(Is this?) The Dawning of the Age of Aquarius

I was born in 1965. Like many of my generation, I grew up in a house where a radio or, more often, television, was a constant background presence. From an early age I knew that there were “hippies” and people who thought that hippies were bad. I learned words like “generation” and “protest” and even “psychedelic” before I entered kindergarten. Another one of these mysterious words was “Aquarius”.

In the spring of 1969, just around my 4^th birthday, the song “Age of Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine” by The 5^th Dimension, was the number one song in the country. I heard it on the radio in my grandparents kitchen and on television. The opening bars with their luminous, otherworldly vocal by Marilyn McCoo, reminded me of the strange floating feeling I would get just before sleep and in some strange dreams. Although I could not, at that tender age, follow the lyrics as a whole, singing of The Moon and stars and planets, and love, bloomed in my vivid imagination. I had no idea what “Aquarius” referred to until later, but something about the word seemed both scientific AND magikal to my young mind.

A few months later I watched the moon landing seated before a massive black and white TV. I watched Star Trek and Dark Shadows with my Grandmother, absorbing both the idea of a techno utopia and the lore of ghosts and were wolves. As an elementary school kid, I was obsessed with space and UFOs. I was fascinated with The Bermuda Triangle and pretty rocks. I grew up, in other words, with the entrance of the Aquarian Age (later re-branded as the New Age) into main stream culture. I many ways, the things I think (and now write about) are the same now as they were when I was a very little kid.

I always suspected that at least part of it was bullshit. But because I couldn’t decide which part, I have tried to keep as open a mind as I could. None the less, something has always bothered me about the idea of a “New Age”. Something about the inevitability of a “shift” into “higher consciousness” on a planetary level in decades or centuries to come, strikes me as hollow at best, tragically naïve at worse. I think this has something to do with millennialism and what I perceive to be the nature and role of fate.

Etymologically, FATE is that which is spoken by the Gods. Because of this, there is the connotation of what MUST BE and is, therefore, beyond our ability to alter in any way. But is this really so? Do the Gods not “speak” with us continually through dreams, synchronicity, oracles? Do we not respond to this speech by what we do, or refrain from doing? Isn’t this what magik is all about? ABRACADABRA! I CREATE AS I SPEAK! Might fate not be a conversation between our selves and the Gods, those forces that guide the unfolding and enfolding that we call life.

Some hold that the Age of Aquarius will be, as the lyrics to the song go, a time of “Harmony and understanding, sympathy and trust”, with “no falsehood or derision”. An age of “mystic, crystal revelation and the minds true liberation”. Some, less hopeful about the future, see a dystopia of total control by shadowy cabals, turning us all into machines (a view held as far back as the “middle ages”). I’ve even heard it said that not everyone will “evolve” to this next level of consciousness. It starts to sound a bit apocalyptic sometimes, almost like talk of the final judgement. But what it will really be is the outcome of a conversation between ourselves, both individually and collectively and the forces that move the world. Like any conversation, it will require sensitivity to what the other is saying and awareness of the context in which it is said. An astrological age is a context in which certain things become more or less likely. Our sensitivity to this context and how we think and behave in it will determine the outcome of this conversation.

But what even IS this New Age? When did (or will) it begin? And Why do we dream of it as we do?

A Bit of Astronomy

On Earth, our seasons arise due to the 23.5 degree tilt of the Earth’s Axis. As Earth orbits around The Sun, the northern and southern hemispheres alternately receive more light. It is Summer in which ever hemisphere receives more. From our perspective on Earth, we notice that The Sun transits high above the horizon on The Summer Solstice and Low on the Winter Solstice. If you could draw a line across the sky following The Sun’s path on The Summer and Winter Solstices, the space between these lines are where we find the constellations of The Zodiac. If we added a third line right between these two, this would be the course of the Sun’s transit on the Vernal and Autumnal Equinox. This line is called the ecliptic. The Sun crosses the ecliptic on the Vernal and Autumnal Equinoxes. All of the consolations of the zodiac, and the paths of the planets, as well as The Sun and Moon which move through them, fall within this band of sky which centers on the ecliptic.

