The Aquarian Bird's Eye View

The Alchemical Journey will shortly be entering its Aquarian phase and on 22nd/23rd January, we will be entering into the Aquarius perspective for our monthly weekend workshop. Having climbed to the summit of the mountain in Capricorn and entered the consciousness of the initiate, made our declaration of commitment and taken our stand in the world, it is now time to come down the mountain and share our elevated understanding with the world. From its lofty elevation, looking toward humanity from a high place of understanding, Aquarius is able to see life as an interconnected web, a network of relatedness, the unity in diversity. In this way Aquarius is like an eagle, flying high above the world, able to see the bigger picture and offer that up as wisdom. Katharine Maltwood identified Aquarius as an eagle in The Glastonbury Zodiac, rather than the more familiar water-bearer and the symbolism certainly seems to fit the sign.  This is a freehand drawing of hers, depicting the Aquarius figure. Note the chalice well marked on, and Glastonbury Tor, which is the beak of the bird.

Anthony and myself have walked the Aquarius figure with Alchemical Journey groups on two previous occasions, the last being when we made our promotional film. The walk takes in many of Glastonbury's most prominent sights, including Glastonbury Tor (the beak), the Red and White Springs, the so-called Gog & Magog oak trees, and St Edmund's Hill (which is one of the bird's wings).  A remarkable thing happened at the top of the Tor.  Anthony was addressing the question of why Aquarius was represented by a bird, rather than a human figure, and at that moment a hawk flew close to us and turned and looked directly at us.  It was a remarkable moment of synchronicity and the timing of it seemed to confirm the "rightness" of the bird symbolism.  Kevin and Tim, our film-makers, were sharp enough to catch the moment on camera and it features in our film and some of you may have seen it. We walked the figure in the snow in early February last year - here's a pictures from that walk:

So perhaps what that hawk was reminding us of was the way that Aquarius gives us that bird's eye view.  Aquarius is unique among astrological perspectives in having the ability to rise above the human condition and to some extent detach itself from the unpredictable contingencies of human emotions.  Aquarius must stand apart from the human experience, and at times, fly close the wind in order to appreciate the web which connects the nodes of our unique identities together into a seamless dance.

Aquarius challenges us to hold the tension between our uniqueness and our similarity to those with whom we share the web and it challenges us to express whatever it is that makes us stand out in the world.  In Capricorn we stood up and accepted the mantle of responsibility.  Now, in Aquarius, we stand out from the crowd and express our difference, and through that, realise the unique difference that we each make in the world. This is the sign of the future and we will be journeying into the future in our imaginations, as together we co-create a coherent vision of what is to come as we prepare to enter the Aquarian Age.

For more details of our forthcoming Aquarius workshop, click HERE