|
Definition: [Astrological Ages] In the late
nineteenth and early twentieth century a number of writers began a search for a
New Age, which eventually culminated in the idea of
the Age of Aquarius. A brief history is given
below.
It should be noted that the idea of
Precession of the Equinoxes is much older
than the late nineteenth century. However it isn't until the nineteenth century
that writers sought correlations between the sign at the
Vernal Equinox and
religious or earthly events. Underlying this must have been the idea, prevalent
at that time, of the ancient age of the Zodiac.*
* And idea which doesn't stand up to modern
scholarship. See the Zodiac
Wheels and Babylonian Precession for
more on this.
A Brief History of the Age of
Aquarius:
|
c 1870 AD: The Age of the Waterman |
In a series of lectures in
the second half of the nineteenth century the English 'seer' Gerald Massey
[1828 – 1907 AD] connects the sign at the
Vernal Equinox with the
presentation of how the Messiah was seen at that time: as a Fish when
Pisces is the
Vernal Equinox sign for
example. He states that this connection dates back to
Ancient Egypt. He discusses how the signs
change because of Precession. He also looks
forward to the Equinox
entering the Sign of the
Waterman at the end of the nineteenth century. This is Jungian
'synchonicity', and a New Age concept eighty years
before Jung writes on these
subjects. |
|
1888 AD:
The Hindu Epoch |
Writing in The Secret
Doctrine, The Synthesis of Science, Religion and Philosophy, [Chapter 17,
pp 647 - 668] Helena Petrovna Blavatsky [1831-1891 AD] discusses 'Hindu'
astrological epochs. There is no mention in this her most famous work of an
Age of Aquarius. |
|
1904 AD:
The Age of Horus |
Writing in Book of
Law, Aleister Crowley declares that "Ra-Hoor-Khuit
hath taken his seat in the East at the Equinox of the Gods." He never
tells us exactly what the Equinox of the Gods is. He never mentions an
Age of Aquarius and there is no sign in his
work of the concept of an Astrological
Age. |
|
1929 AD:
Sun in Aquarius |
Writing in the new
astrological journal Astrosophie in 1929, Edward Carpenter states:
"In 1936, the Sun will enter the constellation of
Aquarius ... the beginning of the new sign on the
Equinox of Spring."
|
|
1937 AD: Ere du Verseau |
In 1937 Paul Le Cour
publishes the book, Ere du Verseau. Avènement de Ganyméde
[Age of Aquarius, the Advent of Ganymede]. This is the first book on the
topic and the first explicit mention of an Age of
Aquarius. Le Cour states this will start in 2160 AD. |
|
1940 AD:
A New Age |
In a letter to H. G.
Baynes, dated 12th August 1940, Carl Gustav Jung writes: "1940 is the year when we approach the meridian of the first
star in Aquarius.
It is the premonitory earthquake of the New Age. [C G Jung Letters,
Volume I, 1906-1950, p 285]. This is his first mention of the subject, and the
closeness of the date to that of Carpenter indicates that he is basing this
idea on Carpenter's work. |
|
1944 AD:
A New Age |
Writing in Discipleship
in the New Age - Volume I , [Part I of Volume 1] Alice Bailey states:
"There is the emergence of a new kingdom in nature, the
fifth kingdom ... Group endeavor, carried forward as a group, to love all
beings and to apprehend and understand the true significance of the Aquarian
technique of group love and work." This very oblique reference is the
first in her work to anything Aquarian in the context of a New Age. |
|
1951 AD: The Aquarian Age |
Writing in Aion,
[Chapter IV, The Sign of the Fishes] Carl Gustav Jung discusses an
Aquarian Age. He has abandoned the 1940 start
date and offers several possible dates between 1997 and 2154 AD, though he now
notes that "Since the delimitation of the constellations
is known to be somewhat arbitrary, this date is very
indefinite." |
The New Age is Born
Prematurely: One of the strangest aspects of the
Age of Aquarius is it's early birth in the
popular imagination. Why, as it doesn't really arrive until about 2600 AD are
we so interested in it now?
The culprit for this seems to be
the idea of a Platonic Month, a mistake
which goes back to the earliest writing on the subject, that of
Gerald Massey in late nineteenth
century. Given the idea that a Platonic
Month is a little over 2100 years long, and that the Sun moved into
Pisces, at the
Vernal Equinox, at a date
perhaps a century before the birth of Christ, its very tempting to add 2100+
years to that past date and getting a date very close to the your particular
present day [from Massey's 1900 to
Carpenter's 1936 AD to the current
passion for 2012 AD].
However this is very poor
astrology. As Jung notes, an Astrological Age
"refers to the actual constellation of fixed stars,
not to ... the zodiac divided into sectors of 30º each." [C G
Jung Aion Chapter IV, The Sign of the Fishes, Footnote 84, 1951
AD ]. Pisces is rather more than 30º in length along the
Ecliptic and so the
Age of Pisces stretches out before us for another
600 years.
Searching For a New Age in
the 20th Century...
© Dr Shepherd Simpson, Astrological
Historian. |
|
Historical Astrology
See the new
Astrological Index
for the meaning of other astrological words and phrases
Galactic
Zodiac
|