In early December 2019, Jupiter will leave fiery Sagittarius and enter earthy Capricorn. Then a few days before Christmas when the sun enters Capricorn, five of the ten “planets” in astrology will be in earth signs.

Ah, earth. You love it, right?

You live on earth, walk on earth, sleep on earth, eat earth matter, drink earth water and breathe earth air. The etheric, astrological earth energy combined with the gravitational pull of the earth will bring you fully into your earth body for enjoyment of all that is physical. You may even have the desire to build a house brick by brick with your own hands.

Or maybe not.

While we are clearly in body, we often live in our minds (air). It’s possible that we are destroying the earth because we are not connected to our bodies (which are clearly connected to the earth).

In the movie First Reformed, we meet a depressed pastor who is having severe body issues which he is ignoring. In his counseling work with a parishioner who is even more depressed than the priest over the state of the environment, the priest becomes equally concerned after seeing photos of emaciated polar bears.

The pastor could be said to represent the people of the United States – depressed and ignoring their environment. In a brief and fleeting moment, the priest even suggests that the church should play a role. The church represents the spiritual life which in astrology is represented by fire. Fire, too, can ignore the body in its spiritual quests.

If news is a measure of things, large-scale environmental issues have recently been acknowledged by a larger mass than in the last few decades. And the news is not good. We’ve been ignoring our body. The body will now provide ever stronger signals of its needs. And the year 2020 will be the expansion of that energy.

The Four Elements

The four elements of astrology – fire, earth, air and water are all part of the earth. In astrological and personality terms, fire represents spirit and energy. Those with lots of fire are energetic and forceful, extroverted and involved. In pure form, this element is drawn to performing and athletics. Fire is focused on possibilities and what could be.

Earth is practical and resourceful, restrained and reverent. Those with lots of earth energy are focused on the material, accumulation and security. Earth is focused on what things are.

Air is mental and social. Those with lots of air energy are always thinking, meeting new people, exploring places and pondering ideas. Social media is air in quality – social but not always physical yet still considered interaction. Air is focused on what things mean.

Water is emotional, reactive and protective. Those with lots of water energy are connected to the emotions of those around them, voluntarily or involuntarily. Water is affected by the energies around them and find themselves as the sounding board for other’s emotional responses. Water is focused on how things feel.

Elements in pure form become the stuff of archetypes – fire sign Broadway stars; earth sign hedge fund managers; air sign marketing gurus; and water sign health care workers.

What’s important to understand about using astrological imagery is that one solitary act can come from a number of different energies.

When a person opens an investment account, is it the earth need for a secure future? Or is it a fire desire to earn enough for sailing trip around the globe? Or is it an air sign desire to crack the nut of investing to understand how to win big? Or is the water sign need for emotional security knowing that the investments may take care of their children if something unforeseen should happen?

Although investing and money may have earth energy, the reason for investing may not. That’s the key to astrology – motivation.

Crowley on Jupiter and Saturn

Jupiter

If you like astrology, you may like other “occult” arts. If you like astrology and tarot, then the Thoth tarot deck created by Aleister Crowley may be for you.

Some astrology placements, but not all of course, are sprinkled though out the deck. It would be impossible to have all planets in all signs in a deck consisting of only 78 cards even though there are no images of the outer planets of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.

But there are several cards that have placements of Jupiter and Saturn, Saturn at one time being the farthest planet known and symbolically the outer edges of earthly life.

Jupiter and Saturn go together in a way, although they are also opposite in a way. We can talk about them both since they will do some traveling together (called “conjunct”) in 2020, which you will hear a lot about from astrologers. Social upheaval is known to occur when these two are conjunct. The kind of upheaval depends upon the sign involved. In 2020, they will be conjunct in earth.

Jupiter and Saturn are your social world. Jupiter has a 11.5 year cycle and halfway through your first cycle you are thrown in a room with the people you will meet again some day in the office – kindergarten.

Around age five (although today sometimes sooner due to over-achieving Uranus/Pluto in Virgo parenting), you must separate from your parents and spend the day with society. If your experience was anything like mine, you encountered a bunch of new energies and habits you’d never seen before, like peeing your pants and throwing up without even trying to run to the wastebasket.

And maybe you picked on people, or were picked on; maybe it was severe, called bullying, and caused trauma. Catching a snippet of an episode of The Big Bang Theory last night, the nerdy, hyper-intelligent character Leonard and his girlfriend Penny, the pretty, bouncy actress, were discussing high school. Leonard was experiencing a bullying experience at his university post that reminded him of high school.

Penny’s response: “Oh, I’d love to do high school again.”

Was high school torture or the heavenly bliss before adult responsibility?

The Jupiter in your horoscope can indicate whether you are Leonard or Penny. Jupiter rules religious and social organizations such as schools, civic groups, church groups and interest groups, even such things as Daughters of the American Revolution. Jupiter is expansive and enthusiastic and joins.

In the mid 1960s in San Francisco, groups of people decided to take acid together in the park. Was that Jupiter? No, that was its higher self Neptune. Shared social experience is Jupiter. Shared heightened experience is Neptune.

If your parents joined a cult when you were five and you grew up in a compound dying your hair white and eating only organic vegetables, is that Jupiter? A bit. But the forced society also has elements of Pluto control. So possibly Pluto is interacting with Jupiter in your horoscope to make your social experience an excessively controlled experience.

In the Thoth tarot deck, Jupiter is the planet symbolizing the major arcana card Wheel of Fortune (tarot lesson: major arcana are the cards with archetypes; the minor arcana, more mundane events). The Wheel of Fortune goes up and down, like a slot machine. Those ruled by Jupiter (which rules Sagittarius) often like gambling and the highs it brings.

