First New Moon of the year is at 0° Aquarius on the same day that the Sun ingresses into Aquarius. Mercury and Venus also in Aquarius. Why don’t we call it the first day of the Age of Aquarius? Experts disagree (of course) about when it actually starts…so let’s just say this is it. Peace, Love and Understanding the words of the year NOT…but why not? The other day at the “Houghton Hall: Portrait of an English Country House” exhibit at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, I got to talking to two employees of the museum, young men of color and we agreed that that house and all it stood for was built on the backs of our ancestors. Mine, peasants working the land for the master, theirs under colonial rule in the homeland. Those mighty men in the magnificent paintings were early capitalists who came to rule the world and set up structures that now threaten to destroy us all. There was nothing of our history, our struggles in that exhibit which glorified money, possessions and above all, power.
Aquarius represents the power of the masses to determine their own fate. With dual rulership by Saturn and Uranus, discipline and innovation, we realize that it is not enough to merely knock down the citadels, we have to offer and be willing to construct something in their place that is more equitable.
This is where the protests of the ‘60s, when Pluto and Uranus were conjunct, failed. Nothing viable was offered to replace what we sought to bring down. I remember thinking, “There are just too many people to have anarchy. If we succeed in destroying ‘the man’ another will step into his shoes. No one is providing real alternatives. Not everyone can ‘go back to the land’”. So I stuck around, finished my degree, got another because I didn’t know what else to do and little by little the ‘revolution’ got co-opted and they started selling ‘flower power’ clothes at Macy’s. It was over.
But the memory of what we experienced in the Summer of Love San Francisco 1967 lingered in the consciousness. The liberty, equality, fraternity that we shared in Golden Gate Park had changed us forever. People were not homeless, they were street people. People who chose to live free of possessions and obligations. Not a scourge on city streets - an expression of freedom.
Now we are at the first quarter square of these two movers and shakers and many of the issues we addressed then are up for review. Did we accomplish anything? Has the world changed? I think we ‘failed’ last time because we almost succeeded. The powers that be were so threatened, they had to clamp down harder on the mass consciousness, employing ever more subtle ways of manipulating our hearts and minds.
After expressing our opinions about what’s wrong with the world, we three ‘powerless’ people asked each other what we could do to change things. I said, “Just what we are doing right here. Talk to each other. Talk to strangers.” I once heard someone refer to strangers as friends they had not met yet. I love that. In Sufism I learned to see the face of God in everyone. Using that as a practice has changed my life immensely. There is a Mayan greeting “In Lak’ech” which means “I am you and you are me”.
This is the highest level of the Aquarian archetype: brotherhood and equality. Not just for some, but for all. Like the motto of the Three Musketeers: “One for all and all for one.” The Golden Rule “do unto others….” not those with the gold rule, is a good place to start.
Uranus, the modern ruler of Aquarius is conjunct the SN in Aries. The last time this occurred was in 1847. We are still dealing with the legacy of structures in place here in America at that time. According to research done by Stephanie Austin, the alignment of Uranus conjunct the SN in Aries squaring Pluto in Capricorn has not happened in more than 2,600 years. She suggests that we are in one of the most ‘pivotal times’ in human history.
All this social turmoil is a huge distraction from the issue of climate change. While we are arguing over turf, our home is threatened with destruction. Biological diversity makes for survival. In the human realm, I feel that biological diversity includes cultural and linguistic diversity. We need each other to come up with solutions to what looms on the horizon. We need to develop resiliency. We need to be willing to change in huge ways. As with other heavy transits, resistance is futile. The more you can work with the planets the better off you will be. The archetype of Aquarius includes the visionary inventor, the agent of change.
This New Moon calls us to make some changes in our lives, knowing that the changes we make will have lasting consequences. Doing nothing also has consequences. Change is in the air. Either you step up to the plate and be involved in what they are, or you don’t.
Aquarius represents the power of the masses to determine their own fate. With dual rulership by Saturn and Uranus, discipline and innovation, we realize that it is not enough to merely knock down the citadels, we have to offer and be willing to construct something in their place that is more equitable.
This is where the protests of the ‘60s, when Pluto and Uranus were conjunct, failed. Nothing viable was offered to replace what we sought to bring down. I remember thinking, “There are just too many people to have anarchy. If we succeed in destroying ‘the man’ another will step into his shoes. No one is providing real alternatives. Not everyone can ‘go back to the land’”. So I stuck around, finished my degree, got another because I didn’t know what else to do and little by little the ‘revolution’ got co-opted and they started selling ‘flower power’ clothes at Macy’s. It was over.
But the memory of what we experienced in the Summer of Love San Francisco 1967 lingered in the consciousness. The liberty, equality, fraternity that we shared in Golden Gate Park had changed us forever. People were not homeless, they were street people. People who chose to live free of possessions and obligations. Not a scourge on city streets - an expression of freedom.
Now we are at the first quarter square of these two movers and shakers and many of the issues we addressed then are up for review. Did we accomplish anything? Has the world changed? I think we ‘failed’ last time because we almost succeeded. The powers that be were so threatened, they had to clamp down harder on the mass consciousness, employing ever more subtle ways of manipulating our hearts and minds.
After expressing our opinions about what’s wrong with the world, we three ‘powerless’ people asked each other what we could do to change things. I said, “Just what we are doing right here. Talk to each other. Talk to strangers.” I once heard someone refer to strangers as friends they had not met yet. I love that. In Sufism I learned to see the face of God in everyone. Using that as a practice has changed my life immensely. There is a Mayan greeting “In Lak’ech” which means “I am you and you are me”.
This is the highest level of the Aquarian archetype: brotherhood and equality. Not just for some, but for all. Like the motto of the Three Musketeers: “One for all and all for one.” The Golden Rule “do unto others….” not those with the gold rule, is a good place to start.
Uranus, the modern ruler of Aquarius is conjunct the SN in Aries. The last time this occurred was in 1847. We are still dealing with the legacy of structures in place here in America at that time. According to research done by Stephanie Austin, the alignment of Uranus conjunct the SN in Aries squaring Pluto in Capricorn has not happened in more than 2,600 years. She suggests that we are in one of the most ‘pivotal times’ in human history.
All this social turmoil is a huge distraction from the issue of climate change. While we are arguing over turf, our home is threatened with destruction. Biological diversity makes for survival. In the human realm, I feel that biological diversity includes cultural and linguistic diversity. We need each other to come up with solutions to what looms on the horizon. We need to develop resiliency. We need to be willing to change in huge ways. As with other heavy transits, resistance is futile. The more you can work with the planets the better off you will be. The archetype of Aquarius includes the visionary inventor, the agent of change.
This New Moon calls us to make some changes in our lives, knowing that the changes we make will have lasting consequences. Doing nothing also has consequences. Change is in the air. Either you step up to the plate and be involved in what they are, or you don’t.
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