Love this! The "super Boomer grandpas" (as I've heard them derogatorily referred to lately) lived through this huge (spiritual/commercial) exploration of the Age of Aquarius before (arguably) this movement was crushed by conservatives/Republicans (IMO). I love how this is shedding some appreciation for the 60s and the people who lived thru this. Of course, as a student of gnosticism, I read everything of Jung's I can!
It's hard to blame the hippies for their optimism. Utopia is better than dystopia and somehow that's what we have now: our visions for the future are either dystopian, or post-apocalyptical.
Jung saw more to the Aquarius archetype and his warnings ring true, relevant, prescient...
Ignoring the shadow brought us the iPhone. Even the Apple is a meaningful symbol, knowledge and the temptation of becoming like gods.
But even though I didn't live through the Age of Peace and Love, I believe in the power of dreaming, in a better future.
So yes, appreciation. And I didn't even talk about the music!
Marvelously written, wonderfully executed descriptive metaphor, Slick … and that’s the point. Back in the 60s your post would have been called “head trippin” … taking us on a wonderful mind trip, right to the door of perception, labelled: BEYOND THE MIND. Yet, when we reach down to turn the knob and presumably push open the door to … perhaps … hear “a voice we recognize as holy” (beautiful phrase … our minds are SOOOOO clever!) the door is locked … and silence.
Yet, I am heartened that there is a door that you reveal we can open: WE CAN BUILD DIFFERENTLY!!
Ah-ha!! More than talking about the necessity to do … WE CAN DO!
So what is the nature of this doing? There are (it seems a reasonable assumption!) many 1000s meeting and building. Perhaps that would be a great article — invite folks to post links to people DOING something holy.
Here’s a link to a group of healing, connecting, passionate, joyfully-enjoying-fulfillment people I meet with
Aquarius also touches into Universal mind, and water carries information - and love. We can also see Aquarius as pouring the cosmos onto earth - the embodiment of heaven and earth. With its ruler Uranus it may just totally surprise us with the unexpected if we stay wary of AI and techno artificiality. Signed, an Aquarian with Mercury in Pisces.
A beautiful and insightful piece along the lines that I have been exploring. Oddly enough, a book written nearly a hundred years ago sort of lays a lot of it out but without the zodiac references. Check out "The Beginning and the End" by Nikolai Berdyaev. He speaks of moving from the strict dogma to becoming a co-creator with God. Basically, it's eschatology and rebirth mingled together.
Waw. At first I wanted to joke that I’m only 99% grateful because there is 1% resentment of adding to my ever-growing list of books to read.
But I just looked him up and I am actually 100% grateful, it intersects with a lot of topics and ideas I am exploring here and elsewhere. Thank you John!
Sharing the knowledge is what it's all about. That book had a profound effect on me because it lined up with a lot of my current thinking and well, he wrote it during WWII.
Some, it seems, have a deep sense for the times. I recently read in Lachman that Jung had visions in 1913 that had him believe he was crazy, visions of bodies washing up on shores in waves of blood that reminded him of some psychiatric patients. Until WWI erupted.
And a sense for how to live through them, for the real tensions and stakes of an age sometimes to come. So again, thanks for the recommendation!
If we follow the precession of the equinoxes—moving backward through the zodiac—we’ll enter the Age of Capricorn after roughly 2,160 years in Aquarius (1/12 of the 26,000-year “Platonic Year” or precessional cycle). If we’re just now crossing into Aquarius, that places Capricorn’s symbolic arrival sometime around 4200 CE—though transitions are gradual and more mythic than mathematical.
Archetypally, if Aquarius represents systems, code, and collective abstraction, then Capricorn brings us back to discipline, consequence, and spiritual gravity. It offers a more embodied and integrative vision—rooted in deep time, ancestral memory, and the continuity of tradition rather than disruption and futurism.
But every archetype casts a shadow. If Aquarius veers toward disconnection, simulation and cold optimization, then Capricorn could turn rigid, repressive, and obsessed with hierarchies of control.
Love this! The "super Boomer grandpas" (as I've heard them derogatorily referred to lately) lived through this huge (spiritual/commercial) exploration of the Age of Aquarius before (arguably) this movement was crushed by conservatives/Republicans (IMO). I love how this is shedding some appreciation for the 60s and the people who lived thru this. Of course, as a student of gnosticism, I read everything of Jung's I can!
