Swords in the Age of Aquarius
Let me tell you about heart ache and the loss of God
Wandering wandering in hopeless night.
Out here in the perimeter there are no stars,
Out here we is stoned
Immaculate
--James Douglas Morrison
Aquarius and its planetary rulers (yes there are two acknowledged rulers of this sign, more on that later), present a mysterious and complex array of impulses and intentions. This sign is said to be concerned with improving the world through idealism and humanitarian efforts. Sounds good, and it is but … what do we mean by improvement and who will be the beneficiaries. If we have strong social, political or religious ideals, we tend to assume that everyone would thrive in a world organized in conformity with them. The difficulty comes in when we understand that people with different, sometimes diametrically opposed convictions believe, as we do, that the world would be a better place for everyone if their principles were the lode stars of society.
For example, both Ronald Reagan and Franklin Roosevelt were Aquarians. Both men held the U.S. presidency during troubled times. Roosevelt was tasked with leading the nation through the great depression and World War II. Reagan during a period when the country was still reeling from the aftermath of the Viet Nam War and the crushing inflation of the 1970s. What ever you might think of the policies of either, I ask you to offer the generosity of good faith that both men were acting in what they believed to be the best interests of the country. And yet, Reagan actively sought to undo many of the policies that Roosevelt championed. My Grandfather, who was a Reagan supporter, like many of his generation, strongly opposed the programs of the New Deal instituted under Roosevelt. My Mother, who was born at the very end of World War II, strongly opposed the policies of the Reagan administration. Their differing views on what was best for America were typical of the “generation gap” that was so evident in the middle part of the last century. What I learned from this conflict was that people with radically different viewpoints can both have good intentions.
In Tarot, Aquarius is represented by The Star. This card represents the idea of guidance and hope after a calamity (The Star follows The Tower with its disastrous fall). We see a naked woman pouring water into a pond and onto the land. Above her is a great star among several lesser stars. Starlight is not sufficient to shed light on our surrounds and yet, it can be a beacon by which we can find our way through the dark. The example of ships navigating the dark sea or wise men following a star across the desert gives a sense of the power of a guiding light in dark times. The water poured upon the land represents the fecundating power of a grand vision. Her nakedness represents guilelessness. But this guilelessness can become easily compromised in the quest for societal change which, though it is intended to be good for ALL is not always so for EACH. We will see this played out as we get into the decans and their representative cards.
Before passing on to the decans, however, we must have a look at the planetary rulers of the sign as a whole. As has been said, there are two rulers, one ancient and one modern. I have avoided the subject of ancient vs. modern ruler ship thus far because it further complicates the already complex relationships between signs, planets and cards. But the way in which the modern ruler (Uranus) came to usurp the ancient (Saturn) is so integral to understanding the nuance surrounding the cards of Aquarius that I thought it negligent to simply avoid it further.
Let us take a moment to consider how societies were organized from ancient times until repetitively recent history. Ruler ship was the privilege of a small elite who made the laws. Their right to rule was, in one way or another, thought to descend from The Gods. The laws were the means by which the obligations of subjects to their rulers and one another were regulated. Law provided points of negotiation when a question arose as to whether these obligations were being fulfilled. But the right to make laws was reserved by the ruling elite.
Saturn rules over all manifestations of structure, divine, natural and cultural. Noblemen, priests and the ancient equivalent of lawyers were people who, knowing the intricacies of the law, could bring about incremental changes in the structure of society, usually in favor of various interests within society. But the structure of the law and the form of government that created it were written, often literally, in stone.
Beside its role in maintaining the form of society, Saturn’s influence extended to form itself. As such, it formed the boundary of what could be seen, and therefore known about the natural world. Until the “middle ages” the model of the cosmos known to learned people was based on the natural philosophy of Aristotle and astronomy of Ptolemy. The Earth was understood to sit at the center of a series of concentric crystalline spheres. These were thought to carry the planets as they rotated around the earth. Saturn rode on the outer most of these spheres. This gave the planet ruler ship over all forms of limitation. Of course they also knew that the “fixed stars” were further still, but these existed in a realm that was thought to be separate from our own. Our world, and everything in it, was subject to every kind of limitation, of space, time and power to influence other things. Direct knowledge of this world was also subject to the limitation of our senses. Anything that lay beyond this was, by necessity, the subject of pure speculation.
