Gaining Consciousness with Jupiter in Sagittarius

With Jupiter in its own ‘home sign’ for the next year we have an opportunity to grow in consciousness.  According to my favorite go to Wikipedia; “Consciousness is the state or quality of awareness or of being aware of an external object or something within oneself.  It has been defined variously in terms of sentience, awareness, qualia, subjectivity, the ability to experience or to feel, wakefulness, having a sense of selfhood or soul, the fact that there is something ‘that it is like’ to ‘have’ or ‘be it, and the executive control system of the mind.”  

Sagittarius is where we quest for meaning.  It is where we take all the data, in-put, and conglomerations of Gemini and extract the essence through a process of deeper philosophical inquiry.  Keep in mind the images used for this sign of the Centaur on his horse aiming his arrow upwards towards an elevated goal.  

We live on a strange planet where the beliefs of humans are diverse and often contradictory.  This  often creates both polarization as well as confusion.  Yet we can also see themes emerging out of various world-views that underpin the differing beliefs such as mono-theism permeating both Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.  Astrology has explanations for these underlying world-view themes by tracking the longer cycles known as ‘Ages’.  These are approximately 2600 years in length and based on the precession of the equinoxes where the wobble in earth’s axis shifts ever so slightly changing eventually the relationship with our poles to the zodiacal belt around our planet, as well as the North Star.  So the ‘Age of Aries’ was defined by Moses in Biblical times receiving the 10 Commandments from Yahweh for example, and Monotheism replaced a more polymorphous array of ‘gods and goddesses’ during the ‘Age of Taurus’ preceding it.  The ‘Age of Pisces’ following has developed the Savior mythos such as Christ, the humble fisherman of Galilee where Piscean redemption has been a major theme.  Yet you can see the remnants of these other ages still operating in collective thought and beliefs.

Where will the planetary body go as the ‘Age of Aquarius’ continues to dawn, the exact date of which is still up for conjecture?  Aquarius is scientific by nature and knowledge based on credible research and facts will become a more dominant theme no doubt.  In the meantime, we have upon us this passage of Jupiter in Sagittarius.  What will we do with it?  A strange and fascinating true life tale opened up to illustrate a few things as Jupiter entered and began to square Mars just entering Pisces.  Did you see this story?  My son pointed it out to me and it has been making the headlines.  “American Killed by Isolated Tribe…..”  All the elements are here aren’t they?  The young idealistic convert to Christianity wanting to ‘save’ these lost souls isolated from civilization.  It’s been a familiar theme during the Age of Pisces.  You’ve seen ‘The Mission’ haven’t you?  It graphically portrays this drama combined with the mercenaries who take over a native population while the ‘church’ attempts to convert them to a foreign religion.  

What is most remarkable about this current tale, however, is that such a tribe continues to actually exist intact with their own beliefs, rituals, and traditions.  They seemingly have no desire for the outside world to interfere or impinge on their autonomy. Like the white cells of our own physical bodies, they attack any outside invasion because it is perceived as a threat to their health and well being.  Is this not a graphic example of Jupiter in Sagittarius square Mars in Pisces?  

I remember as a child asking my own deeply religious mother about such peoples because our family belonged to a highly proselytizing religion with my own parents desiring to be missionaries.  I wondered what the Lord would do to such peoples if they never learned ‘the truth’?  She simply stated that it would be as if they had never existed.  How did she know that????  Again, I have to say we are on a strange planet that actually thinks this way about another group of people with their own beliefs, customs, and traditions that are foreign to our own.  Why can’t these kinds of people be left alone since they are not aggressively attacking nor invading anyone else?  What is this penchant for domination over others that are different and thus deemed inferior that so pervades the human advancement of one group over another when we are all living on a seemingly round ball in space together?  These are some of my musings with Jupiter/Sagittarius square Mars/Pisces.

Doesn’t becoming conscious involve seeing the whole rather than projecting onto another what one disowns in oneself?  Jupiter in Sagittarius invites us to study history, to integrate what we know into a greater and more comprehensive whole, and to extract what it might mean for us in our heart of hearts at this time in our lives living here at this time in the world of today.  With the square to now Mars, and the future and more lasting on-going square to Neptune in Pisces, the challenge is to gain a more universal view rather than a dogmatic one where inclusiveness supersedes exclusiveness.  Just some thoughts coming through as I ponder this dynamic.

