THE NEW AEON: A CONSIDERATION OF THE ASTROLOGICAL SYMBOLISM

Preface
This paper is a work-in-progress that may never be finished. In the course of writing it, I have found
myself, time after time, in a situation that might be called "awash in correspondences." The options, the
possibilities for taking the subject in different directions, have been too many to handle; narrowing them
down enough to finish it seems beyond my capability at present.
Nevertheless, even in its current (admittedly sketchy and unbalanced) form, I feel it has many points that
will be of interest to those interested in the broader magickal context within which our personal inititatory
work is taking place. While the general approach of the work is astrological in tone, the content is
intended for magicians.
Introduction
In our Western culture and its ancestors in Europe, the Middle East, and northern Africa, the precession of
the equinoxes has consistently been accompanied by shifts in the encompassing definition of humanity's
relationship to the universe at large, what we might call the world-view of the era. This definition has had
a profound impact on the direction of cultures within its influence. The development of human thought
becomes focused into particular lines; other lines of thought are excluded from general acceptance. A
corresponding change is seen in the activities and social structures adopted by the affected cultures.
Astrologers and magicians have generally assumed that the sign of the vernal equinox alone defines an
era's world-view. A closer examination shows this assumption is inadequate; the other three signs in the
same zodiacal cross must be taken into consideration. Additionally, the planets "ruling" and "exalted" in
the signs have a significance equal to that of the signs themselves.
The four signs of an era's zodiacal cross take on, for the culture as a whole, something of the same
function that is served by the four "angles" or cardinal points in an individual's horoscope. Figure 1 shows
the overall correspondences between the two groups.
At first this arrangement might appear counterintuitive.
Astrologically, the equinoctial axis and the horoscope's ascendant-descendant axis both divide the sphere
of the heavens into "light" and "dark" halves. It would be reasonable to think that there would be an
identity between them in any set of correspondences. However, observations of historical and currentday
events do not support the assumption. Instead, the sign of the vernal equinox takes on the aspect of the
midheaven angle.

For an individual, the midheaven is literally the point over their head at the time of birth. It is the high
point of an axis going from space to the center of the earth directly through their body. The powers of the
larger cosmos enter into them along this axis. Their perception of their goals in life, their image of what
they can become in their perfection, and the way in which they can unite themselves with the divine
powers of the universe are all indelibly colored by the sign on their midheaven. Similarly, the culture's
perception of its long-term goals, its potential evolution, and its relationship to the universe at large is
colored by the vernal equinox sign for its era. The perceptions are identical except for the scale on which
they appear. Therefore the vernal equinox sign is properly set in correspondence to the midheaven, and
the positions of the other three signs are adjusted accordingly.
The Immum Coeli or nadir is the point at the other end of the vertical axis in the horoscope, the end at the
core of the Earth. The Earth is the foundation or base on which humans and all their creations stand, and
it blocks a large portion of the heavens from view at any position on its surface. Correspondingly, the
individual's perception of their fundamental nature, of what they are at the roots of their being, is largely
determined by this angle. It also acts as a filter coloring the conscious self's perception of things welling
up from the preconscious levels of being. A similar perception and filtering occurs on the cultural level.
The midheaven and nadir are polar opposites in a state of tension; both in the individual and in a culture
they define the differences between heavenly and mundane, between light and dark, between objective
and subjective states, between what is concealed and what is arrayed openly. The ascendant and

descendant, on the other hand, both represent modes of transition between the polar opposites, two main
paths through which the poles relate to each other.
In the individual horoscope, the ascendant or rising sign represents the way in which the personal
subjective consciousness faces the external objective world. It is a window through which the self looks
out into the world, and through which it receives input from that world. It is in a sense the face or mask
the person projects to the world, the surface image behind which the internal workings of the subjective
self are hidden. At the same time it is a filter, a figurative set of colored glasses through which the person
sees the world.
The descendant angle represents the individual's perception of the "other", conceived of as something
separate from, but complementary to, the self. It defines what the individual perceives as the correct way
for two or more individual subjective selves to interact and balance their respective needs and desires.
In the cultural "horoscope" the functions of the ascendant and descendant are similar but more abstract.
The intense personal nature of the ascendant and the "otherness" of the descendant are weakened. Instead
the two corresponding signs of the cross are simply two complementary means by which the mundane
and divine poles are linked within the context of the society.
We can briefly illustrate this relationship between the signs of a zodiacal cross and the horoscope angles
by looking at the dominant cultural definitions present in Western culture during the "Piscean" era. After
that, we can consider some of the ways in which the cross of the incoming "Aquarian" era are manifesting
now.
A Look Back at Pisces and the Mutable Cross