Jupiter Opposing Saturn: Culture Clashes and Crashes

(From the Better Late Than Never Dept.: my article published in the Summer 2011 issue of The Ingress, New York's NCGR newsletter)


The Jupiter/Saturn opposition was exact on March 28, 2011. Just a few days later I came down with the flu — it was the sickest I’ve been in ten years (during the Jupiter/Pluto opposition, I caught pneumonia). After recovering, I tried to write about this difficult aspect between Jupiter and Saturn, but kept bouncing back and forth between the personal (the effect of transiting Jupiter in “I yam what I am an’ tha’s all I yam” Aries) and the “Other” (Saturn transiting “I am yours, please be mine” Libra). How frustrating I found it to be unable to land firmly in either camp…until finally I decided to embrace, rather than keep trying to escape, this seesaw dilemma. I realized the very problem I had been wrestling with was emblematic of the opposition aspect in general — and the growing sense of indignation and cynicism I felt whenever I tuned in to current world events was a perfect read of Jupiter opposing Saturn in particular.

When two planets oppose each other, balance is challenged; another manifestation of the opposition is crisis in a relationship. In sharp contrast to the conjunction, which expresses itself most vividly through an individual’s psychology and direct actions, the opposition aspect brings relationship dynamics, with all their attendant pains and gains, to the fore. Boiling the opposition aspect down to one word, we are left with Libra. If we count six signs forward from Aries, the first sign of the zodiac, we reach Libra, which marks the Autumnal Equinox, half the zodiacal circle of 360 degrees (i.e., 180 degrees) — so it makes absolute sense for the aspect that corresponds most closely with the sign of Libra to be the opposition. They are indeed interchangeable, for Libra, just like the opposition aspect, derives its energy from relationships — not just the ones that occur between people, but ones that involve abstract ideas and attractively arranged objects. Libra, the charming diplomat of the zodiac, searches eternally for balance; its frequent flip-flops and indecisiveness can (and often does) frustrate the socks off more stable, grounded signs.

Although the waxing trine aspect, which occurs before the opposition, encourages romance as well as creativity, two planets forming this type of trine (e.g., Sun in Cancer trine the faster-moving Moon in Scorpio) are more likely to encourage self-expression than other-directed motives or actions. It is only when we reach the stage of opposition that we become truly conscious of another entity’s existing apart from ourselves — the rub, however, is that we have the unfortunate knack of projecting our own desires, fears, and needs on to others, whatever the relationship is. Even with a relatively neutral attitude, we still view others through our own personal lens. Therefore, pure objectivity is a pipedream. We believe that we are looking at someone while we are essentially gazing into a mirror. What is mine, and what is yours? When an opposition aspect is involved, answering that question is not so simple.

Situated between the quickly orbiting “personal” inner planets and the slow-moving “transpersonal” outer planets, Jupiter and Saturn mediate between the individual and the collective, and in so doing are our solar system’s “societal” and “cultural” planets. Their complementary energies are necessary for building social networks of all sorts, for all species, from penguin colonies to Facebook. And such social networking is a key component toward building entire nations. Jupiter and Saturn must coexist, for these two planets are flip sides of the same coin — or, even more evocatively, the two parts necessary to maintain breathing: inhalation and exhalation. Both Jupiter and Saturn deal with institutions and values, and assist in forming people’s identities as part of “something bigger” than themselves as individuals — a process that influences every single one of us, no matter how connected or disconnected each of us is from our respective cultures and societies.

Jupiter, which rules the Fire sign Sagittarius, encompasses higher education, long-distance travel and the “exotic,” the law, in-laws, religion, gambling, philosophy, ideology, excess, and life’s want-to-dos. Saturn, ruler of the Earth sign Capricorn (the sign that, not coincidentally, immediately follows Sagittarius), manifests as “the establishment” or Old Guard, career, public achievement, authority, structure, foundation, empires, corporations, deprivation, and the have-to-dos of life. Jupiter is expansion; Saturn, contraction. Without frostbitten Father Saturn, societal relations — indeed, the entire world — would be akin to Wonderland: utterly lacking in logic, proportion, gravity, time. To continue with literary analogies, without avuncular Uncle Jupiter, life would resemble 1984: heavily constricted and restricted, with zero privacy and wholesale censorship; each person’s individuality would be recognized only via custom-tailored methods of torture and brainwashing to keep rebel transgressors in line. (It is interesting to consider that the sign that follows Capricorn is Aquarius — a sign well known for its rebelliousness and unconventionality.)

