by Robert Wilkinson
I was recently in a discussion with someone who wondered what it meant that Jupiter was returning to its natal position three times between July 2024 and April 2025. I told them that happened to me in 2010 when Jupiter transited my natal Jupiter three times between May and December 2010. So what does that mean, and which planetary return chart do we use to re-set that planetary cycle?
This can happen with any planetary return except the Sun, Moon, Neptune and Pluto. As I offered you in The Jupiter Return – New Truths, New Views, New Freedom, and A New Life Adventure, 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.
While the Solar and Lunar returns can be fairly precisely calculated, as we move out the exact time of the return becomes a span of minutes rather than a frozen moment. A Jupiter or Saturn return will be exact for a period of several minutes or ore, depending on its speed. While the software calculates it to the minute, that still leaves a span entering and exiting the exact degree and minute of longitude of that planet.
As I see it, the first time a planet returns to its natal position is the initial re-set for that cycle. That point closes the old planetary cycle and begins a new one. A chart done for that moment is important to determine the qualities of the coming return period.
However, if the planet then goes stationary retrograde and returns to its natal position while retrograde, it gives us a review of the entire past cycle. So the first Jupiter return sets the patterns of the future, while the second Jupiter return gives us an entirely new look at the old cycle. A chart done for the retrograde return will reveal more about the continuity of past, present, and future.
The third transiting Jupiter return then “sets sail” into the next Jupiter period, and I believe that chart enhances the first one. It’s like an additional course is set, similar to the first and yet different, since that third return has the benefit of the insights of the second RX return. It is also possible that all three charts operate equally during the next cycle, since each brings its unique patterns to the general principle of the planetary return.
It can also operate as the first return is the apparent start of the cycle, which must be reconsidered during the retrograde return through the third return. It could be a “false start,” or a start which leads to review, reflection, and reconsideration before the actual cycle begins at the third return. So all three charts are in play, with one a promise which gets revised before it can be launched.
At the present time, I know someone going through her Mars return at 26 Cancer. This ends an old Mars cycle and begins a new one. However, because Mars goes retrograde at 7 Leo, it will retrograde back over her Mars in mid-January, and after going direct in February, it again transits her Mars in early April.
Each of those Mars returns brings its own message and meaning to how this person expresses her Mars. Because Mars is the planet of direct action, the first return brings the promise of the next 2 years. While retrograde, she may have to confront the fact that something else needs to be done before she can really begin the next cycle at the third return. Or it can be the first return is the dress rehearsal, the retrograde return is where the play is tweaked to give a different approach or perspective, and the third return is where she moves forward with confidence in whatever she experienced during the first return.
With a Venus return, it could work the same way, except in the realm of attractions and relationships. Like the first return is a re-set of the cycle, the retrograde return is a remembrance of things and people past which impacted whatever is being reviewed during the retrograde, and the third return allows us to move forward with an awareness of how the past brought us to where we are in the present.
So to me, it’s less an issue of “which of the three return charts is correct” and more about seeing how each brings its own lesson related to that planetary department of labor. Have fun looking at past planetary returns and if you’ve had one of these “triple returns,” take a look at what each promised and what unfolded in the subsequent months or years after that triple return.
© Copyright 2024 Robert Wilkinson
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