The Ever Returning Wheel

Greetings, and welcome back to journeys. Today I share with you an old rant about Jupiter from the summer of 2004.

An exploration of Jovian consciousness

For Dad, Uncle Franz, Ed Madonia & Alain Chamoux

“There is no end to your consciousness;

All things are glittering like stars in the firmament of your being”.

-Paramahansa Yogananda

I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds

Have riv’d the knotty oaks; and I have seen

The ambitious ocean swell, and rage, and foam,

To be exalted with the threat’ning clouds:

But never till to-night, never till now,

Did I go through a tempest dropping fire.

– Julius Caesar (Act 1 scene III), William Shakespeare

As I write these words, thunder rolls overhead, a dog is barking in the distance, and the air is boiling and expanding. A storm is about to break.

There it is again; that deep and majestic rumble. It rolls across the sky as if announcing the coming of a great battle in the heavens – for it is. It is the sound of the clouds clashing together before the coming of the deluge.

Again, deeper, it comes into my darkened room, filling the space with light and sound. He is here, then, undoubtedly: Jupiter, the Cloud Gatherer, Thunder God. He is here.

Somewhere, Earth and Sky meet in an electric kiss that shines on my face and into my eyes. Rain falls to refresh the Earth now, softly at first. It brings with it his power, his majesty and his impetus for growth, this sparkling storm water. I go to my balcony and catch some in a plastic bowl, my arms held out, up and beyond the rim of the roof –

[Thunder again]

– so as to catch the waters falling free, away from the touch of the Earth. My arms freeze as I gaze upwards into a brooding slate grey sky, with patches of darker mood splashed like bruises on its belly, and the storm waters trickle between my fingers and run in rivulets down both my arms. He washes my face and eyes, strokes my head a thousand times until I am drenched. I open my heart and it cries out, communing with the storm, offering my thanks and joy for this abundance. My tears mingle with the storm. Then he sends a genuine tropical typhoon. To Berlin.

Later, before returning here, I say a short prayer of thanks to Jupiter, and take the merest sip of the storm water deep into my body. The rest goes into my chalice, in my temple. I have left the temple window slightly ajar from this morning, and it billows into the candlelit chamber, reminding me that nature is like a great veil bulging with the Divine Presence, and I hear a voice speaking on the wind as it surfs the flames…it comforts me, and brings guidance, words for my ears and heart alone. I see the Waters of Bliss; they are running through my body, flowing through all life from the Well of Eternity. Humbled, I make a cup of my drenched heart and it overflows like a flooded valley. Here, I bathe.

Still, the thunder rolls in the clouds outside, the kisses between Earth and Sky deepen and quicken.

I am here to tell you about the most majestic, the most grand, most merciful, and the most abundant nature of things. I am here to fix the infinite Sky, to sculpt a bust of the King of the Gods, the power and majesty of Jupiter. I am just a mortal boy, and simply do not know how to do that. By dint of the fact that Jupiter is the principle of abundance, there is always too much to say. By virtue of his expansiveness, it is never enough. Still, here I am, warm typhoon water dripping onto my keyboard from my arms, fingers, chin, eyelashes and nose, attempting to do just that.

For there is ever hope, and faith may indeed move mountains, and love never fails.

Jupiter is a gas giant and far and away the largest world in our solar system, having about 2.5 times the mass of all the other worlds in our system put together, and is the 5th closest planet to our Sun. In fact it is of such a magnitude that for many years it has been believed by some that it presented the possibility of igniting into a second sun, transforming our corner of the galaxy into a binary system [Arthur C. Clarke’s story, 2010, has a lot to do with this theory]. Believers, this is only a fantasy – Jupiter lacks the minimum mass required to achieve this and is simply not hot enough. In order for stellar hydrogen fusion to occur, Jupiter would need to accrue 80 times more mass than it presently has – and remember, it already has 2.5 times more mass than everything else combined (apart from the Sun of course). Aside from this, it has all the other physical requirements to theoretically become a star.

[…Thunder…]

However, Jupiter is a second Sun, at least metaphorically speaking. He will stand for no less a significant status, too should you meet him on the road. Like Sol he has numerous orbiting responsibilities, and not just in the form of over 60 known significant moons and satellites, nearly 30 of which were named at my last look. The discovery of Jupiter’s four largest moons (1) plays an important central role in our cosmic story; the discovery of Io, Callisto, Europa and Ganymede is credited to Galileo on Thursday January 7th 1610 (the magical day of Jupiter), a discovery which convinced him the geocentric (‘Earth at the centre’) view of the cosmos was wrong, and he threw his intellectual weight behind the heliocentric (Sun centred) view of Copernicus. This revolution of thinking ushered in a huge shift and momentous changes in science and religion and is one reason why Jupiter is metaphorically viewed as a second Sun or a mini solar system.

Apart from this impressive court of rotating moons, Jupiter also contains a large number of uncounted smaller bodies in his gravitational fields which orbit Jupiter from up to 13 million miles away. These objects, all very similar in structure, are, I believe, a mixture of the remnants of the creation of our solar system and a shattered world, fragments of which also inhabit the asteroid field between Jupiter and Mars. According to some occult teachings, our Moon is the most familiar and furthest flung of these objects, and she was shaped over countless cycles around our planet into the sphere we are gifted with today, like a pearly jewel worn down and smoothed by time. Don’t ask me if it’s true, in part or whole; look up at the Moon and ask yourself what you believe, in your soul. We’re talking about Jupiter here, where belief is almost everything.

Regardless of what you personally believe, Jupiter is impressive: everything about him is glorious, huge, breathtaking and staggering to behold. To sit at his knee is to tremble before the almighty feast he lays before you. To be on the surface of Jupiter is to know the full unfettered force of wild, free, boundless natural law – first, there is no surface as we know it to stand upon here, only an extremely dense and amorphous mass of airy gas, [highly noxious unless you can breath hydrogen helium, hydrogen sulphide, small amounts of methane and ammonia], coalescing into a spinning turbulent world of whirling wind and bands of heat that collect in great swirling eyes twice the size of the Earth. The Great Red Spot, not a horrifying planetary zit but a staggering hurricane of incomprehensible magnitude (the Earth fits inside), has raged on Jupiter’s surface for at least centuries. Lightning fields hundreds of miles long containing the power of trillions of lightning bolts blast across the sky from every direction energised by the nearest moon, Io, like a cosmic electrical generator; the atmospheric cord of energy between them is bursting with a titanic swollen power that thrashes across space and is truly a sight that beggars belief and defies description.

Jupiter is a gas giant, but a gas giant at the very extreme limit of what a gas giant can attain without condensing; that is according to current understanding were he to expand any further he would no longer be a gas giant, but would collapse and condense his form, but he maintains a harmony, hovering always on the edge of the limits of gaseous expansion. This is what gives him his hugely inflated size, and it is also the reason why, despite this impressive girth – 88,650 miles hip to hip, no less, or in diameter across the waist of his equator – he is no slouch – he is sanguine, and therefore buoyant and light in nature, like the Air Element. One day on Jupiter is only 10 hours long. What this means is that if you happen to find yourself anywhere on that waist of his, you will know the power that presses Jupiter in at the poles like a soft squidgy ball, for you will be travelling at about 22,000 miles per hour – 22 times faster than you would be were you standing on Earth’s equator, in fact. Boom!