In Tarot, Saturn is represented by the World Card. The World is simply everything that is. It is a card of completion and fulfillment and the final card in of the Major Arcana (in “traditional” Tarot packs). You will notice that the four figures in the corners of the card represent the four fixed signs of the zodiac: The Bull for Taurus, The Lion for Leo, The Eagle for Scorpio and the Angel for Aquarius. These lay beyond the wreath of greenery surrounding the central figure of the card. This figure, according to some commentators, might be a hermaphrodite representing the union of the genders (another kind of “completion”). There is even speculation that Saturn might be more properly conceived as a “feminine” planet rather than a “masculine” one as is traditionally thought. The rationale here is that the feminine aspect of the cosmos is responsible for all forms of limitation and “containment”. These speculations are worthy of their own investigation. I mention them here because, Whether the dancing/flying figure in the center of the card represents the uniting of opposites or the essentially feminine nature of the material world, the way the zodiac lay beyond the wreath once more suggests that, what ever lay in the stars (destiny, the spirit world, the God/s) it was beyond the limitations of our world and therefore our ability to exercise any influence over.
One more thing worthy of note about this card is the two wands held by the central figure. They resemble the wand held aloft my Magician. Just as the makers and interpreters of law could only negotiate the fixed limitations set by it, the Magician could, through deep knowledge of the structure of nature, find the points of negotiation which made magikal transformation possible. But again, there is no question of breaking through these limitations. The two wands held by the figure at the center of The World indicate her ultimate power in the setting of limits. The Magician, after all, only possesses one of these wands.
On March 13, 1781 the planet Uranus was discovered by Astronomer William Herschel. This was a momentous discovery for many reasons. To start with, Uranus was the first planet discovered with the aid of a telescope. All of the “classical” planets are visible to the unaided eye, but Uranus (along with Neptune and Pluto) require technological intervention to be detected. This gives us our first clue to the significance astrologers eventually attributed to Uranus.
The discovery of a “new” Planet disrupted a millennia old astrological tradition. What meaning, and therefore power should be attributed to this new comer. To begin with, the revelation of something which had (presumably) been there all along but only became apparent through technological intervention immediately produced a correspondence between Uranus and sudden, disruptive technological advancement. Further, the discovery of real, physical entities which lay beyond the range of our senses (similar discoveries were being made in the world of the very small via the microscope) drew scientists and the public at large to the conclusion that there were real and consequential aspects of Our world (not the world of spirits and Gods) which we never knew about but would now have to take into account. For example, it was now possible to see disease as the result of previously unseen, and therefore unknown entities rather than the intervention of malevolent spirits or fate. The breaking of the Boundaries set by Saturn made it unclear what influences arose in Heaven (if there was such a place) and what from unseen region of Earth. It is hard to imagine how literally mind blowing such a revelations must have been. This is how Uranus developed its correspondence with shattering and disorienting changes in our perception of the world.
The 18th century was a time of revolutionary change. Beside the American and French revolutions which broke the ancient, top down relationship between rulers and subjects, there were great forward leaps in scientific knowledge, technology and industrial production. By the time Herschel made his discovery, the first halting steps toward the understanding and eventual harnessing of electricity (another Uranus AND Aquarian correspondence) were being made. Electricity, by the middle of the 19th century, would make it possible to communicate information instantaneously over great distances overcoming the limitations of space and time. Uranus comes into human awareness right in the middle of all of these changes and the idea of unexpected, uncontrollable and irreversible change became its its defining characteristic in astrology.
