Is this the dawning of the Age of Aquarius?

Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, Algeria, Morocco, to some degree Syria, and everybody is wondering about Saudi Arabia.

Ever feel there is something pretty big going on?

When I was growing up, one of my mum's best friends had a son called Justin, and he's always thought outside the very conservative little box we live in. I love Justin, and miss him - he's on the other side of the world, and even when I am back in Australia, sometimes I feel like he's on another planet. One of Justin's greatest talents is sharing a thoughtful and spiritual conversation after hand-crafted beer and quite a lot of good red wine. He's a very intelligent bloke, and I often marvel at all the miscellany he stores in his wonderful brain. One day about 100 years ago, we started talking about a musical I had just seen (Hair) and as usual we found our tangent. This time it was "The Age of Aquarius".

Up until Justin started talking about it, I just thought it was some hippie song lyrics, something to do with the liquid patterns of tie-dye, or the fluid life the musical prescribed, or even just something invented while the composer was on acid. It's nothing of the kind.



We all know that Aquarius is a division of the Zodiac, and we have 12 per year. Historically, the sign of the zodiac we would currently be in would be dictated by which star constellation the Sun happens to be passing through (there are actually 13, and the dates are not what we in the west currently match with each astrological sign, but that's not my story here). But that night, Justin and I were not discussing the year, but the astrological age - dictated by where the Earth's northern zenith points.

These different ages bring with them forces that are accepted by many to be world-changing. I suppose it's much like personal star signs - e.g. if you are a Taurus (like me), you are likely to be stubborn, an appreciator of beauty, and a little over-indulgent - particularly when it comes to food. Aquarius is the idealist, the early adopter, loving, motivating and and truth seeking, but also egotistical, bitter and brash.

Historically, earth-changing events have been blamed on the age they occurred in. Leo, the golden sign (and the one often associated with the sun) coincided with global warming and the end of the ice age. Cancer, a motherly water sign, caused the biblical flood and washed the earth clean so it could nurture a new beginning. Gemini, the ruler of words and speech, came with the introduction of modern script. Taurus, the appreciator of beauty, was at the Earth's northern Zenith when the pyramids were raised and jewelery became more aesthetic - not just a token like a boar-tooth. Aries is thanked for the Iron-Age, and the raising of the first armies of significant power. Pisces is the sign of the zodiac that dreams, is easily swayed, confused, intuitive, secretive and vague. The age has been blamed for the rise of so many different religions, and a blind lust for spirituality, or at least a position in a dream-like world, e.g. heaven.

Now it all gets very complicated and contentious, so I'm not going to tell you if we are in the age of Aquarius or still in Pisces. The age of Aquarius could have started as early as about 1780, or possibly won't start until 2600. What is generally accepted is that each age is approximately 2150 years in length, there is an overlap that can last between 150 and 600-odd years, and whenever or wherever it is, we are experiencing Aquarius's forces of influence right now. We'll let the die-hard astrologers fight over the rest - I'm going to tell you what the Age of Aquarius is supposed to mean for the planet, and you can make up your own mind as to whether it has arrived or not.

So let's take an excerpt from wikipedia:

"Aquarius traditionally "rules" electricity, computers, flight, democracy, freedom, humanitarianism, idealists, modernization, astrology, nervous disorders, rebels and rebellion."

Sound familiar?

So with all the recent news, I did a little hop around Wikipedia, and ended up in all kinds of exciting places, like "Maya 2012", "Rosicrucianism" (whoo-ee there's a da Vinci Code book there!), "New Gallilee", "Anti Christ", "Apocolypse", "Sixth Epoch", "Root Races" (suggesting Tasmanians are half-animal and Semitic people are degenerate in spirituality, the Sixth Root Race will be led by a re-incarnation of Julius Caesar, and the Seventh Root Race will live on Mercury - it's quite a funny read). I also googled "Age of Aquarius", and came up with some pages like this one along with many others written by people who obviously need to recheck the dosage on their medication. "Nostradamus" also had some light to shed - he believed that the Age of Aquarius would herald the upholding of truth in ways never seen before. Unfortunately he also predicted World War 3 in 2012. After all of that I started to feel like the world was ending, but it was OK because I would probably transcend into another dimension before it was all too late....

What I have arrived at is that there are many cultures (and many crazies) who believe that the world goes through stages that are actually (derr) global, and that there are also many cultures that have predicted that the area around the Middle East will be where it all starts to happen. And what will happen will be the beginning of the end of the world. However, "the end of the world" is not Armageddon with flames and dragons and Arnold Schwarzenegger. It is the end of this way of life, and a transcending into another. And before you start thinking that I'm talking about souls floating out of bodies and living in the clouds with virgins, stop and think about how far Human Beings have come. We just don't think like we used to. If you tried to put twenty-first century thought into an 18th century skull, it would probably explode.

And that brings us back to the Middle east and North African region, and the people who are rising up and shouting:

"I am better than this!"

Now going back to the Wikipedia quote referring to the Age of Aquarius:
"electricity, computers, flight, democracy, freedom, humanitarianism, idealists, modernization, astrology, nervous disorders, rebels and rebellion."

For me, this is a spiritual moment, an incredible moment in history, and I am beginning to think there is a great connecting power at work. It's not just one or two people, but thousands, millions even, all thinking exactly the same thought and deciding at exactly the same moment that it's time they brought change.

And what do they want? "democracy, freedom, humanitarianism, and modernization"

And how are the "idealists" achieving their ideals? Through "rebellion."

And in combination with their physical presence, what medium are they using to communicate their message - not just to those who can and will join the fight, but to those who can't or won't? Social Media, a product of "electricity and computers"

"Flight" in my opinion refers to globalization. Flight has made us closer neighbours - and brought countries and people together physically, and therefore allowed travelers to influence and be influenced by the thoughts of locals in a much greater proportion. This in combination with technology and global media has made people on the ground realize that there are other people in the world who are living the way they should also be living, and it makes them fight harder.

And the "nervous disorders"? Well that's just me having my little freak-out over the end of the world.

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I don't profess to be an astrologer - I know very little about the zodiac, except it is the cause of me being slightly overweight. This is just a gathering of information found from fairly good sources on the internet. I'd be very interested to find out what other cultures predict for the future - please let me know if you can shed some starry light.