The Brightness of Aquarius Part II

I have explored aspects of Aquarius in Part I which related to this sign’s mythology and symbolism.  To review, the basic qualities and characteristics of this paradoxical sign of Fixed Air are humanitarian and futuristic taking us into ever new fields of research and development where science and magic converge.  Aquarians run the gamut of statesmen and reformers to rebels without a cause.  They can be hard-core inventors, engineers, and scientists, intuitive visionaries, experimental artists and unorthodox, free-thinking radicals, and they can also be quite conservative defenders of the status quo with marked charismatic qualities.  They wish TO KNOW, and in that quest they seek ‘The Truth’.  Mental pioneers, truth becomes a path that seeks a brave new world where the group is unified by a common ideal.  Aquarius brings us to a new-found sense of wholeness even as the complexity of it all shows us the many paradoxical differences within that whole.

Aquarius Constellation
This is the tenth largest constellation covering a little over two percent of the sky.  Aquarius includes some 56 visible stars, three of which were known to the ancient Arabic world as al-Sa’d al-Malik, the lucky one; Sadalsuud, the luckiest of the lucky ones, and Skat, the star of supportive friends.  You’ll need a fixed star book to see if you were born with one of these favored stars prominent in your birth map.

Included in this constellation is a very interesting Helix planetary nebula known to astronomers as simply NGC7293.  Nebulas are enormous clouds of cosmic dust or gas, and this one is 700 light-years away from Earth, appearing quite large, the size of our Moon.

The German astronomer, Johann Galle discovered the planet Neptune within the boundary of Aquarius on September 24, 1846.  And now we have Neptune traversing this sign for a couple more years before she passes into her own ruler ship sign, Pisces in early 2012.

Relationships
Individualist says it all.  Each Aquarian should be taken on their own terms with no generalization except to say that they are in a class by themselves when it comes to uniqueness.  Freedom to learn and grow seems to also be a given for this sign which seeks a quality of experimentation within the boundaries of relationship.  Anyone looking for a cozy, co-dependent type of relationship should probably skirt a wide berth from strong Aquarian types.  I have, however, known Aquarians to stay in very solid, stable, long-term relationships.  You really have to look at the big picture of their make-up. Do they have a Moon in Cancer, for example?  Perhaps Taurus rising?  Look for planets in yin signs (Water or Earth) to bring balance into this ‘bachelor-bachelorette’ sign.

Sometimes, after many years of experimentation the Aquarian does settle down into a comfortable long-term relationship with no problem.  Look at Ronald Reagan, again, with his partner, Nancy.  One combination I have found particularly compatible is an Aries with an Aquarian.  They both enjoy freedom and independence and strike a nice harmonious balance with each other energetically, but I’ve seen Virgo with Aquarius do the same thing even though traditionally this is thought to be a relationship where much adjustment of energies must take place.

Aquarians make wonderful friends.  They are known for their tolerance and enjoyment of sharing fun-loving times with others.

I have very happy memories of a high-school friend named Paris who was quite unusual.  She stood out like a neon-sign in the small parochial boarding school where I first met her.  This was a school, mind-you, where boys sat on one side and girls on the other in joint forum gatherings.  Paris looked like Anita Ekberg (so who says Aquarians aren’t sexy??).  She was tall, stacked, with long blonde hair to her waist and she always wore high-heels everywhere except when she and I took off surreptitiously into the hills and hiked for hours on end in the wilderness surrounding this school.  Then she was Amazon-wild woman, brash and bold in forging through the densest of thickets and scrambling up the most treacherous of boulders.  I followed her lead and she urged me on.   We never got caught, and no one ever knew the forbidden treks we took with great regularity.  She was so much fun, full of hi-jinks.  She loved to get in people’s faces as being ‘different’, and she was!  Her later life was characterized by more experimental adventures including moving to Florence and marrying an Italian man in the leather goods business.   While writing this I decided on a hunch to try and find her.  Viola!  She’s still living the unique life in sunny Tuscany while running a charming inn and a horse riding club.  You can look her up as well at www.vacationmugnanoridingclub.com.  Needless to say, I’m excited to have found one of the best friends you could ever ask for.

Aquarians fit the new paradigm of marriage since World War II where freedom of choice and equality are honored above tradition.  Aquarian men often encourage their partners to increase their education, make their contribution to society, and venture into fields traditionally enjoyed only by men.  Aquarian women speak their minds and don’t necessarily require a ‘protector’ type of male.  They prefer shared companionship and interests to symbiotic unions.

Do Aquarians feel deeply?  Yes they do, but they may have a more difficult time fully expressing those feelings in a way that their partner can receive.  They may not enjoy squishing around in messy, dirty emotions.  Somewhat like their Leo opposite, they handle their emotions on their own without as much of a need to dig down with their partner into the steamy under-belly of  the unconscious.  The paradox is that Aquarians can often act out these raw instinctual passions with strangers or in short-term experimental liaisons.  A lot of porn-stars are Aquarians.  Oh, yes, they are!  Do some field-work on this one.  Granted many would take offense to what I’ve just said because they are loyal and loving with one mate, but the Aquarian ability to ‘universalize’ is marked.  Getting intimate immediately with a stranger is natural when you project on to them in a flash ‘I am you, and you are me’.    The ability to take risks and experiment is certainly there.  There is also the ability to ‘detach’ and do something that some of the other signs would feel highly uncomfortable with.  Outrageously unconventional is a term describing some Aquarians all right.

