Twoness

As you can tell, one of my main points of interest is the concept of dualism, in the sense of black and white and the grey area in between. The opposite poles of a dualism are inextricably bound, opposites that cannot be defined except as in relation to each other. This is expressed well by a magnet: the north and south poles are opposites, but cannot exist without the other. There is no one-pole magnet.

This is expressed well in the dualisms in astrology, the antagonised signs. What I'm doing here is more for self-clarification than anything, but I hope you see where I'm going, and please correct me if I say something stupid.

One such opposition is that between Aquarius and Leo:

• Aquarius is a fixed air sign, and Leo fixed fire;
• The greatest contract between the two is that Leo is the ego and Aquarius is the collective. Leo focuses on the self, while Aquarius focuses on the community;
• They are both, however, leaders; opposing leaders. Leo is the king, and Aquarius the leader of the opposing forces or party or what have you. Leo as fire attracts attention to himself, while Aquarius as air permeates everyone;
• Aquarius is the shadow of Leo, thus Aquarius can also be seen as the Vizier, the king behind the king.
• Leo rules from the heart and feeds on emotional courage, whereas Aquarius is cold and rational and works objectively;
• One cannot exist without the other, it has no meaning without it; thus deep down Leo is motivated, as king, by a love of his subjects, and Aquarius is fueled by a desire to be recognised;
• Leo anatomically represents the heart, and Aquarius the circulatory system; thus, Leo is the central engine that pumps vitality into the system, and Aquarius the means to carry this vitality throughout the system;
• On their dark sides, both tend to be dictatorial;
• The middle point, or balance of this opposition is the ruler who serves others, while not forgetting that in order to lead others one must first lead one's own life.

This idea is embodied in the sign of pisces. Pisces is two fish swimming in opposite directions; it is the sum of the sides of a polarity, the coming of a full circle. It also appears in Libra and Gemini: at first, there is realisation of the other, seeing the two sides of coins; then comes an attempt to balance this opposition, to harmonise it; finally comes a conciliation of the two opposites, in the last sign of the zodiac.

The 11th sign is Aquarius; it is ruled by Saturn, the gatekeeper into the next realm, and Uranus, the change in consciousness. When reaching the 12th house, we find Neptune, this illusory sense of the otherworldly. Beyond lies only Pluto, where there is transformation and rebirth.

(Naturally, today all the planets are either in Cancer or Capricorn, opposing signs, except for Jupiter and Saturn, respectively in Aries and Libra - also opposing signs -, and Neptune in Aquarius.)

This is all true to a much higher degree than astrology, of course. This concept of dualism is something we must face every day, and in fact we ourselves are the products of dualisms; we are slowly but constantly shifting as points in different arrays.

This is the dawning...

So not only is trouble brewing in Wisconsin, a South Carolina lawmaker wants his state to adopt an alternative currency (and, eventually, secession):

The state, which has never been a fan of federalism, has decided to embark on a new action to buck Washington. Their new idea? The South Carolinian Doubloon.

“If folks lose faith in the dollar, we need to have some kind of backup”, Tea Party Republican and State Senator Lee Bright explained. It is his proposal for the legislature to create a joint committee from the Assembly and State Senate to study the “feasibility” of an alternative currency.

Bright’s legislation states that the U.S. monetary system is headed for full-scale collapse. “Many widely recognized experts predict the inevitable destruction of the Federal Reserve System’s currency through hyperinflation in the foreseeable future.”

Bright’s effort is all in part of his larger plan to crate an independent South Carolina Republic. He was recently quoted by a local paper, “If at first you don’t secede, try again.”

Others in the state, however, believe it is a waste of time. Phil Bailey of the Senate Democratic Caucus wondered how the study will be funded, “Will they be paid in actual dollars or gold doubloons?”

Although gold doubloons would be pretty cool to collect, we here at D+T would like to see South Carolina stay in the Union. Mainly for the reason that we just finished our state quarter collection, and we have become pretty attached to collector’s map.

Kyle Daley, Death & Taxes 

So there is a call for freedom in the land of the free man. I believe we're getting serious reverberations here from the upcoming Age of Aquarius. Why? Well, if we look at how the ages affect religion, for the last two thousand years, we have been in the Age of Pisces. Religiously, this means it's about veneration, self-sacrifice and looking for the answer above, leading to a parental construction of God. This is what we have in Christianity and Islam, the dominating religions of the past twenty centuries. The Age of Aquarius, however, is about the collective. It is no longer about a relation to God and to others that is mutually exclusive, but a relation that considers God and others and oneself as all being one.

We are seeing these themes manifest in other growing areas, such as environmentalism and nutritional holism. These philosophies advocate looking at the Earth and our environment as part of one giant collective self. The film Avatar shows this in a much more literal sense, but it's a good example of what I'm talking about: we have this collectivity represented by the being Eywa. I'll explore the movie in a future post, relating it to Aquarian themes.

This all ties together with the revolutions in the Arab world. This is something that hasn't been limited to Tunisia and Egypt only, it is happening in many, many countries (Morocco, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Djibouti, possibly others). We are seeing here the power of the collective again. The Egyptians and Tunisians have shown the world that the collective will ALWAYS be stronger than the individual, so long as the collective does not become an individual in and of itself.

In the Age of Pisces, we looked to the skies for the answers and for paradise. Now, in the Age of Aquarius, we will realise that heaven is down here on Earth, and that God is not an abstract figure in the skies, but the sum of the collectivity here on Earth: the people, the environment, the planet.

p.s.: as an interesting note...in the film 2012, there is a massive polar shift, and the new South Pole ends up in Wisconsin. Hmm, change in polarity, massive disruption, Wisconsin...Guess that's another movie to add to the list.