All About Jupiter
In the 1989 movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Harrison Ford searches for the Holy Grail. In his journey, he comes to a chasm that seems impossible to cross. A leap of faith is required. After rolling his eyes in exasperation, he takes a step into the seeming abyss, and by what appears to be a miracle, he can now cross the chasm.
Faith. Confidence. With it, we can accomplish great things, things that seem impossible, absurd - ideas that are so lofty that they appear unreachable and ridiculous. There is a force in us that needs to believe, take leaps of faith, to just 'go for it.' This is Jupiter. When we embrace Jupiter, we take that leap and we do those things because we just simply didn't know we couldn't. This is not the planet of learning from your mistakes, but the planet of try it anyway!
Wherever Jupiter is in our chart is where we can renew our faith in life, regain a feeling that life is worth living, and capture an optimistic attitude, find hope. Jupiter is larger than life, the part of us that has an urge to expand and gather all the knowledge and experience the world has to offer. Have you ever been so suddenly struck by happiness for an unidentified reason, where a grin splits your face and you feel you might burst? That may be a dose of Jupiter. When you are low, look to Jupiter's house and sign to discover a good way to get you believing in life again, to foster your faith in the good things. We need Jupiter sometimes to get us through the tough times.
Jupiter is the part of us that is the least petty or fear based. When we feel confident and optimistic, we usually find that we feel more good will toward others, more of an inclination toward generosity. This planet encourages us to spread the good feelings around, and bring in some good karma! Jupiter is not the will to live, but the enjoyment and embracing of life itself. Jupiter is so big (it is appropriately the biggest planet in our solar system) that wherever it is in our chart, we can be even bigger than we think we can. In fact, we may even find we are underestimating ourselves. Jupiter's location in our chart tells us where we need to take a leap of faith and trust that the Universe will meet us and lift us up, if we just believe and take the step. It is also known as the planet of luck. This is not because Jupiter showers gifts down on everyone automatically, but only to those who take a risk, who have enough faith to take the first step across the chasm. It's like entering a contest - you can't win if you don't play. You can't succeed if you don't try. Try and you will fly, that's Jupiter's message.
Jupiter does not encourage our meekness or humility, but we must also be careful of overinflation. Imagine having so much faith and trust in life that you would not think twice about walking down a dark alley because you are invincible! We must be smart about where we direct this expansive energy. The dark side of Jupiter is actually SO much light that all common sense floats away. As with Sagittarius, wide-eyed optimism can get us into trouble. Or we can simply become lazy, getting by on our luck instead of participating in the creation of it. It's like a matching funds program run by the Universe. Take the step and it helps you take two more. If we expand with nothing but hot air inside of us, we will soon be deflated. Jupiter, if we leave it unchecked, can also create a blind spot in us, encouraging us to only see the light and ignore the dark.
"Don't be afraid to take a big step. You can't cross a chasm in two small jumps." ~David Lloyd George
Here's a small and imperfect Jupiter 'cookbook'. Find your Jupiter sign and house for a snippet about your natal chart. If you don't know where your Jupiter is, you can create a free chart here and find out! Remember, anything taken out of context of the entire blend of your natal chart is like an ingredient in a dish without the other ingredients to add nuance and complexity. Digest these ingredients with a grain of salt, so to speak!
Jupiter in Aries
You can develop confidence and renew your faith in life by taking action. Your big leaps are of a courageous and bold nature, where you dare to face the bears with your own teeth!
Jupiter in Taurus
You can develop confidence and renew your faith in life by never getting too far from your inner animal instincts. Your big leaps aren’t sudden, but they are stretching and they rise to more of a crescendo than a sunburst.
Jupiter in Gemini
You can develop confidence and renew your faith in life by having fun learning! Expand your mind. Your big leaps are usually quick once you get a new idea, and are expressed by excitement about the new possibilities.
Jupiter in Cancer
You can develop confidence and renew your faith in life by diving into yourself and activities that reinforce your bond with yourself. Your big leaps may not bring on fireworks, but they are actions of trust in revealing that inner self, and sometimes having the confidence to love and nurture someone else.
Jupiter in Leo
You can develop confidence and renew your faith in life by expressing yourself creatively and boisterously. Your big leaps are BIG. You find joy in generosity and maybe even playing host. This is the kingly placement, and you as a royal know how to care for your subjects.
Jupiter in Virgo
You can develop confidence and renew your faith in life by perfecting yourself, by working hard to get the things right you feel are important to you. Your big leaps usually aren’t crazy, and are toward a practical end, but are approached with the questions what can I learn here and what good will it do me?
Jupiter in Libra
You can develop confidence and renew your faith in life by reaching out to others and feeling them reach back to you. You are rewarded when your interactions with others are fair and equal, and especially rewarded when you find a sense of equilibrium and calm in your life. Your big leaps may often be initiated to close the gap between you and another person.
Jupiter in Scorpio
You can develop confidence and renew your faith in life by getting to the bottom of a story — especially your own. Be ruthless and honest in your (self) examinations. Your big leaps tend to be extreme and transformative — cutting things to the bone. Take no prisoners!
Jupiter in Sagittarius
You can develop confidence and renew your faith in life by adventuring — whether it’s an adventure of the body, the mind, or the soul. Your big leaps take you very far from where you started and are best when they challenge you.
Jupiter in Capricorn
You can develop confidence and renew your faith in life by developing competence and integrity, and especially by strengthening your ability to rely on yourself. Working hard for achievements you are proud of help build confidence as well. Your big leaps enable you to take a chance on building the future you want to create.
Jupiter in Aquarius
You can develop confidence and renew your faith in life by walking your own path, no matter what anyone says. Your big leaps involve taking a chance on yourself and following your own genius, usually in a sudden and decisive way.