It's hard to blame the hippies for their optimism. Utopia is better than dystopia and somehow that's what we have now: our visions for the future are either dystopian, or post-apocalyptical.
Jung saw more to the Aquarius archetype and his warnings ring true, relevant, prescient...
Ignoring the shadow brought us the iPhone. Even the Apple is a meaningful symbol, knowledge and the temptation of becoming like gods.
But even though I didn't live through the Age of Peace and Love, I believe in the power of dreaming, in a better future.
So yes, appreciation. And I didn't even talk about the music!
The music!
Confessions of a “super boomer grandpa” …..
Marvelously written, wonderfully executed descriptive metaphor, Slick … and that’s the point. Back in the 60s your post would have been called “head trippin” … taking us on a wonderful mind trip, right to the door of perception, labelled: BEYOND THE MIND. Yet, when we reach down to turn the knob and presumably push open the door to … perhaps … hear “a voice we recognize as holy” (beautiful phrase … our minds are SOOOOO clever!) the door is locked … and silence.
Yet, I am heartened that there is a door that you reveal we can open: WE CAN BUILD DIFFERENTLY!!
Ah-ha!! More than talking about the necessity to do … WE CAN DO!
So what is the nature of this doing? There are (it seems a reasonable assumption!) many 1000s meeting and building. Perhaps that would be a great article — invite folks to post links to people DOING something holy.
Here’s a link to a group of healing, connecting, passionate, joyfully-enjoying-fulfillment people I meet with
https://open.substack.com/pub/megroekle/p/the-nova-gaia-collective?r=d62km&utm_medium=ios
Appreciate you! I’m all for dreaming and doing, and yes, we can!
Aquarius also touches into Universal mind, and water carries information - and love. We can also see Aquarius as pouring the cosmos onto earth - the embodiment of heaven and earth. With its ruler Uranus it may just totally surprise us with the unexpected if we stay wary of AI and techno artificiality. Signed, an Aquarian with Mercury in Pisces.
Thank you for this nice touch; and yes, please :)
Wow, always leaving me with so much to process and ponder! 🙏❤️
Always happy to read/hear it!
A beautiful and insightful piece along the lines that I have been exploring. Oddly enough, a book written nearly a hundred years ago sort of lays a lot of it out but without the zodiac references. Check out "The Beginning and the End" by Nikolai Berdyaev. He speaks of moving from the strict dogma to becoming a co-creator with God. Basically, it's eschatology and rebirth mingled together.
Waw. At first I wanted to joke that I’m only 99% grateful because there is 1% resentment of adding to my ever-growing list of books to read.
But I just looked him up and I am actually 100% grateful, it intersects with a lot of topics and ideas I am exploring here and elsewhere. Thank you John!
Sharing the knowledge is what it's all about. That book had a profound effect on me because it lined up with a lot of my current thinking and well, he wrote it during WWII.
Some, it seems, have a deep sense for the times. I recently read in Lachman that Jung had visions in 1913 that had him believe he was crazy, visions of bodies washing up on shores in waves of blood that reminded him of some psychiatric patients. Until WWI erupted.
And a sense for how to live through them, for the real tensions and stakes of an age sometimes to come. So again, thanks for the recommendation!
There’s always William Blake who had bizarre visions as well but I always took him for a whack job.
What ages comes after aquarius, and how long will the current age last?
If we follow the precession of the equinoxes—moving backward through the zodiac—we’ll enter the Age of Capricorn after roughly 2,160 years in Aquarius (1/12 of the 26,000-year “Platonic Year” or precessional cycle). If we’re just now crossing into Aquarius, that places Capricorn’s symbolic arrival sometime around 4200 CE—though transitions are gradual and more mythic than mathematical.
Archetypally, if Aquarius represents systems, code, and collective abstraction, then Capricorn brings us back to discipline, consequence, and spiritual gravity. It offers a more embodied and integrative vision—rooted in deep time, ancestral memory, and the continuity of tradition rather than disruption and futurism.
But every archetype casts a shadow. If Aquarius veers toward disconnection, simulation and cold optimization, then Capricorn could turn rigid, repressive, and obsessed with hierarchies of control.
Thats quite interesting!!! Will Humanity even make it to that date, or that is out of your prediction reach?