Age of Aquarius
Cybee's Online Tarot
The Age of Aquarius
When does the Age of Aquarius begin?
Astronomers and astrologers may agree that the Age of Aquarius starts when the vernal equinox point moves out of constellation Pisces and into Aquarius. But when will that be? There’s no definitive answer.
When does the Age of Aquarius begin? And what is the Age of Aquarius? The Age of Aquarius is not part of astronomy. It’s an astrological age, which occurs because of a real motion of Earth known as the precession of the equinoxes, which, for example, causes the identity of the Pole Star to change over time. The cycle of precession lasts 25,800 years, and there are 12 constellations of the Zodiac. So, roughly every 2,150 years, the sun’s position at the time of the March, or vernal, equinox moves in front of a new zodiac constellation. The Age of Aquarius begins when the March equinox point moves out of the constellation Pisces and into the constellation Aquarius. When will that be? There’s no definitive answer. Various interpretations give different answers to this often-asked question.
Age of Aquarius from an astronomical perspective. First of all, we give the answer from an astronomical point of view. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) – which in the 20th century assumed the duty of officially naming and defining all things astronomical – created official constellation boundaries in 1930. From the perspective of astronomy, then, the beginning of the Age of Aquarius is based upon IAU constellation boundaries, which astrologers or New Age practitioners might or might not choose to use in their computations.
According to the Belgian astronomer and mathematical wizard Jean Meeus (bio here), who does adhere to the IAU’s definitions, the sun at the March equinox passed from being in front of the constellation Aries to being in front of the constellation Pisces in 68 B.C. Looking ahead, again according to Jean Meeus, the March equinox will cross over into the constellation Aquarius in 2597. Once again, these are the astronomical dates, based on IAU constellation boundaries established in 1930.
How did the Age of Aquarius enter popular culture? The Age of Aquarius in the U.S. is associated with the hippies of the 1960s and ’70s, and now with the New Age movement. In both cases, the arrival of the Aquarian age has been associated with … well, harmony and understanding, sympathy and trust abounding. And that brings us to the 1967 smash-hit musical Hair, with its opening song Aquarius, by a musical group called the 5th Dimension. The song opened with the lines:
When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars
This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius
On a personal note, I believe we are in it now. We entered not long after the second world war ended. Probably around late '1950 to early 1951'. This is a pure guesstimate, but also quite instinctive. I know this might sound a bit, "Close encounters of the third kind", but when something grabs you, like a thought or feeling and no matter how hard you try to shake it off, it still seems to hang around, taunting you every so often. Well this is just one of the many that crops up on the odd occasion and gets me thinking again.