Age Of Aquarius
What is the Age of Aquarius?
Briefly, it means that the
sun now rises in that portion of the sky that ancient astronomers and
astrologers designated as being controlled by the Aquarius Constellation.
But it deserves a little more attention than that. The "ancients" divided the
sky into twelve equal sections, each dominated by a particular constellation.
The earliest astronomers were also astrologers for they believed a higher power guided
us and this higher power revealed itself via the stars. Now the sun rises every
morning, but always at a slightly different place in the sky above us than it
did the day before. This movement of the sun across our visible sky is called
its PROCESSION. This procession is caused by a variety of factors, but mainly
by the movement of the earth itself. WE WOBBLE! Our axis is off center by 23
and a half degrees currently, though over time it will shift to an extreme of
22.4 degrees and then back to the 23.5 degree extreme, I am told. Furthermore,
our orbit around the sun changes over time from
more circular to more eliptical. And the Ancients in
measuring the procession of the sun discovered that its sunrise is altered one
degree every seventy-two years. And as there are twelve equal divisions of the
heavens above, each area dominated by a particular constellation is 30 degrees
in breadth. Since it takes seventy-two years for the sun to alter its sunrise
a mere one degree, it will therefore take (72 X 30) 2160 years for the cycle
dominated by the constellation of Aquarius to pass.
The Ancients were
particularly interested in four days: the summer and winter solstice (marking
respectedly the longest and the shortest days of the year) and the spring and
fall equinoxes which designated the two times of the years when the day and
night was of equal length. For our purposes the spring equinox is the most
important for the "official" dawning of a new age occurs when the sun rises in a
new constellation's area on the occasion of the spring equinox. That seems
appropriate enough as spring always represents newness....new plants, new birds,
new hope.
Now certain questions come to mind when we consider the Ancients.
Why did they divide the sky/the zodiac into twelve parts? Why not eleven? Or
thirty-three? And why was astronomy and astrology one and the same in those
days?
For an answer, hold your hands in front of you with your fingers
spread wide. That's how we count, isn't it? On our fingers and with a numerical
system based on the number TEN. But most of the Ancients worked with a numerical
system based on the number TWELVE.
Why twelve?
Keep those hands in front of you. Now lower the right hand and look only at
your left hand. You see four fingers and a thumb. What is different between
the thumb and the fingers? The fingers have three joints and the thumb has two.
Now hide the thumb behind the palm and count using the joints of the left hand.
You can count to twelve. Suppose you want to count beyond twelve; you simply
bring the thumb out to represent the twelve you have aready counted and start
afresh on the joints. When you reach twelve again you can raise a finger on
the right hand to join the upraised thumb. In this way a person can count to
seventy-two on his hands whereas he can only go to ten if he counts using his
fingers.
And a number system based on twelve is superior in another way.
There are fewer odd-ball fractions. Ten is divisible by only two numbers....two
and five. But twelve is divisible by four numbers....two, three, four, and six.
Now how did astronomy turn so easily into astrology? Yes, ignorance and
superstition led the Ancients to seek answers to life in strange places, but I
want you to look once more at those two hands. Remember, using the knuckle
counting method we could count to seventy-two using our hands....perhaps the
ancients found significance in this number seventy-two. Seventy-two on the
hands and SEVENTY-TWO years for the sun to advance a single degree in the heavens.
It suggests an Order to the Universe. Ummm....it seems a stretch to us, but
consider even a modern day coincident tied to the number seventy-two.
If you are an investor you are probably familiar with THE RULE OF
SEVENTY-TWO. This is a quick and accurate rule that tells you how many years
it will take you via compounding to double your wealth. You simply divide the
rate of growth each year into the number seventy-two. Let's say you have $10,000
invested in something that pays you 8% a year. How long will it take to double your
money? The answer, divide 72 by 8, and you will find that it will take 9 years
for your money to become $20,000 when it is compounded at 8% a year. At 12% a
year it will only take six years. Now you know why Bill Gates keeps getting richer so fast.
**************
Let me get away from Aquarius for a moment to tell you of some interesting
things about numbers that
Joseph Cambell writes about. Numbers based on a numerical system of 12 and numbers which show a direct relationship between
civilizations and religions and the myths of the religions.
**************
There is considerable argument possible about which area first
fostered a civilization: China, Egypt, the Tigrus-Euphrates Delta, the Indus
Valley. But there seems to be an agreement that the numerical system based on
twelve began in the Indus Valley and spread westward.
We have all heard
the myths of the Great World Deluge or Great Flood. In India the deluge comes
at the end of an aeon......and the number of years in an aeon is reckoned to be
4,320,000,000 years.....this is also the length of a Day of Brahma. After the Day of Brahma
there is a Night of Brahma of equal length during which the world lies dissolved
in the cosmic sea before refashioning itself. Thus, an entire cosmic round...
one Day and one Night of Brahma takes 8,640,000,000 years.
Now Iceland is
pretty far from India and the Scandanavian winters seem far removed from the
heat of the Indus Valley summers, but consider how the Icelandic eddas describe
the end of the world. There, it is written that in Valhall there are 540
doors and at the end of the world each door will open and 800 warriors will emerge
from each door to do battle with the anti-gods. Multiply 800 by 540 and you
come up with 432,000. Ummmm....it seems we have some sort of connection
between civilizations. But do we have any connections with ourselves?
Hold up your wrist if you have a watch. Sixty seconds make a minute. Sixty
miunutes make an hour. Twenty-four hours make a cycle of a day and a night.
Multiply 60 X 60 X 24 and you come up with 86,400 seconds......whereas a
complete Brahma Day and Night equals 8,640,000,000 years.
