While “Aquarius Season” lasts 30 days, the Age of Aquarius is said to last around 2,160 years. Astrological ages are time periods that relate to the evolution and development of society as a whole, not just an individual. But, what is Aquarius Season, and what’s the difference between the season and the age?
The word “Aquarius” comes from Latin meaning “water-carrier, water-pourer.” Its astrological symbol represents water but looks like an electrical jolt. Aquarius connects us to energies of originality, eccentricity, freedom, radical expression, and epiphanies of all sorts. It craves innovation and orients us to the future and what is possible. When sparked, it catalyzes creativity, new insights, or exciting novelty. Activated Aquarius energy in our society spurs technology breakthroughs-it’s arguably what gave us the Internet.
Aquarius Constellation
It’s important to note that while we all have Aquarius or Uranus in our charts, its influence in our lives or self-expression depends upon our personal natal astrology chart. Those with Aquarius as their Sun, Moon, or Rising sign may feel particularly connected to the Aquarius Season or the Age of Aquarius. Having your Sun or Moon in the 11th house or having them touch the planet Uranus can certainly make you identify with Aquarian traits.
The Precession of the Zodiac and Astrological Ages
When modern astrologers talk about the Age of Aquarius, they are referring to a phenomenon of the backward motion of the Earth and its relationship to the sign of Aquarius. Around 190 B.C.E., an ancient astronomer came up with the idea of what is called the “precession of the zodiac.” This describes how the constellation behind the Sun at Vernal Equinox or ecliptic-path of the Sun across the sky-changes because of the Earth’s rotation that has a wobble.
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Astrologers around the world seem to agree that humankind has been through six different major phases that correspond to the 12 tropical zodiac signs. Each lasts around 2,100 years. Just as each zodiac Sun sign has different characteristics, those carry over into the Astrological Age of that time. In this way, we can notice major collective themes that have been informed by which “age” we are currently in. When each of these time frames begin or end isn’t totally cut and dry because the time frame is so large.
Astrological Ages
According to Nicholas Campion’s research, the Age of Aquarius arrived in the 20th Century around 1447 A.C.E. and will go through 3597 A.D.E. Other astrologers believe it began in 2012. I lean toward astrologer Susan Miller’s explanations of the timeline that situate the Age of Aries between 2000 B.C.E. to 1 A.C.E., with much Greek and Roman violence. It then intersects with the Age of Pisces, with its focus on spirituality-when many of the world’s major religions came into being.
Whether the Age of Aquarius has dawned or is dawning, activate and appreciate your own Aquarian nature through community, activism, a new creative project, or even honoring your weird. Aquarius energies help us shift and evolve structures that allow us to move into what is new and next for our evolution. Perhaps try something new or finally figure out some of those fancier features of your smart phone.
Features of an Aquarian Era
Like any era, Aquarius will have its positive and its negative side. On the plus side, the coming age is likely to be a creative time, with many new ideas, lots of inventiveness, scientific and technological advances (especially related to electronics, computers and all manner of things electrical). Mavericks and free thinkers will press for a union of science and magic and will find ways to apply new technologies to promote economic and social justice. The universal brotherhood of all people will be a mantra, as humanitarianism becomes a general concern.
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For all its good features, Aquarius comes with eccentricity, oddball characters that can’t fit into any niche in society, outsiders and aliens that are unreliable, unpredictable or prone to exaggerate their problems.
Unveiling the Mystery: The Age of Aquarius Explained
Values of an Aquarian Age
Aquarians love freedom-independence of thought, independence of movement, and independence from binding commitments (like marriage). The current decline in the marriage rate is likely to continue as Aquarians put more stress on friendship and companionship than on “tying the knot.”
The humanitarian impulse in the Aquarian temperament, noted above, shows up in the value put on social reform. Making the world a better place, striving for positive change and improvement in the lives of all people-these matter to Aquarians. Also of value is originality: the derivative creativity of the Capricorn era is not for Aquarius! Aquarians dislike imitation and seek the unique, the different, the unusual, especially if these qualities derive from the creator’s authentic being.
Aquarian Attitudes
Aquarians can be argumentative and self-righteous, as so much of their knowledge comes from their keen intuition. As a fixed Air sign, Aquarius can be rigid and fixated on its ideals, to the point of seeming stubborn.
