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During the annual return of the Sun of the Middle, as described by the Dogon of Mali, day and night are of equal lengths. We are therefore reminded to find balance in all things on this day and learn the lessons going forwards into the rest of the solar year. At this time, Extra Special attention is directed to our inner world, also called our Life Force and given many names including prana in the Hindu tradition, Chi in the Buddist tradition, Nyama in the Dogon tradition, Ase in the Ifa-Orisa tradition and Sekhem by the Ancient Egyptians. These ancient Sharmanic practices work closely with the natural world and they encourage us to learn from the cycles of nature in order to incorporate these lessons into our daily lives. The spiritual essence which flows through everything is an important aspect to consider since it connects all that is part of the universe, the unseen, the visible, animate and inanimate… One of our featured Scholars contends that…
‘…In essence, everything is reducible to [that] energy and all real power flows from it. That energy, while not knowable in and of itself, can be accessed and its effects observed and interpreted. The numerous forms of divination throughout the world are methods of interpreting the ever-changing flow of that energy through its external manifestations. This energy not only inter-connects everything that exists, it is everything that exists…
Dr. Charles Finch : THE GREAT MOTHER OF THE WATERS – THE RISE OF THE COSMIC FEMININE
The Influences of the World-Ages In contemporary times, when the Zodiac is followed through the solar year, it conventionally begins at the spring equinox when the sun enters the sign of Aries, the Ram, and finishes when the sun enters the sign of Pisces, the Two Fishes. New Year’s Day, zodiacally speaking, begins on March 21, the first day of spring. However, in the time of ancient Egypt, New Year’s Day occurred in the summer when the Nile flood began and the beginning of the Precessional year was reckoned to occur in the sign of the Celestial Lion. The precession is caused by the 23½º tilt of the earth’s axis, causing that axis to ‘gyrate’ counterclockwise around the vertical axis of the earth known as the ‘axis of the ecliptic’. It takes 25,900 years for that gyration to complete one circle which is the Precessional Year or Great Year. This precessional circle is divided into 12 arcs, each ruled by a constellation sign (the signs of the Zodiac), and the axis of the earth passes retrograde through each sign, taking about 2,158 years to move through each one. This 2,158-year passage constitutes an Age, of which there are 12; we are currently at the end of the Age of Pisces.
Our current calendar no longer follows the Precession because if it did, the first day of spring would be reckoned to occur under the sign of Pisces, the current constellation-sign rising heliacally (before the sun) at the spring equinox. In other words, the first day of Pisces would fall not in the winter (February 20), as it currently does, but in the spring (March 21), now considered to be under the sign of Aries. At a certain point in the past, astronomers and astrologers ceased to adjust their calendars every 2,158 years as was done anciently to keep the solar year consistent with the precessional movement. Thus, in the case of the Precessional Year now, the signs and the constellations do not coincide because the signs have been fixed to specific seasons though the constellations they represent precess through the seasons. In ancient times, the Great Year or Precessional Year would have begun at the time of the heliacal rising of Leo at the vernal equinox, i.e., 10,909 BC, or thereabouts. The Great Year since then has moved retrogressively through the constellation-signs of the Zodiac, each sign ruling an age lasting 2,158 years. At the onset of the Age of Aquarius around 2,039 AD, we will have moved through half of the Great Year.
While the zodiacal Great Year is in motion, so is that of the northern pole stars. The ancients projected seven constellation-signs around the North Pole of the Ecliptic and these are referred to as the seven “circumpolar” constellations. That means there are actually two Great Years in force at any given time, working concurrently and synergistically with one another; their symbols seem to commingle in the flow of world events. We are currently near the end of the Age of the Jackal (‘Little Bear’ or ‘Little Dipper’) in the Precession of the Pole Stars, and in 2050 will move into the Polar Age of Cepheus, the Cosmic Ethiopian King. Barack Obama’s election was the third of four signs foretelling the advent of this Age, but this discussion is beyond the scope of the present essay. Suffice to say that this will be the only time in 26,000 years that two Ages, the Age of the Great Mother of the Waters (Aquarius) and that of the Age of the Cosmic Ethiopian King, will commence this close together (11 years).