Of course, the traumatic power of sudden changes in our basic understanding of the world can not help but call forth dramatic changes in society. The political revolutions of the late 18th century sent shock waves ahead in time that we are still feeling today. As was mentioned above, until that time, individual members of society could only effect such change as the overall structure of that society would permit. Now it was possible to think that society is not a fixed condition ordained by some divine power. This is the basis of government by The People. Sounds good and it is, but …
Along with the idea that society itself is, at least in theory, almost infinitely malleable, comes the idea that REALITY ITSELF might be equally so. Under the shattering influence of Uranian power we trade certainty and bondage for liberty and doubt. We may do what ever we wish but have no clear idea of what we should wish FOR. The upheaval and contention that pervades nearly every aspect of life in the early 21st century arises from the realization that, although anything might be Possible, it might also be that nothing is TRUE. Truth and the certainty requires limitation, something either is or is not the case. When the rings that Saturn draws around all things are dissolved, reality dissolves with it. We are in uncharted territory. What star shall we follow to achieve the Aquarian vision of a society which is good for each while being good for all?
In Tarot, Uranus is represented by The Fool. The fool is the first card of the Major Arcana. I say first but only in the sense that the number zero is the first number. Zero is, so to speak, the background of all numbers, like the silence from which sound emerges, the darkness which gives birth to light.
The fool dances on the edge of a precipice. He is only concerned with the moment in which he finds himself” the smell of the flower in his hand, the warm sun above him, the sheer delight in unencumbered movement. His little dog knows better. See how the dog appears to be warning him of his imminent fall. I always imagine The Fool hearing the bark of his companion, feeling his warning paw. I imagine him turning around and dancing away from the edge without ever realizing how close he came to a devastating fall. It is only joy and immediate sensation that moves this Fool.
Like the woman of The Star Card, he is without guile. He is without an agenda, expectation and possible simple good sense. It is said that in ancient times the court jester could say just about anything to The King. Since he had no understanding of consequences but was merely a creature of impulse, he was not bound by fear of what consequences the truth might bring. Since he was understood to lack good sense, the king and all his court were free to dismiss what ever silly thing The Fool might say. But, like the child who declares the nakedness of The Emperor, the truth still finds its mark. Uranus appears in the moment when we realize that some previously unquestioned reality proves to be as insubstantial as the Emperor’s fine robes. In order to survive this traumatic realization we must, like The fool, move without direction or expectation, allowing ourselves to be guided by our animal instincts. But where does this leave “society”?
Margret Thatcher once said of society, “There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first.” She said this as a way of discrediting what some conservatives and libertarians have called the “nanny state”. Without expressing a my own sense of what place (if any) government should have in the organization and regulation of society, I observe that without some Star to guide our ship, we are but fools wandering around in the dark, bumping into one another. Bare this in mind as we turn our attention to the decans of Aquarius and their associated cards. I warn you, we will probably find no definitive answers here. What I hope we will find is a hint of the dangers that await us and the skills we have to learn as we try to find our way.
Decan 1
10-20 Degrees aquarius
Five of swords
Decan Ruler Mars
The Tower
Starting with Mars and The Tower we see the tension between the ancient and modern rulers of Aquarius (Saturn and Uranus). Mars, like Uranus, is a harbinger of disruption and strife. Unlike Uranus, Mars is strategic. He is the ancient god of War but not only in the military sense. Mars drives our impulse to overcome obstacles through will and careful planning. He is driven by a sense of mission. While Uranus represents an explosive release of passion, Mars attempts a surgical strike against what ever stands between him and the achievement of his goals. Mars attempts to compensate for the total disruption of structure that arises from Uranus’s usurpation of Saturn’s ancient right to rule Aquarius. Blind, undirected energy is fully rationalized and justified. Perhaps the difference between a bar fight and an all out war.
His card is The Tower. We see a burning tower being struck by lightning. Two people dive or fall from its high windows. Their crowns indicate that these are people of consequence being reduced by forces beyond their control. It is easy to imagine this scene as one of sudden, unpredictable and catastrophic change and, from this, infer that it more properly represents untamed Uranian power. If we look back into the tradition of Tarot we might see why this is not so.
In the Tarot of Marseilles, The Tower is known as The House of God. The Tower itself is thought to be The Tower of Babel. In the Hebrew Scriptures we read of Man’s attempt to storm heaven by means of a tower. God, fearing that men in possession of divine power would, through pride and ambition, destroy the world, destroys the tower, scattering its builders and making their word unintelligible to one another. We are not looking at a scene of blind forces unleashed upon hapless human victims, but rather, a “surgical strike” against hubris and ambition.
