Today the Sun moves from Scorpio into Sagittarius and I thought a post from the Archives on Jupiter would be fun.

As we approach the transition of Jupiter from the yang fire sign of Sagittarius to the yin earth sign of Capricorn on December 18, 2007, I find myself considering Jupiter’s effect.  In traditional astrology, Jupiter and Venus are called “beneficent” and when they show up in charts and by transit, they are said to bring all that is good.  That sounds wonderful but this has been not been my personal experience or that of others whose charts I’ve read.

Since I have a natal Sun-Jupiter conjunction, albeit out-of-sign, Jupiter plays an important role in my chart.  He is also closely square to Saturn.  So it’s like I have Jupiter revving up the engine while Saturn has the brakes on.  Fun, huh!  This is one of the reasons I tend to see Jupiter as an amplifier of existing aspects and energies rather than a planet that bestows blessings on all he touches.

Another example of Jupiter as a neutral amplifier is the effect he has by transit.  The last couple of years saw Jupiter transiting out of my 12^th House and into my first.  Now this transit didn’t particularly bring me luck or make me wildly optimistic.  If anything it exacerbated what was going on in other parts of my life. Plus I put on weight eating chocolate and candy to boost my flagging energy due to feeling weighed down by my second Saturn Return.  In that instance, it was more of a vicious circle and I am very, very happy to have Saturn now in health conscious Virgo to counteract Jupiter.  The closer Jupiter gets to the cusp of my second House, the less interest sweets hold . . . nice!

That being said, a case can be made for Jupiter in the first house giving me the push I needed to get out of a day job that was becoming increasingly difficult for me. I was making no progress bringing positive changes there.  As Jupiter winds up his stay in Sagittarius he will be sextile my Sun in Libra.  I do see Jupiter-Sun aspects as more positive because the Sun is our heart and the core of our being.

Just for the record, here is a very brief summation of Jupiter’s affect on the other planets.

• Jupiter-Moon:   intensifying mood swings and emotional issues
• Jupiter-Mercury:  making someone prone to exaggeration
• Jupiter-Venus:  lots of fun but not so good for the budget
• Jupiter-Mars:  increasing the desire to take risks and forge ahead blindly
• Jupiter-Saturn:  classic case of conflict between caution and blind optimism
• Jupiter-Uranus:  shudder . . . do anything on a dare
• Jupiter-Neptune:  hallmark of extreme righteousness or enlightenment
• Jupiter-Pluto:  amplifies Pluto’s natural tendency towards obsession

Yes, some of this is a bit tongue-in-cheek but there is evidence to support these broadly written concepts.  It makes more sense to me to take a more cautiously optimistic position when Jupiter is involved.

posted by Neith . . .

Image: A winter rainbow is apropos for the first day of Sagittarius.