Is this the dawning of the Age of Aquarius?
By: Rio Larmand Freedom
Tags: Winter Solstice, Saturn, Age Of Aquarius, Great Conjunction, Astrology

With the “Great Conjunction” occurring at 0° Aquarius this Solstice, opening a cycle of Saturn/Jupiter conjunctions in air signs, a lot of people in the spiritual community are wondering if this is the beginning of the Age of Aquarius. This is an age that is thought to be the start of a Utopian era on earth and its start date has been debated for some time…

With the 200+ year air cycle starting at 0° Aquarius, it is no wonder that people are looking at it with excitement. But is it really occurring at 0° Aquarius?

Three years ago, I found myself curious about sidereal Astrology- a system which charts the planets actual placements among the constellations, from our perspective here on earth. (In contrast, Tropical or conventional popular astrology assigns 0° Aries to the start of spring, not accounting for Earth’s wobble along its axis) I began tracking New and Full Moon cycles, checking their placement in Sidereal, and comparing the two with events in my life.

Three years later, through experimentation and curiosity, I am a convert. In the spirit of curiosity, I invite you to read on and, if just for a few moments, imagine something a little different.

The Great Conjunction

The Jupiter Saturn conjunction occurs approximately every 20 years. Jupiter being the largest planet in our solar system, and Saturn long ago being the farthest we could see with the human eye earned it the title “The Great Conjunction”. This year begins a new, larger cycle of conjunctions, kicking off on Winter Solstice.

So what does this mean?

These cycles occur to encourage structures and systems that will facilitate our expansion. Tropical Astrology would have us believe that an Earth Cycle has just completed. I would like to invite you to consider that it was actually a fire cycle all along…

238 Years of Fire

Fire as an element is the great perceiver. The Witness. It is the Hero’s journey.

When I look at the MAJOR innovations that have occurred in this 238 year period affecting most areas of the planet, it is clear to me that it has been defined by new ways to see and an expansion of our perception of reality.

Timeline for previous fire cycle: 1782–2020

Begins with people’s worldview being mostly limited to their direct surroundings and experience. If they were literate, they might be able to access books or newspapers.

During this cycle we saw transatlantic passenger travel become quicker and more accessible. First with trade ships in the 1800’s and then with commercial airlines in the 1900s. (First commercial transatlantic flight 1939)

From the top down: This cycle saw the opening up of the sky with invention of the hot air balloon(1782), blimp (1852), zeppelin (1900), plane (1903), Drone (1907), satellite (1957), and space flight ( 1961). This opened up a world of possibility and changed warfare forever.

The Golden Age of Mass Media: This cycle saw the literate population explode, the first successful photograph (1816), the invention of the radio (1895), television (1927), internet (1990) and iphone (2007).

From the outside in: This cycle saw the invention of Psychology (Fist clinic established in 1896), X-ray (1896), CT Scan (1967)and MRI (1978).

From opening up our world to farther travel or stories with pictures from far off places, to finding new technologies to see things previously hidden to us, this period provided us the structures in which to expand our sight in nearly every way. It even brought us the invention of the light bulb! (1879)

With the study of psychology came the field of Public Relations. Having lost his job at the end of WW2, Edward Bernays, nephew of Freud, conceived of a method of using propaganda in times of peace by altering the field of advertising forever. Using psychology, advertisers began to market products to people based on how it would FEEL to have them, and besides, they deserved to have it! Prior to this, products were largely built to last and marketed simply for their features and durability. Thus began the golden age of consumerism.

With the ability to produce things for less money and mass consumption, buying something was now a whole new way to expand our experience. The things we owned became a whole new way of perceiving ourselves.

For the past 238 years we moved ahead in the spirit of exploration- with little consideration for the mess left behind, choosing not to look at the inconvenient aftermath. We chug along without questioning much, looking where we are told and largely content to be entertained. After two plus centuries of unbridled discovery, the time has come to stop, stand back and look at all of our creations.

It is safe to say we’ve generated enough things that we no longer have use or need for than we can possibly deal with in our lifetimes. In our need to continue to experience new things and desire to be a witness, we have failed to stop and ask ourselves- Do we really need or want this?

