Eight years ago (in 1996) I wrote an article for the Mountain Astrologer about the 1962 set of Aquastells and what they could expect in the near future as Uranus began its seven year transit through Aquarius. This article is reprinted below.
Many Aquarians have reason to breathe a deep sign of relief and look forward to an exciting year ahead. After thirteen years, Pluto has finally moved out of Scorpio and is no longer relentlessly squaring Aquarian planet placements. Uranus, their Sun's ruler, is making its exhalted journey through Aquarius. Neptune is relatively harmlessly tucked away at the end of Capricorn for the next couple of years, while Jupiter is embarking on its uplifting sojourn through Aquarius for the duration of the year. In sum, 1997 appears to be an exciting and progressive year for many Aquarians. However, the focus of this article is on one particular subset of Aquarians who hold great potential for surging to the centre of collective consciousness -- and perhaps fame -- beginning this year. At minimum, many of them will experience an accomplished, frenetic and unusually satisfying ride in the year to come; a year that happens to coincide with their mid-life Jupiter return.
There are approximately 400,000 of these people in the US. They represent a birth crop of extraordinarily focused Aquarian energy. Born in 1962, many of them have all their inner planets placed in Aquarius. The majority will have the Moon placed in one of the other eleven signs, but are still primarily constructed out of a necklace of conjunctions in Aquarius involving the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and South Node.
It would be an oversimplification to state that these people -- and let us call them the 'Aquastells' -- have met with an unusually high dose of challenges in their lives to date. Many of them came bouncing into this world without so much as one helpful sextile or trine between any of their ten major planets. This would be enough in itself to turn up the tension gauge in daily living. But in addition, at their birth, the oceanic Neptune was hovering in mid Scorpio, thus ensuring nebulous squares to several of their inner planets. Pluto in Virgo was capable only of contributing testy quincunxes in their natal charts. Lastly, we see Uranus, the dispositor of so many forces in their chart; positioned retrograde in the last degrees of Leo; thus magnifying its unsettling influence in virtue of its mutual dispository relationship with the Sun.
Based on natal chart aspects and outer planet transits to the age of thirty-five, life has certainly not been a cosmic dream for the Aquastells to date. Many of them are likely to have experienced unhappy and traumatic childhood's as approximately two thirds of them have natal conjunctions of Saturn/Mars and squares of Sun/Neptune, Venus/Neptune, and Mercury /Neptune. Over two-fifths of them are also challenged with both Saturn/Sun and Saturn/Venus conjunctions.
Taking a brief look at how outer planet transits have impacted on their lives to date, we can see that at the age of seven, many Aquastells experienced serious losses and disruptions in their lives as Saturn began to form its first square to their natal stellium of inner planets. Then just as they embarked on their teen years, Uranus settled in to form a seven year square from Scorpio and was soon followed up with a rapid series of oppositions from Saturn. A calmer period may have ensued once these people graduated from high school, but this period was short-lived. As they turned twenty-one, Saturn again completed squares to all their planets from Scorpio; with Pluto just behind. An intense period of Pluto squares to inner planets would have ensued from their early 20's and would have only let up recently as Pluto finally forged a firm path out of Scorpio. Saturn returns are not generally meant for gliding, but the Aquastells had an unusually thick stack of lessons to learn very quickly as they turned twenty-nine. We might forgive them for feeling unusually lonely, depressed and intense as Saturn hunkered down consecutively on their natal Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn -- all while Pluto was performing simultaneous squares to many of these planets.
This may all sound rather glum. Yet there can be a bright side to having six or seven inner planets all lined up like ducks in a row. For example; imagine the delightful prospect of being ignored by Pluto for the next 25 years! Now that Pluto is in Sagittarius, it won't be forming a single hard aspect to any of the Aquastell's seven inner planets (except possibly the Moon) until they reach their late fifties or early sixties. The churning Plutonian storm is over, and we may very well catch these Aquastells (especially the third with fixed-sign Moons), looking uncharacteristically lighthearted; and perhaps skipping about in an extended streak of Pluto-free sunshine.
What might these people actually be like? They will undoubtedly vary greatly from each other to the extent that their stellia house placements, Moons and ascendants will be unique in each case. Yet, because of their concentration of conjunctions and planets in one sign, they are more likely to have characteristics in common than would typically be the case for people born a few days or weeks apart. We're all familiar with Aquarian key words such as eccentric, inventive, friendly, absent-minded, rebellious, progressive, detached, and independent. We see these traits in our Aquarian friends who may have one or two Aquarian planets in addition to the Sun. How might we describe the personality and potential of a group of people who are so extremely focused on one-twelfth of the zodiac?
We can list several hypothetical traits and life-experiences that astrology would predict for this group of people.
1) Extreme Stubbornness
These people are in no small measure stubborn and willful. Some of them have nine of their ten planets in fixed signs. Such a concentration of rigidity does not bode well for an easy dance through life. Aquastells are unlikely to excel in any career requiring a great deal of teamwork or flexibility. Neither are they apt to be conciliatory in matters of the heart or friendship, particularly if the disagreement involves one of their many strongly-held principles. We might also expect them to be unusually detached kind of folks; people who rarely get emotional and who actually have a great deal of trouble with expressing their inner feelings. With such a dollop of independent spirit, a disproportionate number of these people are likely to still be single or at least long rid of their first marriages as they turn thirty-five this year. Nevertheless, few people are likely to attract as many friends as this amiable bunch. Lots of Aquastells can effortlessly light up a social scene with the cheery flames of a Sun, Venus, Mercury, and Jupiter conjunction in Aquarius.
