CESNUR - Centro Studi sulle Nuove Religioni diretto da Massimo Introvigne
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CESNUR 2006 International Conference
July 13-16, 2006
San Diego State University, San Diego, California
Religion, Globalization, and Conflict: International Perspectives

Globalisation or Aquarius: Are "We" Talking From the Same Thing?

by By Sébastien GREGOV, Ph. D. Student, Paris University Sorbonne IV

A paper presented at the CESNUR 2006 International Conference. Please do not reproduce or quote without the consent of the author

INTRODUCTION

Why ( for heaven’s sake!) bring together a present-time political economical fact and a psycho-spiritual belief, thousands of years old? What may  link them together?

First – and it might sound somewhat astonishing – perhaps because globalization is a matter of belief too. Indeed there is much academic discussion about whether globalization is a real phenomenon or only an analytical artefact : a myth! And in fact both topics are only distinctions of language (“Numen nomen” used to say the nominalist Victor Hugo… Second : if astrology originates in an immemorial tradition, its modern shape imitates modern sciences, putting them in the same time into question. So what kind of relationship link them or oppose them? Are they two kinds of reality, or though the same one, lived, and seen  from the point of view of two different kinds of people

In a sociological survey upon modern forms of astrology appearing in France up to the nineteen seventies, Edgar Morin gives this piece of advice: we need to ask the man who is asking the stars. So we should go on a journey through the history of astrology, after considering how things stand at present : Aquarius, for or against globalization? The first part of the paper shows to what extent the world is globalized (or paradoxically : not enough); then a question can be asked, following the evolution of astrology from its origins to the nineteen eighties –  because there is a borderline that was drawn in the sixties and seventies, i.e. the time where the New Age Movement played the role of the harbinger of a future change-over of values. But we will ask the question: why the Aquarian revolution didn’t really succeed. And finally, as the opening song of the 1967 successful Musical Hair related,  with  its memorable line: “This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius”, we keep considering astrology again and its mutations in the two last decades, and ask if there are still Aquarian conspirators today, and how they look like: what is the new face of Aquarius! That will be a case study of a Gnostic and Rosicrucian NRM (New Religious Movement) : the Lectorium Rosicrucianum.

I/      AQUARIANS FACING GLOBALIZATION : A CONFUSED LOVE STORY

That is to stress first that definitions either of globalization or of Aquarius are all highly subjective, depending of the position and experiences of the definer[i].

A/ GLOBALIZATION: MYTH OR REALITY?

That is why globalization for instance is source of much debate and controversy about its nature and its merits:

1/ GLOBALIZATION IN QUESTION

Organigramma
2/ DEFINING GLOBALIZATION IS NOT FINDING IT

However a typical definition can be taken from the IMF (International Monetary Fund) as the growing economic interdependence of countries worldwide through increasing volume and variety of cross-border transactions in goods and services, free international capital flows, and more rapid and widespread diffusion of technology.

But the reason why a lot of controversy about globalization occurs is that the common sense opinion rests upon a historical twisted perspective.

B/ THE HISTORICAL MISUNDERSTANDING

The paradox is :

But both are right !

1/ THE TWO PREVIOUS ERAS OF GLOBALIZATION WERE BLOODY     

According to the French economist Daniel Cohen[ii], we have been already involved in the third globalization.

2/ HOW COULD THE THIRD GLOBALIZATION JOIN AQUARIAN EXPECTATIONS?

In popular culture, the expression "Age of Aquarius" usually refers to the heyday of the hippie and New Age "movement" of the 1960s and 1970s.

The experience of the past is an insurmountable obstacle for their confidence in the globalizing process. But do we have really the choice?

C/  THE 3RD GLOBALIZATION HAS ALREADY HAPPENED TOO : BUT ONLY IN THE CONSCIOUSNESS!

To sum up the whole, let’s stress with Daniel Cohen some paradoxical features of the new world economy in the beginning millennium.

