Jupiter’s Cycle Through Libra

Jupiter entered Libra on September 9th.  Did you feel or notice the change?  I did.  It was quite palpable for me because it heralded a shift from all the Mutable energies we’d been experiencing into a new mode worthy of Cardinal action.  The day it entered, you can see by the chart image that we were still in the thralls of a T-square involving Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces.  Mutable signs are designed to relay energies from one place to another, but lots of busy work and details, details, details had to be attended to for pretty much the past year as Jupiter enhanced the sign of Virgo in the mix.  Cardinal energy, on the other hand, wants some action.  A lot of what was being mulled over mentally and talked about endlessly (all those presidential debates in America?) could now begin to change through doing something about it. Jupiter in Libra will help shift the emphasis back into taking action on themes still dynamic and tense represented by Uranus in Aries (individual rights and freedom) and Pluto in Capricorn (state and institutionalized structures that are going through transformations).

New Discoveries on Jupiter are also now in the news!  Just this week NASA issued photos of Europa, one of Jupiter’s many moons, and they gave news that gigantic plumes of water are shooting sky-high from her surface indicating another possible source of life yet to be discovered.  Will this discovery herald changes related to our experience of Jupiter?

Every 11.86 years Jupiter completes it’s Sidereal cycle around our Sun/Star, just as it takes a year for Earth to do so.  Tropical astrology works with the zodiac comprising of 12 signs in 30 degree band-widths around the earth.  As Jupiter moves along everyone on earth gets to experience for nearly a year that particular quality of energy represented by the sign Jupiter is expanding in nature for us.  Jupiter expands whatever it touches.  It is an enormous gaseous planet in our solar system.  To the ancients it was like Zeus, a great benefic, but also excessive in nature.  Remember that, because extreme excess is just as grevious as extreme deprivation (Saturn).  We need both principles of expansion and contraction to create balance.

Which brings me to one major theme as Jupiter moves through Libra, the sign of balance.  How in balance are we?  You can ask that question for yourself personally, for those you are in relationship with, and take it on out into the collective as far as you want to go.  It will be a question worth asking over and over again in the coming months as it relates to so many issues now facing humans.  Is there a sense of balance in our partnerships with others?  Is there a sense of balance where our relationships involve us with other races, ethnicities, and philosophical beliefs?  Is balance present in our government’s inner workings and relationships within the nation we live in?  Is our government in balance with its relationships with other sovereign nations and governments.  Let’s take it even further and ask whether we personally are in balance with our own planet, this Earth, which sustains us and gives us everything we have?  Is our community?  Is our nation?  Is the human-governed world?  Somehow the stakes seem higher this year.

 It feels like a good year to pray most fervently to ‘walk in balance’.  I have always liked the prayers which Native Americans have lived by for centuries relating to this theme which is such an intrinsic part of the sign of Libra.  May Jupiter’s passage enlarge and bless this principle!

What are some of the other possible themes that Jupiter will bring to the fore either expansively or excessively in the coming year?

Partnerships and all those one-on-one relationships now get a big boost from Jupiter until October 10th, 2017, it’s last day in Libra. I know a couple getting married with this signature. Do you? It’s a great year for making agreements, contracts, and pacts with significant others provided other energies enhance and support Jupiter. The relationship industries will thrive this coming year including counseling practices, wedding-related businesses, romantic get-away travel destinations and the tour groups promoting them; ballroom dancing anyone? The list goes on and on because supporting romance, love, and coupling is big time in today’s world. Many will take more risks in this arena because Jupiter encourages taking a chance on love. 🙂

The ideal of peace and justice.  We have plenty of mundane examples crying for this ideal.  In America we have the issue of racism which will be enlarged upon, and hopefully greater justice and equality will aid the plights of African-Americans, immigrants from worn-torn nations and poverty ridden ones, as well as all minority ethnicities still disenfranchised.   In the greater world these themes will also arise within nations and between nations.  Tolstoy wrote that great novel War and Peace which exactly highlights the dilemma of Libra, for the shadow side of this sign is competitiveness driven to the excess of a hard-line mental attitude distanced from feelings (Libra is an air sign) to the point of me versus you, the enemy.  The world is already in this danger zone as the conflagration in Syria continues unabated and nations begin to take antagonistic stances against each other.

I would ask that you observe a few time-frames coming up where the United States is concerned with the above themes, whether internal affairs or external affairs.  The challenging times I see ahead can be mapped out by watching the transits of Jupiter in Libra hitting the Cardinal T-Sqaure between Saturn in Libra, Sun in Cancer, and Chiron in Aries in the United States chart.  That time-frame starts right after the election when Jupiter by transit squares the Sun on the 11th of November, goes over Saturn on the 19th, and opposes Chiron on December 23rd.  Troubling and challenging Saturn transits will also criss-cross Jupiter’s transits especially at the time of the next President’s inauguration on January 1st, 2017 when transit Saturn opposes Mars in the 7th (open enemies, among other themes), and squares Neptune on January 10th.

