Age of Aquarius

Definition

The Age of Aquarius is the astrological age that begins when the spring-equinox point — slowly moving westward through the constellations by precession — enters the constellation Aquarius. Each of these precessional ages lasts roughly 2,150 years, one twelfth of the ~25,800-year precessional cycle. The exact start date for the Aquarian age is unsettled, though, because the constellation boundaries are not sharply drawn and authorities disagree on which marker star counts as the entry point.

In Tradition

In modern Western mundane and humanistic astrology, the doctrine of "great ages" reads each precessional age as a 2,150-year cultural and spiritual epoch, coloured by the symbolism of whichever constellation hosts the spring point. The framing is shared across Theosophical, Rudhyarian humanistic, and Jungian-archetypal lineages. Estimates for when the Aquarian age starts range from roughly the late nineteenth century to the twenty-fourth century, depending on the constellation boundaries and the authority you follow.

In Practice

Astrologers bring up the Age of Aquarius mostly in mundane and cultural commentary rather than in reading an individual chart. The themes attached to Aquarius — collective organisation, technological innovation, scientific rationality, humanitarian universalism, networks in place of hierarchies — give a frame for thinking about late-modern social change. Most writers acknowledge the disagreement over the onset date and treat the age as already emerging, or in transition, rather than as a sharply dated event.

Historical Origin

The doctrine of precessional "great ages" enters Western astrology through nineteenth- and twentieth-century theosophical and humanistic channels (Blavatsky, Alan Leo, Alice Bailey), receives a sustained humanistic articulation in Rudhyar (*The Astrology of Personality*, 1936; *Astrological Timing*, 1969), and is treated historically in Nicholas Campion's *A History of Western Astrology*. The astronomical basis is precession, observed since Hipparchus around 130 BCE.

Further Reading

  • Dane Rudhyar, The Astrology of Personality
  • Nicholas Campion, A History of Western Astrology