‘From his mouth there went a sharp sword with which to smite the nations; for it is he who shall rule them with an iron rod and tread the winepress of the wrath and retribution of God the sovereign Lord.’ He was ‘called Trustworthy and True; … He is known by the name the Word of God.’ (Rev.19.15,11,13)  Christ’s Second Coming as Messiah of the Water Carrier. The Traditional symbolism could hardly be clearer : The Word of God is the New Testament translation for the Logos, the definition of the Spirit of Aquarius; Truth and Trust equally characterise this Sign.

The sword is a Traditional symbol of the Word of God, truth invincible in the end. Swords in the Kabbalistic Tarot cards represent the element of air. Presumably when he comes he will smite the nations with the message of love and peace. What more cutting indictment ?

These Aquarian titles are set starkly beside a familiar image of the last age, the Sign of the vine (see Ripe Clusters of the Vine...) with the Messiah pressing the vintage of an age of wrong.

The water pot was used as the natural symbol of the Water-Carrier in Egypt for Nuit, the Aquarian goddess of the starry sky and in India still for Shiva.

Dating the New Age
The idea of the Messiah, dating back to Isaiah, seems to be linked to the inauguration of a new astrological age, and we can’t imagine the Jews weren’t concerned ! The Dead Sea Scrolls suggest their Messiah came twice. Each time their failure to recognise their Saviour and choose truth brought an end to their world.

In our own day there is great interest in this question of the changing ages, our infant modern astrology is quite unable to decide the date of the change. We simply do not know where one constellation finishes and the next begins. This highlights that the constellations are rather arbitrary projections upon the myriad stars of an image which fits the Sign. If synchronicity produces a remarkably good fit, we should not wonder more than that the Spirit makes magic natural. But the constellations are not properly what astrology is about !! They do not determine its energies.

This problem doesn’t generally affect western astrology because it is based on the Sun’s position at the Equinox which, changing slightly every year, always defines 0º Aries, the beginning of the zodiac, the beginning of Spring. Astrologers measure from there. But this slight change, the ‘precession of the equinoxes,’ takes 25,920 years to come back to its starting point. The full cycle of twelve ages is known as the Great Year. A single age is 2,160 years.

For an age the Sun’s position at the Equinox has moved slowly through the constellation of Pisces. Now we generally believe it’s in the constellation of Aquarius. This is the meaning of the change of the Age. The best evidence of this is just by looking around at how the world has changed.

The Water Carrier is an air sign, the spirit of inspiration, invention, technology, the heavens, astrology and the complex energies which unite the cosmic bodies of our extraordinary universe. And also make the relationships among earth’s star children, the social whirl. After the deeply feeling medium of the Fishes, the element of air denotes clear reason, mental energy, even revelation.

We should recognise the herald of the new age in the arrival of science with Newton and the Age of Reason in the eighteenth century when philosophers like Voltaire began questioning every aspect of received wisdom, religious, social and political. This began a process which has increasingly gathered pace in overthrowing the old order, the dead wood of the last age, bringing undreamt of revolutions in social and economic affairs, science and technology, transforming our culture and politics beyond comparison with anything that has gone before, both in scale and depth.

It is widely agreed the actual cusp, or changeover, to the new age should be marked by a significant event and astrologers have learnt, however psychological the effects of the planets and signs, significant astrological events tend to be marked by significant life events.

There are two events which occurred together at the beginning of the twentieth century which have had a profound and overwhelming influence on the world. Both are definitively Aquarian.

The Age of Air
The first was the first practical flight by the Wright Brothers in October 1905. Man finally conquered the element of air and the consequences cannot be overstated. This was inspiration and technology combining in the way that has characterised the sensational progress still so rapidly transforming our world. From the relative confinement so characteristic of the sign of Pisces and the last age, to the liberation which is the essential spirit of Aquarius and which convinces us the new age is upon us.

The Water Carrier, despite its name, represents the skies and the element of air. (The skies of course bring life-giving rain, hence ‘the Water Carrier.’) While for two thousand years international power and influence depended upon a nation’s navy, ruling the seas, after this date we see this sway replaced by authority in the air, now advancing into space ? no less the realm of Aquarius, the sign of the stars.

Finally the bi-plane, the dual wing design of the Wright Brothers’ plane, is a typically eloquent materialisation of the duality of the Aquarian symbol, two parallel lines. Who can doubt that in 1905 the air age had began ? Everything that has happened since would appear to confirm such a judgement : before this date the new age was obviously in the offing, after this date it had well and truly arrived.