The Aquarian Lifestyle
Aquarius is an Air sign, so thinking, mental exchanges among people, intellectual interests and activities are likely to be prominent in the cultural landscape. Aquarians are gregarious and friendly and seek out like-minded companions and derive their sense of security from being with others. They enjoy meeting new people and are attuned to the instincts of their group.
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Pioneering, exploring the world, and taking risks, the Aquarian marches to his own drummer and won’t take well to being fenced in. He or she does things in a special way and is likely to have unusual tastes-in fashion, in decorating, in art and music. We might see unisex fashions, for example, as well as innovations in cultural forms. Aquarians are not great athletes; if they get involved in sports it is more as spectators than as active participants.
Business in an Aquarian Age
Some aspects of contemporary business are likely to see a surge of growth: the freelance and self-employment realms are perfect for the non-conforming Aquarian. The strait-laced corporate environment will have a hard time handling Aquarian employees, unless or until it gives up its hierarchical, “top-down” mentality.
That is not going to fly in the new era, given the tendency for Aquarians to defy authority, tradition and anything that seems like paternalism or patriarchal control. Aquarians can be tireless workers and they take their work seriously, but their commitment to the job comes from an inner source and they are generally ungovernable in the form that current corporate systems think of governance.
Health and Healing in the Aquarian Age
Two bifurcating tendencies are likely in terms of health and healing. One we see now: the application of increasingly sophisticated technologies in health care. The other is present, but currently operating under the radar screen of the mainstream system : alternative modalities like sound, light, and energy.
Individuals with Aquarius prominent in their natal charts can have problems with the heart, circulation of the blood, brain tumors, hardening of the arteries, and astrologers hypothesize that diseases like these, as well as hysteria, rashes, eczema, fever blisters, nerve ailments and arthritis will be prevalent in the new era. In addition, hyperactivity and autism in children are Aquarian types of problems and are likely to continue to show up in the youth population.
Given the non-conforming nature of Aquarius, we are likely to see more people become open to non-traditional healing modalities as we move more deeply into the new age. People are likely to be more open to and appreciative of the wisdom of Carl Jung as well (something that we have begun to see in the last decade or so).
The Challenge of Transition
Jung understood that change is slow, and collective change-shifting an entire planet from one age to another-is especially slow. So he never felt like we had “arrived” in the Aquarian age. Rather, we are in transition, living now “betwixt and between” the old age of the Fishes and the new age of the Water-bearer. He felt he was living in a “terrible time” that reminded him “… of… those dark centuries when the culture of antiquity was gradually falling into decay….”[28] and he recognized that the latter half of the 20th century was “… a time of decay and transition…”[29] as the vernal equinox moved out of Pisces and into Aquarius.
So Jung anticipated that the denizens of the 21st century would face reconciling the opposites, both within themselves and in outer reality in realms like international politics. More than this, they would have to do so as one age died and the other took form. “Transitions between the aeons always seem to have been melancholy and despairing times, as for instance the collapse of the Old Kingdom in Egypt… between Taurus and Aries, or the melancholy of the Augustinian age between Aries and Pisces. And now we are moving into Aquarius, of which the Sibylline Books say: Luciferi vires accendit Aquarius acres (Aquarius inflames the savage forces of Lucifer). And we are only at the beginning of this apocalyptic development!
Conflicting Views on the Start of the Aquarian Age
Of course, there are various opinions about when the Age of Aquarius begins. Some say it won’t happen until 2026 while others claim it actually began in 2012. My opinion is that we are seeing the beginning of it right now, as Pluto leaves the tropical sign of Capricorn and moves into Aquarius. In 2024 Pluto was in Aquarius most of the year though, significantly, it had ducked back into Capricorn at the time of the election. In 2025 it will be in Aquarius all year. It will remain in Aquarius until 2043.
The concept of an astrological age comes out of the difference between the tropical zodiac, which places 0 degrees of Aries at the spring equinox (when the hours of darkness and light are equal) and ignores the actual constellations, and the sidereal zodiac which is based on the constellations as they appear in the sky. Those constellations are not static. They move and shift their positions.
What they noticed was that the spring equinox, which in the time of the Babylonians had aligned with the beginning of Aries, was now aligned with the last degree of Pisces (In other word, it moved backwards relative to the constellations.) This happened about a 100 years before the birth of Christ and the rise of Christianity. It took around 2000 years for the position of the equinox to move from the end of the constellation of Pisces to the beginning. Now it’s getting ready to shift to Aquarius (or maybe it already has).
