Aquarius fundamentally represents ideals. Even in popular culture, the “Age of Aquarius” is often said to herald a new era for humanity, where longstanding social problems will be able to be solved in an equitable fashion through the application of reason (Aquarius is attributed to the element of air, which contains reason and intellect amongst its correspondences). Rapid progress in the realms of culture, science and technology would appear to support this idea; we could be forgiven for believing that we are, as a society, quickly heading towards a new and enlightened state based on knowledge that our predecessors did not and could not possess.

An ideal is “a conception of something in its perfection.” It is a standard against which we compare the state of things now with how they could be in a future time. It serves as both an archetype for change (by providing a specific goal to be achieved) and as a catalyst for change (since change will not be sought unless a difference between the current and desired states is perceived). The ruler of the ascendant decan of Aquarius is Venus, and that planet is associated with desires, inner values, comparisons and judgments. In the sense that ideals are fundamentally a comparison between a perceived state and a desired state, interpreted according to individual values, then they are particularly attributable to this decan.

Idealism, on the other hand, can be defined as the “pursuit of high or noble principles,” but also as “the tendency to represent things in an ideal form, or as they might or should be rather than as they are.” It is with this latter definition that we are currently interested. This “tendency to represent things in an ideal form” has a corrupting influence on ideals themselves, and that influence can manifest in two ways:

1. The current state can be represented in an ideal form; and
2. The desired state can be represented in an ideal form.

Properly functioning, and with clear perception, an ideal creates a pathway to a changed and “better” state. Improperly functioning, and contaminated by desires and values, an ideal creates a pathway to an undesired state.

As an obvious example, we might consider that character of popular media culture, the fanatical religious terrorist. In the authorised version, this character perceives a world which is not governed in accordance with the wishes of his God, and seeks to change that situation. He wishes to be a warrior servant of his God, and as such, this value of his causes him to perceive his desired state of affairs to be under threat from all manner of enemies; he wishes to be a soldier for God, and therefore manages to find many opportunities to offer that service, regardless of whether or not the threat in question is actually there. In so doing, he idealises the current state of affairs, by perceiving threats that he feels ought to be there for him to respond to, as opposed to the threats which actually are there. Moreover, he likely has very little idea of what a world “governed in accordance with the wishes of his God” would actually look like. Such characters frequently make reference to the arbitrary and often unknown “will of God,” of not knowing God’s mind, and according to this “logic” it would appear to be impossible to ever bring about that state, because that state could never be adequately described. Consequently, the character perceives a state of affairs which is not accurate, and works to transform it into a different state of affairs which nature he cannot comprehend. Accordingly, his work is unlikely to be successful.

This phenomenon seems incredible when considered objectively, but is not difficult to understand. Values frequently alter perception, and the strength of those values more often than not overrides any logical difficulties inherent to that perception. The man who broods over the loss of his partner transforms his emotion into a conviction that his life will be intolerable without her; he creates an idealised representation of the future, in which there exists misery and sadness as a result of his partner’s absence. There is no requirement for idealised states to be “higher” or “better” than actual states.

Throughout our lives we create much misery for ourselves by bemoaning the fact that the current state of affairs does not conform to some ideal state of affairs, and also by not accurately perceiving the current state of affairs at all, but an ideal state. These two are in fact identical; in the first instance, we are perceiving an idealized state in which some desired element does not exist. It seems nonsensical to describe a state in terms of what is absent from it, and the “lack of partner” in the environment, for instance, is therefore a perceived quality rather than a real one.

Similarly, we may complain at the fact that we do not have as nice a car as we might like, or as nice a house, or as nice a job, but that complaint does not arise in reaction to something inherent in the environment itself; it arises from the ideals of the mind. More times than not, it is not something “wrong” with our house that causes us discomfort, but the mere desire for a better one, and the consequent colouring of perception in light of that. We convince ourselves that our present house is causing us discomfort, and that a better house would remedy that discomfort, but the source of the discomfort arises from somewhere else altogether.

Suffering is therefore to a large extent imaginary, and self-imposed. If one of our legs is caught and currently being painfully mangled in a piece of farming machinery, then we may justifiably claim to be suffering, but the vast majority of disquiet does not arise in the environment itself, but in the mind. Specifically, it arises from the phenomenon of idealism, which manufactures suffering through a conscious or unconscious comparison of reality with an ideal.

Even the desire to end suffering arises from just such a comparison, from a comparison with the actual world with an imaginary world where there is no suffering. This naturally makes conscious attempts to end suffering difficult. People may seek growth, development, and enlightenment, but that search in itself implies an acquiescence in the illusion, and will ensure that it is not conquered.

Instead, we should merely withdraw attention from these ideals, and give it instead to reality, to that which is not imaginary. To do this requires great courage at first, since all the hopes and dreams we have must be utterly discarded. At first glance, this idea of “abandoning hope” may seem bleak and negative, but it is only ideals that create the necessity of hope; hope is not required when one accepts the world as it is, and the existence of hope serves only to reinforce the idea that there is something wrong with that world, leading to a vicious cycle which can never be fulfilled. Far from being a bleak and empty outlook, the abandonment of ideals is instead intensely liberating, for the idealistic man lives forever in his idealism, and even if he achieves his ends, he will replace them with new ones. Paradoxically, his only “hope” is to abandon them altogether, and this must be complete; it will not to let go of desire whilst keeping the thought in reserve that such an actually will lead to your desires being fulfilled.

As the Sun moves into a new sign of the Zodiac, try to pay attention to the natural world. When the Sun leaves this decan and moves into the succedent, January will be almost over, and a new month will be beginning. Winter will still be with us, but the signs of its waning will be evident. The Celtic fire festival of Imbolc will follow shortly thereafter at sunset on February 1^st, which traditionally heralded the beginning of Spring. The passage of one season to another provides an ideal opportunity to observe changes in the natural world, and paying attention to such changes is a remedy to idealism, since it compels us to focus on what is real rather than on what is merely imaginary. As we do so, the unreality of the suffering caused by our idealism begins to reveal itself. Use the next ten days to try to identify some of the ways in which idealism colours your own perception, for this will give you insight into the nature of your own being. Although Aquarius is associated with idealism it is ruled by Saturn, the sternest of all the teachers, and the hardest of all lessons is the acceptance that the world does not work in the way you would like it to, and that you yourself are not what you fondly imagine yourself to be.