The 236th year of Dwapara Yuga (1936) corresponds to the present equinoctial positions of Virgo-Pisces 11 degrees. The Vernal Equinox is now falling each spring (in the Northern Hemisphere) among the fixed stars in Pisces 11° of the Constellations, and the Autumnal Equinox is falling among the fixed stars in Virgo 11°. For that reason, mankind is not only in Dwapara Yuga of the cycle of the Four Ages, but is also under the influence of the Virgo-Pisces period of the Cycle of the Constellations.

The signs that lie opposite in the zodiac interact on each other, intermingling their influences to such an extent that it is difficult to separate one form the other. Western astrologers attach most importance to the position of the Vernal Equinox among the constellations, and hence call the present Era the "Piscean Age," but the ancients considered the astrological import of the Autumnal Equinox to be the more significant. We cannot doubt the accuracy of the earlier teachings when we see (Diagram) that the Vernal Equinox, now falling in Pisces would signify the world as being in the Golden Age, if we grant the spring point primary astrological consequence. None of us are likely to maintain that the present, or the immediate past, history of the world displays the state of near-perfection that belongs to a Golden Age.

On the other hand, the position of the Autumnal Equinox, falling now in Virgo of the Constellations, and in Dwapara Era, does accurately point out the state of present world development, which has lately emerged (in 1698 A.D.) from the historic "Dark Ages" of Kali Yuga into the greater freedom, intellectual light, and scientific advancement of the Bronze Era. For this reason, we must allow first consideration to the astrological meaning in world-history of the position of the Autumnal, rather than the Vernal Equinox. Therefore, properly speaking, we are now in the "Age of Virgo," not primarily of Pisces, although Pisces has a very important secondary significance, being indissolubly linked in character and effect with its opposite sign.

As the equinoxes, at the present stage of their cycle, take 72 years to pass backward through the 60 minutes of space that constitute one degree of the natural or fixed-star Zodiac, and as they are now falling on Virgo-Pisces 11 degrees, it will need about 500 more years before they will coincide with Leo-Aquarius 29°. The coming Leo-Aquarius Age, which will last some 2,000 years, while the equinoxes pass through these opposite signs, will include all the rest of the Dwapara Yuga and the first part of the third Yuga, Treta, or the immensely enlightened Silver Age.

The Age of Bronze, or Dwapara Yuga, begun in 1698 A.D., will last for 2,400 years, ending in 4098 A.D., 2,164 years hence. The present year of l934 A.D. is thus the year 236 of the Dwapara, or Bronze Age, of the Ascending Arc. At the end of this Age, which is the second of the four ascending Ages,  the intellectual and spiritual power of the average man will be twice as great as that of the ordinary man of 498 A.D. at the beginning of our present 12,000-year cycle, but will be only half as great as the power to be attained by men at the highest peak, 12498 A.D. of the Golden Age. In other words, the end of our Dwapara Yuga will mark the completion of two of the four ages, and the Divine powers inherent in man will be developed to half their true extent.

Dwapara Yuga has been the story of man’s growing power over structural materials, particularly important in the case of iron and its derivative steel. Thus have we literally triumphed over the Iron Age of Kali.

Today in the electric furnace one may see tons of incandescent steel swirling about like boiling milk in a saucepan. Nothing in the previous practical advances of mankind is comparable in its consequences to the complete mastery over enormous masses of steel and iron and over their texture and quality which man has now achieved. The railways and early engines of all sorts were the mere first triumphs of the new metallurgical methods. Presently came ships of iron and steel, vast bridges, and a new way of building with steel upon a gigantic scale. . . . In the old house or ship, matter was dominant—the material and its needs had to be slavishly obeyed; in the new, matter has been captured, changed, coerced. . . . It is in this great and growing mastery over substances, over different sorts of glass, over rocks and plasters and the like, over colors and textures, that the main triumphs of the mechanical revolution have thus far been achieved. . . . . Concurrently with this extension of mechanical possibilities the new science of electricity grew up. . . .

