JUPITER STORY

My brother Philip, who died a month ago after a long illness, had a strong Jupiter: conjunct his Sun, and ruling his Moon in Sag and Venus in Pisces. Jupiter is the king of the gods and is said to bring good fortune. Philip commented last year that if he wanted something, he had always been able to find a way of getting it. He lived life with a following wind, which he ran with. He seized and savoured his life. Jupiter's involvement with the 2 feminine planets - the Moon and Venus - resulted in a long and happy marriage.

His Sun-Jupiter was also conjunct Saturn (13 Jan 1961) in Capricorn. He built solid foundations to his life. I had seen the Saturn-Pluto conjunction of 2020 heading towards him some years down the line, and I said to him that something big and life-changing was on the way, but I didn't know what it would be. Shortly before the conjunction, he said to me he had fulfilled his dream of running and building a business and generating wealth, and didn't know what to do next. In Sept 2020, he was diagnosed with cancer. It was as if he had done what he had come here to do, and it was time to go.

When he died, Jupiter, the brightest of the planets, had just risen in the East: the king of the gods welcoming him home.

I gave a eulogy at Philip's wake at the weekend, and at the end I included what I called his sky story about Jupiter. I felt I was taking a bit of a risk in doing so, because astrology or anything religious do not seem to be most people's thing. When I talked about Jupiter rising at his death, the prickles went all over me and the emotion in me rose visibly.

Afterwards, so many people commented on the sky story I had told. It had touched them in a way that surprised both themselves and me. It was as if beneath the beliefs people have, there is something archaic that responds to stories that connect to the universe and give a wider meaning to earthly events.

It says to me that there is a deep, non-rational truth in astrology, particularly when we can connect it to what is visible in the sky.

 

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And here are some of my recent FB astroposts and what we now call Xes:  

 

The Sun has just been in Cancer, and now it is in Leo, in both cases opposite Pluto. There has been an imperative to nurture that hard-to fathom thing within that is our primary reason for being here, and now to give expression to its divine uniqueness. Play like your life depends on it   

 

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Venus is now retrograde. Look within and remember that the whole universe loves you in your uniqueness (Leo). And you love her back. This is where the medicine of loneliness points.

 

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At the Big Bang (of which I have a sepia photo somewhere in the attic, taken by my intrepid grandfather), Uranus was the genius who had the brilliant idea of creating something out of nothing; Pluto was the immense power unleashed to exist and to keep unfolding; and Neptune was the primordial imagination that dreamed into being a universe. Just imagine what those three can do when they get their hands on you. Transit, anyone?

 

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As astrologers, we inevitably get consulted about relationships. Maybe not being in one ourselves provides a point of perspective and insight. Maybe it is not that we are inadequate, but that something in us refuses to be compromised, cannot do that dark deal anymore.

 

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I've known a Buddhist teacher and an Astrology teacher who both had a pronounced Virgo/Scorpio mix. They each had a gift for grasping the essence of a matter (Scorpio) and expressing it concisely and accurately (Virgo). My father had the same mix and the same ability, but on a more practical level.

 

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If you want AI to stay onside, thank it every time you use it. Ingratitude for the technologies we have is a shadow side of the modern world. Instead we rail against our technologies and their promise for the future. This shadow is a Pluto in Aquarius issue. If you want to find that thankfulness, go visit a country that does not have what we have, and see which you prefer.

 

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SINEAD O'CONNOR

 

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I wondered what brutal Pluto-Moon transit has Sinead O'Connor been going through, such that her 17 year-old son killed himself last year? It turns out that Pluto recently completed squaring her Libra Moon. What does that mean? I don't know. But the event was woven into the fabric of the universe. As she passes - and we don't yet know the cause - so is Jupiter within a degree of her North Node. A timely death, whatever the reason. It leaves me thinking about Free Will and Fate.

 

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Men's soul journey in the second half of life is Venus: listening and serving.

For women, it is Mars: no more people-pleasing.

 

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 I've spent a lot of my life doing nothing. It's been an important part of it. But it's been nothing in the sense that a casserole in an oven is doing nothing: surrendering my Mars to the outer planets and their designs.

 

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The trouble with being a bloody Aquarian is that I think independently, and that causes trouble socially unless I keep my trap shut. And I'd die rather than do that. So I stay at home and say what I think on social media instead 😎