2) Electric Minds
These people are highly and precariously wired! It's likely that many of them suffer from occasional whirling thoughts and resulting insomnia, given that Mercury, along with so many other planets, is disposed by Uranus. Mercury's opposition to Uranus in some of these charts will only amplify this condition. These people are born mental twirlers. Give a serious ear to their off-base and original ideas. With all those Aquarian mental vibes we can hypothesize that in some respects, their mental process is way ahead of the rest of the human race. Don't expect them to be mushy and sentimental. Unless their Moon is otherwise strongly disposed, they'll actually process all feeling through the intellectual channel. Their Mercury is exhalted in Aquarius and is typically conjunct with Jupiter. This conjunction does a lot to temper their serious side, and is wonderfully auspicious for encouraging a broad curiosity in life. It also indicates a predisposition for spiritual and progressive beliefs and aspirations.
Any 'future-oriented' careers will naturally attract these people. We'd expect to find a disproportionate number of them in the high-tech industry (especially careers in telecommunications, aerospace and computer science) as well as in the forefront of social science research and analysis (including astrology, psychology, economic reform and science fiction). These people are leading edge. Regardless of their unique career paths, we can confidently hypothesize that a disproportionate number of them would have discovered the potential of electronic networks long before their friends.
2) High Risk of Mental Illness and Addictive Experiences
Neptune plays a pivotal role in these charts. Many Aquastells are living with close Neptune squares to the Sun, Venus, Mercury and Jupiter. With their ultra-fixed and focused Aquarian energy, they already strike us as being significantly more eccentric, highly-wired and unpredictable than standard folk, but the addition of multiple Neptune squares to inner planets also hints at intimate experiences with addictive substances such as alcohol, nicotine, and other drugs. This may have as much to do with their attempts to try to self-medicate the super-charged electric mental energy as it does with the foggy disillusion of Neptune. Nevertheless, the fixed Neptunian squares indicate a serious longing to somehow merge into the oceanic bliss. Only mind-altering drugs, spiritualism or creative work can satisfy such strong cravings in this reality.
Such aspects can also indicate an intimate experience with psychosis and the devastating mental illnesses of manic depression and schizophrenia. It's highly likely that many of these Aquastells grew up in a home environment where one of their close relatives suffered from such an illness. It's also possible that in adult life they may have subconsciously sought out partners with such ailments or been afflicted themselves.
4) Lack of Self-Confidence and Slow Starters at the Gate
We often think of Aquarius as the sign of group leaders and organizers. Yet it seems as though Aquastells were born in this lifetime to experience severe self-esteem challenges. The Vedics would cringe at the rate of combustion in a chart where the Sun -- already located at the farthest point from shining Leo -- also throws its detrimental and burning rays at up to five other inner planets. Squares from Neptune reinforce this weaker ego with poorly defined boundaries of self. We also find Saturn co-ruling and inhabiting this wired environment. The melancholy planet forms strong conjunctions to the Sun, Venus and Mars in many of these charts. Aquastells have an unusually high sense of responsibility but it's unlikely that many of them have been able to achieve their ambitions in the years up to and including their first Saturn return. Mars is the planet of determined action, yet even the first third of Aquastells who were born with an exhalted and ambitious Mars in Capricorn, will often find themselves restrained by virtue of the close Saturn presence.
5) Potential to make a Widespread Impact on this World
Now that we've discussed many of the more trying characteristics, it may seem as though the Aquastells are doomed to a life of eccentricity, addiction and obscurity. But this is not the case. Aquarius is the one sign that has as much potential for genius and leadership as it does for mental illness and self-imposed obscurity. We are all familiar with the wisdom of there being a fine line between genius and madness. This particular group of concentrated and tightly wound Aquastells holds the potential for truly extraordinary intellect and talent. There are undoubtedly more geniuses than the truly-lost amongst its ranks. The diverse combinations of Jupiter, Mercury, Sun, Venus, Saturn and Mars contacts in the progressive sign of Aquarius represent an extremely potent force for revolutionary contributions to humanity.
This potential was first noted about 30 years ago by the best-selling writer and psychic Ruth Montgomery. She predicted that the 1962 crop of Aquarians would somehow in their lifetimes put a concrete meaning to 'The Age of Aquarius'. Through their achievements and innovations, they would place humanity onto a new course and usher us spinning firmly into a New Age.
However, when we seek out the accomplished and famous amongst the ranks of the Aquastell group, we come up empty-handed. There is a disproportionate absence of these people in the cliques of famous inventors, actors, writers, and business leaders. To be fair, the Aquastells are still a young bunch; but even accounting for the fact that they are relatively young to be crowding the wider hall of fame, we can safely state that they have not emerged as some sort of recognized force with respect to their contributions to our social, cultural, humanitarian or business spheres.
This may all soon change, however. A look at the outer planet transits to their natal charts confirms that this obscure period is about to make a dramatic end. In 1997, many of the people in this group are about to leap into a whole new reality, with a subset of them almost guaranteed to attract the limelight of outer fame and achievement. For one, their stellium ruler, Uranus, has made it into Aquarius and is beginning to consecutively conjunct one inner planet after another. This influence is likely to be very personally positive this year -- though still unexpected and sudden -- due to the simultaneous crossing of Jupiter over all their Aquarian placements. Meanwhile, the big heavies of Pluto and Saturn will be contributing very steady and powerful sextiles to the stellium of inner planets as both planets move in trine to each other throughout Sagittarius and Aries.
Never have the astrological circumstances been this collectively supportive and powerful for the Aquastells -- and indeed for any heavily laden Aquarian chart. To the extent that we can predict outer-world manifestations based on transits to natal planets; we can expect to witness a Uranian surge of creations and humanitarian contributions as these people seize their moment in 1997 and beyond.
Are you an Aquarian born in 1962?
If you are a 1962 Aquarian, see also a post calling for you to participate in a survey and a meeting spot for 1962 Aquarians.
