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The Aquarian Age
The EDGE Interview with Richard Koepsel
by Cathy Smith
Richard Koepsel, owner of Microcosm Books in Madison for 33 year and an astrologer
for 39 years, is dedicated to healing and the use of prayer to alleviate suffering.
He spoke with The EDGE recently in his shop, about his perspectives on prayer, on
the Aquarian Age, on astrology and on his mission in life.
Richard, tell me about the new series of talks you will be presenting in the Twin
Cities.
Koepsel: I'm trying to form prayer groups, because I think anybody can learn
how to concentrate and anybody can learn how to put their feelings together with
their thoughts and drive a good, strong prayer. And if a good, strong prayer group
can be formed, we can do something to alleviate suffering.
You might even call the talks bribery, because I offer talks and I'll continue to
give talks as long as people are willing to try praying and to work very hard at
it, with the hope that somewhere along the line it will congeal as a prayer group.
We've been at it three years now and some people seem to really like doing that activity.
It is what Carlos Castaneda would call a "calculated folly." It's a gesture
that you try things and hope that something sticks.
The first series of talks were a general introduction to mysticism, the spiritual
worlds and the composition of the human being, and it included topics like rebirth
and spiritual exercises and the dangers of mediumship and other psychic phenomenon
-- and there were several sections on healing prayer itself. The whole idea was that,
if you know how things are put together and how they work, it gives you a much better
understanding when you do something like healing.
The second series of talks were something that I've offered a couple of times before,
here at home in Madison and once in Southern California. It's called "Transitions
Into the Aquarian Age." There are three introductory talks. One on when the
Aquarian Age is. Then, a flagship talk is called "The Aquarian Age and the Holy
Grail and Heaven and Earth." What that does is explore the whole concept of
astronomical time and what happens in the heavens and how that correlates to what
happens on Earth. Then, there's a third talk that explores the evolution of consciousness
in history. The events of one period of history lean to one type of spiritual seeking,
and when people learn from that, it resolves into another kind of spiritual seeking.
Ancient methods were good for ancient times, but it shows that as the times change,
our outlooks change, because we have experience of things that have changed us irreversibly.
If you've experienced something in a really strong way, you can't go back and try
to be something that you were before, because now you're different.
After those talks, I did about 15 or so describing each of the signs of the Zodiac
related to Aquarius. Each sign of the Zodiac rules an aspect of human development
and determines how things are now and how they will become something new in the future.
At the very end, I offered some talks that wind everything up and tie everything
together. I talked about Aquarius itself and the attitudes that are associated with
Aquarius.
How do you define the Aquarian Age?
Koepsel: It is a state of consciousness that is awakened with a new viewpoint
every time the equinox moves through the constellation Aquarius. It is a very difficult
thing to determine, because not all the constellations are the same size, and there's
a lot of controversy about where the beginning of the sidereal Zodiac is. There are
overlaps and there are many other kinds of things that are involved such that it
isn't just the Aquarian Age in terms of being within a constellation. You can't dice
it up into so many equal pieces, because reality isn't like that. It isn't clean,
so to speak. There are a lot of different factors that go into evolution and large-scale
changes of time, so this Aquarian Age may be different than all the others because
of larger cycles turning over. It's a very complex milieu in which we live. There
are all kinds of different contributing factors and there are cycles and cycles within
cycles. So when we discuss a realistic time to see the Aquarian Age begin, we talk
about the fact that you can't really look at it like, "This room begins with
that door." In human consciousness, there's more of a merging and a melding
rather than an abrupt going from one state to another.
It's been said that we're living in the time of global transformation the ancients
had spoken of; that our collective frequency is increasing. Do you believe this is
so and what signs indicate that for those who haven't noticed much change?
Koepsel: Well, if you want to get really technical about it, to answer that question
you would have to have a consciousness within memory that had the scope of large-scale
change; that is, you would have to have a memory that extends thousands of years.
