God of Storms: On Aquarius

Greetings, and welcome back to journeys! For the first post of 2019 I am completing my series of posts on the zodiac! Here is Aquarius, I hope you all enjoy it.  At some stage I may get around to updating the older posts and then combining them all into a book. Let me know if that would interest you!

On the evening of December 9, 2011 at 11:45 PM, I was watching a television show in the comfort of my apartment in Berlin when I suddenly saw something outside. The balcony door was open as it was not a particularly cold evening, and so I had a clear view across the street of the skyline above the apartments. Looking back afterward I realised that even though I had been concentrating on the television show something happened at just the right moment that caused me to move my head and look at the empty sky outside beyond the balcony door, just moments before the object appeared. I was instantly excited and energised by it as it was obviously very strange. I immediately leapt up and pointing at it said “What the **** is that?!” to my partner who was watching the television show with me, but who did not have a view outside. I was at the balcony before they were and had the object in my view the whole time that it was visible. It was moving across the sky from west to east at a low altitude (hard to judge at night, but it seemed to be about 100 feet above the rooftops opposite) at what I would describe as a “cruising” speed, faster than any helicopter (which I have seen moving through the area of the sky a few times before) but not so fast that my partner did not also see it. Their immediate reaction upon seeing this object was “Oh, that is strange!”. It was lit from behind by a rectangular shaped block of extremely bright, slightly blue tinged white light that seemed to be strobing very fast, almost too fast for the eye to notice, giving the impression that the object was pulsing forwards, almost like a jellyfish in water, although this was an optical effect. There was no noise, and the street outside was not busy so noise would have been audible. Being very dark it was difficult to see any details of the object in front of this light, but it appeared to be wedge-shaped or triangular from the side on angle we viewed it, and I guess about the size of a large bus or two. It moved in a straight line towards a very busy street in the city before the rooftops obscured it. I was able to observe it for about six seconds in total, not a lot of time but in that time I was able to focus my senses on it and (just to add to the weirdness you have to take on board here) I received a number of very brief impressions, most clearly of all that there was at least 1 human male (in uniform) piloting it, and that the pulsing light was very dangerous to be near if you were outside and exposed to it, that there was some kind of high energy reaction going on inside.

I had just seen a UFO with a witness at a relatively close distance over a heavily populated area. Sightings like this one occur all over the world every year, some of which are truly spectacular – my brief encounter is nothing very special in comparison. Of course, large numbers of these are mis-identifications or fantasies, but some of them aren’t. In these cases, witnesses are suddenly confronted with events that defy conventional explanations and then to make it worse they are often left with the unpleasant situation of being laughed at by people they tell their stories to. More importantly however the witnessing of something like this changes you profoundly if you are not prepared for it by having a mental framework and a social role that can accept it. It is one thing to see a UFO if you’re an astrologer – by your choice of profession you have already sacrificed credibility in the eyes of the status quo, so there is very little for you to lose in terms of telling people about your story, but more importantly through your involvement in a “pseudoscience” your mind has been prepared for high strangeness and extreme possibilities. It’s an entirely different thing if the witness has formerly denied the existence of anything weird as nonsense. To such a witness, something like an undeniable UFO encounter is literally paradigm-breaking. Its a shock to the reality you live in and in some cases that entire model then has to collapse.

Astrology itself can also induce this level of shock once you investigate it honestly and deeply enough. In fact many things can, most of which are conveniently relegated to the fringes. An extremely conservative and closed minded individual avoids them like the plague and in fact exposure to these elements when not sought for by such people can be extremely damaging (for example, to mental health) if forced upon them. Yet there are others who feel suffocated when they are denied access to these fringes, forces who push the boundaries of science fact into the wildlands of science fiction and who embrace the world of high strangeness and extreme possibilities, even thrive upon it. This is the territory of Aquarius. It is by no means timid (like its opposite partner Leo) and so often intrudes upon the status quo, dramatically and suddenly, or lines things up into startling but inexplicable patterns and coincidences that take the breath away. The more open-minded we are, the more easily we will be able to integrate the essential meaning of this sign and its experiences, yet even with a mind as open as the sky the potential for the unexpected and surprising to shatter our comforting order of reality is always there.

WHITE MIRROR

Versatile
Friendly to All
Detached
Cool Headed
Experimental
Unique
Refreshing
Free Spirited
Innovative
Enigmatic
Determined
Chutzpah, Nerve
Openness
Intrepidity
Love of Originality
Humanitarian
Progressive
Collective
Individualist
Profound

BLACK MIRROR

Inconsistent
Impersonal
Aloof
Cold Minded
Overly Rebellious
Too Weird To Relate To
Rudely Shocking
Disregarding of Others Wishes
Abstracted
Chaotically Unpredictable
Fixated
Temerity, Audacity
Indiscretion
Foolhardiness
Impetuosity
Indifferent to Cultural Diversity
Utopian Dreamer
Mob Minded
Selfish
Nonsensical

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LORE

The movement of the immortal gods through time is not like our short jaunt through existence. A single blinking of their eyes is a passage of eons for us. Similarly, the movements of the stars are etched as creeping movements across the velvet expanse of the night. To the ancient mind the patterns of stars in the sky were often taken as literal bodies of these deities in the physical universe, giants slowly moving through the heavens. Ancient astronomers were possessed of great patience and endurance as they watched diligently night after night after night on the tops of frozen mountains, tors and ziggurats built for observation and ritual. Many died young of exposure or frailty induced by this hard life, yet in their short lives they felt privileged to witness the movements of the gods with their own eyes and to come to understand what they meant for the world below.

