A Pivotal Moment with Jupiter and Saturn

Bright and early on Thursday morning, May 25th at 8:28 am EDT, we encounter the third in a series of three squares between Jupiter and Saturn that started last August. That makes this the final Closing Square in a Jupiter-Saturn cycle that has been running since May 2000, when the two planets were joined in Taurus.

Each Jupiter-Saturn cycle runs for about 20 years: that’s how long it takes for them to meet, then dance across the sky, then meet again. The choices we make in the next few weeks will set the tone for the remainder of this cycle, which ends when Jupiter and Saturn next meet up in Aquarius in December 2020.

Closing Squares are all about deep psychological integration. Because we are in the closing square phase of the current Jupiter-Saturn cycle, our job right now is to INTEGRATE and ALIGN the energies of the two planets, even as they argue with each other.

We are being asked to reconcile our life’s work (Saturn) and our higher purpose (Jupiter).

Jupiter is currently traveling through Virgo, so he wants us to make very detailed plans – to focus on the nitty-gritty elements of the job. Saturn in Sagittarius, on the other hand, is feeling unusually expansive. He asks us to look back at the various chapters of our history and remember that no page is unimportant. He asks us to come up with a modified, edited, redesigned vision for the NEXT chapter in our life.

Life coach Martha Beck refers to this tension as “mouse vision” (Virgo) versus “eagle vision” (Sadge), and she points out the importance of bouncing back and forth between the two. Too much attention to mouse-mode, and you lose track of where you’re really going. Likewise, if you spend too much time indulging in eagle-like flights of fancy . . . you never get anything accomplished.

The decisions you make under this week’s Jupiter-Saturn square will have psychological consequences for the next four-and-a-half years of your life. Think back to where you were for their conjunction in May 2000. How have you grown since then? What do you need to finish up?

These cycles run through a predictable pattern. After the Initiating Conjunction comes the Opening Square phase, also known as the “crisis of consciousness,” when we ask ourselves whether we made the right decision, and whether it can now be improved in any way. During this particular Jupiter-Saturn cycle, a series of three Opening Squares took place between December 2005 and October 2006, while Jupiter was in Scorpio and Saturn was in Leo. Saturn wanted to express his creativity, but he was afraid. Jupiter, playing the therapist, told him to feel the fear and do it anyway; he wasn’t going to die if he expressed his creativity.

Next comes the Opening Trine phase. In the current cycle, five Jupiter-Saturn trines occurred during this phase: all between March 2007 and December 2008.  The first two were in Sagittarius and Leo, which inspired you to take the fire you had been tending in your hearth at home (Leo), and send it out, carried by hundreds of candles, to illuminate the world and ignite many other fires, mutably changing all over the place (Sagittarius). The last three trines were in Earth, which caused Saturn in Virgo to draw up detailed plans, and Jupiter in Capricorn to concentrate his focus and start working day and night.

The Opening Trine is sometimes called the “first harvest,” when you begin to reap the rewards of your creativity and see the results of work well done.

After that, we come to the Opposition, the push-me-pull-you phase of the cycle. Most recently, Jupiter and Saturn opposed each other in Pisces and Virgo, then in Aries and Libra, between May 2010 and March 2011. At the beginning of the phase, we asked ourselves: “What’s the Dream (Jupiter in Pisces)? And what’s the reality of the work (Saturn in Virgo) that I have to do to make it happen?” Later, Saturn in Libra sent Jupiter in Aries out into the world to hunt around and find new partners for him to collaborate with.

The “second harvest,” or Closing Trine phase of this cycle ran from July 2013 to May 2014. Communicating harmoniously in Cancer and Scorpio, Jupiter and Saturn helped us let go of old psychologically limiting beliefs and hang-ups from our families of origin. We came to understand them consciously, and realized that we didn’t need to nurture the limiting beliefs anymore. We were all grown up and could nurture what WE wanted to nurture.

So . . . FINALLY . . . after all these years of mutual evolution, Jupiter and Saturn have arrived at the Closing Square phase of this cycle: it started last summer (on August 3, 2015), when Jupiter in Leo squared Saturn in Scorpio.  The second square took place on March 23, 2016, when Jupiter (retrograde) in Virgo squared Saturn in Sagittarius on the same day as the Lunar Eclipse. Now that Jupiter has gone direct, he and Saturn square each other once more in Virgo and Sagittarius; they’re pushing off of one another to leap into the last four and a half years of this Jupiter-Saturn cycle with delicious abandon, lots of hard work, and a new spotlight of focus.

What needs to be tweaked (Virgo), in order for you to reconcile your life’s work (Saturn) with your higher purpose (Jupiter, Sagittarius)? You’re almost there: just little adjustment should be enough to get you on track. You started this process last August, and you’ve made huge changes since then. What else needs to be addressed, tweaked a little bit more, and sent out into the world?

A friend of mine used to drink 10 ounces of orange juice every day. He gave it up, and lost twenty pounds in one year with no other changes in behavior. A minor tweak, but it had a big impact!

We have until September 9, 2016 to make all our modifications. We’ll then be partnering with our vision and building the last parts of it through 2020. It’s a GREAT time to make meaningful life changes – especially around physical health, routines, rituals, and daily habits, or any other matters ruled by Virgo. You deserve to have a life you think is wonderful. What are the next steps towards making that happen?

At this point, it’s really a matter of fine tuning and arranging your vision. Where in YOUR world will you hang the bright lantern of Saturn in Sagittarius, so it guides and illuminates what you want to see most clearly during the next four and a half years of your life?

Onward and upward (Sagittarius) with diligent dedication to service (Virgo)!