During the course of a year, this band of constellations appears to move overhead. When we say that the Sun is “in” Aries, for example, we are saying that from our point of view, the stars of the Ares Constellation lay behind the Sun. As the belt of the zodiac continues to move overhead, the Sun appears to have Gemini, Cancer, Leo, etc in the background as it passes overhead. When the Sun finally appears once more against the background of Ares. This cycle is known as the sidereal year (365 days 6 hours 9 minutes and 10 seconds). This time differs slightly from the time between one vernal equinox and the next known as the “tropical” year (365 days 5 hours 45 minutes and 46 seconds). This disparity is due to the procession of the ecliptic. Because the tropical year is just slightly shorter than the sidereal, the constellations which appear behind The Sun on the Vernal Equinox appear to shift slightly “backward” (retrograde) by one degree each 72 years.

And this is where we come to the concept of an “astrological age”. From an astrological standpoint, The Sun will ingress into the sign of Ares on March 19,2024 at 11:05 PM EDT. This is the moment that The Sun will cross the ecliptic from south to north and marks the exact moment of the Vernal Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere.

However, if we observe the background stars against which The Sun appears at this precise moment, we can see that the location of The Sun falls somewhere between Pisces and Aquarius. The location of The Sun against the background stars of the zodiac at the precise moment of the Vernal Equinox is what determines our current astrological age. From what we see in the above charts, it appears that the Vernal equinox falls just about on the cusp between Pisces and Aquarius.

In the next section we will look at the Signs of Pisces and Aquarius as well as their ruling planets. We will see how the ways in which the ruling planets interact in the context of each of the signs create a signature for each age. I hope to demonstrate how the signature of the Picean age influences the way we “read” the signature of the Aquarian age to come.

Conflicting influences in Aquarius.

On March 13, 1781, Sir William Herschel was the first to observe the planet Uranus. Although visible to the naked eye on rare occasions, its dimness and very slow movement through the zodiac accounts for the fact that both astronomers and astrologers failed to recognize it as a planet. Only the development of sophisticated telescopes and very precise instruments for time keeping allowed for the discovery of the first “new” planet in thousands of years of astronomical observation.

Because of the time (between the American and French revolutions) and manner (observation assisted by then cutting edge technology) of it’s discovery, astrologers eventually came to associate Uranus with both revolution and disruptive technologies. Another issue that arose for astrologers was what sign of the zodiac should Uranus be assigned “rulership” over. Astrologers had a long tradition of assigning each of the zodiacal signs a planetary ruler. Since all of the signs had one, the question of how to fit a new planet into a long standing system took some time to work out. Aquarius had long been associated with science, technology and the proper ordering of society. Because Uranus was discovered at a time when all of these areas were undergoing radical change, it seemed natural to assign it to Aquarius. Of course, Aquarius already had a ruler, namely Saturn.

Because Saturn is the planet associated with order, structure, responsibility, labor and the enforcement of existing rules and laws, it might seem strange that Uranus was held up as a potential usurper of Saturn’s long standing rule. But from an archetypal standpoint it makes a kind of sense. Since ancient times Saturn was given rulership over the sign which most represented the human desire to bring order on Earth as it is in Heaven. One of the main reason we began looking to the stars for guidance in the proper ordering of things is that, unlike phenomena on Earth which undergo constant change, the apparently unchanging movements of the heavens provided humanity with the comforting belief that there was an underlying order beneath the chaotic changes we see in terrestrial nature. By the time of the discovery of Uranus, such comforting assurance had been undermined by at least two centuries of upheaval in the natural sciences, political organization and religion. It surely must have seemed to many that we were indeed on the verge of a new age.

And so now Aquarius has two rulers. One, Saturn, represents the long, slow disciplined study of the world which brings long lasting stability to human civilization. The other, Uranus, is the spirit that, for better or worse, believes that any situation would be better than the one we are in. The cries for liberation and justice which have echoed through the recent centuries are amplified by the Uranian spirit. The sometimes violent reaction from traditional people and institutions to these challenges represents the power of Saturn which tries to maintain things in a homeostasis. The active conflict between these two rulers, one old, one new, one traditional, one revolutionary, is one of the engines which propels us into the Aquarian age. Because we are at the cusp between Pisces and Aquarius, the way this conflict is framed is still shaped very powerfully by the influence of Pisces.