The tower teaches us the distance between our ideas about how the world should be and how it actually is. The central societal conflict represented by the passing of ruler ship over Aquarius from Saturn to Uranus is the reduction of universal truth to individual opinion. I want to stress here that I am not making an argument for some monolithic power that imposes its view upon everyone against their will. If anything, the Tower should warn us against such a thing. I am, however, saying that he lack of such power radically “democratizes” power, leaving it up to the individual how they will use their share of power. Building the tower, we combined our efforts in vane struggle with divine power. But once the tower has been destroyed, we set these same impulses against one another.
In our time, we see the result of this calamity. Each person retains their own sense of what the world should be and, when threatened, our opinions become weaponized against the opinions of others. The landscape of descent and division that plagues much of our world arises from the conviction of each person that their truth is the truth. Whether we say “follow the science” or “follow the Lord” or, perhaps more darkly and honestly, “follow your own ambition”, we can not escape the fact that none of us know we are right. Knowledge is not the same thing as belief. Lacking knowledge, belief is all we have as a guiding star. Bare this in mind as we turn our attention to the Five of Swords.
We see a man with his own sword (held in his right hand) lowered. He faces no further threat of attack. In his left hand he holds two more swords indicating that he has defeated other enemies before the two figures retreating into the distance. Two more swords lay on the ground at the victor’s feet (presumably these belonged to the men in retreat). His expression indicates that he is pleased with his victory and nothing else indicates that he suffered much in battle. The figures in retreat, on the other hand, appear from their postures, to have suffered loss and humiliation. If we are honest with our selves, we might admit that we would prefer to stand in the place of the victor when we battle with what or whom ever we consider enemies..
But notice that there are no bodies laying around. The figures in retreat have surrendered. But they still live. Perhaps they are on the precipice of a life of subjugation and oppression. Perhaps there will be no place for them in the victor’s realm. But they are not dead. History reminds us that the memory of a vanquished and defeated people is long and bitter. The victor will either spend the rest of his life looking over his shoulders or will have to hunt his defeated, but still living opponents down and finish them once and for all.
This card is usually understood to represent a victory won at too high a price. What ever we do not definitively eliminate from the world, either the external world or the world of our own inner life, will dress its wounds, bide its time and eventually come for us when we have grown complacent in our victory. How can such a victory be permanent let alone sweet? How can its monuments stand?
It is worth noting here that the suit of Swords is primarily a suit of the mind and higher thought. Our “success”, as individuals and as a species, owes much more to cunning that actual bloodshed. Even our weapons of war would not be as precise and deadly as they are if not for our ability to understand and manipulate both material resources and the mind of our enemies. It takes skill and knowledge to craft a sword. Our ideas about the world are similarly crafted for maximum effect. We wage war on terrorism, drugs, poverty and anything we consider an enemy not only through law and military force, but also through propaganda and advertising. What this war of the mind implies however is that our enemies very thoughts are their most powerful weapons against us. One possible meaning of the Five of Swords is that, even if you kill a person, you can not kill the thought that drove them. The enemy will always return..
Decan 2
10-20 degrees Aquarius
Six of Swords
Decan Ruler Mercury
The Magician
If the Five of Swords is the War, the Six of Swords is the Refugee crisis. Fortunately, this chapter of the story is overseen by Mercury. Represented in Tarot by The Magician the energy of this card calls back to the God Hermes. One of his many roles is as a guide to the souls of the dead. There are those who literally die in war and then there are those who must live through its aftermath. These, though still alive, must somehow build a new life. The Magician, with his deep understanding of nature and the spirit world is their salvation. A refugee, whether they must leave the realm or hide within its crevices, must have skill and knowledge and, above all, the belief that they might have the power to transform their situation by the aid of forces beyond them selves. Anyone who has suffered the collapse of their own tower and not prevailed, is such a refugee. Whether you loose a career, a relationship, a loved one or anything worth fighting for, you will be guided and comforted by the magikal power that comes from aligning your self with the reality of your situation. The Magician must see things exactly as they are if they hope to alter the course of their fate.