Suddenly came electric light and electric traction; and the transmutation of forces, the possibility of sending power, that could be changed into mechanical motion or light or heat as one chose, along a copper wire, as water is sent through a pipe, began to come through to the ideas of ordinary people. . . . By 1909 the airplane was available for human locomotion. There had seemed to be a pause in the increase of human speed with the perfection of railways and automobile road traction, but with the flying machine came fresh reductions in the effective distance between one point of the earth’s surface and another. . . . The science of agriculture and agricultural chemistry made quite parallel advances during the 19th century. Men learned so to fertilize the soil as to produce quadruple and quintuple the crops gotten from the same area in the 17th century. There was a still more extraordinary advance in medical science; the average duration of life rose, the daily efficiency increased, the waste of life through ill-health diminished. Now here altogether we have such a change in human life as to constitute a fresh phase of history.

We have not as yet traversed one-tenth of the Ascending Bronze Age. What modern science has already accomplished, then, is less than one-tenth of what it will accomplish by 4098 A.D. Professor Soddy, speaking of radio-activity, said,

It sounds incredible, but nevertheless it is true, that science up to the close of the 19th century had no suspicion even of the existence of the original sources of natural energy. . . . The vista which has been opened up by these new discoveries admittedly is without parallel in the whole history of science.

Only very recently have scientists succeeded in the transmutation of elements and in the splitting of the atom.

Professor E. O. Lawrence, head of the University of California radiation laboratories," writes Harry M. Nelson,

states that when man has finally learned how to harness the power that is unleashed when an atom is smashed, he will have at his command a tremendous force, a giant that will revolutionize all present means of transportation, heat, light—perhaps our very existence. . . . Although knowledge of the atom is confined mostly to its outer structure, recent experiments which resulted in the disintegration of the core or nucleus of the lithium atom literally open a new world to science. And judging from progress made in other branches of science as a result of experiments of a similar magnitude, it is within the realm of probabilities that the future will see an advance in the life of man such as was little dreamed of in past ages.

In short, the practical use of atomic energy will render obsolete all present forms of power. "Cosmic rays," says Professor August Piccard, "may be the energy of the future, harnessed energy which will light cities, motivate industries and drive airplanes through the stratosphere at tremendous speed."

It will be of interest here to point out the applicability of the term "Bronze Age" to our present electrical era. Bronze is an alloy of metals, chiefly copper, and it is on copper, due to its excellent conductivity and rust-resisting properties, that the electrical industry rests. Iron, ruled by Saturn, the heavy planet of limitations, was the most important metal during the two Iron Ages which preceded our present epoch. Silver and gold will doubtless be the peculiarly distinctive metals of the future Silver and Golden Ages.

The power offered to the men of Dwapara Yuga, that of conquering the second Maya Illusion, of Space, has already manifested itself powerfully in the opening years of our Age, chiefly through the radio. We can send a radio message completely around the world in less than one-seventh of a second. To a less perfect degree, space has been mastered through the telephone, telegraph, ocean cable, television and by the airplane. Thus far, only two of the five kinds of electricities, corresponding to sight and sound, have been developed. Three more remain for the future, when we may reach across the world to touch beloved friends and to smell and taste objects in their rooms.

The seeming limitations of space have already, in other ways, been overcome through the invention of the spectroscope. Astronomers now understand the structure and chemical composition of all the planets of our solar system and of the fixed stars, and can determine the extent and direction of motion of the solar systems beyond our own. The identity of the composition of the earth with that of the universe, the single origin, similar properties and interdependence of all the worlds of creation, have been established. Spectrum analysis has also brought to light the presence of many hitherto unsuspected elements, and science now claims the existence of ninety-two elements as the basis of cosmic creation. In the field of electro-chemistry, man has succeeded in bridging the gulf formerly supposed to exist between organic and inorganic substances; carbon, the keystone of organic compounds has been made, under electric furnace heat, to combine directly with the metals.

Other inventions of Dwapara Yuga have served the three-fold purpose of the Electrical Age; through the use of the microscope, telescope, photography and the X-Ray, man has extended the realm of his observations from the finite to the infinite, and has gained knowledge of worlds which are, respectively, otherwise too small, too remote, too transient or too dense for his sensory perception.