Oct 2017
Shift in the Wind
Jupiter changes signs on October 10th. This big gas giant, signifier of the way we acquire knowledge, is going into Scorpio for the first time in twelve years.
Re-balancing
Consider the difference between Libra, where Jupiter’s been for the past year, and Scorpio, where it will be until late 2018.
Since late 2016, the transit through Libra, sign of justice and equilibrium, has forced us to prioritize issues like income inequality, racial and gender discrimination. Since September 2016, unfairness has been the subject of universal ethical debate, from the international to the marital realm.
These debates have been knock-down-drag-out fraught, because of the critical transits Jupiter set off; i.e. the cardinal T-square with Uranus, Eris and Pluto, which just finished peaking for the last time.
Now there is a shift from air to water. We’ve been in the realm of concept; we’re entering a realm that is harder to define. For thirteen months, we’ll have a chance to plunge down into the depths and shadows of life.
For some people, the appeal of Scorpio involves the more superficial end of the death/ rebirth spectrum: murder investigations and horror movies. For others, Scorpio inspires a curiosity about end-of-life scenarios, the hospice movement, and the existence of consciousness beyond
the physical state.
For all of us, repressions — part of our identity hidden away from our self-image — will be a source of wisdom.
Psychological courage
If we have enough emotional courage, the transit will facilitate catharsis: the kind of healing that comes of facing our demons and sources of shame. Especially for those whose charts are directly triggered, this transit augurs a sweeping away of psychic cobwebs.
Jupiter also has a mental dimension, that of mind-expansion. In Scorpio (secrets) it promotes an academic pursuit of the inscrutable layers of the psyche, a.k.a. psychology.
Profound spiritual search is also favored; not so much the theological kind (that’s Sagittarius), but rather the conscious self-observation taught by practices like Vipassana.
Taboos
For society at large, cultural repressions and taboo subjects will be magnified so that we may learn from them. The cosmic intention here is not to exaggerate suffering, or to publicize violence for titillation’s sake (the O.J. Simpson trial took place during Jupiter in Scorpio), but to uncover issues society usually covers up.
Humanity’s capacity for atrocities, for example, never goes away, but our capacity to face it waxes and wanes. Jupiter, whose job is to challenge our provinciality, was in Scorpio during the genocides in Rwanda and the Balkans — parts of the world many Americans hadn’t known how to find on a map.
Jupiter will remain in Scorpio until November 9th, 2018. Those who dare to expose the human shadow, including therapists, investigative journalists and detectives of every stripe, will be in their element.
