This is the coming of the Age of Aquarius, the Hippies sang. This Age, or Epoch, stands as one of the 12 divisions of the Great, or Platonic Year of 25,772 years. So we live in an exceptional time, marking the turnover of an epoch, an event which occurs only once in 2100 years.

Some say, in addition, that the current time heralds the New Great Year. If that is so, this special time begins a new 25,772 year cycle.

The Biosphere has gone through significant changes in the past; you could say that there have been several biospheres on the planet. The first biosphere was composed of archaic anaerobic bacteria. The atmosphere then had very little oxygen. These early bacteria fed on complex molecules formed by the energy of solar radiation or geothermal heat.

Then some cells invented chlorophyll, allowing them to use solar energy to split the CO2 molecule. These ancestors of plants then released oxygen into the atmosphere. The second biosphere arose, including life using energy directly from sunlight.

But oxygen poisoned the archaic bacteria so life faced a crisis. As the percentage of oxygen in the atmosphere increased, it started to kill off those cells. Then some microbes, the precursors of animals, learned to use oxygen to release energy: controlled burning. The anaerobic bacteria retreated to places the air didn’t reach. The third biosphere included bacteria which used oxygen, the first fully recycling, indefinitely sustainable biosphere. Based on cells using direct sunlight to make food, other cells used the energy and oxygen which they produced and released co2 and other molecules, a symbiosis like that of plants and animals later.

After the first 2 billion years had passed, cells began to form internal symbioses. Small cells lived inside larger cells and performed specialized functions. One type became the nucleus, containing the DNA. Others, called mitochondria and chloroplasts, processed the oxygen or CO2. The fourth biosphere included these larger and much more complex eukaryotic cells.

Then about 700 million years ago, cells united into complex organisms of up to trillions of cells, with specialized cells performing many different functions: plants, animals, and fungi. This fifth biosphere has continued up ’til recently.

With humans, another major change manifested. Humans invented technics and cultures. They founded a new kingdom which speciated by memes (cultures) instead of genes. In 1991 humans closed the first other, manmade biosphere.

The sixth biosphere: an ethno- techno- biospheregenic biosphere.

So the times we live in mark an extraordinary evolutionary change on the scale of billions of years! This event overshadows everything since the rise of complex multicellular organisms.

Being alive now we take part in a major new transformation, cosmically significant. We don’t know if anything in this class has occurred before in the cosmos or if Gaia is unique. In any case it is probably very rare. Cherish it.

We have the honor of being present at a cosmic event: the birth of a biosphere which includes an ethnosphere, a technosphere, a cybersphere, and a noosphere, and which can and will split off biospheres on other planets, moons, and in orbit.

Let’s make the best baby we can, and celebrate!