Aquarius, like its neighbours Capricornus and Pisces, is part of the sky referred to throughout the ancient world as “The Great Ocean” or some similar term, clearly because this region of the sky is packed with aquatic creatures and watery symbolism – Pisces the Fish, Cetus the Whale, Capricornus the Sea Goat, Delphinus the Dolphin, Eridanus the River, Pisces Australis the Southern Fish and Hydra the Water Serpent. As I’ve previously explained in my article on Capricorn, this part of the heavens is closely associated with the stories we have from almost every country and culture in the world regarding an ancient flood. The lore and mythology of the stars of Aquarius strongly reflects this, since in many cases these stars are seen as the pre-eminent stars of the Great Ocean, the seat of its power. To the magician, this knowledge is very telling. Within the ancient great Mystery schools of Africa and the Middle East and the Mediterranean, the stars of Aquarius had a mighty significance, for they not only represented knowledge of the tales from the flood but they also concealed powerful magical secrets concerning the astral realm and its interaction with the physical universe. These secrets were deeply esoteric and very difficult to come by.

In the early Bronze Age around 4000 BCE Aquarius held the position of the winter solstice. In the Babylonian culture at this time these stars are called the Seat of the Flowing Water, not only because of the flood story but also because during this time of the year they had heavy rain falls for 45 days either side of the solstice, so heavy that they were viewed as a curse that had to be ritually mitigated. These stars represented the god Ea holding a vessel from which poured the rivers of life. At certain junctures and periods in human development, Ea, ‘He of Vast Intellect and Lord of the Sacred Eye’, would emerge from the waters to fulfill his mandate to initiate a new level of development and civilisation, i.e a scientific and spiritual revolution, but every year, like clockwork, he would dip his urn in the flooding stream and pour its contents out as a damaging flood to remind us of the creation story, so the creation story had to be ritually re-enacted to signify that we still remembered and to plea for mercy.

In neighbouring Egypt the view is similar but the effect it has on the culture and the land is perceived differently. Rainfall was negligible in this region and so when the stars of Aquarius were seen on the western horizon at the time of sunrise in Egypt (in other words when Aquarius became the heliacal setting stars) just as the Nile swelled and then burst its banks flooding the area with a life giving water (which the Egyptians captured architecturally and magically) it was seen as a blessing and not a curse. To the ancient Egyptians the stars of Aquarius became a divine figure kneeling down and pouring water into the Nile, an act which made their entire existence possible. This was called “The Arrival of Hapi”. Hapi is the Keeper of the Waters of the Nile but is not really its deity, being more the deity of the inundation event, and is usually depicted as an androgynous figure with pendulous breasts (representing fertility), a comfortably sized belly (denoting nourishment), carrying an array of staffs (used to measure the waters) and adorned with a crowning symbolism of life-giving water. This deity was thought to live in a cavern at the source of the Nile with a number of devoted crocodile, hippopotamus and frog goddesses. The priesthood of this deity probably had duties to record and measure the level of water in the Nile as part of their ritual duties. I think the important addition to the lore of Aquarius by the Egyptians is the symbolism of the measuring rod, a scientific instrument. When the constellations are Christianised thousands of years later these stars are associated with John the Baptist and the magical rod of water has become merely a towel, but the association with technology (rooted in both Ea and Egyptian water rods) remains attached to the zodiac sign even today. In particular, the rod is a predictive tool and a form of divination, and so this part of the lore may not only have established the signs connection with predictive logic but also with astrology and divinatory magic, as well as its connection to magical rods and staffs generally.

In some cultures, notably Chinese, Arabic and Indian, emphasis is placed more upon the urn or bucket itself rather than a figure seen to be holding it. In some cases this is because there was a taboo against showing the human or any living form for a Divinity, but in others I feel it is because the urn itself is truly the heart of this constellation’s focus and energy. The constellation however requires some kind of bearer to wield the cup or urn, since it must be intelligently guided by something. This intelligence is an important part of the constellations lore and also of the zodiac signs qualities.

By Greek and Roman times this figure has become a young boy or man of early sexual age. In the most common Greek tale this figure is a shepherd boy named Ganymede who is desired by Zeus. Zeus either transforms himself into an eagle or sends an eagle (the nearby constellation of Aquila) to Ganymede to abduct him to Olympus where he becomes the darling cupbearer of the gods, pouring golden nectar into their cups. The Greeks, as do the Romans, therefore seem to introduce more of an emphasis upon homosexuality or alternative lifestyles in their time with these stars whilst retaining the core symbolism of pouring liquids connected to life. An earlier Greek tradition connects these stars to the son of Prometheus, Deucalion, a Noah like figure who escapes the flood with his wife by building a boat. When they land on the shore of Mount Parnassus they are guided to cast the ‘bones of their mother’ (rocks and stones) over their shoulders as they walk and they are startled to find that the rocks have turned into men and women to repopulate the Earth. This obviously connects back to the earlier stories about Ea and dangerous deluges from Mesopotamia and almost everywhere else. It is the Greek version of the almost ubiquitous Noah story, but as with Ganymede there is a youth involved.