1/ WITH OR WITHOUT YOU!

But if the planetary consciousness is on its way to globalization, the economic forces are back, that is the reason why globalization actually is so disappointing : it hasn’t completely happened yet, and people looking forward to its advent in advance are therefore frustrated.

2/ FRUSTRATIONS USUALLY LEAD AQUARIANS TO ANTI-GLOBALIZATION

The only International movement that is actually successful is signalized by the fertility transition: that is the “Women Conspiracy”. Maybe not money dominates the changing world but women!

But what’s on with the Aquarian conspiracy? Has it failed or succeeded?

II/ WHY THE AQUARIAN CONSPIRACY HASN’T REALLY SUCCEEDED

A first series of explanations are to be found in the relationship between modern-time globalization and a dawning age, still hard to locate in time; the second kind of reasons is internal: astrology has changed with the time, and in connection to it the conditions for being a conspirator.

A/ THECOMPETITION WITH GLOBALIZATION DID THE AQUARIAN CONSPIRACY A BAD TURN

Let’s go now further into details and investigate the characteristics of Aquarius and Globalization in comparison.

1/ THE SAME… BUT DIFFERENT!

The prophetic and messianic power of Aquarius seems to be the counterpart of the mundane expectations included in the craving for globalization, summarized as follows (see chart)

THE AQUARIAN ‘CONSPIRACY’

Equivalent items (?)

THE ‘GLOBALIZED’ WORLD

Encourage the Spiritual development

Spirit/ Intellect

Sharing/ protecting  Intellectual property

Ethic aims like universal brotherhood rooted in reason; practice truly Christian love

Religious Moral / atheistic Ethic

Save the planet, equitable=ethic, if possible = ecologic

man and God are one; love thy neighbour…

Spirituality/ Community

Connect people, get in touch with anyone

Selflessness is the key (ontological self surrender)

I-lessness/ Generosity

Equitable trade (practical self surrender)

Intuition above reason;

open the heart

Inner/ Outer change

Technology: innovate or die!

Computerization: 0+1=all

Man involved in a cosmic adventure

Cosmic/ Human Way

Politics- Social welfare: infrastructures and organizations ruling at a planetary level

But all in all, the items could probably be compared term by term. And even if mainly the intentions and the perspective are different (there is always a slight discrepancy between their spheres of  activity), these are very close to each other, and confounding the one with the other could easily occurs, but nearly in all cases to the benefit of the second, mundane topic.

2/ GLOBALIZATION IS AHEAD OF AQUARIUS… EVEN FOR MANY CENTURIES!

Trends or eras like the two studied here possess a prophetic power which precedes their coming. However the figures are not of the same order.

Well trying to reach an agreement, we can say that Aquarius is not so far, and we might be in a transitional period, at the turning point between two eras… Be that as it may, expecting that something occurs in a decade is not the same as waiting for hundreds of years. You must be extremely patient if you want to be an Aquarian.  Somehow not every body can have such a cool blooded attitude! And a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush…  since the second are yet too unreal to be true.

3/ TOO OPTIMISTIC TO BE TRUE

Indeed if we go deeper into the matter, we can notice that the negative aspects of Aquarius are reduced to nothing, while the so called movement of ‘Global justice’ emphasizes the risk of misusing westernization (see chart). But there can hardly be only a brighter future, or what?

OPPORTUNITIES

RISKS

Elimination of boundaries and frontiers, between people or states or nations or cultures

which can mean in a negative option, uniformity or forced  conformism

Transition to a planetary phase of civilization, a global society, even if alternative visions of the global future (like by the Global Scenario Group) offer a new solution for avoiding pollution and destruction of the natural environment, like “eco-communalism” or the “new sustainability paradigm”, in a more equitable way

The risk of a political ruling of neo-liberalists (power of money),  who are attempting to use certain images and discourses of world politics to justify their political agendas, is not to be dismissed

Furious interconnection between people and thoughts all around the world by the means of new technologies (cellular phone, Internet, TV, Computerization, satellites…) which everyone can afford

But there can be a fly in the ointment : the western model can take the whole place and easily supplant the local culture, causing reduction in diversity through hybridization or even cultural assimilation

Development of organizations, legal systems and infrastructures to allow the movement in all its forms (international trade, flow of capital and investment, cultural exchange, travel, immigration, languages…); to take some examples, the GATT, NAFTA, WTO, IMF, International Court of Justice, copyright and patent laws…

But will they still keep their eye on people’s welfare, instead of turning without gripping?

