Neptune Then, Neptune Now - The Cusp of the Age of Aquarius

by Robert Wilkinson

We're at a critical junction in history and moving out of the Age of Pisces into the Age of Aquarius over the next few decades. That makes this a long wave transitional period, with specific lessons to learn and insights to gain about our larger human estate.

As I've mentioned in previous articles, a transition between Great Ages can take from 350 to 700 years to accomplish, due to the length of an Age relative to the length of a sign. Here I'll note that no Age ever "ends" at a specific point in time, so don't expect to wake up one day and find the old gone. While many trumpet glamorous pronouncements about the new Era, for us humans it's pretty much "chopping wood, carrying water" regardless of what Age we believe we're in, since that's the way consciousness works.

It's hard to get a sense of what an entirely new way of approaching time, space, matter, energy, life and reality would feel like while we're living such short and perceptually limited life spans. However, since the cusp of an Age really involves the first degrees of the fading Age and the end degrees of the coming Age, it occurred to me that by examining previous Neptune positions we might catch glimpses of some larger dreams and visions about the larger Age and what this means for humanity at this time in history.

Remember, Neptune's cycle is about 164 years, mas o menos, and therefore this is not the first time that Neptune has transited the span of degrees representing "the cusp of the Age." That said, it's the last time in Pisces before the Age of Aquarius begins, and therefore showing us glimpses into the collective that may portend larger issues and lessons we're learning that will assist the transition from the old to the new.

Looking at historical cycles, in 2010 Neptune went from 25-29 Aquarius. It covered almost the exact same span in 1846. In 2011 Neptune transits from 28 Aquarius to 1 Pisces, and looking back, it covered that span in 1847. In 2012 Neptune occupies 30 Aquarius to 4 Pisces, paralleling 1848, and in 2013 goes from 1-6 Pisces, just as it did in 1849.

Because the 1840s had numerous wars all over the world, rather than list them it's probably better just to state that in that period of Kali Yuga, we saw the end of "honorable wars" (an oxymoron if ever there was one!) anticipating the beginning of the mechanical horror that war became around the time of the American Civil War (when Neptune entered Aries). In the US it began a time of the Independent Treasury system (lasting until the Federal Reserve) and the labor reform movement (UK too), continued the transcendentalist movement, and we saw massive immigration to the US from Europe, Brigham Young leading the Mormons to Salt Lake, and wagon trains began to carry people to California. Add the literary works of Charles Dickens, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and others, and you have the beginnings of the modern social reform movements.

Other events associated with that period were the rise of the temperance and antislavery movements, women's rights movement, utopianism, spiritualism, and the use of Morse code to communicate across long distances. A cable was laid across the English Channel, allowing Great Britain to communicate directly with the continent, no small thing!

Three very important things that happened in the late 1840s that affect our world to this day were the establishment of theoretical communism via the publication of Karl Marx' Communist Manifesto, the publication of J.S. Mill's economic treatises, and the establishment of the Ba'hai religion in Persia via the Bab and Baha'u'll'ah. These all could be considered somewhat "utopian" in nature, in line with the qualities of Neptune.

Theoretical communism was utopian in the sense of "from each according to their abilities, to each according to their need." Ba'hai was the first religion to proclaim the equality of men and women. Even the spiritualist movement was utopian, in that it sought a universal access to the invisible world and subtle planes to establish contact with spirits, ghosts, doppelgangers. These efforts ultimately led the Masters of the Wisdom to send H.P. Blavatsky out on to "European soil" (and American as well) to offer the Ageless Wisdom of the East to the world, thus challenging the materialistic sciences and religions of the West.

As for how specific years correlate between then and now, I'll just list some things for the corresponding years in the late 1840s and let your imagination take you where it will.

In 1846, paralleling 2010, we find the establishment of both Texas and California as independent republics, and in the UK, the old Colonial mercantile trade system was replaced with Free Trade. The rotary printing technique began, and sewing was revolutionized by the invention of the sewing machine. Also, of some importance is that on September 23, 1846, Neptune was discovered, and due to conflicting claims between British, French, and German astronomers the continent almost went to war.

