Jupiter in Taurus - The Golden Calf
Trading faith and idealism for tangible profits.
As I alluded to in a previous newsletter, Jupiter in (tropical) Taurus is one of the biggest events of 2023. As a Taurus Sun, I have been looking forward to this transit for an eternity. The movement of the greater benefic into a fixed sign marks the beginning of what astrologer Cameron Cassidy coined “fixed sign reparations.” With Saturn off axis and the nodes getting ready to be in cardinal signs again, it’s a great time to have fixed placements (yes, I am ignoring Uranus, and we will talk about Pluto later). Additionally, we are moving to phase two of Jupiter’s journey through the zodiac. Now that we have reaffirmed the personal narratives and journeys we want to embark on following the Jupiter cazimi and solar eclipse in Aries, it’s time to make them concrete. In this newsletter I want to explore some potential themes of Jupiter’s time in Taurus.
Idol (read: Idle) worship.
Poking fun at my religious upbringing (and also unpacking religious trauma by dissecting the archetypes), the fact that I am tropically a jovial Taurus, and the literal nature of the transit, the symbolism of the Golden Calf feels quite apt here. Moses left the other Israelites to go receive the Ten Commandments from god, and they replaced their god with an image of a golden calf out of fear that they would be abandoned. If this isn’t telling of the conflict between Taurus and the Venusian principles against Jovial ones, I don’t know what is.
To understand how Jupiter in Taurus may feel collectively and on a personal level, it is important to understand the relationship between the Jupiter and Taurus as a sign. Jupiter is the poster child for the daytime team, embodying the highest good of the diurnal sect. Jupiter is a hot and wet planet, and does have an airy nature. Therefore, it favors the abstract over the material, and is more concerned with assimilating people into shared collective values. This is a major contrast between Taurus — a cold, dry earth sign. Taurus as a concept is rooted in the material and is focused on maximizing, stabilizing, and consolidating materials. Since it is ruled by Venus and the Moon exalts there, comfort and pleasure take precedence over everything. Jupiter doesn’t necessarily want you to suffer, but there is an abstract quality to Jupiter which maps on well to its association with faith as a concept. You suspend your disbelief of what is possible because you have this deep conviction about committing to a particular mindset. Taurus energy suggests that the proof is in the pudding. If you cannot engage with something on a sensory level, why entertain it at all?
To add insult to injury, for the first time since Jupiter was in Capricorn, we have a Jupiter that is without support or authority. At least in Aquarius and Aries, Jupiter had triplicity dignity. Jupiter was at home in Pisces. While Jupiter is in the least hostile of the earth signs, it’s really in no-mans land. Here, I find the narrative of the Golden Calf particularly evocative of what can happen when times are tough and you need something to put your belief in. You may begin to worship idols or tangible symbols of those things you have lost your faith in. There is an element of “losing your way” spiritually or becoming really lazy in that regard which may characterize this time.
On a personal level, this can look like forgetting the larger purpose for doing something and focusing on the material benefits instead. Or walking away from a path that aligns with your morals for the pursuit of short term material stability. On a societal level, the pursuit of money and wealth is likely to take an insane turn. However, people of higher socioeconomic status may be forced to justify their right to exist. We do start this transit with that square to Pluto in Aquarius, an let’s be real— the billionaire class does not uphold their part of the social contract like they used to. Before, they built parks, schools, and other public utilities the government couldn’t provide in exchange for being allowed to amass obscene amounts of wealth. This idea might be heavily challenged for much of the transit. Regardless, the worship and valuation of the material at the expense of alignment with what really matters is a major theme of the transit.
Prosperity gospel.
Though Venus will be in Cancer for the first two weeks of the transit, the first third of Jupiter’s time here will be characterized by a square relationship between the two benefics. Each of them represent different flavors of what prosperity and goodness can look like in life. I will likely do a deep dive on the contrast between Venus and Jupiter in a later newsletter, since their square dominates much of the summer. But briefly, Venus represents more of an individual, sensate, form of prosperity which is kind of at odds with Jupiter and its agenda. Whereas Jupiter may promote sharing for collective benefit without expectation of anything in return, Venus is very much about a quid pro quo relationship. Relationships, whether people like them or not do involve exchange, but Venus wants to facilitate mutual exchange.
However, Venus will spend much of her time this year in the sign Leo, suggesting that there will be excessive valuation of situations and relationships where people can advance personal goals an objectives. Venus does have a hard time here because the Sun as a planet is very self-contained and self-involved, and fire signs also share this energy. Since Jupiter is answering to a more self-oriented Venus, I cannot help but wonder if the messaging Jupiter sends out for a good portion of this transit is one of prioritizing personal prosperity over everything, and perhaps at the expense of others. I get the impression that there may be a lot of opulence involved, and that people might get the false impression that the accumulation of more resources translates to increased superiority or moral goodness. In a time where we will likely be entering a recession (after all, the 2007 Venus rx in Virgo and Leo gave us the preview to the financial collapse of 2008), this is a dangerous road to go down. Especially in the US, given all the mythos around becoming a self-made millionaire/billionaire, which has prevented the country from making meaningful investments in social programs that could benefit everyone. Even the religious messaging here reinforces those beliefs, speaking to the co-opting of the spiritual to justify more selfish material pursuits.
