Your Personal Guide to Jupiter’s Transit through Cancer until July 17th, 2014

On June 25th/26th, 2013 Jupiter entered its sign of exaltation in Cancer, and there it will remain until July 17th of 2014. What exactly is meant by ‘exaltation’? Exaltation is a term used by astrologers to emphasize the ideal expression of a planet’s energy for creative purposes.

Jupiter Exalted in Cancer
Jupiter has come to represent something big, bountiful, and ever expanding.  After all, the planet itself is enormous and gaseous.  Buoyancy describes Jupiter to a T.  The sign of Cancer is where we need to focus which includes our most immediate circle of family, close friends, our ‘clan’ and/or community in addition to paying attention to our innermost feelings.  With Jupiter in this sign enthusiasm and grandiosity may be tempered by sensitivity, especially towards others where empathy and consideration are exercised.  That certainly is the ideal to reach for especially in our world today where the global village concept has now taken root as an antidote to the ‘New World Order’ and where perhaps kindliness and gentleness can expand beyond the perimeters of tribal consciousness to encompass a greater family of life which includes not just humans but all our kinfolk here on Earth.  I know here where I live in the woods I consider the ravens, the wild turkeys, the beautiful little foxes, the hummingbirds, the deer, and all the other creatures that find homes around our simple cabin to be ‘family’.  What about where you live?  Perhaps you live in a city but have raccoons around you, like in San Francisco, or pigeons.  Of course include your pets!  Perhaps it’s that homeless person who begs on the corner every time you leave to go about your errands in the city.  Consider that person ‘family’ as well.  I think Jupiter in Cancer is about enlarging the concept itself of family/tribe.

General Themes
Watch your feelings during this year ahead.  Allow them a place in your life to expand.  If you feel more optimistic that would be great, but if other feelings well up in you, give them some space and honor them.  Feelings, like water, need to move freely along.  It’s when they are dammed up that they cause trouble if unleashed suddenly.  This is actually a good year to develop more fully your own emotional sensitivity.  If excessive fear arises Jupiter can be that support to help you to move beyond those limitations with greater faith in something bigger than yourself to sustain you.  Cancer, by its very nature, is a highly protective sign and has a great mothering instinct embedded in it.  Jupiter will enlarge upon this theme so watch for where you feel extra protective in the months to come.

Issues of privacy may also become a central theme.  We certainly have that in our face now due to the startling revelations of just how deeply invasive the NSA has penetrated into all our private lives.  Perhaps this will be a personal theme for you in various ways in the months ahead.  What kind of privacy do you need?  To what degree do you protect your own privacy rights?  What about those around you?  Do you respect their rights to privacy as well?  It’s certainly time for further dialogue and even debate on all these highly important themes.  I remember vividly as a child, due to the religious beliefs I was raised with, that God could see every single thing I was doing.  I used to wonder about that when sitting on the toilet!  It actually had the effect of creating great caution in me to always ‘do the right thing’.  Well now—-guess what?—–we have something similar in a new way with big brother having access to all our thoughts, feelings, and inter-change with each other.  It does make you ponder, except that this ‘god’ is a far cry from the heavenly father I wondered about.  Cancer feels vulnerable to over-exposure.  That’s why it is depicted as a Crab with a shell protecting its soft inner body.  So where are your defenses?  That’s another issue arising with Jupiter in Cancer.

Family values will be a major theme ahead.  The good news is that Jupiter has already expanded the concept of family with a recent USA Supreme Court ruling that those states wanting to make legal marriage between same-sex people is now A-OK.  This means that family cultures will be changing to include two men or two women legal partners who may choose to have children as part of their family.  Of course this has already been going on, but not legally sanctioned.  Jupiter has a lot to do with the beliefs and mores of a culture.  Also the theme of extended families will be enlarged upon.  Do you feel that your friends are more like ‘family’ than your family of origin?  That might be one theme.  Maybe you considered your cats and dogs to be your children.  Somehow the sense of emotional attachment is always expanded upon with Jupiter in Cancer.

