The Age of Aquarius,PART 1, July 2008

[This is the first in a 6-part series by noted astrologer Boots Hart on the transition into the Age of Aquarius and what it will mean for each generation undergoing these vast changes.—Ed.]

Does being an individual require you to stand alone? No, but this is a seemingly contradictory concept which is going to pervade challenges throughout the Age of Aquarius.

But wait—what IS an astrological age? How is one determined? Ages are defined by a subtle "wobble" planet Earth does on its perpendicular axis. Imagine our world with a stick through its poles—then remember when a top spins, how its upper point describes a slow circle which (vis-à-vis the top's spin) moves in a "backwards" direction. This cycle is called "precession," and Earth's precessional cycle (the "Grand Cycle") lasts 25,920 years—a figure often rounded to 26,000 in texts. By taking this 25,920-year Grand Cycle and dividing it by 12 (signs of the zodiac), we find that each segment—or Astrological Age—lasts 2,160 years. While there are respected astrologers who hold that ages should be measured by Earth's relationship to shifting constellations, most who hold that astrology is a mathematically governed geocosmic (Earth-centered) science believe we are entering the Age of Aquarius even as you read these words. And societal and world events seem to be on our side.

But why care? What does an Astrological Age mean to you? Many things, all of which begin with answering that "what is an Astrological Age?" question. The wheel of a given Age puts the sign of that age on the Ascendant (nine o"clock, if you will), rotating the rest of the signs  counter-clockwise, from there. And this combination of sign and house functionally colors the whole of the Age within which your individual horoscope operates. In other words, because the world is as it is, you (as portrayed through your horoscope) are challenged in particular ways.

And those ways are now changing because we're moving from the Age of Pisces into the Age of Aquarius. So because the "rules" are changing, the whole world (natural and societal) is going through a period which is extraordinarily exciting (if confused), and highly enlightening (if discordant). And yes, it's particularly disorienting for those born in one age living on into the next. After all, having the entire basis for one's understanding of life change half way through the game can be terribly disconcerting, right?

So who's being affected—and to what degree? How will parents born in one age relate to children born in the next? Plainly the more we know, the better equipped we'll be to make the transition, capitalizing on possibilities, potentials—and relationships—within families and when interfacing with the world.  

An interesting and important note to consider here is that ages take their "nicknames" not from the sign on the Ascendant, but that on the 12th house cusp, the house which in any chart represents universal values as well as the various forms of tension which are either worked through on faith or which manifest as limits and restrictions. In the Age of Pisces, Aquarius was on the 12th house, giving rise to the notion that the Piscean Age has been the Age of Information. In fact, for thousands of years humankind has quested for ever more understanding and knowledge. That a conscious "Information Age" arose just as the Piscean Age has been coming to its end is entirely proper: every form of metaphysical energy intensifies and reaches "critical mass" just before completing its work. 

Yet for all this push for knowledge, the basic nature of the Piscean Age has played out through the Pisces dynamic at every level of life, and Pisces is all about the ability to face strength versus weakness, fear versus trust and one's willingness to try, versus abandoning all hope with perspective and acceptance. Thus the Age has manifested concretely in such issues as questions of "faith versus science" (or one faith versus another faith). Or through the establishment and elimination of class or caste systems, systems of gender bias (or discrimination) and that infamous separation commonly defined as the "haves versus have nots"—which is not only a matter of societal polarization but also a matter of having enough faith in self to be who you really are, freely and openly, finding your place in the world on that basis.

Bottom line, All Things Piscean boil down to dominance/submission —or freedom versus limitation (individually and collectively), qualities which have been determined by and perpetuated by one party (or group) having all the knowledge and the other party (or group) being made to ask, beg, or live in ignorance. From boardroom to politics to the pulpit to marketing to education itself…and on into our bedrooms and sexual lives—the Piscean Age has declared that for there to be a winner, there must be a loser. The whole Age has been something of a pyramid scheme, whether the issue was faith, money, power, gender, access to medicine or food, human rights—or anything else.

