Happy 11th Birthday To The Aquarius Papers

by Robert Wilkinson

Yes, it was 11 years ago today that I launched the original Aquarius Papers as a Salon blog. A little backstory and reflection....

Right up front, for the astrologers who come here, I launched this project at 12:10 pm, April 28, 2004, at Westwood (UCLA), California. I chose this time to begin publication of the first article, since it's a very strong chart. Also, it proves that Mercury retrograde projects really do have staying power if they are activities that mirror Mercury retrograde energies (like publishing)!

The chart has 6 degrees 52 minutes Leo rising, 28 degrees 9 minutes Aries on the MC, and the Moon is 21 degrees 4 minutes Leo in an exact Grand Fire Trine with Mercury retrograde at 21 degrees 14 min Aries and Pluto at 21 degrees 55 min Sagittarius. The Sun is in the 10th house at 8 degrees 49 minutes Taurus conjunct the North Node at 12 Taurus in a very close trine to Jupiter at 8 degrees 58 minutes Virgo in the 2nd house. (I'll leave you to check out the rest of the positions on your own.)

This chart is an example of how the branch of the craft known as "Electional Astrology" works. It's related to Horary Astrology, except that the former seeks the right timing to set events into motion (marriage, launching a business, filing legal papers, asking for a favor, making first contact with someone, etc.) while the latter marks the time of an event to find the answer to that event (Where did I lose the watch? How to respond to what I just heard? Is this person trustworthy?).

Both of these branches of Astrology have somewhat different rules about how to read the charts. That's why most astrologers have no business telling a client when to marry or start a business, since a birth chart is read in much different ways than an electional chart. (Sometimes a chart is not a chart in the usual sense...) And of course, there is almost never a time when all indicators are favorable with no afflictions in the chart, just as there is never a time when all indicators are unfavorable with no strengthening aspects to mitigate the potential damages.

And now for the story. I had done the usual website approach to publishing my articles in 1997-2003, but my webmaster was a) a control freak, b) never got things up in a timely way, and c) could never finish the website design and paths before changing it so radically that I never could figure out how to navigate it to any degree of satisfaction. So I was cranking out great material back then, but by the time it got posted it had expired since it was past its shelf life.

It just seemed a very static way to offer what I write, with no opportunities to interact with my readers and cumbersome in posting and then getting more up soon after. Plus it left me utterly dependent on an unreliable person. So while I polished my writing skills during those years, it was still frustrating to write great material only to see it become irrelevant soon thereafter with few if any reading it.

And then I met THE BLOG. It was in late 2001 when I lived in Northern California that I met a young man who had an unfocused political and vaguely philosophical blog on Salon, which was really the only game in town back then. Through his encouragement I started to "feel my way around" the blogosphere, checking out various blogs on all kinds of subjects.

I didn't have my own, but learned how to jump in, comment, take heat, get into and out of political firefights, and became confident that I could find a voice in the blogosphere, despite the general unfriendliness and nasty arrogance of the political arena to newbies. My friend pestered me for months to start my own, and I resisted, not knowing exactly how I could tend to such a thing on a regular basis. But eventually he convinced me to set one up just to see what would happen, and if I really could attract readers to a site devoted to astrology and metaphysics.

I moved back to LA in Summer 2003, and after a lot of reflection and a dress rehearsal in late March 2004, I set up the launch for this day 11 years ago. I wasn't sure how it would be received, and so made it both astrological and spiritual with a sidebar called "The Outer Edge" for political and social commentary. I felt the two might have some overlap, via Gandhi and other sages, since I don't believe we can or should divorce politics from ethics and its impact on society, which immediately introduces a philosophical element into any political dialog.

Well, that went over like a lead balloon! I found that most spiritually or astrologically minded people are bored or indifferent when it comes to politics, and political junkies loathe anything related to astrology or spirituality. Since then, I've found that many who are into astrology would prefer me NOT to post my political views, especially Republicans and would-be Libertarians. Oh well. That doesn't work for me.

Anyway, back to ancient days. So my friend and I agreed to make his blog a collective "political" blog featuring social commentary, political humor, and busting miscreants in business, industry, and politics, while the Aquarius Papers would be mine personally, and focus mainly on astrology and spirituality. We and others were administrators on the political blog (one of the first group blogs!) and I became Captain of the Starship Aquariuspapers, Version 1.0

The blogware we were forced to use to post on Salon was miserable and cumbersome, and looked dreadful. Anyone who ever was a forced subscriber to "Radio Userland" will absolutely attest to this! So after some research, we found a couple more blogware suppliers that had begun to operate, and then migrated this site in Summer 2005 to Typepad which is the platform I have used since then.