We in the
United States always proclaim that we are a product of the Jewish-Christian
tradition. Consider this: between the creation of Adam and Noah's flood a
total of 1656 years passed. Julius Oppert (died in 1906) was a noted
Assyriologist and he sat down one day to consider the calendar in use at the
time that part of the Old Testament was written and concluded that the number of
seven day weeks in THOSE 1656 years totaled 86,400. And in Revelations we read:
(about the holy city of Jerusalem) "It had a great wall, with TWELVE gates, and
at the gates were TWELVE angels, and on the gates the names of the TWELVE tribes
of the Sons of Israel were inscribed; on the east three gates, on the north
three gates, on the south three gates, on the west three gates. And the wall of
the city had TWELVE foundations, and on them the TWELVE names of the TWELVE
apostles of the Lamb." (Yesss, twelve is a popular number!) Skipping
ahead a bit we find:"THE CITY LIES FOURSQUARE, ITS LENGTH THE SAME
AS ITS BREADTH, AND HE MEASURED THE CITY WITH HIS ROD, TWELVE THOUSAND STADIA;
ITS LENGTH AND BREADTH AND HEIGHT ARE EQUAL."
Now 12,000 X 12,000
X 12,000 equals 1,728 billion cubic stadia for the combined four walls,
but that means if you divide the total by four, each wall equals 432 billion...
a number those in the Indus Valley would find familiar.
My new European cyber-friend, Ruficus, recently informed me of
even more numerical mysteries. There are 432,000,000,000 cubic "stadia" (a
Biblical measurement) for each of the four walls of Jerusalem as reported in
Revelations. But if you add the numbers 4 + 3 + 2, you find they =9. A Day and
Night of Brahma (complete cycle) = 8,640,000,000 years and if you add the 8 + 6
+ 4 you get 18. Now add the 1 and 8 of 18 and you get 9 again. 1,728,000 years
= Krita Yga = 18 =9......1,296,000 years = Treta Yuga = 18 = 9......864,000 years =
Dvapara yuga = 18 =9.......432,000 warriors who emerge at the end of the world to
do battle against the anti-gods according to the
Icelandic Eddas = 9.......72,000 number of nadi (subtle arteries) in a human body =
9......18 runes received by Odin during 9 days and 9 nights = 9......There are
9 worlds in the Nordic traditon and 9 elements......And the highest number that can
be counted by the earlier described knuckle counting method = 72 = 7 + 2 = 9....
The number of years for the sun to advance a single degree in the sweep of the
heavens = 72 years = 9.....and each Age of the Zodiac = 2160 years...and 2+1+6=
9......In simple words, Ruficus notes, CREATION = 9;
TIME = 9; DISSOLUTION = 9.
Now why this dominance of the number nine?
Well, Ruficus has written a book on the Female Yoni (and I shall shortly get
the name of that book so that all who wish may seek it out......yoni being a
word out of India for vagina) and in the days when a Goddess was conceived as
the giver of life to the universe and not a God, the Yoni, the birth canal from
which creation emerged, was itself a symbol of the Goddess. From this Goddess
worship sprang also the triangle as a symbol of the Goddess. Why a triangle?
The female yoni naturally has a triangular "bush" covering it. And since a
triangle has three sides, the number three became a holy number. The "triad"
Goddess-head emerged from this number. The Goddess as Creator, Sustainer,
Destroyer of Life. Woman as Virgin, Mother, Crone. (Indeed, a LOT of religions
copied the Divine Threesome, haven't they?) Now if 3 is a HOLY NUMBER, what
could possibly be more holy? Only one number.
Three squared. Three multiplied by itself. And that number is 9, which is
why we have the consistent appearance of the number nine in myth after myth,
religion after religion, equation after equation.
Enough of numbers. Let's get back to Aquarius.
**************
The Age of Aquarius began in the 1960's and those of you who know
astrology know that the waning days of the Picean Age (coming as they do on the
"cusp")will manifest some of the characteristics of the about to happen Aquarian
Age. Thousands of years ago, sages and mystics proclaimd that the Age of
Aquarius would be a time dominated by higher intelligence, humanitarian
concerns, all fueled by dominate female energies. How interesting then
that it was Finland in 1897 (again I hope I am right, for I am running on my
memory bank here)that became the first western industrial nation to give women
the right to vote. The United States did not join that parade until years
later, and that most civil of western nations, Switzerland, signed on well after
World War II. In the intervening years women have made great strides. The top
five American law schools now have more female than male students, as do three of
the top five medical schools. The Department of Labor reports that in the United
States FIVE out of SIX new businesses are started by women now. Women are changing
the politics here and around the world. A few years ago Republicans elected to
congress pledged to abolish the Department of Education and cut federal expenditures
on education. Now realizing they have achieved a negative gender-gap among women
voters (who list education of their children as their number one concern), those
same Republican members of Congress have dropped plans to eliminate the Department
of Education. Instead they want to INCREASE ITS BUDGET BY 40%. I saw only today
in the paper that the female vote in Iran is proving decisive in pushing a more
moderate political agenda. Around the globe, wherever they have been empowered,
women are changing the political and cultural dynamic.
How could it be that
thousands of years ago sages and mystics and astrologers predicted these very
occurrences? Was it mere coincidence? And what do we mean when we speak of
"female energy" and "female wisdom"?
These things will be discussed in an
upcoming page about the GODDESSES OF WISDOM and what they tell us about the
future.
*****The image on this page is from the Lithuanian
photographer Rimantas DICHAVICIUS. He calls it Nude #16; in my own mind I call
it THE COSMIC SWIMMER. Permission for the use of his work is currently being
sought. To view his work and the work of MANY other fine photographers from his
country, go to
http://www.photography.lt and click on photographers and
then click on the artist of your choice.*****
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