It might be pertinent to discuss these cosmic ”influences” because the modern rationalist dismisses astrology as an infantile relic from a time when humanity wallowed in superstition and credulity. The discussion is not meant here to defend astrology as such but to explore the ways in which the ancients charted, as a matter of course, the destiny of the world through close and consistent observation of celestial phenomena, where the meaning of that destiny could be read in the movement of these heavenly bodies. In order to understand this way of thinking it is necessary to recognize that ancient and traditional peoples the world over have always believed in an energy or power that pervades the universe, unknowable and intangible, but permeating everything and giving it existence. The Chinese call it chi, the Hindus prana, the Hawaiians mana, the Dogon nyama, and the ancient Egyptians referred to it as sekhem. In essence, everything is reducible to that energy and all real power flows from it. That energy, while not knowable in and of itself, can be accessed and its effects observed and interpreted. The numerous forms of divination throughout the world are methods of interpreting the ever-changing flow of that energy through its external manifestations. This energy not only inter-connects everything that exists, it is everything that exists and virtually any object or manifestation can be assayed to understand the meaning inherent in the energy flow, hence the prime importance of omens and signs in the lives of ancient and indigenous peoples. It is in the relation to this all-pervasive energy, by all the names it is known, that the key to understanding the significance of heavenly movements and cycles, i.e., astrology, can be determined. The movements and positions of the heavenly bodies, with their cycles, are the outward signs of the movement of the energy which composes the cosmos, including Earth. The manifestations or signs revealed in any celestial age merely express the nature or quality of the energy flowing through the world and through the cosmos at that particular moment or period.
The two Great Years, though of equal duration and created by the same phenomenon, only cycle in together once in any 26,000-year period because the zodiacal ages and the polar ages are of unequal length, 2,158 for a zodiacal age versus 3,703 years for a polar age. This difference in lengths is due to the difference in the number of sub-periods in each of the Great Years: 12 in the zodiacal Great Year and 7 in the polar Great Year. By the middle of this century, however, the two Ages will cycle in together within 11 years of one another and this co-cycling won’t recur for another 26,000 years. Aquarius will begin to rise heliacally at the spring equinox around 2,039 AD and Cepheus will begin to move to the north polar position around 2,050 AD. If one accepts that this confluence of Ages mirrors a confluence of cosmic and divine energies then clearly dramatic events are in store for the world in the course of this century. With the election of Barack Obama, these dramatic events have already begun.
To get a better grasp of how these Ages, their signs, and their symbols affect human destiny one can go back to 119 BC when Pisces (the Two Fishes) begins to rise heliacally at the vernal equinox, displacing Aries and launching a shift in world affairs. The man identified as the historical Jesus, Yehushua Ben Pandera, a high-grade Essene initiate, teacher, and healer, who spent most of his life in Egypt, was born 120 BC and hanged 71 BC near Jerusalem for having practiced ”magic” and attracting a large following. In fact, Jewish writers of 1,800 years ago contemptuously referred to him as ‘the Egyptian sorceror’. Be that as it may, in less than two centuries after the hanging of this Jewish ‘heretic’, the first Gospels are written and the Egyptian nation itself is well on its way to wholesale conversion to Christianity. Christians are at first called Pisiculi, i.e., ”Fishes,” because of the importance of that symbol to the believers. Fish symbolism, of course, abounds through the New Testament and in the end, the new religion is taken over by the powers in Rome in the 4th century A.D. Rome’s Egyptian name is Remu meaning “Fish city.”
Moreover, there is an arresting late image of Horus, circa 1st century A.D., in which he is depicted standing on a dog and holding a fish over his head. Horus is, of course, an Egyptian prototype of Christ and this image represents him then linking the two concurrent Ages: that ruled by the Jackal- or Dog-sign (Wep-wat) and that ruled by the Fish-sign (Pisces). This link between the two Ages of Jackal (polar) and Pisces (zodiacal) also occurs in the cosmic system of the Dogon where the Nommo, the Great Cosmic Ancestors, are all half-fish, with the exception of the rebel, Ogo, who is a fox. In fact it is Nommo Anagonno, the Fish being, who is crucified on the kilena tree to sacrifice himself on behalf of the cosmos to atone for the rebellion of Ogo the Fox. Thus did the Age of Pisces impress itself on the emerging destiny of the world, though its time coming to end until it eventually re-assumes its place in the 26,000-year cycle.
There is now some background for exploring the ramifications and implications of the emergence of the Aquarian Age. The first thing that must be understood about Aquarius is that the archetype, though currently represented by the male Water Bearer, was originally feminine as the Great Nurse or the Great Mother of the Waters. In ancient times, She would have been Hathor-Nut, goddess of the heavenly waters pouring out water to the thirsty souls traveling through Amenta. Nut, in fact, was always shown wearing a water vase on her head. It is critical to understand the original archetypology under-girding the current representation because the essence of the symbol-sign usually resides there. Thus, for the purpose of understanding the energetic ethos of the emerging Aquarian Age, it is necessary to recognize that it is a matter fundamentally of the advent of the Great Mother of the Waters, e.g., the Age of Aquaria instead of Aquarius. It is through this archetype that the meaning and purpose of the Age can be interpreted.