Another great example unfolding on this Jupiter/Mars square, however, is the Mars landing.  I love the come alive symbolism in these words ‘touchdown (Jupiter in Sag.) dance (Mars in Pisces)’. Here’s a nice article on it!

For the second part of this article I’d like to re-introduce you to astrologer Joe Landwehr who happens to be a Sagittarius!  I’ve written about Joe in the past.  Today I want to introduce his latest book, ASTROLOGY And The ARCHETYPAL POWER OF NUMBERS; Part Two:  Arithmology in the Birthchart.  This is a rather amazing book because Joe, the researcher, has dug back into time the teachings of Pythagorus and applied them to astrology and the natal birth chart in a way that brings new meaning to the individual life bearing certain dominant archetypal number themes.  In other words, you may not just have major themes around certain signs or houses in your chart; you may also show a predominance for one of the number realms be it zero, one, two, three, four, or up to nine.

This is an entirely new method of analyzing the birth chart and Joe illustrates each number realm with ample examples from real and famous people’s lives.  He is a master story-teller in this regard which is part of the enjoyment of reading his long and very detailed book.  You’ll learn about Anthony Hopkins, Albert Einstein, the World Trade Center Bombing, and Steve Wozniak with their Realm of Zero Sign Placements.  You’ll learn about Mohandas Gandhi, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe with their Realm of Two Quadrant Placements and Emphasis by Angular Ambivalence, or Join F. Kennedy with his Realm of Three Quadrant Placements, or Maya Angelou with her Pluto and the Full Moon in the Realm of Four.  Intrigued?  All of his illustrations make the mathematical theories come to life and you begin to really understand this archetypal power of numbers that he is writing about.

Mathematics is basic to science but it also seems to be basic to metaphysics which is where astrology plays a role.  Joe starts out this book with ‘The Astro-Logic of Arithmology’.  Here you find out how the numbers are assigned to planets and house placements.  There is a code that forms the basic guide to everything else based on the early meanings assigned to numbers by the Pythagoreans.  He gives you that basic code with which to work when analyzing your own chart or those of others. He then spends the bulk of the book describing each number realm from Zero to Nine.  

Part Two is devoted to exploring how all of this arithmology can be applied to a birth chart.  I love these titles:  “Assessing the Relative Strength of Number Realms in a Birthchart,  Healing, Self-Actualization and Beyond, Rising to the Challenge of Soulful Participation in Evolutionary History, and Choosing the One Life That Awaits Beyond All the Others.”

Keep in mind that this book is Part Two.  You could read it without Part One because it is more applicable material rather than theoretical as was Part One which involves an in-depth look at the Chakras and their arithmological correlates.

Here, however, is an explanation straight from Joe’s preface to Part Two: “Although few astrologers would reference arithmological principles in describing how astrology works they are nonetheless inherent in the astrological language.  When astrologers speak of the twelve signs, the twelve houses, the four elements, the three modalities, the two polarities—masculine and feminine—and so on, they are speaking about numbers in an implied arithmological sense.  In addition, there are less obvious arithmological associations to be made when considering the duration of planetary cycles, the harmonic division of the whole circle that gives rise to aspects between planets, the overall shape and structure of the whole birth chart and the association of various planets with various deities through which various numbers are evoked.  Less obvious arithmological associations are hidden in planetary patterns reflecting cross-chakra dynamics associated with specific numbers, as outlines in Part One.”

Joe Landwehr

If you are tracking astrology and studying it, you know it is one way to become more conscious.  There are many roads to consciousness I would argue, but astrology is a mathematically based cosmology like no other, and Joe delves more deeply into these principles than most.  He is the quintessential Sagittarius scholar and teacher-guide!

If you have never read any of his books, I would recommend perhaps starting with either ‘The Seven Gates of Soul’ or

‘Tracking the Soul with an Astrology of Consciousness.”  Joe actually teaches a workshop called ‘Tracking the Soul’ where he uses the principles outlined in this book as a guide.

I encourage you to go to his web site: www.ancient-tower press.com where you can order his books and learn more about his work. I have a link to it under my blog roll side-bar too.  

In closing, let’s all be alert to where we can raise our own consciousness during this coming year.  Staying awake and open will get us there.