Formation of a set of universal values…

But who choose them and how?... And they must be something different than the recent KOF-index measuring globalization[xii]!

B/ THE MODERN DEVELOPMENT OF ASTROLOGY DIVIDED THE AQUARIAN COMMUNITY

1/ THE DOUBLE LOGIC OF ASTROLOGY : ASTROLOGICAL AND ANALOGICAL

Astrology can be seen as a double edged (scientific) approach to reality: if the astrological approach is related to time and space, the analogical view is the other side of the coin, far more inclined to consider things by their essence, therefore eternal…

Diagramma circolare

2/ THE PERPETUAL MUTATION OF ASTROLOGY HAS REPEATED ITSELF IN THREE DECADES

First, to take the measure of the successive changing, an historical overview of astrology points out clearly that the scope of astrology extremely varies within time[xiv].

CHALDEAN EPOCH

ASTROLOGY

ASTRONOMY

RELIGION

GRECO-ROMAN EPOCH

ASTRONOMY

ASTROLOGY

RELIGION

MIDDLE-AGES

16TH CENTURY

OCCULTISM

SUPERSTITIONS

17TH CENTURY

18TH CENTURY

SCHOLAR ASTROLOGY

MASS-ASTROLOGY

19TH CENTURY

NEOESOTERIC

PARASCIENTIFIC

VULAGARIZATION

20TH CENTURY

NEW GNOSIS

CULTIVATED ASTROLOGY

MIDDLE-CLASS ASTROLOGY

Religion and astronomy were initially connected with astrology. Then they split up and astrology went its own way, dividing in two main streams, a mass-astrology and a scholarly current. The former passed unhidden into the public domain, and the collective consciousness; the latter mostly disappeared under a nebulous esoteric front.ù

60’s

Integrative euphoria of the mass-culture : the Californian golden age : hip-movement, women’s Lib movement, communes

Attraction to others, communication

70’s

New topic : difficulty to be

Golden age of relational psycho-astrology : the ego is attracted by its depth as well as by the world around him

80’s

A nebulous constellation  of post- or meta- Freudianism : a new syncretism, a new gnosis

Undermined human sciences become ‘science of the subject’, in order to  reconcile soma, psyche and cosmos

Mesopotamian period

others

Astrology servs social destiny ; religious in its essence

Greco-roman period

Me and others

Astrology becomes profane, individual prediction replace the impersonal forcasting

Contemporary period

Just me alone

Last metamorphosis : the birth sky is now taken into account : the astro-individual relationship replaces the astro-social dimension

Now all the ingredients are gathered to poison Aquarius…

C/ THE SOCIAL INTEGRATION OF AQUARIAN CONSPIRATORS KILLED ALMOST ALL OF THEM

1/ SOCIAL MUTATION : FROM THE AQUARIAN CONSPIRACY TO THE ‘CULTURAL CREATIVES’

San Diego is the perfect place to deal with the survey of the journalist Marilyn Ferguson, starting in the sixties and ending in the seventies. At the beginning, she hadn’t got a clue how to baptize the movement she conducted her survey on in California.  Then she spoke of an Aquarian Conspiracy.

