(Excerpt from my forthcoming book, "Lady of the Sea: The Goddess Who Births the New Age")
The Age of Aquarius
For centuries the Sign of Aquarius was considered to be ruled by the planet Saturn. In 1781 the planet Uranus was discovered and is now considered the co-ruler of Aquarius. Until Uranus was discovered, Saturn was considered the furthest edge of our solar system. The discovery of Uranus pushed the boundary out further and, in a way, its discovery might be considered one of the harbingers of the modern era. The years just preceding the discovery saw the American Revolution, while the years just following saw the French Revolution—both big harbingers of change in how people saw themselves, their rights as humans, and what their system of government should be. In short, these revolutions were about freedom, a type of freedom previously unknown to the average human being. Freedom and the breaking of previous restrictive boundaries are among Aquarius’s principal themes.
These years might well be considered a bridge between one era and the next, past to future—staid and limiting Saturn guarding the past at one end of the bridge while wild, futuristic, and humanistic Aquarius beckons from the other.
As I have previously noted, the Age of Aquarius does not come into being in one fell swoop or one moment in time. It inches its way in over several years through various astrological aspects and the energetic windows of power and opportunity they open for us. Things shift gradually but indisputably.
Although an Air sign, Aquarius has a connection to the element of Water, as well. It is located in the southern part of the sky where many of the water-related constellations lie, and it is the sign of the Water Bearer, the celestial being who nourishes the earth and humanity by pouring down the heavenly waters—some say of information and knowledge, some say the rains of spring—from its starry vessel.
The tarot card associated with Aquarius is the Star. Its imagery depicts the Goddess (1) by a body of water. Her right foot is upon the water while her left knee is upon the land. She holds a pitcher in each hand. With her left hand she pours the waters of life onto the land, while with her right hand she pours these regenerating waters into the body of water before her. The card symbolizes healing and renewal and the Goddess pictured is considered to be the great feminine divine power known by Kabbalists as Binah, or Understanding. Binah, the Great Mother, pours her waters of life and renewal from the Above World, the spiritual realms, to the Below World, the material realm.
Astrology and Aquarius
In astrology the Sun is representative of the essential self, the core of one’s being and nature. Just as the sun is at the center of our solar system’s circle of planets, our essential self is at the core of all the other aspects of who we are. The vernal equinox sun rising in the constellation of Aquarius will bring the work of understanding and embodying the essential human self to the fore. It will bring us the information we need, but it is up to us to use it to our spiritual advantage. At its best, it will allow us to balance emotion with intellect and information, harmonizing head and heart.
As the sign of the age, the nature and values of Aquarius will be the dominant themes of the next couple thousand years. Yet they will be in a dance with the themes of Leo, the sign which is opposite from Aquarius across the zodiacal wheel, just as the themes of the Piscean Age have been in a dance with those of its opposite sign, Virgo, for the last couple thousand years.
The constellation of Aquarius depicts a human form and Aquarius is about the human, both individually and collectively. It’s about humans—the value of humans, human rights, and human values. It’s about ideas, information, and the mental realm. It’s about the evolution and expansion of human consciousness. Although I didn’t quite understand it fully at the time, that’s what my dream was trying to tell me back in1994. During that dream I was with others while I was feeling the intense energies, and my desire to share it with others who were not present, specifically family members, was very strong—an imperative, in fact. The dream was telling me that the coming changes were about this very important evolution and expansion of human consciousness. What I’ve come to realize in the years since then is that this expansion has the potential to eventually result in a state of unity, as the individual consciousness expands and touches into that of others, and then into the greater unitive field of which we are all part, which is consciousness itself—the Divine Mind.
As we grow and evolve with these Aquarian energies, our expanding consciousness wishes to share our thoughts and ideas with others. And indeed, communication is an important aspect of the Aquarian Age. Speech, whether oral or written, gives form and voice to our thoughts. As we articulate our ideas, our voice send forth the vibratory frequency of our thoughts and ideas; as others receive this—and we receive theirs—the energies start to form patterns and build structures. “In the beginning was the Word.” But the Word is not merely a sound, it is a vibratory frequency containing the energetic pattern and structure of our thoughts and ideas. The Age of Aquarius, with its mass communication technology, communicates these vibrations farther and faster than ever possible before, allowing a more rapid spread of thoughts, ideas, and changes.
The sign of Leo, on the other hand, is about the sovereign, mature, heartful, centered self; and in its highest manifestation, about using one’s power “heartfully” and generously in service of others.
