The Great Year

01 01 2017

I have always been concerned, perhaps obsessed, by time. I have been a diarist since January 1965. Some of my first poems were about the transience of time. How could they have not been when I was preoccupied with death and failure? I have written an extensive history of my family, going back to the early 1800s. I have written "A Short History of the Irish in Montreal" and other poems that I group into the category of history, time, the years. Since the mid-1980s I have written poems on individual years. I look at my life and think there is more that has been done than will be done in the future. The expiry date is not far off. It is time to do the important work of life, the mission of writing and what it means, the vision of art. There is chronological time, emotional time, and cosmic time. This poem, then, deals in cosmic time.

The poems that follow, "The Great Year," were first published at The Astrology Guild website (probably now defunct) and in my selected poems, Mapping the Soul (1998):

(http://www.astrologyguild.com/thegreatyear.htm).

The Great Year

In our present day, when this same planet, Earth, rocking slowly on its axis in its course around the sun, is about to pass out of astrological range of the zodiacal sign of the Fish (Pisces) into that of the Water Bearer (Aquarius), it does indeed seem that a fundamental transformation of the historical conditions of its inhabiting humanity is in prospect.

                                            --Joseph Campbell
                                            The Inner Reaches of Outer Space (1986)

These poems celebrate the Great Year, a period of time that lasts 25,868 years during which Earth passes through the twelve zodiacal signs, and the Great Months, each lasting approximately 2,500 solar years. Poetry, like astrology and mythology, is the language of the unconscious mind, dreams, symbolism, irrationality and intuition. © Stephen Morrisey, M.A.. 2002

Age of Virgo - c. 13000 - 10800 B.C.Age of Leo - c. 10800 - 8640 B.C.Age of Cancer - c. 8640 - 6480 B.C.Age of Gemini- c. 6480 - 4550 B.C.Age of Taurus- c. 4550 - 2400 B.C.Age of Aries- c. 2400 B.C. - 100 B.C.Age of Pisces- c. 100 B.C. - 2000 A.DAge of Aquarius- c. 2000 - 4000 A.D.