Synergistic Influences in Pisces

On the Night of September 23,1846, 85 years after the discovery of Uranus, Johann Gottfried Galle confirmed the existence of yet another “new planet”, beyond the orbit of Uranus. The discovery of the planet Neptune was, if anything, even more revolutionary that that of Uranus. Since its discovery, astronomers had noted anomalies in the orbit of Uranus. Some astronomers believed that this behavior might be accounted for by another planet, beyond the its orbit, that might be exercising a gravitational pull on Uranus. In 1843, John Couch Adams, using Newton’s theory of planetary motion, predicted where this new planet might be found. The observation of Neptune by telescope a few years later demonstrated the power of mathematics to deduce the existence of things not yet evident to the senses.

The 1840s also saw the development of the telegraph, the photograph and rise of “spiritualism”. All of these developments came to be connected with Neptune in much the same way as revolution and disruptive tech came to be associated with Uranus. Neptune has to do with the image of things. Whether the image corresponds with reality is of only secondary interest. Neptune wants to bring things beyond the senses into our awareness. The telegraph made it possible to communicate in real time with people too far away to see or hear.. The photograph made it possible to capture moments and make them visible to people distant in space and time. Spiritualism, for its part, claimed to make passage through the veil between life and death as simple) as sending a message over wires or showing someone in London exactly what happened in California by means of a picture. All of these things fit into Neptune’s role as a bringer of visions.

Neptune rules our willing suspension of disbelief. When we are moved by art, beautiful (or terrifying) music, a film that draws us into its world, even a spiritual or esoteric system that seems to answer questions that we didn’t even know we had, we, at least for a time, see possibilities and connections between things that we never even considered. Sometimes these experiences exercise a lasting influence over our “normal” perception. Consider the way ideas from novels such as “Lord of the Rings” or TV shows like “Star Trek” or “Black Mirror” or a film like “The Matrix” influence the way some think and talk about reality. Human beings have a long history of situating themselves in the actual world through the virtual reality of story telling. In order for these techniques to work at all, we must give ourselves to the mere vision that the technique is supposed to bring forth.

Neptune values believability over knowledge. Because of this, Neptune was assigned rulership in the sign of Pisces who’s motto is “I Believe”. In Pisces, boundaries are dissolved and the soul beholds a world in which neither concepts nor objects nor any other “vessel” can contain the infinity resident within all supposed “things”. This is less a vision of oneness than of wholeness. The Pisces archetype comprehends the interdependence and interpenetration of all supposedly discrete entities. It understands that to see them apart from one another is to see them incompletely. It is for this reason that Pisces is associated with deep compassion.

Pisces has a place for the mystic and the opium smoker alike and makes no practical nor moral distinction between them. Neptune with its high resolution, immersive world making is perfectly at home here. The intensity of the vision and its ability to enchant the beholder is most important to Neptune. Pisces, for its part, has a reputation for escapism and delusion as well as compassion and soulful connection. Neptune can serve either of these ends equally, being partial to neither, providing its dream weaving power to both.

Of course, as we saw in Aquarius, Pisces already had a long standing ruler, Jupiter. In astrology, Jupiter is the planet of the grand gesture. Jupiter rules over generosity and wealth, long distance travel and big business, religion, law and our connection to the world beyond the self. Jupiter wants us to explore the greatest possible cross section of life. Jupiter represents the faith that everything fits into some greater cosmic plan. But Jupiter is sometimes over enthusiastic and given to exaggeration.

Unlike in Aquarius where we see a fundamental conflict between ancient and modern rulers (Saturn wants to limit and confine, Uranus wants to rebel and disrupt), the ancient and modern rulers of Pisces tend to egg each other on. Neptune loves the immersive, compelling narrative while Jupiter loves the feeling of being a part of some greater plan. What ever vision Neptune conjures, Jupiter says “make it even more grand”. Such antics are perfectly aligned with the atmosphere of Pisces who loves to dissolve boundaries to seek the transcendent.

The View From the Cusp

No fact makes sense apart from narrative. Knowing that a hammer falls when dropped, even knowing that it does every time, tells you nothing about why this happens. A fact, therefore, neither makes sense nor does not, it simply is. Science no less than philosophy, theology or any occult study, is in the business of turning facts into sense through narrative. The cycle looks like this:

We observe a fact. We want to know what accounts for this fact. We might ask someone who has authority (Saturnian influence) why this or that thing is always the case. Because we are entering the Age of Aquarius where knowledge is valued over belief, we are not obliged to take the word of an authority figure, especially if it doesn’t seem plausible to us (Uranian influence).

