Expansion planet Jupiter, strong in its own sign, stationed direct at 14 degrees Sagittarius on August 11 - the same day revolution-or-bust planet Uranus went retrograde at six degrees Taurus. With Jupiter still very slow in the zodiac, we are experiencing a concentration of themes involving the Sagittarian subjects of philosophy, knowledge, beliefs, and truth.
The Cosmic Spotlight is shining a particularly intense light on what we believe and what we know to be true, which may require us to stand in our own beliefs and truth even if this is not popular with others.
With Jupiter direct traveling over degrees it has previously traversed until November 7, we're making a renewed commitment to living our truth, something we've been coming into more fully since Jupiter first entered Sagittarius in November 2018. This sounds simple but is actually quite a complex process with many hard angles to navigate.
In many ways, this is a quiet truth, a quietly guiding truth, that lifts us up and over the corruption, deceit, manipulation, and general wrongheadedness that characterizes so much of (manufactured) human society these days. It's a truth we can cling to while surrounded by upsetting falsity.
With Jupiter slow and concentrated in mid-Sagittarius, we're being given some time to get clear on what we really believe to be true and how much it matters to us. Would we be willing to stand in that truth even in the face of a hostile majority? Would we be willing to back others up?
As Jupiter moves direct once again, we're being asked how far we can compromise our beliefs and our truth in order to navigate the systems and structures as they exist. These systems and structures - and the power dynamics inherent within them - often attempt to force a top-down version of (manipulated) truth down our throats, demanding absolute compliance and a willingness to superimpose the manufactured philosophies of The Machine over our own guiding philosophies and better judgement.
With the themes of Jupiter in Sagittarius so strong, we're peeling our way down to the core truth amidst challenging, illusory, even dangerously deceitful conditions. Fakery and glossy half-truth abound with so many pretty, smiling faces representing these things to much acclaim on both public and private stages...
Jupiter in Sagittarius will form its third and final square to transiting Neptune in Pisces on September 21 at 17 degrees of the signs.
Jupiter entered Sagittarius on November 9, 2018, and it will transit the sign of its domicile until entering Capricorn on December 3, 2019. Jupiter has been working on the square to Neptune in Pisces for most of its transit of Sagittarius, forming exact square aspects:
- January 13, 2019 at 14 degrees
- June 16, 2019 at 18 degrees
- September 21, 2019 at 17 degrees
With Jupiter now coming into its third and final exact square to Neptune, we're coming to a culmination point, a final testing point, involving the ongoing challenge of determining what is real from what is fake, what is true from what is false, what is concrete from what is illusory, what is meaningful from what is diversionary. For the most part, we are required to determine these things for ourselves.
One of the Jupiter square Neptune themes I've written about in the past is controlled opposition. From November 19, 2018: "Jupiter Square Neptune and How to Spot Controlled Opposition."
Once you clearly see and understand the dynamics, once you can sense the dynamics, it is much harder to be taken in by these slippery, snake-charming individuals...
There are many charlatans, many phonies, many egotists, many people intensely lacking in integrity who are being placed on pedestals, who are being turned into celebrities, even if just the YouTube or Instagram varieties.
Jupiter in Sagittarius square Neptune in Pisces:
There are many narcissists in healers' clothing.
There are many narcissists in philosophers' clothing.
There are many narcissists in truth-tellers' clothing.
There are many narcissists in positions of (unearned) power and renown as thinkers, as teachers, as leaders.
Even if they cannot be classified as full-on narcissists, harmful narcissistic tendencies are creeping in, even becoming socially acceptable, and this needs to be addressed.
It's up to us to peel the layers of phoniness and ego-fakery, to nullify their influence, to unseat the pedestal-sitters and attention-clamourers in our own minds, rather than being taken in by it all. It's up to us to see through it. To be bemused by their gall, rather than taken in by their charm and charisma, by the intoxicating aura of fame, celebrity, popularity.
The real truth is quiet. It keeps its own counsel. It doesn't need to blow up on Facebook or Twitter or Snapchat or any of the mainstream media channels to be legitimized.
Though it would certainly be nice, the truth needs no mass legitimization.
Venus and Mars form a conjunction at 3 degrees Virgo on August 24. We then experience a New Moon at 6 degrees Virgo on August 30 within a stellium of planets in the sign of the virgin (Sun-Moon-Mercury-Venus-Mars).
Clarification and sustained, focused effort are required in the areas associated with the houses where Virgo lies in your natal and Secondary Progressed charts.
The Virgo New Moon opens us into an intensely busy time, a time of potential overwhelm when it will be required that we stay clear on our own truth and our own roles amidst the prevailing chaos.
As we move through the lunar cycle, the personal planets in Virgo form square aspects to Jupiter in Sagittarius and oppositions to Neptune Rx in Pisces, creating a changeable and fluid mutable t-square effect that is very intense during the first half of September.
This indicates a strongly transitional time that requires ongoing adaptation and adjustment with our duties and roles. We're being challenged under these mutable t-squares to clarify our personal philosophies, beliefs, and truth and to then put these into precise and practical action in the material world, even in the smallest and simplest of ways.