For those who want to see the living evolution of this blog, please go to this page, as it has quite a few of the original articles posted on the blogs.salon.com site. Back when the Salon archives were still available, you could see I was describing the Grand Irrationality from day one, though I didn't invent that specific term until a bit later. In a historical note, my first post using that term was October 26, 2004, even though I had used it in talks before then.

In the original archives, the articles began on June 2, 2004 rather than April 28. That was because my computer crashed (thanks to Norton - a miserable virus protection software if ever there was one - scrambling my operating system) and it took me a couple of days to resurrect the site/software/blog articles posted up to then. So though the first article actually was posted on April 28, it was as though the whole thing had to begin again on June 2. (Yes, that is a Mercury retrograde phenomenon!)

Anyway, that's how this site got started 11 years ago. It's certainly become more than I could ever have imagined at that time, and thanks to the evolution of blogware, search engine technology, and the times we live in, it's now one of the biggest sites of its kind in the world!

I gave up tracking hard numbers some time ago. This time last year we were about 4.6 million unique visits and 10.7 million page views since February 2005 when I began tracking the numbers, with people coming in from over 130 countries around the world. That pretty much averages 500-600,000/year and around 1.2 million page views/year. (Those traffic totals don’t count the various server attacks on typepad and the numerous times that sitemeter was down.)

So we’re now moving into the 12th year! I gather that the Typepad blogware has evolved in many ways, and so I must do some maintenance this year. And of course, over the past year Typepad has had numerous DoS attacks on their servers, so the site does go down from time to time. When it does, the community finds out about it on Facebook, so our wired world helps us all stay in touch.

Due to rapidly evolving developments in other media, I’m also rethinking how I can do webinars, and plan to begin some podcasting when I find the time. And of course, the publishing operation is up and running, so the community can now find my books and purchase altar stones via the site links. More books are also in development, so stay tuned!

While this site has always been about me offering insights to the community and a forum where we can find other gentle truth seeking Souls, I hope that future years will help us all build and strengthen our global community and network of Light workers to assist the birthing of the new era while staying as safe as possible in the midst of the accelerated changes. The changes are happening, but we'll always have the Wisdom, the Way, and the Community as the "refuges" to help us overcome suffering, whether our own or what we find in the world.

So I'm glad you're here, glad to know those of you who have chosen to be part of this gentle community, and glad to be able to offer this sanctuary in the midst of the uncertainty, dread, confusion, and "Grand Irrationality." We're moving from the unreal to the real, darkness to light, and death to immortality. Aum Namah Shivaya! Aum Mani Padme Hum! And Aum Namah the Age of Aquarius!

Happy birthday, all!

© Copyright 2015 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[Sue Mccarthy]

And we are all blessed with your wisdom! Happy Birthday Robert!! And Thank You!!

[Sue Mccarthy]

I should say Happy Birthday Aquarius Papers!!

[Jo Garceau]

Robert, you know this, but it bears repeating. You perform a magnificent service for all of us. My day begins with my email and your blog. You are always insightful.

Congratulations as you move into the twelfth year!

[Michelle Young]

Wishing you a fantastic Solar Return, Aquarius Papers! The world is better for your presence with Robert at the helm!

Robert, I was just looking at the chart and think I have a clear answer as to what made your ME Rx presence in the chart so perfect that it would have worked well:

The first house Moon sits in a lovely partile approaching trine to Mercury. But in addition, that emphasis of the intercepted 10th house Sun needs to be considered because even the Sun-Mercury midpoint falls at 00 Taurus 02, bringing Mercury into a more prominent position. And then there is the Sun/Venus midpoint in the anaretic 29th degree (29°24) of Taurus making a partile conjunction of Mercury and Saturn (29°56) at the anaretic 29th degree of Taurus. It's a brilliant electional chart, but then you know that already. :)

I can't help but also note that you have an Eastern 4th quadrant above-the-horizon dominance in this chart with the ASC nearly conjunct your own--and a magnetic Venus-Mars conjunction in the 11th. AP also has a mutual reception of Mercury and Mars and another one between Uranus and Neptune. This pair of mutual receptions forms the heartbeat of the chart that made AP what it has become: Active communication interwoven with the astrological, the metaphysical (what you have called Spirit) and the philosophical and psychological interweavings of all of these other components. You've created a symphony out of a simply simpático song!

