precession

In addition to our tilt relative to our orbital plane, our axis also has a very slow yet predictable wobble. If you were to draw a line into space from our poles, these lines also make a little circle in space over 26,000 years. This shifts the fixed stars we see at certain times of the year. Throughout one human lifetime, it is hardly noticeable as it takes about 72 years to shift our view of space by one degree around the ecliptic. This process is called precession. In our current orientation, the line of the north pole points toward the star Polaris, which is why we consider this star our North Star.

Precession is the measurement used to decide which ‘age’ we are in, with an age lasting 2,150 years. I’m sure you’ve heard the term ‘Age of Aquarius’. Ages are determined by the constellation that the Sun points toward on Spring Equinox, using the Sidereal Zodiac. I love to think of the Sidereal Zodiac as more cosmic-oriented versus the Tropical Zodiac orienting us through the Earth’s rhythms, both beautiful in their own right. Many astrologers say we’ve entered the Age of Aquarius, but I hold that we are still in the Age of Pisces. Due to the wobble of the Earth causing a backward precession of our poles and how one might calculate the Sidereal Zodiac, there is some disagreement as to when the ‘Age of Aquarius’ started or will start. Many look at the themes present in society for signs and greater influences.

One reason many believe we have entered the Age of Aquarius is the rapid development of technology, an Aquarian theme. But, this can be explained by another large-scale transit pattern between Saturn and Jupiter. These two planets, ruling society and culture set the tone for how we develop at sociocultural levels. They will meet up every 20 years in the zodiac in signs of the same element, for about 200 years. As they end out one element and prepare for the next, they will jump back and forth.

In 1980 these two started their air sign initiative, which brought new forms of thinking and technology around intelligence. For the previous 200 years they had been meeting up in Earth signs, hence the Industrial Revolution. In 2000, these two planets jumped back and met in Earth again, bridging growing intellectual insight to how we had gained beautiful insights through empiricism and how we had been destructive with Earth or overly reliant on what is tangible in how we understand life. In 2020, these two finally moved on for good (or for the next 180 years) to meeting in Air signs, this last meeting taking place in Aquarius—thinking of the future, humanity, revolution, and shaking things up to be and do better through collaboration and transparency (decentralizing for more creative and free collaboration).

Some interpret the signs as the Age we’ve moved into, but I believe the Jupiter-Saturn link is what is going on (with a couple of smaller transits as well). What makes me think we are still in the Age of Pisces is we are still living out the program of spiritual religions, introduced through Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism all rose to influence over the past 2,000 years. The world is still living a program of religious wars, ideology, and control, along with spiritual questing, whether through organized religion or less prescriptive avenues. We also seem, still, to be living out the program of the Roman Empire and conquest, spreading our influence in the world in ways that have blurred lines and boundaries, a Pisce theme of dissolving boundaries and blurring our sense of Self. For further exploration of this thread, I go into greater depth in A Dance Through the Stars.