© December 1999 Clive Richard Weeks

In this time of the changing of the millennium, it seems that a high proportion of the population are associating the change over to the year 2000 with the coming of the Age of Aquarius.

This seems to have particularly heightened in the last thirty years or so, by an increasing shift towards "New Age" consciousness amongst the general population. Even a song..."when the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligned to Mars" from the musical "Hair". All have contributed to a changing perception in the common unconscious that we are beginning, or on the verge of beginning the "Age of Aquarius".

Even the enigmatic Aleister Crowley hinted at a change of Aeon that took place in 1903. It's hard to say if he was referring the the Aquarian Age, as Crowley can be difficult to decipher at the best of times.

So what is the Age of Aquarius?

From an astrological perspective it is defined by something called "precession".

In modern western, or tropical, astrology, Aries is defined by the Northern hemisphere Spring Equinox which usually occurs around March 21st. For the Southern hemisphere, this is the Autumn Equinox. At the exact time of the Equinox, the position of the Sun in the sky marks the beginning (or 0 degree) point of Aries.

The problem for modern astrology is that the actual stars that make up the constellation of Aries in the sky are no longer in the same place as the 30 degree piece of the sky that we call Aries, and which is defined by the Equinox as described above.

Some branches of astrology still use the signs as determined by the actual star positions. This is called sidereal astrology and is the method most commonly used in India. The problem with this approach is that you can't say exactly where one constellation ends and another begins. Because of this there are several sidereal systems, each with slightly different boundaries to the constellations.

What happens over a long period of time, is that the signs drift apart from the physical constellations that they represent. Eventually they will come into alignment again in approximately 25-26,000 years. This drifting apart is what is termed "precession".

The phenomenon of precession means that as time progresses, the starting point of modern Western astrology's Aries, moves back through the actual constellations. Currently it is in Pisces - and so we are in the Age of Pisces...just.

In the near, or not so near future, the beginning of tropical Aries will move into the constellation of Aquarius and the "Age of Aquarius" will begin. Again, the problem of when this occurs arises because of the uncertain boundaries of the constellation of Aquarius. Do you measure it using the outer most stars of the constellation, or where you think the "picture" suggested by the stars ends? And what about the gaps between constellations or the overlap of constellations, if there is any?

Because of these vagaries, it is actually impossible to fix the beginning of the "Age of Aquarius" by astronomical or astrological means. However it is almost certain that we are still in the Age of Pisces based on the currently existing sidereal astrology systems.

OK, so, when does the Age of Aquarius begin?

The bad news - for those who are hanging on such things - is that based on the differences between modern tropical astrology and the various sidereal systems, the Age of Aquarius will actually begin between 2141 and 2702. I should stress that these dates have been calculated by me with some margin of error, but from these dates it is clear that according to current astrological systems that we will not be entering the Age of Aquarius soon, or even within the lifetime of anyone currently living.

The earlier figure of 2141 ties in quite closely with the view that the birth of Christ began the Piscean Age, with the fish symbol an early indication of membership in the Christian church. Christ himself is often used as an archetype to describe many Piscean characteristics. Each Age lasts somewhere around 2100 to 2200 years, so this would fit quite well.

When I have more time I will recheck my calculations using other sources, but for now I am fairly confident that I am "in the ball park".

So why does everyone think that we have begun, or are about to begin the Age of Aquarius?

Well it is true that the current period in human history is displaying many of the characteristics of Aquarius. The move towards global awareness of the plight of others by the more fortunate among us (even though opposed by many others who hold the reins of power) and the prominence of science and technology, are two very Aquarian signs of the times.

Using the earlier date of 2141, we are only about 2 degrees into Pisces and moving backwards towards Aquarius. Astrologically this puts us within the 3 orb - even if this date is not quite right - often used by astrologers when dealing with house or sign cusps.

What this means is that there is a bleeding over of influences across the sign cusps or boundaries of signs, so that we are already feeling the Aquarian influences.

I myself think that though I won't see the new Age in this lifetime, I will still experience the growing influence of the lead up to it. The coming Aquarian Age isn't Utopia, but I think that it will be a welcome shift in consciousness to a fairer, more technologically advanced world where the technology will eventually be used to serve the population rather than the other way around.

The bad news - what more bad news? - is that we will have to go through many painful growth stages to get to this point. Corporate greed will get worse, racial hatred and "cleansing" or domination will increase. Technology will race way ahead of our ability to deal with the moral fall-out that it creates.

But these are problems to be solved on the way to the next step in evolution. The ironic thing about precession is that the tropical start of Aries is moving backwards through the sidereal signs - so the question for those who like to ponder such things is "are we evolving or devolving?".

I personally think that this is all cyclical evolution even if we take backward steps to move forward. I look forward to the future...but then I'm an Aquarian (by Sun sign)!

Clive Richard Weeks
December 31st 1999.