2/ THE AQUARIAN SIGN VANISCHES

CHILDREN OF AQUARIUS

CULTURAL CREATIVES

1

Access : shake the old attitude of mind – say no

Inner departure – awake from sleep-walking

2

Exploration : forced carelessness or -  say yes

Getting ready -  follow the heart

3

Integration : live in mystery

Face critics – keep silent about what matters

4

Join the conspiracy : serve others

Put into practice  the new values - go out of the straitjacket of ordinary egoism

3/ THE SECULAR MODE OF CULTURE WARS REPLACES DEFINITELY THE SPIRIT (OF AQUARIUS)

Today-Aquarius in its popular widespread version has mainly nothing in common with a cosmic “International”, or a revolutionary intergalactic anthem. To say it openly, the public opinion sees in it rather a prank…

But we neglected till this point a kind of astrology that remains somehow pure from the mass-media ‘corruption’ : the hidden astrology or occult version. So let’s penetrate in this new and last field of the demonstration and follow, with this aim in mind, the mutation of a NRM : the LECTORIUM ROSICRUCIANUM.

III/ THE TODAY AQUARIAN CONSPIRACY : THE MODERN OFFSPRING OF GNOSTIC COUNTER-CULTURE

NEITHER GLOBALIZATION NOR POPULAR ASTROLOGY : both opponents are sent away without pronouncing in favour of either.

A/ THE FEW SURVIVORS

Few people are still stirring up the Aquarian revolution, but in the Gnostic milieu.

But be hidden is not a sufficient condition: something in the teaching must preserve it from being absorbed by the individual astrology, which is the effect of a socio-cultural pressure: the society attempts to control the anxiety in post-modern urban areas for instance by reassuring and cheering people thanks to the astrology mentioned above (see the demonstration by Paul Fischler, Op.cit.).

1/ THE ASTERIX’S COMPLEX  BY GNOSTICS

Few people still resisting the invaders… It sounds a bit typically French…

Now what could give the Gnostics their uniqueness? The greatest difference is the teaching of two orders of nature.

2/ THE BREAK POINT :  THE TWO ORDERS OF NATURE

Once upon a time… Mankind who turned away from God brought into existence a fallen world. Thus time and space began too, so the Gnostic tells the myth of the second creation by a luciferian supremacy or demiurge…

3/ NO GNOSTICS ARE CONSEQUENTLY INTERESTED IN HOROSCOPS

Here is a turning point in the astrological considerations mentioned above : if the whole cosmos is a fallen world, it does not bring anything to deepen its knowledge.

The history of the L.R. is nothing else than defining properly what is exactly this “Gnostic touch”…

B/ THE ROSICRUCIAN MYTH IS CONTEMPORARY WITH THE REVIVAL OF ASTROLOGY

 The analogical  law gives the Rosycross its whole history and contents. The analogy serves the Rosycross thought in all sorts of form: the dialectic between macro- and microcosm at a philosophical level; the “mise en abyme” at a literary level, most of all the repetition at a historical level.

1/ ASTROLOGY IN THE MIDDLE-AGES OR ROSYCROSS IN THE LATE RENAISSANCE  : BIS REPETITAS

The classical Rosycross from the early 17th century was born in Germany with the publication of two Manifestos, Fama and Confessio Fraternitatis (in 1614 and 1615), and an initiatory tale, the Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz, A.D. 1459 in 1616. Together those writings presented a legend related to a German pilgrim named "C.R.C.", who was later in the third Manifesto introduced as Christian Rosenkreuz. The legend tells that this pilgrim studied in the Middle East under various occult masters and founded the Rosicrucian Order, which aimed to bring about a "universal reformation of mankind"[xvi].

2/ CHRISTIAN ROSENKREUZ : BORN UNDER THE SIGN OF EXCEPTION

The dialectics between Christian Rosycross – a man like another, maybe worse – and Father Brother CRC, the eternal archetype, make the story double-sided. The individual shape vanishes behind the cosmic one.

To conclude, by virtue of the sacred astrology of the origins, the Rosicrucian myth draws a strict parallel between heaven and man : because man is not considered in a personal way, but indeed only in an allegorical  or archetypical way.

