We also recognise, and tend to aspire to, optimism, self-belief,
growth, humour and goodwill. We are now in Jupiter’s symbolic territory, the
great astrological beneficent, generously bestowing good luck and bonhomie. Unlike
Saturn, Jupiter is about what we feel we can get away with, but here’s the rub.
Eventually our luck runs out, especially if we fall into the Jupiterian sins of
over-confidence, arrogance, irresponsibility, pride, over-indulgence and blind
optimism. Then we realise that Jupiter can dupe us and like Saturn is a great
teacher. It’s about morality, wisdom and belief in a higher power as a guide to
coming into our own power. Like Saturn, ultimately Jupiter is about
authority and moral conscience, but accessed by a different route.
Jupiter and Saturn are the social planets and psychologically,
they resonate with the superego. Our superego grows from our childhood
experience of parents and other authority figures. We learn from them what is
acceptable, what the rules are, where the limits lie and our sense of right and
wrong; our moral compass. This helps us learn how to conduct ourselves according
to what’s socially acceptable and to find our place in the world.
Eventually, we need to stand in our own authority and to be
authority figures for others and so the traditions of right and wrong, of
acceptable values and appropriate behaviour, are passed down.
The Saturnian superego can be too punishing, too led by fear
of authority, by a sense of duty, by unconscious guilt, the inability to say no
to the demands of others at the expense of our own needs. Our lives can become self-limiting
or we are too controlling of ourselves and others, harbouring out of proportion
feelings of fear and guilt. Saturn by sign, house and aspect in our birth chart
can say a lot about our relationship to fear and guilt, but it’s also about
fears overcome and proportionate guilt that leads to the authentic desire to
make reparation. Saturn sends us lessons disguised as challenges and obstacles
that can help us get our lives on track. Whenever we feel and respond to the
pull of authority and to life’s oughts, shoulds and musts, we are in the realm
of the Saturnian superego.
Saturn in Aries for example, can represent a fear of taking
authoritative action or of acting selfishly. Perhaps in the past, you never
learned to make your own decisions, or were inordinately punished for making
mistakes, or have internalised selfishness as a solely bad thing, when of
course, healthy selfishness is a necessary requisite of self-care. Finding the
courage to stand in your own authority or to assert your own needs
appropriately and act decisively is perhaps the route to finding a better
balance between your own (your ego’s) needs and those of external expectations
(the superego).
The challenge of Saturn in Taurus is to not get stuck, but
to still seek security and social acceptance through maintaining loyalty and
reliability. The fear here might be around losing control of your desires.
With Saturn in Pisces there might be the fear of falling
apart, or difficulties around idealisation or escapism. The discipline of
service and expressing empathy and compassion without losing a boundaried sense
of self might be the ego’s path to working through the superego.
With Saturn in Cancer, the superego demands a strong but
healthy sense of and respect for the authority within a family (the concept of
family is used loosely here and can mean our family of friends and colleagues
as well as family in the traditional sense). In this context, Saturn in Cancer
asks us to grow into our own authority and give and accept respect when the
time is right. There is also, through experience, the working through of
feelings of insecurity and vulnerability. Learning healthy emotional expression
and nurturing others with appropriate boundaries can help build security and allow
the fulfilment of duties and ambitions.
The lessons of Jupiter are a little easier to take for
granted. The old adage applies: when opportunity comes knocking, you have to
be there to answer the door. In other words, the Jupiterian side of our
superego, like the Saturnian, also demands effort. If something seems too good
to be true, it usually is. Arrogance and overconfidence and grabbing what we
want from life without adhering to basic morality causes damage to others, more
widely to society if we have power, but ultimately it hurts the self. We can
step into Jupiter’s wisdom and experience the positive growth and opportunity
it offers, if we apply realism, by running it past the ego, rather than by
letting the ego run it. This reminds of another old saying, pride comes
before a fall.
Jupiter in Gemini offers personal growth and usefulness
through learning a variety of skills, being curious, connecting through
communication and following a wide range of interests that satisfy the need for
variety and also benefit society. The Jupiter in Gemini superego can be given
to over-thinking, perhaps anxiety. Using critical thinking, discernment and
fact-checking are key growth areas for Jupiter in Gemini, to avoid shallow fact
collecting, or becoming a know-it-all without substance.