But even the person who questions authority still believes (Pisces) that things happen for reasons. Until we know (Aquarius) what these reasons are, we hold a belief that, by definition, can not count as knowledge since it is not yet supported by any personal experience beyond the belief itself. The belief that things happen for reasons seems to be a basic psychological predisposition for humans. Traditionally this need was met by institutions like the church, state, social group, family and, most recently, science. But the Aquarian influence increasingly impels us to seek first hand knowledge of these reasons. This returns us to a state of unsubstantiated belief that there are any reasons at all. In this condition one might simply give up (nihilism) or try to piece together some theory about why things are as they are.

Few of us start from scratch. When things appear different from what we have always been told they are, this appearance is usually not constituted by a doubt that there are any reasons, but rather, from some pattern in things that seems to contradict conventional wisdom. By careful observation of these patterns and comparison with the experience of others who seem to see the same patterns, a new vision begins to emerge (Neptunian influence). This vision almost always involves unseen agencies which are assumed to account for the patterns we see. What impels us to believe in a theory (vision) is its, well, believability (Neptune). Believability is bolstered by experience that seem to confirm the vision. As more and more of life’s experiences become explicable in terms of this vision, we begin to feel that we have discovered laws (Jupiter) which bind all things. This is when we are inclined to say we know a thing rather than simply believing it. If this knowledge manages to become common (traditional/Saturnian) it will almost certainly be once more challenged by the Uranian impulse in Aquarius who will ask “do we REALLY know this?”

What I have just described is a feed back loop. In Aquarius, where the norms that govern human interaction are worked out to the supposed benefit of each, Saturn acts as the stern father figure who demands that we believe what he says because he knows it to be true. Invariably, Saturn’s rule is challenged by someone who does not believe that the norms work to their benefit. Here is where Uranus emerges, usually armed with some new technology or some lived experience that allows them to see beneath the surface of the norms.

But the pure Uranian urge to break out, in order to gather enough strength to displace the old regime, must propose some alternative vision of reality. This new vision must be powerful enough to resonate with the experience of a wide enough cross section of individuals to unite them against the old. This vision is provided by Neptune who allows us to see beyond beyond common knowledge which the revolutionary no longer believes in. But in order for this belief to become more than a dream it must appear in the flesh. This is where Jupiter comes in.

When we think of any great movement; in politics and social life, in the arts and sciences, in technology or religion, it is hard not to imagine some charismatic leader. This person says the things that others only think in their heart, does the things that no one else has but which everyone hoped was possible. Some say that the charismatic leader who strives and sacrifices in order to bring about a new order is an artifact of the Picean age. Aleister Crowley is only one of many figures who imagined that the New Age would be one of self deification (every man and woman a star). At least since the 1960s ideas of individualism and non-conformity have spread to even the most conservative areas of politics (Think of Sarah Palin’s lauding of John McCain as a “maverick” or the influence of Ayn Rand on politicians like Ron Paul). Terms like “spiritual not religious” bring to mind a lone “seeker” who cobbles together a “path” based on their own experience. At the turn of the millennium, Apple Computer urged us to “Think Different”. The down side of all this “individualism” is, of course, the social atomization and silo effect that has made consensus on even the most pressing issues nearly impossible. But this trend has by no means made the charismatic leader obsolete. Instead, what we see is an expanding galaxy of “stars” who lead wandering and warring tribes of individuals who are guided by the one brave enough to “say the quiet part out loud”. It seems that at this season of the Great Year, at least most people seem to need someone to believe in. This figure is always Jupiter – someone with a vast sweeping vision that could encompass everything and make us feel safe, someone who can make rules that we might all feel truly benefit us. The wise and generous king.

You might feel like you need such a figure, might believe that you have made up your own mind. But ask yourself, who’s books do you read and quote, what videos and music do you share with others, what stars guide your journey? Even the brightest among us are following someone. If you have a totemic politician or tech guru, a great master or genius artist who has helped you define yourself, look at their influences. I am quite skeptical of the notion that anyone is an original thinker. At the same time, I am not sure that anyone will ever posses, or ever has possessed “one ring to rule them all”. Only time will tell.

Yet it is difficult not to notice the family resemblance between Jupiter and Saturn.

