what is most curious about this whole theory is that it uses the Equinox as the Starting Point for the Zodiac, meaning Aries as the beginning. If we carry the symbolism of the Equinox as Beginning to Pisces, and then to Aquarius, the principle here is a new Zodiacal Age with each of these signs marking "the Beginning". Those of us who practice astrology choose to stick with the Tropical system that keeps this 00 Aries Point in the same seasonal alignment. The sidereal system attempts to correct for this by moving the 00 Aries to correct for this drift.
The Symbolism of Pisces and Aquarius is closely related to their position at the End of the Zodiac, with Aries marking the beginning. This makes sense in a way for Christian Symbolism or the idea of Christ as being at the Center of the Cross, Crucified by the Duality of Human and the Divine, or the Finite and the Infinite. In some sense this is fitting symbolism with the zodiacal marker of the Beginning "Drifting" into the End. But what happens when this drift continues onward, from the 12th Sign to the 11th Sign?
Admittedly, this symbolism also relies upon the Twelve Letter Alphabet, which comes up when you conflate the 12 Signs with the 12 House Positions. There is an alternative zodiacal theory that positions Cancer as the first sign of the Zodiac, but this is controversial and not widely accepted. But it raises the question, why start the Zodiac with Aries, in the Spring? It is interesting to compare this with our usual calander, which starts in January, in the middle of the Winter. Why Start your Calander in January? If the New Year starts in Capricorn Season, why not Make Capricorn the first sign of the Zodiac? Alternatively, you could do the opposite and use Summer Solstice, Start a New Year every Summer! Apparently this is how they did it in Ancient Egypt, and is the basis for the idea of Cancer as the original 1st Sign of the Zodiac.
There is an underlying question here, if the choice to use Spring, Summer, or Winter to designate a Beginning or Start Point is "Essential", or "Arbitary" and therefore relativistic. If the Egyptians had a different system, if Aries does not need to be Essentialized as the "First Sign" of the Zodiac, the Age of Aquarius idea starts to make less sense, because why not use the Precession of the Solstice rather than the Equinox? Where we have a backwards drift of a "Solstice Point" that slides from Cancer back to Gemini and then eventually to Taurus?
If you have made it this far, perhaps you've begun to put two and two together, maybe the Age of Aquarius isn't "real" after all, but perhaps a kind of imaginary construction pieced together by an incomplete understanding of astrology? Never the less I think it could be useful regardless as a Myth, not something that is concretely real, or even necessarily historically accurate... As far as I am aware the general consensus in the Astrological Community is that the Age of Aquarius is not really historically accurate, and is more of a mythical construction of the New Age.
Even if is a kind of Modern Myth of the New Age and not some concrete indicator of real astrological aeons, it's possible that the symbolism can be read in a productive way, in the same way that you would intrpret tea leaves or dream symbols.
Perhaps this is too much, perhaps I have gone too far. I am doing this intentionally to illustrate a point, what if we push human evolution so far that the whole image of evolution as a reaching up to some higher ideal becomes obscured by the "becoming animal" of the Crab? What if the higher-evolved human starts to resemble the form of some other animal? What if the whole pretense of Progress and Evolution is actually hiding the hidden desire of the Shadow or ID, the desire to Regress, to recede back into Animality. What if we are just taking the long way around to the inherent state of perfection that the Crab already represents? What if crabs themselves are just the perfected forms of earlier generations of humans?
As we look at the current trajectory of human society, it seems more easy to imagine a collective "becoming animal" a Neo-Primitive Future society, as the human-animal beast has begun to resent the trappings of civilization, what if progress isn't a straight line forward but rather follows the circular bend of the wheel? Has human progress begun to turn back around on itself already? Are we really trapped into a cycle of "De-Evolution"?
According to Christian Mysticism and certain Hermetic Traditions, there is a version of evolution that follows a circular pattern, where some species evolve to a point of humanity, only to revert, to turn back and return to the more simple animal state. Perhaps we currently long for this, as we feel burdened by the responsibility techonlogical progress has brought us, we do not wish to be the creators and potential destroyers of our environment, but rather gentle fauna grazing in a state of tranquility. Unfortunately this is not the case, and humanity is having a tremendous impact on the environment and the natural world around it.
To understand the importance of the Age of Aquarius it's important to remember that Aquarius stands apart from the preceding Ages of Pisces and Aries in that the Aquarius Water-Pourer is an inherently Humanistic Symbol where The Fish of Pisces and the Ram of Aries belong to the World of Animals. Perhaps the fundamental challenge of the Aquarian Age is to stay fully present and centered with the responsibility we have as Humans to be caretakers and stewards of our interconnected biosphere.