The Age of Aquarius

I'm sure many of you have heard about The Age of Aquarius and I'm not talking about the song by the 5th dimension. There is a lot of buzz that's been going around in recent times as to whether or not we have entered The Age of Aquarius and all the promises that it can bring. What is The Age of Aquarius exactly? Well it's an astrological age that can be explained by something called the precession of the equinoxes. 

~Precession of the Equinoxes~

To begin with, the Sun travels around the earth once a year. On it's journey around the earth the Sun travels a path called the ecliptic and passes through the 12 signs of the zodiac. The zodiac signs are named after constellations. The beginning of the astrological year begins every year at the vernal equinox in the sign of Aries. Back in Babylonian times the vernal equinox when the Sun entered Aries, also happened to align with the constellation of Aries. This was because they were living in The Age of Aries. As time passes the vernal equinox takes place in a different constellation.  This is the precession the the equinoxes. It takes around 2,150 years or so to move through one sign. Each of these phases marks a particular historical period. For the past 2,000 years or so the world was in The Age of Pisces. Now we are either in or will be soon moving into The Age of Aquarius. There is a lot of debate about it's exact beginning, but the general consensus is that it happened around the year 2000. We are most likely living in a blending of the two ages at the moment as we are at the end of one age and on the brink of a new, so there may be a transition phase. This transition phase may be chaotic as we are conflicted between the old and the new energies. 

~The Age of Pisces~

The Age of Pisces was an age in which religion was paramount. Societies were established around shared belief systems. It was an age filled with blind faith and an over developed belief in the afterlife. The religious virtues of being pious, kind and charitable were strongly revered. It was an age filled with sacrifice, struggle and victim consciousness. At it's worst it was an age of deception, illusion, confusion and governments and religions misleading us. The better part of The Age of Pisces was  a genuine desire perhaps to connect with a greater power, but in many instances people were mislead through some illusions of religion or they instead numbed this desire with drug and alcohol abuse. The wide use of substances is in fact probably a result of The Age of Pisces. A good part of The Age of Pisces was the importance of compassion and being 'heart centered' and a focus on emotions. These are things that sadly did not completely penetrate The Age of Pisces, but if you look closely you will still see glimpses of it throughout that time's history and they are virtues we should not forget as we enter into The Age of Aquarius. 

~The Age of Aquarius~ 

The Age of Aquarius is a very exciting age because Aquarius is a very humanitarian sign. Achieving a greater state of world peace may be more desirable now and perhaps even ultimately more possible as this age progresses. Aquarius is the sign concerned with hopes and dreams, so at least we all might be hoping and dreaming for a better world. Aquarius is the sign of brotherhood/sisterhood  and everyone might be concerned with unity. Everyone should hopefully be more accepting of everyone no matter what their race, gender, sexual preference, or class is etc. The class system and even the separation of countries could become a thing of the past eventually as Aquarius desires unity and may encourage us to become 'citizens of the world'. Aquarius also is a sign that is concerned with freedom, so some structures in our society may seem too controlling during this age. Aquarius is also the sign related to environmentalism so during this age there should be a greater desire to care for our planet. This Aquarian Age is occurring at a critical time for our planet that's for sure and may be just the kind of energy we need if we want to take care of mother earth.  Aquarius is a sign concerned with scientific knowledge and invention. We are already living in the computer age and seeing vast technological advances, so these will continue to grow at an astounding rate. Space travel may even be able to reach unheard of new advances. Astrologers are happy because Aquarius is strongly concerned with Astrology, so there is hope that Astrology will become more widely accepted and used, especially after a tumultuous period of being thought of as superstitious or 'bad' in the highly religious Age of Pisces. During The Age of Aquarius knowledge and the intellect may be highly valued . A concern about this age, is that there will be more of an emphasis on being cold and detached, so hopefully we don't become disconnected from the heart. As a way to merge some important lessons from The Age of Pisces and The Age of Aquarius, it's important to keep a balance between the head and the heart and to see the value of both. It'll be interesting what this detached freedom loving energy of Aquarius will do to one on one relationships as well. 

This is a very interesting time we are living in. I'm sure many of you can see the merging of these two ages that is going on at the moment and some of the tumultuous energy it has brought. There is hope though for a better future. Let's just all remember the positive qualities of Aquarius and try to build a better world based on those principles.