Paul Le Cour and the Age of Aquarius
Definition: [Astrological Ages] Paul Le Cour [1871 - 1954 AD] published in 1937 a work entitled Ere du Verseau. Avènement de Ganyméde, which translates as the Age of Aquarius, the Advent of Ganymede.* Le Cour's start date for Age of Aquarius was 2160 AD.
This appears to be the first book ever written concerning the Age of Aquarius. However, Le Cour remains essentially unknown in the English-speaking world. This may be for two reasons. Firstly, the French-language Ere du Verseau. Avènement de Ganyméde seems never to have been translated into English. Secondly, Le Cour was thought by many to be an antisemite. This would not have endeared him to Carl Gustav Jung, the subsequent populariser of the Age of Aquarius, and Jung never refers to Le Cour in his writings. However, Ere du Verseau predates Jung's first recorded mention of the Age of Aquarius by some three years.
* Ganymede in the original Ancient Greek tale was immortalised by Zeus as the constellation Aquarius. He was cupbearer to the Gods, taken up to heaven on account of his transcendent beauty. [He was also Zeus's lover.]
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Le Cour's Age of Aquarius: Le Cour's earlier Age of Aquarius differs from Jung's in one very notable aspect. Whereas Jung saw the start of the Age of Aquarius as the end of the Christian "Era of the Fishes," Le Cour saw it in the opposite fashion, as a Second Advent of Jesus, albeit perhaps Christianity without its original Jewish roots. A part of the charge of antisemitism against Le Cour lies in the difference between the first and second editions of Ere du Verseau. The first edition contains a chapter on Jewish and Christain accord, in which Le Cour writes "One of the great events of the Era of Aquarius must be logically the reconciliation of the Jews and the Christians." And that a "Temple of Solomon" would be restored. This chapter is removed from the second edition. However, it must be born in mind that the second edition was published in the early 1940s when France was under Nazi occupation. |
Front Page of Ere du Verseau. Avènement de Ganyméde The Era [or Age] of Aquarius. The Advent of Ganymede. Dated 1937 AD. |
Did Le Cour Originate the Age of Aquarius? A reading of Ere du Verseau indicates that Le Cour was rather a bad astrologer. Notably he didn't seem to understand the Movement of the Vernal Equinox Point, the reason for the Movement of the Ages, and notably confuses the Tropical and Sidereal Zodiac, not understanding that an Astrological Age can only happen in a Sidereal Zodiac system. It's clear then that the answer to this question is: No. Le Cour, in turn, was relying on the work of others. See Edward Carpenter for more details.
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© Dr Shepherd Simpson, Astrological Historian. [Most of the information on this page was taken from http://cura.free.fr/xxv/25halb20.html, written, in French, by Jacques Halbronn]
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