Dear Friend and Reader:
And what was that, that we all just experienced? In the past week, we had a lunar eclipse followed by the Sun making conjunctions to Nessus, Chiron and Neptune. Neptune was the last of the series. What we bounced through – this patch of rattling celestial movement – was the Earth and Sun aligning with these planets. There was plenty more – Uranus and Saturn of course still in a tight opposition, which is like bouncing reality on a trampoline.
Next, Mars is moving through Aquarius at somewhat under one degree per day, close to the same pace as the Sun. It, too, will make conjunctions to Jupiter, Juno, the North Node, Nessus, Chiron and Neptune before entering Pisces on March 14. While that’s going on, Mercury will be back in Aquarius, making conjunctions to the same series of planets.
As I started writing this, I saw an email go by about whether the Age of Aquarius would begin this weekend, when”Jupiter aligns with Mars.” A journalist contacted me last night with the same question, quoting the song by James Rado, Gerome Ragni and Galt MacDermot, and performed by the Fifth Dimension. It’s the one which begins, “When the Mooooooooooon is in the 7th house…”, which it is for about two hours every day. And Jupiter aligns with Mars once every four months, for about a week. By that reckoning, the Age of Aqarius has begun 447 times since 2000.
I think we can admire this song for its bass line and cute hippies more than for the astrological wisdom of its authors. The song, which came out in 1969, is called “Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In.”
Have you ever seen the website Engrish.com? It’s the illuminated result of people in Asia who can’t speak English, trying to make signs that people who do speak English can read. Therefore you end up with a fire extinguisher with some Chinese lettering and a sign over it that says “Hand Grenade.” That’s what the Fifth Dimension did to astrology. (The website has hundreds of these, from all over Asia; you will laugh for hours.)
This will get quoted on some website somewhere this weekend — these are the quotations that I gave to the journalist who contacted me about this issue:
“The people who wrote this song did not know anything about astrology, that I can tell. But they were experts in groovy. The Age of Aquarius is not reckoned by planets, and certainly not by fast-movers like Jupiter and Mars. It’s generally counted by the movement of the sidereal vernal point through the constellations, in an approximately 25,771-year cycle. This is called the precession of the equinox.В By this calculation, the Age of Aquarius would not begin for another 300 to 400 years. I do believe we are at the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, but not because of Jupiter and Mars, and not because of precessional movement.
They don’t quite have the energy of Aquarius down, either. There is a theme of brotherly love to Aquarius, though this is balanced by an almost obsessive drive to conform to what others are doing. Aquarius crystallizes patterns, and one of the reasons we are having a variety of breakdowns at this point is to break down some of the more dangerous patterns that have come to grip our society. If we are going to experience brotherly love, we need to recognize one another as individuals and not as parts in a machine or a crowd to conform to. We need to claim our freedom as individuals before we claim our freedom as a society.
But maybe these guys know something I don’t.”
Now, this being said, a Mars-Jupiter alignment in Aquarius sounds like fun. It sounds like a good time. It sounds like a party, and since Juno is there you can bring your wife. My theory, begun above, that (among other things) married people (Jupiter – Juno) will be able to hot up their sex lives with a little intellectual stimulation (available for free at my other website, Book of Blue).
Speaking of the Moon, it is in Libra.
Yours and truly,
Well, well,. . . .what we have here is a manifestation of the Sun recovering from a mystifying encounter with the mighty Neptune. In other words, nobody is quite acting/feeling like themselves. And that’s a GOOD thing. It gives us all a chance to feel like somebody else. Widening our horizons or whatever.
I’m sure Eric has talked about the precession of the ages in one of his many articles or even on this blog. If you want to know why the signs go backwards (from the direction in horoscopes) go to Age of Aquarius at Wikipedia. I suspect he is writing this piece for the folks who might be tempted to go off the deep end with the Neptunee side of this Aquarian spectacle, and he wants to ground them a little with his saturnian side of Aquarius. Nobody who ever saw the play “Hair” remembers anything about the story. They just remember a stage full of naked people and the song “AOA, Let the Sun Shine In”. . . . .
Eric has talked about this alignment for years now, and somebody here wrote about the green comet too. This is a blog line. He chats from time to time. We all do.. .so lets all relax and enjoy the rarity of the moment. A moment in history.
mystes, thank you, that was very nice.
Hello mystes and thanks for the welcome. I also was a bit confused that the Age that we are transiting out of, the Age which began with Jesus, is the Piscean Age when Aquarius comes before Pisces on the astrological chart, but that is in fact the truth. I would love to hear Eric’s take on why this is the way it is, considering he is the Astrologer Extraordinare, not me. I consider your commentary to be like the commentary that is going back and forth in Washington right now with Obama’s attempt for bipartisanship and working with Republicans aka people of differently view points. Obama’s style of thinking has been labeled by some as being “cognitively complex” meaning that he does not see things in black or white, good or bad, right or wrong, etc. he knows that the truth lies in the abstract, a complexity and diversity of points of views, which all have merit. This is the same thinking style that was predominant in our most revered President Abraham Lincoln.