Namaste, my friend!

[Jean]

Happy birthday. Long live The Papers (and it's creator!). Still a fantastic source of the force!

[Yzse]

I found Aquarius papers 8 or even 9 years ago and ever since that time I'm here reading, learning, learning and if I didn't wrote it, learning :)
Thank you for your time and effort.

[Maya Earth Coffee]

Felicitaciones Aquarius Papers and you too Robert!

Thanks for sharing your wisdom, insight and knowledge for the last 11 years.

[Ale Tarallo]

Happy Birthday Aquarius Papers!

I can't believe it's been 11 years of looking forward to your posts. I still remember hanging on to each word, trying my best to understand what was being conveyed. It finally dawned upon me why I finally feel more comfortable with certain concepts; its been 11 years! Reading this blog opened a door that helped put into context what I felt or intuited was important but did't know why. I didn't even understand the concept of intuition. Its only in hindsight that I put 2 & 2 together.

Thank you Robert, for your generous service, for this site, and for all that you do!

[Ale Tarallo]

After some thought, I have something to add. In my 1st comment, I said i had looked forward to reading Robert;s posts for 11 years. However, to be 100% truthful, the first time I ran into Aquarius Papers I was mainly reading about the Saturn Return. I was 27 years old and was convinced that the turmoil in my life was Saturn's fault. I smile now remembering those days, I didn't know what a natal chart was. When I finally made my chart years later, it turned out my return wasn't until I was almost 30. Anyway back to Robert. When I landed on his page, it was hard for me to read through his posts, but i couldn't help myself. I resented that he didn't feed my personality's need to justify how mean Saturn was. Or how Mercury messed up my email because it was Retrograde. I was so young!

I've since become more of a dutiful friend to Saturn, a much more suiting relationship, considering the sun was in Capricorn at the time of my birth. I also learned that I have Mercury SR in my chart and most importantly, thanks to Aquarius Papers I learned that Astrology serves a much higher purpose than being a personality's oracle.

And if we take a look within and simultaneously reach out to the universe around us, we'll begin to sense that we are part of an incredibly beautiful process of creation, and we're all in it together.

[Orlando D.]

Should it be the TAUREAN papers then???

[Robert]

Hi all - Thanks for checking in and your praise of the site. Love the community we've built these many years! Very glad that some of what I've written has dispelled some of the superstitions about astrology, since this site is mos def not "pop astrology."

I don't know that I've ever told you why it's called "The Aquarius Papers." I chose the name Aquarius Papers because: a) Some of what I offer are seed ideas (astrological, metaphysical, and social-responsible) for the coming Age of Aquarius, b) I used the nom de plume "Aquarius" when I had a newspaper column 40 years ago, and I chose that name since c) My Moon is in Aquarius. So these are the "papers" of an Aquarian for Aquarians. It seemed like a good idea at the time.....

And of course, it occurs to me that Aquarius is the culmination of Taurus, so somehow this makes sense.

[dcu]

Thank you Robert for so many years of tireless work on behalf of humanity. That is truly Aquarius.
Keep on Rocking in the Free World!

[Sara]

Happy Birthday to Aquarius Papers, and congratulations on your ongoing success in spreading your insights and creating community, Robert!

My birthday is June 2...that must play a part in my attraction to Aquarius Papers and how much I relate BOTH your spiritual wisdom AND your political views! Yes, both! And your love of music and the arts, too! It's a wonderful thing indeed to find kindred spirits.

Keep up the great work for many more birthdays!

[Diana]

Robert, I hope you keep writing the astrology articles forever, because I really feel as though I have a divine spirit (you!) giving me guidance. Your new & full moon articles are miraculous in their accuracy! Thank you!

[Micheline]

Robert I am very thankful for this awesome BLOG! It has helped me so much since I discovered it! Keep on Dancing!!!!

[Sarah Walton-Smith]

Thank you, thank you, thank you

[ThanQ]

What a wonderfully FANtastic venue for self-enlightenment. My understanding of in-depth astrology has grown immensely.

Thank you, so much for all you do, Robert.

Long Live Aquarius Papers!

[Nic]

And, the world is so much better for it! Thank you for the wisdom and knowledge you share and for the group that has and is forming around Aquarius papers that receives and gives so much light and love.
Blessings be and Congratulations.