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Ages - Patriarchal, Matriarchal, and Religious by Boots Hart, CAP

Ages - Patriarchal, Matriarchal, and Religious
February 24, 2009

This is a subject well worth an entire series of articles, but given our moment in time, a little perspective (at least!) may be more than helpful.

To start, a little review: the astrological ages are based on precession, a concept which describes a very slow 'wobble' of the Earth on its axis. Imagine the slightly pear-shaped globe of our planet with a stick stuck through it, north pole to south. Now think of a gyroscope (or a child's top) you may have seen spinning on the floor or table. Remember how the top of the gyroscope seemed to cycle in a slow circle as the gyroscope spun madly 'round and 'round? What you may not have realized is that such circles described were rotating in the opposite direction (counter-rotationally) to the direction the gyroscope itself was spinning.

That's what the Earth does. The term precession thus describes how that 'stick' stuck through the poles slowly moves from degree to degree in a backwards direction (vis-?-vis the direction the Earth spins). So yes, they could have called it recession (how timely, right?) but because scientists are scientists, they called it precession.

Put most simply, though Earth's north pole may be now 'pointing' to the star we know as Polaris, that's not a constant. The math here is pretty direct, too: it takes 72 years for the Earth to shift by one degree, making the whole of the 'cycle' 25,920 years long. And in case you're into the Mayan calendar, you may recognize that number as the length of a Mayan 'Grand Cycle' described by its fabulous calendar. The Maya broke the Grand Cycle down differently than astrology does, but it's the same cycle - which is a whole other subject. But if your take the astronomical cycling of the Earth on its axis (the polar round, we might call it) and divide 25,920 by 12 (signs of the zodiac) what you come up with is 2,160 - the length of an astrological age.

In keeping with precession, ages move backward, and being that this is Earth and time and people we're talking about, the change from one age to the next isn't an on/off light switch. It's more like a rainbow - the melding of one 'color' into the next. Right now we are melding our way into the Age of Aquarius out of the Age of Pisces. Two thousand one hundred-odd years ago (give or take) people were melding their way from the Age of Aries into the Age of Pisces.

I doubt anyone would argue with the idea that the Piscean Age has been a patriarchal one. But the Aries Age? Though towards its end it became distinctly patriarchal (there being hardly anything more patriarchal than the Pharaohs of Egypt and distinctly paternal images and language of monotheism in general) it probably can be argued - and see in the enormous importance of fertility images which predate this time - that a good deal of the Aries Age would have been matriarchal. Though images of cave men bopping women over the head and dragging them away to their cave lair are popular, there can be very little question but that in the earliest of cultures the 'magical' ability of the woman to give birth and thus preserve the clan and carry on the male's line would have made women a precious thing - a quasi deity, if you will.

And yes, I hear men grumbling 'she still thinks she is' and the women snorting 'I still should be!' loud and clear. Both true, and to put it bluntly, a lot of the male/female problems we have in this world are probably because men feel slighted, insulted and insecure and women are still so totally invested in their physicality as to promote a sense of wounded entitlement that men have something else to do with their lives but worship us. But that's besides the point - although I could make it the point of a whole article if anyone wanted to read it (let me know - we'll take a vote.)

The point here is that the nature of the age seems to run counter to the natural dynamic of the age. Aries is a yang (pro-active) sign. Pro-activity is associated with the 'male' dynamic - the going to slay the dragon, stir up a war, conquer the business world (no, we're not discussing Wall Street) Éand let's face it, their penii (one penis, two penii - this being a male collective, not the statement that any male has more than one penis).

Pisces is a yin (receptive) sign. Yin receptivity is associated with the 'feminine' ability to receive, to nurture, to hold, to gather and store. Yin qualities are often associated with motherhood, pregnancy, affection, cooking and (yes, let's be honest here) the nature of female genitalia, the structure of which is obviously well shaped to 'receive' the male penis and gather, hold and store the ejaculate which issues therefrom.

Politely enough put? One hopes.

When we look at religious movements of any age, they too seem to follow this pattern. Seen from a point of view of purpose, paganism is greatly about honoring the various facets of the world for the qualities each thing holds or provides. Pagan prayers are often supplications to be given to (by the Goddess), much as a child asks mom to give them milk and a couple of those really nifty cookies. Pagan worship is about wanting to be provided for, implying that in the yang age of Aries while mankind was learning how to build civilization, establish agriculture and write things down all this assertive doing was balanced out by praying to be provided for - maybe in the meantime, while we were learning how to do for ourselves. In an age of yang doing, spirit took the form of wishes of nurturing - a far different thing from what developed as the Piscean Age came into play. Once the Piscean vibe was upon us, we became all about kings and dominance (and submitting to such dominance) and what we humans now know what to do. So all we need from God (by any name) at this point is existence. The power from which comes life itself. We speak of God seeding the world and acting as the catalyst of inspiration, the glory of revelation.