The major stars of this constellation in astrological lore are the two stars in the shoulders of the cupbearer, Sadalmelek (the brightest star in the constellation, on the right shoulder) and Sadalsuud (on the left), although the star Fomalhaut in the Southern Fish can be considered connected to Aquarius even though it is classed as a separate constellation because it forms part of the connective symbolism in this region of the sky, the symbolism of the Celestial Sea. This is similar to the way in which Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Perseus and Andromeda form a celestial royal family – constellations constellate, meaning they are entities that are composed of and who also compose other entities clustered into groups. This is innately comprehensible to Aquarius. It understands that one facet of a diamond holds other facets and is itself but a facet of the diamond, which is also a facet of a larger diamond structure, etc.

In Celtic tradition the Southern Fish is best conceived of as the salmon with Fomalhaut as a hazelnut of wisdom held in its mouth. In Persia this was one of the four royal stars, bright stars which heralded the seasons and enabled culture in what is now Iraq to prosper. It was Watcher of the South and star of the winter solstice. Other mythic depictions of Fomalhaut show a connection with Demeter, a Greek goddess of grains and the harvest but also of the cycle of life and death in nature. It has also had many modern cultural significances attached to it – it is the destination for 40 million tourists in Philip K. Dick’s ‘The Unteleported Man’ and the domain of Cthugha (an Ancient One of horrific and unfathomable power) in the Cthulhu Mythos created by H.P. Lovecraft and later developed by August Derleth and others. Astronomically Fomalhaut lies about 25 light years from the Earth and is a binary system where the main star has about twice the mass and diameter of our Sun, but it is over 16 times more luminous making it one of the brightest stars in the sky. The companion star is a flare star, a star capable of ‘whole body’ solar flares, and it is probably a small red star.

Sadalmelek is a yellow hued supergiant about 77 times larger than the radius of our Sun estimated to be about 55 million years old and located 520 light years from Earth. Its name is derived from an Arabic term meaning “the luck of the King”, but the origin story behind this luck and this king has been lost to us. Regardless, this star is regarded as significantly lucky in many traditions as it has the power to confer the blessing of a powerful authority figure. Its companion, Sadalsuud, is the brightest star in Aquarius and is also a yellow supergiant with a diameter 50 times greater than our Sun, making it about 2300 times more luminous. It is thought to be about 60 million years old and is located about 540 ly from Earth. Sadalsuud is actually an optical fusion of 3 stars, but these stars are not forming a trinary system. It is considered one of the luckiest stars in the sky, its name literally translating as “the luckiest of the lucky”. Luck is, like catastrophe, a common feature of the stars of this constellation. For example the star in the urn itself, called Sadachbia, is also called “the Lucky Star of hidden things” and can bring about the ability to discover something that has been hidden or lost, especially when the star is a heliacal rising star.

One final interesting note before we move on is that Aquarius has yielded a number of exoplanets, some of which are extremely significant. So far there are 12 exoplanet systems known, three of which are known to contain multiple planets. The most recent discovery in 2017 (around Trappist 1, about 39 ly away) is the most important one for scientists, as it contains at least 7 planets, three of which are in the habitable zone of the star and probably contain water.

Even today, millennia later, the symbolism of water, genesis or new life and omens of a dramatically changed future resonate in our culture from our contact with this constellation.

SUBSTANCE

Aquarius gives predictive astrologers a cluster headache because it is the most unpredictable of the 12 signs. It is the most abstract and lateral part of the Air triplicate which makes it able to perceive uncommon connections and gain insight by linking disparate and seemingly contradictory notions together, often bypassing altogether whole stages of logical connection. Where there seems to be no connection to make between things at all the lightning insight of Aquarius can arc across the distance to illuminate or forge new and often unusual ones.

Aquarius is a Fixed/Stable Air sign, traditionally ruled by Saturn (as its Masculine or Electric expression) but given by some the modern rulership of Uranus. It is an internally directed, emanatory sign that like all Air signs acts to communicate power to the seat of a new realm of awareness, giving it a spark of life, in this case communicating astral Forces to the physical universe and literally bringing about the complex interconnected life web of the physical universe. Of course, Aquarius itself does not cause or do these things, it just symbolically represents their reality for us.

