Jupiter

What I believe: Making sense of tragedy

If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete.  –Viktor Frankl

finding meaning in life

This week a friend of mine went to work and never came home.  His car was hit by a joyrider driving over 100 mph and he died of his injuries in the hospital, leaving behind a beautiful family with two young boys and a loving wife.   He was active in our community and left a wide swath of grief as we attempt to make some kind of sense of this tragedy.

Perhaps my friend’s wife, who in the span of 36 hours became a new widow, will experience a great blessing from this horrific event – I certainly hope that this is the case.  One of my clients who lost her healthy husband over a year ago after a short illness struggles to understand how this could have happened.  What about the parents of the children who have died in these school shootings?  How can we find meaning in this?

Some will say “It’s all part of God’s plan.”  I don’t know if that is enough.   I do believe that some things are fated and beyond our control.  I do believe that we have a contract for our life and we do come into this life with an astrological chart that describes our psychological tendencies and a path that we are likely to take.  Our free will helps us to make some choices along the way, but when a car hits you from behind at 100 mph there is no choice involved there.  That is fate.  How to […]

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By |2019-11-10T19:04:58-05:00January 20th, 2019|Fate, Favorite posts, Inspiration, Life|17 Comments
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Jupiter in Sagittarius: Prepare for adventure! November 2018 – December 2019

Jupiter in SagittariusJupiter left intense Scorpio for sunny Sagittarius on November 8, 2018, a planetary shift heralded around the world with the superlatives you would associate with a planet as big as Jupiter entering a sign as happy as Sagittarius.  Astrological headlines declare “Outgoing, lucky and limitless”; “the upgrade your life needs”; “Getting to Yes”; “taking you on a beautiful adventure.”   Everyone loves Jupiter, the planet of good fortune, luck and abundance.

Looking back to 2007

Because Jupiter rules Sagittarius its power to expand and open up new possibilities can operate unimpeded by other influences. Jupiter in Sagittarius seeks adventure, prosperity, faith and meaning in life. Jupiter generally takes a full year to go through each sign in the zodiac, and last traversed through Sagittarius in 2007.  At the time, Pluto (obsession, destruction, regeneration) was finishing its journey through Sagittarius where it had overseen an obsession with bigger houses, more money, self-help and a relentless optimism that took a dive when Pluto moved into Capricorn in 2008.  It’s difficult to separate the influence of Jupiter in Sagittarius that year from the Pluto problems, but one thing we know for sure is that every aspect of astrological archetypes has a dark side and a light one.  Saturn, that devil of hardship and difficult lessons, bestows strength and the ability to master the physical universe.  And Jupiter, the light of beneficence, can encourage so much faith and confidence that we don’t see the train coming as we veer off the track.

About Jupiter

Jupiter in the birthchart or by transit provides the impulse for us to grow and evolve. It is involved in the realm of faith and the search for meaning in life, and in doing so there is a bit of restlessness […]

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By |2019-11-30T02:21:22-05:00November 9th, 2018|Planetary cycles|1 Comment
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Astrological advice: When will Jupiter bring me my ideal relationship?

astrological adviceEach week I answer a reader question using their astrological chart.  Because this service is designed to help as many people as possible, preference is given to questions which will have benefit and interest others.  If you have a burning question you think others will share, please email me and it will be considered! 

Q:
Jupiter has been transiting my seventh house since October 2017, I was expecting for a relationship to appear in my life. I was sure that just like Meghan Markle fell into Harry’s life, someone would fall into mine and vice versa. So I have been going to parties, pubs, weddings, meetings… any invitation I am saying yes (just like Jim Carrey in Yes Man movie), but nothing -besides drunk men- falls on my lap.

Jupiter is about to move to my 8th house and I am worried -frightened, indeed- that I will end up missing that experience in this life. I really want to marry and have a family of my own… but it looks like  no matter what I do, no matter where I go… I end up the same. I am up to the point where I am tired and just want to curl in my bed… I hate loud places, I hate going to parties where I am stalked by married men, I hate going to the beach to be asked by kids half my age, but I am scared that if I don’t, I will be missing this opportunity.

What are your thoughts on this? what piece of advice/light could you give me on this? Are my expectations on Jupiter wrong or too high?

A:

When I was single for about nine years after my divorce I too watched the passages of […]

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By |2019-11-10T19:39:06-05:00August 30th, 2018|Advice, Relationships|4 Comments
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The difference between happiness and joy

Click on image for animation

At first glance, we might think that happiness and joy are the same thing.  Both make us feel good, both are qualities that we seek.  In fact, embedded in the United States Constitution is the inalienable right to the pursuit of happiness.

In reality, though, I would argue that the two are quite different both in quality and in their effect on our human lives.  Happiness is a feeling, an emotion – a sense of pleasure and contentment. Happiness comes to us when we feel that life is worth living; that the circumstances in our lives have manifested in a way to generate a feeling that life is good.  The astrological correlation for this sensation is Jupiter – the Greater Benefic, the planet that helps to activate these good feelings of abundance and confidence and which often brings about actual good luck and good fortune.  Venus, the Lesser Benefic, is also involved in good feelings in its role as the seeker of pleasure, love and beauty.

Though a dictionary might say that joy is a synonym for happiness, they have a different quality.  Where happiness is based upon life circumstances and events that are good rather than bad, joy is an inner experience that springs from the heart and the soul.  Happiness comes and goes depending on our circumstance; joy arises from the soul when we feel completely aligned in our sense of Self.

Joy is defined in dictionaries as being synonymous with exultation, jubilation, exhilaration, elation, euphoria, bliss, rapture – sensations that activate a higher perspective than mere happiness and require a turning away from attachment to the things that come and go.  To me, this is represented by the full and complete activation […]

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By |2019-11-10T19:09:04-05:00April 12th, 2018|Inspiration, Life|19 Comments
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