by Steven Forrest

In pop astrology, Jupiter is celebrated as the lucky planet. So if you are a Virgo, lucky you! Jupiter enters Virgo on August 11. And all you Leos better drink up because your year of glory is drawing to a close. Jupiter’s sweep through Virgo will run for about thirteen months, finally bringing sunshine to all the world’s Librans starting on September 9, 2016.

We will have deeper things to say, fear not! But for a moment, let’s contemplate the phenomenon of plain dumb luck.  Who knows what that wild card signifies in the larger scheme of the universe?  Is it random—as simple as saying “every dog has his day?” Is it good karma coming home to roost?  That’s my own guess—I’ve never had much faith in the “random universe” model.  But whatever dumb luck’s origins may be, it’s a real phenomenon.  We all recognize it when we see it.  And when it raises its lovely head in your life, there’s a good chance that Jupiter has stepped into the spotlight of your chart.

So all you Virgos, good news:  there is an excellent chance your stock is going to go up between now and September of next year.  And think about it: couldn’t you use a victory about now?  There’s our doorway into some deeper territory.  Jupiter isn’t just about dumb luck.  In common with all the transits of all the planets, it represents an evolutionary opportunity—more accurately, an evolutionary necessity whose moment has ripened.

“Change” is a word that functions as astrology’s basic “Swiss Army knife.” All transits are about “change.”  With Jupiter, the necessity is for a change for the better. The evolutionary questions which trigger that breakthrough are:

• How have you been under-estimating yourself?
• How have you been settling for too little?
• How have you sold yourself short?

As you reflect deeply on those questions, you are doing the evolutionary work of a Jupiter transits.  You are using it rather than being knocked around like a billiard ball on life’s little pool-table.  That’s what this kind of astrology is all about—actual engagement in your own journey, not just passive “predictions.”

Jupiter: How Have You Been Underestimating Yourself?

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Synchronicity provides the next link in the chain. Once you have opened your heart to those three uplifting questions we just mentioned, doors of opportunity open in the world.  The irony is that those doors might actually be open anyway, but unless you had been brave enough to see your discontent, unless you had acknowledged that you really needed a victory, you wouldn’t even notice them.  The opportunity would be sitting right there before you and you would sleep through it.  So, in order to make Jupiter work for you, you need to start by cultivating two qualities: the first is a sense of self-worth. The second is hunger.  You’ve got to want it.

We will get back to all those general Jupiter principles in a minute, but first let’s tie all this more specifically to Virgo.  So far what I have said is about Jupiter transits in general.

If you are a Virgo, then this season of opportunity really has your name on it.  But the deeper reality is that all of us are Virgos in some way. That just means that Virgo figures in everyone’s chart. Even if you have no planets there, Virgo is still on the cusp of one of your houses, for example.  Astrology is not “one size fits all;” Virgo’s mark on you might be subtle or very narrowly defined.  Or it might be as central to you as your spine.  Your exact and specific astrological sensitivity to Virgo says a lot about where you might look for this “luck” we are predicting.  For example, maybe Virgo is on the cusp of your 7th House—maybe it’s time to ask more of your partner, or to look for a partner who is worthy of you.  Maybe Virgo is on the cusp of your 2nd house.  That’s often about money; ask for a raise at work, and you’ll probably get it. 

Those are examples of how your chart points your nose at the likely source of the good fortune.  Just remember, you’ve got to feel worthy of it and you’ve got to feel hungry for it.  Those attitudes trigger the synchronistic magic. Without them, nothing happens. There really is a “magical” feeling about how synchronicity works, but there is also plain obvious common sense to it. If you don’t ask for that raise at work, you probably won’t get it.

Virgo’s own nature adds further clarity to all this.  Jupiter-in-Virgo is a different beast than Jupiter-in-Leo.  One key word for Virgo is competence. Another is skill.  A common one is service.  The underlying idea is that there is a basic, nearly universal, and very Virgoan, human desire to be good at something which other people value.  Add Jupiter to the mix, and it’s time to take a bracing plunge of self-improvement in those kinds of areas—which are obviously often connected to vocation or career.  Maybe, for example, you’ve been studying astrology for a couple of years.  Maybe it’s time actually to start doing readings for people you don’t know.  You don’t feel ready for that?  Well, maybe you are right—but remember our key question: are you under-estimating yourself?  Maybe you truly were not ready last year.  That was then, this is now.  Update your files on yourself.  You are better than you think you are.