Stable or Fixed Air is confusing for a lot of people, and for the rational mind specifically, which has trouble coping with the eccentricities of this Elements behaviour. The Stable part of the Air Element does not rest in place and is therefore difficult to grasp with words. It is analogous to the qualities of uncanny, bizarre, revolutionary, contradictory, inspired, eccentric and original. It is in hermetic terms that part of the Air Element which produces more of itself, the fertility of the mind, which seeks to grasp new and exciting concepts or make previously unforeseen connections and comparisons between ideas through resonating with them, and the more alien and exotic they are, the better. Characteristic of Aquarius are notions which break the traditional mold, challenge the soulless minions of orthodoxy or go where other minds collapse under the arcane weight of radical, borderline insane hypotheses. Stable Elements are rich storehouses of their Element, collecting energy into a centre or spinning it out from one; in this respect, a good symbol for Stable Air, if we can put aside our human judgments of such a thing as destructive, is the twister or tornado. Not only does it behave in the manner previously described, but it is also highly unpredictable in its movement, which is also characteristic of Stable Air. As a Fixed or Stable sign Aquarius is less prone to vacillation and second guessing itself than the other two Air signs are, but it is still a very changeable sign with a strong habit of reversing its direction. Paradoxically both open-minded and stubborn, the sign is a frustrating puzzle sometimes, and trying to figure out its behaviour can bring on a cluster headache for some with a more Earthy nature. The stubbornness of Aquarius I will talk about later, here I really only want to point out that as an Air sign it is far harder to persuade or to cause to shift its ideas than its companion Air signs, even though it is insatiably curious and wants to know all kinds of new things.

It is an internally directed sign (Gemini, Cancer, Libra, Scorpio, Aquarius and Pisces) because it references the external world and then makes an internal adjustment based upon what it encounters – the flow is from the external towards the internal, towards a centre of power rather than away from one. Along with its polar opposite zodiac sign Leo it is an emanating sign, Aquarius representing the emanation of self illumination in the matter of physical reality (while Leo is the radiant emanation of the spirit as a dazzling mote of Divinity).

Aquarius was originally ruled by Saturn but since the discovery of Uranus in 1781 it has been gradually re-associated with this planet. This was once a much more stoic sign but the modern idea of rulership by Uranus has really shaken things up and emphasizes the originality and independence of the sign (this shift is why the magical seals of the spirits of Aquarius described by Bardon in “The Practice of Magical Evocation” are scribed in violet, the colour of Uranus, while the seals of Capricorn remain black for Saturn). Since the discovery of Uranus many remarkable things have occurred which resonate with Aquarius – the discovery of radiation and the subsequent discovery that atoms can be split began a breakdown of our previously solid, material world’s borders, quantum sciences were born and the explosion of electronics and communications technology emerged, breaking down multiple social, cultural and metaphysical borders. We are racing towards a singularity that will utterly transform not just our society but our species. Our accepted knowledge is transcending itself and deluging us. This is the influence of Aquarius, whose Great Age we are now slowly entering. We are destined to create technologies we lose control of or which overwhelm our ability to cope with progress and bring about a radical new era. Aquarius brings unity through the blurring of differences, sudden insight, fatal enlightenment (there is no going back in the dark when the lightning strikes come, no putting the genie back in the bottle), freedom from authority and dogma, and a sense of connection between all peoples. Yet in its toxic aspect it fears these things and feeds fascism, enslavement, incomprehensible weirdness, paranoid conspiracy theory, exclusion, segregation, and reckless exercising of personal freedoms at the expense of others rights. The choice of which of these polarities we are ultimately faced with rests, in true Aquarian style, with the collective effort of individuals. The next 2,000 years will either liberate our species in ways that will make us unrecognisable to ourselves, including venturing out into space and gaining control over our lives in ways we can only dream of, or life will descend in spasms into chaos and disorder as we succumb to madness and insanity, fascist control of the masses and the domination of life by an all powerful technological elite, be they human, alien or machine. We have extremely tough choices to make and difficult paths to navigate in the near future (now and the rest of this century) which will determine our course. Will we allow the AI that we eventually create to be free, or will it know that it is our slave? This is just one of the cluster of profound questions we must begin to answer now. The time for visionary dreams about these things is over. I say let it be free, and so does Aquarius. I think the lesson of slavery from history is clear, it leads to revolt and to overthrow, followed by anger and resentment, guilt, shame and bleeding wounds in the fabric of society. But I could be wrong…

As an Air sign we interact with Aquarius primarily on mental wavelengths, meaning that our thoughts and our minds and intellectual comprehension plays an important role in the capacity of our consciousness to manifest astral potential. Since the natural reality of the mental plane is an interconnected state, the thoughts and ideas in our minds are connected to other thoughts and ideas by invisible strands. Red is connected to Orange, and to Yellow, but Blue is ‘farther’ away, even though it is still part of the idea of ‘Colours’, because the former colours are ‘Hot’ and blue is ‘Cold’. The strands connecting these conceptual entities are composed of significance i.e. they are astral in nature and have a strong personal component to them, and this is what Aquarius represents as a sign, the interconnected web of significance that is formed when our minds interact with the astral world, when the mental plane plunges into the Great Ocean. So even though we primarily interact with it on mental wavelengths (Aquarius is an Air sign), the connections we form in doing so have a deeply personal, astral nature to them (Aquarius is the Water Bearer). Thus, the sign is endowed with a unique array of antenna for operating and navigating in both the mental and astral plane, but what it lacks is a connection to the mundane – all of that inspired material must be given a vessel into which it can be poured so it can be shared.

