Jupiter in Virgo is opposite Neptune in Pisces on September 17th, 2015. What follows is a brief contemplation on this once-every-twelve-years alignment.
The individual will can be very convincing. It convinces us that we are the primary actors operating the curtain, making decisions and directing the flow of our lives. It convinces us that there is a storyline in our lives that we are in the thrust of, and we identify strongly with the desire that things go a certain way, namely, the way we want things to go. In actuality, individual human units are parcels within the Whole and drifting — sometimes swimming — along a current that is in flow with a much larger ocean.
It might be that what is actually happening from the perspective of the whole is that we are partially unwitting players in a larger schematic plot. In spite of that, we appear to ourselves as powerful operators of our individual willpower shaping the course of mundane events. We frequently fall back in to this space of believing we are participating in something largely comprised of our own direction.
If it’s the case that there is this holistic metaplot, the belief in being the sole and primary actor is a demonstration of either ignorance, passive consensus in the collective reality-trance (we are all involved in this to one extent or another — shared reality has many benefits), or sheer, audacious, lack of humility. A lack of humility might stem from a number of root causes. Among them is a counterbalancing response to an (actual or perceived) lack of power. So, because there is not power, there is excessive pride or willfulness. On the other hand, a lack of humility might stem from delusions of great power, or the desire to possess such.
This second root cause leads directly back to ignorance. Here again is where we come up against the wall of my opinion — that there are greater, unseen forces within which humans find themselves doing their human thing. These are something like god or the universe or universal laws, or nature or natural laws, as well as spirits or deities, daimones or saints, all with particular qualities or abilities.
It is completely possible to live a fine life taking no acknowledgement of these forces.
Alternatively, acknowledging these unseen forces opens passage to a number of helpful avenues. The point at which we recognize the contours of the riddle of being an individual contained within the whole is the same point at which we can begin to participate in a dance with these forces, shaping and understanding events that form the flowing fabric of life. This is part of magic, and in astrology, it is part of participating in informing and contemplating the direction of the flow of life, using astrological symbolism.
Acknowledging that as units, humans are contained within the whole even as we are separate from it implies a couple of things. First that there is something of the whole in the individual. Second, that this relationship conjures (mysteriously!) whatever we call on, even when we do not see it. Astrologically, this gets super interesting when you think about thinking about symbols like a sign or a planet in a sign. Thinking about the symbol magnifies it in consciousness (Jupiter in Virgo), and when we begin to look for something and know what we are looking for, that thing shows up in ways more elaborate and ornate than we could ever humanly devise.
So as Jupiter perfects this opposition, an aspect of relationship and clear, direct sight, at 2:54 AM EDT, it does so in kind of a portal period between two inner planet retrogrades, eclipse season, and a Saturn sign change. It’s a good idea to document what shows up, what comes through, where you are, and what you’re looking at. Then, make something with that.
Warmly,
Ichrak