Fire is a masculine element- to be more specific, masculine energy is generative. It is creative, and quite linear, going from one thing to the next, looking right in front of itself and moving forward. Feminine energy by contrast is REgenerative and receptive, it works in the quantum, considering past, present AND future. Regenerative energy is a lot more comfortable with rest and even death. While masculine/generative energy is on all the time, feminine/regenerative energy works in cycles.

One needs only to look at the way society treats Women, The Earth, and all her Indigenous Peoples to realize we are in major imbalance. I find myself hard pressed to understand why anyone believes that what we need is MORE generative energy, and hard pressed to understand how we believe that we are at the end of a regenerative/feminine cycle. One needs only to look around.

It is evident we are in the midst of an awakening. It is possible to tap into higher powers that have laid mostly dormant in humanity for a long time- do that, explore that, go wild with your bad self! I am merely suggesting that you lean in deep to what is actually happening in the sky.

As above, so below. The time has come to nurture our relationship with our body’s inherent wisdom and by extension, the Earth herself. Why do you think these capabilities have laid dormant so long? Perhaps because we have been too busy looking everywhere, turning outwards instead of in.

If the last cycle was Fire, so begins Earth.

This is indeed the start of a new and important cycle, with Saturn and Jupiter’s shift into Earth signs it is time for us to tap into our deep Crone wisdom and inner knowing. Many people have been feeling this already these past few years, and now the time has come to weave this wisdom into the structures of our lives to allow for their expansion and growth.

The time has come to rest and recover, to look at the big picture, grow up and start solving some problems. We have spent far too long dealing with only what is right In front of us, ignoring the consequences of actions that will see far into the future. Fire energy is very independent and values its own adventure. In the search for this adventure, we have been idly poisoning the planet and calling it pragmatism. Now is the time for TRUE pragmatism.

If we live in tune with Mother Earth there is abundance for all. We CAN easily thrive. But we have strayed from this path. Our worth tied deeply to our production value. Forgetting entirely that our most precious resource will never be money, but time.

It has become easy to say “Not my problem, not my responsibility”. We spend our days entertained by stories that have nothing to do with us, spend our energy on stories that have nothing to do with us, spend our precious time arguing about things that we will never have control over. Scattered focus, going from one quick fix to the next, caring only about where our next experience of entertainment will come from. We have looked outside ourselves so long that we have forgotten that the deepest magick of experience lives in our own bodies and senses.

The feeling of skin on skin. A long drink of cold water on a hot day. The smell of rain. The sound of birds. The taste of fresh fruit. The view from the top of a mountain- The temple of our bodies holds all the entertainment we need if we honor it and are content to remain still enough to feel it.

It is time to dig deep and find self discipline.

This discipline is not the discipline of the past, that would have us shut up, be seen, not heard, head down, the voices that whisper ”not good enough” over and over again. No, What I suggest is a sacred discipline of radical self love.

For the truth is all we can control is ourselves. It is time to rest and regenerate. For us to tap into our deepest power, we first need to take radical responsibility for ourselves and stop worrying about everything around us out of our control. It is this radical responsibility that will truly activate your powers, Beloveds. For it is by being in relationship with your body, the earth and the spirits that will bring you into ascension- not some magical beam from space happening exactly today.

It is time to accept our mantle of responsibility as keepers of this Earth in all her glory. We live in the Garden of Eden- the only fall was forgetting our true nature. She will provide everything we need. IF we stop taking everything. IF we start thinking about what is possible for our long term sustainability. IF we realize what is truly valuable instead of putting everything we have onto the false idol which we hold up above all else in the power structures of our world- Money.

Money in and of itself is neutral- the problem is not that it exists, simply that we have allowed its value to be over inflated, destroying that which will ACTUALLY sustain us in the pursuit of it: Water, forests, the air we breath. The fish and animals and biodiverse ecosystems. In this time of Earth conjunctions, we could carve out space for the truly important things. We could see housing for all, the return of community care, space for creativity, space to raise our own children, food for everyone.

These are not such lofty and impossible goals, we humans are infinitely creative. It is simply a matter of priorities, valuing the regenerative instead of just the generative. It is past time we see the inherent value of a human being instead of just the production value they bring. It’s time to start valuing the only thing we truly have- this Earth and our time upon her.