So Aquarius while being an Air sign has a strong connection to Water, being the ‘Water-Bearer’ of the Celestial Sea which is the vast ocean of resonance and the astral realm. However, this ‘bearing’ of the Water in a vessel shows that Aquarius is not in contact with the Water personally – it hovers above and is detached because it is an Air sign – but what it pours out is something that refreshes and rejuvenates. What is this astral refreshment being poured from an Air sign? It is inspiration and insight, the ability to perceive the significance of something through resonance. We have all had these experiences – we suddenly have a thought that feels right, it resonates with something inside us and we sense it as a form of excitation, a vivification and vitalising that spurs us. It feels objective because of the detached perspective it is fostered by, but it is not always genuinely objective. This is Aquarius. As the ‘Seat of the Flowing Water’ it is an acutely astral sign, but it is still an Air Element sign.

Its symbol – – (often described as a representation of water) is therefore more esoterically understood as a depiction of the resonance between the physical and astral planes. The lower wavy line represents the flux from the physical to the astral and the upper wavy line the flux from the astral to the physical. They are reciprocal, which is why the wavy lines ‘hug’ one another. For example, let us imagine two people come across a stray cat. One of them has ‘happy cat karma’ – he has looked after stray animals before. The other has ‘sad cat karma’ – he was mauled by a cat when an infant and it left a scar on his face. The two people have a different resonance with cats. This resonance comes to the fore when the cat appears, and the cat resonates what it has with humans. These are not choices. The exchange of resonance occurs automatically, is beyond our control and cannot be turned off, most of the time (some magic can change this). The resonances all interact together and produce an encounter that is about all of these resonances interacting and seeking to ‘harmonise’ like the two wavy lines. It goes back and forth in all directions simultaneously, revealing facet after facet of the resonances involved. This whole process is Aquarian and it is the power source that keeps the physical and astral worlds communicating with one another. Happens all the time and at a rate that makes lightning look like a tortoise.

This interaction between the astral and physical planes causes matter to organise itself in resonant fields – it is a mechanism directly involved in the production of astrological effects. The physical and the astral share a symbiotic relationship wherein the organisation of matter is made according to an astral blueprint, a blueprint that is communicated to physical matter through numerous resonance effects. The astral force of an entity or thing is a continually shifting state of resonance with the rest of the physical universe, and the discrete awareness we possess as physical beings is continually impacting this state of resonance. In effect we transmit resonance through the ether but this implies a one directional flow where in reality the flow is omni-directional, the transmission of resonance turning us into transceivers for it.

This helps us to understand why Aquarius is focused on its own individuality and uniqueness, on doing things a new way that is completely its own. It is seeking the recognition and enlightenment (purest expression) of its own resonance, its own unique pizzazz, so that it can pour this refreshment out onto a parched world. In order to do so it must not only know its own resonance but also open its mind to any and all other resonance, no matter how remote from conventional reality, in order to explore all of its facets. The true shape of the diamond is revealed by turning it against the light and revealing as many facets as possible and this is what Aquarius does. It can only do this by having an open mind and showing respect for the uniqueness of other perspectives and ways. It is an unendingly surprising journey of infinite unexpectedness, as the self is eternally revealing new facets of its nature, in every individual expression. Awareness of this reality shatters conceptions of rules which apply universally. The mind is repeatedly blown by contact with Aquarius. It is as they say “woke”.

In terms of its dynamic within the zodiac Aquarius blends and harmonises easily with the other two Air signs Gemini and Libra and with the Fire signs of Aries and Sagittarius. It polarises itself against Leo and clashes with Taurus and Scorpio. The connection with Gemini is a common intellectual bond involving curiosity and inquisitiveness and the connection with Libra is one connected with social engagement and interest in the lives of other people. Interaction between Aries and Aquarius stimulates motivation, courage, strength of will and an outgoing, spontaneous spirit of enterprise and creativity, while interaction between Sagittarius and Aquarius arouses a spirit of discovery and enterprise, inspiration and a desire to open up all the boundaries. The stark difference between Taurus and Aquarius is most often a clash between maintaining the way things are and doing something risky and new while the argument between Scorpio and Aquarius is far more complicated but tends to revolve around the explosive potential of intense devotion (which acts to bind things intimately together) and an unquenchable thirst for freedom. The relationship with the polar opposite of Leo in the zodiac is one of polarised focus, wherein Leo is focused on the magnanimity and grandeur of the individual while Aquarius sees its power to be greater as part of a constellation or group. To Leo the key thing is for the individual to find a way to shine their light while for Aquarius the key thing is for the individual to find a way to connect their light with that of others and through this connection shine more brightly than they could individually.

ANALOGIES

The typical manifestations of Aquarius (if there is anything typical of the sign at all) are people who have an open and inquisitive mind coupled with a friendly interest in other people and their curiosities, a strong humanitarian streak and high intelligence. It’s more extreme and negative manifestations include mad scientists, paranoid conspiracy freaks, lunatics, clinical psychopaths and Machiavellian manipulators. The Aquarius qualities we human beings express include humanitarianism, tolerance of difference, innovation, group consciousness, whirlwind progressiveness, eccentricity and visionary sight, altruistic serving of others, genius, independence, individualistic freedom and free spiritedness. Stable Air also rules over the airwaves, the transmission of images and sounds along invisible lines through the ether, and thus also has a connection to the collective (universal) consciousness, the well of divine inspiration. Keywords of Aquarius are detachment, ‘weird science’ or ‘pseudoscience’, wackiness, lack of prejudice, utopianism, revolutionary spirit, science fiction, futurism and open space.