That being said, one good thing that could come from this transit is collective action around advocating for our rights to prosperity. Jupiter in Taurus suggests that the collective values will be focused on being able to cultivate something and to have things that make us feel safe, comfortable, and stable. Venus in Leo is especially equipped to ensure that we advocate for our individual rights around personal enjoyment. People may raise the bar that they have around their ability to access comforts an status symbols. This is a great time to charge what you are worth, especially if you are providing services that are of value to the collective at this time, especially if you are doing something around the arts or building relationships. This is my long-winded way of saying: raise your prices, folks! People are willing to invest in things that have perceived quality, and this square is pushing you to believe in the quality of that which you can offer to others.
The Fruits of Cultivation.
An interesting feature about this particular Jupiter transit is that it will have its retrograde in the same degrees of Taurus that Mercury went retrograde in during spring 2023. Jupiter also enters Taurus within 48 hours of Mercury’s direct station. Finally, on September 4th, Venus turns direct just before the Jupiter station! The implications of these configurations occurring in close proximity to one another could not be louder!
The decanic journey through the sign of Taurus is one of cultivation. Whether planting literal seeds or making a financial investment, there are no guarantees that things will go according to plan, even if you organize everything effectively beforehand and people come to help you along the way. Mercury and Jupiter’s retrogrades in the first two decans of the sign will likely have us reckoning with the idea that the principle of reciprocal exchange is an inevitable part of life that can support or deny the growth of anything you hope to cultivate in this life. Mercury’s retrogrades may have been one of gathering insights, analysis, and subtle experimentation to assess whether something you want to work on is feasible or has public backing. Jupiter’s movement through here might represent the phases where you secure the resources needed to make good on those plans, or profit for any of the things you set in motion this spring. Venus going direct as Jupiter stations retrograde adds a nice touch! Venus gets her mandate and sets her standards for participating in a meaningful exchange, allowing Jupiter to re-appraise the profitability and value of these exchanges for the rest of 2023.
The Gold Rush 2.0
As stated earlier, this is a great time for expansion of materials and assigning value to different kinds of material outputs. It’s also important to remember that Jupiter is sharing a sign with Uranus, the great destabilizer and one of the significators of technological innovation. Since no one will shut up about AI, and so many technological innovations, including those that will end our dependence on fossil fuels, depend on “rare earth minerals,” I think that we are likely going to have valuation of new commodities on our hands. I’m not as versed in stocks and the market as some people are, but it’s better to buy into things early before they become too expensive and profit later. Even in Canada, PM Trudeau is already chomping at the bit to begin tapping into Canada’s reserves of these minerals such as lithium and cobalt to support US efforts to bring back domestic production of chips and lithium batteries.
I really love how we end this transit with the Sun, Venus, Uranus, and Jupiter all being close to each other in the last decan of Taurus. Not only is it because those energies are baked into my next solar return, but because there is a chance to experience some kind of surprise windfall. The last decan of Taurus is the more challenging of the three and does have a lot of Saturnian themes. Mining, things that come out of the earth, and anything that takes insane amounts of labor to produce might be evocative of this decan as a result. You may find that the energy of the final month of Jupiter in Taurus is captured by finding out you are actually sitting on something really profitable after all other efforts have failed. Perhaps the thing that you have put so much effort into, to no avail, begins to take off because it becomes valuable! This is an exciting time for those who may have persisted in a particular area, in spite of the lack of tangible gains in the short term. You all will have the last laugh, methinks. Milk it before Jupiter goes into exile in late May 2024.
Another thing I could also see for this last phase of the transit is a resurgence in the valuation of things that are more material and artificial. In addition to taking money out of the stock market and buying bonds based on fiat currencies, some kind of new version of the gold standard if not the gold standard itself might be in vogue, even if temporarily. On a personal level, if you have some kind of skillset that people no longer have because of the outsourcing to tech to make things easier, you may find that you can tap into a niche that will support you because of the rarity of such skills. This may be another time where doing the less popular, but tried and true thing actually works to your advantage. Also, raise the prices for whatever you are doing. They don’t build them like you anymore.
May Jupiter in Taurus allow you to concretize the aspirations that you have for yourselves, and to find value in simple pleasures! I know I am looking forward to the some of the positive developments this transit will bring. However, don’t forget why you started. Don’t get consumed by the pursuit of profit at the expense of what really matters to you. If you want to hear more about how this configuration and others may align with your own timing, please book a session with me. I know I said prices were going up post-eclipse, but honestly? I will wait until after Venus retrograde is over this summer. Lastly, I just want to drop gentle reminder that I do have a 30% discount code for people with Saturn in Pisces, and if you want it please shoot me an email!
I love this so much, will definitely comeback to this from time to time! Thanks Mo ~