Of course, some societies and nations are more Jupiterian or Saturnian than others. It is also true that a dominating society can usher the nation it calls home through a Jupiter-oriented phase (e.g., the United States in the 1960s and ’70s), then pull a 180 and take the same nation through a Saturn-oriented cycle (e.g., most of the world in the 1930s). But no matter what the era, whenever one culture or institution claims superiority over another and communicates in no uncertain terms (via speeches, editorials, laws, and/or warfare) to the other side how it should behave, whether the conflict stems from social, political, economic, or religious differences, trouble pretty much always ensues, and during a Jupiter-Saturn opposition, that trouble is doubled.

Jupiter-Saturn aspects are far from uncommon, but conjunctions and oppositions between the two planets occur only every nineteen to twenty years (approximately one cycle of the Nodes of the Moon — interestingly, the North Node or “dragon’s head” is associated with Jupiter, while the South Node or “dragon's tail relates to Saturn.) Because trine and sextile aspects indicate smooth sailing, while squares indicate inner conflict, we can therefore expect that on a societal level, the most powerful and strongly felt Jupiter-Saturn aspects are the conjunction and the opposition. The conjunction seems to give birth to a movement or event/s that builds during the Jupiter-Saturn waxing square and either explodes or implodes during the opposition, approximately one decade after the conjunction. Consider relatively recent Jupiter/Saturn conjunctions: 1940 (World War Two), 1960 (which ushered in the famous/infamous “sixties” throughout much of the world), 1980 (resurgent conservatism acting as the final nail in the coffin of said “sixties”), and 2000.

On a personal note, my Saturn Return occurred in May 2000, just a few weeks before the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction. At that time I was living in Manhattan and telecommuting (Uranus) as an independent contractor (Uranus again) for a company putting together an online (Uranus again), business-oriented (Saturn) dictionary (Jupiter). It was only a part-time job, but my parents (Saturn) were my landlords; I paid them what I could on the monthly maintenance, even though none of us was thrilled that it was peanuts (indeed, two Mays later this arrangement came to an abrupt end). My first novel (Jupiter) was in the galleys stage at a print-on-demand publishing house, and Dell Horoscope had bought two of my astrology articles (Uranus), so I felt some sense of achievement (Saturn). I celebrated my Saturn Return by signing up for yoga classes; this turned out to be a wise decision, for I still practice yoga, and have more flexibility and balance, both inner and outer, than I did in my twenties.

In May 2000, much of the world was still blissfully pre-9/11 in its consciousness. Yet that bliss, particularly in the United States, was only possible via willful ignorance (one of the negative traits of Taurus). At the forefront of current events was the dot-com bust, an all-too-apropos manifestation of the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in Taurus (money) squaring Uranus in its ruling sign of technologically driven Aquarius (a placement that had triggered the dot-com bubble back in the mid-1990s). I myself was let go without warning from my dot-commish job in late 2000, when the R&D people decided the company had no more money to put into the online dictionary. Unfortunately, U.S. society at large, instead of learning from this bust — much less recalling the get-rich-quick speculations of the Roaring Twenties, which led to a calamitous stock market crash and the Great Depression—invested in yet another bubble, housing, that peaked during the Jupiter-Saturn square (with Jupiter in Scorpio, i.e., other people’s money, squaring Saturn in prideful, ostentatious Leo) and burst in 2008.

Another embodiment of the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in the money sign Taurus was the birth of the Euro, a currency intended to unify the Continent — but this has not turned out to be the case. A recent headline in Economics NewsPaper.com proclaimed “Controversy over Europe: The Euro Divides the FDP.” As for the value of higher education (Jupiter), many college graduates of the past decade can look forward to paying off their student loans for the rest of their lives while working jobs that lack benefits and do not require college degrees — that is, if they are fortunate enough to be hired.