The COVID 19 pandemic

(an Aquarian test case)

Perhaps the one thing that everyone can agree about concerning the COVID 19 pandemic was that it was hard to find agreement about anything. Whether you believed that we were being led by competent, scientifically informed people or that we were being deceived by one or more “evil cabals”, whether you believe that the virus entered the human population as a result of environmental degradation or a bio-weapon program gone wrong (or, just as planned), whether you believed vaccines and masks were a measure of protection or control, you are not alone. You may have felt that way at some point, especially in 2020 - 21. You may have searched for a community of people who believed what you did or you may have found yourself alienated from a community who did not. You may have felt blamed or shamed or shunned. On the other hand, you might have felt a liberating sense of possibility. You may have had a long needed rest from work. You may have learned something new. You may have learned who your friends really were and a lot about your self. What ever you felt or believed, you were experiencing what, for me, is the waxing influence of The Aquarian Archetype which is, never the less, still colored by the waning light of the Picean.

The use of the word “believed” in the foregoing paragraph was quite intentional. Many people claimed to know what was true about the pandemic. A few very insightful people warned against the danger of mistaking belief for knowledge. Such warnings, although wise, were probably at a disadvantage from our present position between ages

Pisces believes, Aquarius knows, but between these two, the line is thin and porous at best. If we can only know what has been proven through demonstration, few of us know much of any thing. This is especially the case in high stakes situations where causal connections are difficult to determine without expert knowledge. Furthermore, who counts as an expert has a good deal to do with what any given person believes about reality in general.

What we saw were a group of sometimes over lapping, sometimes mutually exclusive research communities. There was, of course, what many derisively called the main stream narrative. This was largely based in what we might call scientific orthodoxy. Virology, epidemiology and genetics played an important role in this narrative. People within the scientific community, no matter what their personal beliefs, are committed, at least in theory, to following in the footsteps of the scientific revolution in that they believe that what can be demonstrated through evidence should be considered true. Whether we accept or reject this narrative we should come to terms with the Picean aspects of it. The mainstream narrative is based in strong physicalism. This is a paradigm which posits that material happenings arise from material causes because nothing but material things can count as real. The “proof” of this particular vision of reality, such as it is, is in the undeniable success of this paradigm in both predicting and manipulating material reality. Scientists believe that physical phenomena arise from physical causes rather than the hand of God or what is written in the stars. In acting upon this belief (gathering knowledge of the world through first hand experience) they find confirmation of this belief which, in turn, becomes common knowledge.

But there were others who took issue with this orthodoxy. Sometimes the objections revolved around what some, again derisively deemed fringe or pseudo science. What ever one might think of questions about the effectiveness or safety of vaccines, especially untested vaccines, those who raised these questions were engaged in the very Aquarian pursuit of knowledge through direct observation. Whether this “research” would be acceptable to the scientific orthodoxy is not the point. Scientific orthodoxy is a form of institutional authority and, as such, might be suspect under the influence of the Aquarian turn. One needn’t place any faith in “alternative treatments” to ascent to the idea that we can not know the long term effects of a novel virus, a novel vaccine, or anything at all, in the short term. Furthermore, scientific pronouncements about the safety of everything from thalidomide to glysophate proved to be tragically off the mark. Here, main stream science has, at least the appearance of a dogmatic orthodoxy which seeks to impose a vision of reality on those who see a pattern of misinformation or outright deception on the part of the experts. They mount a Uranian revolution against this orthodoxy which seeks a new vision that explains the inconsistencies between orthodoxy and actual experience.

Further afield of the main stream narrative were those who raised objections on the grounds of civil liberties. Their argument was that, even of public safety measures could be shown to be safe and effective, to compel a citizen, by law, to loose employment, wear a mask, get a vaccine, or even avoid public space, constituted an insult to individual sovereignty. What ever you think about this argument, it is hard to deny that being forced to do or avoid doing anything is, by definition, an infringement of liberty. Again we see a strong Aquarian thread here in that the freedom of the individual to make up their own mind about their own life based on their own reason is as Aquarian as it gets. Objection to compulsive public safety measures, real or simply imagined, pit the interests of the individual squarely against those of the collective. This conflict will recur again and again as a major theme of the Aquarian age.

