Ah, yes—Jupiter in Virgo. Jupiter is in detriment in Virgo, without triplicity, and wanders around doing its own thing. What happens when the planet of friendship falls in the sign of the hermit?

This piece may be more full of personal anecdotes than other pieces in this series. I have Jupiter in Virgo and so do many of my peers. Jupiter spends a year in a sign so our same age friends tend to have Jupiter in the same signs as our own. Again, Jupiter is a planet of friendship.

I have a funny story to share—I was listening to Chris Brennan’s podcast episode about Jupiter where he interviews Sam Reynolds about Jupiter. Chris asks Sam for an example of a debilitated or harmed Jupiter. Sam says, “Jupiter in Virgo in the eighth house and retrograde.” I immediately frown. My Jupiter is in Virgo in the eighth house. It is also retrograde. When I call Sam out about this the next time I talk to him, he laughs. Yup, my Jupiter is in Virgo. It is debilitated. Another name for debilitation is exile. Jupiter in Virgo, like Jupiter in Gemini, is a Jupiter in exile.

Many of my friends have Jupiter in Virgo. So does Ai Weiwei whose Jupiter sits right on his ascendant.

Ai Weiwei is a Jupiter person. He is a gambler. He’s a world renowned blackjack player. He is also a polyamorist. He has two wives and is full of political opinions. Ai Weiwei is in exile because he isn’t able to go back to China. He is a Jupiter person but his Jupiter is in exile. Regardless of how you feel about Ai Weiwei’s work, I think that we can learn something about how Jupiter works in its exile by studying him as a famous figure.

As the son of a famous poet who was also exiled, Ai Weiwei is part of a political vanguard who was raised in exile, a class that Xi Jinping (who also has Jupiter in exile in Gemini) is also part of. He designed the 2008 Olympic Stadium in Beijing, a grand vision. That’s Jupiter. Even when Jupiter is in detriment, it still wants to be big and grand. However, instead of accepting his power, Ai Weiwei works as a dissident. Ai Weiwei is not simply a common person who speaks against power. Ai Weiwei is someone of a political class who refuses his own family and country’s power, who is able to speak his truth because of his position.

What do we see about Jupiter in Virgo through Ai Weiwei? Jupiter in Virgo refuses its own power.

Jupiter in Virgo people come from all walks of life. Not all of us are powerful artists trying to define life in exile. My aunt, a retired factory worker, also has Jupiter in Virgo. My mom, her sister, has Jupiter in Pisces in the opposite sign. My mom is a Jesus freak who loves spirituality like a drug. My aunt is very different. She says things like, “everyone needs to believe something” and calls people out for being brainwashed by one mode of thinking.

Jupiter in Virgo doubts. This is a skeptic’s Jupiter. We don’t simply believe things. We test things out. We ask questions. We criticize. Jupiter in Virgo is extremely ideologically critical.

What is the philosophy of the zodiac’s eternal skeptic? If you ask a Jupiter in Virgo for their philosophy, you’ll get more doubts than answers. If Jupiter in Virgo believes in freedom, then we also contest how freedom is measured by different schools of thought. If we believe in love, then we also doubt and contest the way love is practiced by those we know.

Jupiter in Virgo refuses power. Idealism is like a flag that people with different lifestyles can unit under. Whoever waves the flag of idealism is also holding a staff, that wand of power. You’ll never catch a Jupiter in Virgo holding a mighty staff. We are more likely to stand off on the sidelines, studying the patterns of how everyone gathers. Notice how Ai Weiwei only identifies as a dissident—not an idealist, not a leftist. Only a dissident.

I have something to propose—I think that Jupiter in Virgo is guided by our skepticism. Skepticism is important because it helps us think critically. I also think that Jupiter in Virgo can be guided by our fear of disappointment, particularly in friendship.

Jupiter in Virgo has a hard time trusting groups of people. We have been let down by groups, anarchist or organized, in the past. We don’t expect other people to understand us. We have a suspicion that group celebrations are not our own. Jupiter in Virgo is guarded in its generosity. It doesn’t call just anyone a friend.

This means that, when Jupiter in Virgo gives, it has done its homework. It’s thought things through. If you have a Jupiter in Virgo friend, that person has thought you through. Jupiter in Virgo people do not do boundless friendships. We choose our friends wisely and we wait for real camaraderie to develop in the long term. We don’t expect friendship just because of similarity. We understand that friendship is also a skill and an issue that has to be worked through.

Issues, issues, and more issues—sometimes, Jupiter in Virgo divides the whole world up into issues.

Sometimes, Jupiter in Virgo’s fears of disappointment are habitual too. Jupiter in Virgo has strong habits. We tend to follow them.

Not everyone lets you down. Life is surprising in that way. If life were predictable like Jupiter in Virgo’s often overthinking brain thinks it to be, then friendship could not exist. Friendship is possible because people surprise you. People can be terrible when they surprise you but they can be wonderful too.

Jupiter in Virgo tends to refuse our own power because we believe that power only corrupts. Power can be corrosive but not acknowledging or understanding the power that you do have corrodes relationships faster. When you refuse to see your own power, you can’t take responsibility for it. Jupiter is the planet of bigness while Virgo is the sign of small pieces conjoined. Jupiter in Virgo tends to shrink away from making big, philosophical statements, from teaching an ideology without deconstructing it, and from acknowledging their own social influence.

I do think that Jupiter in Virgo, myself included, can forsake responsibility in friendship. We can be hermits. Friendship is so precious to Jupiter in Virgos that, sometimes, we refuse responsibility for friendship because we do not want to assume our own importance in someone else’s life. “Who cares about me?” “None of my ideas matter.” “I’m no one important.” These are all Jupiter in Virgo type of statements.

I think that the world needs dissidents and skeptics. Jupiter in Virgo is the least power hungry Jupiter placement. We will take on risk because we don’t mind losing. We also underestimate our own importance because we often refuse to believe that anyone around us wants to uplift us. The reason why Jupiter in Virgo can get so sharply critical is because we tend to speak as though no one is listening. We don’t expect anyone to listen so we think that we can get away with saying anything, however mean. Yes, Jupiter in Virgo knows how to be a bit mean. You know this if you have ever pissed us off.

The philosophy of Jupiter in Virgo has to do with studying power away from the center. Jupiter in Virgo can be fiercely loyal to those cast aside and weakened by any ideology. We are interested in the marginal stories. Jupiter in Virgo suffers from political woundings. We feel that our ideals have been used against us in the past and we proceed with this in mind.

History continues to move forward. Resistance is an ongoing struggle. Jupiter in Virgo will always be there, not at the center of things holding a staff but on the sidelines studying the forgotten. Sometimes, we get unexpectedly surprised with friendship. Our duty, when this happens, is to forget our nihilism for a day and accept our own worthiness.