Aging Of Aquarius Positive Era Of Peace And Love Is Really Just Starting To Hit Its Stride

“When the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars, then peace will guide the planets and love will steer the stars.”

- “Aquarius,” from the musical “Hair,” 1967

It was the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, and a bunch of kids with snarly hair and sandaled feet were taking on the Establishment with their utopian battle cries:

“Make love, not war.”

“Power to the people.”

“Live and let live.”

Then the kids grew up, cut their hair, put on real shoes and became the Establishment. Making money became more important than making love. Power became the drug of choice. And the Age of Aquarius? Did it fade out with bell-bottoms?

Well, maybe we stopped singing about it, but the groovy thing is, it never died.

In fact, cosmically speaking, 1995 will be a banner year for the Age of Aquarius. According to astrology gurus, the Peace & Love thing is making a major comeback and we have the laid-back, people-loving Water Bearer to thank for it. This will be, they say, one of the most positive periods of the century.

Far out, huh?

Dig this: An astrological age lasts about 2,100 years - it’s the period a particular zodiac sign has the strongest influence due to movement of the constellations. Astrologers say we entered Aquarius in the mid1940s. So in star years, the Water Bearer was just a mischievous toddler when we started hearing about it in the ‘60s. It takes at least 50 years for an age to sink roots and start asserting itself. That’s why astrologers are buzzing about Aquarius now - it just turned 50.

What’s more, in April, the planet Uranus, ruler of Aquarius, enters its own sign for the first time in 84 years. The planets visit each sign in the zodiac as they orbit through space, sprinkling their influence everywhere they go. But when they come home, like Uranus is about to do for seven years or so, there are always fireworks.

The gist is this: We may have toyed with peace, love and brotherhood in the 1960s, but we’re about to start feeling such good will toward our fellow man and woman - not to mention fellow cows, chickens and chinchillas - that ridiculers like Rush Limbaugh could wind up in a real lather.

The astrologers point to evidence: There’s the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the fall of the Iron Curtain, the beginning of the end of apartheid, a semblance of peace in the Middle East, the move toward gender parity and ethnic diversity in the workplace, an outcry to nurse our ailing planet and stop torturing animals, a new tide of volunteerism.

“None of that could have happened without the influence of Aquarius,” says Mary Garcia of Miami, who was resident astrologer for Spanish Cosmopolitan and Vanidades magazines for more than 10 years. “And this is just the first glimpses of what the Age of Aquarius will bring to the planet.”

Astrologers tell us Aquarius is about revolutionary thought. about having vision and courage to break from outmoded traditions, about embracing humanity.

“Think about what has happened since the age began in the 1940s,” Garcia says.

“In the grand scheme of things, it was only yesterday that blacks in this country got even a hint of respect. It was only yesterday that women were able to gain some equality. That is Aquarius at work.”

Feel like joining hands with strangers and singing a few bars of “Let the Sunshine In?”

James Rado, the New York hippie who in 1967 coauthored that hopeful tune and the rest of the lyrics for “Hair,” is still feeling that good vibe.

“Things may have changed since the ‘60s, but in a way we still have the same ideals. We still dream of a world without hate and without poverty and illness,” says Rado, who never did cut his shoulder-length hair. And, yes, he does happen to be an Aquarian.

Rado, still a believer, says the idea for “Hair” and its famous “Aquarius” song came to him when he read about the dawning of the new age in The Village Voice. The lyrics for “Aquarius” practically wrote themselves, he said. Everybody was buzzing about a bright new world:

“Harmony and understanding. Sympathy and trust abounding. No more falsehoods or derisions. Golden living dreams of visions. Mystic crystal revelation and the mind’s true liberation! A-qua-ri-us! A-qua-ri-us!”

“We really believed we could change things for the better,” Rado said from his home in New Jersey. Maybe, in a way, we did.” Rado is now busy writing two more musicals - “Sun,” about the ailing environment; and “Rainbow,” about near-death experiences.

Carol Tebbs, secretary for the 600-member International Society for Astrological Research, which provides data to astrologers and is based in (where else) Los Angeles, says we haven’t seen anything yet.

“Aquarius is a very visionary sign. Maybe some of that faded after the 1960s, because the age wasn’t strong enough yet to withstand some of its backlash,” says Tebbs. ‘In a few hundred years, Aquarius will have brought innovations we can’t even begin to imagine today.”

Preceding the Age of Aquarius was the Age of Pisces, which most astrologers believe started before the birth of Jesus Christ.

“Pisces is about deeply believing, about following,” explains Sioux Rose of Key West, astrologer for Lear’s magazine until it folded last year.

“Remember Jesus Christ? Christianity even uses the fish, the symbol of Pisces. In the Age of Pisces we had a world that was moved by its beliefs. Back during the rule of the Egyptians, we were in the Age of Taurus, which is when we built all the pyramids. Taurus is about building.”

The Age of Aquarius isn’t just about loving your fellow man and woman; it is also about loving yourself, which some say accounts for the rise in look-within spirituality, the boom in the higher-consciousness trade, and, of course, a growing popularity in astrology.

The number of national astrology organizations is standing at eight, including the American Federation of Astrologers based in Beverly Hills, which is the largest with 4,500 members.

Something is also making more people give up meat and work for animal rights, says Jenny Woods, spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, based in Maryland.

PETA was founded in 1984 with two fulltime staff workers and 8,000 members. Today it has a staff of 100 and an international membership of 500,000.

Astrologers say we can chalk that up to the Age of Aquarius, and Woods agrees there’s probably something to that.

“So much of our support comes from younger people. We hear from members who tell us it was their children who made them join. I think it is no longer the Me Generation. People are realizing we have to change our habits,” Woods said.

There’s more, sky trackers say: The brainy Water Bearer, not being much for sweat, is changing our exercise habits. Yoga is so big that even aerobics queen Jane Fonda jumped on the bandwagon last year with her own yoga video.

Of course, for every optimist, there’s somebody out there who won’t buy a word of astrology.

According to David Fisher, a University of Miami astronomer who studies the chemistry of the cosmos: “It’s simply not the way the universe works.”