Higher values may be now placed on our basic nurturance needs which certainly include food, and housing.  These are becoming increasingly important topics everywhere.  The entire GMO topic may gather force both positively and negatively as more and more people begin to question the rights of companies like Monsanto to monopolize the seed industry and thus the food supply.  There is a great article right now in The Mountain Astrologer discussing the chart of Monsanto that I encourage all of you to read.  I had actually done research for a potential article on Monsanto several months ago, but Eric Francis Coppolino has done a superb job in his article ‘The Cosmic Signature of Monsanto & GMOs’.  Mr. Coppolino has been tracking this company ever since 1991 when ‘electrical transformers filled with Monsanto’s PCB insulating fluid exploded in dormitories on my local college campus…’  That’s when he actually began his in-depth investigations as a young reporter.  Now he is a very astute astrologer as well.  Jupiter encourages us to learn and explore topics of importance, and what could be more important than what nurtures and sustains us.  If we don’t have good and clean air, water, and food we are doomed to nothing but hardship and disease.

Housing will also be an important theme.  This is certainly a good year to improve your home and its surroundings.  Ordinarily it would be a good year for real estate, but now the world is forever altered and the normal Jupiter/Saturn cycles don’t seem to work as rhythmically predictable as they used to.  Even so, do what you can to improve your physical home life whether that means buying and moving to a new home, or improving the one you have.

Cancer-related businesses are also traditionally where growth and improvement can occur during Jupiter’s passage.  These businesses include real estate and all home-related industries and businesses, food-related businesses such as farming, food-processing, food wholesalers and retailers, the restaurant industry, even bars.  Then there are the hospitality industries such as hotels, motels, resorts, etc.  Have you heard of the AirBnB phenomenon?  It has really taken off world-wide but will undoubtedly be opposed by the hotel industry, and already is.  Big business simply doesn’t like it when small people find a way to ‘beat the system’.  Other possible industries and businesses which might find growth or issues during Jupiter in Cancer include the insurance industries and any industry which looks after people’s security needs, such as home alarms/security systems, etc.  Let’s see what takes place in the USA with Social Security!  Jupiter in Cancer ideally wants to protect the weak and helpless.  Will we see that actually occur in governmental policies in the year ahead?

Re-unions and nostalgia for the past will flourish.  People have always loved their high-school and alma mater reunions, but these along with family reunions will undoubtedly proliferate as Jupiter moves along in Cancer.  Cancer, after all, has nostalgia for things of the past, so get out your scrapbooks and old letters.  It’s a great year to bring further meaning to any sentimental journey you wish to embark on whether it is creating your own memory lane gathering or private journal, or literally traveling back to where you came from in some manner.  Ancestry.com should gain a lot of new members this year!

Finally, there may be growth and prosperity for all women’s issues and Goddess-related themes including women’s movements of all kinds.  The Great Mother, the Triple Goddess all harken from the archetype of Cancer.  This nurturing, fecundating principle may now be filled with new inspiration to move forward.  Up here in Nevada County there is a large community of women working in such organizations as Gather the Women, and now Marilyn Nyborg’s newest endeavor, Women Waking the World.  What is going on where you live that is supporting and encouraging women to make positive changes and strengthen their many gifts?  Another wonderful movement has been started by another outstanding woman, Wendy Silvers, with her Million Mamas Movement.  This movement is for mothers (and fathers) who truly love their children and want to create a better world for them.

I certainly haven’t exhausted all the possible themes relating to Cancer.  Let our readers know if you think of another general theme.

Personal Themes

Pay attention to where Jupiter in Cancer is moving in your own chart.  Do you have planets in Cancer such as Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, or Mars?  Jupiter will both support and expand upon those energies for you personally.  Is your Ascendant or Midheaven in Cancer?  If it is your Ascendant, you are truly at a new beginning of self-confidence to launch something out into the world now.  If it is your Midheaven, you are ready for expansion and growth in your public life and career.  It is generally considered to be a good year when Jupiter is moving through your Sun sign for it gives you energy, buoyancy, and optimism to fulfill your life purpose.  The Moon is your emotional body, but also your personal needs.  Jupiter here can support you and supply some grace in your life.

Jupiter in its positive manifestation is akin to Zeus who was raised on milk and honey according to the myth.  Jupiter has come to represent good fortune, growth, and grace.  Jupiter also represents expansion of your soul and higher mind which reaches towards super consciousness through the realms of religion, metaphysics, and philosophy.  Jupiter equals your faith as well as your enthusiasm for life and higher learning.