Along with willful ignorance, rampant consumerism and greed are negative hallmarks of Taurus, and during the decade that followed the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in Taurus, the gap between the haves and the have-nots in the United States grew alarmingly wide, reaching in 2007 the same proportions as 1928 (talk about history repeating itself). Although one hedge-fund hotshot was just convicted for insider trading, Wall Street “banksters” have gone unpunished while Main Streeters are informed that the recession is over — a “jobless recovery,” thanks to automation, offshore outsourcing, and hire freezes — but if anyone happens to still be unemployed at this point, it is their own lazy fault. Corporations (Saturn) have officially been recognized by the Supreme Court (Jupiter) as having individual rights at the same time that they are recognized as “too big to fail” and given bailouts and tax breaks, while individuals (except for the super-rich ones) have to ante up. Meanwhile, America’s surplus of 2000 has turned into a deficit so extreme that we have officially reached the debt ceiling. There is now a heated debate on whether or not to raise it.

The populace is starting to notice the power corporate interests have over (and in) politics and the media, and exactly how much of the federal budget goes to the military and prisons; however, unlike Egypt, there has been no revolution in America — just isolated protests while the rest of us sit glued to American Idol or Who Wants to Marry an Immoral but Incredibly Hot Bazillionaire?, posts another Facebook status update, or shrugs and says and as long as we have ours, we shouldn’t rock the boat.

In 2000 Osama Bin Laden’s militant Islamic global network al-Qaeda was growing stronger, yet its founder and leader remained free to plan and carry out the atrocities of 9/11 despite the opportunity to arrest him, despite intelligence warnings of imminent terrorist attack in the summer of 2001. This was yet another example of the slipshod laziness that Taurus can succumb to — but it was also highly calculated greed involving global assets. The killing of Osama bin Laden occurred on the heels of the Jupiter-Saturn opposition, but global terrorism itself is far from dead. Unsurprisingly, almost immediately following Bin Laden’s death and quick burial at sea, threats of retribution were issued. Bin Laden’s own son issued a statement that the United States violated international law in failing to capture his father alive to stand trial.

Writer and philosopher George Santayana (who was, fittingly, a Sagittarius), famously observed, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” If we are ever to learn from Jupiter-Saturn cycles and make real societal progress, we must heed those words and stop treating culture, institutions, and the economy like the weather — they are human constructs. Although come to think of it, humans managed to create global warming, so we should start taking responsibility for the weather as well.

Moon in Sagittarius Update

Yours truly will have her second article published in the next issue of Ingress, NCGR's quarterly newsletter, which will be mailed out to NCGR subscribers in NYC on June 21.

But faithful readers of my site will be able to read this piece, which gets to the bottom of the recent Jupiter-Saturn opposition, well before the Summer Solstice! Stay tuned...

Post-Full Moon Reflections

As a Plutonian with Pluto exactly squaring my Midheaven and a 10th House Sun, I have a love/hate relationship with authority and officialdom.

I want to Be Somebody in capital letters -- actually, make that Somebodies, as I wear more than one hat careerwise (as one might expect from a Gemini Midheaven). Yet all the self-promoting I must do in order to ascend a rung or two higher on that never-ending (for a 10th House Sun, anyway) ladder of Something in capital letters, as I lack an agent or pilot fish of any kind to do it for me, gives me a serious stomachache -- even as my heavily aspected Mercury (widely conjunct Sun and tightly conjunct Mars in Cancer, square Jupiter in Libra, and exactly trine Neptune in Scorpio), plus an ultrasociable 1st House Uranus in Libra, readily engage in this song-and-dance.

Basically, I'm an introvert masking as an extrovert (except in the workplace; I do not blast Pandora toward the end of the day or hang out in the kitchen area unless I'm boiling water for my late-afternoon cup of tea). It does not trouble me in the slightest to enter a room full of strangers, whether it's a party or a meeting or some combination of the two (as it was at last night's NCGR panel discussion), because I survived middle school and sleepover camp in the time before adults began to at least pretend to care about the harm that bullying can do to young'uns. Nor does it bother me to be the Stranger in the Midst because I am fully aware that at social functions, most people put on their public persona -- their joker mask, their king-of-the-hill zoot suit, their small-talk tutu -- and that meeting people under such circumstances is not the same as really knowing them (though it's a perfectly valid point from which to begin plumbing their depths).

That said, I was aware yesterday that on the approaching Full Moon across my Ascendant/Descendant, it was likely that I was going to be highly visible, even with the Moon still transiting my 12th House -- hardly a Fly on the Wall at NCGR. I was also on high fashion alert with Venus in Aquarius squaring my Saturn in Taurus, which translated into a bohemian long Indian-print skirt (Aquarius), but my entire outfit was black (Saturn), and I decided to forgo my specs, as contact lenses would allow for better eye contact. I believe it was also this square that triggered my becoming an NCGR member last night, though the Full Moon had a lot to do with this decision it as well.

