Tag: jupiter

Good for the Gander

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Sunday’s lunar eclipse marks the final punctuation in the story that has been playing out since this time of year in 2016, when we had the first lunar eclipse in Leo as the nodes began their slow journey through the opposing realms of the ego and the collective.

Like a celestial metronome, the eclipse cycle structures time in a way that allows us to see the unfolding of various musical phrases, calls, responses, and developments playing out in the realms of our life where those eclipses fall.

We have seen how the themes of tension between the fixity of the individual will and the fixity of collective responsibility have played out both for good and for ill, indeed. Each time the Moon’s dark body blocked out the radiant Sun, each time the Moon passed unseen through the Earth’s ruddy shadow, we were given a window into the deep magic where will and responsibility hold one another in tension.

This has played out on the stage of our national life, within our cultural discourse, as well as within the silent and secret chapters of our lives. So, what have we learned?

Those of us who have been able to work constructively within the measures tapped out by the Sun and the Moon in these last two years have seen that the individual and the collective will are connected to one another. “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.”

For those of us who have found our wills drawn to that which we desire most in life over the last two years, and who, under Jupiter’s beneficent patronage in Sagittarius have discovered again what it means to aim high, I offer this line from the writer Wallace Wattles:

“The very best thing you can do for the whole world is to make the most of yourself.” And one of the best ways to do so is to employ the creative, effusive powers of Leo, where identity and expression reign, so that they may be united to Aquarius’ social ethic.

If we have not yet learned this lesson, we will be given another opportunity to do so when, in nine and a half years, the eclipses return to Aquarius and Leo, but the shoe will be on the other foot this time.

If you’ve not learned this lesson, do it now. Do it today. Do not put if off to tomorrow. We have a fantastic opportunity to do so this week, not only as a result of this final eclipse in Aquarius, but also because of the story being told by the trio of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.

The day after the eclipse, January 21st, Mars on a warpath in Aries strikes a stoic and staid Saturn in Capricorn, who refuses to yield to Mars’ assault—for Mars in Aries reminds Saturn of times in which Saturn has had to engineer clever Saturnian solutions out of the most unlikely materials available, as though he had to build a house out of fire.

Saturn is on the defensive and can withstand Mars’ siege as long as he needs, for he lacks for nothing in his frigid earthen fortress.

We will encounter stopping points and dead ends in our campaign towards our desires as a result of Saturn retaliating against Mars’ excitement with a deadening glare, but that’s not the end of the story for this week.

Mars’ blade throws sparks and a scintillating shower illuminates what it is that we desire. We’ll see that what Mars wants is not war, but simply to cut a new path to move forward, to blaze new trails in whatever area of our lives fall under his fiery demesne.

What better power to help him do that than Jupiter?

As Mars continues his journey forward, he carries with him the structuring power of Saturn as a result of this spat, and on the 25th, he brings this power to Jupiter in Sagittarius by a munificent trine, asking the All-father to help him find a new way.

It helps quite a bit that Jupiter’s daughter Venus has seen what’s been going on between Mars and Saturn and is bringing advance notice to her father as she visits him at home, carrying news of her brother Mars’ plight. Jupiter’s primed and ready to help.

Defeated but determined, Mars pleads his case, and Jupiter straightaway grants Mars the ability to accomplish what it is that he has set about to do, for Jupiter sees both Mars’ intensity and sincerity in his approach.

Since Jupiter sees Mars approaching from allied territory (for Jupiter is a stakeholder in every fire sign), Jupiter’s aid to Mars is in his own best interests, too. Goose and gander, once again, and Mars will be given what he needs to make the most of himself.

Wherever it is that we are striving and investing in our energy, signified by the place that Aries holds in our natal charts, we will encounter a barrier at first and then a breakthrough this week as the lesson of the Leo-Aquarius eclipse cycle sets more deeply into our bones.

Learn this lesson: the very best thing we can do for ourselves is to make the most of the whole world, and that the very best thing we can do for the whole world is to make the most of ourselves. In spite of barriers. Without delay. Today.

ARIES RISING

As you strive to manifest the most positive possible outcomes for your health and your personal circumstances, look for your spirit-attuned teachers to show you a new way to rise above the present challenges through fixing your eyes on that which is noble, true, and just in all things.

TAURUS RISING

Mars is on his warpath in places unseen to you, striking down those who would seek to undo you with a smile on their faces, and you will find secret and silent aid coming to you from the energies of people who you may have counted as enemies otherwise. “Love your enemies.”

GEMINI RISING

As you are striving to expand your social circles, be ready for challenge to come from people to whom you owe a debt of responsibility. New and gracious partners to assist you in connecting with communities where your insights can be validated and put to utmost use in motivating collective action.

CANCER RISING

Even though your workload seems like it has been growing beyond your ken as of late and you meet with resistance from your associates, the beneficent aid you’ll receive from far-sighted allies will help you manifest a tremendous payoff in your professional status. Remember to give credit where credit is due.

LEO RISING

As you strive for deeper understanding and a higher perspective, do not let the drudgery of your search have the final word but rather seek after new and creative ways of seeing as peers and superiors enrich your capacity to open the doors of perception.

