Spiritual Forum

This is an essay I wrote on why I believe that the beginning of the Age of Aquarius is very near.  I can hopefully demonstrate the relationship of endings of astrological ages with the fall of great civilizations as financial manipulation and government corruption became rampant, acceptable, and out of control. I compare three civilizations with important astrological ages: Babylon and the Age of Taurus, Rome and the Age of Aries, and the United States and the Age of Pisces. Enjoy!

Babylon And The Age Of Taurus (The Love Of Art And Banking Becomes The Public Glamour) 

First Coins

The use of metal for money can be traced back to Babylon more than 2000 years BC, but standardization and certification in the form of coinage did not occur except perhaps in isolated instances until the 7th century BC.

Arising from the ashes of the Sumerian dynasty, Babylonians reasserted their independence in the north providing long desired stability for the citizens. The Babylon Empire began as a religious and cultural center on the Euphrates River located about 50 miles south of modern Baghdad, Iraq. As with other civilizations, Babylonian society appears to have gone through several cycles of prosperity and near collapse. Their optimal location provided them a surplus of resources and a centralized government, operating under a “code of laws”, was established to collect taxes and provide structure and support for its citizens. Their invention of the steelyard scale allowed precious metals to be accurately weighted providing the means to operate an economy based on coinage. This lead to great economic advancements such as banking systems, loans, contracts, and leases. They were excellent brick makers and master astronomers and clock makers. Their love of science (all towns had public libraries) introduced basic concepts of medicine including the concepts of diagnosis, physical examination, and medical prescriptions. Babylon was considered a “holy city” with priests who acted as agents of god.

The Bible tells us that Babylon was once proud but that their sins became blacker than those of Judah. As riches were achieved through technological advancements and economic trading success, large government sponsored building projects were started. Resources were squandered building wasteful, unnecessary objects. Buildings were designed with lavish decoration, some plated in zinc and gold. Extravagant structures such as the Tower of Babel and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon (one of the Seven Wonders of the World) were constructed utilizing their newfound riches. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were reported to have been built by King Nebuchadnezzar in order to please his wife. With walls 22 feet thick, it required massive amounts of scarce water (8,200 gallons per day) to maintain the complicated irrigation system required to sustain the plants.

As greed and selfishness took hold, there was a reduction in literacy and culture and as expected, morals declined. Historical records reveal that kings were murdered by their own children and people began practicing various forms of magic. The Tower of Babel, intended to reach the sky, was never completed as unhappy, slothful laborers refused to work. Historian Josephus noted that the people became an affront and contempt of God. Citizen revolts broke out and civil wars erupted. As the society collapsed, Babylon was sacked and the citizens put back into violent subjugation.

Rome And The Age Of Aries (The Love Of Sports And War Becomes The Public Glamour)

The city of Rome grew from small settlements located around a ford on the river Tiber, a crossroads of traffic and trade. Its prime location resulted in the phrase “all roads lead to Rome” becoming a common metaphor. After rising from an unstable, turbulent system rife with strife between the classes, their first two centuries were times of peace and prosperity. Romans became excellent engineers, political administrators and possessed an exceptional military structure. Religion was widespread and citizens possessed high morals. Romans believed in honesty, discipline, frugality, and self-sacrifice.

When Julius Caesar took office in 50 BC, Rome had reached its peak. Immigrants moved into the empire bringing new religions and cults. Leaders began spending the nations’ riches on large palaces, monuments, and public entertainment venues. An emphasis on sports and entertainment exploded as work came second to pleasure. The government supplied grain to its citizens with as much as one quarter of the citizens’ food requirements being supplied by the government.

As riches grew, the people became greedy, self-indulgent, lazy and complacent as arrogance and luxury infected the Roman people. Morals and manners fell away and entertainment became bawdier and violent. Homosexuality and adultery became the norm and soon afterward, it became acceptable for bestiality to be practiced in the open. Roman families began to dissolve as Romans sought instant gratification. Children became a needless burden and contraception, abortion, and infanticide became common and in some cases, encouraged in order to control population growth. Violence continued to grow and gladiators were worshipped by the citizens.

To fund the extravagant spending and consumption, Rome raised taxes and began requisitioning property from the citizens to make ends meet. As oppressive taxes were imposed on the people to fund the massive public expenditures, resources began to dwindle. Rome began attacking other countries for their grain, metals, and timber and farmers were forced to sell and move into the cities. The cities quickly became crowded.

As resources tightened, citizens lost respect for religion and began stripping churches and temples of their brick to use in building homes. Citizens began to revolt and civil wars began to erupt in the various regions of the empire. A weakened government had to fight off external invasions amidst a climate of political chaos.

As the historian Edward Gibbon noted:

Leaders of the empire gave into the vices of strangers, morals collapsed, laws became oppressive, and the abuse of power made the nation vulnerable to the barbarian hordes.