It was a freakishly warm day in New York City (76 degrees according to an online weather source), and the room in which the panel discussion was held was in a building just a few blocks from my office. Unfortunately the room itself was quite overheated, but in a way this was a good thing, since it killed my appetite (I did not wind up having a light supper till after I got home at 10:something). I'd estimate there were around 30 to 40 people there. Some other people besides myself were becoming members that night, too. It seemed like a real community, with plenty of friendly greetings going on before the panel discussion began.

The panel discussion itself was very interesting; four astrologers from four different generations held forth on various astrological topics, three of which were based on studying the notes from focus groups conducted back in the 1980s by a highly esteemed, recently deceased astrologer and NCGR member Patricia Morimundo. Each astrologer spoke for 15 minutes, and then the floor was opened for a Q&A.

In particular, I was moved by Shirley Soffer's discussion about the focus group concerning the affect of the Saturn in Scorpio transit (the focus group happened in 1985, with Saturn in the last degree of Scorpio) on people with natal Sun/Saturn or Moon/Saturn hard aspects. I myself have a wide but approaching Moon/Saturn opposition, and I remember who I was c. 1984-85, during the time that Saturn went over my Moon and opposed my Saturn -- a solitary, snubbed, scared, skinny teenager who was convinced, as I put it so Plutoniously in my diary, that I would die an unknown virgin. As the designated "problem" in the family (when truth be told, we all should've been in family therapy), I was sent to a psychologist -- against my wishes, of course -- and of course, by the end of the school year, just as I'd begun really opening up to this gentle, compassionate woman (who was around my parents' age), my parents pulled the plug. In their opinion, I had not been fixed or even shown any signs of improvement. I am sure they were threatened that I could tell my troubles (which included them) to a therapist, when I had such difficulty confiding in them, which was because they either overreacted by blaming me, or underreacted by refusing to take whatever it was seriously.

And yet. While all this fresh Saturnian hell was going on, there was a constant loop of reading and writing, of museum-going and drawing, and achievement. In 1984 I won the Litarary Magazine prize at the middle school graduation ceremonies, and the following spring, two months before I was yanked out of therapy, I was profiled in the local pennysaver for having been the editor in chief of the same literary magazine, which had just been judged by the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) as "Excellent," surpassing thousands of lit mags at the high school level. I was even hired by the pennysaver as their weekly high school correspondent, which meant I was paid $10 a week to cover such hot topics as the high school's booming business department, the annual student-teacher debate, and Spring Fling. When my editor relocated to Zimbabwe that summer, he let his replacement know of my existence. But my heart was not in journalism, and I did not need that ten-dollar carrot enough to continue cranking out articles about the student government and SADD. This decision may not sound Saturnian, since Saturn is about obligation and duty, yet this planet also has a way of paring everything down to the essential. I did not need ten extra bucks a week, so I said the hell with it and went back to my other need: writing short stories and poems, which I could only work on outside the classroom (my "day job" at that time).

It is also worth mentioning that after Saturn went over my Moon and opposed my Saturn, it trined my Sun, Mars, and Mercury -- and passed over my Neptune. I remember that by the end of this transit, although I was very upset that I'd lost my therapist whom I'd come to trust ( Saturn conjunct Neptune), I also had a clearer sense of my goals (Saturn) and because my parents thought that studying was more important than having a part-time job, I was able to stay true to my visions (Neptune) and integrity (Saturn). Oh, and I also got braces (Saturn) "upstairs" due to impacted incisors (the ones next door the front teeth) that came in late (Saturn) and looking like fangs (I dunno...Pluto?) after the dentist extracted the immovable baby ones (on the Saturn/Pluto conjunction).

The other astrologer on the panel I found exceptionally interesting was Tracy Allen, who shared her findings from a focus group Patricia Morimndo ran back in 1989, which dealt with people sharing the the effects of transiting Neptune in Capricorn in hard aspect to their Sun, Moon, or Ascendant. Ms. Allen also gave her own insights into the Neptune in Scorpio generation. In the first case, I remembered that it was back when Neptune was in Capricorn and opposing my Sun that I delved into such Neptunian realms as astrology, lucid dreaming, and various mind-altering substances. I also met scores of Pisceans, mostly male -- though with that sign on my 7th House, it's hardly surprising.

