The scariest planet in astrology isn’t Mars or Saturn. We tend to think that it is because both of these planets are considered malefics. Saturn humbles while Mars cuts. But you know what? When we talk about astrology amongst ourselves, when we talk about discipline or fighting, I don’t think people get that scared.
Disciplines can often feel soothing. We like to imagine that we are in control of our lives. A lot of people like Saturn because of this (even though I’m not sure that Saturn gives us as much control as we like to think). Mars, too, can be calming. Mars is about doing something about the situation. Mars also feeds our illusions around control.
You know what the scariest planet in astrology is? It’s Jupiter.
Jupiter is the planet of luck. Luck?! Fuck that. You know what luck brings to mind for me? Uncertainty, precariousness, and fear. You want to get lucky but you know that you can’t control the outcome. Lucky is cruel. Some people have it and some people don’t. If you have it, then you can only lose it.
Jupiter is power, it’s freedom, and it’s also the future. Those are the three most terrifying things imaginable.
I’m not sure that it’s possible to work with Jupiter. The doctrine of work and Jupiter just don’t seem to go together. Maybe it’s possible to work with Jupiter alongside Saturn. The two planets are often seen as a pair whether that’s in myth or just in the zodiac. Sagittarius, Jupiter ruled, is next to Capricorn which is Saturn ruled. Pisces, also Jupiter ruled, is next to Aquarius and that’s Saturn ruled.
Working with Jupiter alongside Saturn feels like pushing and pulling. There’s the illusion of control and then there’s straight up power. What is power? Sometimes, the dynamic between the two planets feels like that thing psychologists call the locus of control. Even if you can’t control everything, you have the power to live your own life as yourself.
Luck is a monster. There’s a Chinese fable: a guy finds a donkey and everyone tells him he’s very lucky. He tells them to wait and see. The donkey ends up kicking his son and that breaks the son’s leg. Everyone is now saying that he’s very unlucky. He tells them to wait and see. Then, there’s a war and every son in the village is drafted for the army. However, our guy’s son isn’t because he has a broken leg. Everyone tells him that he’s very lucky again. That’s as much as I remember of the story but it goes on and on like that. Luck turns to misfortune and then again to fortune.
How is it possible to work with Jupiter? The future? The future is just something that happens but never arrives. You don’t work with it. It’s just there. It’s something that you consider but can’t really think about.
What’s power? Power is the ability to shape the future. In reality, no one has power. However, we pretend that some people do and then this becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.
Freedom, too, is elusive. It’s hard to imagine freedom except against something. Freedom from (fill in the blank). What is freedom on its own? It’s hard to say. Is freedom a blank slate? A blank slate, in my opinion, is the most humbling thing creatively speaking. It also doesn’t exist. Originality doesn’t exist.
Maybe freedom is the fantasy that we can make our own future. Power is what we feel when our fantasy as a gamble pays off. Luck tells us that it might and it might not. We’ll never know. You might save a lot of money for school but then get hit by a car and end up using that money for medical bills. You might have no savings but get a sudden windfall from the local government after falling on a sidewalk.
Basically, Jupiter isn’t a planet that one can really practice. It’s more of something that occurs to you. In a way, it’s the only certainty. In life you’re only certain of uncertainty. The only sure thing you know about the future is that anything could happen.
Maybe that’s why Jupiter is thought of as a philosopher. Philosophy isn’t something that you get up to practice from nine to five. It’s something that occurs to you as you live life unaware, something that you can be open to but risk corrupting with overly intentional cultivation.
I didn’t write this article because I want to encourage people to be less afraid of Jupiter. We should have a fear of the uncertain future. If we didn’t fear it, then we might be delusional. Maybe we are able to continue living because we fear the future. If we didn’t fear it, if we had immaculate control over life, then we would get bored pretty fast. Life would have no meaning. Thank jove for Jupiter.
