"This is the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius . . . "

No one knows who first understood the concept of Great Years; in the West, the discovery is attributed to the Greco-Roman philosopher-astronomer Hipparchus (190 - 120 BCE), who also invented trigonometry. Most of Hipparchus' writings were destroyed in the Great Fire at the Library of Alexandria, but enough survive to inform us that Hipparchus grasped the Copernican-Keplerian heliocentric model of the Solar System later denounced by Ptolemy. 

Hipparchus' review of documents dating back to ancient Egypt also convinced him that the Earth rotated on an axis in space and that this rotation caused the precession of the Equinoxes. Investigating this idea led him to the realization that the axis would one day return to its First Point, which in his time was Aries; but earlier Egyptian and Mesopotamian records clearly indicated that the Spring Equinox was in Taurus and Gemini before that. Extrapolating, Hipparchus calculated that the whole Zodiac would be transited in about 26,000 years. 

This meant that the First Point was in every constellation / sign (in the Tropical System) for about 2150 years. It's not clear if it was Hipparchus who invented the idea of Great Months (or Astrological Ages) or if he drew it from earlier records which we no longer have, but the idea of Astrological Ages corresponds significantly with the Hindu / Vedic idea of Yugas, similar "ages" through which humanity has passed.

Precession of the Equinoxes backward through the Zodiacal circle means that "The First Point of Aries" (i.e., the moment of the Spring Equinox) spends time moving through each Zodiacal constellation (including oft-forgotten Ophiuchus) in reverse order. 

It is difficult to calculate precisely how long the Equinox stays in each constellation because the constellations aren't all the same size in the sky and the Ecliptic, the path of the precession, though set, crosses each constellation at a narrower or wider area of the figure itself. Since some constellations overlay parts of others there's an argument to be made in determining which constellation the First Point is crossing on a given date. Modern astronomers have additionally set boundaries for constellations that include their asterisms and empty surrounding space and unrelated stars as well. The discoverers of the Zodiac undoubtedly would not have held themselves accountable for modern man's rather arbitrary constellational boundaries.  

The Indians solved this problem by creating a Sidereal ("Stellar") Zodiac based (in part) on the uneven sizes of the visible constellations and using various major stars as celestial markers. Some Sidereal systems include Ophiuchus. Others don't. 

  The Sumerians instead, fixated as they were on divisors and multiples of six, cut the round sky into twelve equal 30 degree slices, assigning to each slice a particular constellation (which usually didn't fit neatly within the slice). Differences between the days the Sun was "in" a constellation varied from dates that the Sun was "in" a sign, and even though the signs correspond to the constellations by name (most of the time), the "neatness counts" system of the Sumerians means that the Sun might not be in a given constellation while its in the eponymous sign. Instead of using stars to mark the critical points of their Zodiac, the Sumerians used natural events --- the Solsti and the Equinocti. This system, based on the seasons became known as the Tropical ("Seasonal") system. At the time it was invented the Tropical system included Ophiuchus but not Libra. 

Aquarius / Let The Sun Shine In (The 5th Dimension, 1969) 

  Are you interested in the Ages of your life? Visit www.fairyastrology.com or www.facebook.com/SolarisFairyAstrology and ask Solaris to be your guide . . .

There's unclear evidence that the Sumerians and the Vedic Indians both understood the precession of the Equinoxes. But the Indians believed that time was cyclical and, as noted, consisted of a number of Yugas, or Ages.

Each Yuga is an age with specific characteristics. There are four Yugas. Each Yuga has its own length, from 1.5 million Earth years down to 0.5 million Earth years. One thousand Yugas (250 Yuga cycles) equals a single Kalpa. 100 Kalpas equals a Day of Brahma. And a century's worth of Brahmanic days equals one Lifetime of Brahma.

The Vedic time scale is vast.

This is a chart of the subdivisions of the Yugas, Note the shortened time scale of a differing interpretation.