In 1847, paralleling 2011, we find Samuel Colt sold his first revolver pistol to the U.S government (thus ushering in an era of slaughter of native Americans on the scale of a holocaust.) The AMA was founded, rail travel across Denmark began, the Vegetarian Society was founded in the UK (first and oldest in the world!), the establishment of Liberia as an independent nation, and women authors were prolific, even if they still had to use male pen names.

In 1848, paralleling 2012, we find the publication of the Communist Manifesto, the California gold rush, Great Britain's first public health law, the end of the second French Revolution and the beginning of the second Republic, many revolutions from Hungary to Brazil, the first Spanish railroad, the establishment of the Swiss Federal Republic (one of the first democratic states in Europe), and the Women's rights Seneca Falls Convention, where "Bloomers" were introduced at this pioneering gathering of feminists. Along those lines, 1848 also saw the establishment of the world's first Medical School for women in Boston. Also that year the AP and a lot of universities were founded.

It seems that some common themes of these years were the desire for independence in people all over the world, women breaking free of the patriarchy, the establishment of philosophies and places of learning, and the widespread desire for new forms of wealth and production. In the US there was the increasing polarization around slavery and what to do with the native American populations, as well as what forms of currency we would use and what it would be backed with. It certainly seems a time of mass migrations on at least two continents.

Anyway, it seems the last time Neptune was in this section of the zodiac there were major issues coming forth that impact us to this day, and so I suppose the issues we're dealing with today will impact humanity 150 years down the road. If there are any other developments of the late 1840s you are aware of that I've missed, please offer them in the comment stream. Again, this is all an exercise in connecting the dots between past, present, and future, and imagining how current collective changes and issues will impact humanity in decades to come.

© Copyright 2011 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[Judy Croome]

Will hootsuite this article to my social media tomorrow - so interesting!
Judy, South Africa

[Luz]

I love your Spanish..................."mas o menos"! And it's also good to know that we will not wake up to find the old gone and that these shifts take many years to come about.

Thank You.

[Robert]

Hi Judy - Thanks for spreading the word. There's lots we can all learn from each other by comparing notes. May S.A. blossom!

Hola Luz - Yo comprendo un poquito Espanol. Estude' cinco anos en escuela cuando un teenager. Y yo vive' en Austin por vienteocho anos, y hablare' Espanol frecuentemente. But now I must often use a translator, since I'm out of practice. Same with my German skills.....

Usually change happens incrementally and not so suddenly as Hollywood movies indicate. It takes a long time of many overlapping patterns before old ones completely die and new ones are completely established. Though the time stream is in fact quickening, and we are a radically different type of humanity than our grandparents or great-grandparents, the change is somewhat incremental and we're still bound by perceptions based in a limited time and experience.

In the Secret Doctrine we are told that it took tens of thousands of years for the "Lemuro-Atlanteans" to fade away as the Atlantean subraces came to prominence, each in their own day and way. Think in terms of the thousands of years between the ancient peoples and the people of modern times, Certainly while we and they are "people," there are many significant differences between the realities of 10,000 years ago and now. And through it all, we're "chopping wood and carrying water...."

[Amanda]

Actually you are wrong the AGE of AQUARIUS starts on December 21st 2012. Each age takes 2,160 years and on 12-21-12 it marks the end of the great cosmic 25,920 cycle.

[Amanda]

Although I have a problem with this being Aquarius... But since the Ages are moving backwards.. and for 25,920 to have passed by 12-21-12.. must mean the world was created beginning in/with the AGE of TAURUS.

[Robert]

Hi Amanda - Not quite. There is no reliable source that puts the end of Pisces 18 months from now. You're mixing two different systems and calendars. 12/21/12 is not the beginning of the Age of Aquarius. As long as people have the Piscean plagues of superstitions, dualistic and hypocritical belief systems, and desire for saviors (in whatever form) then we're still in Pisces. I doubt 2012 will magically end these and overnight usher in a global awareness and practice of the Aquarian ideals.

Even Calleman (the world's authority on the 2012 stuff) admits this is a many-year period of shift, and that Dec 2012 is not as important as seeing this period of the mid-90s until later this decade through a wide angle lens. Great Ages simply do not end on a specific date. By my calculations, we'll be at 1 Pisces until about mid-century. Rudhyar thinks later, and almost no one really believes we're already there, given the downsides of the Age of Pisces still in our collective faces.

