reason) and direct perceptions of the heart; and on the mundane level it rules electricity and technology. It is generally described by astrologers that in the Age of Aquarius there will be a blending of religion and science to such a degree that a religious science and a scientific religion will be formed.

Eastern astrology associates the Age of Pisces with the yin; i.e., spirituality and intuition. Aquarius, on the other hand represents the yang, with its emphasis on rationality and high technology.

Popular culture

In popular culture, the expression "Age of Aquarius" usually refers to the heyday of the hippie and New Age "movement" of the 1960s and 1970s. The New Age Movement is more accurately a phenomenon, not a movement, and yet seen by many as the harbinger of this future change-over of values.

This "New Age" phenomenon is seen by astrologers to be marked by the conjunction of the planet Uranus, ruler of the sign Aquarius, and the coming age, with Pluto, ruler of the masses, bringing radical change, in the 1960's. However, as the song "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" relates, it is only considered by Astrologers as the "dawning" of the age, not occurring until some time in the future.

Although more rock than new age in genre, the 1967 successful musical Hair, with its opening song "Aquarius" and the memorable line "This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius," brought the Aquarian Age concept to the attention of a huge worldwide audience.

Esoteric Christian tradition

According to the Esoteric Christian tradition, Essenian and later Rosicrucian, the proximity and entrance in the Age of Aquarius - occurring after the present Age of Pisces (or age ruled by the "Sword") - will bring to the majority of human beings the discovery, true living and real knowledge of the inner and deeper Christian teachings which the Christ spoke of in Matthew 13:11 and Luke 8:10. This age is regarded as an intermediary preparation toward the Christ in the etheric plane, the "New Galilee": the "new heavens and a new earth" to come in a future not identified time. In the Aquarian age at hand it is expected a great spiritual Teacher to come ("is coming"), through the school which works as herald of this age, in order "to give the Christian Religion impetus in a new direction" [2], [3].

Mark 14:13 states "And he sendeth forth two of his disciples, and saith unto them, Go ye into the city, and there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water: follow him.". The disciples do so and follow him to the place where Jesus was to hold the Last Supper. Therefore this could be interpreted as meaning that Jesus (who represents the age of Pisces) will "die" when the "man bearing a pitcher of water" appears, an apparent allusion to the coming age of Aquarius.

Similar views

The Lakota, a Native American people, also describe that a great spiritual Teacher, called White Buffalo Calf Pipe Woman, is coming with the purpose to unite the material and spiritual worlds. Their legend mentions that in a far past, possibly in the beginning of the Age of Aries, a Teacher had come to initiate them into the "Pipe Ceremony"; the same story mentions that this Teacher is returning again due to specific signs related to their tradition, among them the fact that white buffalo calves are born again [4].

The Hopi, a Native American people, also describe that a great spiritual Teacher, known as the 'Elder Brother' or 'True White Brother', is coming as the "Rising Sun" to reunite the world's two streams separated in a far past (to rejoin the "stone tablets"). The Hopi have a complex and comprehensive view of the history and evolution of mankind, derived from oral tradition, and tend also to see history and evolution as cyclical (although this process is also conceived as a spiral process into higher stages of unfoldment). The True White Brother is expected to come after the two great wars, in order to inaugurate the future age: the "Day of Purification". The symbology described to be related to this event is as following: "this third event will depend upon the Red Symbol, which will take command, setting the four forces of nature (Meha) in motion for the benefit of the Sun." [5].

See also

Astrology

External links

Wikipedia

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