In each Yuga there is a specific Yuga Dharma or process of self-realization. The Yugas descend from the most spiritual to the most material and then up again. 

Satya Yuga

Satya or Krita Yuga (The Golden Age): lasts 1.7 million Earth years. During this Yuga the majority of the population is living lives of  high spiritual attainment and saintliness. 

Treta Yuga

Treta Yuga (The Silver Age), lasts 1.3 million Earth years. Spiritual development is tied to study and practice of complex practices such as the various Yogas.

Dvapara Yuga

Dvapara Yuga (The Bronze Age) lasts just over 800,000 Earth years. Spiritual development is tied to the worship of the gods in ornate temples. According to some sources we entered Dvapara Yuga during the era of great cathedral and mosque building in the Middle Ages.

Kali Yuga

Kali Yuga (The Iron Age) lasts just under 450,000 Earth years. Dishonesty, violence, and gross materialism abound. Spiritual awareness is rare, limited, and vulgar compared to earlier Yugas. Most sources say we are living through Kali Yuga, some that it is about to end.

The Tropical system of astrology also has "Ages" that are based on precession, though they are nowhere as lengthy as the various Yugas. Each Age of a particular sign is based upon the transit of the First Point through that sign.  The personality of each Age is based upon the characteristics of its corresponding sign. Due to uncertainty as to the date when the First Point actually enters a particular sign, a precise Great Year calendar seems unattainable. At best, we can say that each Age colors the human development of the time. Ages are thought to last anywhere from 2000 years to 2500 years; 2150 years is the average number given. 

The inscrutable Sphinx was a man-headed lion figure. Archaeoastronomers are gathering increasing information which indicates that the Sphinx and its accompanying pyramids were built not as tombs for dead Pharaohs during the Age of Taurus, but much earlier during the Age of Leo as vast spirituo-scientific stellar observatories

The Age of Leo, the earliest Astrological Age yet calculated, occurred roughly 12,000 years ago. According to the beliefs of astrologers, and of a group of newer investigators, the archaeoastronomers, the Age of Leo was an ice age of blinding sun on the snow and ice fields, though there is a growing awareness and building consensus that in those places where the ice never reached --- a broad belt stretching from about Latitude 35 North to Latitude 35 South, technologically advanced cultures of which we have only limited knowledge may have been building constructions like Angkor Wat and the Pyramids for their original intended purpose, the study of the stars. The Sun was early man's chief object of worship.

The Age of Cancer marked the time of Matriarchy triumphant. Women's monthly reproductive cycles made them the natural religious leaders of the Age which was marked by widespread inundation of coastal areas as the glaciers melted. the Moon had advantages over the Sun as a deity: It looks larger in the sky at times and it can be propitiated in ceremonies without going blind.

The Sumerians continued to deify the Moon even as they extended their power and reach during the Age of Taurus

Around 9,000 years ago the ice began to recede --- it melted, causing vast floods which are vaguely recalled in the various but worldwide stories of the Deluge. The glare of the Sun on the snowfields faded, and Mankind began to live in rhythm with the element that now defined their lives --- water. Humans timed their days according to the rise and fall of the tides, realized that the tides were tied to the Moon, and our nearest celestial neighbor supplanted the Sun as the chief object of worship in the world, giving rise to the Age of Cancer, a creature of water. This was the era of Matriarchy.

Around 7,500 years ago, Man began to devise writing systems and began to record ancient legends and stories about the gods. Once begun, the process of communication speeded up, and still does today.  The human cultural memory came out of that development. But humans developed over time a sense of separation from the Whole that continues to haunt us as a species. That sense of duality defined the Age of Gemini. Matriarchy began to fade as a system of cultural organization. 

7000 years ago the Vinca Culture of the Balkans produced this figurine. At about the same time, the local people began developing a script. It was the Age of Gemini. But who were they communicating with?