As for the Six of Swords, we see a small boat casting off from shore under cover of night. Two figures huddle together (perhaps a mother and child?) while a third steers the boat with a pole (perhaps echoing The Magician with his Wand). One of the beautiful details of the traditional Pamela Smith card is her depiction of the water. The waters that the boat leaves are troubled while those ahead are mirror still. They leave a troubled situation and head into a (hopefully) more peaceful one. The other shore shows no sign of human habitation, suggesting the possibility of reordering things in a way more conducive to the settlers. They have their swords with them. They will need them to deal with the physical, emotional and psychological dangers of a frontier situation.
But there is also a warning here. The Sword is also the cause of the disaster they leave behind. We must be careful, when entering a new situation, not to bring our problems with us. We must be careful that our trauma, and the fear and resentment arising from it, do not turn us into a person that will wreck an other's life while building a new one for ourselves. Even Magik might not save us from this. The power of the mind and of words, the “dreaded and respected gift of speech” as the Hymn to Hermes calls it, cuts both ways. All of us are in danger of becoming what we hate. If we do, The Sword becomes more deadly in the hand of The Magician.
Decan 3
20-30 degrees Aquarius
Seven of Swords
Decan ruler The Moon
The High Priestess.
The final decan of Aquarius belongs to the Moon. In astrology, The Moon governs emotions, memory, intuition and the unconscious. She mirrors the soul, that part of infinite spirit which belongs to us alone. We are a tapestry of previous impressions. From childhood and past lives, from heredity and indoctrination, our traumas and our triumphs find their their home, for better or worse, in the lunar aspect of our identity. Our intuition is driven by unconscious pattern recognition. Our gut reactions to people and situations arises from recognition. This moment feels like others like it.
Such gut impressions aren’t right or wrong. While as a general rule, we are better off following these impressions (if you think you should avoid a certain street, or person, it is a good idea to do so). At the same time, we should recognize that, since our immediate intuitive reactions are based on unconscious memory, it is possible for our intuition to lead us astray. For example, if you were denied food as a child, you might feel shame about your appetite. All sorts of “disorders” have their roots in strong and deeply buried emotions which manifest as feelings of irrational shame, fear, anger and even attraction. How many people seek out an abusive partner because their abusive parent was also their only source of love and support. If ingrained patterns lead us consistently into unhealthy situations, we should try to examine our inner Moon.
In Tarot, she is represented by the High Priestess (rather than The Moon Card which has more to do with the light shed by the moon). The High Priestess is one of the most richly symbolic of the images bequeathed to us by Pamela Smith. She wears the Lunar crown upon her head although some say that the sphere in the center represents the Sun. The idea here is that although The Sun provides the energy upon which life depends, this energy is given form by the power of the Moon. Some see her as a representative of the Virgin Mary who gives birth to the “Son of god”. Again we see The High Priestess as a bridge between the heavenly realm of eternal and unchanging potential and the material world of time and change. She wears a cross which, beside being another Christian image, represents the world of matter (four directions, four elements, etc.). Against her belly she holds, half concealed, the scroll that bares the word of God. She “bares” this word. Her eyes are open but her mouth is closed. She does not dispense her wisdom freely. We must approach her with reverence and a heart ready to learn. At her feet, another lunar Crescent.
She sits before a curtain decorated with pomegranates, ancient symbol of feminine fertility. These “seeded apples” remind us that every woman carries in her body the seeds of every daughter and every daughter’s daughter. She is the mother of us all. This calls back to the way that the Moon bares our memories and echoes them into each new moment. She is all that has come to pass, good and bad. Life in the material world is inextricably tied to the past through causality, the life of the soul with the play of karma. Some say that before we are born, we seek out parents who will give us a body and a life that best suits the state of our soul as determined by karma. The high priestess is the mother, the matter, the matrix and substantial foundation of everything we have become.
