Understanding Aquarius: January Full Moon 2005
January 27, 2005

by Malvin Artley		print version
		print version (graphics)

Greetings everyone!

Well, I finally did the deed.I became an Australian citizen on Friday. (That's pronounced or-STRAHL-yun for the uninitiated) Oi! I know this letter is a bit late but, like the last letter, I felt blocked from writing it. I figured out why on Friday. It was a beautiful summer day on the 21st--not too hot, about 80 degrees in the old measure, and clear skies with a gentle breeze—a perfect day by anyone’s standards.I had wanted to get my ceremony done on Australia Day (the 26th), but all the ceremonies were already full. So, I had to have it done privately at the immigration center.Two of my good friends had happily agreed to come along and help me celebrate the event but, to my surprise, another of my good friends was there as well when I showed up.And, as it turns out, all three were women and all three were Aquarian.To top it all off, the Sun was in Aquarius that day and--we found out later—the gal administering the ceremony had Aquarius rising.

Now, the only reason I mention this is for the benefit of the non-astrologer readers, because destined events always have these amazing astrological synchronicities and interplays between signs and aspects. The chart of the ceremony had Taurus rising, the ceremony celebrant was a Taurean herself, I have Taurus rising in my relocated chart and I just gave a reading today to another Taurean with Aquarius rising. A few days before all this, I had another Aquarian ring up for a reading.

So, the energy of Aquarius is impacting on me in a big way and I have finally found the muse to launch into this somewhat overdue letter.

It was a lovely little ceremony. We all took pictures. The ring-leader of the Aquarian crew tried to get me to do a little performance that would have been mildly embarrassing (She tried to convince me—to no avail—that it was a requirement of all new Australians going through this that we had to give some performance that showed off our talents.) and we all embarked on the time-honored Australian tradition after the ceremony and went down to a local pub for a spot of the bubbly. Then I had an obligatory beer to honor the event. We Aussie men have to do that, you know. The whole ceremony took about 2 minutes, but I was with friends and I was becoming a confirmed member of an ever-increasing group, it would seem. I have made a life for myself here on my island home, so the time had come to make it official—and what better way for a man to do so than to be with 3 fabulous Aquarian women—and one other with Aquarius rising—and on an Aquarian day!

Aquarius is the natural 11th House of the Zodiac, and it is traditionally associated with friends, hopes and wishes. Aquarius is a sign that just naturally gravitates towards groups, and all the Aquarians I know (and that is more than a few—and the majority of them are women) have a wide circle of friends and a much wider circle of acquaintances.They always seem to be in the midst of some group endeavor and they all usually have something to do with the leadership of those groups. This goes for people with Aquarius rising as well. Aquarius conveys “The Light that shines on Earth, across the sea”, and it is a Light that dispels the darkness from the world and brings all home to shore, safe form the storms and tumults of human desiring. It is a sign that brings healing and salvation, and it is for this reason that I have called the Aquarius full moon “The Festival of World Service”, or “The Festival of Group Endeavor”. I spoke of the Hierarchy of lives that especially come under the influence of this sign in last year’s Aquarius missive, which are the elemental lives. But, this year we need to focus a bit on just what it is that makes an Aquarian such a unique persona—and some “unique” ones there definitely are—and to do this we need to look at the rulers of this sign, which are Uranus, Jupiter and the Moon.

It is the Moon that is associated with the Hierarchical expression of this sign. The Moon is always associated with the lunar bodies (the bodies that make up our persona—lower mind, desire and physical) and the class of lives that it rules deal with the sustenance and development of those bodies. They are the ones that take the vitality from the environment and incorporate it into the bodies at their respective levels. They are also the lives that construct the etheric matrix around which the dense body coagulates and adheres. They are the builders and sustainers of every dense form as we know those forms. Thus, Aquarius has a curious and important task to perform around the construction and vitalization of forms of all types, and all forms are but groups of lives of some description. This goes for the groups of tiny lives that from the bodies of everything we see to the largest national and planetary groups that we know as well. But, that is about all that is useful for the average person to know about that particular rulership of Aquarius.

