Age of Aquarius
It's February. I love the second month of the year. I know it's the coldest month in Scotland but I live in the tropics where it's humid and warm most of the year round. February is wet but hot.
Forget Valentine's Day, my mother's birthday, my mother's dog's birthday, the usual increase in clients, the beginning of the markets at the weekends. Forget all those things. February is when I get to celebrate my own continued existence on this planet. Not that I take it for granted, far from it. If you've ever seen Luc Besson's The Big Blue, you will understand the power and pull of the ocean to stay in it and never return.
According to the Chinese Lunar calendar, my horoscope sign is an Earth Monkey. I'm married to a Tiger and my brother is a Pig, but that's not a bad thing - far from it - the Pig is a very auspicious sign. Being a Monkey I think I'm meant to have the kind of brain that could send a rocket to the moon or invent a wire to cut cheese. Hmmm
But according to the Western Astrological signs I am Aquarius. Blah Blah. I could go on with what an Aquarian is meant to be like but I have found out that this is the Age of Aquarius. What should this Monkey Aquarian expect from living in what is now the Astrological Age of Aquarius? I've looked it up and apparently it's unity and brotherhood. A time and place for ideas and development of personal growth.
The idea of humans coming together may take another couple of thousand years to achieve. I heard someone say on the news that 'we have seen a rampant increase in world violence by individuals'. I'm finding this difficult to believe. Even though Gaza, Yemen, Syria, Rwanda, Somalia and Ukraine are called to mind I still think that life must have been more violent in medieval times. But it's relative. It's human experience. If I contemplate the world in a spiritual perspective, the Age of Aquarius tells us to expect the coming together of humanity, all creeds and colours. I only wish it were true.
Ok Ok, I'll not get deep and involved with the shit. I'll get back to the flibbetygibbet opinions about the Age of Aquarius. It's meant to denote intelligence. Now I'd be happy to bemoan today's education systems where children are taught to tests and not to lateral thinking skills and problem solving, but look at the amounts of information children can and do absorb these days. With such increased capacity I am not worried about the future. I just won't be able to see what comes next. I will have to trust them in their information processing and I hope to be able to support and benefit from their outcomes.
Intellectual accomplishment is meant to be part of the Age of Aquarius. Nanobots, microbots and robots which can even melt down to get through small spaces and gaps and remold themselves, that's what I call intellectual accomplishment. Antipsychotic medication, Covid-19 vaccinations, DNA specific treatments for cancer, trips to outer space, solar power, wind power. These are all on my list as progress, as accomplishments. Humans are incredible. We invent, we create and sometimes we even offer not to make a profit but to create for free, for communities.
Will this age of intellect and development solve the climate crisis? I bloody hope so, and although it may not be in my lifetime, I do expect it to happen never-the-less. Call me an optimist.
I am amused by astrology. I once knew a very well respected journalist whose job was to write the daily horoscopes for a famous daily newspaper in UK. On more than one occasion when I was there over dinner, I would join in with her 'writing' the horoscopes over a glass or two of wine. Nothing astrological in them.
I did read in the Daily Mail, the astrologer Jonathan Cainer say that the Age of Aquarius is'truly dawning' so it must be true. Now, I'm NOT having a go at Mr Cainer nor am I saying in any way that he makes his hoscopes up - that was us, remember? I mean he probably believes in every word he says and good on him. But seeing as I have been witness to the fakery of a horoscope or twenty, how many others are written by charlatans and fakers? Where is truth to be found? Should we be divining for the future anyway? Let's face it - our system is based on the calculations and star positions as set out by the Ancient Babylonians. Surely we have developed more sophisticated systems of thinking?
When I was poking about the internet I came across the following fact - in 1977 it was estimated that at least 1 billion people believed in Western Astrology to some extent. If you take into account all the other cultures in the world, I would hate to count how many billions would fall into that category today. The category of those who believe in magical thinking. Talking of which, Christians denounce astrology as evil, but there are so many more New Age and Ancient Culture thinkers who believe in its supernatural ability to divine paths of experience.
I might not be a fan but this Aquarian Earth Monkey is still going to celebrate on 7th February. I'll look to the unity of my friendships and the kindnesses I can bestow as I much as I experience, almost every week of my life.
Celebrate with me. Have a snifter of Peaty whisky or a large glass of soda water. Drink in the symbolism of life's renewal and get ready to rise to the challenge of whatever is coming next in 2023.