Ever get on one of those fairground rides where your face ends up melting and merging into whatever is behind you? Or get so sick of indulging in something, you had to stop? Or been tangoed to death?

Pirouetting through time and space in this way in a stately waltz that takes 11.86 years to visit every degree of the Earth Zone (of which our astrological zodiac is a prism) to complete a circuit about the light of the Sun, transmitting twice as much heat radiation as he receives from the Sun in the process, this awesome being deserves every application of the epithet, ‘Lord of the Sky’. He pours forth abundant and complex bio-magnetic energies for the fluids which compose Jupiter are highly conductive, bringing about a very strong magnetic field, a complex system of radiation belts and the transmission of many radio waves. This Jovian magnetosphere, by volume the biggest known object in the solar system excepting the heliosphere, encompasses over 10 times the size of the Sun and trails outer particles blown by the solar wind in a comet like stream that fountains out from Jupiter’s poles for millions upon millions of miles, even as far out as Saturn, which, by comparison, puts out 4 times less. Human science is only beginning to comprehend the source of the generation and influence of these forces on our solar system (2).

He has provided human beings with the greatest spectacle of cosmic energies in all recorded time very recently, when beginning on July 16th 1994, 21 huge fragments of a comet bombarded Jupiter over a period of about a week. Shoemaker-Levy 9 fractured as it collided with Jupiter’s gas atmosphere and the fragments impacted the planet one after the other at the speed of about 134,000mph leading to a display of titanic cosmic energies with Earth taking a front row seat. Several phenomenal explosions estimated to be equivalent to 6 million megatons of TNT ignited monumentally huge plumes of gas and balls of fire and smoke were witnessed blasting out of the surface of Jupiter leaving behind massive scarring and discolouration on the surface larger in size than the Earth. The effects of this cosmic encounter are not fully known.

Rings? Oh, believe me, he has very fine rings – they are halos, ethereal and gossamer. Admittedly, he’s no Liberace in this respect, flashing them for all to see, but they are there and besides, rings are not quite a fitting attire for a being so in love with freedom and lack of restraint. The rings of Jupiter do not bind him; they adorn him like a laurel wreath circling his ever widening brow.

In every respect, then, Jupiter is one of the most physically impressive planet in our solar system. Indeed, viewed from the cool distance of afar, we could be easily forgiven for assuming that our section of the universe looks like nothing more than the Sun and Jupiter, plus assorted kitty litter.

Come closer…

As you move on in, you’ll start to see the magnificence and the grandeur for yourself, it will begin to grow, and swell, and balloon, until it fills your entire vision and still it grows as you come to descend through the atmosphere…you will feel the winds strip you of all desire but the desire to pour forth mercy and kindness on the entire world, in gratitude for the bounty it eternally pours on your head and the thunder and the lightning of your initiation into his mysteries will set you free to quench all thirsts.

We are warned that if we look directly into his eyes, they will blind us, or worse. But he perpetually invites us to look deeper, further, to advance. Awed, but not afraid, then, we lift the physical veil and look upon his mythic face.

He has worn many masks and continues to do so, lest we be blinded by the overwhelming might of his naked gaze. These gods of Jupiter often need little introduction – their names are synonymous with well known modern day comprehensions of mythology – Zeus and Thor (3), for example, survive in our minds today much as they were conceived centuries ago, though we have lost awareness of their power. Regardless, we still recognise them when we see them and know what they represent, many millennia after they were openly worshipped. In fact all the gods stir within us, deeply, somewhere, whenever we gaze upon their face, though we may not know it.

But the gods of Jupiter are more abundant than these most famous two, of course, and include the beings of El, all sky and storm deities and all the ruling masculine deities of all pantheons, including Marduk, Enlil, Ashur, Brahma and that unspeakable fellow ‘Jehovah’ [I refer here mainly to the bearded entity most people conceptualise as the Hebrew God, artistically depicted by Michelangelo, rather than the hermetic IHVH, but the two share an occult lineage; in short, Jehovah is a god-face of IHVH personified in a humanised form via the principle of Jupiter]. Anciently these forms also included Poseidon and Okeanos and other rain and water divinities, for these were worshipped as the principle givers of life in very ancient mythologies, but in modern times these archetypes have been signified by Neptune and they are now mostly of historical interest; the shedding of these attributes indicates that even gods outgrow things. I will discuss this matter and the re-attribution of Jupiter’s traits to Neptune later.

Interestingly, and related to this brief diversion into watery realms, the mythology of Zeus, like so many others, tells us that ages ago the Earth was utterly flooded and that humanity as we know it today sprang from the survivors of this great deluge. Long ago, you see, the world was filled with wickedness, with greed, selfishness, lust, violence and war running at unbelievably rampant levels – pretty much like they are getting today really. Zeus grew enraged when he saw this, and working with Poseidon concocted the Grand Mother Of All Storms and sent mighty cleansing waters that destroyed all mankind and covered the Earth in ocean to the tops of the highest mountains. However, as the torrential rains continued to fall, the only place that was dry was a place called Parnassus, and upon the slopes of that place a casket was washed up, containing the last man and woman. They looked around and saw that all was dead, and fell into lamentation and grief.

These two souls were Pyrhha, daughter of Pandora, and Deucalion, son of Prometheus, the Titan who also gave humanity the gift of Fire and was punished by Zeus for his temerity by being chained to a great rock where his liver – the Jupiter organ – was eaten out of him alive every day by Eagle (a Jupiter animal).

Together, the two bedraggled drippy survivors mounted to the top and prayed to the gods. Zeus was merciful and did not destroy them, for he saw that they were lawful and good people, not greedy but loyal. He lowered the waters, and spoke to the survivors, saying,

“Veil your heads and cast behind you the Bones of your Mother.”

Pyrhha and Deucalion were both confused and horrified by this request, until they looked around them at the destroyed world and realised what it meant: their Mother was the Earth Herself, and Her Bones were the drowned rocks that they stood upon. They cast these over their shoulders, and Stone People magically emerged from them. From these Stone People, Earth was re-populated.