With the expansion of agriculture and the development of cities roughly 6,000 years ago, it could be said that the Age of Taurus began. Cattle were draught animals, used to plow the fields and for hides and milk and meat. This period was remarkable for its many Bull Cults; and gods began to be paired with and then supplant goddesses. The Patriarchy began its ascent to power.

Give or take some centuries on either side, the Age of Aries began roughly 4,000 years ago. Modern archaeologists consider the Age of Aries to be the equivalent of the Bronze Age, and we are still very much impacted by the Arian Age. The various stories that make up the Hebrew Bible were collected and organized into texts. Wars of conquest and great empires, like those of the Assyrians and the Mauryas in India, and the great Egyptian dynasties, rose and fell. The story of Abraham sacrificing a young ram in lieu of his son Isaac is emblematic of the Age of Aries, and the story of the downfall of the Golden Calf is symbolic of the end of the Age of Taurus. The chief gods became all male with goddesses as consorts, and the idea of one God as "God the Father" rose to prominence. The Patriarchy became dominant. 

Abraham, Isaac, and a young ram

In 1954, the famed Hollywood astrologer Carroll Righter wrote, "The Piscean Age lasted 2,000 years, an age of tears and sorrow, focused on the death of Christ." The exact start date of the Age of Pisces, the Age we are in currently or have just left, is uncertain, but the Age of Pisces has always been closely associated with Jesus (just as Virgo, Pisces' opposite sign, is associated with Mother Mary).  The last bimillennium has been one that has focused exhaustively on spiritual concerns --- it saw the rise of Christianity and Islam --- but it has also been an age of delusion and great sorrow (including two World Wars and countless other military and other calamities).  Early Christians themselves made the connection between Pisces and Christ, quite consciously. The earliest Christian symbol was the Ichthys (or fish) and the Disciples were called "Fishers of men's souls." These were not coincidences. The people of that time knew, just as we do now, that the Age of Aries was ending and they intentionally associated their new belief system with the rise of the new Age.  

In reality, the passing of an Astrological Age is not a sudden event like switching off a light (or switching it on); rather, the Ages flow into each other, which is why knowing the exact date of the beginning on an Age is a near-impossibility. It's more likely that the cultural influence of one Age are slowly supplanted by the cultural influences of the succeeding Age. Thus, dates for the dawning of the Age of Aquarius range from the 1600s (Galileo's discoveries) to the mid-1700s (the Enlightenment) to the 1800s with their rapid technological advancements, to the 1900s and the atom bomb, right down to the present day and computers. Perhaps it has not quite yet begun. The lingering influence of fundamentalist religions is certainly not Aquarian, but technology and science are; we appear to be passing through a period when the remnants of Pisces are fighting to hold on and the first uncertain expressions of Aquarius are occurring. New technologies are being used for old ends ("The Islamic Bomb"). Globalism has taken hold, but for antiquated goals so far, the gathering of lucre into fewer and fewer hands. Universalism is under attack by nationalism and other forms of parochial thinking. Global warming, a technological problem at its heart, is being answered by appeals to a deity who seems ever more distant from true spirit. Religious fanatics are using the internet to trumpet a return to their imagined "good old days."  It is a period of social upheaval and great doubt as things change from one mode of thought to the other. 

Notre Dame Cathedral from a less usual angle

Certainly, there was much beauty in the Age of Pisces, as well as much ugliness, but what is good should be preserved, and the cool technological atmosphere of Aquarius needs to be tempered and warmed by heart. 

Aquarian thought is universalist and technological but also coolly dispassionate. It is also experimental and radical. New ideas come forward, are tested, and are adopted and adapted or thrown out wholesale. The danger is that Aquarius may cause humanity to throw out the baby with the bathwater. But at least that old barrel of stagnant rainwater will be tipped and spilled. The tipping and spilling is dramatic; well-established norms are turned on their heads just to see how they look. But Aquarius also promises an era of true social justice, so in the end, and according to astrologers, the upheavals will remake the world as a better version of itself.