And if you had such a memory, and there are people who do have that -- I think
there are adepts that have that kind of ability -- then you could see from experience.
Otherwise, you have to interpret history, and that's a tricky matter. We like to
flatter ourselves and say that, yes, evolution is speeding up and it is true that
illiteracy is very much on the decline and it's true that more things are available
to more people than ever were before. If you take a century and a half ago, everybody
who knew calculus knew everybody else who knew calculus. There were that few people
who could do calculus, and now they teach it in high schools.
That's an indication that there is a collective awakening that does seem to be faster,
if you think of time in terms of faster and slower, but you would have to have direct
experience to know that. It appears to be true and that's what the purpose of these
talks is: to see what the actual acceleration is, where the river is running faster
and how can we utilize what is available now to increase our own consciousness and
accelerate our own development.
Why do you teach people about the Aquarian Age. What is the importance of us knowing
this now?
Koepsel: "Forewarned is forewise" is the old maxim, and a lot of people
are purposelessly wandering around and they don't have a direction in which they're
going -- and they aren't even aware that there is a progress and that there is a
direction that everything is going. It is very helpful to bring that to the attention
of people, because just wandering around in the woods is not a pleasant state.
I think it's very helpful to get us out of our own small-minded selfishness. Too
often, we live for the things we want to do and we want things our way, and that
becomes our whole world and that becomes a very small world -- and it's a world that
becomes impervious to the sufferings of others. And it is a world that can't appreciate
the larger picture of things.
I think if you appreciate something, and truly understand the beauty of something,
then that automatically opens you up to some kind of great, Divine experience. So,
if you can get people to think about the river that they're riding on and where it
is going and their part in it, you can take them out of their little world and bring
them to a place that they can appreciate a bigger reality and become less self-centered
and more centered toward the Divine and more cognizant of the needs of others. It's
really a joy working together with others in that way.
Do you feel that we are in the Aquarian Age right now?
Koepsel: No. I think that we have been in a transition into it since the mid-19th
century: the rise of romanticism, and the rise of leftist thinking, which thinks
in terms of universal brotherhoods and an altruistic whole. I think about it in a
political sense, and romanticism often became quite high-blown egoism, I guess you
could call it. But, those were indications of a new kind of consciousness that succeeded
the monkish kind of consciousness of the Piscean Age, where you never questioned
anything and had an ignorant, blind faith. I think that we have been becoming closer
and closer to being fully into the Aquarian Age, but I don't think we're really there
yet.
What changes do you expect to see, or what things have already taken place that
would show us that we're moving into that Age?
Koepsel: There are many things. In the physical sense, the whole computer business
and the internet, which is a way of relaying massive amounts of information.
Each of the airy signs relates to the air. Gemini is more like little gusts of wind,
and Libra flows to maintain a homeostasis between high and low pressure zones. But
when there are massive weather fronts or when there are massive highs with ionized
polar air, that is like Aquarius. So, we're talking about large-scale knowledge where
everything is available to you.
Aquarius is also a decentralizing sign. It's opposite Leo, which is a sign of centralization
and self-centeredness. Aquarius is out on the fringes.
I think some other things that are indicative of it are the quest for freedom, which
begins when we seek individual freedom. That can be taken only so far, and then freedom
is understood within the context of creating together with others.
Does the New Age movement have anything to do with the Aquarian Age? I doubt it.
If it does, it's very little, because it seems to be much more back like in the Age
of Taurus. In the Age of Taurus, the heroes of the time were the merchants who were
buying and selling in the days of Babylon and China. In the Age of Taurus, you were
esteemed if you made a lot of money as a merchant. A lot of the New Age sounds like
that to me. It doesn't sound like people who are living for an invisible ideal. It
doesn't sound like the idea of universal brotherhood and the sacrifice of personal
prestige. You find a lot of impresarios and a lot of stars and they all say relatively
shallow things. I think it started out with very good premises and seemed to be going
in that direction, but somehow the materialism of, what in India they would call
the Kali Yuga (the period of darkness and materialism), has gotten to that movement,
so that it can't fly. It's like a flightless bird right now.