I say all of this to you mystes to try to help you to see that if I challenge a viewpoint or assumption by Eric (or anyone else), it is not because I am a “hater.” That was made very clear when I stated upfront that I loved his blog. I, like Obama can have the utmost respect and find great wisdom in an individual, yet have the inner comfort level to challenge something that does not ring true for me. It’s called being an adult and doing my own thinking.
As you have astutely noted I am new in regard to commenting in this blog but not a new reader. The fact that I have posted my first comment after being a fan for many months says that there is not much that I have felt the need to challenge Eric on.
In regard to my “chart”, as you call it, well, again, I am not the Astrologer Extraordinare, Eric is. I asked the question in my original comment of Eric because it seems that he is only basing his opinion on a line from a 3 minute 1969 song “when the moon is in the 7th house and jupiter aligns with mars”. There is not any mention by him whatsoever in his post of the other totally rare or never seen before astrological alignment which is currently taking place in Aquarius in addition to a rare and funny green comet that is currently making it’s way across the sky.
And then there are those of us who just “know” what is really going on right now. We are living in very exciting times and in terms of astrology, every astrologer has their own interpretation about what it all means. And then, again, there are those of us who just “know.”
Thanks for the welcome mystes!
Peace!
TZ
TZ…”By the way the “Age of Logic” aka the Age of Pisces is old paradigm…we are now in the dawning Age of Aquarius…”
I’m so confused! Doesn’t Pisces *follow* Aquarius? Wouldn’t we have to go through Pisces to get to, you know, the end of the Starbow?
But wait, there’s MORE: TZ – “Just resign yourself to the truth that someone who obviously knew nothing about astrology, as you claim the writers of the song didn’t,”
So do we have the pleasure of hearing from the 5th Dimension here?
And then we have: “knew something that you, Mr. Astrology Extraordinare did not know and instead of criticizing them …give them their props.”
Eric walks a fine line between the hemispheres, but the intensity of the left side drives and responds nicely to his activities on the right. Sometimes he even manages to umm, perforate that line.
“This is the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius, you know..which means no more haters!”
Is the irony of this entirely lost on you? Ah well. Haters. Gotta love ’em.
Welcome aboard!
(meanwhile, what about that chart? care to expand?)
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Hi Eric, love your blog!
I do have a question. In looking at the astrological chart for February 14th 2009, has there ever been this exact same astrological alignment, particularly with the number of planets currently in Aquarius and the role that the North Node is playing in it? You say that you believe that we are in the dawning of the Age of Aquarius but not because of an astrological alignment and then you complain about the writers of the song by the 5th Dimension knowing nothing about astrology…like they could go into specific details about various astrological alignments, particularly way back in 1969 in a 3 minute no less! It takes a very intuitive “right brain” mind to grasp the totality of what is really going on, and you sound just a tad bit too left brain or logic obsessed in your analysis, Eric. By the way the “Age of Logic” aka the Age of Pisces is old paradigm…we are now in the dawning Age of Aquarius…The “Age of Knowing”. Just resign yourself to the truth that someone who obviously knew nothing about astrology, as you claim the writers of the song didn’t, knew something that you, Mr. Astrology Extraordinare did not know and instead of criticizing them …give them their props. This is the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius, you know..which means no more haters!
Peace!
victorialynn, so you two had a good night being wonderfully stoopid together. Par excellance!
Wish I got more than four hours of sleep last night and maybe I’d be more inclined to engage in some intellectual stimulation with my husband!
For me, if this is Mars Jupiter talking . . . it’s many group projects going on simultaneously at this time. I can’t seem to break them all into pieces so I am calling it Life Is A Party.
Who invited Nessus? My guess would be Juno. Couple of ex wives are having nightmares about the one they supposedly left behind. Is this saying something about what we drag into our marriages, ie relationships.
up up and awaaay in my beautiful, my beautiful ballooooooon
Brendan:
We missed you. Glad to see you back!!!
I’ve loved Engrish for a couple of years now! When I used to teach, I used it occasionally to make about a point about clear communication. Thanks for the hand grenade, Eric.
I agree with Eric, we aren’t “in” the Age of Aquarius” (AOA) yet, but, like the song says “this is the dawning of the AOA”..sorta like the current recession, you can’t call it that until we’ve been in it for 6-12 months!
As far as I’m concerned, the Age of Aquarius began 50 years ago yesterday, when that natal moment occurred for me. Okay, so the true astrology doesn’t jibe at all with that statement, but I can dream, can’t I?
I have printed up “I wondered Where the Grinch Lives” and posted it in my office.