Fortune or wealth is not necessarily the result of the Wheel of Fortune – change is the result. Jupiter changes signs annually and often your life does as well. An annual period is one we use to measure our lives (especially when in Jupiter schooling). And each year can be different.

The Wheel of Fortune advises not to get caught up or on the wheel. If you get off the wheel, you will have less volatility.

Saturn

In many ways, Saturn has opposite characteristics of Jupiter although also ruling the social sphere. Saturn’s role is not the joining together for common social interests, but the controls to make sure the group follows the laws, to make sure society remains stable and in control (not that many do).

Saturn is the structure of the physical world. Imagine driving across the United States if there were no roads; if the roads didn’t have stop lights. Authority is ruled by Saturn and in a peaceful and harmonious society authority is respected – think the fictional Mayberry of The Andy Griffith Show. Sheriff Andy Taylor is wise and just and always enforces the law while simultaneously imparting lessons that earn him respect.

Yeah, fictional, but that’s what Saturn is meant to do. And The Andy Griffith Show is still playing because deep down we want virtuous authority to trust. Like the loving parents who raised us, we trust certain civic duties to others and want to respect them.

Among students of astrology, Saturn isn’t a favorite because it’s not expansive like Jupiter (go ahead, eat another cookie) or fuzzy like Neptune (let’s have a drink and plan what we would do if we won the lottery) or pleasant like Venus (let’s just forget the laundry and go to the movies).

Saturn is cautious and conservative. While Jupiter expands, Saturn contracts. Expansion seems more fun unless it’s your waistline, your credit card bill or a tumor. Saturn in these instances is rather nice. You can lose weight under a Saturn transit more easily than a Jupiter transit because Saturn also brings discipline.

Without Saturn, you would always date, never get married. Saturn is serious. It’s not the mercurial Mercury seeking new experience continuously. Saturn likes routine and consistency.

Tradition is Saturn. While many traditions are lost through space and time, it’s a human habit to recollect the past (or certain parts of the past) with nostalgia as age advances. We now remember history because we lived through it. If those young kids only understood!

In the Thoth deck, the major Arcana Universe card contains the symbol for Saturn. In researching this online, this site says the Hebrew letter on the card refers to Saturn and relates to the creation story.

Creation as the physical is definitely in the realm of Saturn. To be here, we must be matter, i.e., Saturn.

Saturn rules the sign of Capricorn which is on the major Arcana The Devil. Always a negative image in society, The Devil in imagery is actually more abstract – it’s the attachment to the material world and body that causes negative states of being. While I prefer the Rider Waite version of this card with a man and woman in chains that they could easily and simply remove, I see a similar theme in the Thoth card.

In this one, there are two spheres below our devilish goat where amorphous beings are encased and appear trying to break free. Are they trying to be free of the material world and all of its devilish distractions?

How many remember choosing to be here? Do we want to be here?

On the minor arcana four of disks called “Power” we see glyphs for sun in Capricorn. Here we have the stability and earthly power with which Capricorn is associated with this square image.

Jupiter in Capricorn

If you’ve read this far, you’ve probably already put the pieces together of Jupiter in Capricorn. You know that there will be a lot of earth energy in the coming year. There will be some water energy (Neptune in Pisces) and a sprinkling of fire and air and the inner planets (sun, moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars) move through signs in those elements. But the primarily elemental energy is earth.

In the Thoth deck, the two of disks called “Change” has the glyphs for Jupiter in Capricorn.

What kind of change does it represent?

The card has the ouroboros or snake eating its own tail. This Wikipedia description is quite wonderful: The ouroboros appears elsewhere in Egyptian sources, where, like many Egyptian serpent deities, it represents the formless disorder that surrounds the orderly world and is involved in that world’s periodic renewal.

For Crowley, Jupiter in Capricorn may have represented this “formless disorder that surrounds the orderly world.”

In my country right now (and many other places) the formless disorder is quite obvious; but also, too, is the rise of authoritarianism, or severe, excessive order. Saturn is clearly order; I wouldn’t call Jupiter disorder, but it’s much more open to experience than Saturn.

When Jupiter enters Capricorn, expect even more social change (in all countries of the world). When I see Jupiter and Saturn conjunct in a person’s horoscope, I know they’ve done something outside of the parameters of their social setting – married the wrong type of person; style themselves in the “wrong” way; do things not expected of their gender; cavort with people of a different social class.

Jupiter in Capricorn will add energy to Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn and Uranus in Taurus. The changes will be physical and may involve your body, property and even your beloved teddy bear.

Worst-case scenario your teddy bear will need identification and a license and can’t leave the country with you (or enter after a vacation). Best case we hold precious certain objects but are not greedy for all objects or more and more objects.

Your boss may get bossier; in response you may want to be the boss instead and learn how much responsibility is truly involved in such an endeavor. Jupiter in Capricorn makes you “walk the talk” and live up to your own standards. If you think living up to other’s standards is difficult, you may not have examined your own.

And society will certainly play around with authoritarianism. Who wouldn’t under such intense Saturn/Capricorn energy?

And it will be time for earth peoples to decide how much authority rests in what we call government and how much responsibility each of us must take and hold if we are to dismantle authoritarian patterns. You can remove the stop signs, but you still need to stop at the intersection; that doesn’t change.

Another potential change as Pluto moves toward the sign of Aquarius is that earth peoples may fully realize that we are earth peoples. Not many countries, just one planet.

Get some sleep now because in 2020 you will be busy.