If we do a double take, the teaching of

In the Age of Aquarius –which has already begun for Jan Van Rijckenborgh, as stated before[xix] – new planets, recently discovered and farer than others[xx], start to have a stronger influence upon mankind, crossing the influences of the previous planets: in the Age of Pisces, Venus, Mercury and Mars were mostly ruling the development and orientation of man’s heart, head and pelvis, ‘sanctuaries’ of feeling, thinking and acting. Nowadays the influence of the three so called ‘mystery planets’ Uranus, Neptune and Pluto (which are all beyond the orbit of Saturn) are playing more and more a discriminating role: This is the cosmic event which Jan Van Rijckenborgh soon associates with the stars appearing in the sky in 1604[xxi].

But one more time, be careful: ‘dualism oblige’, it is always the same story – and this the fine but crucial difference with other astrological thoughts – all depends on the orientation of the heart: if it stays centred on the I, only an imitative force of Aquarius will be free in man, but not liberating. The addition of all copying forces build in turn a copy of Aquarius, called by Gnostics “eon”, i.e. imprisoning forces of the zodiac. Otherwise, the spark contained in one’s heart can be free and make one’s acts change radically. If many experience this kind of freedom, they are liberating in turn the real sign of Aquarius, revealing the real sense of it. On the contrary, most of people could cling to the former dispensation too and insist in the way of life and thinking prevailing in the Age of Pisces. Last but not least people (or better consciousnesses) interested only in power, glory or possession, will probably be pretending to act  (formally) in an Aquarian way, but indeed stay deeply linked with the forces of Pisces.

TASTE… AND DISTASTE FOR ASTROLOGY

A particular place in the teaching

C/ ASTROSOPHY OR  “GLOBALIZED VERSION” OF ASTROLOGY?

1/ THE L.R. IS BORN OF THE DISPUTE BETWEEN ASTROLOGERS : THE SCHISM BETWEEN MAX HEINDEL AND  JAN VAN RIJCKENBORGH

The teaching of Jan Van Rijckenborgh (born Jan Leene) may first look like Heindel’s doctrine, taste like Heindel’s, but is not Heindel’s. Jan Leene and his brother Z.W. Leene were firstly active members of the Rosicrucian Fellowship of Heindel and responsible for the Dutch area. They gave lessons in astrology according to the doctrine of Heindel, then both split away and founded the Rosycross of Haarlem or Golden Rosycross, also called Lectorium Rosicrucianum.

This break with traditional astrology may bring two great consequences: first the “black list” of 1996 probably condemned the L.R especially because his astrologic teachings was none of a known form: too Gnostic, too radical, too fewer compromise for personality; second the neo apocalyptic content of the teaching appeared therefore reinforced and it could have  frightened the reporters: religion as well as policy are conspiracies which are to be destroyed by time.

So it is time now to come back to globalization. Pegasus was condemned by Nike to stay – worldwide –  on earth: as a shoe! The modern Rosicrucians prefer the unicorn: revealing the superiority of spirit beyond horizontal imitation. This great fight between Pegasus and the Unicorn is the stumbling block between globalization and the astrosophy of the L.R.

2/ THE THREE MYSTERY PLANETS : AQUARIUS FACING THE MATERIAL WORLD

The L.R. sees globalization as the reduction on the material level of the Aquarian message, therefore an uncompleted caricature. However people react to its influences, and in accordance with their state of consciousness, their responding can be liberating or not. Let’s just take the example of  Uranus.

RENEWING INFLUENCES

DARK SIDE OF MYSTERY PLANETS

Uranus

Higher octave of  Venus, regarding the heart sanctuary, developing imagination : flexibility of the spirit, spiritual revolution, sense of observation, introspection, imagination, clear-sightedness.

Uncontrollable States of exaltation or outburst.

(see at the end of the 60’s  the sexual  frenzy).

