Tim Wyatt – England
Tim petting some (Greek) cats
As we reach the end of the first quarter of the first century of this still new-ish millennium, one of the few remaining certainties is that we live in a world riddled with total uncertainty. The only sure bet is that we’ll almost certainly continue to be hit between the eyes by major upheavals of one sort or another. Chaotic leitmotifs predominate. The key uncertainty is whether this will be a path to regeneration or a road to perdition. Whatever our trajectory no doubt the new crunch-point or cataclysm will be dished up in some exotic new variety we haven’t come across before. And it will probably scare the hell out of us.
However, concealed behind layer after layer of lies, illusions and deceptions there is a plan – a Grand Plan even. The problem is that virtually everyone is unaware of its very existence, let alone its contents.
A great many thinking people readily recognise that we’re reaching the conclusion of some important cycle – although not that many people have much idea about what it involves – other than the tumultuous transition from one reality to a very different one. Significant numbers of the less cerebral and mentally inclined also sense the wide spectrum of convulsions sweeping across continents and know that unwelcome change is in the air. Virtually no one – outside a putative evil elite – feel in control of anything anymore, least of all their own lives. A strong and growing veneer of madness makes its presence felt almost everywhere.
There’s a vague and general consensus among esotericists and their ilk that the general direction of travel is out of the crumbling and decadent tail-end of the Age of Pisces into the more glittering and possibly golden Age of Aquarius. Those interested in the 25,920 year precession cycle of the equinoxes, consisting of a dozen ages each of 2,160 years, are aware of how each of these epochs has its own unique flavours and trends. Each 2,160 year cycle is itself subject to various mini cycles at quarter-, third- and half-way points as well as other stages.
What started around the time of Christ is now starting to gurgle down the plug-hole of history. What no one seems to agree on is precisely where we are now. Are we still firmly locked in the dregs of the Piscean Age continuing to experience its fading and fetid embers? Are we at the turning point? Have we finally and fully emerged into this new Aquarian cycle?
It’s important to bear in mind that these periods of transition from one of the twelve Ages to another isn’t an end-on process. The Age of Pisces doesn’t abruptly end on a Saturday night and the Age of Aquarius immediately blaze into action on the Sunday morning. There are lengthy changeover periods probably lasting centuries in which the influences and prevailing energies of a given period begin to wane and the incoming energies of the new era strengthen.
The cycles drawn from ancient Indian texts such as The Vedas are vast. They speak of massively long cycles such as a Day of Brahma which extends to trillions of years. Among their lesser cycles are the golden, silver and bronze ages followed by an iron age, a dismal era of ignorance and darkness, the sinister-sounding Kali Yuga named after the goddess of wrath. This is where we’re said to be. Again, no one agrees exactly where – or when we might expect to emerge from its gloomy decadence.
The reality is that we probably won’t even know when we’ve finally transited from Pisces to Aquarius. This is because the changeover period is the equivalent to several life-times. And even though recent decades have witnessed the most extensive perma-change the world has ever seen who is to say whether the pace of change may quicken further as part of humanity’s grand plan of evolution. Perhaps we ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.
If we put the Piscean Age on the autopsy table and take our scalpel to it, we immediately see how it consisted of accumulated strata of heroism and horror, progress and persecution along with ignorance and intellectual resurrection. Like all ages its contrasts were extreme, ranging from gentleness to genocide and caring to crude cruelty. This latter aspect was deeply enshrined, fetishised and worshipped with a quasi-religious zeal in that greatest of all human pursuits – war. And the Piscean Age saw plenty of them.
Armed conflict, conquest and bloodshed became the haunting yet alluring hallmarks of the Piscean Age. It was essentially a sado-masochistic epoch occasionally displaying the vague masquerades of progress and enlightenment but usually defaulting to death-and-destruction mode. Gilded civilizations arose to be swept aside by natural disasters or the savage conquest by barbaric hoards.