Finally we have objections to the main stream narrative based on bad faith. These objections are dismissed by some as conspiracy theory (very Neptunian). But does this mean that all such objections are unfounded. Many people in this community will point to things like the CIA’s MK Ultra program, the Tuskegee Airmen Syphilis “experiment” or Big Pharma and their role in the very recent opioid addiction epidemic. All of these things are a matter of public record. It is difficult to argue that the public has not been manipulated and abused by governments and corporations, often backed by (paid) scientists for a long time now. It isn’t unreasonable to suspect the motives of institutions who have a proven track record of deception. Of course bad faith objections can get pretty far fetched, but once institutional power has been exposed as acting against the public good, often in grevious ways, the Aquarian urge to know what is happening Awakens Uranus’s revolutionary spirit and pits it against the status quo ruled by Saturn.

Nothing I have said so far about the pandemic should be construed as supporting or disparaging any particular position. Like most people, I had my own beliefs about what was at stake and what steps I would take to remain safe. My purpose here has been to examine the ways in which our beliefs, and the ways in which these become knowledge (to the extent that they actually do) can be framed in terms of where we are in the “great year” of astrological ages.

Everyone, no matter what they believed, or thought they knew, no matter how they acted as a result, were taking part in the Aquarian drama. What is this drama? It is nothing less than the conflict between the good of each and the good of all. There is an internal inconsistency in the Aquarian archetype. Aquarius is humanitarian. It values people above individual persons. At the same time, it celebrates the individual and his or her freedom to learn, think and act for themselves. It believes that there is one, and only one truth written into nature and available to all, but is hesitant to give any person or institution the authority to dictate what this truth is or how it should be known. It strives for universal individual sovereignty but can not seem to resolve the logical contradiction between the universal and particular as such. This is not a bug, it is a feature of the Aquarian archetype.

At the same time, the very idea that anyone can, and therefore should “do their own research” is fortified by the very Picean impulse to view theory as truth. While the Age of Reason and the Scientific Revolution may have done away with the idea that universal truth could only be dispensed by someone with the proper religious or secular authority, it did not do away with the idea of universal truth AS SUCH. We might say that the scientific rationalism which is underwritten by strong physicalism occupies the same place once held by the revealed truth of scripture or the Aristotelian model of the geocentric cosmos. But whether you hold to scientific rationalism, young earth creationism or the idea that the course of human evolution was directed by some alien intelligence, if you are not willing to see your point of view as simply one way of looking at the world, you are in the grip of the immersive theatrics and special effects created by Neptune and ratified by Jupiter in the theater of Pisces.

To be clear, I am not saying that there is no such thing as truth, universal or otherwise. I am merely questioning our ability to know with any degree of certainty whether our truth, or that of anyone else, IS truth. Personally, I am pretty OK with the basic claim of strong physicalism, material things arise from martial causes. I do not, however, believe that this view proves the non-existence of metaphysical factors which give physical phenomena their meaning. That a virus is deadly or benign might be true but still be meaningless. Why does it matter? Because life is good? Who’s life? Does a virus have the “right” to replicate? DO WE? These questions can not be answered in a universally convincing way by any scientific knowledge about the facts of life.

As for questions of power, control and deception, we are on even more uncertain ground than on questions of mere facts. What rights does the individual have over what they will do or refrain from doing? What right do we have to expect anything from others? How do we know that a global system of enforced conformity is a bad thing? How do we know that the sovereign right of the individual to do and think as they please is good? How far do any of these supposed rights extend? How ever we answer these questions, what evidence can we show beyond our belief.

As I have stated elsewhere, it is my belief that the material reality in which we live sets definite limits upon us. We share a common pool of earth, water and air; when I breathe out, you breathe in, this is a fact. Therefore, it matters to me what I do to the share of common resources that are under my direct control because these will be passed on to others. The condition in which I leave these resources will determine the condition in which others find them. But the fact that I have beliefs about these things does not license me to say that I know what others should do.

This then is the Aquarian challenge – to understand that the individual and the collective are not separable in a way that allows infinite flexibility to the former without impacting the latter. What, if any, mystic crystal revelation, will bring about harmony and understanding? I do not claim to have any answer to this. Divination by cards or by stars does not reveal the future but merely discloses the present. That is what I have tried to do here. I do not think it is possible to know where we are going without knowing where we are. I only encourage the individual to examine their beliefs about the world and consider what impact these will have on others. And if others have beliefs that are incompatible with our own, how much benefit of doubt are we willing to extend.