If you follow Astrology at any level, you’ve read about Mercury Retrograde. It’s become a common concept, but it’s usually less common for retrograde periods of other planets to be discussed. This makes some sense on a psycho-archetypal level: it’s easier for us to relate to the planets closer to the sun and Earth: Mercury, Venus, and Mars. The further out in the solar system the planet, the more abstract our experiencnce of that planet’s archetype. Retrograde periods, and especially their Stations (when the planet appears to “stop moving” in the sky, before and after the retrogrades), are wonderful times to feel into what the energies of those planets are.
Depending on how one calculates a Station, Jupiter either is already stationing, or will soon. Then, according to the Swiss Ephemeris, He begins to move retrograde at about 2pm UTC on October 9 2024 at 21 Gemini 20, and stations to go direct on February 4 2025 at 11 Gemini 16. So, we have four months of this upcoming experience to work with. And what does it mean for our journeys?
Jupiter is known as the Lord of Law, Justice, and Higher Truth, but also Beliefs, Religion, Expansion, and Philosophy. Where Jupiter is in your natal chart shows where these topics will be focused in your life in general, and where Jupiter is at any momet shows where we all are focused at that time. Right now, and for this upcoming retrograde, Jupiter is in mid-Gemini. Jupiter is an Air planet, and Gemini is an Air sign. The element of Air represents the realm of Thought. These are the basic parameters that we’ll be observing this process within.
THOUGHT
The element of Air is the least tangible and the most ephemeral of all. We can touch and see Earth, Water, and Fire, but Air evades us. Yet, it’s fundamental: we are constantly breathing it, creating with it, and through it, changing the world around us. Air is quick: we breathe it every few seconds, while our process of exchange with water can take a few hours. With Earth, well, it could a lifetime. Similarly, our thoughts move more quickly than we can physically keep up with. Anyone who has ever attempted or kept a meditation practice or a writing practice has experienced this. We all know the phrase, “our thoughts go a mile a minute.”
Both Mercury and Jupiter can be said to represent different levels of Thought, and they are both the fastest in our solar system, in different ways: Mercury has the fastest orbit, and Jupiter the fastest spin. We can see this as Mercury going from different ideas to different idea the quickest, and Jupiter examining all angles of the same idea the quickest.
It just so happens that this Retrograde of Jupiter the Hot Air Planet is happening in the Mercury-Ruled Mutable Air sign of Fast-Moving-Thoughts, Gemini. He’s been in this sign since May. You may look back to the end of May and note if anything shifted for you there: did a sense of “largeness” shift from one realm of life to another?
BELIEF
While Mercury represents Thought at its most fundamental, Jupiter represents Belief, the next level. A Thought can just exist, detached, its own thing that we can observe or create. We can become attached to thoughts as well, but a Belief is something that we are inherently attached to, that we invest in. Sometimes we even wrap our identity around a Belief. It’s often said as well that we create our reality with our Beliefs. Even the obvious etymology of the word - BE LIFE, indicates that it is a thought that we invest so much into that it becomes our life. Our species’ history is rife with sagas of people dying for, and killing others for, beliefs that may or may not even be objectively true. Today, we know that patients with a positive belief about their ability to recover has a notable affect on their actual recovery.
What does this have to do with this retrograde, though?
RETROGRADE EFFECT
When a planet is in retrograde condition, it is as though we are experiencing it in “rewind.” We get to re-experience having that planet move through that particular realm of the zodiac, slowly, and in reverse, and then go through again in forward direction afterwards. It’s a time of reflection, re-consideration, and re-view. In a way, we can see these times as opportunities to observe how we want want to do something better, and then get the chance to do that.
Of course, in this reality, we always have the chance to do better. As long as we are alive, we are presented with continuous moments that we can use to make ourselves and our lives more in alignment with our higher goals. But, Retrogrades are special periods where we are all experiencing a certain “review and do-over” together.
WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE?