That some cling to these "old ways" while debates rage….even while the onset of the Aquarian Age takes hold with so many barriers being broken and egalitarian concepts being explored around the world—that's the effect of the changing of the ages, a process which is more like the gradual colors shift within a rainbow than the black-and-white on/off of a light switch.

And with all the despotic regimes around the world—just the fact that there are concepts of world unity and the fact that we now speak in terms of a "world society" and a "family of man"—that tells us the Aquarian Age is upon us. 

So what is Aquarius? What does it represent? First of all, it's an air sign. Air signs work in theories, ideas and concepts, telling us that the whole of the incoming age will function vastly through ideas and the value of the idea, the workability of the idea, an idea promoted by Aquarius as the worldly signature of societal function. Not governance; that's Capricorn. Rather, functionality. Aquarius is the functioning of the cogs which make things go, in every sense. And in that "machine," each cog, each wheel has its function, without which the whole doesn't work. The individual is thus important, as is the unique function each one brings to the whole. In the Age of Pisces, in contrast, the dominant/submissive, have/have not definition actually allowed many to opt out—the phrase few chiefs and many Indians comes to mind.

Now that idea changes. We each are responsible for being all that we are. Gender doesn't count. Age doesn't count. Wealth doesn't count—or at least wealth as it has counted doesn't count any more. With Capricorn on the 12th house of the Aquarian Age, the universal call is that of an Age of Commerce, but given Aquarius' universal equality concept, the "business of life" (i.e., achievement) will be everybody's option—an egalitarian ideal already flourishing, courtesy of that most quintessentially Aquarian thing, the Internet, a means by which anyone can be a star or build a company. No longer will big dogs and "old money" people be in anyone's way—which eliminates some excuses for lack of success many have found convenient. In the Aquarian Age, all that separates you from success (however you define it) will be your fears, your failure to trust yourself and a willingness to find in yourself that thing which is uniquely yours, yet common to many of your fellow humans. One idea and the willingness to work on it can totally change your life. Or even life itself.     

Turning to the discussion of parents and children, the first generation to really be affected by this change is Gen X. Born with Pluto (astrology's generational marker) in air sign Libra (Aquarius' liberating harmonic), Gen X is destined to lead the way into this new age. It's a job which puts Gen X in a position to be greatly conflicted. Their instinct is to individualized, but being born under (and parented by) the Piscean vibration, this is a truly distinct choice between being one's self and giving up that individuality in order to feel loved, accepted and protected. And their parents? As much as they love their kids, the parents of Gen X'ers don't get why their kids seem to cling yet want to get away.

In fact, to some extent or another, we're all undergoing this conflict. Those born prior to Gen X (Pluto in Cancer, the Baby Boomer Pluto-in-Leo generation, and the Pluto in Virgo Yuppie tribe) are having to make huge changes in a challenging search for understanding halfway through life. On the other hand, Pluto in Libra (Gen X), Pluto in Scorpio, the Pluto in Sagittarius teens and 20-somethings and the new babies being (and to be) born under Pluto in Capricorn are all going to be, to one degree or another, filled with the understanding of a new dynamic and confused by parents who "don't get it," conflicted by what they intrinsically know and alienated by a society undergoing being changed from its core. 

Over the next six months, we're going to discuss the six polarities described in the new wheel of the age. Beginning with the “I/You” of it all, we will then examine "security versus intimacy/power versus growth," the search for understanding versus application, questions of individual heritage and how that applies to world society, questions of personal pleasure options (including children) versus achievement, altruism and necessity and finally…faith versus obligation, otherwise known as willingness versus fear. And though these examinations will be necessarily curtailed by virtue of space and venue, just by opening your mind to these ideas you will become far better equipped to understand, weather and make the most of the days which lie ahead.

Welcome to the Age of Aquarius.

[Ed. note: if you're interested in learning more about the Plutonic generations' different issues, struggles and points of view, check out Boots Hart's 12-part series on Pluto in Capricorn.)

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