VIRGO RISING

Striving for a way forward in your obligations to other people finds itself against creative blocks; you can’t keep doing the same thing. A return to ancient and nobler ways of advancing will give you the insight that you need in order to find this new way. Try going back to go forward.

LIBRA RISING

Willingness to engage in new ways of conversing—and perhaps putting some financial skin in the game—will allow you to find a new way forward in partnership with your beloved as they come up against the carefully constructed boundaries and restrictions defining your home life these days.

SCORPIO RISING

The tremendous effort you’ve been putting out to construct the best circumstances for yourself has met with utter resistance in your day-to-day environment (how are those resolutions going)? A new way comes when effort joins itself to viewing your financial powers from a higher perspective.

SAGITTARIUS RISING

Expect the energy you’ve been investing in your creative output as of late to trigger a notable breakthrough for your circumstances despite throttled resources. Knowing how to say “no” to the wrong materials will help you say “yes” to the right ones, even though “no” isn’t in your vocabulary. Think less Michelangelo, more Mondrian.

CAPRICORN RISING

All the recent motion at home isn’t unsettling you in the least—if anything, it’s creating new advantages by which to steel yourself against the enemies wearing friendly faces. Don’t accept more help or advice than you need—not that you’ve ever had a problem saying “no” to officious advice, anyway.

AQUARIUS RISING

Getting the word out to new audiences is continuing to prove a challenge due to resistance from the dark and deadening walls that contain you, but you’ve got friends in high places who stand at the ready to help amplify your messaging and thereby get you out of the box. Since when was cardboard so strong?

PISCES RISING

Against the sensible urging of your friends you’ll probably make a tremendous investment in furthering your view of the world this week, using your cash or your cache of energy. The return on investment looks promising, as does the view from up there.

On Jupiter in Scorpio

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Jupiter enters Scorpio today! The astrological world usually livens up a bit any time one of the outer planets changes sign, as the farther out from the Sun the planet is, the longer it takes to move around the zodiac—and the more profound of a shift we feel as that planet’s energies change style to accommodate their new digs.

Jupiter is the Greater Benefic, the Bringer of Jollity, with ties to faith, philosophy, knowledge, education, and authority. Jupiter signifies freedom, release, and stewardship. Because of his moderately warm and moist temperament (not the literal planet, but the starry archetype! The actual planet would kill us with radiation before we even got to the top of the atmosphere), Jupiter is given to connecting hearts and minds as well as initiating shifts in perspective. He is a healer, a physician, a pedagogue, a friend. If Saturn is the Creepy Uncle, Jupiter is the Cool Dad of the solar system.

We see Jupiter’s archetype manifest in fiction in the persons of Little John of the Robin Hood legend and Professor Dumbledore. In history we see Jupiter’s archetype in the likes of St Nicholas the Wonderworker (from whom the Santa Claus legend derives), capriciously benevolent in all his dealings—yet who famously slugged Arius in the face at the first ecumenical council in 325 CE.

As Jupiter moves into watery Scorpio he will demand of us growth and expansion of the sort enshrined in the Fourth and Eighth steps of the Twelve Steps: “We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves” and “we made a list of all the persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends with them all.” Jupiter illuminates the still and deep waters of Scorpio in our psyches and in our behaviors and asks that we look to the bottom of the sea to find what is lurking within, sharing light and making amends with our shadow sides.

Because Scorpio is a nocturnal sign, Jupiter does not manifest as brilliantly here but his power becomes more focused on this kind of searching work in our psyches. Moreover he expands in this probing fashion whichever area of our birth chart Scorpio is to be found in. For example, in my own chart Scorpio is my tenth whole-sign house; Jupiter is now calling me to examine fearlessly my motivations and decisions surrounding my career, asking me to be true to my sense of vocation over against my desire to chase after dignity and status through ill-intended ego projects.

If you have a night chart, Jupiter is the benefic contrary to sect; the lessons you learn during this 13-month phase of your journey will not come as easily as they will for those of us who have a day chart. Yet the lessons will come all the same.

One more point: as the nocturnal malefic Mars rules Scorpio, Mars has a hand in calling Jupiter’s shots and directing Jupiter’s energy over this period of time. In fact, as Jupiter is in Mars’ house, Mars will be setting Jupiter’s agenda, especially as Mars enters Scorpio not too long after Jupiter does. It’s as though Mars and Jupiter will be teaming up across party lines to do the work in your Scorpio room. Because Mars will be on his own home turf, he’s like to behave himself!

The image that comes to mind is any episode of the A&E show Hoarders; Jupiter is the psychologist and the camera crew who comes into the compulsive hoarder’s home, while Mars is the cleanup crew and the hard conversations that have to happen in order for lasting change to occur in the life of the person who has become so overwhelmed by the stuff they’ve accumulated.

A similar show ran around the same time as Hoarders was on called Clean House, hosted at first by Niecy Nash and in later seasons by Tempestt Bledsoe. The problems were the same, but the tone was night and day—where Hoarders focused on the disasters going on in the house, Clean House focused on the opportunities! So those of us with day charts might get more Clean House and night charts might be a Hoarders situation.

So perhaps this transit will be for you a time of cleaning house in whichever part of your chart Scorpio is to be found in. Not sure which part is which? Run your chart, or get in touch with me and we can sit down to talk about how this next year might shake out for you.

Peace and all good, as ever.