The Age of Aquarius, explained

Art+by+Elise+Amaral

Art by Elise Amaral

ELISE AMARAL, Staff Writer

With the wildness that has ensued in 2020, and 2021 thus far, one may wonder if things can get any more crazy. For astrology lovers, the Age of Aquarius could be the start of a better, or at least more calm, year.

The Age of Aquarius begins when Saturn and Jupiter (the Great Conjunction) align into the sign of Aquarius. Since Jupiter and Saturn represent your social patterns, trends and politics this will be an interesting turn of events.

A little context…

If you’re new to the starry pseudoscience, you might want a little background on how astrology works before jumping in. The 12 houses (or 12 signs) are named after constellations. These constellations fall along the ecliptic, which is the plane of Earth’s orbit around the Sun. Planets, asteroids, and other celestial objects also move along the ecliptic. 

As earth travels, some parts of the cosmos are  visible and some others are blocked by the sun. The website EarthSky does a great job of explaining this. 

For example, if we could see the stars during the day, we would notice that in late March and early April, the constellation Pisces (the Fish) is on the other side of the sun.  As the days and weeks went by, the sun would appear to drift eastward across Pisces until moving in front of Aries, the Ram, in the second half of April.  One month later, the sun would be flanked by the stars in Taurus, then Gemini, Cancer, Leo, and so on.”

The relative motions of the stars and planets dictate astrological events.

What is the Age of Aquarius? 

In astrology, the Age of Aquarius is when humanity takes control of the Earth and takes destiny within its own hands. This also leads into the expansion of mindfulness and consciousness, because Aquarius represents humanity and supports power of the people.

What does the Great Conjunction have to do with it? 

Since the Great Conjunction on December 21, 2020, Saturn and Jupiter have aligned in Aquarius. This represents the start of the New Astrological age. 

Before the Great Conjunction, Saturn was in it’s home of Capricorn as the ruling planet. But now it’s moving into Aquarius for the first time in six months. 

Last year, Jupiter, which rules Saggitatrius, moved into Capricorn on December 2, 2019.

As Jupiter and Saturn made their ways through Capricorn they also passed Pluto which is still currently in Capricorn. This can also be blamed for some of 2020s events as Pluto represents power and transformation. 

February 2021 will begin the rise of Aquarius due to seven planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, Mercury, the sun, moon, and the asteroid of Pallas) moving into Aquarius which will lead into a stellium in astrology. With all the Aquarius energy running through the planets, our focuses will shift towards things such as technology advances and humanitarian issues. 

Until then if you would like to get into the Aquarian mood check out Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine by the original Broadway cast of the musical Hair.