For far too long, we’ve slipped off all responsibility because we didn’t do it. But we did. How much garbage did you throw out yesterday?

What happened to pride in our home? Not the flags which we were divided under. This earthly realm we all GET to exist together in. Here. Today. Living. When we accept the lie that the Earth can be owned, we lose all opportunity to nurture a real connection to her living breathing spirit.

Perhaps we didn’t start these problems. But by virtue of being here, on this planet at this time, it is a useful mindset to consider that we consented to this. Perhaps it is our duty as Earthlings to tend to this planet that we have come to in this moment of time.

In my time of study and meditation of astrology, I’ve come to think of and know Capricorn as a deeply primordial energy. Capricorn is seen as the goat, but She is more than that. She is the sea goat. The creature that starts off living in the waters, until one day- it crawls out. Then, not content by the gargantuan feat of evolving out of the soup, looks higher up at the mountain- and says “I will climb that”- and then DOES IT.

The time has come for us to be inspired by the long journeys, not intimidated. To get to the top of the mountain, all that is truly needed is the will to do it, one step at a time.

In the final quarter of the zodiac we explore our earthly experience of time:

First with Capricorn, we deal with the traditions we pass on, our life’s work, the structures that hold us (eg. government), the reputation that will outlive us.

In Aquarius we see information super systems, networks and technology that may live into infinity, (eg. AI,activation of kundalini/human DNA, the morphic field).

Finally, in Pisces we encounter the journey back to source and out of time entirely. Our human experience of a dying body, the gates of incarnation and experiences between the veil.

Because the Ages move backwards, Vedic (Traditional sidereal) astrologers put the start of the Age of Aquarius past 2100, which if true would mean we are still in the Age of Pisces.

Looking around, I would agree. We are still at war- we can kill each other with remote controls now. We eat food that we know will kill us. We synthesize chemicals that will kill us and put it all over things to buy that we don’t need. We encroach upon the space of our animal and plant brethren, knowing it will kill us, to suck up the Earth’s oily blood to build plastic shit we don’t need that we have no place to put. We stand idly by as our leaders suppress anyone who tries to suggest it’s a bad idea (See: pretty much every Indigenous Nation ever).

We are obsessed with the experience of slowly killing ourselves and calling it necessary or fun. Martyring ourselves for traditions and “rules” that are obviously wrong for the future of all earthlings simply because it’s “the way things are done”.

Traditionally, Pisces is ruled by Jupiter, the planet of expansion, and… well… *Gestures to everything*

It seems to me that we have yet to fully accept the medicine which the age of Pisces has to offer- that of compassion for ourselves and our fellow humans. At the end of the day, we all die and return to the source energy we came from. We are all one. We are getting there, but until we can accept this we will continue to kill ourselves, each other and our planet, convinced it is the only way despite all evidence to the contrary.

The conclusion that the Age of Aquarius is upon us seems to be the equivalent of hoping for a savior to arrive. Looking at the events of the past 200+ years, I am hard pressed to believe that the Universe’s infinite wisdom actually sees fit to bombard us with even more masculine/generative energy, even if many seem to believe it’s the fix we need. The Earth will always balance herself, and what is glaringly needed now is rest and recuperation.

If you look to the sky above, that is what you will see. If the stars mean nothing- then what is the point? Is astrology simply theoretical? After years of meditating on this, I don’t think so.. But I do think that if we tune into the real movements going on we will find exactly the shift we need. Even if we don’t- the energies will play themselves out, unmoved by our imprecise interpretations of them.

Astrologically speaking, even IF this conjunction were to actually be occurring at 0° Aquarius, it doesn’t equate to the changing of ages. Ages are 2000+ year cycles, not 200. Even if this cycle began in Aquarius, it would continue through all three air signs. There is no actual astrological evidence to support the claim, and it seems to be something that simply started with speculation and caught meme-wildfire.

But that’s okay. Because we still have time. And if we are committed to ever having humans make it to the Age of Aquarius, it’s time to take some responsibility and start to do the work that will enact the changes necessary to actually get there.

Welcome to a 20 year era of Capricorn. Welcome to an era of Earth.