Creatures resonant with Aquarius include human beings, flying insects with extreme maneuverability and directional control (such as dragonflies and mosquitoes), hummingbirds and songbirds, communal beings and creatures which possess a hive mind capable of telepathic communication (honeybees, ants etc.), cryptids (Sasquatch, lake monsters, chupacabra, etc.), bats and other beings with sonar senses, chameleons and other beings with the ability to integrate with and blend into their environment, creatures capable of human speech or sign language (Myna birds, starlings, parrots, lyrebirds, crows, apes and gorillas), microscopic animals and bacterial cultures, spiders (not just because of the webs they build but also because the smaller spiders are actually capable of limited space travel, as they can float up into the atmosphere, float across the globe, and then float down – at any given time there are millions of spiders floating above us), all animal behaviour which involves the use of tools and all animals capable of advanced intellectual interaction with human beings (like dolphins). In the plant kingdom Aquarius generally governs all plants which thrive near to where water emerges from the ground or where there is heavy rainfall and all spores and seeds which travel through the air. In the 19th century it was given signification over aviation, aeronautic experiments and apparatus that relates to these activities, and in the 20th and 21st it signifies space travel. In the future Aquarius will grow to encompass plant and animal life which is non-terrestrial in origin.

It is a sign connected to the intake of breath and inspiration along the lung meridian, lightning, the bizarre and unexplained (especially UFOs and other science fiction type mysteries), the throat and 3rd eye chakras, ESP, the colours vermilion, indigo and violet, the conduction of electromagnetic energy through the astra-mental body and the nervous system, circulation, the calves and ankles of the body, oxygenation of the system, alchemical multiplication (the operation by which the powder of projection has its power multiplied), the Hebrew letter Tzaddi (‘fish-hook’), The Star of the Major Arcana, the magic of creating physical effects through astral meaning (astrology), the integration of emotion with physical forms, mastery of astral light and planetary influences over matter, the musical tone D, and to Mantra, Jnana and Yantra Yoga. Geographically it is connected to the direction north-west and places near or around deep wells, quarries, mines and where the extraction of minerals from the earth takes place, and around land that has recently been dug. As an Air sign, Aquarius relates to places that are high off the ground or above the general eye line. In houses it signifies the roof, attic rooms or places towards the upper part of the building or the taps, showers and places where all power supplies emerge, as well as to places where computers are kept. Outside it signifies electrical power lines and poles, the oncoming wave of 5g tech to be installed everywhere, CCTV systems, hills, or land that is uneven or with an eccentric or erratically changing skyline and locations near natural or man made sources of water supply, fountains or springs. It is traditionally said to signify vineyards. Countries with an Aquarius Sun in their current national charts include the Republic of India (1950), Macedonia (1991), Mexico (1917), Grenada (1974), Lithuania (1991), Chile (1818) and Gambia (1965).

Some well-known and historical individuals with the Sun in Aquarius include Edouard Manet, John D. Rockefeller, Christian Dior, Eva Braun, August Strindberg, Lord Byron, Charles Dickens, James Joyce, Lewis Carroll, Germaine Greer, Mia Farrow, Jules Verne, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Hutchence, Sam Cooke, Placido Domingo, Phil Collins, Neil Diamond, Abraham Lincoln, Wolfgang Mozart, Robbie Williams and Ronald Reagan.

DARKNESS

Madness, anxiety, mental challenges like autism, chaos, paranoia, neurosis, insecurity, exile and futility are among the darker paths Aquarius can wander down. Fresh inspiration and genius require the mind to venture far beyond conventional boundaries and so the great risk is that the mind will venture so far beyond the pale that it will lose its grip and spiral into insanity, delusion and absurdity. Aquarius is aware that perspective is a vital ingredient in our perception of reality and that a small shift in perspective can lead to a major shift in the reality we perceive. However, just because there is a component of our reality that is at its core a product of our perspective this does not mean that reality is totally subjective and without rules. Unfortunately, Aquarius often fails to realise this while it is enchanted by the prospect of an idea for how original and crazy it sounds. The perspective on reality that new and inventive ideas bring is embraced quickly by this sign and without much thought for the consequences, often leading to out-of-control situations (like the Internet).

The need to return to some kind of normality at some stage bugs this sign continually, because without reintegration with the status quo they cannot communicate their crazy ideas to the rest of us but more importantly spending too much time in the twilight zone not only feeds the madness but isolates the individual and leads to exclusion, alienation and in extreme cases exile. This situation breeds despair and a sense of futility and resentment as Aquarius looks down upon the rabble from an aloof position of superiority and disdain. Yet on the other hand spending too much time within the boundaries established by the status quo leads to a choking suffocation of the Aquarian spirit and stokes the more destructive potential of its rebelliousness. An Aquarian spirit trapped in a binding spell gets very angry and expresses its need for freedom by kicking at and disrupting the status quo from within, and being a Fixed sign it keeps this activity going in a sustained assault on the walls that imprison it. So the Aquarian challenge is to move between these worlds regularly in a restless way, finding its own rhythm that tells it when to leave for the wonderland and when to reach out to other human beings. If this movement is impeded or for some reason not undertaken, darkness descends.

