This post is the extract from a book I’ll be releasing very soon about Jupiter transits. It’s a longer post than usual – hello, it’s almost a whole chapter – but I hope you enjoy it…
There is this politically incorrect joke about a mercurially challenged, but venusianally (I just made that word up) gifted girl. Before you write to me, remember, this is a joke – and an unashamedly politically incorrect one at that.
Anyway, our girl is down on her luck. She’s lost her job, her credit cards are in a mess and she owes money everywhere. To make matters worse, her boyfriend has just left her for someone less mercurially challenged.
In desperation she cries to the Almighty.
“God – or whatever your name is – I haven’t asked anything of you for, like, years, but can you please make me win the lotto as I am just soooo broke.”
She sits in front of the TV that week for the Monday night draw, the Wednesday night draw and the Saturday night draw. She even watches the Powerball draw in case God misunderstood her. Nothing. Her numbers don’t come up. Not one.
“God, I know I haven’t been as good as I could have been over the last few years, but if you do this one thing for me, I will be, like, so much better. Pleeeeeeeease.”
Again nothing. None of her numbers came up. Not one.
On the third week she is even more desperate. She’s getting calls from debt collectors and her rent is late. “I will do anything that you want if I can only win the lotto,” she pleads.
In the distance comes a thunderclap and a booming voice. Our girl is frightened, but pays attention. The voice says “Enough with the pleading already – I heard you the first time. But help me out here, ok? Buy a F$%&ing ticket!”
You can almost hear the voice of Jupiter.
Often when opportunities fall into your lap, or things “just happen”, Jupiter has been activated. But to make the most of what he has to offer, you do need to help him out a bit. When Jupiter is transiting sensitive planets or points in your chart, you need to make yourself available to luck – take a chance, put yourself out there, enter contests, book that ticket, apply for that job, enrol in that course. It won’t necessarily guarantee success, but at least you’ll be in the running.
All too often Jupiter is regarded as being a celestial sort of Santa Claus, the archetypal pot of gold at the end of the rainbow – but Jupiter transits are so much more complex than that. Jupiter might bring gains, but he can also bring loss. Above all, Jupiter teaches – about potential, about possibility, about the future, about faith…about life.
You might lose something precious to you during a Jupiter transit. As painful as it may be at the time, the space it creates in your life – and the experience you gain from the loss (and yes, I know how counter-intuitive that sounds) – could liberate you to a higher expression of what it’s possible for you to be. As a result you could be free to do something else, or be with someone else, see a situation though a widened perspective, or pursue a different opportunity.
That’s why when someone says “Losing that ______was the best thing that ever happened to me…” the odds are pretty good that they’ve experienced a Jupiter transit.
The phrase “be careful what you wish for – you might just get it” applies to Jupiter. During a Jupiter transit you might get what it is that you think you want – but it could turn out to be the opposite of what it is that you need. Alternatively, Jupiter could bring you the opportunity you’ve been longing for, but because you’re either too afraid to put yourself out there – or you haven’t done the work that you should have done – you’re unable to make the most of it.
When Jupiter was transiting my 10th house, I was restless. I was convinced that what I needed was a new job. That would fix everything. I signed onto the job website and there was one sitting there waving at me. The location was right, the title was right, the money was more than right. Without thinking any more about it, I applied. What did I have to lose? Absolutely nothing. I was already feeling miserable. What did I have to gain? A new start.
Two interviews and three days later, I was offered the role – which I subsequently turned down. In getting what I thought that I wanted, I understood the worth of what I already had. I also began to understand that what I was running from wasn’t my job – it was myself. I could move to a different company, but I couldn’t lose myself. I had to stay and have the courage to deal with the issues I was attempting to escape from.
Jupiter presented the opportunity and I chose not to accept it. Instead, my perspective was widened so I could see the situation for what it was. This was Jupiter as the Teacher.
Regardless of the outcome, getting what we want can be instructive – we learn more about what we actually need, and where we can improve or expand upon ourselves in order to capitalise on the opportunity next time. The thing is, even in rejection there’s possibility. It’s when we do nothing that we get disappointed. Think about it – you don’t apply for that job so you can’t get it; you don’t ask that guy out so you can’t start a relationship; you decline invitations, so you don’t meet new people.