Deluge and Ark myths like this are so widespread, so abundant, that they are found practically everywhere: Babylonian, Chaldean, Fiji Islander, Australian Aborigine, Tarascan, Iroquois, Sioux, Chicksaw, Algonquin Minabhozo and other North American Indian, Egyptian, Norse, African Masai, Phoenician, Eskimo, Nicaraguan, Maori, Malay, Chinese, Iranian, Aztec, Hindu, Welsh – the list of ballads, epics and myths which relate some version of this prior watery apocalypse are truly staggering and proffer bounteous evidence for belief in its actual occurrence. We need to remember and honour these stories again, now, somehow, if we are to turn the tide that towers before us even as I write these words. These stories are the warnings of our distant ancestors, those people who looked about them upon a world of dark water and nothing else, no life, no trees, no birds, nothing – and said “We must never allow it to happen again!”, and so, the tales, the legends, the myths. We each of us individually know what we must do collectively. Hold onto this notion and play with it, see what it reveals…

Like the old testament Jehovah, Zeus was a wrathful and terrible god to behold whose countenance and breast could not be gazed upon directly, for it was too bright and powerful a light. Unlike Jehovah, however, Zeus was carnally polyamorous, taking a string of wives and having numerous affairs with a variety of voluptuous mortal maidens, many of which bore him children. Let’s see, at the risk of stirring his wrath, there were amorous dilly-dallyings with Io, Europa, Demeter, Themis, Eurynome, Leda, Maia, Danae, Semele, Dione, Metis, Mnemosyne, Leto, Alkmene, Laodameia (all of whom were more beautiful than any of those who came before – oh, foolish ladies!) – and oh yes –

[Thunder]

– mustn’t forget Hera…his sister…she was his last wife, so I guess she had the last laugh.

From all this frolicking and promiscuity, several spawn of Zeus sprang forth – no less than 37 (at least…) – many of whom were troubling to him and also divine, heroic, wild and mythic in and of themselves, and so gave him no end of headaches – Hercules of the 12 Labours; Perseus, slayer of the Gorgons; Ares, god of war; Athena, goddess of wisdom (oh yes wisdom can be a big headache!); Dionysus, god of wine and revelry; Aphrodite, goddess of love; The 3 Fates (the 3 manifestations of time and fate) and the 3 Graces (Brilliance, Joy and Bloom), the 9 Muses (epic poetry, love poetry, history, comedy, tragedy, music, sacred poetry, dance and song, astronomy) – as you can see from this brief list, Zeus was prolifically fertile, and none of his children are in any way mediocre.

No; for him, mediocrity is death!

For he is everything big, everything indulgent, everything merciful, everything thunderous, everything faithful and hopeful, everything luxurious and opulent, everything grand, everything magnanimous, everything joyous, everything wide and broad and deep and plentiful, and more, and more, and more. He is, simply, abundant growth through greater commonality, forevermore. And he is within each and every one of us, in every created thing, in equal infinite measure.

The storm is gathering intensity around me now.

He is the assimilating force of the Universe which draws everything together lovingly and combines it in ever new forms; the finger of eternal change which always promises that we do not always know what hope may bring; the bounty of the future which opens before us evermore like a road through paradise to the heart of bliss.

Jupiter joyously expands where Saturn conservatively contracts; his energy is that which magnifies, exaggerates and enlarges essential meaning so that it becomes visible in form. He does this by combining and forming things which have similar or related meanings into larger individual groupings. For example, where the concept ‘Blue’ exists in the Saturn sphere, it does not become  relative to different shades of Blue or to different colours until it is projected into and assimilated by the Jupiter sphere, because it is not until this point that it bears any relation to anything else, like ‘Orange’, `Red’ and so forth. The Jupiter influence collects, gathers and strings together things which are alike and thus tend to like one another or share a loving connection of similarity together, and it is always doing this, leading all those infinite shades we call ‘colour’ to be related by virtue of alikeness to broader categories such as certain feelings like warmth (orange) and cold (blue), so ultimately leading to the All inclusive nature and harmonisation of the entire macrocosm, and thus Jupiter is the planetary expression of the old chestnut ‘greater than the sum of its parts’; through this loving expansiveness, growth occurs in our temporal realm of experience, and through this growth, change, and through this change, this turning of the wheel of fortune, destiny is enacted. Since this destiny must be lawful, in other words, since what happens must be a consequence of all that has already happened (I cannot naturally die of thirst if I drink 2 litres of water every day of my life, for example), Jupiter is essentially a principle of natural law. As a principle of natural law he is also the harmonising principle of the macrocosm, since he sees to it that all things expand according to the principles of natural law, in balance and harmony with one another. This is why there is a very sanguine, Airy side to Jupiter.

Additionally, he is the great Provider, the hand of Divine Providence as it gives forth of itself eternally. This marks him as Divine and King among the Gods, the bringer of all needful things and the benevolent, all-merciful forgiver of errors. He is that part of us which identifies with others and seeks to benevolently grow alongside them, to forgive them their mistakes as we would have our own forgiven, not to mark out or emphasises where we differ, oppose and conflict with others but where we add up with them into something much larger and expressive of  everyone and everything.

In sum then, his attributes are abundance, change, growth, hope & harmony, the emergence of natural law through inflation and exhalation. Let us turn now to examine how these principles of Jupiter are expressed and experienced astrologically, in our human lives.

The first thing that is often not stated in many examinations of Jupiter is that his principle of harmony is expressed astrologically (and in the Hebrew Tree kabbalistically) as a counterpoint between the burning heat of Mars and the ice cold of Saturn. He posits himself between these two dimensions and represents a state of transition between them. As we exercise free will we strike outwards and act, and continue to do so persistently thus giving rise to a uniquely different individuality  (Mars), and this energy is naturally expanded and enlarged into a form (Jupiter) over time (Saturn) until it crystallises or a flaw in the structure weakens or collapses it. Conversely, all of our temporal experiences (Saturn), all the things we have experienced and understand, provide the foundation for our sense of the future and our belief or faith in a supportive greater force (Jupiter), upon which in turn we base our most decisive actions (Mars).

Astrologically, aside from his neighbour Mars we must also always consider the separate special relationship Jupiter has as counterpoint to Saturn, for where Saturn is hard and contracted, Jupiter is light and expanded; respectively, Saturn and Jupiter are the principles of past and future natural growth, of responsibility and freedom, fear and optimistic expectation, definition and generalisation. What Jupiter’s touch expands, Saturn will contract. In this sense they have an occult relationship with the Sun and the Moon, but the difference is that where the Sun and Moon deal with very personal and individual Electric and Magnetic influences on the psyche, Jupiter and Saturn delineate the larger groupings of individual and greater incarnation we are born into; that is, because they are slower moving from our Earthbound, geocentric perspective, they stay for longer periods in one place of the zodiac or earth zone, and thus show influences shaping large numbers of people together, blending a very broad energy into a band consisting of all the personal individuals who are born through it in their own unique personalised way, and thus bringing about perceivable but complex ever changing patterns in social, political, cultural and economic growth as generations go by. He is the first world to venture into collective awareness from within the domain of the individual awareness. Since his cycle is a shave short of 12 years, he spends about a year in every sign, or 3 years in each of the 4 Elements. Thus, on average every passage of 12 months sees a new generation of growth, linking Jupiter with the solar and lunar principles again (1 month = 1 year) by virtue of the principle of alikeness, but on a broader, more widespread macrocosmic scale. This shows us that he distributes the zodiacal energy like the Sun, but on a larger and more abstract scale; he is the Wheel of Destiny. 