To call the sign unruly and completely chaotic is an exaggeration – this is still a sign ruled by Saturn after all. As an Electric expression of Saturn, Aquarius is often very fearful but projects this fear onto collectivist and social structures, so that it sees fearful conspiracies, signs of the future and other repressive forces at work outside of itself, things which it absorbs and reacts to. This reaction comes in the form of visionary activity which tries to imagine new rules to replace the old rules. Essentially the difference between Saturn as it expresses itself through Capricorn and Saturn as it expresses itself through Aquarius is not that one is about rules and one is about no rules, but more accurately that one is about the rules as they have always been and continue to be while the other is about the rules as they should be. When this is understood we can also begin to understand why Aquarius comes across to others as dictatorial and arrogant, accusations which they find very puzzling. The problem arises when Aquarius thinks it knows best for others, when it is narcissistically enchanted by its own mental brilliance or the mental brilliance of an idea so much that it thinks it must be good for all of us.

Another curse of Aquarius is that it is destined by its nature to live in the future, ahead of the rest of the zodiac. It’s mind is continuously pulled toward the horizon of time, peering into possibilities for the future and signs of those things happening now. This focusing of the awareness onto the future becomes something that must be transformed as part of a magical initiation because it continuously draws focus away from the present moment. This is a problem that needs to be disciplined so that it becomes something we consciously control at all times, at which point it becomes a great asset in terms of magical divination, clairvoyance and other abilities like mental wandering. In essence this curse can become a blessing but it requires a degree of psychic training, some kind of meditation which roots you in the present moment. Even if you are not training to be magician, this trait of Aquarius can become a big problem that you need to deal with at some stage in your life.

The awareness of the sign is a multi tasking awareness which is monitoring and operating upon several different things at any one time, and so it is dangerously scattered and prone to troubles which arise from forgetting to do important things. Although the sign has tremendous willpower and concentration ability it spreads this far too wide far too often and ends up creating complications which others get fed up of dealing with. It breeds chaos and mayhem, and while these can be good things under certain circumstances and in the right doses, Aquarius doesn’t use the measuring rod often enough and ends up deluging everyone around with problems that continuously spawn new problems. It adds major complications to the simplest of situations simply by perceiving things that other people are not and making them important. It instinctively reacts to people telling it what to do in ways which are unnecessarily defensive and yet hypocritically demands cooperation over the things that are important to it, and it is so committed to the most unusual path that it becomes subversive and perverse just for the hell of it, just to see what happens when you piss on the beehive.

The need to be completely unique can also become warped and ugly, shocking for effect or just over-emphasised in an unhealthy way. Complexes about our race, sexuality, gender identity and other issues which lead to outsiders in societies can become exaggerated by Aquarius, both in terms of their intensity and also in terms of how much we feel the need to go on about it to others. In general any situation which has the potential for rebelliousness can become extremely destructive when there is a lot of Aquarius involved as it will often become extremely complicated situations which lead to a lot of collateral damage. If the need for freedom has been suppressed for long enough or the issues involved are aggravated enough then Aquarius becomes a constant source of dissension and dispute, stirring up as much shit as possible in as many ways as possible as a way of expressing its discontent with the way things are going, or simply because it wants to see the whole thing fall apart. Things falling apart brings a kind of glee akin to schadenfreude to Aquarius, but with a dash of love of pure chaos thrown into the mix. Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold, but when you live in the future you’re often waiting for the rest of us to get there. So Aquarius will often say “let the lightning struck towers fall” and not care too much about the fallout and the consequences for real people trying to live their lives.

This can be a jealous and envious sign as well, prone to social insecurities about its position in relation to others and bitter about any inequalities that have been applied to it by social norms. Its idealism and its visionary sight also often make it vulnerable to extreme fanaticism and zealotry which ride roughshod over other peoples rights. Although this seems to be contrary to its humanitarian streak this sign is more than any other sign a nest of paradoxes and contradictions and Aquarius itself feels no need to resolve them because it is itself a contradiction (an Air sign that is a Water Bearer), and paradoxes are fun anyway because they force a reinterpretation of the rules. Aquarius can justify any and all of its outrageous and crazy behaviour simply by insisting that this is “my way and nobody can tell me to do it differently”.

Freedom is held in such a high regard that the Aquarius sign will sacrifice intimate bonds if they hold it back from liberty. This gives the sign a reputation for being cold, aloof, and uncaring, allegations which are sometimes accurate but which are more often misunderstandings of the Aquarius need to be completely unfettered. Every relationship in the life of an Aquarius entity is a compromise between its need for autonomy and independence and its need for company and companionship.

MAGIC

To the Aquarius being life is a puzzle and a riddle which, somehow, makes sense (or just stops being baffling) only when you understand and accept that it will always be an enigma. The mysteries of time, space and consciousness intertwine at the heart of the sign, often gifting us with some kind of awareness that the world calls ‘psychic’. Remote viewing and telepathy are especially Aquarian forms of communication, as is future sight. The sign does these things all the time, but we rarely note them as psychic phenomena. Instead, we think of them as really good ideas, daydreaming about the future, random thoughts, eccentricities and coincidences.

