The Aquarian Zeitgeist
Ah, Love! Could you and I with fate conspire,
To grasp this sorry scheme of things entire,
Would not we shatter it to bits – and then,
Re-mould it nearer to our heart’s desire?
’The Rubayat’ by Omar Khayyam 1048-1123
To my mind, nothing expresses the spirit or Zeitgeist of the Aquarian Age better than the above poem. Aquarius is co-ruled by Saturn, the stern disciplinarian of the zodiac, and Uranus, the planet of rebellion and revolution. Uranus was discovered as late as 1781 by William Herschel. The energies of this planet are powerful and highly disruptive, but at the same time freeing, cleansing and purifying. It did not take long after the planet entered into the conscious awareness of our world until their influence were felt by the mass of people as an overwhelming urge to smash up the old order and attempt to shake off the yoke of the ruling classes and so change the status quo for good.
The result was the French Revolution, a period of far-reaching social and political upheaval in France that lasted from 1789 until 1799. It was partially carried forward by Napoleon during the later expansion of the French Empire. The Revolution experienced violent periods of political turmoil that overthrew the monarchy and established France as a republic. The culmination of this revolution was Napoleon’s dictatorship, which rapidly brought many of the French republics principles to Western Europe and beyond.
Inspired by liberal and radical ideas, the French Revolution profoundly altered the course of modern history, triggering the global decline of absolute monarchies while replacing them with republics and liberal democracies. The Revolutionary Wars unleashed a wave of global conflicts that extended from the Caribbean to the Middle East. Historians widely regard the French Revolution as one of the most important events in human history.
The Aquarian principles of ‘Liberté, égalité, fraternité, i.e. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity’ became the national motto of France. Although it has its origin in the French Revolution, at that time it was only one motto among others. It did not become the main one until the Third Republic established itself at the end of the 19th century.
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a pair of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which dismantled the Tsarist autocracy and eventually led to the rise of the Soviet Union. The Russian Empire collapsed with the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II and the old regime was replaced by a provisional government during the first revolution of February 1917. The month of March in the Gregorian calendar, but the older Julian calendar was in use in Russia at that time. There was a second revolution in October of the same year during which the Provisional Government was removed and replaced with a Bolshevik or Communist government.
The February Revolution in March 1917 was focused around Petrograd, now Saint Petersburg, which was then the capital of Russia. In the chaos, members of the Imperial parliament or Duma assumed control of the country and formed the Russian Provisional Government. The army leadership felt they did not have the means to suppress the revolution, which resulted in the abdication of Tsar Nicholas’. The Soviets or workers' councils were led by radical socialist factions that initially permitted the Provisional Government to rule, but insisted on a prerogative to influence the government and control various militias. The February Revolution took place in the context of heavy military setbacks during World War One, 1914 – 1918, which left much of the Russian army in a state of mutiny.
The late nineteenth and twentieth century witnessed further rumblings in the foundations of our world’s societies. Attempts at restoring its balance were gathering momentum with the rise of the suffrage movement, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. At first the males of the common people started to fight for the right to vote. Not long after the females began to rebel against the oppression by the aristocracy and the males of their societies in general. The suffragettes fought their battles for the right to vote for women, demanding that they too should have their say in the running of our world. Thanks to these brave warriors of peace our world is progressing well on the road to total equality of the sexes, with equal rights and duties, as well as pay.
The Chinese Communist Revolution or the 1949 Revolution was the culmination of the Chinese Communist Party’s drive to power since its founding in 1921 and the second part of the Chinese Civil War. In the official media, this period is known as the War of Liberation. Chairman Mao Tse-Tung, 1893-1976, wrote: ‘A revolution is not a dinner party or like writing an essay, painting a picture or doing embroidery. It cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.
‘The struggle of the Black people in the United States for emancipation is a component part of the general struggle of al the people of the world against U.S. imperialism, a component part of the contemporary world revolution. I call on the workers, peasants, and revolutionary intellectuals of all countries and all who are willing to fight against U.S. imperialism to take action and extend strong support to the struggle of the Black people in the United States! People of the whole world, unite still more closely and launch a sustained and vigorous offensive against our common enemy, U.S. imperialism, and its accomplices! It can be said with certainty that the complete collapse of colonialism, imperialism, and all systems of exploitation, and the complete emancipation of all the oppressed peoples and nations of the world are not far off.
Mao’s words were expressing the Aquarian Age’s main theme. The struggle of all the people of our world is, however, not against US imperialism, as in Mao’s view, but against slavery and oppression of all kinds, especially of a spiritual nature. Saturn and Uranus are the co-ruler of Aquarius. This shows clearly that the freedom of the Aquarian Age will only be granted to those who freely and willingly submit themselves to Saturn’s demands of self-control and self-mastery. It means taking responsibility for ourselves and accepting that we did our share of bringing about the present state of our world and that therefore we need to do our share of putting things right. In the course of many lifetimes each one of us has developed special gifts and talents for this purpose and now the time has come for giving of our best for the good of the whole, in thoughts, words and actions. First we need to put our own inner house in order and then that of humankind.