Rome’s leadership clearly defined the attitudes and morals of the day. When the playboy Caesar took office in 50 BC, Rome had reached its pinnacle. Augustus took over in 27 BC and splurged on fancy buildings and expensive monuments. August had many affairs with his slaves and his daughter Julia was known to drink, stay out all night, and participate in casual one night stands with many men. By the time Tiberius took over 50 years later, Rome had already become obsessed with sex and instant gratification. Tiberius build a special villa for his wildest fantasies with walls decorated in pornographic images and bathing fountains full of boys who were trained to swim in and out between his legs licking and biting at his body as they passed through. Roman justice evolved in bizarre ways too. By law it was forbidden to execute a virgin so Roman soldiers were instructed to rape the victim before execution.

Setting the stage for perversion, Tiberius passed the torch to his son Caligula in 37 AD. The citizens loved Caligula and his violent, bloody, gladiator contests and publicly demonstrated eccentric sexual preferences. Caligula would make love with his sisters at public dinners and would often take other men’s wives out of the room to make love to them and then bring them back for a public critique of their performance as their husbands played along, laughing and peppering their wife with jokes. The public swooned as Caligula built large, lavish buildings for their pleasure. His gladiator contests became more violent as man vs. animal contests evolved into torture and executions.

Claudius took over five years after Caligula and continued the pattern of degradation that Caligula had set in place. Although physically disabled, he held mass, bloody executions for the public’s viewing pleasure. His many wives had insatiable appetites for sex and would voluntarily acts as prostitutes in local brothels. One of his wives challenged Rome’s leading prostitute to a “sex marathon” where she slept with 25 men in a row. Uncles began marrying nieces and half-brothers and half-sisters were wed. The next ruler, Nero was as wicked as his predecessors and extended the perverse sexual practices to Roman law – Nero himself was married to two men.

Subsequent rulers, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian allowed the decay of Rome’s morals to  continue while spending vast amounts of money on extravagances. The lavish gladiatorial games accelerated and Rome’s leaders took many lovers, their wives often joining them in orgies. When a lover became pregnant, the baby was simply aborted. Life and death matches between men soon became life and death matches between women and occasionally physically disabled children. Homosexuality ran rampant and pedophilia soon followed as rulers kept young boys with them at all times for their sexual pleasure. Commodus, who ruled from 177-192 AD, put the final nail in the Roman coffin. Commodus furnished the public with free food and expected to be worshipped as a god in return. He had the empire combed for the most attractive women and formed a harem 300 women strong. A homosexual himself, he took pleasure in watching men and women have sex with children (he himself kept a pageboy lover with him at all times). He began to practice human hunting as a sport and often used handicap citizens as the prey. The citizens applauded as Commodus shut down the entire city so citizens could attend the races and matches rather than work. His government was thoroughly corrupted, operating using bribes and favors. As a result, Rome began to run out of money. As Rome neared bankruptcy, and lavish entertainment and gifts were slowly discontinued (to the public’s discontent), the public began to revolt and the once-great nation collapsed.

Rome and inflation in numbers

The silver content in the denarius fell over the ages:

The inflation is hard to document, but one good indicator are the payments a Roman legionary would receive:

The devaluation of silver money to a half has led to a similar increase in their wages. This doubling of prices over the course of a century is also documented for bread.

In Diocletian's time, in the year 301, he fixed the price at 50,000 denarii for one pound of gold. Ten years later it had risen to 120,000. In 324, 23 years after it was 50,000, it was 300,000. In 337, the year of Constantine's death, a pound of gold brought 20,000,000 denarii.

The army itself had grown from the time of Augustus, when they had about a 250,000 troops, to the time of Diocletian, when they had somewhat over 600,000. So the army had doubled in size in the course of this inflationary spiral, and obviously that contributed greatly to the inflation.

The United States And The Age Of Pisces (The Love Of Congregations Of Belief And Deception Become The Public Glamour)

I don't need to tell you how immoral the United States has become, especially in lieu of the type of prostitutes running the government. It is very comparable to government in ancient Rome in her final years, complete with "bread and circuses" for the masses.  But numbers are hard to argue with, and just as Rome debased its money as immorality became out of control, so has the United States. AND HISTORY OF ROME AND BABYLON DEMONSTRATES THAT THERE IS A STRONG LINK BETWEEN LOSS OF RESPECT FOR MORALS THAT ACCOMPANIES THE LOSS OF RESPECT FOR FINANCIAL INTEGRITY.  

Here are the numbers over 200 year periods for the U.S. dollar, gold, and silver. 

Here's the value of the dollar over 100 years:

And here is gold's value over 200 years:

And here is silver over 200 years:

Conclusion:

We are no doubt near the end of the Age of Pisces. History does not repeat itself, but it usually rhymes. And in terms of financial manipulation and the loss of morality that comes with such manipulation, we are no doubt very close to the end of the Age of Pisces and the beginning of the Age of Aquarius.  We should expect more scandals in the coming years, especially related to banking, government, and the prostitutes that run these institutions.

Love to all,

Malcolm