As the dominant spiritual force in the West for many centuries Christianity developed highly sophisticated systems to pervert truth, outlaw forbidden knowledge and suppress noble virtues when it wasn’t busy burning its enemies or massacring indigenous peoples and stealing their wealth. Of course, Christianity wasn’t the only guilty party and other – but by no means all – religious cultures have tended to persecute those who didn’t share the same creed. Although a human trait with immemorably deep roots, religiously inspired cruelty reached its deepest levels of sophisticated depravity in the Piscean Age. Its continuation in the Aquarian Age is a distinct possibility. There’s no sign that humanity is losing its voracious appetite for war.
In contrast, the Piscean Age also brought us huge leaps in understanding – the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, the rise of science long with the various industrial ages and technological revolutions. The printing press became an aerosol of knowledge wherever it appeared. Six decades after two brothers flew a flimsy wooden craft a few feet through the air an astronaut was leaving his footprints on the moon. There have been astounding displays of human ingenuity and enterprise.
And yet advancement has nearly always been stalked by bloodshed. Peace and progress are nearly always outweighed by humanity’s visceral need to inflict death and violence on itself – and indeed the world at large. Even the transhumanists probably can’t figure out a way of taming man’s inner savage beast mentality – although no doubt they’re busy working on it in a laboratory in Cambridge or California.
Is it possible to break this endless cycle of cruelty in which conflicts can only be resolved by violent military confrontations? Is it actually possible for humanity to stop being a participant or passive onlooker when these abominations erupt and ejaculate their toxins en masse across the globe? Is it all part of our destiny and combined karma?
There’s no magic button you can press to achieve this. And it isn’t something which can be achieved collectively through religious, political or economic means. That’s all been tried. None of the measures cooked up by priests, politicians or economists has had the slightest effect in taming man’s raw and violent inner nature.
Clearly profound inner transformation can only happen on a personal basis with individuals themselves making a concerted and conscious effort to control their own interior flailing demons. Possibly entering a new age with a new mind-set can perhaps provide that opportunity to do the most important thing humans should be doing right now. This is to appreciate their true identity. Most will choose to do nothing of the sort. And perhaps the new age won’t make the slightest difference.
The human identity crisis is the biggest problem facing the world today and is the root cause of most other problems.
Unless we do start to know ourselves better, we enter this new age as the same old stupid people we were in the previous one – almost entirely ignorant of who we are. Crucially, this also includes our ignorance about human beings’ supreme potential for advancement to unbelievably elevated realms. New era or no new era, unless we wise up to our authentic identity, we’re going nowhere.
Underpinning all other identities is our existence as essentially spiritual beings who from time to time take on physical bodies – which quite obviously is something we’re currently engaged in. Until we know that first and foremost we’re souls temporarily occupying bodies of flesh and blood, we remain in a state of childhood – innocent, unconcerned and disconnected from higher matters and deeper truths.
As everything continues to unravel all around us and as the demolition crews pursue their ceaseless vandalism on this earth, we need to banish the twin enemies of pessimism and despair from our minds. There is indeed room for optimism amid all the chaos and uncertainty. Despite the outbreak of new wars, over the past year or two this writer and many of those with whom he communicates have sensed fresh energies and new currents starting to sprinkle their tinsel across the world. These are the gentlest of showers rather than torrential monsoons. But a breeze can quickly become a hurricane.
So, as we wave goodbye to Pisces and construct its obituary everything clearly reinforces the deep truth that all ages, epochs and eras end in disarray, dissolution and uncertainty – as do continents, countries and civilizations. Without exception. Unlike the wise ones who are smarter than we are, we’re mainly locked into the tunnel-vision of the physical world and few of us can see the vast vistas beyond it. Even fewer can perceive that even mightier world hidden and dormant deep within themselves. Perhaps the new age will be one where we’ll gaze through the telescope less and through the microscope more.