Keep in mind that aspects from Jupiter to any of your planets will tend to benefit those energies, whatever the aspect, with some cautionary advice to be aware of.  Jupiter does have a negative manifestation.  For example, one caution for people with Jupiter transiting through either their 1st or 6th houses is that weight gain is a possibility.  So unless you are super thin, this might not be what you want!  Negative traits of Jupiter are excess, extravagance, extreme and fanatical beliefs, and wastefulness.  Jupiter can represent over-load and over-whelm as well.  So pay attention to those qualities when factoring in the effects of Jupiter transits to any of your energies, especially when you are dealing with squares or oppositions to a planet, though conjunctions may also be problematical, such as Jupiter over the Moon (weight gain again!).

One way to get a perspective of what may be in store for you with Jupiter in Cancer is to look back to when it was in this sign nearly 12 years ago, keeping in mind that all the other planets are undoubtedly in different positions now so the patterns of energy aren’t quite the same.  Jupiter was last in Cancer from July 14, 2001 through August 1, 2002.  What was going on in your life back then?  That cycle is now renewed again where Jupiter is concerned.  I remember that I got to travel to Italy with some of my clan and we had a fabulous time in the Cinque Terra region, but it was also when I got to visit Damanhur in Northern Italy, an incredible spiritual community with an amazing temple created inside a mountain with powerful energies emulating from it.  It was a spiritual high point in my life.

The United States was experiencing its own Jupiter effect with a Jupiter Return year, plus Jupiter in this country’s Sun sign.  But guess what?  It was the year of 9/11.  That event occurred as you well know on September 11th, 2001 as Jupiter was at 11 degrees of Cancer.  The United States Sun is at 13 degrees of Cancer.  We’ve now had nearly 12 years since that key demarcation year.  Homeland Security was born out of that.  Is it a force for good or ill now?  The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were also spawned from that event.  The home-mortgage fiasco ensued in the following years.  All these themes around purpose, nurturance, security, patriotism, and the ‘home land’ have drastically changed since that defining moment in time.  Much to contemplate that is beyond the scope of this small article.  Still it’s good to now reflect on what was going on in your life wherever you are on the globe and how that event also impacted your life in subtle and not-so-subtle ways since.

Let’s now look at Jupiter through each of the twelve houses as a transit.  In looking at your own birth chart you may see that the sign itself starts in one house and ends in another.  If that is the case, consider both houses.  If you don’t know the time of your birth and have to work with a Solar Chart where the Sun is placed on the Ascendant, you can still track Jupiter’s cycle by considering the ‘Solar house’ where Cancer falls.  This is actually how all those major horoscope columns work.  They all work with Solar houses, not actual houses, when they make their ‘predictions’.  Finally, be aware that Jupiter will go into its retrograde phase starting on November 7th at 20 degrees of Cancer.  It will move back to the 10th degree before finally turning direct on March 6th, 2014.  So the degrees of 10 to 20 (the second decanate) are going to be emphasized for a long time; actually from August 11th, 2013 to June 4th, 2014.  Any planets, angles, or other points in your chart at those degrees will be more strongly impacted for a longer period of time by Jupiter.

Transit Jupiter through the First House:
You may now launch something new that has personal significance for you.  I launched this blog when Jupiter was in my first house, for example.  You may feel more confident, optimistic and up-beat during this time.  You are entering a time of self-discovery and self-improvement.  It is time to advance yourself!  You may feel both blessed and protected as you begin your new cycle of personal growth.  It’s a good time to draw benefits from others to yourself as well as to go out there and pursue your own interests.  Yes, it’s a good time to travel, study something new, and expand your philosophy, just as it’s a good time to invest and even take some calculated risks.

Be also aware that you can gain weight because you may become over-indulgent.  Watch your ego as well and be careful with over-exaggerating from an egoic place.

Transit Jupiter through the Second House:
You may experience a greater sense of self-worth now as well as abundance in what you possess, including monetary gain.  You may want to acquire certain possessions now, but be aware that you may be tempted to spend too much and become extravagant with your assets.  Ordinarily, however, this is a happy period of your life where you feel blessed, secure, and protected by the physical realm.  It’s a good time to actualize more fully what you truly value.  If your values are highly spiritual, you’ll truly experience an increase in that sphere.

How you manage all of your resources is a theme, so pay attention and try not to mismanage your gifts and assets now.