In each of these 12 signs he turns the Great Wheel by providing the impetus for growth and future expansion, allowing the solar principle to explore beyond its circumscribed range of experience into the greater world. Unlike Saturn, which governs the growth of the nature of things by delineating boundaries and limitations, by compressing energy, Jupiter is the opposite, being that which inflates and continues to enlarge it. Generally, we have an unbalanced perception of the need for both of these extremes, and will overemphasise one at the depletion of the other. In many cases we will be afraid of what the Saturn energy represents and will pursue Jupiter excess to the exclusion of self restraint, but there are also many who restrain themselves so tightly that they are considered frugal, pessimistic and mean by others. Such a dynamic is most often seen at work in the generations of people born with these two planets in opposition or square. These issues make it clear to us that the relationship between Saturn and Jupiter is much like the carrot and the stick that goads the donkey, and that too much of one and too little of the other can be a source of life’s greatest struggles and difficulties. They teach us the same thing, however – to exercise our Mars given free will properly, both by restricting and limiting us so that we learn to be persistent, realistic and practical (Saturn) and by allowing us to indulge so much we fall, bursting, from the table, or are given more than enough rope with which to hang ourselves and everyone else in sight (Jupiter). In other words, they teach that true freedom is self restrained, that choice and opportunity, abundance, hardship and the need for effort are to be received gratefully and responsibly.

Whatever area of the earth zone Jupiter inhabits flourishes. It enlarges, is in abundant supply, fountains freely within and around us and represents an opening through which infinite potentials – opportunities for profit, my Ferengi friends! – will most easily and continuously take form. It leads us ever outwards and upwards like the diurnal sign it rules, Sagittarius, to explore and open ourselves to the cosmos and to the Divine. It is called ‘Guru’ in Hindu astrology for this reason, where, apart from karmic credit, it signifies the entity which has been given to each created thing by Divine Providence as the loving and benevolent spiritual guide. To dwell on this – that every created thing has its own perfect ‘guru’ continuously acting to guide it to a higher state of consciousness – is to draw very close to the joy that Jupiter represents, for it is to know that even the smallest mote of dust in the sunlight is a part of the merciful love of Creation.

In the beginning, newborn as Aries, he is the most primal instinct of existence itself, the Promethean spark of life that gives birth to new creation. For Active Fire identifies itself with the very thrust of life itself and Jupiter in Aries is that life force in its earliest stages of growth, where all potentials are yet present as exciting possibilities. Thus, here we are in the realm of the primal will and the raw Electric Fluid, the magic spark of life that catalyses new existence and justifies faith in the miraculous. It is the innocence of the infant whose abundance is that all things are experienced as new and fresh, full of wonder, the one who says, simply, ‘I want to believe’. It is the Fire in the seed that will by natural law cause it to break through shell and earth into the presence of the greater fire of the Sun, at first out of strife and with great courage, later simply to offer its flowers. This is the truly miraculous gift it brings. A ‘miracle’ never breaks natural laws; it simply follows them in ways we may not fully understand. With Jupiter in Aries, for example, our wish power may be such that we cannot turn it off, which results in a surprising manifestation of natural law when what we have been willing all along intensely, without much effort, fortuitously condenses. To others it may seem that we are over-brimming with self confidence and have an inexhaustible supply of willpower and a single pointed-ness of belief, a heads down and charge approach to growth and expansion that bolsters courage, heroism, enthusiasm and boldness, qualities such individuals will often have in excess or indulge in carelessly, as well as experience many benefits from.

Indeed, it bears noting here that Jupiter’s angular aspects with the other planets – the squares (90 degree angles) and oppositions (180 degrees) of Jupiter – regardless of sign tend to overload his energy making it flatulent, dogmatic, overloaded, indulgent, idealistic, hypocritical, extravagant and lacking self restraint in some form, requiring some sort of release or adjustment of the surplus energy and/or of our attitude to the Jupiter principle so that its more rewarding qualities shine through. The trines and sextiles indicate a more harmonious and co-operative flow of Jupiter energy which generally lack the excessive tendencies of the other aspects and bring about many of the most fortunate conditions, but, and this is a big but, they lack a kick in the spine, become complacent when things flow continuously well and easily in a certain direction, and laziness and apathetic conditions set in. Jupiter also supports us in folly! In extremis with Jupiter this can result in very greedy, fattened, lazy, slovenly, slobbish types who do nothing but expect life to supply their every need. So much depends on our use of free will. One man with many squares and oppositions to Jupiter may respond to the stress placed on his beliefs by becoming a fire and brimstone zealot who damns himself and everyone else in the process with his beliefs, while another man born in the bed next door at the same time with the same stress placed upon him by the cosmos may grow to seize the opportunity to examine his stressed beliefs, release those expressions which are too extreme, and go on to experience the powerful dynamic motivation promised by the squares and oppositions propelling him inexorably to the height of true communion with the Divine. We must bear this in mind at all times throughout this discussion of Jupiter’s attributes. In all cases, he accentuates the positive and benevolent in abundance, and teaches self restraint by giving endlessly, following natural law. Like a king whom we come to, finding a table groaning with wares, he invites us to glutton ourselves without limit, knowing that natural law and our own appetites will eventually serve to teach us how and why not to indulge in excess.

With Jupiter in Aries, this excess can be wilful, feeding raw impatience that grows into anger and rage that leads to destruction on a massive scale – the polar opposite of the initiating creation power of this Jupiter. In this rage, the heart tugging innocence and wonder of the child that makes miracles possible is forgotten, and with it goes the raw courage. The Jupiter in Aries force of will needs patience, and love.

In Taurus this lovingness flourishes; for following the creation of all new life, there comes love immediately behind and before. His first contact with the Earth Element is a lush, abundant, productive one, just as the fruit of the loins of Zeus produced many offspring. It is thus cosmic love, the stupendous fertility that follows the initial Creation. Jupiter in Taurus fixes the Earth Element as it expands it and is thus the main indicator of wealth and abundant material acquisitions, but it also embeds the Jupiter principle solidly into the material realm through the physical senses, leading us to place our belief and faith in what we can primarily touch and taste but also see, hear and tangibly experience – we are cosmically plugged into the sensuality of abundant physical stimulus. This also enlarges the realm of tactile potential available to our senses, so that the touch of soft velvet is infinitely more velvety to our touch and awareness and the taste of chocolate is to die or even perhaps kill for. These people thus often retain the weight of the Stable Earth Element, not necessarily as fat or flab, but also (potentially at least) as muscle and strength. Regardless, the physical robustness and resilience is somewhat formidable for the sheer endurance of the Ox is continuously stored in and flooding through blood and body. Since Jupiter as a rule tends to bring out only the most virtuous qualities of the sign he occupies these people are also hard working, patient, abundant with common sense, loving of nature and plants and all good things that grow in the earth, including jewels and gemstones, as well as trees, vegetation, meadows and fields, hills, forests and valleys. They would definitely take a short cut to mushrooms. If in ill mood here Jupiter is wasteful, overindulgent and materialistic, stubbornly bull-headed, too slow or weighed down – he needs trimming into shape, shedding and exercise that rebuilds wasted resources into muscle and strength. Some things are true and therefore worth believing in even though we may have no physical evidence immediately available to our physical senses with which to comprehend it. The cosmic will to love seeks flexibility. Without this flexibility, this ability to consider the possibility of something being true regardless of the evidence, the initial burst of energy generated by Aries becomes stuck, hard, and can only plod along at best.