The Age of Aquarius is supposed to be different. Aquarius is an Air Sign, It values intellectual clarity and rational thinking. What I wonder about is all the great art and architecture that those religions inspired? The Age of Pisces coincided with an incredible flowering of art and literature. Our minds might have been muddled by religious thinking but, damn, we made some beautiful things. What will the art of an Age of Aquarius look like?
Since Aquarius is the sign of the water bearer it is associated with service to humanity. This is one reason the Age of Aquarius has been viewed with such hope. This is certainly a noble sentiment, but we have to consider what constitutes service to humanity.
Aquarius: The Water Bearer
Aquarius, which is Latin for “water bearer,” is the 11th sign of the zodiac and is ruled by Uranus, the planet associated with ingenuity, individuality, freedom, discoveries, and sudden changes or revolutions. Symbolized by a water bearer pouring out waters from an amphora, Aquarius represents the creation of the world as well as its destruction and is therefore linked to the idea of cyclic death and renewal.
Myths of the Water Bearer
The oldest myth of Aquarius is associated with Enki, the Sumerian god of of fresh water, intelligence, mischief, creation, fertility, healing, and art. When the gods try to destroy humanity with a flood, Enki intervenes by getting Atrahasis to build an ark like Noah’s, filled with animals. In Greek mythology the flood is caused by Zeus, angry by the hubris of the king of Arcadia testing his omniscience by offering his son as sacrifice. Deucalion and his wife survive in a chest and repopulate the earth by creating humans out of stones.
Card Description
Under a magical starry night, a young Water Bearer kneels on an unusual path, straddling the ordinary and the divine while pouring cosmic waters from a golden vessel that fertilizes the world below. The golden color of the vase recalls the sun, its divine power, and enlightenment. Nourished by this kind of water, two blooming lotuses represent expansion and manifestation, while two budding lotuses show the potential for more consciousness.
The Aquarian Age and the Precession of the Equinoxes
Astrological ages are taken to be associated with the precession of the equinoxes. The slow wobble of the Earth's rotation axis on the celestial sphere is independent of the diurnal rotation of the Earth on its own axis and the annual revolution of the Earth around the Sun. The approximate 2,160 years for each age corresponds to the average time it takes for the vernal equinox to move from one constellation of the zodiac into the next.
The durations are long, with each age lasting approximately 2,160 years. The twelve astrological ages flow backward through the signs of the zodiac, meaning that we are leaving the Piscean Age and entering the Age of Aquarius. Astrological ages have different influences, values, attitudes, and beliefs.
Here's a summary of the key differences:
| Feature | Piscean Age | Aquarian Age |
|---|---|---|
| Dominant Values | Faith, belief, religion, intuition | Intellect, rationality, science, humanitarianism |
| Focus | "Me" - Short-term personal fulfillment | "We" - Long-term benefit to the collective |
| Access to Information | Limited, giving power to those who possess it | Accessible to all, promoting transparency |
| Emphasis | Materialism, power, control | Originality, authenticity, social reform |
The Piscean age is characterized by war, machinery, and the understanding that access to information gives you power. This is the age defining the cult of “me,” and with this came a separation both from nature and from each other. Money, power, and control are core values, and the search for meaning went on outside of ourselves.
The Age of Aquarius marks a thirst for change and a profound shift in the consciousness of humanity as we move from “me” to “we.” There will be new paradigms of how people can live together in peace and equality. These transitions can be thought of as waves that slowly build in intensity, with the strongest point at the end of the period.
The Aquarian Age ushers in a shift in perspective. The focus moves from “me” to “we” as we begin to deeply understand that we are all connected and that nothing happens in isolation. Each action will be considered both individually and globally. There will be an awareness that each person’s behavior affects the vast networks of other living beings and things. This is an age of paradox: both more individual and more global simultaneously.
In this new age, information is accessible by all, and every person is under audit. Actions can be tracked and traced. Behavior is recorded and shared. Expect no stone to go unturned. Because access to information is available to all, who you are as a human being will matter more and more. What is your character? What are your values? Do you have integrity? Living in alignment with your higher self will become more important than ever before.