We have all we need at this point, in other words. As a race, I mean. Life still isn't fair - there are still people starving while other people are porking out. Share? Take care of each other? Heavens - do we have to?

Interestingly, the religious texts most of the world uses today all date from the latter part of the Aries Age and they all speak about taking care of our neighbor, of providing for the poor. In those days to shut someone out likely meant they'd die in the desert. Or be captured and turned into a slave. Yes, the legacy of the matriarchal age is that of being taught our responsibility to one another. And our world, if you look closely enough. There's a lot of material in the bible, Torah and Koran about taking care of the earth - rules of crop rotation and killing for food, not for sport.

Now as we move into the Aquarian Age, the vibe again changes. Women are regaining a position of equality, not that all of them like it. Let's face it - there's a lot to be said for only having to stand there and look pretty. Washing clothes? Tending to the kids? Challenging yes. Exhausting? Often. But let's be honest - being provided for is a pretty good deal. So as much as we hear a lot about men grumbling about women in the workplace, there are a good many women who would rather get pregnant and imbed themselves at home tending kids, floors and (yes, even) ironing boards than have to face that big world.

The interesting thing about Aquarius however, is that it carries a stunning concept of lack of gender. Aries is very male - it's the sign of the warrior. Pisces is very female - it's the sign of the Scheherezade type. But Aquarius? Aquarius is androgynous, which may well tell us a lot about the rise of new stereotype images and the 'coming out' of gay communities. It also comments well enough on the many households where male and female partners have 'traded' roles, with the He staying at home with the kids and the She going out into the workplace.

Plainly Aquarius is a yang sign, telling us that we are moving into a more matriarchal time. But being that Aquarius (like Pisces) is a worldly/societal sign, the theme here may be more about providing for the world than for one's self. Aries is very singular; it's the symbol of "I/me." Thus it was quite sensible that during the Aries Age mankind learned to be in this world: plow, raise crops, build cities - and all that. Like Aquarius, Pisces is worldly - but it's a highly spiritual sign, giving us good cause to think that perhaps the Piscean Age was all about the development of our human spirituality.

Not religion mind you. Religion - the codified rules - that's Sagittarian. We haven't gotten there yet and won't get to that era for another 4,000 (plus) years. And if you look at the great strife over religious systems we have lived with, they are pretty much all about those Sagittarian rules - the rites of religion: what you call God, how you go about worshiping God, etc.

And maybe the lesson here is that for now, it's really the spirituality which counts. Maybe it's the knowing and understanding our gender, but not leaning on it or holding onto roles. The symbol of Aries - the ram's horns - are a metaphorical symbol of two divergent branches coming together into one: the building of a society. The symbol of Pisces pictures two mirrored images positioned back to back, welded together at their nexus: the sign that all depends on all else, that as people, as a race, as inhabitants of a planet we either have our own back or nothing thrives.

The image of Aquarius is also dualistic - two lines representing water running in parallel one above the other. A curious symbol for an air sign based entirely in worldly ideas and theory, yes perhaps. But since water is the giver of life on this planet, maybe not. The fairness and equality that Aquarius embodies may well emblematically speak to our continuity - the commonalties of need and truest desire we all share. Maybe if we can concentrate on the idea that being provided for (the matriarchal theme) is about more than our enclave, family, community, religion or nation - maybe that's the theme. The Piscean Age has left us with much defensiveness - that symbol of the fishes tied back to back speaks darkly of dominance, threat and learned helplessness - but that's not who we need to be. In having lived through what astrologically might have been viewed as the toughest of all astrological ages, perhaps we should try to see these trying times as a revelation in its own right. Maybe in stripping away our comforting secrets, in laying bare our sometimes selfish, sometimes childish, sometimes fearful or lazy or greedy attributesÉmaybe here where Pisces melds with Aquarius we're really being gifted with the opportunity to see and be guided by a stunning light being shown on the pluses and minuses of our spiritual and mortal truths.

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Read More from Boots:

The Blessings of the Sun in this season of Passover, Good Friday and Easter (posted April 6, 2009)
2012: The End Of The World? (posted March 26, 2009)
Madoff: Web of Need and Greed (posted January 27, 2009)
MetaphysicYear End Musings (posted December 27, 2008)
Election vs Inauguration
World Economics and the Federal Reserve
The Astrological State of the Union
Pluto in Capricorn
The Fixed Signs

 

All articles by Boots are ©Boots Hart - All rights reserved. No reproduction or use without written permission. For copies of prior articles, questions, suggestions or requests regarding other types of astrological information, please feel free to email Boots at .

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