the complexity of Jupiter
I want to encourage you to start taking a closer look at Jupiter in the chart - I find it to be just as important as Saturn.
I feel like many astrologers just dismiss it as the planet that shows “luck” or “wealth” but it’s so much more. And a lot of times, it shows up in a way that presents challenge, and encourages self-awareness and growth.
I wanted to make an (in-exhaustive) list of how I see Jupiter functioning in charts as more shadow/challenge rather than all blessings and luck.
To not have this side of Jupiter in our awareness is short-sided and not the complete story of this complex planet.
Jupiter’s morality can undermine Jupiter’s pleasure:
Jupiter is one place where pleasure and morality can be at war. The reconciliation can be hedonism - literally a type of ethics where pleasure is good and proper and prioritized as such. But hedonism is not something that we have good counsel or modeling around in our culture.
What usually happens when pleasure and morals are at odds is a kind of dance of deprivation and gluttony, back and forth. We starve ourselves because pleasure for the sake of pleasure is “bad” and then when our willpower runs out (it *always* does) we binge on the pleasure we were restricting, leading to an odd indulgence where there is so much guilt and shame around finally accessing the pleasure, that there ironically ends up being no pleasure despite our plunge into excess.
Hence one shadow of Jupiter being binging, gluttony, lack of willpower, etc.
2. Jupiter creates even more shame than Saturn imho:
Jupiter governs ethics and morality, because Jupiter governs philosophies, systems, laws and codes. Jupiter also governs religions - for the same reasons as above. Jupiter loves to sort things into binaries that are actually very judge-y: good vs. bad and right vs. wrong being the two most popular ones, with true vs. false following as a close third.
It’s subtle, but Jupiter energy and Jupiter contacts in the chart can carry an undercurrent of this type of judgment - literally the same feeling of standing before god and being “judged” - am I deserving? Am I good or bad? Was that right or wrong? And in addition to judging ourselves, we can also be subtly judging others or external situations and events.
This is why the opposite sign of Sagittarius (which is ruled by Jupiter), Gemini, is often seen as very a-moralistic, detached, and trickster-y. But even seeing Gemini in that light is seeing it through the judgment of Sagittarius! Gemini merely observes and collects data - there is a very neutral and curious energy to Gemini.
Other keywords to watch out for with Jupiter are feeling “blessed” or “privileged” and what kind of judging around hierarchy or deservedness that brings up. It can look like not allowing ourselves our fullest, truest experience of pain because we think who are we to complain when others have it so much worse. Or, conversely, diminishing another’s pain by comparing it to our own which we judge as objectively “worse.” Stuff like this.
3. Jupiter brings feelings of entitlement:
Jupiter is impatient and wants things to be easy and fast and fun! Jupiter can have a sense of entitlement - like we “deserve” (a Jupiter keyword) something without having to work for it. With Jupiter we want things to just fall in our lap.
Another keyword for Jupiter is “luck” - we start judging ourselves as “lucky” or “unlucky.” But anytime you invoke luck, you are minimizing your own agency to make your own luck. Because we feel entitled, we feel as though we shouldn’t have to work hard, or endure any sort of setbacks.
This can bump us into victim mentality or a graspy, demanding type of energy, where we spend lots of energy on wishing and complaining vs. spending it more wisely on taking action and making steady progress. There can be mental scripts around “I deserve this!” “This is my right to have!” “This should be easier!” etc.
4. Jupiter can cause us to miss opportunities and lose out on success:
There is a sense with Jupiter that everything has to have some higher meaning. People with a lot of the Jupiter archetype are constantly looking for signs and affirmations from the universe that they are on the right path. There is a sense that if it’s meant to happen, it will. And that if it doesn’t feel “aligned” enough, that’s a red flag.
If doors aren’t opening for us, if there are a lot of obstacles, failures, lack of progress, or lack of external enthusiasm about whatever we’re trying to manifest, we make that mean something: that it’s “not meant to be.” This is not necessarily true!
In this case, we can pull in some Saturn medicine, and remind ourselves to just keep our heads down, and keep going, and that just because the road isn’t easy doesn’t mean that we’re doing anything “wrong” (judgment) or that we’re not “supposed” to be here or have the thing.
5. Jupiter can cause us to be close-minded
Jupiter loves to make meaning and to syncretize! But what this means is that if we encounter some new data that doesn’t fit in with our previous values and belief systems, or some data that is resisting our attempts at making a cohesive meaning or narrative, instead of being curious and detached around it (Gemini) we are likely to label it “wrong” or “untrue” which then gives us the go-ahead to discard that bit of data as though it never existed in the first place.
This type of rigidity around a pre-existing closed belief system or particular worldview can easily turn into dogma. If we are *very* enthusiastic about a particular set of ideas or beliefs, Jupiter can even take on a proselytizing or preaching nature, where we are overstepping other’s boundaries without realizing it, just pushing our own ideas of what we think is the universal truth onto them.
6. Jupiter can give us a god complex or hubris
In charts, when Jupiter is on the AC/DC axis, or in the 7th or 1st house, one reading is that the person might be a cheater who genuinely can’t see how that is hurting anyone else, but is just chasing something yummy. We can feel like any action we take can be justified and is excusable or even “good”.
We can also rewrite or shift our code of ethics (Sagittarius is mutable) on a case by case basis, always making sure the action we wish to take (or took) is appropriate and condoned. Jupiter/Sagittarius can sometimes see itself as the ultimate authority (Saturn polarity). Even if the person ostensibly subscribes to a higher power or external authority, they might have a script about how they are the only one who can interpret the higher power’s messaging correctly or that they are exempted from the code of conduct because “the ends justified the means.”
Jupiter can make us sure that we know best and that things will work out for us - indeed, things are “meant to” work out for us - and because of this belief we might take actions that are a little aggressive and ethically questionable - but we filter them through Jupiter as totally appropriate and even noble. Jupiter can make us feel like we “can get away with it,” another thought that pulls in this Jupiterian idea of “luck.”
7. Jupiter can register as a bipolar-like pattern
Jupiter is naturally optimistic and idealistic - Jupiter sees all the possibilities and fun! There’s the part of Jupiter that actually thinks it is totally doable and realistic to have all the dreams come true, and all the peak experiences all the time. So there is a type of high based on all the possibilities and enthusiasm, but then there can be a crash when that doesn’t come through.
If things don’t fall into place in a Jupiterian way, we can feel oddly cheated and depressed - like we shot for the moon, didn’t even land amongst one star, so what next? Life feels bleak, and we think, why bother with anything at all if it’s not going to be the Jupiterian ideal? There’s a sense that it feels hard and/or pointless to settle into anything less than the magical vista Jupiter shared.
There can also be a sense of frustration and wanting to give up. With Jupiter, we feel like if we are doing all the “right” things, there shouldn’t be suffering, setbacks, or hardship. There’s a type of implicit bargain where, if the moral/ethical codes are followed, then the perfect life/job/relationship should be the reward. In reality, life doesn’t work that way, and even if we are doing “all the right things” life can (and will) still feel very unfair and painful oftentimes.
Did you resonate with one or more of these items?
Let’s see where Jupiter is in your chart and work with this planet constructively and creatively!