So after grand fertilisation and physical growth, the experience of belief and growth being satisfied through the corporeal senses, comes the variation and diversity that we see present in nature through the sheer variety of shape and colour of wild flowers and natural growth, a diversity of shape and colour we experience mentally in the different branches of knowledge on the Great Tree, branches which stem from the trunks of numerous belief systems. Now, having discovered that some things can be true even when we cannot tangibly perceive them, we inevitably ask, ‘what is true?’ and eventually we shall probably question enough and gather enough intellectual knowledge to conclude ‘anything is possible!’. This is the declaration of Jupiter in Gemini. It is the precious ability to see that both sides of a coin are the true coin, but only after having examined both sides carefully, and turned them about face a few times in a confused fashion. It is awareness of information as a grand pattern, a jigsaw in which everything known is a piece that must be placed. It correctly presumes that every flower directly perceived is attempting to communicate, without the awareness that will determine correctly what the essential meaning of that message is. Thus, Jupiter in Gemini is ever mentally curious to gather more knowledge and explore where the truth becomes lie and vice versa. It is aware, through its connection to Jupiter via the Air Element, that there is an element of truth in everything, but it is only a child beginning to string words together in this school and cannot perceive the natural laws at work that connect every idea together in an all inclusive loving awareness – it only grows through its continued questioning and through a study and exchange of information that is infinitely open ended. Faith and intellectual expansion is open minded in Gemini and this is its greatest strength and its greatest weakness, for it can thus be vacuous, vacillating, empty, easily caught or distracted by any fresh wind that blows from any direction, too light and curious to settle in place and delve into the deeper meaning of what it is to really believe in and connect with something – to suffer or die for it. That takes time,and a certain kind of feeling, a sense that emotion must play a role in sifting through all the multiple possibilities, for in the end if the big questions cannot be answered by the intellectual acquisition of lore, solutions must be sought within the magnetic and fluid domains of the soul.

This leads us to the next point on the turning of the Wheel, represented astrologically by Jupiter in Cancer. A deluge comes to refresh the land. This is the first immersion of Jupiter in the Water Element and is a cleansing, purifying influence which washes away the doubting questions of mutable Air with a huge, swollen, floodtide of Active, Magnetic feeling. This feeling is protective and devoted, often being rooted in our past or family, especially our sense of being nurtured. It enhances and nourishes the soul through the tenderness of a warm and caring mother, for example, and is associated with the beneficial natural properties of a mother’s breast milk. Thus this Jupiter can be gifted with occult faculties connected with the Magnetic Fluid and the sensitive receptivity of Moon magic because it overflows with and expresses the more loving, giving, emotionally sensitive side of Cancer, the belief in caring for and nurturing the growth of others being its primary method of connecting with something larger and greater, being buoyed up and imbued with a sense of a positive future unfolding, something which Cancer often lacks, since it is an incredibly vulnerable sign. Doors open and opportunities flow in with the tide whenever these people express the empathic, protective, instinctively devoted nature within them, when they place things in the context of something like a lunar cycle of growth and can see that all things turn about, and offer shelter and care to others as a benevolent parent or a summer oak would, a process which is often automatic and instinctive, for devotion and Jupiter marry well, which is shown astrologically through Jupiter being exalted in this sign. Jupiter is also receptive and in Cancer he is significator of the macrocosmic domain of the Magnetic Fluid, of which the Moon is our primary personal significator. The connections between Jupiter and the Moon have already been discussed briefly, and it was noted there that these connections were occult ones; here we see intimations of another, for in a sense, Jupiter is like the Moon in that it acts to draw in and then reflect or distribute cosmic energies from outside its own system.

Sensitivity and kindness to mankind as one big family is the virtue here – the cup of loving kindness overflows with Jupiter in Cancer as the oceans of kindness swell and rise throughout life, bringing about a deep and oceanic level of instinctive belief or dark and troubled waters within which the individual is drowned by too much sensitivity, abandonment, moodiness, a certain rawness of the astral body from the wounds inflicted by childhood, overwhelming anxiety for the safety of loved ones or an over defensiveness which shields them from feeling any true sense of devotion in the first place. Jupiter in Cancer keeps its faith behind a well armoured exterior so that what it believes in is a private and personal matter, but these are often deeply felt, secretly vulnerable to the notion that its faith or sense of belief, its connection to the wider world of family, could be taken from it and all weakness or doubt is thus guarded in a shell. It has a certain strength of faith born of its adaptability to different terrains of belief, as well, being equally at home on land or under the waves. Cancer is calming, but cautious and timid. Jupiter is neither, and so the Wheel moves on, back into Fire.

After the water has soaked in, dried and been drawn up into the stems and leaves, the sun shines down and life flourishes. Jupiter in Leo is well expressed by the motto ‘I believe in life’. Here, the timidity and cautiousness of Cancer is overthrown by a glorious and radiant light that bursts forth filling everything with a gigantic, dramatic, illuminating spotlight. Unlike the previous single pointed expression through the Fire of Aries, the Jupiter in Leo principle is thermodynamic – it generates its own energy – and it is fixed, or Stable, so the hasty, impetuous flame of the Fire Element is placed under more control and direction. This makes it capable of producing sustained miraculous results. Leo is the sign of kingship and Jupiter is obviously quite at home here – he is bombastic, gregarious, enormously generous and above all, of stout heart. As the ruler or king of the liver, the largest single organ in the human body, Jupiter has dominion over the Elements as they are distributed into the blood through the liver and make their way to the heart and the brain and around the macrocosm of the physical body. In the same way, Jupiter acts as the monarch of this solar system by receiving and dispensing the cosmic elements just as a ruler warmly dispenses his rule throughout his kingdom. When Jupiter is in Leo, this distribution of the Elements around the body produces a greatly enhanced effect on the heart so that it becomes filled with leadership qualities, vibrant and grand opportunities that stimulate poise in the universe and qualities of overwhelming self confidence. However, it can also place a great deal of stress on the heart.