The Great Mother of the Waters: The Advent of Aquarius (Aquaria)
Taken from an African perspective, there are a number of names for the Great Mother of the Waters. In Egypt she is Nut or Isis, in Senegal (Lebu) she is Maam Coumba Lamba Ndoye, in Benin and Togo (Fon/Popo) she is Mami Wata or Naétè, and in Nigeria (Yoruba) she is Yemoja. In this form, the ocean is her specific element, particularly the upper layers of the ocean. She relates to everything maternal, womanly, and wifely and her colors are most commonly blue and white. Thus most things having to do with the feminine and maternal sphere of life are under her direction and protection. She is very partial to children and during her rites and ceremonies, hordes of children are invariably present. She is crucial to all matters relating to childbirth as well as to the nurturing and raising of children. She is said to be the Mother of most of the other important Powers, whether among the neteru, vodu, the rabs, or the orisha, giving her a very special status in the divine and cosmic order of things and making her very powerful. She can heal all afflictions and most turn to her in times of personal trial and trouble. Among Christians She is Mother Mary, whose very name ‘Mary’, as ‘Mare’ in Latin, evokes the sea. Her daughter, so closely linked to her that two can often be fused into a single, composite deity, is affiliated with the fresh waters of rivers, pools, streams, and water falls. In Egypt she is Hathor, in Senegal she is Ndiare, in Benin and Togo she is Afrekete, and in Nigeria she is Oshun. This goddess presides over beauty, love, sexuality, pleasure, and male-female relationships generally and is thought to be irresistible to gods and men.
She loves adornment, finery, gaiety, and parties, with as much music and dancing as possible. She is partial to sweet things, particularly honey, and yellow or gold is her color. The goddess presides over all matters sexual and though she is intimately involved in the process of conception, at the stage of actual child-bearing and child-raising, the Mother energy of Isis, Yemoja or Naétè comes into play. It is said that men adore her and women want to be like her. Her devotees, female and male, are extremely attractive to the opposite sex and are prone to numerous love affairs. They are the types who fall “in love with love.” Fundamentally, she represents the power of the sexual energy that was seen to have originated in the feminine sphere. In the Christian sphere, She is Mary Magdalene, who some outside canonical Christianity insist was the paramount disciple of Jesus and, indeed, his consort. Since there is definitely a highly-charged sexual element associated with Mary Magdalene, the only way the Church fathers could think of her was as a ‘harlot’.
At least one of the above-mentioned goddesses, Mami Wata, seems to unite in her person the qualities of the Great Mother of the Waters with that of Her daughter, e.g., Nut/Hathor (Egypt), Yemoja/Oshun (Yoruba), Naèté/Avrekete (Dahomey), or Coumba Lamba/Ndiare (Lebu). That is to say, Mami Wata seems to be at once maternal and sensual, devoted to children and a lover of gaiety, the superintendant of child-birth yet attentive to finery and adornment, the governess of male-female relations and the protector of marriage. Thus the chief attributes of the two most important African Goddesses of the Waters are fused in Her. She stands out also because Mami Wata is nearly always represented carrying a serpent around her neck, linking her to Hlossu Da, the vodũ Great Mother of the Universe in serpent form. She seems to have been autochthonous in that part of the West African coast that includes present-day Benin, Togo, and eastern Ghana but, with the rise of the kingdom of Dahomey in the 17th century, her worship fell into abeyance.
However, towards the end of the 19th century (co-incident with the French conquest) her cult was revived and remains to this day exceedingly strong. For the purposes of interpreting the emerging Age of Aquarius/Aquaria in light of the foregoing, it is clear that the dawning of that Age presages the re-arising of a feminine and maternal spiritual energy. We say “re-arising” because there was a time in human affairs when the feminine and maternal were paramount. That situation began to change about 6,000 years ago and by about 3,000 years ago, the march of patriarchal values in human culture was well advanced all over the globe. By the advent of the Christian era 2,000 years ago, the patriarchy had overridden the matriarchy nearly everywhere. But with the dawning of the Aquarian Age, a certain “course correction” is taking place that will eventually institute a far more equitable relation between the two gender-energies. It is already evident in the re-assertion of the feminine/maternal spirit in all domains of culture. Women are re-asserting themselves against thousands of years of masculine rule; the spirit of the emerging Aquarian Age seems to be driving this re-assertion. This ‘reconfigurement’ affects both men and women and is at the bottom of much of the evident conflict, often violent, between the two genders. Like it or not, violence often accompanies such seismic shifts.