The more potent and important of the rulers of Aquarius is Jupiter, the esoteric ruler, followed closely by Uranus, the best-known and the orthodox ruler. In esotericism, everything works “from the top down”—from the universal to the specific. The Moon rules the highest level of this sign and the archetype that we know as Aquarius. But, the Moon rules such a broad spectrum of activity and influence with regard to Aquarius that it can scarcely be sensed in terms of the individual human. Jupiter is very important in one’s understanding of this most potent sign because it is the planet that produces all the marvelous group interplay in the human realm and the abundance of healing energies that the sign can confer. Jupiter rules the true consciousness of the Aquarian type, and it is this marvelous Jovian energy through which we know and love all the higher Aquarian types. It is their true signature. Of all the signs, Aquarius can be the most giving and it is the energy of Jupiter that impels the Aquarius type to such a wide and diverse range of people and interests, although Uranus does its bit in this regard as well.

Jupiter is the planet that governs the law of supply in our solar system. It is the great philanthropist among the planets—a sort of secondary Sun—conferring a high vitality and unity of effort for all who come under its influence. Jupiter is called “The School of Beneficent Magicians” and it is said that it is always involved in constructive magical work. It governs the supply of vitality throughout the solar system and it confers magic of a very high order. Both Uranus and Jupiter are said to be schools of magic within the solar system and they work very closely together. So, with Aquarius we find a most profound magical combination of forces. The Moon confers the prototype of a form, working from the highest level of the sign. Jupiter then infuses it with life and causes it to expand. It also incorporates varying elements within the environment and fuses them into a cohesive unit. Uranus then produces the manifestation of that form onto the outer planes and, in so doing, brings in a new order. Nothing is quite the same after it has been touched by an Aquarian type. There is thus a tremendous amount of force associated with this sign for those who can properly avail themselves of its influence.

The average Aquarian is primarily ruled by Uranus, and we are well familiar with that particular manifestation of this energy. Aquarians are renowned for being “different” somehow. Some of them are just downright odd. Aquarius rising often gives odd characteristics to one’s appearance. Some Aquarians go out of their way to be different or eccentric. They are the non-conformists of the zodiac. But, behind it all, there is a dimly sensed consciousness that they are somehow here on this earth to bring about some kind of change and to aid in the processes of human and planetary evolution. They get this from the other two rulers, plus the fact that Uranus always represents the urge toward better conditions of living and greater freedom for the Souls of all people. They are thus known as one of the most humanistic of the signs for that reason. You can always count on the Uranian (orthodox) Aquarian to be “out there” somehow, whether they are doing so because they feel a need for change or because they genuinely believe what they have to offer is of benefit for those around them, whether what others think is true or not.

When the Aquarian has firmly and definitely set their feet upon the spiritual Path, though, then they come increasingly under the influence of Jovian energy and they then become powerful agents for change in the world around them. We are coming quickly into the Age of Aquarius, as we all know, due to the precession of the equinoxes and this is set to inaugurate what has long been touted as the New Age of peace, brotherhood and all that. The real impulse behind that is the incoming greater cycle of the 7th Ray, with which Aquarius is associated through Uranus. It is really this ray which is the harbinger of the new order to come in the world, although Aquarius as an Age will do its part and inaugurate the cycle. But, the New Age, as we call it, will extend far into the future beyond the Age of Aquarius. The cycle of the 7th Ray runs for 7000 years with lesser cycles running in divisions of 10 into the 7000. Each Age lasts for roughly 2500 years. The planet that will bring the true potency of the Aquarian Age to fruit is Jupiter, and it is this greater benefic which will oversee the unity of the human family and eventually usher in a greater era of peace and prosperity for our world. Magic will happen in the world, but we need to keep in mind that we are looking at cycles of the Soul in that regard, which run in much longer time frames than our temporal human consciousness. Our human problems will not pass away overnight, nor will they pass without a struggle—but fall away, they will.