Venus Conjunct Jupiter

Venus is now conjunct Jupiter in Libra. The exact conjunction occurs on September 1st, at 18.42 degrees of Libra, but the effect is felt for a couple of days before and after this.

Venus and Jupiter are conjunct for about a week once each year or so. Some lucky people are born during this conjunction each year and have a Venus/Jupiter conjunction in their natal charts. This influence can make them more buoyant and cheerful than the average person and depending on how it is aspected to other planets in their charts, it can also bestow a great deal of social and financial ease and luck. Ebertin's book sees this natal conjunction as one bestowing sociableness, popularity and 'film-star mannerisms'. It signifies the joy of love and happiness in love. See a more detailed interpretation of the natal Venus/Jupiter conjunction at Astrology Weekly.

This weeks transiting Venus conjunct Jupiter in Libra could be an unusually happy time for people with personal planets at between 16 and 20 degrees of Aquarius, Gemini and/or Libra.

If you are an Aquarian with your Sun somewhere in this degree range (born sometime between February 5th and 9th) you might have a very enjoyable week. You may be happier and more charming and affectionate than usual. You may find you are socializing more than usual and your friends are even friendlier;-). If your Sun is in the 10th house or your Midheaven is trining this conjunction, you could get very lucky financially during this transit.

____________________________
The above image is Colazine dei Canottieri by Renoir.

Ferguson's "Aquarius Now"

I was browsing through Amazon's book collection on astrology and specifically Aquarius related topics and I happened to stumble on this book, Aquarius Now: Radical Common Sense And Reclaiming Our Personal Sovereignty.

The book is not yet available. It's due to be out in stores in November. I haven't been able to find any reviews other than the publisher's blurb at Amazon.

But what piqued my interest is that the book is written by Marilyn Ferguson and is being promoted as a sequel to "Aquarian Conspiracy".

The Aquarian Conspiracy was published 25 years ago. I had a copy on my bookshelf for many years, but I can't seem to find it now. I must have lent it to someone. I can't remember if I enjoyed the book. I can't really even remember what it was about.

But I do know that it was a major bestseller in the New Age category. It has sold over 2.5 million copies and is still in print twenty-five years later.

If anyone comes across an early review of Aquarius Now, I'd much appreciate hearing from you. Please comment below or email me.

Transiting Neptune Conjunct Jupiter

Transiting Neptune conjunct your Jupiter can only happen once in a lifetime, if at all. Neptune takes about fourteen years to travel through each of the zodiac signs. Currently it is in the middle of Aquarius.

Both Jupiter and Neptune have a lot to do with spiritual interests and the expansion of consciousness. When Neptune goes over your Jupiter, be prepared for some kind of expansion of consciousness. Perhaps you will become interested in religion for the first time, or you all of a sudden be running into all sorts of mystical types of people. Or spiritual people. Maybe you will begin or intensify a study of eastern philosophies or metaphysical subjects.

Several astrology authors note about this transit that it can bring great material as well as spiritual rewards. But the material rewards, if they were to come, would come without effort during this particular transit. The real opportunity here is to focus on the transpersonal and the higher spiritual realms.

If you are an artist by temperament or profession this could be a tremendously inspiring time for you.

The most uplifting description I've seen of this transit is by Grant Lewi in Astrology for the Millions. He writes:

"A period of unparalleled opportunity, when intangibles work on your side to bring new chances for material and spiritual expansion. Do not permit your life or your viewpoint to get into a rut at this time. Your chances are best in proportion to the height of your aims and the idealism of your aspirations. Release yourself from materialistic thoughts: practical rewards will be "added unto you" as you devote yourself wholesouledly to broad social, artistic or humanitarian aims. Be ready for unusual and spectacular developments; widen your horizon to take in everything possible. In its worst manifestation, leads to physical excess, extravagance and self-indulgence of a particularly heady and disagreeable sort. But this will come to only the material and sensational-minded. To the average run of humanity, halfway between heaven and earth in their outlook, this is a never-to-be-repeated chance to interpret the highest of idealism in the practical realm of everyday life, so as to achieve permanence of both philosophy and security."