For all of us, while Jupiter is in Virgo, there is a need to improve our skills. To get better at what we do.  To do work that matters.  And if you let yourself feel that desire inwardly, doors open in the outward world of circumstance. That’s synchronicity again.

Virgo is not just about work; it is also about the routines of life.  They too can be lifted up to higher levels of expression and efficacy under this planetary ray.  I’ll be silly for starters—maybe your toothbrush needs an upgrade.  You know how they get after a few months.  You probably use your toothbrush at least twice a day; you probably hardly notice it.  But one night, you recognize that your toothbrush needs to reincarnate; you junk it.  You buy another one.  And your life is just a little bit better in the Virgo department.  Now take a look at your chart; say Jupiter is trining your Moon. You might not even connect that with the new toothbrush. You may even scratch your head, wondering why your Jupiter-trine-the-Moon isn’t working. Meanwhile, your angels are laughing at you. Your new toothbrush was part of it.

My toothbrush illustration is trivial.  I promised a silly example, didn’t I? But let’s multiply it. Virgo is about details. None of them might be so mission-critical individually, but together they define much the quality of your daily experience. A toothbrush is one of the basic tools of life, but Virgo is about the whole toolshed.  Your tools need an upgrade; they need to work better.  Maybe you replace your ancient vacuum cleaner.  Maybe you spring for an uber-modern, uber-cool blender for your smoothies.  Maybe you get to work and free up your windows so they actually go up and down.  Again, none of that is so crucial piece-by-piece, but put it all together, and your life hits a lot less static. Things work better.  Go further—maybe you go through your closet and get rid of the clothes you don’t wear anymore.  Maybe you organize the work bench in the garage.  Maybe you detail your car. Again, things work better.  They say “the devil is in the details.” True.  So turn those devils into angels.

Why did you go to all this trouble? Ask Lord Jupiter. Because you’re worth it.  Because you love yourself. Because you are showing yourself that love in concrete, Virgoan ways.

Remember, Virgo is an Earth sign. It is practical and real.  Abstractions don’t mean much to it.           

I’m writing as usual at a personal astrological level.  But Jupiter will be in Virgo for everybody, so we will surely also see its fingerprints in the headlines. Here’s one guess about what that might mean, at least here in America where I live.  The physical plant of our country is falling apart. Our roads have too many potholes.  Our bridges and railroads are positively dangerous. Schools have leaky roofs.  I suspect that over the next year, without much partisan bickering, we’ll see a collective agreement that it’s time to start fixing things up. Time for a national spring-cleaning. New toothbrushes for one and all. We deserve it, right?  And we are hungry for it.

Earlier in this article, talking about the doorways into a better life that Jupiter promises, I wrote:  “Those doors might actually be open anyway, but the point is that unless you had been brave enough to see your discontent, unless you had acknowledged that you really needed a victory, you wouldn’t even see them.”  Those words bring us face to face with something absolutely fundamental about Jupiter, something which weirdly doesn’t get a lot of attention among astrologers. If I am at an astrology conference and I announce that Jupiter is the planet of discontent, I will get strange looks. But it is! That’s because, perhaps above all, it is the planet of hope—and the basic structure of hope is the notion that tomorrow can be better than today.  As soon as we start thinking that way, today stops looking acceptable. We get hungry for something better.  Hardwired into hope is a feeling of discontent with the present.

Spiritually, we might be on shaky ground if we are living for tomorrow, feeling hungry, being discontent with what we have.  And yet there are times for those uneasy emotions, and they are signaled by Jupiter.  Without them, nothing and no one would ever improve.  Nothing would evolve.  And you’d still be using that same old toothbrush.

This Jupiter medicine we call “hope” can be dangerous; it needs to be used judiciously.  So the practical bottom line in this little essay is that you need to see precisely where Virgo figures in your own chart—that will spotlight a specific area where you need to create some “luck” for yourself,  and where the universe is eager to pitch in once you have let yourself feel the hunger.  And for all of us universally, it’s time to move to a higher level of competence and to support ourselves with the tools we deserve.

Jupiter in Virgo may not be quite the “game of thrones” that Jupiter in Leo has been, but if it has a single core message it is that “it’s the little things that count.”

Can I get an amen?

-Steven Forrest

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