There’s an inherent tension with Jupiter in Virgo because
while Jupiter likes to think big, Virgo tends to think small and humbly. Expressed
negatively, this can manifest as critical nagging and pettiness, towards others,
but can also manifest as self-criticism because it’s a placement that seeks perfection.
Helping and serving society is the best approach here, as well as building
confidence through making the most of the innate common sense of Virgo.
Jupiter in Capricorn knows it can’t get away with shirking
on hard work and discipline, but Jupiterian optimism can feel hard to come by.
Confidence comes through the patient pursuit of opportunities and taking one’s
social responsibilities seriously.
In Scorpio, Jupiter has a weight and an intensity that can
inhibit the growth and expansion that Jupiter promises. Exploring deep emotions
and allowing wisdom and trust to develop through experience is essential to
developing a strong inner confidence and quiet optimism. And there’s a
priceless well of resourcefulness with this placement and an innate sense of
intuitive understanding that can be excellent in a crisis when service calls.
The working out of the superego is not a one-time thing,
it’s a lifetime’s work. A strong ego is needed to find the balance between the superego
and the id, which represents our largely unconscious primitive drives which
unlike the superego don’t distinguish between right and wrong. The id says I
want this and I want it now! The superego says you can’t have it, it’s
wrong. It’s the ego’s job to find the balance to satisfy the id’s demands
in a way that is acceptable to the superego (i.e. acceptable to society). Understanding
what Jupiter and Saturn mean, by sign, aspect, house and transit can help us to
align our moral compass. It can help us deal with obstacles, grow into
emotional maturity, become useful world citizens and demonstrate responsible
authority. We can aspire to have the confidence to reach for the stars with our
feet firmly on the ground.
Broadly speaking, we can find the ego and id in our charts
in our personal planets and angles and in the aspects they make. The outer
planets have their place too, and in our charts, I feel, they represent more
than just generational collective unconscious urges, especially in tight
aspects to personal planets by nativity or transit. Even so, we might look first
to the Jupiter and Saturn complexes in our charts as they are the gateway to
helping us negotiate our way through the realms of the outers. Jupiter and
Saturn are ultimately our path to something beyond ourselves, to something
societal and communal, to wisdom, growth, moral and spiritual authority and
personal gravitas.
I’ll end on a short, but currently relevant case study to
demonstrate some of the points I’ve made. Donald Trump, who has just lost the
US presidential election, has transiting Jupiter in Capricorn, along with
Saturn and Pluto, opposing his Venus-Saturn Conjunction in Cancer in the 11th
House. Natal Saturn in Libra in the 2nd House is also widely Square
Venus-Saturn and has recently received a Square transit from Jupiter in
Capricorn.
Saturn in Cancer is about family and we know that, as
President, he has kept his family close and this has served him well, but he
now needs them to help his ego accept the reality of loss and concede,
something most of them appear not to be doing. The Opposition of transiting
Jupiter in Capricorn to Saturn in Cancer and its outgoing Square to his Jupiter
in Libra, is also asking him to take his social responsibilities seriously. His
superego needs to do the right thing and surrender. That his natal Jupiter is
Conjunct Chiron suggests the need for the healing of his superego and because
he still, for now, holds the highest office in the USA, there’s the need for
healing the superego of the nation itself after such a divisive campaign (it’s
interesting that President Elect Biden has been speaking a lot about healing
since he won the election).
Trump’s evident over-confidence, arrogance and irresponsibility, Jupiter’s negative expressions, has meant that he has finally run out of luck. He now needs to concede and collaborate, but instead he has demonstrated a fragile ego by instead deciding to take his defeat to court. It would now serve him well to heed the lesson of his Saturn in Cancer in the 11th; that healthy, boundaried emotional expression and a graceful support for the transition of power, can help him build a new sense of security for himself and in the nation and perhaps preserve his legacy with some dignity. His Jupiter in Libra in the 2nd House suggests that the path to growth is through understanding the value of collaboration and cooperation. He should pick up the phone and talk to his successor. Sadly, I’m not optimistic that this is the route he will follow, it seems that his defences against his vulnerability and insecurity are too strong. Which is a shame, because ultimately, Jupiter offers the opportunity for grace, if pride can be overcome.
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