[Editor's Note: There are eleven principles of Aquarius. We present the first one, Revolution! The ten others are described in detail in the book, Surfing Aquarius.]

REVOLUTION! It gets an exclamation point, as there is nothing modest or uncommitted about it. The energy of Aquarius is revolutionary. 

Revolution in the Age of Aquarius

As revolution is a highly charged word that stirs fear in many quarters, it's useful to get clear here about what it does and does not mean in the Age of Aquarius. It simply means a "turning back," and implies that power has somehow been cluelessly surrendered by, or arrogantly taken away from, the broad base of the citizens who are its true owners — and that this power is abused for a time by a small segment of the society who exploit it to elevate and enrich their families, cronies, and backers.

When revolution comes, it redistributes power from the few back to the many, or at least claims to. It need not be bloody, and need not be seen in gallons of blood per day or brick dust from falling forts and prisons. The Czech Republic's "Velvet Revolution" — led by, of all people, a playwright — is a good example of what can happen when the desire of the people to reclaim what belongs to them aligns with the insight by those who have been the landlords that it's time to pack the dishes, turn over the keys, and vacate the building.

Normally, of course, the landlord doesn't want to surrender even the umbrella stand, much less the deed to the property, so it's no wonder that people think of revolution as Paris mobs watching heads tumble from the guillotine. Or Bolsheviks and their bayonets storming the Smolny and trashing the Tsar's Winter Palace, or hordes of Chinese peasants wiping out the entire landlord class in and just after the Red Revolution of 1949.

Change Doesn't Need to be Violent

The actuality about revolution is not in a power structure that will give way only under violent pressure. But, understandably, many people still hold fearful expectations of how it must go. Typical is the German controversy in 2004 over the Schroeder government's decision to make deep cuts in national unemployment benefits. Die Zeit called it "A German revolution," and Newsweek, with the knee-jerk dread typical of American fear culture, opined that "As with any revolution there promises to be blood." There wasn't.

So — what if change doesn't have to be violent? As we move now from the lobby into the opera house where the Aquarius Overture is playing, we get a program note from Gandhi's Non-Violence in Peace and War (1948):

"A non-violent revolution is not a program of seizure of power. It is a program of transformation of relationships, ending in a peaceful transfer of power."

This transformation in our perceptions is everything. It is the essence of the Aquarian opportunity. The thing that will give way in the revolution is not the building itself. It is our assumption that we need to storm it.

©2011 by Dan Furst. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission of the publisher, Weiser Books,
an imprint of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. www.redwheelweiser.com

This article was adapted with permission from the book:

Surfing Aquarius: How to Ace the Wave of Change
by Dan Furst.

Learn how to thrive in the Age of Aquarius! Surfing Aquarius is for people who want to make the best of the years just ahead by making brave, optimistic choices in a spirit of community. Surfing Aquarius shows how 2012 is the beginning of a spiritual transformation when awakened human beings will create new societies based on Aquarian principles of inventive teamwork and empowered service.

Click for more info or to order this book on Amazon.

About the Author

Dan Furst has been an actor, astrologer, singer, theatre producer, and ceremonial artist in New York, Japan, India, Indonesia, Hawaii and Egypt. His Universal Festival Calendar, published on his website since July 1998, has been widely cited and reprinted, and has made him one of the world's most respected authorities on sacred and mythic time and the Age of Aquarius. He has been a professional astrologer for 33 years and has read astrology and astrocartography for thousands of clients all over the world. He lives in Pisac in the Sacred Valley near Cusco, in Peru. Visit him online at www.hermes3.net