Neptune

Higher octave of  Mercury, regarding the head sanctuary, developing inspiration : breeds universal ideas, manifests the spiritual dimension in man, stimulates the listening attention (inside and outside), develops the sense for communitarian links.

Plunges man into phantasmagorias which dissolves the consciousness in the “great water” of the etheric world

(see in the 60’s people taking  drugs to excess).

Pluto

Higher octave of  Mars, regarding the pelvis sanctuary, developing intuition ; supports the spiritual will to act rightly at the right moment,  strengthens a new attitude of life; has a positive influence in the life of man only if he accepts the idea of transfiguration (death of the I-personality to the benefit of the soul-personality; forces to a complete regeneration of mind and habits.

Fit of  radicalism and self destroying crisis.

(see to hat extent soon in the 60’sthe growth of extremism : today the terrorist threat).

CONCLUSION

Of two evils choose the lesser?

Edgar Morin stated that, always when we question seriously the present time, it reveals us its roots, it makes sensible, visible, real – in particular “ecosystemic” and chronological conditions – what is anthropological but has been till now only in a virtual state. And it works conversely too! That is why he gave this piece of advice: we need to ask the man who is asking the stars. That is what we have done.

Beyond the debate about who we are when we speak either of  Globalization or of Aquarius, the stake is consequently eschatological, even more than ideological, that is why the answer cannot be easy nor simple, but is of interest for anyone: either futurologists, astrologers or investors, directors, politicians, economists, or even gurus…

But Morin added : “If the contemporary science can’t tell anything about the person (subject), and if astrology is a false science, then we must search for the scienza nuova.” In the Italian Renaissance, Pico della Mirandola and Marcilio Ficino used to clash with each other : Ficino combined horoscopes, Pico refused in the name of science. Though both were fascinated by the sky, and love was the purest image of God according to both of them. We hope to have shown that a slight discrepancy in the meaning of a word (astrology) can have the deepest consequences in our time. Whether globalized or Aquarian, the world is now changing extremely quickly and radically. And everyone is asked to follow or to resist. Using the stars or not, may the clear consciousness guide everyone’s steps.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION. 2

