Weekend Astrology: Jupiter in Taurus

Today is Friday, June 3, 2011 . This weekend, Jupiter enters Taurus, where it will be through the spring of 2012. Unlike its recent visits to Pisces and Aries, Jupiter’s visit to Taurus is uninterrupted by retrograde back into Pisces. The Taurus placement and Jupiter’s consistency there speak to a sense of stability, consistency and even-tempered growth. We have been living with a lot of Aries lately, and that’s had a hot, scorching feeling. Taurus will cool Jupiter off, like taking a walk in a forest is good for your mind. Forests offer wisdom that cities do not.

Taurus appreciates that sense of continuity, and Jupiter — the ruling planet of Pisces — is great friends with Venus. I am not suggesting that life will be peaches and cream; we still live in challenging, even aggressively challenging, times, but this transit will be helpful, and a point of cooperation with much else going on. For example, Jupiter in an earth sign begins to pick up Pluto in Capricorn, which opens the way for the expression of ideas, passion and handy stuff like devotion that could be directed politically (among other ways).

Before I go on, here’s a quick rundown of current placements. The Moon ingressed Cancer Friday at 4:36 am EDT. The Sun, of course, is still in Gemini, about to get to the midpoint of that sign. Mercury just went into Gemini as well, and is making a square to both Neptune and Chiron. The Mercury-Neptune square can struggle with integrity (it’s important to state the truth under this aspect, and you might say to understate it). Mercury square Chiron can have the feeling of self-doubt, how could I be such an idiot, or thinking you’re wrong when you’re actually perceiving things accurately. I suggest you cross-reference, reality check against the viewpoints of others, and don’t be too frustrated by the sensation of not knowing. Being aware that you don’t know is the first step toward finding out.

Now, as for Jupiter in Taurus. Note that in less than two weeks, we’re having an eclipse of the Moon in Sagittarius. The North Node is also in Sagittarius, hence we will be having an eclipse there. The sign change of Jupiter, and the aspects that Jupiter makes, are connected to the themes of this eclipse. Remember that as you consider what you’re reading. The North Node is on the Galactic Core and that represents the direction of the pull; but where Jupiter is represents the worldly application of that quest, and there is hardly a sign more earthy than Taurus. You might say that Sagittarius is the concept, or the way the idea manifests in your crown chakara; Jupiter is telling us about how and where to express that.

Jupiter is the principle of expansion, as well as fortune, and wisdom. Grounding Jupiter in Taurus takes away nothing, and the cooler temperature allows for a more deliberate approach than we get in Aries. We need this: a sense of persistent expansion rather than the aggressive striving and vying that are so characteristic of our world. Taurus is restless down there, take it from someone who collects these people in my life. They are not as calm as they seem; they are on fire inside. But that fire is being expressed like trees pushing up from the Earth, or those volcanoes in Hawaii that expand the island a little bit every day.

Let’s take a look back and consider the last time this transit happened. Jupiter last entered Taurus in early 2000. That was a monumental year — the year of the Metal Dragon, and the year of the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in Taurus. A lot happened, and it was not all so happy — including events that paved the way for where we are today, most particularly the [stolen] election of the Cheney/Bush administration. Fortunately — very fortunately, since we have quite enough on our hands — there’s not a Jupiter-Saturn conjunction this time around (that won’t happen again till late 2020, in Aquarius). Still, it would make sense to take a moment to review where you’ve been and what you’ve done since 2000, which (like 2012 ahead of us) was a fabled, mythologized year. If the optimism of 2000 turned out to have been squandered, perhaps the abundant pessimism associated with 2012 will turn out to be false. If you would like to peer back into the astrology of 2000, here is an article from that era called The River of Night.

The first thing Jupiter does when it changes signs is make aspects to Neptune and Chiron. Jupiter is associated with Pisces and both of these planets are in Pisces; that is a strong connection. Jupiter has traction in this relationship, and those planets in Pisces have a means of expression. Think of all that Pisces energy flowing into Taurus through Jupiter. Now imagine Jupiter making contact with Pluto in Capricorn — all that nerve-wracking, precipitous, crumbling sense of change that Pluto is doing in Capricorn but translated into something more stable and easy to handle.

So, while we could say that Jupiter in Taurus is all about Jupiter in Taurus, what it actually does is open connect that Sagittarius energy to the Earth, where it can express itself tangibly; and open a doorway to putting the energy of three outer planets to good use. You could say this is the perfect connection between the ‘spiritual’ and the ‘material’ — though you have to admit, any planet where mold spontaneously grows in the basement and where critters are found on the bottoms of the oceans and the tops of mountains is pretty spiritual to begin with.