The Horn of Plenty

This is the ninth part of my essay series “Inner Work with the Planets”. If you haven’t read the earlier parts yet, I suggest you start with part 1 to get the most out of this essay.

Phew. Travelling through the sphere of Mars was a pretty intense experience, wasn’t it? I think we deserve a little break at this point – something relaxing, easy-going and not too demanding (well, hopefully – you never know with these planets!).

So let’s use some of this Martian energy to spare us the climb, and instead jump right up into the next sphere…

And here we are, in the sphere of the most jovial of planets – quite literally! 😉

The planet whose sphere we just entered is Jupiter, of course. And if you want to get an idea of his traits and coins, you know what to do by now: A quick look up at the night sky will tell you a lot about Jupiter.

Thus you look upwards to spot this easy to find planet, and… ah, hang on, there are two bright white spots up there! At first, you aren’t sure which is which. Shortly, though, the difference becomes clear:

There is Venus down there in the West, closely following the Sun. You’ve seen her before, back when we entered her sphere, and recognize her bright, white shine and her loving vibes.

Further up in the sky, away from the Sun, this must be Jupiter then. Almost equally bright, but only almost. With a just slightly different, very distinct tone of white. And while you look at him, you start wondering how he can be so bright, and appear so big, when he is so much further away from earth than Venus…

Just like the other planets, Jupiter gives us a few clues as to his nature right there, up in the sky, by his sheer appearance. And very much in accordance with his nature, he gives these clues rather generously and over-abundantly.

Jupiter is big. No, scratch that: he is even bigger!

Jupiter is so big, he weighs more than all the other planets of the solar system combined. That’s why he can be seen so clearly, even though he’s rather far away from earth (in terms of distances in the solar system – the stars are much further away, of course, and can still be seen, but then they are stars and bring their own lighting assembly to the party! 😉 ).

And while Jupiter doesn’t radiate any visible light of his own, he reflects the light of the Sun in such abundance that to us, he appears to be one of the brightest objects in the sky. (Of course, shining this prominently is a bit easier when one has his size…)

Jupiter is also the first of the so-called “outer planets”. These outer planets are the larger planets, further away from the Sun, on the outside of an asteroid belt which separates them from the (equally creatively named) inner planets.

Of course, the distinction between outer and inner planets can’t be seen from looking at the sky. But what can be seen, and what people back in the old days did perceive quite well and with some interest, is how long it takes each planet to finish one round across the heavens, through each star sign, back to its original spot.

For the inner planets, i.e. the Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars, one circuit takes from a month (Moon) up to a bit less than two years (Mars). In contrast, Jupiter needs about 12 years to orbit through the zodiac just once. Thus in certain astrological considerations, his vote has a bit more weight – after all, he doesn’t get to be at a specific spot all that often in a human lifetime!

By now, you’ve probably got a stiff neck from staring up at the sky, but let’s take one last glance at big, generously shining Jupiter, just to bask a bit more in his light, shall we? 🙂

Back on earth with our thoughts, and still massaging our necks, we need to figure out how Jupiter’s physical appearance translates into his particular coins, his vices and virtues.

Jupiter is not just generous with his light up in the sky, he is also generous in everything else. Remember how Venus used to be called the “Lesser Benefic”? Well, Jupiter is the “Greater Benefic” – and not for nothing.

And indeed, in some astrology books, Jupiter is portrayed as the one-dimensional planet of luck, good fortune and riches. And while this isn’t wrong, it’s also by far not the whole picture. Like all the other planets, Jupiter has a lot of facets, and reducing him to just this one aspect wouldn’t be doing him justice at all. But let’s cover the most obvious stuff first anyway, before we turn to Jupiter’s more interesting aspects!

So he symbolizes abundance, riches and good luck. When Jupiter shines down on you, good things will come your way, and you won’t have to work for them. His special blend of generosity can be summed up in one term: prosperous ease.

This sounds great, doesn’t it? But like all the planetary coins, it has a downside, too. Overdo it with Jupiter’s generosity and with his prosperous ease, and you’ll spend money faster than you can say “Greater Benefic”.

And while leaning back and letting abundance rain down on you sounds nice in theory, the world doesn’t always work that way. Incorporating too much of Jupiter’s generous vibes into your life might not only lead to ever-rising spending, but also to any lack of drive to change your situation. No need to over-exert yourself or start working for what you want – after all, the big flush of money will surely be just around this next corner, won’t it?

Jupiter’s size is another of his striking features. He has weight within his community. Quite literally among the planets, but also figuratively speaking. This good standing in the community gives him more opportunities, important connections, and other benefits.

But with it also comes responsibility. If somebody dominates a community by sheer weight, as Jupiter does, he is also responsible for its structures and its cohesion. Consequently, Jupiter rules over institutions, including religious institutions.

