Do I believe in astrology? It's a question that I wouldn't know how to answer. There are, certainly, some interesting "coincidences." This is particularly true with regard to the "Ages," or "Eras" of the Tropical Zodiac.
Due to General Precession, the equinoctial point ("Zero Aries" of the Tropical Zodiac) moves backward through the zodiacal signs at the rate of 1° every 72 years, completing a full cycle in about 26,000 years. If you divide this number by twelve, you will get about 2,167, the approximate number of years that the equinoctial point stays in each sign of the Tropical Zodiac. This was all explained by Ptolemy (second century of the Common Era) in his Tetrabiblos. It had actually been discovered by Hipparchus a few centuries earlier, and appears to have been the secret-of-secrets of the Mithras cult, which was popular among Roman soldiers.
We have spent some 2,000 years in the Piscean Age, which is strongly associated with Christianity. This association is seen in the symbolism of the fish, which was used by the early Christians to represent their religion. The previous Age, that of Aries (The Ram) has been associated with Judaism, and that symbolism also seems to fit (for example the sacrificial ram, and the blowing of the shofar, which is a ram's horn). Prior to that we went through the Age of Taurus, associated with the cultures of Egypt and Crete, in both of which bulls figured prominently.
What everyone seems to want to know is when the Age of Aquarius will begin. Partly under the influence of the 1967 musical Hair, we expect really good, and really human, things from Aquarius. The musical appeared at the height of the Hippie movement, and even included a nude scene, though brief and strobe-lighted. The audience always clapped and cheered for that scene, and I heard about a couple that came to San Francisco all the way from Montana to see the musical. In that same year, Playboy had an article called "The Wave Makers," which was about the Hippies and was illustrated with pictures of body-painting (now quite commonplace). We who were part of the Hippie movement thought the Playboy piece was hopelessly clueless. But both the musical and the article were indicative of a loosening-up that seriously needed to take place in twentieth-century culture.
Precision is hard to come by in these calculations. First of all, you need to know which fixed star was anciently used as the fiducial, or starting point, of the Sidereal (fixed-star) zodiac. The best assumption, and the one that I accepted, was Spica. In those days the differential between the two zodiacs was roughly 24°, meaning that the equinoctial point had about 6° to go to reach 0 Aquarius. It's probably closer to 5° now. If the rate of precession is one degree every seventy-two years, we will enter the Age of Aquarius in about 2378 CE. Sorry.
So we have to wait a while. But are there any clues to what the Age of Aquarius actually has in store for us? I believe that there are. Astrologically, one begins to feel the effects of a conjunction or other astrological event about eight degrees before exactness. This would take us back to the early nineteenth century, the early years of the Industrial Revolution. Those years brought us many new machines and increased productivity, but they also brought us a new regimentation and robotization of the workforce.
In astrology, Aquarius symbolizes inventiveness, creativity, electricity, communication, and progress. These are certainly characteristics of the current Digital Age. It's pretty cool to have cell phones and Internet, but they track your every move, and make personal privacy a quaint notion. Clearly, the Age of Aquarius will be a two-edged sword.
What about those earlier Ages? They were far from perfect, but some of us are still living in them. There are few things in human culture that last for thousands of years (exceptions might be racism, sexism, and fear of the "other"), so we may expect some features of those earlier ages (such as slavery) to disappear. But if you are in love with those times, and have a hankering for them, you may expect (if all things are cyclical) that you'll only have to wait 20,000 years for them to return.