This Cardinal T-square in America’s chart implies a basic wound embedded in the very foundation of this nation’s birth which revolves around themes of individual rights, equality, fairness, justice for all, as well as inter-dependence with other nations rather than the co-dendent types of relationships we often see between America and other nations.  This theme gets rung several times in 2017 and will be especially strong again in later March, May, June, July, August, September, October—-well, you get the picture!  Transit Saturn opposing Mars and squaring Neptune deeply troubles me for this nation’s Mars in Gemini square Neptune in Virgo is exactly what we don’t need shooting off in every direction on the planet through misguided fantasies of superiority and military ‘might makes right’ type of delusions.  This is also the signature of our oil fixation which has helped to create the mess we’re in right now.   On October 1st the American dollar will be reduced some more as the world’s reserve currency.  This sobering reality is also a part of Saturn soon to enter the 1st house of the nation on October 10th, though it may take a year for the Saturn square Neptune phenomena to really sink in.  Saturn in the 1st house represents a restructuring of the very identity of this nation, a maturation time.

Remember, Jupiter as a principle represents how we reach out and connect with the world around us.  America’s Jupiter in Cancer still brings the goodwill of many towards us in spite of media sanctioned attitudes towards them. The people of Iran, for example, love Americans!  I recently heard this great interview on NPR with a woman who leads tour groups to Iran many times a year where she see signs welcoming Americans in the towns they travel through. For all its faults America is still a haven for people from all walks of life, all over the world.  American still brings hope to many as a beacon of ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’.  May Jupiter in Libra help America to live up to her ideals, just as it helps each of us in our personal affairs.

Beauty and Elegance  Let’s hope there is a solid revival in the arts once again with a thriving bonanza for those creating art as well as those appreciating it.  Libra is epitomized in Greek classicism where everything is harmoniously balanced and pleasing to the eye and potentially elegant.  We certainly could use more beauty in the world!  Libra likes sophistication and style, and all industries involving these themes should thrive this coming year such as design, fashion, architecture, and the performing arts where people come to hear music, see dance, and watch theater.  Even gallery art may flourish again with this passage.  Art and beauty need admirers and artists need patrons and collectors to support their trades.  Lets hope there is a nice revival in this field where inter-change is enhanced on all levels.

The Social Arts will undoubtedly grow during this passage because Libra is a social, intellectual sign enhanced by dialogues between people.  Talk shows where these themes are prevalent is a perennial phenomena in the media and possibly new forms may emerge.  The art of debate also comes under Libra’s domain and as I write this the first presidential debate between Clinton and Trump is being held.  Mr. Trump with all his Air planets, including Jupiter in Libra, relishes debate and media platforms.  His chart is very Yang dominant with all those Air/Fire signs and Jupiter will puff up his sails endlessly during the last few weeks of election campaign fever.  Ms. Clinton also has her fair share of Yang energy but less of the Air element to create a need to constantly engage verbally.  Nonetheless her Leo fire planets will be encouraged to come to the fore with drive and perseverance these next several weeks as transit Jupiter activates them while going over her Neptune in Libra (ideals).  She has developed more fully the art of communication by now through two campaign trails in less than 10 years.  Stamina she has, no doubt about it.  Will these debates change anyone’s mind or convince anyone still on the fence?  Whoever has the better skills in the art of persuasion may well prevail.

Jupiter’s time-frame while in Libra:

Jupiter Stationary Retrograde at 23+ Libra on February 6, 2017

Jupiter Stationary Direct at 13+Libra on June 9, 2017

Last day in Libra will be October 10, 2017

Note that Jupiter, since entering the sign on the 9th/10th of September, is moving very rapidly forward and won’t turn retrograde until the last decanate of the sign.  So pay close attention to any planets or important angles that you have between the 13th and the 23rd degrees of Libra.  They will get the ‘Jupiter effect’ three times in the next 11 months.

