Jupiter in Scorpio: Swell of Emotional Insight

10.14.17


This Tuesday (Oct 10), Jupiter entered Scorpio, where it'll stay through November of 2018.

Jupiter moves to a new zodiac-sign roughly once a year. This latest move into Scorpio is the first outer-planet sign-shift since Jupiter last changed signs, landing in Libra back in Sep 2016. It provides us our initial taste of the biggest astro-energetic transition we've experienced all year… one which becomes more palpable over coming months, as first Saturn and then Uranus also move to new signs.

Jupiter's traditional role as the 'greater benefic' is often interpreted (in somewhat misleading shorthand) to simply mean it's the planet that brings us good luck. Of course, 'luck' is always in the eye of the beholder—and even that beholding eye sees things differently over time, with hindsight bringing a clearer picture. At its most basic symbolism, Jupiter merely makes things bigger. That's why, if we're already well-situated with a proper aim and/or actively creating a steady momentum with our efforts, Jupiter can help us along with a fortunate tail-wind push.

But by the same token, Jupiter also expands upon deeds and dynamics which aren't necessarily desirable (though perhaps have been allowed to ripen due to our ignorance or avoidance), amplifying them to their tipping-point, so that we must either leave them behind in order to keep growing or suffer the troublesome consequences wrought by excess.

I sometimes emphasize the less obviously favorable qualities of Jupiter… partly to counteract the superficial tendency to focus only on certain meanings, and partly because I'm just that kind of tough-love astrologer. Due to its current spot in Scorpio, I feel this emphasis is especially appropriate now. Scorpio is not a light-and-fluffy, magical-fairy-dust type of energy suited to 'just think positive and everything will work out' attitudes. As a Mars-ruled sign, Scorpio is far more contentious and provoking.

Scorpio types instinctively tap into the unseen undercurrents of passion, lust, envy, terror, the will-to-power, and other intense emotions which drive our behaviors (whether we're conscious of it or not), which qualifies them as the zodiacal masters of human psychology. This emotional wisdom enables Scorpio to potently pursue its desires—and just-as-potently fight its battles—by playing to any individual's particular psychic makeup, appealing to whatever makes them tick or (as the case may be) hitting 'em right where they hurt.

With Jupiter just beginning to magnify our Scorpio-type awarenesses, we should probably expect an incoming swell of emotional insight in the months ahead… especially with regards to any unresolved or unexamined hurt from the past, unintegrated longings or drives, mortal fears which hold us back, or other sorts of psychic shadow-material we've preferred not to deal with. Scorpio is the fixed water sign, which means it can hold its feelings for an exceedingly long time and/or carry them to their farthest logical extreme, deepening and strengthening their influence to the level at which they compel us to confrontation or action. As Jupiter's trip through Scorpio turns up this volume, such feelings get even louder and more inciteful.

There is a fierce benefic quality to Jupiter in Scorpio, provided we're willing to travel the path of uncovering submerged feelings, untangling complexes and compulsions, and coming to fuller terms with even our most challenging human urges. What could be more empowering than claiming every part of ourselves, including those we've been previously blind to, ashamed of, or afraid to confront?

A noticeable increase in the stirring of a particular fervor or fascination, for instance, may be just what we need to help us overcome our fear or inertia. Where reason falls short as an instigating force, strong feeling often comes in handy. Likewise, the intensification of our unconscious emotional responses to familiar triggers could bring on what may initially be experienced as crisis, meltdown, or overload. But if we stay present in it long enough, with honesty and courage and compassion for ourselves, we can eventually achieve a catharsis… transmuting any suppressed emotion which held us captive, in our denial or shame about it, into a reclaimed source of self-empowerment. Sharing such cathartic depth with another person, even if it first arises out of conflict, is one of the best ways of building relational intimacy—only if, of course, we see the conflict all the way through to resolution.

Those of us unwilling to own our shadow-selves, and/or to accept accountability for the part we played in creating an undesired or distressing situation for ourselves? Jupiter in Scorpio could bloat those postures to unhealthy or hazardous proportions. Unqualified blaming, projecting our feelings, and other such self-deluding moves will not help us 'transmute' anything… but merely re-inscribes the same egocentric story onto our view of everything, increasing our tendency to subvert interpersonal connection so we may remain in control or on top.

At its harshest, Scorpio will deliver its infamous sting to anyone it feels is a threat—though 'threatened' isn't always an altogether conscious feeling, nor is it necessarily spawned by actual safety-risks. As a master of human nature, Scorpio can also be masterfully manipulative in how it claims or clings to the relational upper-hand. A threat-feeling spurs an impulse; a lethally pointed strike is issued. And then, there's no going back. We can't unsay or undo what's been said-and-done… even if it just 'slipped out' in an emotionally fraught moment. With Jupiter in Scorpio, we must be on guard against the amped-up frequency and intensity of such emotion-surges, lest we overstep our bounds in the heat of passion or danger and lash out in an irreversibly destructive manner.

So, yes, 'good-luck' Jupiter's transit through Scorpio may foment conditions which lead us to some sort of irreversible loss, due to actions born from our inability to contain the uncomfortable and/or unprocessed feelings likely to come up… just as these same feelings could foster in us tremendous psychological growth, when we dare to explore the deepest nooks-and-crannies of why we feel that way.

Symbolically, Scorpio is not just a stinging scorpion, but also the mythic phoenix which rises from the ashes of its prior demise. Scorpio energy can be so beautifully admirable because it insists on taking things to the extreme—and, frequently, to a point of no return—rather than live a safe, surfacey, or dull existence. Along with that comes Scorpio's brave willingness to look loss dead in the eyes, a necessary aspect of its all-in orientation… and to wisely understand that tender blossoms of new life always spring up in its aftermath.

We don't always lead with the version of astrological reality where Jupiter sometimes brings us loss, in its role as inspirer of philosophical reflection and spiritual truth-seeking. I've found the sorts of losses we experience under Jupiter's influence often turn out to be those we look back on (perhaps only once we're several steps further down the road) as truly fortunate developments, whether they released us from an outlook-confining situation or invited us to cultivate a fresh sprout of our being atop the resting-place of our former selves. If we look for the benefic meaning in Jupiter-in-Scorpio's digging-up of our emotional bones, we will find it—if not sooner, then certainly later—in the greater understanding of life's cycles we earn from thoroughly living them, with feeling.