Transit Jupiter through the Third House:
What a great time period to increase all of your contacts with others, whether those in your immediate surroundings and neighborhood or in places like Facebook and other social net-working sites.  Your relationships with siblings, cousins, and peers may be either enhanced or exaggerated if there are problems.  Jupiter, however, may give you the grace to handle some of those problems through better communications.

It’s a great time to acquire new skills that become automatic once you’ve mastered the steps required to learn them.  By the same token, if you train others in some field, you will really thrive now.  Communications of all types are encouraged and possibly less subject to failures now.  You’ll find yourself more mentally receptive, open, and even optimistic now.  It’s a great time to shift your attitudes towards the positive with greater tolerance for other’s points of views as well.

Watch out, however, for bombast and verbose, loose-tongued rants and raves!

Transit Jupiter through the Fourth House:
This is a wonderful year to improve your home life and personal inner world whether physically or emotionally.  If you need a bigger, better home, what a great year to move forward with that goal.  If you want to improve the land around your home by landscaping, growing a garden (Yes!), go for it.  If you want more peace and privacy in your personal world, secure it.  In fact, this is a good year to create more security for yourself and your family.

This is also considered a year when your personal life won’t cause problems in your professional life.  You may want to have more gatherings in your home socially.  In terms of your family life, happiness may increase, but if there are dysfunctions within the family they will also be exaggerated.  Jupiter, however, symbolizes a support system to heal and clean those problematical areas up if you are willing to invest.  It’s a good year for therapy.

Transit Jupiter through the Fifth House:
This can be another great year for increasing your self-confidence and creative abilities.  Your courage to just be yourself may blossom.  When it comes to enjoyment and romance, this is a banner year.  Of course, like all Jupiter times, you can over-do a good thing and then suffer the consequences when Jupiter moves into your 6th.  Matters of the heart, however, are encouraged and supported primarily.

If you have children, they may very well flourish.  You will certainly have opportunity to enjoy them now.  If you are a teacher or work with children, this may be a very positive year.  Outings, sports, entertainment, and performing at whatever level feels good are all encouraged.

So have some fun, take a few risks, and live it up!  Just keep your judgment intact.

Transit Jupiter through the Sixth House:
So you’ve had your fun in the 5th last year; now is the time to improve yourself and master any creative skill that may have been awakened.  This is a good year for making gains in your work and daily routines, whether that includes exercise, diet, meditation, or work-related routines.  Any new regimen that you want to start or improve will be supported.

If you are seeking new employment or better working conditions, this is a great time because you’ll feel a sense of fulfillment growing.  You can take on more work as well.  It’s a great year to start a new project or complete one already in process because there may be less stress involved.

Of course you’ll want to watch your weight being careful with carbs, excess fats, and sweets.

Transit Jupiter through the Seventh House:
You’ve just completed approximately six years of personal development and growth as Jupiter moved through the 1st through 6th houses.  Now you’re ready to move up and out.  It’s a year which will favor all your 1:1 encounters including your major personal partnership as well as any business or professional partnerships you are involved in.  This is a bountiful and fruitful year for bringing in helpful people where there can be mutual exchanges. If you need good advisors such as lawyers, doctors, consultants, or counselors, this is a time to benefit from their advice. You’re going to feel socially optimistic and want to perhaps expand your sphere with others.

Jupiter types of people may enter your life now such as teachers, mentors, guides, or even people of means and wealth.  You may also encounter people from other cultures, countries, and ethnicities.

If you are married or in a long-term partnership, this is a good year to improve your relationship.  If you can’t grow together more, you may grow apart however.  This includes business partnerships as well.

Transit Jupiter through the Eighth House:
Growth now extends to a deeper level with partnerships into the realm of mergers and sharing of resources.  You may see your partners benefit in some way during this year, or you benefit from their largesse of resources.  For example, this is a good year to get a loan from a bank or financial institution, just as it is a good year to gain a grant, scholarship, or stipend.  It’s a good year to make gains on your investments just as inheritances are favored now.  Jupiter here favors most joint resources.

On an emotional level it’s an excellent time for improving your most intimate relationships increasing your tendency to be more open and even vulnerable in sexual and close bonded relationships.  You may experience a richer connection with another opening you to the magic of true intimacy.

On a spiritual level all manner of occult teachings and the mysteries of life/death transformations may be opened by Jupiter’s teachings and experiences.  Your values may go through powerful transformations as you move from the personal to the transpersonal and even universal now.  Jupiter in this realm is considered powerful and fortunate.