The Age of Relationships
Albert Einstein was a Piscean and this spirit was amply reflected in his deep mystical interest in life and God, as well as his passionate concern that one of the principal products of his theories, the atomic bomb, had fallen into the irresponsible hands of politicians. His campaign for the international control of nuclear weapons remains unfulfilled.

Einstein’s genius was wholly Aquarian and his Special Theory of Relativity, published in 1905, has revolutionised our understanding of the physical world and laid the basis for massive advances in scientific theory. Relativity, as it suggests, recognises the relationships, the energy exchanged, between bodies and demonstrates everything is absolutely connected, everything depends on everything else. For example, even light is affected by bodies it passes.

Relativity’s demonstration of the infinite web of energy connecting us all is a prime definition of the Aquarian reality, not least in its astrological realm. Astrology of course discovers levels of energy and interconnectedness beyond even the compass of modern sub-atomic physics.

Relativity is also an ideal definition of the Water Carrier’s social dimension, the recognition that we are all ultimately related, no man is an island, just as no star exists in isolation. The modern Aquarian spirit has already made plain that the better we understand and harness this inexhaustible social potential, the greater transformation we will achieve in realising our better selves, our humanity. A prize beyond all the wonders of modern technology.

Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity is wholly worthy to sound the trumpets to awaken us to the new age of scientific, inspired truth where the Messiah’s message of universal love, over two millennia old, can be renewed in terms that banish the fragile feelings of faith : superseded by a foundation of fact. Leaving little room for doubt. United we stand, divided ….

A Spirit Herald ?
Another suggestion to the dating of the new age needs treating with more caution. Aleister Crowley was an early pioneer of modern astrology, helping to rescue it from the darkness and disuse into which it had fallen following the age of Reason. He was also a keen Kabbalist, devoting much of his energies to exploring the esoteric astrology of the Tree of Life. And he dabbled in magic, spirits.

In 1904 Aleister Crowley was in Egypt where his new bride, also his spirit medium, informed him he must be ready to receive another Spirit who would dictate to him at noon on 8th April. This appointment was kept, and renewed on the 9th and 10th for just one hour on each occasion. The result was the Book of the Law which presents itself as a handbook for the coming Messiah, ‘the Holy Chosen One.’ Aleister Crowley believed that he was himself this figure, the holy Beast 666, and this apprehension seems to have blighted his life and contributed to a reckless lifestyle which earned his enduring infamy.

The Book of the Law remains an exquisitely written revelation which is probably best ignored or drawn upon with caution, like all prophecies, until it proves itself or otherwise, in the course of time. We see how the prophecies of Revelation still produce much confusion and worse in those convinced they know the meaning and their own part in the drama and it is hardly to be wondered that Crowley suffered a similar fate.

The language of the Book is something beyond Crowley’s own powers as a poet, for all that it is strange and alien. Such spirit writing should not be dismissed on principle. The great Swiss spiritual psychologist, C.G. Jung was impressed by the prophecies of Nostradamus which were produced by a similar dictation, some of which have certainly proved themselves, though others remain at best enigmatic.

The Book of the Law announces the Equinox of the Gods, or the beginning of the new age, in 1904 and it fits remarkably well with the evidence above.

When He Returns
For our purposes this speculation is more interesting than crucial. If Onias was the Messiah of Pisces, we need only wait an age to have some idea of an ETA, an approximate date for his return. Dating the beginning of the Water Carrier about 1904 or 1905 puts the start of the Fishes around 256 or 255 BC. This allows a sensible interval before Onias takes power at the Temple, probably some time after 200 BC.

If we just calculate an age, 2,160 years, after Onias’ death in 171 BC, we arrive at an excitingly close 1989, though a Messiah who arrived, or died, to such a timetable, would be as incredible as fulfilling all the scriptural prophecies, to the letter.

If we get an idea that the arrival of Onias, Christ, or Jesus, may be imminent, that seems quite close enough for practical purposes. Or is he here already and no one listening ? After all, if he is just a man, whatever his destiny …

(This note carries the colours of the Aquarian element of air.  On page 16 the Aquarian Messiah is identified with the Beast 666 in the colours of Beauty, the colours of the Sun.  The Sun is, after all, the closest star in the Aquarian heavens. Here a different, Aquarian, facet of his character is recognised, as different facets are portrayed in Revelation.)