September 2 - Venus in Virgo square Jupiter in Sagittarius (15 degrees)
September 3 - Mercury conjunct Mars and the Sun in Virgo (10 degrees)
September 4 - Venus in Virgo opposite Neptune Rx in Pisces (17 degrees)
September 6 - Mercury in Virgo square Jupiter in Sagittarius (15 degrees)
September 7 - Mercury in Virgo opposite Neptune Rx in Pisces (17 degrees)
September 8 - Sun in Virgo square Jupiter in Sagittarius (15 degrees)
September 10 - Sun in Virgo opposite Neptune Rx in Pisces (17 degrees)
September 12 - Mars in Virgo square Jupiter in Sagittarius (16 degrees)
September 13 - Mars in Virgo opposite Neptune Rx in Pisces (16 degrees) + Mercury conjunct Venus in Virgo (28 degrees) + Full Moon at 21 degrees Pisces
Phew! That is a jam-packed two-week stretch of time with an excess of mental activity and processing indicated. We're going to need a peaceful Libra season/equinox to bring all that activity (over-activity) back into balance.
Gemini becomes the fourth leg of the mutable t-square, representing air energy and the influence of intellect. This indicates a necessity to maintain proper perspective, including a sense of context.
These astro conditions indicate a period of time when people are too busy, too taxed, and a little (or a lot) overwhelmed. It will be easy for people to get hunkered down in their own busyness, believing that they are The Busiest of Them All, The Most Put Upon, The Most Overloaded.
The truth is that the system is set up to keep people too busy with their own lives and jobs and obligations and activities and worries and concerns to the point that they are conveniently distracted from the bigger picture.
The influence of Jupiter in Sagittarius indicates the importance of keeping the bigger picture firmly in our sights, staying clear on our own context within that bigger picture.
Jupiter spends one year in each of the signs, taking 12 years to make a full spin through the zodiac.
In a very real way, as Jupiter moves direct in its final pass through Sagittarius for 12 years, we're setting a tone for truth and meaning in our lives (or, unfortunately, for the lack of those things) by the way in which we conduct ourselves.
As the personal planets in Virgo activate the mutable t-square with Jupiter and Neptune, we're required to work out the fine points as far as how we put our truth, our beliefs, and our guiding philosophies into active, daily practise in practical ways. Taking on this (somewhat sticky) challenge now ensures that we do not have to deal with the unpleasant ramifications of compromising our truth or our selves. Having a backbone now, despite the difficulty, holds form in many ways for the next 12 years of our lives.
Yes, this is big. Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system, and its themes are big, too.
Some big illusions are set to pop under these Virgo-heavy t-square dynamics. Some Golden Pedestals are about to crumble.
But it takes diligence on our parts to help facilitate this...
"The ideal" versus "the reality" becomes a stronger theme, including how we can make reality the very foundation of our ideals. Integrating these things rather than polarizing them. With relationship planets Venus and Mars in Virgo so strongly involved, relationships are a primary area where this theme comes front and centre.
It's the perfect, Facebook-ready outward appearances versus the up-close, nitty-gritty reality behind closed doors. It's quite mind-boggling to see the gaping chasm between the polished, social media imagery of relationship and the many problems that can exist (for everyone) in a real-life, day-to-day relationship.
We're being confronted by some of these themes (glossy surface imagery versus a more accurate or realistic take on things) so that we can see through and disarm the illusions, the superficialities, and the harmful concept of "perfection" - in relationships and otherwise.
This Virgo season, under a Virgo stellium and powerful mutable t-square, a lot of work, a lot of diligence, and a lot of attention to detail will be required. To successfully navigate these astro conditions, we must apply our Virgoan discernment to quite a precise and relentless degree.
These clashing mutable energies are pretty messy, and Virgo abhors a mess...
We're separating what is truly useful to us from the noisy, the illusory, and the diversionary.
This Virgo season (August 23 to September 23) has a "treading our little asses off to keep our heads above water" feel to it. We're working hard to keep our focus and to keep our cool.
The pressure and over-activity indicated by the mutable t-squares build during the last week of August and first half of September, culminating in a Pisces Full Moon at 21 degrees on September 13.
Immediately following the Full Moon - on September 14 - we find some relief as Mercury and Venus enter Libra, still traveling in exact conjunction. We start to seek balance, beauty, peace, and harmony, some respite as we near the end of an overly-busy and challenging Virgo season.
The final Jupiter in Sagittarius square to Neptune in Pisces occurs September 21, one final acute point before the Sun enters Libra in the wee hours of September 23, marking equinox in the northern hemisphere.
Full disclosure of my own guiding philosophy under this Jupiter-Neptune square:
As a working class, anarchist/Plutonic punk astrologer, I don't believe in hierarchy. I believe hierarchical power structures (and the exploitation and coercion built into them) are the root of much unnecessary suffering on this planet, and the nullification of hierarchical power would bring us to a much healthier, more humane, and more functional way of being. Removing institutionalized hierarchical power dynamics (the way nearly all institutions and organizations are set up) would release the full magic of life on this planet, allowing human beings and human societies to re-organize and solve problems that have intentionally gone unsolved by the power schemes for millennia.
I don't legitimize hierarchical bullshit. I don't recognize it as in any way legitimate. This ethic goes to the deepest depths of my life and work. There really are no untouchable sacred cows for me when it comes to the truth. I won't shy away from a subject just because it is held in hallowed light within the broader society.
I don't ask people to agree with my perspective, but this is the perspective from which I come as a writer, journalist, and astrologer.
Standing in my own truth and beliefs has caused much social and professional turbulence (a ridiculous amount, really), and I don't suggest anyone follow that path unless personally compelled to do so.
What I do suggest under these astrological energies is a practical clarification of your own truth and beliefs, as well as what these things mean to you and how you can more effectively apply them in your day-to-day life. Getting clear on this and maintaining focus there will be required for the successful navigation of these uber mutable astro energies.