Returning to the higher ideal of Aquarius, if freedom of choice is a natural part of this sign’s path, then the search for true love as a communion of two souls is a worthy goal.  When an Aquarian is spiritually-oriented, as many that I know are, they seek a very high and refined union where common ideals are shared yet the genuine appreciation for individual differences is encouraged so that both partners have an equal chance of growth and evolution within the loving embrace of union.  Some astrologers have gone as far as saying that we are evolving to the Aquarian paradigm of relationship where ‘I am whole in and of myself, and you are whole in and of yourself, so let’s come together and share, and help each other to become even more of that which we are capable of evolving into.’

Famous Aquarians
There are so many fascinating Aquarians to study both historically and in present time.  The great Galileo with his far-reaching view of the macrocosm was Aquarian as was Darwin whose evolutionary theories are still with us today.  Ampere and Thomas Edison brought us inventions which changed our world technologically.  Mystics like St. Francis of Assisi and Meister Eckhart were Aquarians.  In the acting world, Paul Newman and Vanessa Redgrave come to mind.  Politically there have been many American presidents born under this sign, including Abraham Lincoln, FDR, and Ronald Reagan, as well as the recent VP, Dick Cheney.  One of the greatest conductors of all time, Wilhelm Furtwangler was born on January 25th.

Let’s look at a painting of the artist Johann H. Fussli, of the Romantic period near the end of the 18th Century.  His paintings were rich with mythological themes and expressed non-religious ideals which inspired him.  His contemporary Goethe said of him, “…he is a mortal who possesses the powers of the gods.”.

Ken Wilber
Born January 31, 1949 in Oklahoma City, Ken Wilber epitomizes the vast synthesizing abilities of Aquarians in his prolific writings encompassing science, psychology, religion, and mysticism.  Starting with the simple idea of the ‘holon’ which he took from Arthur Koestler, he began to build a map of consciousness where every entity or concept can be viewed as a whole unit itself, yet is part of some other whole.  His first book published in 1977, The Spectrum of Consciousness set the stage for the unfoldment of a multitude of philosophical works such as The Marriage of Sense and Soul: Integrating Science and Religion, and finally ending in A Theory of Everything: An Integral Vision for Business, Politics, Science and Spirituality.  He even wrote a novel entitled Boomeritis: A Novel That Will Set You Free about the Baby-Boomer generation, or what we astrologers call the Pluto in Leo generation.

Wilber’s ability to show the inter-relatedness of differing disciplines and constructs under a comprehensive and organized methodology is a true Aquarian accomplishment.  To quote Wikipedia, “…all of these mental structures—subconscious, rational, mystical—are considered complementary and legitimate, rather than competing in a zero-sum conceptual space.  And that is perhaps Wilber’s greatest accomplishment—the opening up of a space wherein more ideas, theories, beliefs, and stories can be considered true, responsible, and acceptable.”

My favorite of all his books is Grace and Grit, a very personal autobiographical book where he opens up and shares his deepest feelings and thoughts following the death of his beloved wife, Treya, who discovered that she had a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer immediately after they married in 1983.  The book takes you on an amazing journey of consciousness involving exactly what the title implies, grace and grit.

Wilber’s birth map shows the signature of a mystic who seeks union and relationship through the lens of Neptune rising in Libra.  His Aquarian Sun is followed by Mercury retrograde and Mars in Aquarius epitomizing the vital inquisitiveness of his far-reaching and all-encompassing mind, but opposed by Pluto in Leo, which in turn forms a Yod to Jupiter in Capricorn and Moon in Pisces forcing him to delve deeper and deeper into the mysteries of life and to make the effort to extrapolate from the vast complexities of his ever-expanding theories a core truth which transcends dualism.  I feel that the depth of his love for Treya broke him open to aspects of the mystery that bridged him beyond the theoretical to the experiential where wisdom is truly gained.  After that journey of transcendence through her death his works took on added richness and meaning, for an Aquarian who has felt that deeply can truly reach the hearts of others no matter how intellectually advanced their minds work.

And now let’s move from someone known only by those who seek out such ‘heady thinkers’ to an Aquarian who is a world-wide ‘house-hold’ name…

Oprah Winfrey

Ah, Oprah!  What can be said about this very famous self-made woman that hasn’t already been said?  I love her name:  Oprah, like operatic, opulence, and optimism.  Winfrey, like a winner who is free.  She truly is in a class by herself, bigger than life, beautiful, black, and a bountiful soul intent on sharing with others her Aquarian blessings.  She has enormous popular appeal with Neptune at her Midheaven forming a T-square to Chiron in her first and Uranus in her 7th.  This mixture of Promethean/Chirotic gifts and suffering gives her an extra edge in both reaching the masses, but also in coming out of the cave of her abandonment and pain issues to help heal and teach others that they, too, can triumph and reach a place of self-fulfillment no matter what their circumstances.

She has a Venus, Sun, and Mercury conjunction in Aquarius in her 2nd house of assets and talents.  She leads with her heart (Venus), empowers it with her energy (Sun), and goes to the breadth and depth of it all with her mind (Mercury opposite Pluto).  And, yes, she’s a highly evolved and skilled business woman who has used the capitalistic way to advance her own agenda which is actually bigger and more humanitarian in scope and perhaps why now she is moving on to ‘do her own thing’ more fully.  Her Sun/Mercury trines Jupiter, her chart ruler, in Gemini.  Buoyant and optimistic she is blessed with a veritable fountain of activities and interests to keep her fueled and well-equipped to keep on expanding and growing in any number of directions simultaneously.

That an illegitimate African-American girl from the heart of Mississippi could achieve her stature, wealth, and humanitarian accomplishments is a tribute to the Aquarian spirit of America and to her Aquarian resolve as a soul to be the brightest and best no matter the odds.  This great spirit of individuality, which is at the heart of every Aquarian, is also connected with the greater whole, which is the goal of every Aquarian.  She is a shining example of using her special unique talents to bring many together for positive change and fulfillment.