I/     AQUARIANS FACING GLOBALIZATION : A CONFUSED LOVE STORY. 2

A/ GLOBALIZATION: MYTH OR REALITY?. 2

1/ GLOBALIZATION IN QUESTION. 2

2/ DEFINING GLOBALIZATION IS NOT FINDING IT. 3

B/ THE HISTORICAL MISUNDERSTANDING. 3

1/ THE TWO PREVIOUS ERAS OF GLOBALIZATION WERE BLOODY. 3

2/ HOW COULD THE THIRD GLOBALIZATION JOIN AQUARIAN EXPECTATIONS?. 4

C/  THE 3RD GLOBALIZATION HAS ALREADY HAPPENED TOO : BUT ONLY IN THE CONSCIOUSNESS! 4

1/ WITH OR WITHOUT YOU! 4

2/ FRUSTRATIONS USUALLY LEAD AQUARIANS TO ANTI-GLOBALIZATION. 4

II/ WHY THE AQUARIAN CONSPIRACY HASN’T REALLY SUCCEEDED. 5

A/ THECOMPETITION WITH GLOBALIZATION DID THE AQUARIAN CONSPIRACY A BAD TURN. 5

1/ THE SAME… BUT DIFFERENT! 5

2/ GLOBALIZATION IS AHEAD OF AQUARIUS… EVEN FOR MANY CENTURIES! 6

3/ TOO OPTIMISTIC TO BE TRUE. 6

B/ THE MODERN DEVELOPMENT OF ASTROLOGY DIVIDED THE AQUARIAN COMMUNITY. 7

1/ THE DOUBLE LOGIC OF ASTROLOGY : ASTROLOGICAL AND ANALOGICAL. 7

2/ THE PERPETUAL MUTATION OF ASTROLOGY HAS REPEATED ITSELF IN THREE DECADES. 8

C/ THE SOCIAL INTEGRATION OF AQUARIAN CONSPIRATORS KILLED ALMOST ALL OF THEM. 9

1/ SOCIAL MUTATION : FROM THE AQUARIAN CONSPIRACY TO THE ‘CULTURAL CREATIVES’ 9

2/ THE AQUARIAN SIGN VANISCHES. 9

3/ THE SECULAR MODE OF CULTURE WARS REPLACES DEFINITELY THE SPIRIT (OF AQUARIUS) 10

III/ THE TODAY AQUARIAN CONSPIRACY : THE MODERN OFFSPRING OF GNOSTIC COUNTER-CULTURE. 12

A/ THE FEW SURVIVORS. 12

1/ THE ASTERIX’S COMPLEX  BY GNOSTICS. 12

2/ THE BREAK POINT :  THE TWO ORDERS OF NATURE. 12

3/ NO GNOSTICS ARE CONSEQUENTLY INTERESTED IN HOROSCOPS. 12

B/ THE ROSICRUCIAN MYTH IS CONTEMPORARY WITH THE REVIVAL OF ASTROLOGY. 13

1/ ASTROLOGY IN THE MIDDLE-AGES OR ROSYCROSS IN THE LATE RENAISSANCE  : BIS REPETITAS. 13

2/ CHRISTIAN ROSENKREUZ : BORN UNDER THE SIGN OF EXCEPTION. 14

C/ ASTROSOPHY OR  “GLOBALIZED VERSION” OF ASTROLOGY?. 15

1/ THE L.R. IS BORN OF THE DISPUTE BETWEEN ASTROLOGERS : THE SCHISM BETWEEN MAX HEINDEL AND  JAN VAN RIJCKENBORGH. 15

2/ THE THREE MYSTERY PLANETS : AQUARIUS FACING THE MATERIAL WORLD. 16

CONCLUSION. 17

CONTENTS. 18

NOTES

[i] Amoore, Louise; 2002; Globalisation contested : an international political economy of work; Manchester; Manchester University Press

[ii] Cohen, Daniel; 2004; La Mondialisation et ses Ennemis; Paris, Hachette Littératures, Editions Grasset & Fasquelle

[iii] Although more rock than new age in genre, the 1967 successful musical Hair, with its opening song "Aquarius" and the line "This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius," brought the Aquarian Age concept to the attention of a huge worldwide audience.

[iv] UN- Report; 2003; Completing the Fertility Transition; Population Division; New York

[v] The book published in French in 1995 was entitled “Les enfants du Verseau” (The Children of Aquarius)

[vi] Quoted by Daniel Cohen, op. cit., p. 139

[vii] This means the Sun crosses the equator at the vernal equinox moving backwards against the fixed stars from one year to the next at the rate of one degree in seventy-two years, one constellation in about 2156 years, and the whole twelve signs in about 25,868 years (called a Great Sidereal Year).

[viii] since that was the last time that, astronomically, the vernal equinox occurred in the first point of the constellation Aries. Nowadays, the vernal equinox occurs astronomically in about nine degrees of the constellation Pisces

[ix] The Austrian astronomer Professor Hermann Haupt examined the question of when the Age of Aquarius begins in an article published in 1992 by the Austrian Academy of Science with the German title Der Beginn des Wassermannzeitalters, eine astronomische Frage? (The Start of the Aquarian Age, an Astronomical Question?). Haupt's investigations were based on the boundaries accepted in 1928 by the IAU (International Astronomical Union), in Leiden, the Netherlands, where became defined, in astronomical terms, the edges of the 88 official constellations. However Haupt concludes: "Though it cannot be expected that astrologers will follow the official boundaries of the constellations, there will be an attempt to calculate the entry of the spring equinox point into the constellation of Aquarius."