It’s also worth noting when Jupiter in Libra will aspect the other two major planets in Cardinal signs—Pluto and Uranus— for all of us:

November 21st to the 26th at 15+Libra/Capricorn = Jupiter square Pluto

December 23rd to the 30th at 20+Libra/Aries = Jupiter opposite Uranus

February 27th to March 5th, 2017 at 22+Libra/Aries = Jupiter Retrograde opposite Uranus

March 22nd to April 2nd, 2017 at 19+Libra/Capricorn = Jupiter Retrograde square Pluto

August 2nd to the 8th at 17+Libra/Capricorn = Jupiter direct square Pluto

September 27th to October 1st at 27+Libra/Aries = Jupiter direct opposite Uranus

This are powerful dynamics of action and change.  Key words from Hajo Banzhaf & Anna Haebler in their ‘Key Words of Astrology‘ book for the Jupiter/Pluto discord are:  Demagogue, glorification of power, misuse of power, ruling over others, and wanting to convince and seduce.  Fanaticism and arrogance.  Obsessive-compulsive neurotic.”  Ouch!  If used positively, which will be the challenge, the key words are:  “Shaman, ability for psychological and spiritual transformation and renewal. Confidence in powers that renew themselves.  Having a sense of everything deep and profound.”  Let’s hope some of these more positive themes emerge!

Key words from their same book on Jupiter/Uranus discord are:  The Pigheaded, The Conviction-Changer.  Protests and ‘anti’ attitude toward social values.  Problems with institutions, particularly the Church.  Constantly changing.  Exaggerated willfulness.”  If used positively however we have:  “The Free Spirit, spontaneous, revolutionary insights.  Optimistic farsightedness and good sense for future developments. Inventive.  Advocate of freedom of religion and opinion.  Seeking new values and the very personal meaning in life.  Striving for the free development of individuality.  Courage to have one’s own ideals.”  Let’s say ‘yes’ to those qualities!

It does look to be a year of great upheaval and change any way you cut it.

You may also want to review the time periods when Jupiter was last in Libra just to get a sense of how it may impact your life personally this time around:

September 27th, 2004 to October 26, 2005

October 11th, 1992 to November 10th, 1993

October 27th, 1980 to November 27th, 1981

In find it interesting that all three of those time periods are when I moved from one location to another.  Do you see any themes from these previous cycles in your life?

Let’s, just for interest sake, look at two Librans who will get the benefit or the ‘bigger than life’ effects of Jupiter this time around:

One is the country of China:

Looking at some of the latest headlines on China I see CNN notes that ‘the world’s largest telescope will be completed this week in China…….the telescope is expected to shed light on the origins of the universe by mapping the distribution of hydrogen…….but for many people, the most exciting goal is the search for extraterrestrial life.’

In this Saturday, Sept. 24, 2016 photo released by Xinhua News Agency, an aerial view shows the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in the remote Pingtang county in southwest China’s Guizhou province. China has begun operating the world’s largest radio telescope to help search for extraterrestrial life. (Liu Xu/Xinhua via AP)

Another Jupiter theme makes the headlines in Bloomberg’s news today: “China’s Ambitious Plan to Make the Yuan the World’s Go-To Currency.” We do know that on October 1st the Yuan gets another increase percentage-wise as the world’s reserve currency.  This change will knock America’s reserve currency down to around 41+% in the line-up with other nations.

Jupiter shines on The People’s Republic of China especially strong on October 15th (Jupiter conjunct the Sun), November 10th (Jupiter conjunct Mercury/trade & communication), November 18th (Jupiter conjunct Neptune/vision-dreams) and November 30th (Jupiter conjunct the South Node/commerce relationships).  There will be repetitions of these last two aspects through July 11th which seem to imply great expansion in trade and economic might where the world is concerned or possibly some un-doing at the point of South Node least resistance.

Another is world leader, Vladimir Putin.  Curiously Mr. Putin has a similar placement of Libran planets in his 8th house as China does.  He actually has a stellium cluster in Libra showing his ability to wield great power and secrecy just as China does as a nation.  He, too, will be blessed or cursed by this Jupiter passage many times in the months to come with Jupiter going over his Sun on November 16th and hovering over his Saturn/Neptune in early December.  These three energies will be emphasized all the way through early September of 2017.  So keep your eyes on both Putin and China!

And isn’t it interesting that the United States, China, and Putin ALL have the Sun in the 8th house.  In an individual’s chart this can be indicative of an urge to explore the mysteries of life, an urge to delve into all the taboos of life, and an urge to learn through confrontations involving power.  Relationships are vital for these people, especially those where merging energies are concerned.  How would this play out with a nation?  Well, we just have to watch how both the United States and China use their respective energies; one being a Cancer and the other being a Libran nation.

The Pluto in Libra Generation will also get a boost or a wallop from Jupiter’s passage.  This generation was born between October 1971 and 1984.  Jeff Green states that this time is when a new evolutionary cycle from subjectivity to objectivity begins.  This is a generation focused on lessons of equality, relativity, and perhaps seeking a more peaceful and harmonious state of consciousness since this was the time period when meditation was introduced into Western culture in a big way.  Perhaps this generation, now in their 30s to mid-40s, will help to empower these changes on the planet.