by Robert Wilkinson
I just had my Jupiter return yesterday. This happens to us all several times in our lives, and each time we mark the close of an old chapter and begin a new life adventure.
All of us get a Jupiter return every 11-12 years in our life. These important milestones are a time of completing one "Jupiter quest" and beginning a new 12 year search for meaning, greater truths and adventures to embrace, and all the other possibilities indicated by our Jupiter as it seeks a greater effectiveness within our Saturnian purpose in our world.
A version of this was first offered to you when Jupiter transited Pisces in 2010, marking the time when I had my last Jupiter Return. As millions have their Jupiter return every day, this is an important subject to keep in mind as we sail life’s seas. All planets have their returns at various points in time, with the inner planets all once a year, Mars every two years, Jupiter every 11-12, and Saturn every 28-29 years. All of these planetary returns indicate points of closure of old cycles related to that planet and the beginning of a new cycle.
The Jupiter return is an important time marking the end of an old quest and the beginning of a new one, the closing of an old truth or future, and the beginning of new truths and a new future. The Vedas supposedly say it is a time when the magic of one's life can renew itself for 12 years. It is a time of Jupiterian endings and beginnings, when the Great Merciful Protector who opens new futures blesses us with a new quest.
The sign Jupiter occupies in our natal charts shows us our orientation toward philosophy, morality, ethics, greater Truths, and our willingness to embrace wider vistas of life experience. It shows the types of people who expand and bless us, or lead us to excess. Jupiter always opens us to a greater adventure than we've ever known before, usually through Jupiterian people and circumstances.
As I noted in Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend, it is said that Jupiter’s planetary duality is Wealth and Poverty, which … is the aspect of consciousness showing how we are grasping circumstances with abundance or neediness. By our Jupiterian function we waste time, energy, or money, or are merciful in ways others can mistake for weakness, teaching us to understand the eternal abundance of the Universe in giving us what we need when we need it, and accept it.
When we have a Jupiter return, we get a “check-in” with ourselves to see how healthy or dysfunctional our Jupiter is operating. This is a time, whether for a few months or a year, where we can see what needs to be repaired or improved to re-set how our inner Jupiter function operates to open to a greater “Truth of Being.”
In my birthchart, Jupiter is at 26 Pisces (25d Pisces 23m). With Jupiter's initial entry into Pisces in January 2010, it began my Jupiter return, even though it took many months before it made an exact conjunction with my Jupiter. So well before the exact conjunction, as well as the months when it made off and on conjunctions with my natal Jupiter, I began to experience my Jupiter return. I explain more about this concept of “the return before the return” in Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend.
During that initial experience of transiting Jupiter in Pisces, even though it was a long way from the conjunctions, some very old friends and memories of experiences that made me who I am today were brought back to me. It was a time when I became reacquainted in new ways with the timeless, vast feelings that pervade the atmosphere when Jupiter is in Pisces. Because Jupiter entered early Pisces in the Summer of 2021, I got a preliminary experience of my Jupiter return
The Jupiter in Pisces energies became much stronger with its re-entry into that sign in December 2021, and has grown stronger since then. Yesterday it transited 25d Pisces 23m, the exact location of my natal Jupiter. As with my last Jupiter return, expanding all things Piscean in me, I am again visited by ghosts from the past, global feeling experiences which are vast, sorrowful, and require I generate as much compassion and forgiveness for everything and everyone.
A Jupiter return is definitely a time of closing out old visions and opening new ones. It's a time of solitude and completion, fulfillment of old Truths and a prelude to newer, vaster possibilities. These are all qualities of Jupiter’s association with Sagittarius and Pisces, the two signs it rules in worldly affairs.
My last Jupiter return was a time when I understood my own and others' motives with deep intuitive knowing (Pisces), and said goodbye to old belief systems and obsolete futures (Pisces). Because Jupiter expands and teaches according to the sign it's in, when it was last in Pisces it marked a time of closure on old sorrows and motives for all of us, and offered opportunities to embrace a greater wisdom-compassion within a sense of an all-enveloping Divine Mother energy.
When Jupiter is in Pisces all of us can find a deeper sense of ourselves as Divine Witness, along with a greater appreciation of the value of solitude. When Jupiter is in Pisces, we all experience the vaster feeling-field, whether we know it or not, or are able to describe it in so many words. I have observed that Jupiter in Pisces is a time of saying goodbye to many things which prepares us to leap into the new when Jupiter moves into Aries.