During the Q&A, I spoke up after the first two people had asked their questions and made various comments and no one else seemed interested in contributing. I decided to concentrate only on the topics raised by Shirley and Tracy, as I did not want to speak endlessly and having to speak into a microphone near the front of the room (the mic, which was not a cordless model, did not reach all the way back to where I was seated) made me pretty self-conscious.

Fortunately, once the talk was over and everyone moved toward the back of the room for refreshments, I was able to speak with one of the other astrologers, who actually recognized me from an astrology Meetup I'd gone to years ago (he still runs it, and seems a nice guy, but the Meetup itself just didn't do it for me). I also met Stephen Fleming, the editor of Ingress, who was very friendly and encouraging; he introduced me to a few other people, and I introduced myself to a few other people, and I gave out some of my business cards. By the time 9 p.m. rolled around and the room needed to be cleared, I was ready for some fresh air (though my appetite was still suppressed from the heat). And the beautiful, bright Full Moon accompanied me on my short walk to the subway.

Happy International Astrology Day!

Should be an interesting one, as we are approaching the Full Moon...if you have a heavy dose of Virgo and/or Pisces in your chart, be sure not to hide your light under a bushel tonight; relationships (especially related to work and spirituality) come to the fore. Geminis and Sagittarians may attract attention and conflict in equal measure. Cancerians, Scorpions, and Capricorns may get the best of all possible worlds.

I for one intend to celebrate by attending an NCGR panel discussion after work, about "Astrology and Generations," which longtime readers of my blog know is one of my interests. And who knows...I just may wind up joining this club that would have someone like me for a member.

My article "The 'We' Regeneration: The Pluto-in-Libra Group Faces the Pluto-in-Capricorn Challenge" has just appeared in the Spring 2011 NCGR newsletter Ingress, and will also appear on its website (details forthcoming, but you may find this article in its entirety right now by going into this blog's March 2010 archives.

Cheers...now stop procrastinating and go loony-lunar.

It's Been Nearly Two Months: Where Do I Start?

At the beginning would make sense, but too much has happened since we rang in 2011.

Hmmm.

Basically, I have been too swept up in Uranus's last gasp of Pisces to sit down and write insightful, witty posts about the state of the world, Valentine's Day, my own life, and the upcoming Oscars.

It does seem that with Jupiter now back in Aries, as it was for a good portion of 2010, the relative calm that defined Jupiter in late Pisces has ebbed. The overthrow of the Egyptian dictatorship is a good example of what happens when hordes of people, many of whom are young adults, decides that they are mad as hell and aren't going to take it anymore.

Another way of looking at it is that if Jupiter in Pisces expanded societal focus on reflection, spirituality, art, and escape, Jupiter in Aries is about expanding bodily energy, and being headstrong and brave (at least, in the beginning, which is what Aries is all about).

I predicted that 2010 would be a good year for the arts in general, and Pisces especially shines its underwater glow on movies. I am more interested in watching the Academy Awards ceremony this year than I've been in a while.

My astrological predictions: The King's Speech will win Best Picture, since the Moon and Venus will both be in Capricorn tomorrow night (I associate Great Britain with this status-seeking, class-conscious sign of authority), and Colin Firth, whose Sun and Moon are both in Earth signs, will win Best Actor. I think Michelle Williams has a good chance to win Best Actress, since her chart is also very Earthy. (I do think that Jesse Eisenberg did a good job portraying Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, but as he is a double Libra, he may get passed over in favor of the Earthier actors. However, this movie may very well pick up an award in the directing/editing categories.)

On a more personal note, as my progressed Moon entered my 9th House, a very special Sagittarius (which rules the natural 9th House) joined me in my apartment. As a classic Pluto Rising I was very worried that I'd go crazy from lack of privacy--but actually, due in part to our differing schedules, I haven't lost too much downtime.

Oh, and my "We Regeneration" article, which was included in last year's 1st International Blog-a-thon and made the top 5 of most-read articles, will be printed in the March issue of NCGR's Ingress. If you haven't already read it, you can go into my article archives; I posted it on March 5, 2010. It's gratifying that an article nearly a year old is still going strong!