One more symbol worth mentioning are the black and white pillars. The black one stands for strength, the white for establishment. We need strength to emerge into this world but in order to endure, we must have a past. This is perhaps her greatest mystery. In order to endure we must be strong, but in order for strength to matter there must already be something which is strong. A deep explication of all of the symbolism behind these pillars would add to what I fear is already becoming an imposition on the reader’s patience. Suffice it to say that The High Priestess occupies a place of balance between the strength to endure and the endurance of strength. The more things change, the more they stay the same, which is to say, the continuity of the world is maintained by change. The High Priestess is a Triple Goddess who is the Mother of Her own Maiden and The Crone who is The Mother’s Midwife.
It is difficult at first to see the relationship between the High Priestess who represents the Moon’s Ruler ship of this decan and the Seven of Swords who stands in her light. The traditional understanding of this card is theft and deception and it IS those things … BUT … where is he going with those stolen swords? Why is he stealing them in the first place?
We see a person clutching five swords to himself. His posture suggests both haste and stealth. He leaves behind two swords stuck upright in the ground. In the distance we see tents and a small knot of people, one of whom holds a large staff. Some suggest that it is a military encampment. Why would someone steal swords from an army?
Perhaps espionage. Remember that The Suit of Swords is about thoughts as much as actual weapons. A spy is in the business of stealing the enemies thoughts in order to turn his weapons against him. Perhaps his actions are motivated by a desire to deescalate the “war”. If he knows that the encampment faces a superior enemy and is, never the less, foolish enough to attack out of pride or desperation, stealing swords would make such a move impossible. This might remind us of the gambits of misdirection that we might use to avoid an uncomfortable moment at a family gathering. Perhaps we might “bend the truth” or withhold some aspect of it to avoid hurting anther's feelings. This is what diplomacy is about, try to anticipate the other’s thoughts so as to know how best to encourage outcomes that are favorable to our agenda.
Of course, the spy, the diplomat or even the cautious guest at a dinner party has their own motivation for “stealing swords”. We might use cunning to “disarm” another, believing that we are avoiding unpleasantness only to enable their worse impulses later. Sometimes a direct confrontation is what is best. The one who uses quick thinking and clever words to get out in front of their opponent might well end up using these same methods against themselves. Remember that The Moon who rules this decan holds all our unconscious and “automatic” responses to our environment. We might learn coping skills in a stressful situation, (an abusive upbringing, a combat situation, a time of great want), which become ingrained and become our default response in other stressful situations where different reactions might be more appropriate. The moral ambiguity of the Seven of Swords comes down to the question of our motivations and the extent to which we can be honest with ourselves about them.
Before attempting to bring this long story to a close there is one more important thing to notice about the Seven of Swords. The thief leaves behind two swords. Perhaps the five he takes should remind us of the lesson we learned from the Five of Swords. Certainty about our cause can lead us to believe we must win at any cost. Unless we are willing to definitively destroy our enemies we will surely meet them again. And even if we are willing to take a “scorched earth” approach to defeating them, the thought, that set them against us will sprout up again in new minds as new shoots will emerge, fertilized by that same scorched earth.
After Thoughts
On The “AGE” of Aquarius
The concept of astrological “ages” is a relatively new one. It has its roots in 19th century Spiritualism and Theosophy and is suffused with ideas about energy, technology, egalitarianism and evolution in all its forms. Early on in this essay I spoke about the disruptive impact of the discovery of Uranus. The “revolutionary” nature of Uranus cast a strong light on generations of minds earnestly struggling to make some spiritual sense of unprecedented changes in the material world.
At the most basic level the idea has to do with the procession of the Vernal Equinox. The so called “fixed stars” against which the planets appear to move are not fixed at all. When the foundations of western Astrology were being laid, Sunrise on the Spring Equinox occurred in the first degree of Aries (which is why Aries is considered the first sign of the zodiac). Since that time, sunrise on the Vernal Equinox has “drifted” about a degree “backward” into Pisces ever 72 years. The most “conservative” estimates about the start of the Aquarian Age (When the Vernal Equinox Sun will rise for the first time in Aquarius) should happen sometime in the 2400s (giving us about 300 years to prepare). There are other ways of reckoning this “dawn” having to do with specific configurations of planets. Some of these have already happened. It is worthy of note that not all astrologers give credence to the idea of such ages. Never the less, the idea has a lot of traction in modern spiritual cultures.