All of that is understandable. It takes courage – and faith – to put yourself out there. Each time that you step outside your comfort zone you risk exposing your vulnerabilities. Maybe now isn’t quite the right time, you say to yourself. Perhaps there’ll be a better chance of success later, or next time, you reason. In waiting until everything is perfect, and the outcome safely guaranteed, you mightn’t get hurt – but you will probably miss out.
Let’s look at some alternative scenarios:
- You apply for the job and miss out. It prompts you to look at expanding your knowledge and experience through additional training. Perhaps you consider looking at a different field of work.
- You ask that guy out for coffee and while it doesn’t develop into a romantic relationship, it does become a strong friendship.
- You go to that party and meet some great new people – some of whom might be able to help you with your goals in the future. Imagine meeting a literary agent at a party who offers to read your manuscript – the one that you know you haven’t worked on as much as you should have. The agent reads your manuscript and gives you the ‘needs more work’ feedback. You mightn’t get what you want – a publishing contract – after all, your manuscript needs work. You could, however, get what you need – feedback, from someone who knows what they’re talking about, that the idea is good, the voice is sound, the pace is right, but it just needs another rewrite. You accept the invite and you meet Jupiter the teacher. Decline and you’ve missed the opportunity completely.
Sure, in each of the above scenarios you haven’t walked away with the outcome that you wanted, and, depending on the nature of the rejection, your ego could be bruised, but would you have preferred to spend your life not knowing? Living with the regret of missed opportunity? The what could have beens?
As an example, on the day of my last Jupiter return I sent off a query to a publisher for Baby, It’s You. I had high hopes – all the planets were aligned. Jupiter was returning to it’s natal position – what could possibly be better? I desperately wanted to be published – it was what I’d been working towards for the last few years. It was my dearest dream, my ambition.
A week later I was asked to submit more chapters then, after another anxious wait, they requested the entire manuscript. At that time I was asked not to show any other publisher. At each step my excitement built. This would be it. I’d done the work, the opportunity had presented itself, I was putting myself and my book out there.
Eventually, months later, I received a rejection – Baby, It’s You wasn’t quite what they wanted. I’d had rejections before, but this one really hurt. It sent me into a howling ball of disappointment. Once the tears dried I realised that my book had been good enough to get through the notorious slush pile. It had been good enough to get through the next round – and then the round after that. At about the same time everywhere I looked and listened seemed to be examples – successful examples – of independent publishing. It felt like a message so I looked and I listened and I found an editor who has helped me improve my craft and encouraged me to expand my boundaries through indie publishing.
That rejection was a massive disappointment at the time, but in hindsight it was also a Jupiter gift.
Jupiter presents the possibilities, it is up to you to do something with those opportunities, including making the choice to turn away from them.
Jupiter wants us to say “yes”, but has neither the patience nor the inclination to hang around while we debate and analyse all potential outcomes – quite frankly he can’t be faffed. Show some faith, hope and courage and he will hang around. Turn away from opportunity and he will simply move on. Unlike Saturn he’s not about to stay around and punish you for your choices. Missed opportunity and regret is punishment enough.
Where Saturn wants to see commitment and discipline and maturity, Jupiter wants us to be audacious and willing to lose in order to gain. Jupiter wants us to say “yes” to life in all of its glorious possibilities. He wants us to be as awesome as we can be. He also wants us to have hope in the future and faith in potential.
Yet haven’t we been taught to play it safe? That if we don’t hope, we can’t be hurt? If we don’t take a risk, we can’t lose? But if we don’t enter, we can’t win either. So which is the better state? Being happy or content with all that you have – or wanting to reach for more? As soon as you begin to hope, implicit in that is a knowledge that tomorrow can be better than today. As soon as you begin to hope, you’re also acknowledging that there’s something in your present that you’re not satisfied with.
There is no right or wrong to this.
There is, however, a danger in over-extension, in not knowing when to pull back, in taking needless and heedless risks. There’s also a danger in coveting what others have and not knowing when to be content. Your own Jupiter placement and the boundaries imposed by Saturn in your birth chart will help you there – but that’s a subject for a whole other book.
During a Jupiter transit, don’t be afraid to want, to look up, to aim higher – but do it from a position of self-knowledge, experience and wisdom, ie from what you have already learned and the work that Saturn has asked you to do.
During a Jupiter transit if nothing happens, if life doesn’t change, don’t blame Jupiter. He’s done his job and presented you with the opportunities. The choice is yours to recognise them as such and either act or choose to ignore them. Your choice – not Jupiter’s.