Recent Jupiter Transits Through the Signs
Because this describes the entire cycle of Jupiter, we’ll begin with the last time it was in Aries between June and September 2010 and again between January and early June 2011.
Jupiter in the fire sign of Aries renewed Jupiter’s inspirational energies and gave us a period of finding opportunity in all things new and quick leaps forward or out of problematic situations. Jupiter in this sign is good for making small opportunities into giant areas of expansion, so don’t underestimate the possibilities, no matter how small!
Jupiter was last in the earth sign of Taurus between June 2011 and June 2012. That was a period of anchoring and grounding the new potential, where slow steady growth toward a more stable and enjoyable future was the means to expand the possibilities. Jupiter in Taurus is very conservative, and doesn’t take chances.
Jupiter in the air sign of Gemini between June 2012 and June 2013 gave us a time of expansive learning and information exploration, with opportunity found in alternative ways of seeing or discussing things. Jupiter in the water sign of Cancer between June 2013 and July 2014 found Jupiter again in an element that is part of its nature, and offered us opportunity to expand in how we care, and what we care about. That was a time when we could find protection in that which brought us a deeper feeling connection with self and others.
Jupiter was in the fire sign of Leo from July 2014 through August 2015, and again renewed Jupiter’s fire quality, this time in the stable fixed heart fire of Leo. That was a year when we found opportunity and/or protection in expanding our heart contact, or creativity, or our sense of natural self-expression.
Jupiter then spent a year in earthy Virgo between August 2015 and September 2016, bringing new ways of working or adjusting to practical necessities. We all got a new view of how to refine, be precise, or diligent in following a plan to completion. Jupiter is in “exile” in Virgo, since it’s a sign that opposes Jupiter’s natural Piscean qualities. And yet, being precise as we refine our expansions is probably a good thing so we don’t just drift off into the vast fogs of Pisces.
Jupiter was in Libra between September 2016 and October 2017, bringing a Jupiter return to all those with Jupiter in Libra. This was a renewal and huge turning point for that group, since this position gives a new adventure in relationships, sense of perspective and/or proportion, justice, balance, and elegant expression of ideals. This is the sign of nuance and balanced “calibration,” and many got a new sense of what to do and when to do it during that year.
Jupiter was in Scorpio from October 2017 through November 2018, bringing a new Jupiter cycle to those with Jupiter in Scorpio. This was a renewal of their vision, truth, and opportunities found by penetrating into the unknown, letting go of obsolete things, people, and behaviors, and learning to hold the void until the right opportunities open up.
Jupiter was in Sagittarius from November 2018 through December 2019, bringing a Jupiter return to those with Jupiter in Sagittarius. This opened up a new 12 year Sagittarius vision or adventure. Jupiter in Sagittarius sees opportunity in broader truths and philosophical standards, as well as potential futures where the sky’s the limit!
Jupiter was in Capricorn from December 2019 through December 2020, bringing a Jupiter return to those with Jupiter in Capricorn. This opened a new 12 year Capricorn vision or adventure, with an eye to long term gains acquired through organization and discipline. Jupiter is in “fall” in Capricorn, since it’s a sign that opposes Jupiter’s exalted position in sensitive and caring Cancer. Still, Jupiter can always use a little structure and organization so we don’t jump on our Sagittarian horse and ride off in 10 directions at once!
Jupiter occupied Aquarius between December 2020 and mid-May 2021, and again from late July through late December 2021. This opened a new 12 year Aquarian vision or adventure, with opportunity found in large projects, group work, and building toward a more ideal social order. And because it just conjuncted Saturn, it brought a new 29 year Saturn cycle for those with Jupiter and/or Saturn in early Aquarius!
Jupiter was last in Pisces between January and early June 2010, and again between September 2010 and January 2011. That cycle is now done for those of us with Jupiter in Pisces, because we’ve all now opened a new Jupiter cycle at some point between January and early May. Those with Jupiter in the last two degrees of Pisces and the first 8 degrees of Aries will experience THREE “Jupiter returns” this year or early 2023, since Jupiter will make three passes over their natal Jupiter. That generates a triple tone for what their coming Jupiter cycle is about.
Tomorrow I'll discuss more about the Jupiter return, and what different signs and generations can learn from this most important point in our spiritual and philosophical evolution. I’ll include a table of Jupiter’s past sign positions and when they happened, as well as future times when it will be in various signs, so you’ll know when your past Jupiter returns occurred, and when you will experience this blessed renewal in the future.
© Copyright 2022 Robert Wilkinson
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