Aquarius - the muscle of genius
Apologies for being late this sign. The sun entered Pisces on Sunday the 18th and while I had this almost completed, I was away and blissfully forgot to send it out! The themes and archetypes of Aquarius, like all the signs of the Zodiac, are always alive within us and the collective.
Aquarius, the water bearer, with a glyph of two squiggly lines that look quite like waves, but are more accurately symbols of the dissemination of knowledge, could not be further from a water sign. Aquarius is a fixed air sign, teaching us about air’s capacity to embody and elevate ideas as forms of leadership and wisdom. The type of leadership and wisdom that are born from the great gifts of perspective.
Seeing the world through the lens of ideas and the intellect offers Aquarius great perspective, and this is the gift they in turn offer to humanity. In the evolution of the Zodiac, Aquarius steps back and looks with precision, thoughtfulness, and scrutiny at the structures that were created in Capricorn and asks if they serve the greatest good of humanity. Aquarius will leave no stone unturned in the search to understand and see things for what they are. The search will not be over until they see things as they are and have had the opportunity to ask with abandon, how else could they be? From what other perspectives could I look upon this? The water bearer holds a pitcher of the ideas and possibilities that they have gathered and witnessed and pours them down on humanity, nourishing them with the fresh perspective of genius.
Genius, in the Aquarian case, is far from the image of supreme intelligence that the word is often assumed to mean in today’s culture. Aquarius has little use for memorizing facts or even acquiring information - genius is the ability to see something in an entirely new way, with insight and creativity and paradigm-shifting fresh perspective. Aquarius strives to embody the different - to see differently, to think differently, to understand differently, to imagine differently - but none of it is for its own sake, it is always in service to the evolution of the greatest good. To serve humanity with its fresh perspectives and new ideas is Aquarius’ goal.
When I wrote about Scorpio, I wrote about thinning the psychic veil - that there are depth in the human psyche that Scorpio traverses and sees into and knows. These places are in all of us, but often they are separated or veiled and we only see or experience certain layers at a time. Well, Aquarius sees through the many veils that define the layers of reality that humanity and the collective inhabit. When Aquarius allows itself, it can see right into and through the different structural and narrative beliefs that define reality in all its layers and the ways that they in turn affect the internal workings of the individual and the collective. When Aquarius is operating at its most evolved not only can it see the multiple layers of reality, it can also see multiple truths intersecting and being played out simultaneously.
Sounding, or better yet, feeling abstract - good! That is exactly as it should be and just as Aquarius likes it. Rings of interconnection, sense-making, paradigm-shifting, world-rocking thoughts, and visions spiral - the truth of these perspectives and visions reverberate like the aftershocks of an earthquake in whatever part of you or the collective Aquarius inhabits. The greater good of the collective, the truths of this world, and the perspective of taking the long view are in all of us - when we see them, Aquarius allows us to believe they are real rather than just an illusion or a phenomenon of the paranormal - just as my daughter knows that a glimmer in her peripheral vision really is a fairy.
How does Aquarius do this? Seeing the world through the lens of ideas allows Aquarius to pull back, to make the world and what they see abstract, and to assess accordingly. It is as if they are up above looking down. From above we have access to fresh perspectives. Even when we are in something and a part of it, we can see ourselves operating in it - we observe, with curiosity and ravenous hunger - and from this place of openness we can see and understand differently. We know how ourselves and others operate within the whole and how that whole functions as an entity in itself. As both a part of and an onlooker of reality all the parts become clear - every layer of reality, including the ones that do not yet exist or have even been considered.
From this bird’s eye view, Aquarius becomes acutely aware of that which serves the greater good and that which does not. Whether Aquarius is assessing the greater good within the microcosm of your or another’s individual life or the ark and reality of the collective evolution of humanity - Aquarius sees all the layers of reality, all the narratives and beliefs and truths and how they affect the whole. As needed, Aquarius offers its new perspectives with relentless clarity, vigor and conviction. Forging into the unknown of revolution if needed to break habits and forms that don’t serve. But, not because it wants chaos or is interested in making a case against structure but because those structures need to be remade. Aquarius may fight hard against structures that don’t serve, but when they perceive a structure to be of service, they will fight tirelessly to defend it.
And here lies Aquarius’ invitation right into the trap of rigidity. When we become a believer and we believe we know what is best, we can quickly get absorbed and focused - our view becomes short and more narrow as we focus on a goal. Or even worse, we think we know what is best and what is right and we forget the Aquarian quest to see all those layers for the truth that they embody. In a society so committed to dualism, Aquarius can think it has found its home committed to one side or another. Instead of remaining devoted to following the trail of possibility and genius, Aquarius can become attached to defending and upholding the place where that, or a previous, trail has led them. But things are always changing and evolving, nothing remains static, and even the best of structures must evolve. At its highest expression, Aquarius is the muscle of genius that informs continuous evolution.
Commitment to values is key for Aquarius, and it should not waver in their conviction to support their cause, but it must remember that even the best of causes or truths are ongoing evolutionary processes and creative entities. Aquarius can never stop asking the big questions or looking for fresh perspectives, even and especially amidst the causes and beliefs they hold most dear. Within every belief there exist multiple layers of reality and they must all fall prey to the Aquarian gift of perspective. We could say that the only commitment Aquarius should never waver on is that drive and hunger to always learn more, to tirelessly assess situations, and ask those key questions - what is going on here? How does it serve? What am I missing? How can it be done differently?
Anytime Aquarius stops questioning and looking for fresh perspective they run the risk of becoming stale. I am not promoting a frantic, hyper-vigilant type of activity or doing energy here, I’m simply stating that to become stubborn or to become rigidly devoted to a cause is ultimately unsustainable for Aquarius - a death sentence to their unique flavor of creativity and to exercising that muscle of genius.
Aquarius carries the torch of humanity with the job of always shining the light on what could be. In these times, we must all embrace the reality that the most potent light is that which we have yet to imagine. Aquarian energy in the individual and the collective contains all the tools and all the tenacity, along with the desire and motivation, to reveal and tell new stories, ones that have not yet illuminated the collective imagination. If we can imagine them, we can be sure they will pour down on humanity with all the nourishing, thirst-quenching gifts of a great river. If we can’t imagine them, we can be sure they will pour down on humanity like a great flood, jumbling all those beliefs together into chaos and leaving a whole new reality we couldn’t imagine in its wake.
What of belonging for Aquarius? To be true, to be authentic, to be satisfied, Aquarius must resist becoming their observations and visions. For Aquarius is not what it sees or names or envisions - it is a process. Aquarius is the thinker, the imaginer, the explorer, the creator of ideas, not those ideas themselves. Aquarius must always remember that they will only feel a sense of belonging within the collective when their identity accepts this truth about their authenticity. Aquarius sees, and thinks, and shares what needs to be seen and thought and said, and only in doing so can they exercise that muscle of genius and claim belonging within those systems from which their observations are born.