In the religious sphere, goddess worship is making a gradual come-back. Even women who have not given themselves over to goddess worship are insisting that the feminine nature of the Supreme Being be recognized and acknowledged. Women clerics are heading up more and more pulpits in certain Protestant denominations and even the creakily conservative Catholic Church is feeling the pressure. Those Catholic women not agitating for admission of women into the priesthood are directing ever more attention to the Blessed Mother. It might even happen that, sometime in this century, Mary will be given Trinitarian status by fusing her with the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost in the Gospel of John was imaged as a dove and the dove was an ancient symbol of Hathor-Meri who, with Isis, is a prototype of Mother Mary.
What is also likely to happen is that the ancient “Tantric” mysteries will re-emerge. Indian Tantra is almost alone in having preserved the sacred sexual mysteries of the Mother. With the rise of the patriarchal religions, particularly Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, worship of the Mother Goddess was ruthlessly expunged. The sexual mysteries, central to this worship, became anathema to these religions so that sexuality was relegated to mere (sinful) pleasure and procreation. In fact, all religions emerging after 1,000 BC tended to repudiate sacred sexuality and make a virtue of celibacy, especially male celibacy, as an act of “liberation” from the “sinister” attractive power of women. Religions such as Buddhism and Christianity imposed strict priestly celibacy and sexuality itself came to be seen only as a necessary procreative evil requiring stringent control and repression. In this moral calculus, sex and sin are the same. The repression of sexuality is of a piece with the repression of women; the two go together. In ancient times, it was recognized that sexuality itself emanated from the Mother Goddess. Sex is energy, veritably the force of life, and every sexual act is supposed to be an act of worship. The Mother does not prohibit delight (far from it) but the authentic delight of sexuality is that which fosters a deep communion with the Mother. And the connubium between man and woman is not only her gift but also her command to living beings. The cults of asceticism are not necessarily wrong to insist on detachment from sexuality as a key to achieving nirvana or ”liberation”; it=s just that (except among Tantric practitioners) they don’t tell the whole story. The way to nirvana is also achievable by tapping into the sexual energy itself, through methods and mysteries that have been utterly lost except in Tantrism. All Tantric deities are female because for the devout Tantric adept, union with the Goddess is the truest path to liberation.
It is important to emphasize that we are not talking here of sexual license; this affirmation of the sacredness of sexuality is not a vindication of the Playboy Philosophy, i.e., of untrammeled hedonism. It is, however, an admonition for the impeccable employment and deployment of sexual energy. The Mother has no tolerance for promiscuity, licentiousness, prostitution, or pornography which do nothing but profane the sacred energy. Neither is the rule of celibacy enjoined by Her since it seems to be the antithesis of the life force She embodies. In the end, the essence and ethos of the Great Mother of the Waters can be summed up in one word: Love. However, it is not love in the trivial, maudlin, self-absorbed sense of modern romance and it is more, far more, than the Christian agape. It is a Love that, perhaps, defies definition or categorization yet is all-encompassing. It is a way of merging with the world and the universe so that everything is accepted; all opposites (good/evil, life/death, pleasure/pain, spirit/matter) are unified and transcended. It is a Love without judgment or qualification, a Love that will animate the coming age.
It has often been asked how one can enhance one’s survival – physical, psychological, spiritual – in the maelstrom of madness that has overcome the world; to find the island of sanity in the sea of madness. The only real answer that suggests itself is to align oneself with the approaching Divine Energies that are coming to animate the world. The advent of the Great Mother of the Waters is a scant 31 years away and She calls to her children to assume their place in the world that She will guide and direct. It will mean that those who successfully do so will completely change direction. No one can change who or what she is but everyone can change direction. And yet it is evident that despite Her growing power and presence, it is still only a minority of women (or men) who have willingly embraced Her or the New Dispensation she represents. Political correctness in the human sense is irrelevant to the evolution of the world She will command; the changes required will challenge many of the core convictions that most of us hold tenaciously within us as a matter of course. And yet those who will successfully merge with her Divine Will are those who will undertake the monumental interior transformation that is necessary; we will have to lose ourselves first before we can find ourselves again within and with Her…
Dr. Charles S. Finch, III is a respected Medical Doctor, Scholar, Historian, Analyzer, and Spiritualist.
Afrikan Centered Education
25 January 2014
Blue Water Family 
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