The Age Of Aquarius

INTRODUCTION: The full existing text of the unfinished story The Age Of Aquarius. A bit of background: Some years back I went through this crazy astrology phase and made up characters for each of the zodiac signs, plus all of the constellations I could find. I somehow learned of a song called "The Age Of Aquarius" and was beyond thrilled when my parents told me that they had a copy of it on eight-track somewhere. They dug the tape out--I believe it was something like The Best Of The Fifth Dimension--and I played it in my big stereo (which has since gone defunct, and been removed from my room, where it had still been serving me nicely as a bedside stand). I absolutely fell in love with this song (I also liked "Wedding Bell Blues"...) and decided to write a story about it! The basic plot, as I recall it, was about the Ram, Aries, setting out to find the fabled Aquarius, who would bring peace to the land of Zodiaca. Along the way Aries would of course meet up with all the other signs of the zodiac. I recall starting a sort of encyclopedia of characters (all named after constellations), and I even drew a "movie poster" with all of them on it (even Aquarius, albeit in tiny silhouette, riding a dragon or eagle or something in the background), fully colored, to put on my wall where it stayed for ages. Of course, all of my characters were anthropomorphized animals: Aries was a talking ram, Taurus was a bull, Gemini was two anthropomorphic dogs, Cancer was a crab, Leo was a lion, Virgo was a female dog dressed in white robes and wearing flowers in her hair, Libra was...for some bizarre reason...a nerdy white rabbit with glasses and a pair of scales on his head (I have NO clue whatsoever), Scorpio was a gryphonlike composite of an eagle, scorpion, and snake or lizard (Scorpio is a tripartite sign, for those of you who don't know--see the unfinished D4D novel Scorpio), Sagittarius was an odd horse/centaur combo (he had a horse's head and forelegs, in addition to a horse's body...like a six-legged horse!), Capricorn was a mountain goat (can't recall if I ever intended to introduce his fish aspect), Aquarius was an anthropomorphic dog dressed Greek style like Gemini and Virgo, and Pisces was either one fish or two, in a fishbowl (he/they always had to be carried around by one of the others). Basically it was a big "quest for Utopia"-type story. I used the Fifth Dimension song as inspiration, and even quoted it in what was written of the story. Strangely, despite my knowledge of the zodiac signs, I got their personalities quite wrong in the story--Aries was a leader, but his temperament just screamed Libra; Libra acted like a geeky Virgo or something; and Scorpio was DEFINITELY a prudish, snappish Virgo. I have no clue why I was so off with that. Way back then, this idea so inspired me that it nearly could have become its own storyline, similar to my Manitou Island and D4D storylines of today...but it wasn't meant to be.

Anyway, this illustrated story, which comes from the same five-subject notebook as A Nightmare On Manitou Island and whose coversheet, if it ever had one, is missing, has no date but is probably from around 1990-1991 or so, based on the quality of the artwork and my misspellings.

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A long time ago, when there were few men, the animals ruled the earth. The mountains were ruled solely by the goats and rams. Both races looked down their noses at each other. Rams and goats did'nt [sic] nose around each other.

This day was different. It was summer, and a newborn ram, who had been born late, in the heat of the season, stood up swayingly and began to walk. His mother named him Aries.

Aries wandered a bit away. Suddenly, a huge rumbling sound cut through the stillness. The mountain split and part began to rise. Aries's parents fell in. Aries, terrified, ran off.

Aries ran so fast that he could'nt [sic] tell where he was going. At length he ran headlong into a big goat.

The goat turned around and snorted at Aries. "Think of it!" he said. "A ram in goats' territory! Get out of here, you little--"

"Capricorn, leave him alone!"

Capricorn turned back around.

[Illustration: Two heads--a tiny Aries, with little ram horns, peering up timidly at the much bigger Capricorn, who glares back down at him. Capricorn has floppy ears and a little beard.]

A female goat stepped between them.

"He's just a baby," she said.

"That's the problem!" Capricorn snorted. "A baby ram in goats'--"

Aries was getting terrified. He walked back, accidentally stepping on an eagle. [Note--that would be Scorpio.] The eagle shrieked at him and scared him over to Capricorn's wife again.

"I'll tell you a story to calm you down," she said. After Aries had laid [sic] down, she began.

"When the moon is in the seventh house," she said, "and Jupiter aligns with Mars, then peace will guide the planets and love will steer the stars." [Note--copyright © the Fifth Dimension, all rights reserved.]

"What's supposed to happen then?" Aries asked.

"That's when Aquarius is supposed to come. And when he does, he'll bring flowers, grass, and rain with him."

Aries surveyed the mountain. Just rocks, dirt, and weeds.

"I hope he comes soon," he said. The goat laughed.

"Look!" Capricorn bleated. A tornado-like wind rose up and started sucking up things. It also dragged up Aries, Capricorn, the eagle, and several other old animals nearby. Then it soared off.

[Illustration: The tornado, surging toward a mountain.]

In the tornado, Aries felt something strange happening to him. He was growing! Soon he'd turned into a full-grown ram! And something was happening to Capricorn, too--he was growing younger! Soon he was only a young kid. The eagle grew legs, a scorpion tail, and long feathers. Strange things happened to the other animals.

Whack! Aries hit the ground nose-first and tumbled head over heels, landing on his back. He stayed that way for several minutes, his head throbbing from his landing.

[Illustration: A rather cute depiction of a full-grown Aries smacking into the ground headfirst--his chin and chest are pressed to the ground, and his body, legs tangling, is still up in the air, little stars soaring around his head. Needless to say it looks rather painful.]

After a bit, he stumbled to his feet and heard unhappy bleating from not too far away. It seemed to come from a tree. Walking around, he spotted Capricorn--or what appeared to be Capricorn, with his hoof stuck in a tree root, trying to escape. Seeing the huge ram, he meeee-d and tried to run.

"Capricorn?" Aries asked uncertainly.

"How'd you know my name?" the kid bleated.

"It's me, Aries! Don't you remember?"

"I've never seen you before!" the goat cried hysterically. He kept jumping, but to no avail.

"I'll get you out," Aries said. He rammed the root and the kid was set free. He immediately ran off.

"I guess I'm all alone now," Aries sighed. He looked at his reflection in a mud puddle. How could he, a newborn ram, survive alo--

Aries drew back, stunned. The image he saw couldn't be his own! Two perfectly curled horns were on his head. He should only have spikes!

[Story incomplete]