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Uranus and Neptune, to cite just two examples. So, even though an emerging Great Age may not make its presence fully felt for several centuries yet, its possible for its influence to surface into global consciousness centuries ahead of time, in assorted symbolic ways. The essential point is this: When paradigms associated with different Ages come into contact, the result can take many different forms and unfold through a wide range of dynamics. Like citizens of separate civilizations meeting for the first time, the encounter between denizens of different Age paradigms can be peaceful or turbulent, constructive or destructive. In this article, Id like to propose a set of four primary dynamics associated with this age-shifting process. Among other things, grasping these patterns can help us to better understand not only key trends of ancient history, but also many historical developments already taking place around the world now, as we find ourselves perched on the threshold between the Piscean and the Aquarian epochs.
keeping with the secular and scientific values of the coming Aquarian paradigm, rather than those of the Piscean one. That conflict between different value systems continues through to the present day, with many Christian fundamentalists resisting the rising tide of Aquarian science and secularism. It erupted with a vengeance when Charles Darwin proposed his theory of evolution in the mid 19th century, and echoes even today in the speeches of conservative political candidates expressing their own reservations about the findings of science. We see that tension as well in the ongoing debate over abortion, with largely Christian pro-life advocates on one side reflecting a Piscean sympathy for the unborn, and pro-choice advocates on the other side reflecting a more Aquarian emphasis on personal rights and independence. Robert Zemeckiss film, Contact, based on the Carl Sagan novel of the same name, features a subplot involving religious fanatics who are upset over a high-tech NASA mission to send an astronaut into deep space, and who set out to destroy the experimental craft designed to whisk its occupant (played by Jodie Foster) to a far-off destination.2 This resistance to modernity is fundamentally archetypal in nature, born of the clash between radically different paradigms, and it underlies the actions of Islamic extremists, too. In areas like Afghanistan, we see Taliban members trying to prevent women from seeking an education as men do. Such is the ferocity of those still rooted in Piscean Age values who find it hard adapting to the values of a new age. Pisces, like its sibling, Sagittarius (both signs being Jupiter-ruled), has a dark side that can include dogma: an inflexible attachment to belief systems and religious ideals. This way of thinking about the world refuses to take the liberal sentiments of an Aquarian revolution lying down.
come out of Hollywood, and it proved a tipping point in how movies would be made from that point on. (Its release on October 6, 1927 coincided with the departure of Uranus out of Pisces into 0 Aries an obvious portent of new beginnings.) Like The Sound of Music, the film depicts a character struggling with a life-changing decision to leave a life of religious service behind to pursue a more secular calling, performing in that most Aquarian of all musical forms, jazz. The struggle to break free from the grip of an earlier paradigm has its analogy in U.S. politics, too. When the earliest settlers came to American shores, it was ostensibly to escape religious persecution in the Old World. Because of that, the Founding Fathers set out to create a constitution that drew a line between church and state, so as to create a nation of laws that (ideally) operated free from the grip of religion. These are relatively nonviolent examples of how one Great Age can uncouple itself from another. But as I mentioned, this transition can sometimes take a more violent turn, with the new order actively seeking to repress or crush the old one. The Biblical story of Moses rejecting the golden calf is an oft-cited example of that, and has been interpreted by various esoteric commentators as symbolizing the shift from the Taurean Age to the Arian one, with its own icon of the ram. A similar example from more recent times is Herman Melvilles great novel, Moby Dick. Like Moses and the golden calf, Ahabs efforts to destroy the great whale can be interpreted as the violent casting out of Piscean Age forms and values by the incoming Aquarian Age. On another level, its tempting to see Melvilles tale as a portent of the great cataclysm that was about to shake America to its core just one decade later the Civil War. Here, too, we saw a clash between Ages being acted out, with the Union forces, symbolizing the values of freedom (led by Abraham Lincoln, an Aquarian born on the same day as Charles Darwin, incidentally), seeking to overturn the slavery-based world of the U.S. South. Although very different on its surface, the same essential dynamic was at work more than a century later in the tragic story of government agents attacking David Koreshs religious compound in Waco, Texas. Whatever ones own political thoughts about the attack or its justification, the symbolism is clear: a secular government imposing limits on a religious community i.e., Aquarius restricting Pisces. The fact that the attack took place precisely as the planetary rulers of Aquarius and Pisces moved into alignment, when Uranus conjoined Neptune in 1993, succinctly underscores the archetypal meaning of the event.
Here is still another example: In the 1960s, pop music took an unexpected turn when a Belgian religious sister by the name of Jeanine Deckers (born October 17, 1933) scored an international hit with the French-language song, Dominique. She was widely known as the Singing Nun, and her step from the convent into the high-tech entertainment field likewise reflected a shift from the Piscean world to the secular and technological Aquarian era. Much the same symbolism showed itself in another prominent icon of the 60s, Sally Fields Flying Nun character from the television series of the same name. To astrologers, aviation is an Aquarius-ruled activity, so the image of a Christian nun becoming airborne speaks to yet another metamorphosis of Piscean religiosity into the Aquarian values of freedom!
offers a good example of how the sometimes cold-blooded machinations of Aquarian corporatism can be employed toward the common good, when tempered by the compassionate effects of Piscean values. The ability of one Great Age to mine the archetypal ore of an earlier one can also take a more mythological turn, as when an emerging era appropriates the religious stories and symbols of an earlier time and re-clothes them in more contemporary garb. That sort of thing has been going on since time immemorial, of course, such as when Christianity recast the resurrection saga of Osiris as the story of Jesus, or when the Hebrew scribes refashioned the flood story of the Babylonians as their own. But this tradition of putting old wine in new skins persists even today, though more conspicuously in the realm of popular entertainment than in formal religious settings. Take Keanu Reeves character Neo in The Matrix, who reinvents the mythic motif of the dead-and-resurrected hero as a modern-day cyber-superman. Or consider the original 1951 film version of The Day the Earth Stood Still, which revolves around the tale of a Christ-like alien who comes down to Earth in a spaceship, is then crucified and later resurrected, and finally ascends back up into the heavens. Years ago, I attended a lecture by the films director, Robert Wise, and during the following Q&A session, I asked whether the parallels between his movie and those of the Biblical Jesus were intentional, since they seemed so striking. He answered that they never really considered that correspondence until others started pointing it out after the movie was released. This simply goes to illustrate something that mythologist Joseph Campbell often pointed out that creative individuals sometimes tap into universal themes from the collective unconscious without even realizing it.
developed to a more mental level, principally through the influence of computers, media, widespread literacy, and more accessible educational opportunities. Still, with that shift has come a series of both blessings and drawbacks. The rational mind opens up doors for us, true, but if left unchecked, it can also be our undoing. Like the astronaut in 2001, it may prove necessary for us to unplug our rational minds if we hope to reach our true wholeness as individuals not in the sense of discarding the mind entirely (note that 2001 doesnt show the astronaut destroying the computer but simply taking its more problematic functions offline), but rather by making sure that it doesnt overpower us.
2012 Ray Grasse all rights reserved Ray Grasse is author of Signs of the Times: Unlocking the Symbolic Language of World Events, a study of the emerging Aquarian Age, and The Waking Dream: Unlocking the Symbolic Language of Our Lives, a study of synchronicity and symbolism. He has an active astrological practice and can be contacted at jupiter.enteract@rcn.com; Web site: www.raygrasse.com