The 5th Dimension Age of Aquarius 1969
The Age of Aquarius
The ultimate earworm and no one at the time could escape it. Every flower child heralded it, and every conservative howled at it. The Age of Aquarius was a global pulse that left its mark well into present day, and its people are here as real as anything can be.
The footprint of that spiritual “awakening” is manifest in the New Age movement, the Back to the Earth movement, the Whole Foods movement, the Environmental movement, the Women’s Liberation movement, the Anti-War movement, the advent of Eastern Philosophies, Yoga, Meditation, the Arts and Occults of dozens of thought forms, on and on…
Where were we then, and where are we now? It could be said nothing is changed since most of us are still here. Did we advance anything? Did we improve our humanity, or did we hasten its decline? Did we expand our consciousness, or narrow our opinion? Did it strengthen us for impending trials, or did it soften us and make us vulnerable?
One school of thought claimed that questioning is destructive, while there was a bookstore called Yes! Be here now be here, Don Juan and the peyote “vision quest”, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Kundalini Yoga and Yogi Bhajan, Ekankar, Paul Twitchell and soul travel, The International Loving Relationships Training and all of its offspring…
The Moody Blues.
We could go on and on. We dipped our toes into the delights of spiritual freedom and expression.
Are we better for it?
“There are four roads, you must take the one in the middle”
It is here where we meet The Crossroads since they are the only four roads that meet in the middle, and it is here we must remain.
We could say that most of human existence was comprised of effort to ensure survival, dealing with the elements and provision, the physical world in physical ways, while a very small segment of populations could indulge in lengthy spiritual pursuit. Not until there was leisure time available could enough of us indulge in studying the navel and mount such a colossal spiritual renaissance, in the order of biblical in scale. It will surely go down as historical precedence.
We could say that internalizing all of the Cosmic energies has done little to solve global issues, since those issues occur mainly in the Real World. Meditation and prayer might be helpful, but it never plowed a row.
We could subscribe to the Warrior’s Way, since his seems to embrace both the physical and spirit Worlds.
We could hope that technology will save us, and worship a new deity, a benevolent one or a fearsome one.
One thing seems certain. We are at The Crossroads.
“Everything I see, in this room, through this window, in this chair, is not real”
from A Course in Miracles
It might be comforting to take a scientific viewpoint, where the universe is strictly mechanical in classical physics or strictly uncertain in the quantum. We could have it both (or in all) ways.
The Age of Aquarius brought us to where we are now through a period of enlightenment, not the first and with luck not the last. Maybe what we gain is a better understanding of the cyclic nature of things.
Meanwhile, the remnants of that blazing moment in time lives on in the readers and writers, the movers and shakers, the players and perpetrators, spellbinders and shapeshifters and a multitude of adherents in one way or another. All of us carrying the DNA from a simple melody and phrase that spawned a concept, and unrequited love affair with a paradise on Earth.
Peace…
Thanks goes to Ellen from Endwell for technical support: https://substack.com/@ellenfromendwell
You picked the perfect video to accompany your post, and thanks for the mention at the bottom. I was happy to help given my own technical struggles.
You raise a big question here, and it's similar to what's been coming up in my mind researching all the protest songs. Those songs are all completely relevant today! Not much has really changed and we have the same issues we had in the sixties, only I would say worse in some ways as we're involved in two proxy wars, the BRICS alliance is growing by the day, and from what I read the US dollar is under serious threat. When I read quotes from the 60s about the problems like war and government corruption, they could be people talking today. It's quite eerie.
So you're right, where has all that leisure time and Age of Aquarius stuff gotten us?
On the other hand, having engaged in quite a bit of that stuff myself over the years (as I used to go to a yoga and meditation center run by a guru to take spiritual and personal development programs), I would say that it is actually helpful but most people engage in it at a very superficial level. My brother is right now in a very difficult situation caring for a partner who had a double concussion and cannot really function, so he has to take care of everything, leading to almost a nervous breakdown. He's started meditating regularly to cope and it's made a world of difference for him and he's also become a much nicer person, and he says he's feeling a lot of joy he didn't feel before. It's not something I'm drawn to do, but I'm very happy that it's helping him and making his life more livable and enjoyable.
But I agree, we are at the Crossroads. Which way to go? Or should we stay where we are and see what energies we can draw to us?
Love your last phrase -- "unrequited love affair with a paradise on Earth." A lot to think about in that phrase alone.