The Ruiter Valley experiment was by no means an isolated experience. The 70’s and 80’s were perhaps more than ever before an Age of Aquarius happening. The Doobis Brothers expressed it well in Listen to the Music, recorded in 1972…”Don’t you feel it growing every day? People getting ready for the new. Some are happy. Some are sad (But) we gotta let the music play.”
Those of us who believed in breaking out of the box of normality were totally on board. We were convinced that the creative light of Aquarius would free the world at any moment. That belief was part of what motivated us to look for new ways of living and loving….for ourselves and for others.
What we didn’t understand was that Aquarius had always been with us. It wasn’t a specific moment in time. It was like the tide that we experience when we walk along the shore. We dip our toe in the water as a wave crashes onto the beach and we run away as it advances upon us. We shriek with delight as the game plays out. We fall silent as the water flows back into the source from whence it came…Then we wait expectantly for the next one which may rise a little higher…or fall a little lower…depending on the energies that sister moon imparts to us in any given moment. We are incapable of containing the flow of energy. We are unable to harness our hopes and desires…that one day the love and light of Aquarius will infuse this planet and all who walk upon her face.
Take 1969 for example…a song we were all singing was Let the Sun Shine In…The Fifth Dimensions…”This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius…harmony and understanding…sympathy and trust abound..No more falsehood or derision..golden living dreams of visions…mystics crystal revelation…and the mind’s true liberation.”
That song won a music Grammy in 1970 It expressed the underlying mood of the West…I say underlying because the warmongers and fearful soothsayers who would divide us from each other and from our true nature were hard at work then…just as they are today.
But it wasn’t just the music scene that reflected this Aquarian dream. A whole lot of folks were looking for some meaningful spirituality…a spirituality that was connected to the earth and at the same time saw itself as serving others…generally making our home a much better and less selfish space.
Paramahansa Yogananda was sent to the US in 1920 by his guru with the express purpose of bringing the teachings of yoga to the west. His teachings were based on those of Jesus Christ and Shree Krishna. In other words he was bringing the East to the West and visa versa. His work blossomed in the 50’s 60’s and 70’s…that’s 40 years after he settled in California…I say this simply to point out that patience and determination are essential parts of the spiritual path…We can’t move forward without those two qualities.
In 1959 the first Sivananda Yoga Center was set up in Montreal. Canada by Swami Vishudevananda. Civil Rights..anti war movements…mind opening drugs were all happening at that time.
In 1962 in a small isolated Scottish Community a woman named Eileen Caddy discovered that she had a level of communication with plants that enabled her and her friends to grow gigantic cabbages and all sorts of vegetables so that they were able to survive in difficult circumstances. A community developed around her based on mystical Christianity. The community thrived and struggled and stood on it’s feet again…and is now a Trust which promotes the Higher Mind through seminars and workshops. Aquarius lives on there.
In 1972 a man named Stephen Gaskin began talking to small groups about alternative living. His meetings gathered momentum until a community formed around him..The Farm in Tennessee. It has been self sufficient since its inception and continues on into the presence. Thousands of people live there.
In 1974 Osho set up his Center in Poona, India. He claimed to be an enlightened being and drew spiritual seekers from all over the world. Unfortunately, power got the best of him and the community became violent and chaotic in the last years. Osho was chased out of India and then chased out of the US. Stories about his ending differ….but none of them are happy endings….nonetheless the timeless teachings of yoga which he imparted so well live on.
In 1973 Swami Shayam set up a Spiritual Center in Kulu, India…The Valley of the gods. I have already mentioned that Joan Matthews, one of our founders was a student of his….messengers were sent as it were…messages received.
In 1968 the Beatles went to India to study Transcendental Meditation. The experience changed them…their music and those who listened to their music…which is probably most of us…the message of love and unity lives on through their music.
My point is that energies were building in the 1960’s and 70’s…In my opinion Aquarius was on the move. We were connecting with each other…and those connections were changing us individually and collectively.
Eileen Caddy visited us from Findhorn…as did many therapists and teachers from the US and Canada. Personally, I connected with several of the teachers I have mentioned. I did my Yoga teacher training with Swami Devananda in India…I visited the Shyam Center in the Kulu Valley. I went to the Farm and several other treatment centers and alternative living communities throughout Quebec, Canada, and the US. I was in Poona when Osho was there and met many of his disciples…and I followed training programs with Paramahansa Yogananda
None of which is to say that I did anything different or amazing…I am simply illustrating how energies were moving around and influencing us at that time…Each small community was a hub…like minded folks in other hubs were connecting with our hub…individually or collectively…things were shifting,,,quickly and powerfully if you were on board the train. If you weren’t then you were part of mainstream living. Perhaps you never even heard of the undercurrents that I am talking about…Perhaps you wondered what all the noise was about..anti war what?…and what do these black people want anyway?…and while you’re at it please get rid of these dope smoking hippies?…we just want quiet…the status quo please.
But it was too late…the flow was unstoppable…The sun was shining in…because we wanted it to be so…and we willed it to be so…just as we are doing today…so not to worry…If you are reading this, Aquarius is alive and well….Remember…please remember…to let the sun shine in…each moment of each day. If we do that all will be well…for those we love …here and far away.
I did not have a plan today…I didn’t know where I was walking or exactly why…but now I see that what I wrote was about context…why things happened as they did…when and where and how they happened. Context is important…in your journey as well as in mine.