| At 10:21 am PDT on August 1, Jupiter makes its first ingress to Leo since it left in1991 (in past cycles, Jupiter entered Leo on Sep. 27, 1966, on Sept. 5, 1978 and on Aug. 18, 1990). Jupiter, one of the four gas giants of our solar system, is about 1,200 times the size of Earth, so when he speaks, it's a good idea to listen. Leo is ruled by the Sun, but in the ancient system of assessing the strength of planets in signs at different times of day (sometimes called 'sect'), Jupiter is considered the night-time ruler of Leo, giving the Chairman of the Gods considerable dignity in his new placement. Leo is the sign of royalty, and Jupiter surely qualifies for the distinction. Within hours of this ingress, the Sun is at exact opposition to Neptune, a face-to-face meeting that demands honesty, self-awareness and the honoring of intuition. We could read this synchronicity of events many ways, but it may suffice for now to say that both planets associated with Pisces make big news the same day, both in association with solar or Leonine themes; or we could say that all things Leo and Pisces come under mutual influence. Since everyone has Leo and Pisces working in their charts, we'll all get a taste of the changes. These are the two most dramatic signs, though they make an interesting contrast, as one is known for expression of self and the other for self-sacrifice or loss of self-consciousness. But they do have Jupiter in common, whose astrological delineation includes the keywords: justice, expansion, luck, wisdom, pleasure, joviality, overindulgence, higher education, international culture and journeys of great distance. Let's see how mythology, science and history add up to give us a picture of how Jupiter works astrologically. From the University of Arizona web site: "Jupiter (a.k.a. Jove; Greek Zeus) was the King of the Gods, the ruler of Olympus and the patron of the Roman state. Zeus was the son of Cronus (Saturn). [The planet] Jupiter is the fourth brightest object in the sky (after the Sun, the Moon and Venus; at some times Mars is also brighter). It has been known since prehistoric times. Galileo's discovery, in 1610, of Jupiter's four large moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto (now known as the Galilean moons) was the first discovery of a center of motion not apparently centered on the Earth. It was a major point in favor of Copernicus's heliocentric theory of the motions of the planets; Galileo's outspoken support of the Copernican theory got him in trouble with the Inquisition." U of A also publishes this handy astronomical glossary. And from Pantheon.org: "Jupiter is the supreme god of the Roman pantheon, called dies pater, 'shining father'. He is a god of light and sky, and protector of the state and its laws. He is a son of Saturn and brother of Neptune and Juno (who is also his wife). The Romans worshiped him especially as Jupiter Optimus Maximus (all-good, all-powerful). This name refers not only to his rulership over the universe, but also to his function as the god of the state who distributes laws, controls the realm and makes his will known through oracles. His English name is Jove. "He had a temple on the Capitol, together with Juno and Minerva , but he was the most prominent of this Capitoline triad. His temple was not only the most important sanctuary in Rome; it was also the center of political life. Here official offerings were made, treaties were signed and wars were declared, and the triumphant generals of the Roman army came here to give their thanks." Planet Jupiter has a fascinating property; it is attended in its orbit by clusters of asteroids at approximately 60 degrees in either direction, called the Trojan asteroids. These are steady in Jupiter's orbit around the Sun, moving at the same rate of one orbit in 12 years. There are now more than 1,400 Trojans known. To me this demonstrates the inherently natural quality of the astrological aspects trine (120 degrees) and sextile (60 degrees); the Trojans are always at a sextile to Jupiter, and the clusters are always at a trine to one another. When Jupiter enters Leo, thousands of asteroids simultaneously enter Gemini and Libra, a little air to keep the fire of Leo hot. Jupiter in Music | From Holst's 'The Planets'
| | Sign dates below are approximate. They now overlap by one day. The date and time of the Sun's ingress to the new sign changes a little each year, so please check with an astrologer if you want the exact position of your Sun, and while you're at it, your rising sign -- this horoscope is written for both your Sun and rising signs. If you find that some other sign's interpretations work for you, then go for it. | | Aries (March 20-April 21) | | You may think you've gone through rapid changes up till this point, but something is brewing in that Aries furnace of yours that is about to pop a few corks, or perhaps a few psychic cherries. The energy is like a pressure release, a sudden shift in energy that promises both to provide relief and at the same time yet another outlet for your creative furies. But we might also consider the subject of anger. I probably don't need to make the passive-aggression speech to most Aries, but the epidemic of deceitful anger, of concealed feeling, and of doing things just to piss people off is so widespread that it might be a good idea. Mars square the mighty centaur Pholus tells us all, if you have something to say, then say it. If you need something, ask for it. And let's get on with art, life and love. | | Taurus (April 21-May 20) | | A rapidly-developing set of influences will help you resolve certain challenges that may have recently developed in your home or family situation. But is the healthy new influence luck, or is it the intervention of someone's goodwill? Once you decide, give thanks where it's due. While we're on the theme of problems and solutions, we can (as friends, and with any luck, as a culture) acknowledge that fear and insecurity are among the greatest drains on peace and happiness. There is an old Yiddish saying that if something does not have a solution, then it's not a problem. These would be good words to live by as the next week progresses. | | Gemini (May 20-June 21) | | The time is now for giving your reputation a mighty push forth into the world, but moreover to have the faith that you will be received by people who need what you have to offer. A rare combination of factors are aligning such that you can suddenly be seen for who you truly are and what you have really accomplished. But the key to success will be boldly embodying your best achievements as representing who you are now, not merely what you've done in previous days. We live in a world where we quite often seem to be stuck with the effects of the past. Now is the time to put this process to work for you rather than against you, remembering that a reputation is a living thing, and needs feedling and love. | | Cancer (June 21-July 22) | | No doubt these past days have