Many individuals with Jupiter in Leo are driven to find fame and a high status of recognition for their particular heartfelt talents and want to do most things in as big and exuberant a way as possible. Most will have some form of extensive ‘kingdom’ from which they receive adoration or attention and disperse their abundant radiance. Yet, somehow, it lacks meaning; there is ever the danger of self glorification, of inflated self importance or ‘egobesity’ (thanks to my good humoured Sagittarian friend Alain Chamoux for this brilliant word!). A king, a ruler, a leader, a Pharaoh – these are symbols of the Divine kingship, embodiments of a cosmic principle that once enabled humans to interact with gods – but they are only the symbols for that glory, not the majesty of Divinity itself, and thus they must fall from grace, as all temporal rule must. Thus, putting ones faith in an idol – fame, power, influence, attention – leads to an incomplete sense of self fulfilment. Disheartened, for it truly feels that faith in itself should be enough to achieve any goal, Jupiter in Leo often later progresses beyond radiating self sufficiency and satisfaction and turns to trusted advisers and counsellors, seeking the help and advice of the common mind.

This brings us to Jupiter in Virgo, the most helpful manifestation of Jupiter in the sense of help offered. It is also of great benefit usually in all matters requiring moderation and the taming of the excesses exemplified by Leo. It is the significator of an abundant harvest, of great purity and of original elements and nutritive properties refined and expanded as a result of laborious work. Thus, the bodily assimilation and chemical digestion of the Elements from food is often effective and resourceful. Vitamins and minerals and all the pure reduced essences of things are expanded, invigorated and made more abundant by this Jupiter. For these individuals growth and opportunities abound through the effects of detailed analyses, enlarging the effect of order through management structures, critical assessments, purification, observing procedures, being helpful and courteous, discriminating and dutiful. Jupiter in Virgo abounds with humility and this opens the individual to grace. Such people are rarely visible or recognised like those born with Jupiter in Leo, but they perform invaluable services to others throughout their lives. Additionally, they also receive a lot of good practical help, people are more inclined to work for them without thought of reward, and in many individuals there is a robust state of health brought on by a fitness regime and a natural love of nutritious healthy eating. There is often great scientific skill, especially in physics or healing. In short, all the virtues of Virgo abound. Still, there is ever a drive in Virgo, a drive for total physical perfection, and while in many cases of Jupiter in Virgo this drive serves to bring the individual plenty of opportunity to experience an uplifting sense of connection to a larger order, it also leaves them feeling inadequate, flawed, and in need of continuous work; for Virgo, the second incarnation of the Earth Element and the second Reactive or Mutable mode, is the young adult or adolescent of the earth zone, a maiden or a young man, a youth who sees much to criticize around them, the true innocence of childhood having passed away and only greater responsibility and toil seemingly destined ahead. Having gathered and examined the evidence and being surrounded by facts and data accumulated in researching its beliefs, the need to objectively measure and weigh so much evidence becomes apparent to Jupiter in Virgo, alongside the need to end loneliness, to link up with someone and share all that has been gathered from the first half of the turning of the Wheel.

This leads us to Jupiter in Libra. The individual is now becoming aware of both Light and Darkness, sunshine and shadow, that day and night flow into and out of one another like different currents hovering in the air, forming streams and fluxes of power and experience which direct the course of the winds of life, and with this growing awareness comes a burgeoning need to include other things, other beings, to mix and relate to them. The belief is in fairness and justice, in the attempt to put these things right or see them done in all matters, for the dark and the light is everywhere, in all things, and Jupiter in Libra must grow and expand through equalising and balancing these forces, for from this balance of equality, fertility and beauty come forth. Harmony, balance, fertility – these are the key virtues of Jupiter in Libra, a Jupiter which experiences an urge to grow through the experience of partnership and to connect with a larger order by joining with an opposite equal. Thus, it is drawn into numerous relationships of all kinds, but primarily of an intimate yet impartial nature. If we accept the doctrine of reincarnation and the principle of karma, then this Jupiter signifies benefits from partners of a karmic nature (called ‘Poorvapunya’) destined to appear from previous lives. Astrologically, Jupiter in Libra also signifies artists and those involved in the legal professions, those who are responsible for passing fair judgement upon others, or who act in some way to embody higher principles to the satisfaction of others. Beauty – that is, aesthetic content – is a principle of this Jupiter, as are abundant decisions and choices, some of which, of course, can be experienced as conflict. When this happens, Jupiter in Libra can be abundantly indecisive, not wanting to tip the scales one way or another, and simply being content to act diplomatically in as broad a way as possible. Inevitably this is wasteful, as a great deal of mental energy and time may be expended with little or no movement resulting. As in fertilisation, very often enormous quantities of potentials are launched in the hope that one or two will couple to produce offspring. Yet, in the end, if only one survives, and it in turn fertilises more, the entire cycle may continue for aeons in this simple way. So it is with Jupiter in Libra and with the spread of human relationships across time and space as they connect different parts of the Wheel like the strands of a silvery web. Every chance encounter is a date with fate. Eventually, Jupiter in Libra understands that these hidden strands connect things in occult patterns that must be deciphered. It has learned that it loves to be loved and to love, but not why. The Wheel turns.

In Scorpio, Jupiter expands the Mystery. The inner meaning that is hidden within form is expanded and this radiation becomes perceptible so that the deepest content becomes clear. Scorpio is the second immersion in the cold Water Element for Jupiter, but unlike the previous expression which was of a lunar nature this time the expression of Water is of a more Martian nature, far less placid and much more hot and passionate. The intensity of passion that Jupiter in Scorpio provides is an effect of the inner radiation of hidden powers that are triggered by him here, for this expression of Jupiter uncovers what has been kept secret and detects what has been concealed with ease. It is therefore the significator of a detective, a psychoanalyst, a taxation expert, depth psychologist, magician or occultist, sex therapist, spy or invisible philanthropist. Deep waters are often still, and this is no exception; the individual is filled with depths of feeling and emotion that most others will never know. Within them, there is a knowing (and an even deeper sense of things that cannot be defined), a knowing that the universe is bigger than we realise, that there is more going on around us all the time than we scarce dream of, and that some of it is very dark, horrific, and unexplainable to most human beings. Yet, Jupiter’s influence causes these people to lack fear of such facts, indeed, it tempts them to explore them, and so we will find many people with a liking of horror and danger, both real and imagined, people for whom the dark imagination is enticing and taboo is divine. Such people also often find an abundance of occult instruction is made available throughout their lives and they will always be keen on investigating it; most have already gained some instruction and initiation into life’s mysteries and possess their secrets, and will come across lore that they have a mysterious innate comprehension of. Additionally, these are the people who can endure superhuman levels of torment and pain even outright torture for what they believe in, if it is necessary. The negative self destructive tendency of Scorpio is, normally, actually greatly lessened by Jupiter here – these individuals are certainly capable of being willing to die for a belief, but they will only do so in the most extreme of situations, and even then, they will attempt to maximise the benefit such a sacrifice could bring. Of course, ‘benefit’ can be open to many deep interpretations with Jupiter in Scorpio, because it gives perspectives that are a complete mystery to others, perspectives which are gained through growth that primarily occurs within a private or secret world and are shared only with very trusted individuals. The Scorpio Jupiter, so overflowing with deep waters that never run dry, is in many ways the individual with the deepest love to offer, but these intense emotions can drive the individual rather than the other way around, which in extreme cases leads some to spiral into the darkest of waters, the red waters running with the wages of murder and mass destruction. The darkness and horror of the world, once revealed, must be brought to the light, which leads many to a perverted thirst for vengeance. What is needed is a transformative release from the dark and oppressive, a dispersal of the energy through trust in and surrender to a higher law.