_____________________
The above fine art print is "Buddha" by Author Unknown

Jupiter Conjunct Ascendant: Physical Appearance

If you have a natal planet conjunct your Ascendant, this should have a visible impact on your physical appearance.

If the planet is Venus, for example, you will most likely have a beautiful appearance, a great complexion and possibly dimples on your face.

I'd like to do a series of articles about planets conjunct the Ascendant and how this relates to physical appearance. I'm looking for volunteers to send me photos of consenting people they know who have a planet conjunct their Ascendant.

We can start this series with the eighteen month old baby pictured here. It's an example of someone born with Jupiter exactly conjunct their Ascendant.

Jupiter conjunct the Ascendant would typically give a larger than normal physical frame. People with Jupiter in their first house can often have weight problems at some point in their life.

Jupiter is the greatest benefic planet there is in astrology, and if this planet is conjunct your Ascendant you are considered very blessed. Your health and sport abilities will be better than average, and you are likely to be popular with your peers and the world around you. All social affairs will come much easier to you than for most people.

Jupiter conjunct your Ascendant will make you jubilant, at least in outer appearances, and also portend a philosophical or religious tendency at some point in your life. If you are a lawyer, you may excel in court. You are the outer embodiment of Jupiter, the planet representing the judicial system. Typically, with Jupiter conjunct your ascendant, you can see the 'big picture' better than others. You could also do very well in sales and advertising, as you are much more persuasive than most people.

Here's another photo of baby Ascendant=Jupiter, this time on his first birthday. Does he not look sincere and all Jupiterian;-)?

I'm somewhat biased here as this is my child.

When looking at planets conjunct the Ascendant, it's important to be sure you are working with an exact birth time. Every four minutes the Ascendant moves one degree. So if you are half-an-hour off the exact birth time, this could move the Ascendant eight degrees off where you thought it was.


I'd love to get photos and chart interpretations from other people as concerns Jupiter or other planets conjunct the Ascendant. Please comment below or email me.

***********
Update May 2006: Just got the first Jupiter Conjunct Ascendant photo emailed in. Thanks much for this.

This young man has a Jupiter Uranus Ascendant conjunction in Sagittarius. He is 1.90 meters tall and 80 kilograms and was born on the 10th of September 1983 in Instanbul Turkey. (His sagittarian line-up is Jupiter at 3 degrees, Uranus at 5 degrees and Ascendant at 10 degrees.)

********

Update February 2007: Thanks much to Lorraine for also sending photos. She says;

"Hi. Attached is a photo of my grandson, Daniel, who was born on 2/15/06 at 11:58 pm, Beverly, Massachusetts. The first photo is his 3 day old photo; the 2nd was taken this past Christmas. He really has the Jupiter/Ascendant look ... the Scorpio eyes to boot! (Scoprio Ascendant)."


***********************




I have this aspect too, my Ascendant in aquarius, conjunct Jupiter (square pluto though..).

I read your article, and i liked it so i decided to send you a photo of mine :)
I was born in 18 september 1985, 17:15 in Thessaloniki Greece

I am 1.81m tall, 60 killos(hopefully i don't have weight problems, maybe because i have a very strong saturn as well)
I hope it helps to your research :)

*******************


Hi Moira,

I loved your article on planets conjunct the ascendant!
Here's my picture.

Jupiter conjunct Ascendant in Scorpio (also with Uranus conjunction)
Ascendant: 29 degrees Scorpio
Jupiter: 29 degrees Scorpio
Uranus: 6 degrees Sag


*************
A Newborn photo

My son was born on Friday, 9/21/2007.

He has a Sagittarius ascendant conjunct Jupiter, with Pluto in the same house.





Thanks again for sending this info in. I look forward to hearing from more people!

Free Astrology Ephemeris

An ephemeris will give you the daily position of all the planets. If you are curious as to when, for example, Pluto will conjunct your Sun, or in which sign Mars will be retrograde next, you need merely flip through the ephemeris to find out. They are handy to have.

