...the Dark Side of Jupiter...

By John Townley, September 2011

2011 is the beginning of a half-decade of Jupiter-heavy daily charts, in which the giant planet will dominate the skies either by itself or in conjunction with Mars, the Moon, or both. For the whole story on this important economic and social cycle, take a look here, where we’ve provided a good overview of the phenomenon.

But with a half a decade of Jupiter-dominated skies in formation, it’s easy to look at it all as unlimited possibilities piled one upon another which, to an extent it is. Certainly, these cyclic periods of Jupiter-forward tend to be boom or bust and not much in-between. But while the boom part is obvious – Jupiter is the planet of expansion, growth, ambition, success, and generally all things outgoing and benefic – the bust part is equally important to look at. Just as malefic Saturn has a good side, lending stability, reliability, and experience under good aspect, so does benefic Jupiter have a disastrous side of instability, overreach, and explosive destruction when under bad aspect. Before you paint the near future a rosier shade than it deserves, it’s worth taking a look at the darker effects of this behemoth.

For instance, pulled from a rather exhaustive set of Jupiter keywords, here are seventy-odd traditional Jupiter associations (in alphabetical order) that give one pause for caution:

Apoplexy, aneurisms, anger, avarice, blood diseases, blood disorders, blood poisoning, blood pressure, high, blood pressure, low, boastfulness, boils, bronchitis, bureaucracies, cancer, carelessness, complacency, corpulence, default, diabetes, disease caused by excess, embezzlement, embezzlers, envy, epidemics, exaggerations, excess, exorbitance, extravagance, fat, fats, fatty degeneration, financial bubbles, flabbiness, funerals, gambling, girth, gluttony, gout, greed, heart attacks, hemorrhages, indemnities, indolence, indulgence, inflation, jaundice, lending, license, liens, liver disease, lust, miscalculations, misjudgments, mountebanks, obesity, overheating, overproduction, overconfidence, overweight persons, pleurisy, plutocrats, pneumonia, portliness, prevarication, pride, procrastination, prodigalities, profligacy, promotors, propaganda, prosecutions, ransoms, rebuking, recklessness, redundance, regimes, reprimands, sloth, snobs, speculation, spendthrifts, strokes, subpoenas, suing, summons, superfluity, taxation, tumors, varicose veins, warts…

If there is a theme in there, aside from the entirity of the seven deadly sins, it’s about pushing things farther than they should go, physically, emotionally, or financially, with ill and sometimes disastrous effects. Too much, too far, too big, too risky, too pressured, too fast, too greedy, too full, too lazy, too phony, too foolish, too, too, too… When something gets wildly out of control, whether disease, government, financial risk, personal commitments, delusion, ambition, growth, that’s Jupiter. When something ordinarily good pushes beyond its natural state into chaos or breakdown, that’s Jupiter. Whether it’s a boil bursting on your arm, your heart or arteries bursting in your chest or brain, or an economic bubble bursting in the stock market, it’s Jupiter and it’s trouble. 

 Mercury square Jupiter: a good plan spirals out of hand until nobody is speaking the same language...

When projects (government or otherwise) get too big to sustain (like the Tower of Babel above, for a Biblical example), everything breaks down and all hell breaks loose. When personal affairs push past mutual boundaries, relationships explode. When pressure of one kind or another in the body gets too great for the vessels meant to contain it, serious illness or death occurs.

Of course, most of these surface when Jupiter is in difficult aspect with another planet or angle, either in the sky or by transit natally, which will determine in just what area the overage, misjudgment, and dangerous or at least unwise extremity turns up. Essentially, in hard aspect with any given planet, Jupiter makes that planet's potential problems bigger. Hence, for instance, you get the seven deadly sins simply derived from Jupiter pushing the Sun (pride), Venus (lust, gluttony, envy, greed), Mars (anger, lust), and Saturn (sloth) beyond acceptable norms. Jupiter in favorable aspect with those same planets will help boost you into the cardinal virtues. So, as newly-prominent Jupiter makes its rounds over the next few years, look out for troubled combos with:

Sun – Self-confidence is fine, but overbearing egotism is quite another kettle of fish. If you’re too big for your britches, you’re gonna get caught with your pants down…

Moon – There’s a point when real sympathy becomes crocodile tears and shows of emotion start to look really phony. If you have to gush it, better to flush it…

Mercury – Shut up, already, you’ve made your point, now you’re just drowning the world in needless verbiage which may not even be understood – e.g., the Tower of Babel. A great idea, but rather too much of one. Take a tip from Strunk and White, omit needless words. Don’t repeat it…

 Jupiter bucket and splash skies will dominate the teens of this century.

Venus – Tell you what you want, what you really, really want, like it or not. There is a fine line between generosity and suffocation. Take the Roman emperor Heliogabalus, who killed his company in a fit of over-please by crushing them under a ton of flowers. After, of course, a feast of gluttony…

Mars – Why stop when you hit the wall, or the floor?…engorged with enthusiasm or anger, that comes next  when untrammelled energy overload persists until the envelope bursts. Or your heart, or a cerebral artery…

Saturn – When you’re slogging through a swamp, a thicket of thorns, quicksand, hostile natives, surrounded by obstructions, don't quit while you're behind, just muddle on. What’s the worst that could happen? You’ll find out, soon enough…

 The monthly Jupiter bucket will be emphasized by the Moon making it a seesaw or double bucket.

Uranus – Go ahead, burst a blood vessel, blow your brains out. Just one more violent shove is bound to get you through… or destroy your most precious assets in a hasty, uncoordinated thrust like Operation Market Garden, September 17-25, 1944 under Jupiter conjunct Mercury both square Uranus, the subject of the aptly-named film A Bridge Too Far…

Neptune – How could you be lost when spinning round in circles feels so good? Rather, how could you not be? Feeling a little queasy? Just pick up the pace, choose your illusion until you lose your lunch…

Pluto – When push comes to shove, first push, then shove, and if that doesn’t work, try beating your head against the wall, and don’t stop until you’re unconscious…

 Only the occasional Saturn locomotive or a brief seesaw with Mars will interrupt Jupiters rule during the teens.

Over the next six years, you’ll be seeing all of these troublesome sides of Jupiter at one time or another, but here are the patterns you will see most: Jupiter as a bucket handle, Jupiter with Moon as a see-saw or double bucket, and Jupiter with Mars as a see-saw, with a few rare comebacks from Saturn as a seesaw or bucket with Mars or a Saturn locomotive. Otherwise, there will be lots of splash charts, for about half of each year. Many of all of these will tend toward the positive, except for the occasional square from the edges of a bucket or an opposition from its center. But throughout, except for the occasional foray by Saturn, Jupiter will be at the heart of most of the action.

 Venus square Jupiter: after a gluttonous feast, try smothering your friends to death with flowers, like Heliogabalus...

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