What can we do as individuals to make the transition into the Aquarian Age as
effortless as possible?
Koepsel: That's an extremely big question and an extremely difficult one. Obviously,
Aquarius being ruled by Uranus is a sign of awakening, and whatever we can do to
awaken that is pro-Aquarian. In fact that's what I think this Aquarian Age, relative
to all the others, means. It means awakening to self-conscious realizations of the
spiritual worlds that were not available before.
It's a question that I've pondered all of my life, because each person wants to awaken.
You see people around you who are making egregious mistakes because they aren't awake.
And you ask, "What causes awakening?" It seems to me that this is the primitive
level that we're at with our development that one of the prime awakeners is suffering.
That doesn't mean I'm espousing a life of masochism that you permanently suffer,
but I do think that one of the things that promotes the Aquarian Age consciousness
is suffering. Suffering helps remove that which keeps us from being intuitive people.
Because Uranus rules Aquarius, intuition is pro-Aquarian -- just to know in your
heart that something is true and to act on that first impulse of intuition. That
is the direction that I think we're going in the Aquarian Age. What I think we can
do to promote that are two things:
-- We eventually develop a soul body, and that soul body is filled with light. Some
people, when you look at them, you can see that they walk in light and no matter
what they say or do, it can't be hidden. Other people, if you look at them, they're
like in darkness. It's almost like their face is dirty all the time. It doesn't matter
what race it is. There's something smudgy there. When you see that, that's the beginning
of an etheric vision.
In Christian mysticism, the soul body is called the Golden Wedding Garment. It literally
is like the heroine in Rumplestiltskin who takes the straw and weaves it into gold.
Every time we do something from the goodness of our heart for someone else, we build
into ourselves another little curl of that golden light, and the more of that that
we have, the more our intuition can bypass the mind, and bypass the desire nature.
One of the things that leads to Aquarian Age awakening is doing as many things from
the goodness of your heart -- and absorbing and assimilating the results of those
kinds of experiences and becoming soulful.
-- The other thing is developing an attitude of openness and expectancy so we are
not pre-programmed to look at the world in one way or another. There are all kinds
of exercises that have been used by different people in different cultures to develop
that openness. The one example that most people are familiar with are Zen koans.
The spirit begins thinking and thinking and thinking and trying to solve an unsolvable
problem, and eventually it comes to that realization and it then realizes the limitation
of the mind and it lets go of trying to do everything with the mind. At such a point,
one is open in an expectant way, in an anticipatory way, for the surprise that intuition
always is. It's always new, it's always beautiful and it's always a wonderful experience.
So, the more of that expectancy and openness that we can develop or culture in ourselves,
the better it is. Doing spontaneous, creative work is another excellent way to open
that up.
I understand that Rosicrucianism has been the path that you've followed. How has
it affected your life and what can true seekers of self-awareness get from it.
Koepsel: There are now at least 25 and probably 40 Rosicrucian organizations,
so when you say "Rosicrucian," it's a very difficult word. I belong to
the Rosicrucian Fellowship, which I think is among the most modern of them.
There are a lot of Rosicrucian organizations, which are mutations from outcroppings
of earlier Rosicrucian waves of development. Some of them go all the way back to
the 14th century.
The Rosicrucian Order, as I understand it, was totally an inner world order. It was
comprised of great adepts who were almost like demi-gods compared to us in their
consciousness, and they developed the Rosicrucian movement for the times that we
were in. But, century by century, as the times have changed, new Rosicrucian movements
came out, sort of like new automobiles come out. I expect there's going to be a new
one almost any time now and it's going to be significantly different than anything
that has come before.