By Jupiter in Sagittarius, his own sign, that law is enacted. This is the principle of growth and expansion and change through harmony, truth and justice, a natural expression of Jupiter’s own principle. Thus, his own nature inflates and flourishes here along with the Sagittarian temperament, and the individual becomes very easy to mistake for a Sun Sagittarius type. Conversely, all Sagittarians have some affinity with all of Jupiter’s energies. The difference is one of scale; the Sun sign Sagittarius is an idealist and philosopher, a seeker of new horizons and an explorer of truth; the Jupiter Sagittarius person is a true force for great change in these areas, seemingly with a destiny to fulfil that will often have benevolent and beneficial consequences that are broader and wider than the individual. Most fortunately, Jupiter’s energies of abundance are in abundance when he is in Sagittarius, and a very large and diverse number of effects can come from his expansive and generous mood – extensive travel to foreign realms which broadens the mind, easy passage beyond the tribulations of life through strokes of luck, a jolly philosophical demeanour which always manages to look on the bright side, a love of truthfulness and honesty that overflows and uplifts others, numerous wise and generous teachers, a view of the future that is ever widening and opening into fresh territory, an intuitive function that unerringly points to success and fortunate outcome and countless other effects are bestowed upon these individuals, sometimes all at once. Moderation – in everything – is often a necessary quality to acquire; such people are often too indulgent and lack self restraint.

The extreme elevation and inflation of Jupiter’s principle in this sign also makes these individuals very restless, endlessly seeking their own kind of growth and expansion, engaged on an individual quest acquiring new lore and continuously moving beyond boundaries in the process. The third and final incarnation of Fire is often just as restless and energised as Aries, and just as dramatic as Leo, but the restlessness is covered by a mask, theatrically, for the Sagittarius impulse is to play the part, to be the actor upon the stage not for fame, but for the exploration of the human condition it offers. The masks which most often cover this restless quest are humorous and stoic or philosophical. This is why Sagittarius, a free spirited centaur and thus a dual sign, is irrepressibly frivolous and serious, tragi-comic, profoundly funny, knowledgeable and insightful.

The legality and honesty or morality of any given thing is clear to such individuals and they cannot ignore it; their growth depends on listening to the whispering voice within them that quivers like an arrow drawn upon a bow, aiming unerringly for the furthest target and the broadest most general truth. Without this guidance, the excessive and indulgent, over-idealistic, blow out, pie in the sky qualities of Jupiter in Sagittarius will lead the individual to overestimate, over optimise, overdraw and overspend all their faith in a brighter, golden tomorrow that is too distant or dogmatic to ever dawn, leaving them exhausted and disillusioned by their beliefs. Truth, justice and honour keep the Wheel in balance and direct its course through the dynamics of natural law, but such general cosmic concepts need to be related in more practical ways, we need certain rules, authorities and regulations so that the law can be enacted, and cosmic principles – truth – must be translated into the personal so that they have meaning in the human sphere. This is karma.

This consequential influence of Jupiter and the outgrowth of its accumulated karmic content take place in Capricorn, and by necessity it has to be shorn of much of the expansive warm gas of Sagittarius, so belief is deflated and brought closer to Earth, bereft of its buoyancy and idealistic tendencies. What is simply too impractical to believe in is ejected along with the free and easy nature of Jupiter in Sagittarius and in its place there is the cold, hard, steady change of Saturn and Capricorn guiding Jupiter’s expansion, so that progress, growth and a sense of expanding faith or belief in a greater power is pursued more pessimistically but often with more lasting results. The passage of time and the accumulation of understanding that comes through experience – the realisation that actions have associated consequences – is the rock upon which the principle of Jupiter in Capricorn has its foundations. These individuals are builders and architects of the law, they see to it that natural law governs and enables growth to take root over time so that mountains of wisdom accumulate which withstand all but the longest and greatest of the forces of change.

Wisdom, in fact, is the chief virtue of this Jupiter – wisdom to observe natural law, the law of gradual and inevitable change, to allow all things to come to fruition according to their season, and to encourage this growth through the providence of wise governance, and a dutiful acceptance and responsible use of rules and authority. For this reason Jupiter in Capricorn carries with it a capacity for leadership and rule, either inborn through the family name, or earned through individual enterprise. These people are found in the halls of power, influencing the outcome of grand designs that affects the order of things. It is through exploring the use of collective power – socio-political, economic, monarchic, etc – that these individuals feel connected to a higher purpose and a wider scheme of existence. That word ‘use’ is very important, for the Capricorn nature uses things to profit and stores them to secure the safety of the future. It acquires influence, resources and status in order to use them for the benefit of as many people as it can, generally starting with those closest to it, and frequently formally wields some kind of widespread authority. Such is not assumed with any sense of self glorification but with a sober appreciation of the responsibilities and duties it entails, even with a certain reluctance, for the individual is acutely aware of the burdens being placed upon them. Yet they will shoulder them well, and in so doing only increase their store of power.

Nevertheless, this is the first time on the Wheel Jupiter has felt the touch of Saturn, his polar opposite, and it gives him pause. The pace progresses more steadily and seriously, with belief invested in traditional forms and institutions, methods which have proven themselves against change according to the test of time, and slow, step by step advancement up the mountain of faith. Deep within all its bones, Jupiter in Capricorn knows that there is a greater order even than cause and effect, a power that transcends even all material and physical structure and order itself. It sees it play out over the march of time in concrete forms and patterns that can be protected and made resilient against the shifting finger of change, but it cannot devise a plan to liberate itself from the inevitable approach of decline and entropy. Old traditions eventually wear out and are forgotten if they do not move with the times; the Wheel is ever turning towards the future, to something crystalline that exists outside of time but somehow shimmers so brightly that it is present everywhere.

This futuristic vision, the insight of new awareness, is also provided by Saturn as the ruler of its diurnal sign Aquarius. Thus, Jupiter receives a double dose of Saturnine energy from the Wheel, one after the other. Yet, they couldn’t be more different! The additional influx of Uranian energies (as the planet Uranus is the diurnal co-ruler of Aquarius) livens things up and allows for the invention of new structures and twists upon old structures that light up the sky of the mind. Humanitarianism flourishes, alongside individual freedom, the principle of independence, tolerance, open-mindedness and genius when Jupiter is in Aquarius. The spark of originality is re-supplied by Active Air for it is ever seeking outwardly, rising, filling all the space, and thus expanding its awareness. In this way, by remaining ever open to new ideas and notions, it crystallises the future into the view of the present day, and, even more, by drawing together others of like awareness aspects of that future may be substantially realised. Thus, with Jupiter in Aquarius we see with clarity the crystalline forms of Saturn – the pure forms of meaning – embodied as ideas that have yet to occur, and we seek to grow and expand through our awareness of those things. We are led on by the fight for human rights, the environment, animal welfare and spiritual realisation for we see these as crystalline forms that are drawing all structures toward the ultimate realisation of freedom and unity.

