The Transition From Earth to Air – Part 18 of the Chemistry of Time
Imagine that you are walking along a trail, through mountains, forests, valleys and plains. You have been walking on this trail for many years and have developed a high degree of efficiency and knowledge about how to go about it. On your back you carry a bag with the tools and goods needed to proceed. Your shoes are ideal for the terrain and your pace is appropriate for the conditions. Your elders taught you about the trail life and their knowledge and lessons guide you through every condition you can expect to encounter along the way. For you, and those generations who came before you, life is the trail. The ground beneath your feet is solid, and sometimes the hills get steeper. There are dry areas when you must conserve water, and occasionally there are snakes on the trail, forest fires, and washed out crossings. Your pace on the trail is deliberate and steady, and your speed and agility is informed by the weight of the things you carry in your backpack. The traits and skills and abilities which make one successful on the trail determine who reaches the destination first and gets the best campsite overlooking the mountain lake. So it is and has always been, and like a fish in water you cannot imagine the world being any other way.
Out of the blue around the next turn you find the trail has seem to come to an end? Now, you stand at the sheer edge of a high cliff, overlooking a great expanse. A landslide suddenly roars behind you, washing away the trail upon which you reached this vantage point, certainly blocking any option to retreat the way you came. As you sigh and consider the circumstance and what Grandpa would have done, you notice a hang glider perched on the cliff just next to you. Here you find yourself on this cliff trail, with no way to return the way you came, and no way forward except through the air, and sitting there like a game show prize is just the thing you might want to have to enable you to keep moving forward. You size up the situation, calculating the vehicle, weight parameters, and the wind in the expanse ahead. You look at your backpack, full of trail guides and hiking tools. You look at your shoes – ankle support and protection from the dirt and critters of the trail. You empty the bag to almost nothing, and leave the shoes along the side of the cliff, and you climb onto the hang glider and acclimate yourself to the controls, and when the breeze calms and your mind is ready you leap from the cliff, away from the solid ground you have always known and counted on and surrender yourself to the winds and the currents as you are whisked off into the air away from the ways and means of the trail life you had always known and you glide through the air covering more ground in a week than you previously had in a day. Maybe this hang glider life isn’t so bad after all…
Such an experience is the privilege of only a few of the generations born into life on our planet and not everyone finds themselves able to take to the air. You did, which is how you find yourself reading this article today. How are you finding the new controls?
On December 21, 2020, the Great Conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn officially carried us all into the Age of Aquarius. This conjunction marked the beginning of a new formula for the times as the two base elements that previously formed our days have been swapped out with something of an entirely different nature. As a result each new day feels different than it used to and different things seem to happen from what we had grown accustomed to. Our old shoes no longer feel as comfortable and our old approaches for meeting and interacting with the world no longer produce the results they once did. This is easy to explain, it’s simply that the physical territory of the World has changed. No big deal! By now in 2024 you are already getting used to it and it will grow more comfortable and easy as your experience increases through the basic act of going through every day, week, month, and year. You may even find that you like it, and if you are of a certain age you may find that something about it is just a little bit strangely familiar.
This World is a forgiving place and it does not appear to be interested in trapping us on a cliff without the tools or the knowledge to find a way forward. In fact you may find that life skills acquired many years ago are recently more relevant than they have been in decades. Prior to your hiking days – back in your misspent youth – you used to hang glide and though it’s been awhile you find that your muscles remember how to work the controls and your mind remembers how to navigate through the gusts, and thanks to all of those years on the trail you have a new found appreciation for the speed of movement afforded by moving through air. You were born in the 20th Century after all, and while most of your life in that time was very much of the nature of the Earth triplicity there was something in the air at the end, in those final two decades, when new ideas were springing up, new technologies were changing what was possible, creativity seemed to burst from clouds, and new events seemed to regularly change the world over the course of a weekend. Such were our lives in the recent era of Libra, which rolled in with the New Year on December 30, 1980, and kept things the way we liked them through May 28, in the Year 2000.