Where Venus represented easy-going riches, good things without any concern whatsoever, ever on-going parties, Jupiter bears more responsibility, and he knows it. His generosity isn’t no-strings-attached, although it can seem that way on first glance.

Instead, it’s prosperous ease within the existing system. Thus if your aim should be to rattle the status quo, you’d best not turn to Jupiter for help… 😉

Now, the Jovial coins we’ve discussed so far seem to be a rather eclectic mix. You might be wondering if there is anything tying them together at all, or if somebody just did same random drawings from the big bowl of “possible character traits” and assigned them to big and good-natured Jupiter, just for fun.

Well, you’ll be relieved to know that there is some system behind this madness-at-first-glance (although, to do him justice, Jupiter really is good-natured and, well, jovial, and doesn’t lean towards tight-lipped earnestness!).

The clue is in his name, though, and (just for a change) not in his appearance in the sky. Jupiter, or Zeus in ancient Greek, is the thunderer – the god of thunderstorms and of lightning.

Imagine for a second it’s evening. The day has been incredibly hot, and even more humid. You’ve only been sweating once – all day long, that is. Taking a cool shower only brought relief for a few minutes. Now, towards evening, the humidity is getting worse and worse. All life seems to be a bit subdued. Out there, it’s the literal quiet before the thunderstorm.

And while you’re still hoping for a bit of rain to cool things down, you can hear the first thunder rumble in the distance. Soon afterwards, a fresh wind picks up and drives off the humidity, and breathing becomes a bit easier. The first lightning flashes in the waning light, and then the much-awaited rain rolls in…

You’re standing at the open window, silently thanking the god of thunderstorms for his generosity in clearing the air, and enjoying the cooler temperatures and fresh air.

A few miles away, somebody else has seen the same harbingers of the upcoming thunderstorm, and she hurries to get back to her car. It’s still a few miles, though, and it doesn’t look like she’s going to make it. Out there in a massive thunderstorm, without shelter… not good, not good at all.

Frantically, she is looking around for anything which might work as a kind of safe spot, but there is not even a barn in sight. Not under any trees, or close to any other high and pointy objects, that much is clear. Well, this leaves just bare ground for cover in what is soon going to be drumming rain – but given the choice, it’s a lot better than being hit by lightning.

The rumbling of the thunder is close now, and follows alnost immediately after each strike of lightning. While the wind picks up speed and drives up dust, the first heavy drops of rain are starting to soak her from top to bottom…

Still a few miles further, somebody else is also standing at the open window, just like you. A farmer and his wife, who look out at the incoming weather with very mixed feelings. They could care less about the lightning, and the rain which is bound to fall in the wake of the thunderstorm will be very welcome after the dry spell of the past few weeks – in theory at least.

But the earth is so dry by now, it might not even be able to hold the rain, and instead let it run of in floods and erosion. And the gusts of wind… with the crops having reached their final height and being almost ready to bring in, the strong wind and heavy rain could cause a lot of damage.

With some bad luck, this thunderstorm will ruin a large part of the harvest. They’ve had this before, three years ago, and are still reeling from the financial damage. The couple keeps anxiously looking outside, hoping that the worst of the storm will pass their valley, but some of the following milder rain won’t…

One thunderstorm, three perspectives – all shaped by Jupiter and his generous handling of lightning and thunder. Let’s sort things out, then, shall we? 🙂

Crops don’t just need sun to grow, they also need rain and wind (the latter to make them strong and keep them healthy – while too much wind can topple plants, stagnating air isn’t good for most of them either!). Jupiter provides the latter two, and is thus the bearer of good fortune, of abundance and riches.

But thunderstorms aren’t your regular, all-purpose steady rain! They hit somewhat unpredictably and with considerable force. When Jupiter douses you with good luck, he does so generously, and somewhat unpredictably. And sometimes he douses you so generously that it’s almost too much.

Jupiter being Jupiter, though, he doesn’t sneak around and let you guess who did the dousing. Booming thunder hurries on ahead of him, for all to hear. Jupiter doesn’t hide, and he is well-known and well seen in his community.

Looking at it from this thunderstorm angle, a lot of Jupiter’s coins suddenly make more sense, don’t they?

Thunderstorms don’t just bring thunder (and fertilizing rain), though, they also clear the air. With his powerful tools, Jupiter can (literally and figuratively) bring clarity and purity. He doesn’t mind purging what needs to be purged, even if his lightning and wind might cause some other damage on the side. After all, if you want to make a fresh omelette, you have to be prepared to break some eggs!

This purging points us towards another of Jupiter’s coins, which again on first glance seems a bit unrelated and fortuitous – but this first appearance is deceiving, as irregular things aren’t Jupiter’s style at all, despite his easy-going mood and generous behaviour.

So what is this other coin? Well, as Jupiter values clarity, purity, and well-built (community) structures, he also cares about the means to keep them alive. And one major factor for this is justice.