One of the first records I ever owned was The 5th Dimension’s version of “Aquarius”. The song made its original appearance in the late 1960s musical “HAIR”, a shining celebration of the counter culture of the era. This is probably the single most powerful reason why even people who know nothing about astrology are familiar with the concept and have a vague sense of what it means. But what DOES it mean?
The aforementioned anthem of the dawning age of “Harmony and understanding, sympathy and trust” promises “mystic crystal revelations, and the mind’s true liberation”. Sounds like a “New Age”. In fact, the “New Age Movement” can be traced almost directly to the spiritual culture that flowered in the 1960s. This culture was no doubt informed by recent and ancient ideas about the spirit realm but since the 60s this dawning age has gained an almost apocalyptic sense of inevitability. People often refer to spiritual “technologies” which we will use to bring about a world, clean and healthy and rid of the grinding horrors that have marked so much of our history. Aquarius is, after all, concerned with the general welfare and “evolution” of humanity as a whole. But I feel a certain ambivalence in all of this.
Some astrologers have suggested that the Aquarian love and concern for ALL people does not always translate well to the love and concern for individual PERSONS. I’ve already mentioned the musical “HAIR”. One of the most overlooked and prescient songs in the play, “Easy to Be Hard” contains the lines:
How can people be so heartless
How can they ignore their friends
…
Especially people who care about strangers.
Who care about evil and social injustice.
Do you only care about the bleeding crowd?
How about a needed friend.
I need a friend.
This is not easy to look at or talk about but it is essential to our “spiritual growth”. Most of us have had the experience of knowing that our feelings and opinions are unimportant to those with a radically different (or sometimes trivially different) world view from our own. And, if we are honest, discounting the feelings and opinions of others who’s world view differs from our own. The Aquarian Age might live up to its reputation of humanitarianism but, if we do not agree on what it is to be HUMAN, it will do little to reduce “man’s inhumanity to man”.
Nor is it immediately apparent that the answers to these questions will simply come upon us with the inevitability of a new dawn. Throughout this essay I have tried to tell a story about the overturn of Saturn’s rule over Aquarius. We have seen that, in the absence of an overarching “truth” which can be mocked but never changed, we are left to our own moral compass. But what acts as our lode star?
In the first decan we saw the limited nature of absolute victory (Five of Swords). In our Mars drunk zeal to bring about the world of our dreams there are bound to be “refugees” (Six of Swords). They will have to find a home outside of that Martian realm. With the help of Mercury, they might settle a new frontier. But will they simply bring with them the impulses that drove them from their home land? Finally we saw the Moon driven thief of the Seven of Swords. We do not know his motivations. Is he a profiteer, a spy, saboteur for peace or merely a trickster? We do not know his motivation, but neither do we know the motives of the other actors in this play. Perhaps the smug satisfaction of the victor in the Five of Swords is well earned. Perhaps he has rid the land of “Evil” (or dangerous ignorance if you like). Who would YOU see driven from your homeland? Nor do we know the forlorn wanderers in the Six of Swords to be GOOD. The beautiful thing about divination is it simply lays bare a pattern, it does not judge. If a person does “wrong”, does his or her motive count? A man who steals bred to feed his family is still a thief, the neglected spouse who finds solace in the arms of another is still an adulterer.
If we are truly entering an age of harmony and understanding, sympathy and trust, we will need to take a hard look at the Lunar patterns that we all carry as individuals. Perhaps we will find that the traumas and triumphs that guide our crimes and acts of heroism are, in fact, universal fears and aspirations that we all share as the children of the material world. If we can do this, perhaps the Age of Aquarius will dawn upon us, not as an inevitable act of Gods or Natural Law, but as a miraculous act of Magik. Uranus is often portrayed as a revolutionary, but perapshe is just a fool … Perhaps we all are.