Those Controversial Astrological Ages
Zip Dobyns
I have continued to hear and read about the presumed immanence of the Aquarian Age, and decided to reprint a Mutable Dilemma article which was written nine years ago. As with a great many areas of astrology, the timing of the “astrological ages” remains a subject of controversy. A variety of “gurus” have dated the beginning of the Aquarian Age from the late 1700s to the middle of the next century. Unfortunately, none of them looked at the sky which is the presumed source of all astrology, including the constellational “ages.” If we divide the total time of precession (explained in the following article) into twelve equal parts, and take the approximate date of the birth of Jesus (which is also a subject of total controversy) as the beginning of the Pisces Age, and list the recently developed technologies (which are generally associated with Aquarius), we are justified in thinking that we are in or very close to the beginning of the Aquarian Age. But if, as is explained in the following article, the “Ages” are based on the actual movement of 0 Aries in front of the constellations, we still have nearly 700 years to go before we get to the first star of Aquarius. And 0 Aries will not leave the last star of Pisces until 2817 A.D.! There is a 126 year overlap in the zodiacal longitudes of the stars in the two constellations.
I think it is quite obvious that Jesus was the keynote teacher for the Pisces Age. His original followers were fishermen and he told them they were to become “fishers of men.” One of his first miracles involved the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. The symbol identifying Christians in the early days was a stylized fish and it is pictured in many forms on the robes and ritual implements of the Christian hierarchy. The teaching of Jesus (before it was altered by others) was almost pure Pisces—healing, service, and if necessary, self-sacrifice for the good of the whole. The “gifts of the Spirit” which he demonstrated and told his followers that they should also do “these and greater works,” (John) involved phenomena which today we call “psychic” and associate with the water principle in astrology. Pisces symbolizes the final oneness with the Whole; the mystical experience.
I think that it is also obvious that humanity today is still extremely far from growing into and manifesting the positive potentials of Pisces. In fact, much of what we see in the world today could be interpreted as more appropriate for the Arian Age. Some disapproval of torture is expressed but it is still routine in some countries. The same can be said of slavery. If humans truly experienced oneness, if the injury of another was experienced as a personal hurt, we could not have the rape of Bosnia, the warlords of Somalia, the Khmer Rouge of Cambodia, the generals of Burma, or the greed side-by-side with the homeless and hungry in the U.S.A.
Aquarius is NOT associated with compassion or empathy. The U.S.A. is very Aquarian. Most astrologers have recognized this in choosing the Declaration of Independence as our primary national chart and by putting Uranus on one of the angles. (My preferred chart, as readers know, has Uranus on the MC). We value freedom and knowledge above almost everything else, including the freedom to be jobless and homeless and hungry. “Welfare,” helping the less fortunate, has become a dirty word, along with “liberal,” applied to the people who want to help others. The ethics of Aquarius are all around us in the U.S.A., and I can see how astrologers (who also associate the sign with their own craft) are eager to believe that we are there and are about to have even more of it.
The other fact which contributes to the eagerness of most astrologers and psychics to announce the presence of the Aquarian Age is their almost total misunderstanding of Pisces. The common focus on the negative side of Pisces rather than on its positive goals is truly tragic. I prefer to believe that we still have several hundred years to learn to manifest the positive potential of Pisces, to experience oneness, before we come into the cool, detached separateness of Aquarius. I am talking about the principle of Uranus-Aquarius-eleventh house, not people with the Sun in Aquarius which combines the principle of Leo with the sign of Aquarius. Letter five (Leo or the Sun or the fifth house) is clearly not cool or detached. Perhaps the overlap period when we are in a blend of Aquarius and Pisces will help us to bring some of the empathy and compassion of Pisces with us into the Age of “you can do anything you want as long as you give me the same privilege and don’t put any limits on me.”
The following article is reprinted from the Gemini 1984 issue of The Mutable Dilemma. One additional comment on this article might be in order. At the end of the article, I briefly discussed the idea that our naming of a newly discovered asteroid might determine its meaning. In the nine years since this was written, I have seen hundreds of cases in which newly discovered and named asteroids fit the situation when they were calculated for individual births or for events which occurred before the discovery and naming. If the human act of naming them does confer their meaning on them, it apparently works retroactively and we are a long way from understanding time. As I have written before, this world is stranger than we think; it may be stranger than we CAN conceive.