This period of Jupiterian Review is all about Reconsidering Our Beliefs through the process of Shadow Work, and then Expandng in the Direction of Better Ones. This is supported by alignments with the fixed stars and some other planetary bodies as well:
Conjunction Star Capella: Love of Movement (Solar Fire)
Conjunction Star Bellatrix: Success through the Shadow (Solar Fire), Skillful Strategy but Destructive Fighting (Lunar-Returns)
Sextile Chiron: Opportunity in relation to Pain Points
Square Vesta: Challenge of considering Limiting Beliefs and What We’ve Taken For Granted (as per J.Buss)
Trine Pallas-Athena: Ease in doing so with Diplomacy
All of these aspects are happening at the same degree as the Station, 21, or in “Symbols Astrology,” 22. J.Buss writes that this degree represents Shadow Work. So, we are starting to see a pattern here: Bellatrix represents the same thing, and the Pain Points of Chiron play very well into that.
Of course, Shadow Work is all about going beneath the surface of what we have taken for granted, everything we’ve believed because it’s been easier, maybe because we’ve been taught it from an early age, or we don’t need to look at our own hypocrisy (which Bellatrix also represents when combined with Jupiter).
Gemini represents how thoughts and speech are shared with others, the exchange of ideas. And although many of our beliefs are conditioned in our bodyminds before we understand language, they are constantly reinforced by others. So many phrases are embeded into languages that have been repeated many times as truth, but, in reality, they are only beliefs:
“No pain, no gain.”
“Life is suffering.”
“All rich people are immoral.”
“I could never….[insert seemingly out-of-reach desire here]”
Whether these are objectively true is besides the point. Even the second one, the First Noble Truth of Buddha: how deep do we commit to these beliefs as though they are true? What if we entertained that they may not be true, and explored that? What would we find? About ourselves and the world?
Our beliefs can not only influence how our reality manifests, but how we project ourselves onto the world. If we believe that life is supposed to be painful, then we may experience more pain, and subconsciously hurt other people against their conscious will. If we believe that we can only serve a certain function in the world, then this is what we will say, and others will respond to us.
FACING THE SHADOW OF OUR BELIEFS
We may not even be immediately consciously aware of our beliefs. It’s not as though we are walking around telling people “I believe that I’ll always be a failure. And you, what is your religion?” It often takes commitment to facing your subconscious mind to even get to that place. And, this Jupiter Retrograde is a perfect opportunity to do that. Because of the arrangement with Bellatrix and the smaller bodies in aspect at the beginning of the cycle, we may find ourselves triggered by rage and pain about things that we perceive as “natural injustices.” But, Jupiter Retrograde implores us to ask ourselves:
What would I have to believe in order for what has been happening to be true?
What would I need to believe in order for a better situation to come about?
What thoughts can I create and share with others that would support these beliefs?
and…
How have I been railing against, or for, certain belief systems and going overboard?
How could I take a step back and use diplomacy even in my own mental conversations with myself to support creating expansion more in alignment with what I want?
What do I believe about what is Real, Right, and Best for Me? Are these things absolutely true? Could I suspend disbelief and even be belief-less for a while???
LONG PROCESS
This is a relatively long process compared with the Mercury Retrograde that gets spoken of more commonly. That is three weeks, and this is four months, plus over two additional months while Jupiter continues moving out of the Shadow zone, or the segment of the zodiac we are re-visiting. Jupiter goes back direct on Feb 4th, 2025, and leaves Shadow on April 25, 2025. That’s a whole six months, taking us through the entire unfolding of this eclipse season we just went through.
By the end of the cycle, you may find that what you believed about yourself, life, and the power of your Mind and your Thoughts have been completely overturned. Keep Beginners Mind through all of this: with everything we know, we may very well know nothing, and being surprised with what is possible that we didn’t believe in before is one of the most wonderful things about being alive on this planet.
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Jupiter Retrograde in Gemini Autumn 2024: Reconsidering Beliefs through Facing your Shadow (ARTICLE & PODCAST)