Will we each learn to become kings/queens in our own castles during the coming age? Is this about learning and practicing the sovereignty of our own selves, as well as about respecting the sovereignty of others? The possibility of recognizing the actual value of each individual self—you are another myself—is very strong here. But we only learn these things by being inside them. So we must learn this by being inside of issues of self-sovereignty and situations which teach us the value of other human lives, situations that trigger compassion and camaraderie.
Self-Sovereignty. Leo. Aquarius. The Age of Aquarius is the Age of Humanity. It’s about us. The spring sun rises in Aquarius, and we are becoming the sun/son/children....We, in our most evolved, heart-centered selves, are, in fact, the Second Coming of the Christ—sun-god/son of god, the wise and loving avatar of the Piscean Age reborn in collective form. The Second Coming will be in each of us as we become “Christed” (2) beings; this can only happen with the return of the Divine Feminine—the Goddess, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Sophia, Holy Wisdom, the Presence of God—into our lives. It is her power that allows us to rebuild ourselves, our reality, and our world if we let her into our lives.
Twelfth century medieval mystic and theologian Joachim de Fiore, whose main area of study was the emergence of divinity in history, predicted that the next “Age” of the world would be the Age of the Holy Spirit. (3)
The Goddess Who Births the Age
Leo, whose ruling planet is the sun, is the sign of royalty, and it is the Queen, as the Lioness Goddess, who gives birth to this new age, the new humanity, with its potential for divine and balanced androgyny. She gives birth to humans and gifts us with the potential to be all that we can be—fully human, the sacred human with the elemental powers balanced, the psychic powers balanced and almost instinctive, in full expression of our core solar essence, our Christ selves.
The goddess is giving birth to the new age—and the new sun. We are that new sun; it’s about us.
What does it mean to be becoming the sun? It means human consciousness will expand, because it’s time for us to grow up and become who we really are—to fulfill our potential as Suns, as suns/sons/children of God, as Godlike beings: to “shine,” to radiate the expanded consciousness of our solar selves to one another for the benefit of all.
True kingship, true sovereignty, is not simply about “power over.” It’s about power within and service to others. A Sovereign’s job is to serve his/her people by seeing to their welfare and making decisions for the common good. In order to do this effectively, a king must first be king over himself, and a queen be queen over herself. This means coming to maturity, as well as gaining self-knowledge and inner security, Once again, the Age of Aquarius is about humans coming into their full potential, their true sovereignty, by coming to maturity as a species.
The nature of the Lion Goddess is that of female lions in general. They are good hunters and smart strategizers. They realize the value of cooperation, and they cooperate often for the common good of their pride—their tribe. They cooperate in hunting, in breeding, and in cub-raising, often nursing cubs not their own (and occasionally baby animals of other species); they are excellent mothers. Their whole agenda is about cooperation for mutual survival. Yet they still remain very powerful as individuals.
This gives us clues as to how to develop our self-sovereignty—by cooperation and nurturing!
Within the constellation of Leo, at a point near the ecliptic, is the bright fixed star Regulus. The name of this star, which is located at a point in the constellation said to be the heart of the lion, means kingly or royal. The sign of Leo governs the heart and is ruled by the sun, which is the heart of our solar system.
The Age of Aquarius/Leo is asking us to let the actions of our head be governed by our heart, the two of them working together to bring balance. It is asking us to develop maturity and balance, to value our individualism but to learn to work cooperatively for the common good. It is asking us to look at others and see/feel “another myself.”
Notes:
1) Some call this goddess Astraea, which means Star Goddess, which in turn may harken back to Inanna, earliest of the goddesses associated with Venus, the Morning Star.
2) Christed may be defined as the “higher” consciousness, with head and heart faculties awakened and able to work together; an awareness of one’s “oneness” with the divine source.
3) Joachim’s scholarship of the Book of Revelation and his inspired prophetic vision led him to see the emergence of divinity in three stages, or eras. The first era, that of Old Testament times, was the Age of the Father, a time ruled by the might and fearful power of God the Father, governed by the “law of severity.” The second era was the Age of the Son (Jesus Christ),was governed by the “law of love”—the teachings of Jesus as taught by the Church. The third age he saw as the Age of the Holy Spirit. It would begin with the “Second Coming,” which he felt referred to the Holy Spirit rather than the person of Jesus, and would lead humanity to a time of universal joy and love, and great spiritual freedom, with no need for the hierarchical governance of the Church’s structures. Needless to say, this did not go down well with the Church hierarchy.
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