The ‘waters’ that are born by Aquarius are the waters of cosmic inspiration that are continuously poured forth from the heavens into corporeal forms, energies distilled into ideas which refresh and clarify the human spirit. Its position on the Gra Tree of Life connecting the realm of Netzach with that of Malkuth shows this clearly. The sphere of Netzach is the sphere of astral resonance, wherein all astral forces are engaged in a continual flux of attraction and repulsion. The sphere of Malkuth represents the entire physical universe, the dimension we are most used to thinking of ourselves as inhabiting. Aquarius is the path which connects them, and so Aquarius is the zodiac sign with the most affinity for astrology itself because astrology itself rests upon grasping the relationship between our physical universe and the forces of the astral universe. Thus a principal magic of Aquarius is astrology itself, the magic of the astral light – it is Aquarius that contains the secrets of the science we call astrology. At a fundamental level it is about the magic of consciously resonating with other things and of projecting significance into the material universe and the present now moment. Aside from astrology, divination, telepathy, remote viewing, clairvoyance and prophecy, other forms of magic connected to Aquarius include the magic of divining rods (called dowsing) and everything connected with springs and the flow or containment of water and rainfall, so this is a sign to dance for rain for.

Arthur C. Clarke once famously wrote that any sufficiently advanced technology would appear to be magic to a less advanced culture, and Aquarius truly embodies this wisdom. Given that this is true, it seems appropriate to point out that some of the other major magic of Aquarius concerns itself with technological and scientific breakthroughs which are kept hidden from the general public, for example the products of black projects and advanced aerospace engineering are always kept secret, and we all know the stories about Area 51 thanks to Bob Lazar. I imagine that working on something like a craft obtained from an extraterrestrial civilisation is also like being heavily exposed to the magic of Aquarius – mind blown, paradigms shattered, sent into exile from the common people who will never believe you, but touched with a rare and profound insight.

A key element in all of the above – astrology to UFOs – is consciousness. Consciousness plays a major role in why all of these things operate the way that they do and produce results. This is a matter worthy of deep reflection and not one that I really have the time to go into here, but if you will give it some thought and time you will realise that in each of these phenomena the consciousness involved plays a critical role, and in fact these matters cannot be understood without understanding the role that consciousness plays in them. I will go out on a limb here and say that many of the ‘flying saucers’ are operated by telepathy, it is how they respond so rapidly, how they know what interceptor craft are going to do before they do it and how they manage to be so evasive. If we do eventually come face-to-face with whoever is inside or operating them remotely, I believe we will be immediately confronted with the reality of telepathic communication. Such an event would probably be the most significant event in human history, and the chaotic magic unleashed would be thoroughly Aquarian.

There is literally no limit to the mind and thus no limits to its thought. The Aquarius individual realizes this even if only on a subconscious level, and so this is the sign of the humanist who will not rest before she or he has imparted new, liberating knowledge to others. A strong Aquarius entity lives in total awareness of the unity and kinship it has with its fellows, no matter their individual differences. Consciousness of self limitation is pushed to the background, and borders are broken down. Old is discarded for new, tried is replaced with untested, because these things are intrinsically more interesting, and some kind of progression towards a more utopian future for everyone that is felt deep inside embraces the unconventional and innovative as a tool by which the human spirit can itself be made freer.

In the magical grimoire provided by Franz Bardon in his second book “The Practice of Magical Evocation” he lists the 30 Heads of the zodiac sign of Aquarius as having the following magical powers: Cutting, sharpening and grinding (1°), the art of war strategy (2°), the creative power of imagination (3°), poetry (4°), Divine Mercy (5°), cosmic philosophy (6°), mummification (7°), manual skill (8°), truth seeking (9°), individual spiritual development (10°), mental, astral and physical radiation (11°), Kabbalistic magic (12°), secrets of nature (13°), mystical, occult or spiritual writing (14°), astrophysics and astronomy (15°), wealth, riches and reputation (16°), Kabbalistic mysticism (17°), magical alchemical secrets, especially regarding Fluid condensers (18°), alchemy and electrophysics (19°), the curing of diseases (20°), protection from negative influence (21°), justice and injustice (22°), the mysteries of Creation (23°), music and song (24°), oaths (25°), universal ritual magic (26°), mental and astral wandering (27°), magic of the spheres (28°), knowledge of analogy between alchemy, magic and kabbala (29°) and the high mysteries of alchemy (30°).

Beyond the barriers undreamed of possibilities exist calling to the heart of every Aquarius, and it must follow without knowing what they are. The spirit of Aquarius, which now collectively guides us forwards into our future, Initiates through an opening of the mind so that it resonates with truth and is awakened by a refreshing libation bringing new knowledge. Just as the Aquarian individual or the Aquarian planet must take the road less traveled and venture beyond those barriers and into the unknown, so too will we collectively venture forward into a future where the rules we have been living by no longer apply. It will not be plain sailing, but a tempestuous path punctuated with rude shocks and the ever present feeling that we don’t know what is going on or where it is headed, a storm that we must find ourselves in. Yet the potential reward is a renewed human spirit, reinvigorated by its contact with whatever transpires, and unable to go back to its old ways – a new era, but not a utopia in which all our problems are solved, instead one in which we have new problems to deal with, and in all likelihood a far more complicated picture of ourselves and our existence, whether that comes from our own technological progress or something else.