Jupiter in Pisces
You can develop confidence and renew your faith in life by cultivating a trusting attitude toward the Universe and what it is trying to teach you, as well as expanding your metaphysical and spiritual side. Your big leaps are of an intuitive nature, leaping into the unknown purely on faith and surrender to the greater process.
Jupiter in the 1st house
It is likely that you often put a great foot forward. You need to approach the world with an open attitude, and see life through a filter of optimism and faith. You need to foster an attitude that you can handle anything that comes your way, because you probably can! Just you is enough — who you are and how you see things enables you to live a life that some may call luck, but it’s you that makes your luck, just by being who you truly are. Your blind spot? You may struggle with objectively acknowledging any personal criticism about the way you come across to people.
Jupiter in the 2nd house
When it comes to your material resources, you may find that somehow you always have enough, you somehow always seem to get by. It’s your emotional resources that you may especially be underestimating. No matter how great your self-worth is, think higher. Your greatness depends almost entirely on how much you are willing to believe you can do, and therefore how much you are willing to risk to prove yourself to yourself. Your blind spot? You may struggle with relying too much on external resources as a scapegoat for why you can’t achieve what you want.
Jupiter in the 3rd house
You are developing faith in your voice in this life, and an open minded exchange in conversation is greatly beneficial and renewing for you. Narrow minded people or overly pessimistic ways of thinking are not for you, you can think big — and talk big! Have enough faith and confidence to explore new ideas and to ask questions in this life, you are learning a great deal. Your blind spot? You may struggle with seeing only the positive facts and ignoring the facts you don’t want to hear. Also, be careful of talking bigger than you can deliver.
Jupiter in the 4th house
You need to establish a home life–a haven–that feels safe because it is accepting and open. Joy in the home is crucial for you to feel safe and nurtured. Build a home and a home atmosphere that you can revel in and renew your faith in life just by being in it. It’s possible you may also enjoy opening your home to others in the spirit of Jupiterian generosity — maybe just for an evening or even longer. Your blind spot? You may struggle with acknowledging when something in your current home life or in your early childhood isn’t/wasn’t all roses and sunshine.
Jupiter in the 5th house
You are generous with your fun — you want everyone to join in! It is beneficial to trust in the moment. You will also benefit from playmates that seem to have an open minded and inclusive attitude — the more the merrier. Your own personal joy and creativity is inspired when you allow freedom and generosity to abound. Your blind spot? You may struggle with having too much fun. Over-indulging in certain kinds of fun can turn into addictions, and then they ain’t so fun anymore.
Jupiter in the 6th house
You are capable of more than you think — and are more skilled than you think. Don’t be afraid to try and develop skills that you may suspect are too hard for you, chances are you’ll exceed your expectations if you go for it! The 6th house is also representative of those daily chores that we all have to do, and it is rejuvenating for you when you take one moment and do one activity in your life each day that helps you feel grateful for being alive. Your blind spot? You may struggle with overdoing it on the humility and biting off more than you can chew in your daily activities and obligations.
Jupiter in the 7th house
Relationships with Jupiterian people are beneficial for you. Look for people that have a bigger than life quality about them. Even if it’s not boisterous or attention-getting, you may find that people whom you engage in relationships with for longer than a weekend have the qualities of generosity and expansiveness that is good for you. However, you’ll need to make sure you sort carefully — dark Jupiterian people may promise more than they can deliver. Your blind spot? You may struggle with projecting either the very positive or the very negative qualities in yourself onto others instead of seeing them in yourself.
Jupiter in the 8th house
You need to take risks and exercise faith when it comes to deep, bonded relationships. This doesn’t mean stupid risks or opening your heart to someone untrustworthy, but that once you find someone you can truly love, you need to take those risks to open your heart deeply to them. You must regain your ability to believe in love and it’s worth and you can do that best in the context of a loving and supportive relationship. Your blind spot? You may struggle with naively trusting the wrong people and letting them get in too close and have more power over you than you have over yourself.
Jupiter in the 9th house
It is beneficial for you to adopt a moral philosophy of good will. You may have come to the true understanding of good will and how it triples when you pass it on, without requiring anything in return. Educating yourself, formally and/or otherwise, is a great way for you to expand your reach, your mind, and your heart, and can bring on a sense of renewal for you. Your blind spot? You may struggle with keeping yourself open to more than just the ‘life is always good’ philosophy when confronted with it in others.
Jupiter in the 10th house
You may be underestimating how important what you came to do in this life is to your community, to the world. Think bigger when it comes to what you want to make of yourself and what you think you have to offer. Develop the qualities of generosity, optimism, and faith, and through that process, you will be led to the work you were meant to do. Your blind spot? You may struggle with putting too much stock in your reputation, to the point that it becomes superficial and irrelevant to who you really are.
Jupiter in the 11th house
Reach for the sky when it comes to your goals. You can accomplish more than you think in the future and be greater than you imagine, if you will just set the goal, even if it seems too pie in the sky. You may find it beneficial to find likeminded people — allies, groups, organizations — that inspire you with their faith and optimism to reach those goals. People that feel that it’s important to have ideals and to shoot for the stars are your people, your tribe. Your blind spot? You may struggle with the tendency to live in the future but not actually create it.
Jupiter in the 12th house
You may benefit from an attitude of a great deal of trust in what the Universe brings to your door. Whether or not you are religious, there is a deep and humanitarian spirituality in you that is unlocked when you open the doors of generosity towards others, especially those less fortunate than you. To you, there are times when you see the pettiness of others and it just seems so wrong — you are very aware of how we could all have enough if we would open our hearts. Your blind spot? You may struggle with understanding when your cycle of action and karma has come back to bite you!