found you at a point of stress, or with the sensation of crossing a narrow bridge over a wide canyon to the unknown. I remind you that just because you're entering the unknown doesn't mean there's nothing there. Quite to the contrary, if you can keep your eyes open and your ears perked, you'll be seeing and hearing a lot of what you've been missing in the past. And speaking of the past, remember, remember, consider where your life was one year ago, and consider where you are today. Do this carefully and the prospect of getting yourself where you want to be will not be nearly as daunting. | | Leo (July 22-Aug. 22) | | Help is on the way. You may be feeling the stress of the vast unknown, or the weight of your problems, or fear of your strength, but you must know you have the strength to endure any actual difficulties that may arise in your life. But really there is no reason to foresee any difficulty but fear, which feeds on itself, and fear in your case has the potential to be the strange uneasiness that life might become too good. This is an insidious thought. Too good for what, or for whom? If you find yourself thinking this, go back to the first things you learned, as in where you actually arrived in the world, and question why you might ever, ever hold yourself to be undeserving of basic contentment and simple success. There are reasons, and they can be dealt with. | | Virgo (Aug. 22-Sep. 22) | | Tune into your protection. It's becoming more powerful, as if your guardian spirit was just promoted archangel but still has you on the list of cases. You need a guardian angel not so much for what you fear that's true, but rather for what you fear that's not true. Most fear is false. Most fear is a waste of time, creative energy and potential. But fear does have a grip on the entire human experience, or rather, most of it -- always awake, always around, singin' ashes, ashes, all fall down. Since you are safe, you can try this: exaggerate the thought of what you're scared of. Jack it up a few notches, take things out to what seems like an extreme. Look at your fears when they are larger than life, and ask your archangel for some advice. She's likely to respond with something known as a vision. | | Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) | | People are a lot happier to take care of you than you may be thinking, and if you're afraid your luck is about to turn, the chances are it's going to turn for the better. But it would seem that there is a whole lot going on that you can be certain nobody is going to understand. Remember this: relationships are practice, not theory. So if you're doing a lot of thinking about what you would do if you had the chance to, it's important that you seek ways to give yourself those opportunities, granted, in reasonably safe circumstances, but no matter how safe and sterile life is, the real danger, if you could call it that, always seems to be emotional surrender. But it's time to stop calling it that. | | Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) | | Aspects to your career angle look so promising that on first glance you hardly need the advice of an astrologer to help you get by in the world. But this whole issue of transacting your own talent as some kind of commodity is likely to be irking even your deeply practical Scorpio sensibilities. Your reputation is shining right now, and you have a lot of fuel for your engines of both creation and ambition. Yet careers tend to grow in transactions. The dimension of you that's being transacted is not the real you; it's kind of a holographic copy of you. But deals need to be opened and closed, and what you've got is worth a lot of money. It's worth a bunch more than that, and you know that, but money is the theme of the hour. Don't sweat it, just ask for it. | | Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) | | Jupiter's entry into your fellow fire sign Leo portends many changes in your life, and a sense of both expansion, safety and most of all, meaning that is rare to find on this Earth. Yet I want to urge you to be cautious about your impact on people, and to be aware of the degree to which you affect their lives, their feelings and their sense of reality. You are unlikely to have a grasp on the extent to which you affect others, but now would be a very good time to tune in. This falls into the general category of working out the issues of the deep past that are so much a part of the current theme of your life, but the way to resolve the past is to remain in the present. You have a lot to offer, but you need to choose with precision. | | Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) | | The most significant lie you're dealing with is the one that says you have any secrets. I am not sure where you or others got this impression, but it may relate to a feeling from your childhood that misinformed you thus: if you let this one little thing out, everything's going to go crazy in your life, so just shut up. But that involved, or involves, a gross miscalculation of what other people have for you, what they want to give you, and the ways in which they are willing to exchange energy on commonly beneficial terms. You can afford to reveal what you're feeling about yourself, in part so you can see how small it really is, and in part so you can open the door to cooperation with people who only want to help you. | | Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) | | Anyone who has succeeded has failed many times. If failure were the hallmark of anything but the determination to succeed, we would all be sitting in the dark, riding mules and writing with feathers. It's clear enough, from an astrological perspective, to see that certain changes in your character that have developed (or become obvious) in recent years seem to have made you a deeper, stranger and less easy to define person, and this has had a strange effect on your relationships. But consider this a process of invention and you'll feel a lot better, and recognize your present opportunity to meet the world (and the people in it) face-to-face as an unusual gift from the heavens. | | Pisces (Feb. 19-Mar. 20) | | Recent frustrations need not be taken as an indicator as to the true state of your life. In fact it would be a misstep to interpret them as anything other than one of those difficult phases we all go through in the process of growth and change. You are working out a difficult formula, as your guiding planet Jupiter moves across that angle of your solar chart which is the common wall shared by the art studio and the office. Jupiter arrives in your house of work, health and well-being freshly charged up by several reminders of how good life can be. Remember, and know that this gives you something to work toward. | Search | Horoscopes | What's New | Index | Consultations  Space graphic above from the Rosette Nebula in Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Sulfur.
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