True to its mutable nature, the Gemini New Moon in late May introduced a flurry of activity in the skies, all part of the major shake-up happening across the pattern of our star-scape. While the outer planets change their long-standing configurations gradually, the inner planets make their rounds more quickly, creating more accessible channels by which to draw cosmic intelligence into personal insight. Last week, major aspects involving Mercury, Venus, and Mars in relationship with Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Pluto prepared the stage for tomorrow’s full moon.
Aspects involving Jupiter are often met with much fanfare. Called the “Greater Benefic,” Jupiter has a reputation for bringing bounty and blessings. As Jupiter ends his retrograde and turns direct, it seems the good luck will flow unimpeded to support the birth of our inspiration into manifestation. However, in examining Jupiter’s retrograde this year, we find it was not a respite, but served to spotlight one of the most intense and enduring aspect configurations of the last decade.
The tension of the Uranus-Pluto square has waxed and waned since 2010. As the two planets have moved in and out of this aspect, they have been destabilizing the common constructs that have held human societies together for generations. Pluto in Capricorn is the planet of power and transformation in the sign of material status. Uranus in Aries is the planet of technology and revolution in the sign of self. In this time, individuals percolate and perpetuate their identities and ideologies online, fracturing our neighborly civility as we break through our geographic containers to receive a virtual stream of information. Meanwhile, Earth’s resources have been consolidated towards previously unseen heights of material wealth that is available only to the few in power, leaving those at the bottom to seek to transform the hierarchal systems that do not reflect universal ideals. As outer planets, the influence of Uranus and Pluto is so large, and unfolds so slowly, that our experience of their energies is witnessed through generational events, often unseen to the individual eye until long after the effects are underway.
Jupiter joined these two planets late last year, moving into Libra to oppose Uranus and form a T-square amongst the three planets. His retrograde has kept him in close aspect for months, allowing his distinct qualities to shine a new light on the matter. Along with Saturn, Jupiter is known as a social planet, the two planets that are the bridge connecting the lessons of the inner, personal planets and the outer, transpersonal planets. In opposition with Uranus, Jupiter in Libra reveals how the reflections our personal relationships provide imparts valuable guidance and support as we battle to revolutionize our sense of self (Uranus in Aries). This opposition has highlighted another channel by which to resolve the Uranus-Pluto conflict.
The struggle to liberate one’s unique self expression in the face of monolithic institutions exposes the implicit power imbalances between the two. Jupiter in Libra presents the way to wed the personal and transpersonal experience--social interaction. Investing in our personal relationships ripples both inward to reference our center and outward to connect our communities. The one-on-one relationships indicated by the sign of Libra are the mirrors in which we see whether or not we are centered in our truth. With Jupiter in this sector of the sky this full moon, honest communication in our personal relationships is a practice of self-exploration. Commitment to seeking a harmonious balance of differing personal truths leads one into better alignment with the higher order of universal laws, where one may prevail in the perception of cosmic justice.
Jupiter is now moving direct, but how much baggage will he carry with him? The truth is, this is the planet of luck, pure and simple. However, whether that luck is received as good or bad is determined by one’s internal alignment. As Jupiter has liberated himself from the T-square, the moon waxes, and each of the personal planets has taken a part in opening channels to the outer planets. Uranus has broken away from its tension with Pluto, now locking into a long-term harmonious aspect with Saturn. Saturn’s influence is strong this moon, and will help to rebuild the structures Uranus has broken apart. The Full Moon occurs close to Saturn in Sagittarius, and just as the Moon moves into exact conjunction with the “Lord of Karma,” Jupiter moves direct.
Jupiter is the ruler of the Sagittarius Moon, and in this role he imparts inspired vision-- the aim which keeps our direction true through the ups and downs of the cycles we call fate and fortune. In the sign of Libra, Jupiter himself is ruled by Venus, the “Lesser Benefic.” Venus is strengthened as she moves through the other sign she rules--Taurus. With both “benefic” planets moving in direct motion through harmonious signs, this moon may help resolve the lingering lessons that are currently inhibiting one’s progress. All Full Moons are times of completion, and Saturn’s presence, admittedly stern and sober, here helps us to prune back what no longer serves to stimulate the growth that will propel us into the new self-awareness Uranus in Aries has exposed.