According to the Secret Doctrine (predating any and all speculations about the Mayan Calendar and its supposed meanings) it is noted that it took many hundreds of thousands of years for the late subraces of the 3rd Root Race (Lemuro-Atlanteans) to be completely superceded by the early subraces of the 4th Root Race (early Atlanteans). It has taken many tens of thousands of years for those of "pure" Atlantean physical stock to be superceded by those of us who are 5th Root Race, said to be "Aryans." 5th Root Racers include the ancient Indo-Aryans, ancient North Africans, ancient Persians, the northern and southern Kelts, including the ancient Greeks and later Romans, right up to those of us who Rudhyar termed "Euro-Americans." We who live in our modern era are the final subraces of this 5th, even as some of the younger peoples of the Earth begin to evolve into and demonstrate primary qualities of prototypical 6th Root Racers.

The world as Gaia took physical incarnation so long ago as to make the notion of "Ages" irrelevant. Humanity first took physical incarnation in Lemuria about 3 million years ago, but also, that makes the notion of Ages a bit insignificant given there have been approximately 115 circumpolar 26,000 year Ages since then. Thus there have been around 115 of each of the 12 "sign" Ages since the dawn of humanity (corrected the math error - point is still the same).

Again, "Cosmogenesis" and "Anthropogenesis" are the specific subjects of the Secret Doctrine. These outline how the Earth and its life forms, as well as human evolution, came to be. It was translated from ancient Chronicles originating beyond time that still exist in certain Tibetan lamaseries. It is the gold standard predating any and all 20th or 21st century speculations around global and human evolution.

As you know, the last Age of Taurus was about 2-4000 years ago. The one before that was about 28-30,000 years ago during some of the last great migrations from Atlantis to Egypt and Persia, introducing agriculture and animal husbandry into those regions.

Please take a broader view, and remember that there are short-term and long-term ways to view time, change, life, and evolution. Life is not a hollywood movie, and long wave changes work incrementally over vast periods of time.

Even if December 2012 turns out to be a relatively dramatic point of human change, so what? Humanity is still going to be tasked with ending separateness, glamor, and a tendency to overidentify with matter, including forms of spiritual materialism. I have found most arguments concerning the 2012 mythos are anchored in some form of spiritual materialism. Again, even if 2012 brings some event, we must remember "Before enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water. After enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water."

Dec 2012 will not mark the end of humanity needing to get over its self-absorbed obsession with matter. 2012 is merely the mid-point of "the Winter of the 21st Century" as I've noted in many articles. But I will grant that during this time of the Grand Irrationality (1995-2017, coinciding with the period offered by Calleman) we are making choices and changes that will set the patterns ushering in the 2160-year Age of Aquarius between 2050-2080.

We will see better times after the Grand Irrationality, and by the Spring of the 21st century beginning around 2025 we'll be well on our way to Pluto sprouting Aquarian seeds. This is necessary for the coming Age to manifest.

[Sara]

Robert, your reply to Amanda is a fascinating, informative article in itself. I will finally need to read The Secret Doctrine after hearing it referred to for years. Thanks for the perspective and info!!

[Isabel Nobre]

Dear Robert,

Wonderful reply to Amanda and wonderful article before that!

You mention the period of 1846, 1847 and 1848. It is really fascinating when we look at History from a radically different view point, something which the Secret Doctrine may indeed help us doing. We will see much broader cycles and history will be illumine not only from an Astrological insight but a Spiritual one as well.

Thank you for sharing it with us!

Going back to what you so rightly say about important changes that occurred in the late 1840s, is it possible that the current economy problems and "industrial" ones (in terms of pollution and also a renewal of exploitation of workers in many places) echo Humanity's need to find "new ways of getting wealth" and also cleaner ways to obtain energy?

There are nowadays new subtler forms of slavery, and one is through mesmerizing people with consumerism, marketing and false values that lead great numbers in Humanity to work all their life for illusion.

Would like your comment if appropriate.

Love and Thanks,

Isabel

[Morvah]

Robert and Isabel, your words as always ring true! Love to you both and blessings for the solstice, Morvah

[Isabel Nobre]

Dear Morvah, Blessings to you...