May/June 2009 Cosmic
Age of Aquarius

by Benjamin Creme

A new spiritual age is dawning.

Approximately every 2,150 years, our sun comes into alignment with each of the constellations of the zodiac. When we are in that alignment, we say we are in the age of that particular constellation and are the recipient of powerful cosmic energies streaming from it. The energies of each age are different, and inspire us to create quite different civilizations.

For approximately 2,000 years, our sun has stood in that relationship to the constellation Pisces. We have been in the age of Pisces. Our sun has now moved away from the sphere of influence of the energies of Pisces, and is coming into that same alignment with the constellation Aquarius. We are now entering the age of Aquarius.

Such a changeover from one age to the next usually precipitates a crisis in humanity, between those who want to hold on to the old structures and way of living, and those who are responding to the new energies. The time before us is no exception. To help humanity through this crisis, and to provide new teachings that allow an appropriate response to the energies of the time, cyclic law has always called forth a great teacher into the world. Historically we know them, among others, as Hercules, Rama, Confucius, Krishna, Buddha, Christ and Mohammed.

I believe that the age of Aquarius will also have its teacher. He is, in fact, already in the world. His name is Maitreya and he comes not alone, but with his group of enlightened teachers - the Masters of Wisdom.

Maitreya's immediate concern is for the millions of people in the Third World who live out meager, stunted lives in needless poverty and starvation, and have no sense of hope for the future.

One of the tragedies of today is that literally millions of people have no sense of their own worth. They do not count, and they know they do not count. Their consciousness is not allowed to grow, their awareness is limited. They live to work, if they are lucky enough to have work. The work is usually mechanical and hard, simple muscle work for a pittance, barely enough to keep their families in food.

Maitreya seeks to invest each individual life with sanctity and worth, to bring each person to the experience that he or she is a soul in incarnation, that every soul counts, that there is not a soul separate from any other soul. Everyone, whatever their condition now, should have an equal right to education, food, shelter, healthcare and the fulfillment of their full potential as living souls.

This is probably the most important thing that Maitreya comes to do - to endow millions of people with a sense of their own worth, and the awareness that everyone on Earth is here for a purpose - the soul's purpose. Everyone has embarked on a journey, an adventure open to all of us, but which is denied to the vast majority of people today as a conscious experience.

Maitreya and the masters see the joy that is the birthright of all humanity, that there is no need for the pain and suffering that is largely brought on by ourselves. If you could see into the heart of Maitreya, you would see the pain and agony of countless millions, their longing for a better life. These are ongoing sufferings that many people in the West never experience. Yet, they are the common experience of two thirds of the world's population. That is the conscious awareness, moment to moment, of Maitreya. He carries it around with him.

At the same time he carries with him his sense of joy, his joy as a master, as a divine being whose nature is joy.

He comes to show us how to be ourselves as souls, and the nature of the soul is joy. What stands in the way of the manifestation and experience of joy in our lives is our fear - of life, of death, of everything that might change what we know. The fear of change fills humanity, and at the same time we all have a longing for change, for betterment. Maitreya's task is to show humanity that the change they are longing for, but fearing, is for the better. That change will transform the lives of the vast majority of people in the world.

British author Benjamin Creme has written 14 books on the emergence of Maitreya and the Masters of Wisdom. Visit www.share-international.org.