Television nostalgia aside, the extent to which the 1980’s and the 1990’s have been forgotten over the ensuing decades is nearly total. An era defined by the light and breezy receptiveness of Libra found itself supplanted by the heavier and more persistent practicality of Taurus, which sought and successfully delivered a return to the more defined and less fleeting times we had known since the mid-19th Century. In Libra – an air sign – ideas and their delivery mattered, whereas Taurus was more interested in what it was worth and if we could keep it. At the time it may have felt that the manner of Libra was defeated by the undeniable appeal made in Taurus, but according to the calendar something rather the opposite was occurring. Taurus came to close out the Age of Capricorn with one last great earth era meant to gather up and account for what had been achieved since 1842. Capricorn is an achiever and these accomplishments were rather substantial, and Taurus had no problem integrating the value produced by fellow Venus-ruled sign Libra into the total. The final era of an age is not the culmination but it is the summation of the times, and if you pull the threads of the 2000-2020 years apart you will find inside them the combined contributions since 1842. When you look a little closer you will also find the source of its unraveling and you can point the blame squarely at Libra.
As discussed previously Ages are separated by interstitial periods when we have an era or two of the next triplicity followed by a return to the previous one, before switching entirely to the new Age at the next Great Conjunction. In practice what is occurring is that the seeds of the next era are introduced 20-40 years ahead of time, giving them time to entrench and grow into roots of a new Age set to emerge. Additionally these eras act as an agent to undermine the structures of the existing Age. The seeds of the destruction of the current Age and of the flowering of the following Age will always be found during these interstitial periods and the era of Libra at the end of the 20th Century is that time for us. It can also be viewed as a preparatory period in that it provides experience with the element which will define the future in coming decades. In more direct terms what I’m telling you is that the 80’s and 90’s are back.
Now, this of course cannot be literally true. The question is how to identify which parts of it are true and how those times differ from the era we are now in. Libra and Aquarius are both air signs and as such share elemental similarity, but one is ruled by Venus and the other Saturn. One is cardinal and takes action while the other is fixed and stubborn. Libra leans toward balance whereas Saturn seeks to define new rules. How do we reconcile and weight these differences, and those of the Taurus era gone by, to anticipate and identify the themes and ways of the times we now find ourselves in? Let’s start by looking at which elements are providing continuity with the times gone by.
During the 2000-2020 Taurus era we were in a fixed period of time. The current Aquarius era is also fixed (how appropriate for the trait of fixity to…remain in place). This suggests that while many things will change shape, total dissolution is unlikely.
During the 1842-2020 Age of Capricorn we were in a Saturn-ruled period of time. The current Aquarius era and Age are also ruled by Saturn. This implies that while the specifics of the rules and organizing principles will change, their fundamental parameters will not. Rules and limits as we have known them will continue to exist, and new ones of enduring importance will emerge.
During the 1980-2000 Libra era we were under a sign where the Sun is in Fall, a weak condition. The other weakest condition for the Sun is its detriment, in Aquarius. In both cases the Sun is reduced in importance – in Libra it is less effective while in Aquarius it is at reduced strength. The de-emphasis on the Sun that was present in the Libra era will continue during this Aquarius age.
During the 1980-2000 Libra era we were under a sign of the Air triplicity. Aquarius is also of the air triplicity and this underlying structure of the Libra era has returned in our current period of time. Air is known for speed and agility, effective communication, ease with change, craftiness, and fresh ideas.
Aquarius and Libra are masculine signs whereas Taurus is a feminine sign. This implies that action-oriented themes more common to the 1980’s and 1990’s will return to prominence.
Consider the cultural markers, historical events, trends, themes, and behaviors of previous decades as delineated above in order to anticipate what has remained in the backpack as we switched to the hang glider and what has been left on the trail. Additionally, refer to the history of the years following 1226 AD for a guide to the manner in which events in the world are inclined to unfold. The methods and practices which determined what mattered in the Age of Capricorn have been largely marginalized while many of the methods and practices that proved effective during the recent era of Libra will find their way back into relevance. It has already begun.
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