The most popular ephemeris in use today is The American Ephemeris for the 21st Century.

I have an old ruffled-up ephemerides for the 20th century. It's not of any relevance now when I want to look at future planet action. But I haven't bothered buying one yet for the 21st century. It's true that nothing beats an actual ephemeris where all the information is instantly at your fingertips, but I've made do with some other good resources instead.

To get a sense of what is happening in terms of planetary movements in the year ahead, I usually print the six pages of annual data from the Swiss Ephemerides at Astrodienst. These files are in PDF format, so they take a little longer to view. Each page consists of two months of data. I find it handy to print out the six pages for the year, staple them together and keep them around for easy referencing.

Astrology in the Age of Aquarius also has a free ephemeris available at their ephemerides page. It covers the years 1891 to 2100. It is not in PDF format.

If you want to scan trends of the outer planets over the long term, I use an excellent book (by Noel Tyl) which has a partial ephemerides as an appendix. This ephemeris only includes the planets from Mars onward. Also, it only notes the placements of these planets at the beginning of each month. But for long-term trends for the 21st century, the inner planets are not too important, so this keeps the partial ephemeris very easy to scan for planet movements.

But many people will just want a good ephemeris for handy reference. The best one for the 21st century is The American Ephemeris for the 21st Century.

Happy Ephemeris reading!

If anyone knows of any other useful resources in this regard, please comment below.

The Saturn Opposition in Mid Life

For any Aquarians with Saturn in Aquarius, the current two year transit of Saturn in Leo will mean they will experience a Saturn Opposition over a few weeks or months sometime in the next two years.

Saturn takes about twenty nine years to transit through the zodiac. The first Saturn opposition always occurs when one is between 14 and 16 years old. The second opposition occurs sometime between the ages of 43 and 45. The next one is about thirty years later.

So it's important to keep this transit in perspective and remember that a Saturn opposition is a universal event for each and every person (and all zodiac signs) in midlife between the ages of 43 and 45.

How this Saturn transit will manifest for you personally depends on many other factors in your chart. It depends on what house and sign your natal Saturn is in, what house Saturn is transiting through, and how your natal Saturn is tied to other planets in your chart. Primarily it is dependent on how evolved you are in the "Saturnian sense" and thus whether Saturn is generally a friend or foe in your daily life.

Any Aquarians with Saturn also in Aquarius are relatively lucky with this placement of Saturn. Aquarius is co-ruled by Saturn (along with Uranus) and Saturn is strong here, barring other negative factors.

Rober Hand's book has an optimistic view of this transit. He sees it as the "high-water mark of the Saturn-Saturn cycle". He notes however that how this transit goes for you will depend to a large extent on how you handled the Saturn Return about fourteen years ago. During the Saturn return (at about age twenty nine and thirty) people often enter a new awareness of life and make some changes in their life path. The Saturn opposition in the mid forties may be a time when you either reap gains from the life path you chose during the Saturn Return, perhaps assume more responsibility in your job position, or on the down side, experience some difficulties in the area of your life where you have been resisting change.

Alexander Ruperti sees "a crisis of reevaluation occurring at the time of the opposition. "It is an assessment of all that one has built as an individual since the age of twenty-nine. The keynote here must be OBJECTIVITY. The evaluation must be made according to one's personal values, rather than the expectations of family, peer group or society in order for the individual to find true meaning in his existence." He also sees this as possibly "an experience of real illumination - the gateway to an individual's most creative and productive period - age 44-59."

Ruperti's book Cycles of Becoming: The Planetary Pattern of Growth has an outstanding (40 page) chapter on the Saturn cycle. I'd highly recommend it if you are interested in reading more about Saturn's transits - even though it's out of print. (Used copies are available for about $10 at Amazon.)

For people experiencing midlife transits, I'd also highly recommend Erin Sullivan's new book; Astrology of Midlife and Aging



_______________________
The above image is "Saturn, 1963" by Helen Frankenthaler