We have crossed the frontier of not only a new millennium, but also a new era (or Age) of man and civilization: the Aquarian (or 4th) Age. The symbolism of the Ages of Man tries to articulate the aspirations of humanity - our hopes for the future. But these same zodiacal symbols also indicate the price of failure in these endeavors.

The Age of Aries (2000 B.C. - 0) is symbolic of the split into opposites. Collectively, this division can be interpreted as the distinctions between the linear-thinking west and the cyclical-thinking east; individually this represents the division of mind into the conscious and unconscious domains. This is the spring of youth, when developing emotions both construct and distort our view of the living experience. Aries is a fire symbol.

The Age of Pisces (0 - 2000 A.D.) is symbolic of the opposites in conflict: ideology against ideology, nation against nation, brother against brother, man against woman, and the conscious mind against the unconscious. This is the summer of maturity, when the developed rational intellect attempts to impose its will upon an unyielding nature. Pisces is a water symbol.

The Age of Aquarius (2000 - 4000 A.D.) is symbolic of the union of opposites: all those things rent asunder shall come together in harmony and co-operation. It is imagined as a utopian era free of the unceasing conflict that characterized and traumatized the Piscean Age, a time of revolutionary miracles when ideas, nations, men and women, and the unified mind all work together toward an objective so wonderful that it defies the Piscean imagination. This is the autumn of old age, when wisdom - tempered by knowledge and experience - can at last make the intuitive leap to conceive of a new way of existing in absolute empathy with ourselves, our neighbors, humanity, and the planet earth itself. The Aquarian Age is an archetype of paradise where the four cardinal virtues (Temperance, Justice, Fortitude, and Prudence) mediate every interaction from the individual to the global. Aquarius is an air symbol.

This is a quite extraordinary ambition, and most people harbor grave doubts as to whether such a future is even possible, let alone probable. But the hope we have for such a future is pervasive, persistent, and ancient. In fact, there are many people who believe the world once knew an Aquarian civilization: Atlantis. Nobody knows for certain whether Atlantis really existed or not ? the skeptically inclined aren’t prepared to accept Plato’s musings on the subject without genuine evidence. The question that always arises is: Why have we never found even the faintest archeological trace of Atlantis? There are many unsatisfying answers in reply. But there is at least one plausible explanation, enigmatic in its eerie accordance with symbolic prediction: Atlantis, and every record of its existence, was scraped from the face of the earth in the last ice age.

Symbolically, these Ages of Man are analogous to the seasons, and with each new year the whole cycle of life (or civilization) must begin again. A utopian epoch in an autumnal age must necessarily be followed by a great winter. Modern geology suggests that the earth’s history is punctuated by just such great winters: glacial ice ages. Just as the last autumnal epoch, Gemini, was followed by the Winter of Taurus, so too must the Age of Aquarius be followed by Capricorn - an earth destiny sign, and an age of winter.

In this image, that poorly understood force of nature that initiates such glaciation is seen as an Angel upon the symbolic top of the world. She looks to the heavens (where the zodiacal position of the sun at the vernal equinox determines which Age it is) waiting for a sign, some indication that her time has come, and that she must now render a terrible celestial judgment upon planet earth. The warning to mankind is clear: we do not have forever to realize our Aquarian objectives. The certainty of annihilation - by a miles-high continent of ice - imposes a time?limit on our aspirations to succeed and live, rather than fail and die, like Atlantis. Will humanity work together and triumph? The celestial clock is ticking and the messenger of cosmic will is waiting...