After all, in a community where injustice is allowed to run rampant, everybody will end up looking out for themselves, as this is their best bet for survival and thriving. And when Jupiter shines his lightning spotlight on all the humid, stagnant air, it also illuminates injustice and impiety so that he can drive them out through his thunder and lightning – and then pour rain on the land, to let new, fresher things grow.

Now, you might remember that I ended the last essay hinting at fate and karma. And what better place to dive into this topic than at a discussion about justice?

Because there is something “just”, at least to the concept of karma: You do something, and somehow, in some way, at some point, it returns to you. Maybe not exactly as like, but close enough to make up for what you did before, may that have been good or bad, or anything in between.

Fate is a somewhat different beast. Depending on how you understand the term, fate can mean something roughly like karma, or fairly random things which are predestined for your life (or lives, but we’ll cross this particular bridge next time).

For the purpose of this essay series, I take “karma” to mean the consequences of your own actions, whereas “fate” means stuff that is predestined for you, and on which you don’t have any influence.

(I’m not saying these are the only correct meanings of these terms, and you’re very welcome to use them in any other way. Just know that if I write “fate” or “karma” in these essays, that’s what I mean.)

You might also remember that fate and karma came up in connection with the meaning of your astrological birth chart. Using the definitions of the terms I just gave, fate would be expressed through your birth chart – the planetary coins you picked up during your descent through the spheres, and which are represented in your chart, i.e. in the positions of the planets at your birth.

These are determined by fate, because you (as in “current you”, i.e. the person you are in this life of yours) doesn’t have any influence on them. Of course, this still leaves the question to which extent “you” (as in, the divine spark or spirit within you) might have had a say about which coins he or she picked up during the descent…

But for the “you” as of now, i.e. your current soul and personality, you don’t have much of a choice, at least not during this lifetime. You got some coins in your pockets, and now you need to make the most of them. Exchanging them for others isn’t an option, alas. But of course, each limit is a thrusting block – and what you turn your particular coins into, is solely up to you! 😉

As for karma, at some point it will come home to roost. And I can’t help but think that if you wanted to clear up some of your karma, what better planet to have on your side than justice-loving, purifying, yet generous and easy-going Jupiter with his big heart and big sense of humour?

(Just to be on the safe side: If you should attempt to work with or approach Jupiter in any way along these lines, please use the standard means of caution before attempting any major step in the occult: Think it through carefully, do divination, etc. Karma is karma, and while Jupiter is generally considered to be very beneficial, he is also as powerful as he is generous…)

Before we close for today, and in the spirit of justice, purity and community which Jupiter exudes, I have to eat some humble pie myself.

In earlier essays, I might occasionally (cough, cough) have mocked scholars about things like their tendency to cluster around certain “known truths”.

Now, at heart, I’m very much a scholar myself. While academia has grown certain, uhm, warts, true scholarship is a wonderful thing. The urge to understand, to research, to tie things together or divide them apart as is fitting, to look at the world with fresh eyes, come up with hypotheses about how it works, and then do your best to prove or falsify these hypotheses, the sheer childlike curiosity to understand the world… all these are wonderful human traits.

Thus to me, a true scholar is somebody who thinks and works like this. He or she doesn’t have to be an academic – although (s)he might well be, notwithstanding all the issues of modern academia.

But despite all my positive feelings towards scholarship, scholars (me very much included!) are just humans, and are prone to fall into the same pitfalls as everybody else. And this includes, alas, a certain amount of group-think.

(Of course, I am not prone to that at all… said every scholar who ever lived! 😉 )

So my mocking has been in a very jovial, good-natured spirit, and I hope it has come across as such. I think it’s important to keep these pitfalls in mind, though, and preferably in a humorous way. It just makes it a tad easier to spot them in oneself. Only a tad, of course, but then every little bit helps, doesn’t it?

This is it for today, folks. We’ll dive a bit more into fate and karma next time, when we will also tackle the last of the planetary spheres. And after that… well, we’ll cross this particular bridge when we get there….

Ah, one more thing: You might have noted how in this essay, I’ve talked a lot about Jupiter’s traits, but less about his very specific coins, his vices and virtues. This was done deliberately.

For the first five planets, I’ve more or less spelled that stuff out for you. But hey, you’re a smart person, and if you’ve been paying any attention at all, how to figure out a planet’s potential “good” sides and “bad” sides in your life is well within your own means! 🙂

So why don’t you give it a try for generous, big-hearted, jovial, prolific, lucky, justice-loving, structure-building, prosperous, reputable, purifying and cleansing Jupiter, and see where you end up – and how it might relate to your life?

(And please feel free to use the comment section to lay out and discuss your ideas, thoughts, obstacles, … – this is a course on inner work, so we can as well do some together!)

The next essay in this series will go up in two weeks. See you then!

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Image: Gage Walker on Unsplash