[x] For instance the Vedic Cosmologist Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet in "The Gnostic Circle" (1972)

[xi] Rijckenborgh, Jan, Van ; 1966;  Die Apokalypse der neuen Zeit ; Haarlem ; Rozekruis Pers, p. 59

[xii] The index measures the three main dimensions of globalization: economic, social, and political. In addition to three indices measuring these dimensions, an overall index of globalization and sub-indices referring to actual economic flows, economic restrictions, data on personal contact, data on information flows, and data on cultural proximity is calculated. Data are available on a yearly basis for 122 countries. According to the index, the world's most globalized country is the USA, followed by Sweden, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Luxembourg. The least globalized countries according to the KOF-index are Togo, Chad and the Central African Republic.

[xiii] Many of the assertions in this chapter are inspired by the survey carried out by Edgar Morin and his team of sociological researchers (Claude Fischler, Philippe Defrance, Lena Petrossian) in 1971 upon the modern astrological belief (Morin, Edgar, La royance Astrologique Moderne, L’Age d’Homme, Paris, edition revue et corrigée, 1981)

[xiv] See Petrossian, Lena ; ‘De la naissance à la renaissance de l’astrologie’, in Morin, Edgar (dir.) ; 1981 ; La Croyance Astrologique Moderne ; Lausanne ; Editions l’Age d’Homme ; p.41.

[xv] see Fischler, Claude ;  Astrologie et société ; in Morin, Edgar (dir.) ; 1981 ; La Croyance Astrologique Moderne ; Lausanne ; Editions l’Age d’Homme ; p.89 sq.

[xvi] Ritman, Joost ; 2002 ; Die Geburt der Rosenkreuzerbruderschaft in Tübingen; in : Rosenkreuzer als europäisches Phänomen im 17. Jahrhundert; Amsterdam, In de Pelikaan

[xvii] The Globes manufactures were a very profitable branch in Europe in the 17th century: the Globe in Gottdorf, North Germany, was constructed according to the description related in the Chymical Wedding. See Sievert, Hans H. ; 1996 ; Im Zeichen von Kreuz und Rose. Zur Geschichte der Rosenkreuzer; vol. I; Berlin; Verlag Clemens Zerling

[xviii] See Sievert, Hans H. ; 1996 ; Im Zeichen von Kreuz und Rose. Zur Geschichte der Rosenkreuzer; vol. I; Berlin; Verlag Clemens Zerling

[xix]

ASTROLOGICAL

AGES

IAU

(see note ix)

JAN VAN RIJCKENBORGH

RUDOLF STEINER

BULL

4490 BCE

(2644 YEARS)

4572  BCE

(2160 YEARS)

2907 BCE

(2160 YEARS)

ARIES

1846 BCE

(1781 YEARS)

2412 BCE

(2160 YEARS)

747 BCE

(2160 YEARS)

PISCES

65 BCE

(2666 YEARS)

252 BCE

(2160 YEARS)

1414 AD

(2160 YEARS)

AQUARIUS

2601 AD

(1740 YEARS)

1908 AD

(2160 YEARS)

3574 AD

(2160 YEARS)

[xx] Uranus 1781, Neptune 1846, Pluto 1930

[xxi] Rijckenborgh, Jan, Van ; 1980;  Das Bekenntnis der Bruderschaft des Rosenkreuzes, esoterische Analyse der Confessio Fraternitatis R.C.; Haarlem ; Rozekruis Pers, p. 13

[xxii] Esoteric literature often deals with four planes or reigns : physical, etheric, astral and mental, from the most material to the thinnest. They are somehow orders of reality, or dimensions penetrating one another. In addition to it, the proper teaching of the Lectorium Rosicrucianum states that this planes are oppositely polarized in man and woman : the physical body of woman is negative, her etheric body positive, etc. and reversely by man. This infers that man and woman are strictly complementary from an energetic point of view.

[xxiii] See note above

[xxiv] Till 1938, Jan Leene’s brother, Z. W. Leene also led the movement, but then he died prematurely

[xxv] see the women’s Lib movement in the sixties!

[xxvi] Ibid. p. 18 [my translation]