I think the value of the philosophy of Rosicrucianism as espoused by the Rosicrucian
Fellowship is that it is excellent for people whose head has gotten beyond the heart
and people who need something to give them all the answers for their head. It presents
the intellectual information in such a way that it opens them up to following their
heart. It also promotes self-reliance. The modern individual does not want to be
under a dogma and it does not want to be under a master.
Another way that the Rosicrucian Fellowship is beneficial is that its spiritual exercises
are appropriate for our times. There was a time when we were coming into physical
body when it was relatively easy to realize clairvoyance by very simple techniques.
Some of those techniques are still around and they still work. But now, when things
are much more based on observation and science than blind faith, spiritual exercises
now get us not only to look at the material world, but to see through the material
world and into the spiritual worlds.
Another value that the Rosicrucian Fellowship has is that everything that it does
is free. Spiritual things are like a sunset. Once you take something that is unbounded
and spiritual by nature, and then revalue it, which amounts to devaluing it, then
you have debased and you have lost the spiritual essence.
I think a lot of spiritual things need to be seen in the essence that they're free
for the effort. You put the effort in, you live by cause and consequence, you become
what is necessary to move on to the next stage of evolution. But, as long as it's
equated in terms of dollars and cents, something spiritual is turned into something
material.
A lot of people have the misnotion that if it doesn't cost money, it mustn't be worth
anything.... I do a lot of astrology and I do it all free. I don't want there to
be a money barrier between myself and other people, causing someone to say, "Well,
I want my dollar's worth!" In a way it frees me, because if I'm doing everything
for free, I can do what I want to do and I don't have to answer to anybody in that
way, but it also frees the audience in that they don't have to feel obligated.
Several of the people who have attended my talks in the Masonic Lodge and have made
great donations and participations, and because of that I've virtually had the use
of the Lodge for free, but I take a free-will offering to cover the use of the space.
If what you're doing opens people's hearts, and if it is something that they really
care about, they will give of their own free will, without any prompting, without
any badgering.
How long have you studied astrology? What about it interested you?
Koepsel: I have studied astrology for 39 years. I was an atheistic beatnik and
I had a mystical experience about the same time I came into studying astrology. Even
though some parts of astrology I have mastered, I'm not a highly technical astrologer.
To me, astrology, even horoscopy, is a means to focus one's attention. Astrology,
for me, is valuable because it's a vehicle to get at things. It can't be a religion
itself, even though there are religious aspects to it, because some of the things
that you get at are the times and the seasons of things.
I do a lot of counseling. People have various issues, for example, love issues and
relationships. Astrology helps you to look at things beyond the physical body. Often
there are hidden motivations -- hidden because we're not complete seers yet. I use
astrology as a tool to help people, as a tool to be in touch with the times and the
seasons and a tool for self-improvement.
Is there anything you would like to add?
Koepsel: Yes. The purpose of the whole lecture series and everything I'm trying
to do is to fulfill the two admonitions of Christ: to preach the Gospel, which means
not just the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, but it is the whole spiritual
teaching; and to heal the sick.
The purpose is to get people who want to pray, because it's not easy work. It's very
hard work, but it's one of those things that allows you to grow while you're serving.
And I think there's no better thing that a person can do than to focus healing energy
and make it available so that it can be used for healing work. Everything that I'm
trying to do with this series of talks and everything else I've done has been for
the purpose of healing and helping people to understand what we're at and how we
can participate better.
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The Aquarian Age
Richard Koepsel, an astrologer from Madison, Wisc., will present free lectures on
The Aquarian Age, beginning the first Friday of September and continuing as a series
on the first Friday of each month at 7 p.m. at the Triune Masonic Center, 1898 Iglehart
Ave., St. Paul, Minn. For information, call (608) 251-0254.
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Richard Koepsel has owned Microcosm Bookstore at 306 Lakeside Ave. in Madison, Wisc.,
for 33 years, and he has been an astrologer for 39 years, offering free astrology
and counseling sessions for those in need. For more information, contact him at (608)
251-0254.
Copyright (c) 2002 Cathy Smith
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