Again, the admonishment of good judgment is called for in this natural house of Scorpio.  You may also experience extremes and enormous upheavals if too drawn to powers in others or the universe which you aren’t strong enough to handle.

Transit Jupiter through the Ninth House:
Ah, Jupiter is now back in its own realm/house.  Travel, higher education, and expansion on so many levels are favored here for approximately one year.  You can explore the outer world through long-distance travel with a true sense of adventure, but you can equally explore the inner realms through reading, studying, or spiritual practices such as meditation this year.  This can be a great year for consciousness expansion.

If you want to write and publish you have tremendous support.  If you are working on a major project, thesis, preparation for big career shifts, this year provides support to push on through. If you are a teacher this may be a banner year for you.

Of course you may just want to have adventures which are out-ward bound in nature or the world of sports.  Jupiter brings success and fulfillment now for you.

Your world view could grow and expand this year encompassing much more than you ever dreamed of.  The sky is no longer the limit here as outer space and inner space beckon with new worlds to be discovered.

Transit Jupiter through the Tenth House:
Like the first house, this can be a year of major launching, but it is truly your public life that is being supported and expanded upon.  Your profession, your career, your social status and reputation are all supported by the Jupiter effect.  This could even be a year of fame for you!  So go for it big-time.

You may experience rewards and awards for your accomplishments.  You may gain a promotion.  You may be favored by authority figures in your life.  Certainly it is a good year to move forward with new ventures in your career or to make gains in what you are already involved with.  The key is your own attitude towards your true calling.  If you truly love what you are doing, you will be blessed inside no matter what is gained in the outer.

Just be aware that hubris and false pride which often accompany an inflated ego may also be present.  Some with the Jupiter effect become even more overbearing, domineering, and arrogant during this passage.  I doubt those of you reading this are in that category however.

The tenth house, like the fourth, has much to do with parents and parenting as well.  So if there are issues needing support and attention with your parents or with you as a parent they may well be supported or exaggerated with Jupiter’s transit this year.

Transit Jupiter through the Eleventh House:
This realm is often where you experience success or failure as a result of what has transpired in the tenth house.  In general, Jupiter promises fulfillment of your goals and long-term ambitions once it arrives in this sphere.  You may feel a deepening sense of satisfaction for a job well done even as you set your sight on new goals and distant horizons.  This is the house of futures, and it’s time to dream big dreams for your own future now, or even those dreams that you participate in with your community and the world.

Certainly your circle of friends and colleagues may now enlarge and your may want to take advantage of these circles for they will benefit you in a variety of ways either for professional reasons, or simply to gain that feeling of belonging.  This is a good year to be with others and participate in community.  It is also a good year to help out in the world to make it a better place for future generations.

Transit Jupiter through the Twelfth House:
This final arena before Jupiter once again enters the First house and a new beginning can be a time of completion in its twelve-year cycle around your personal wheel.  Jupiter also classically rules Pisces and the twelfth house, so there is spiritual protection and potential rewards when it is here.  If your spiritual life means a great deal to you, this is a wonderful time to immerse yourself in that realm.  If you are helping others spiritually, you will only increase in that capacity.

This is a year to gain a sense of unity and wholeness with all of life if you are willing to become more introspective or contemplative.  All aspects of mysticism are now supported and encouraged just as an increasing sense of empathy and compassion for all is encouraged as well.

Exploring more fully the subconscious realm through dream-work, trance-journeys, and even private journaling is enhanced by Jupiter during this year.  You can certainly gain more insights into your inner-most nature as well as the archetypal world during this period.  If you want to increase your intuitive abilities, this is also the right time to do so.

The pitfalls of Jupiter here are obviously exaggeration of these realms and becoming ungrounded.  Especially dangerous would be the use of drugs when the urge to escape is stronger than the urge to gain deeper understanding.  Use of psycho-tropic substances when used by a trained and skilled shamanic guide could be enlightening, however, under Jupiter’s grace here.  The twelfth really is the most spiritual of all the houses, and if approached with the intention of gaining true spiritual growth the initiate will benefit greatly during this years sojourn prior to Jupiter’s passage over the Ascendant once again.

(You may want to print parts of this article out to refer to as the year progresses.)

May your journey with Jupiter be blessed!