For these people, being thought of as weird, wacky, strange or unpredictable is a small price to pay for the gift of free spirit and unlimited thought. Therefore, their faith in Kroton the Prime Overlord of Galactic Command and his channelling from another dimension that was destroyed in a previous cycle of the multiversal cosmos is not diminished by anyone else’s ridicule, not even when the mothership fails to land on the temple lawn at the appointed hour to whisk the faithful away. They will readily accept the possibility that a dimensional storm prevented the ascension from taking place. Of course this is an extremely flippant example being used to make a point: an adaptable faith in the unusual is the norm with these folk. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re so spaced out that whatever they believe in is insane by commonplace standards but it does mean it is inclined to go that way, even when the belief is not overtly connected with science fiction; for example, it may be that someone with Jupiter in Aquarius has beliefs in human or animal rights that are held very extremely and inflexibly and seem insane to a more traditional, crocodile-skin shoe wearing Jupiter in Taurus individual.

Luck and fortuitous change comes to these people when they take the road less travelled anyway, when they do the unusual and explore unorthodox possibilities. The fixity of Air is aware that it is not necessary or desirable for all individuals to believe the same thing or to have the same value systems; it is only important, amongst all the chaotic infinite diversity of ceaseless change, that the awareness of universal brotherhood is maintained. Each of us has an evolutionary spiral on the web of Divine awareness, yet that web IS a web, an interconnected state of symmetries and resonances – pluck at one strand and the entire structure reverberates. This is what Jupiter in Aquarius brings in abundance – the awareness that individual thought is the great liberator from separation, mediocrity, and the weight of the past, for we are all interconnected at the mental level, all of us being human, or more inclusively, all things being aware. To articulate this interconnectedness Jupiter in Aquarius draws together and gathers people into groups with inclusive aims and visions of the future, so that they can be crystallised. It is a gloriously beautiful vision.

Yet to Aquarius love is a detached and unselfish emotion; it looks upon its own altruism dispassionately, and ever seeks to expand its independence and freedom from the ego, and so when it comes to faith in a greater power there is coolness and an experimental attitude which sometimes lacks empathy or compassion. A true release and a feeling of faith can only come through a less detached, more transcendent emotive union with the Divine.

This transcendence is supplied by Jupiter in Pisces. At last, in the ambience of his ancient nocturnal home now shared with Neptune, at the final stage of the turning of the Great Wheel, Jupiter can finally move beyond all boundaries by dissipating his essence into the universe to find commonality anywhere and everywhere. Individuals born with Jupiter in Pisces know this, if only unconsciously, and it envelopes their consciousness mystically. They grow through surrendering themselves to compassion and by returning or reversing the flow of unconditional love, the very force that drives all evolution back to the All (ever wondered what love was doing hiding back to front in that word ‘evolution’?). How does one return the flow of unconditional love? – through acts which demonstrate forgiveness, piety, praise of Divinity, acts of worship and all things saintly or transcendent of material suffering and separation. So it is with Jupiter in Pisces, a sign of tremendous sensitivity and empathy, the true ability to feel other people’s pain, sometimes to such an extent that it can become confused with their own.

Here is the root of all mystical belief, too, for whether or not they realise it, such individuals are psychically open, and are prone to astral visitation in dreams. Many of these individuals also deal with addictions to narcotics, alcohol especially, which can have an insidiously destructive effect on the astral body through the poisoning of the blood and the liver. The joint rulership of Pisces, in ancient times by Jupiter and modern by Neptune, shows, as I have said, that even gods outgrow things. Jupiter is no longer the significator of many psychic and spiritual states, as he once was, because these dimensions have opened even wider for us than he can rule over; our collective awareness has advanced into the realms where it is now conscious of the existence of its unconscious (with the exception of the one man I knew of who said he didn’t believe in the unconscious…he’s still back in the dark ages I think…) The depths of the oceans of the unconscious, once primarily physically symbolised by the vast expanse of seas beyond which native islanders knew not what existed, have now been explored, much as the surface of the oceans have; but the sea, and the unconscious, is infinitely deeper than its surface, and, even more so, the depths of space. So, the transition of Jupiter’s traits to Neptune, so generously given, reflects his miraculous expansiveness, his ability to encompass and open up more by giving away, and also the very important principle that nothing temporal is exempt from the force of change and destiny, that even things some consider universal truths – astrology and kabbalah – change and evolve with the turning of the Wheel.

It is this impulse to return to the source, to evolve, that calls to Jupiter in Pisces. At the root of all the aforementioned traits is that transcendent evolutionary urge to grow beyond all the suffering and joylessness of the physical realm, by somehow escaping into the true reality that is always felt but rarely tangibly enough for these individuals. It is elusive, like trying to grasp at music as it floats through the air, the faith and belief of Jupiter in Pisces discovers. The Divine will not be defined, merely yielded to, and there will be the proof, if proof there is to be had. The faith of Jupiter in Pisces is a mystery because it requires no proof; it is sufficient proof unto itself.

If any dark waters of addiction to substances or self sacrifice can be turned aside, then this Jupiter truly offers those it graces with the opportunity to grow closer to mystical truths, to shed off the mortal self while still living and enjoy the peace and tranquillity of union with the Divine. In so coming to rest, all the accumulated experience of the turning of the Wheel is included in the devoted waters as they return gratefully to their source, bathed in a rainbow of light. The Wheel of Destiny is an Ever Returning Wheel, a holy grail poured forth by Divine Providence, the waters cascading ecstatically into every created vessel until it overflows, and they return to the source with all that is good gathered within and added to swell the sum total. This additional content leads to further potentials and new beginnings, which turns the Wheel to Aries once more with fresh waters.

Thor’s Hammer

May it be that you drink copiously of those fresh waters, as I have done in the writing of this letter to you, and may the goodness flowing from this reading vitalize your determination to look upon the future with a positive attitude, ever seeking to include the many back into the One, for in my heart I know all things are ever invited to partake of that most sacred and holy of grails. May you know it too.

Everloving,

David

12: 01pm, June 19th 2004

(1) Some very weird and fascinating chemical reactions have been observed on these moons recently; for more, see this article.

(2) The forces generated by Jupiter and the other outer planets have a direct and formative influence on our weather patterns, crop cycles, viral life-cycles and on all our natural growth cycles; scientific evidence of this can be found in the journal Nature, May 12th, 1970, page 984 and in many current scientific researches into sunspots, for example.

(3)  Thor may be closer in nature to a war god and thus of Mars, but his thunderous aspects are clearly Jovian.