The other day I had a wonderful dialogue with the remarkable Miles Neale, a celebrated Buddhist teacher, who invited me to be part of a Festival of Luminaries online to celebrate his new book, Return with Elixir. Miles asked me how I was and, after some thought, I finally said, “I feel a little like a flower producing tufted seeds, blown about the world, buffeted by fertile conversations.”
There have been a multitude of encounters and reconnections, and wonderful teaching experiences in a wide range of places. However, there has not been much time to integrate all that has happened. I realised I was speaking about Jupiter in Gemini. As Jupiter comes to the end of its passage in the sign, I feel grateful for the many opportunities it has brought. So much movement, freshness, aliveness.
Jupiter spends twelve months, give or take a few days, in each sign. With so much emphasis in recent years on traditional and Hellenistic astrology, I have seen many astrologers report the negatives of this sign placement, where Jupiter is in detriment. I have read words like verbose, scattered, duplicitous. And while we may have plenty of evidence for political double-dealing, there are always benefits to Jupiter’s presence in our charts. Let’s think about what gifts Jupiter’s passage in this sign has brought so far.
One of Jupiter’s gifts in Gemini is to make us aware of the interplay of light and shadow, to recognise more than one point of view, to bring our attention to the consequences of choice. When the first American pope was chosen a few weeks ago, we learned that he spoke to his brother almost every day, and played Wordle with him every morning. Gemini connects to both siblings and words, and the new pope is also fluent in five languages. Pope Leo XIV is an ethical American counterpoint to the troubling unpredictability of a transactional American president.
As hard as it may feel at times, Jupiter in Gemini asks us to stretch our consciousness to include extremes. Right now that can feel painful. The dark and light pillars are both lit up. Can we hold both in our awareness?
Some of this is about the squares that have taken place between Jupiter and Saturn—a battle for growth as the 20-year cycle that began in late 2020 unfolds. I have felt it strongly in my own life, and it strongly activated my chart.
In March, on the lunar eclipse, the day I was giving a talk to 80+ people in New York, my tooth fell out. A shard flew into my eye in a Florida garden, and was only removed a month later in Paris. Last October, my niece’s wedding was cancelled by Hurricane Milton, and I had to scramble to find new flights to a retreat in Utah. Gilles’s daughter, who lost one of her twins at 28 weeks, is enamoured of her beautiful son Orlane, but still feels the painful shadow of his brother’s loss.
Saturn enters Aries on May 25th, another traditionally difficult sign placement. Many of you have watched the webinar I did, “Only the Brave: Saturn in Aries.” One of the things I asked about the sign passage was, “Is it too controlling, too fast, too harsh? Or does it help shape strong individuals who are not impressed by authority?”
If you haven’t yet seen it, you can purchase the recording here.
Jupiter and Saturn will make their third square on June 16th, this time in new signs—one planet stripped down to muscle, in the sign of its fall, the other rounded into feeling, in its exaltation. Where would you rather be? And where will necessity call you?
Jupiter in Gemini has been about connections, not conclusions. It throws ideas far and wide; some will bring us joy and vivacity for a long time to come. And while a year seems like a long time, it’s only one-twelfth of the whole cycle. I have one last adventure, just as Jupiter crosses my ascendant, speaking at a conference in Istanbul next week.
As Jupiter enters Cancer on June 9th, it will call us to take things into our care, to grow in intimacy and feeling. Amidst all the rush and bravado of fire and air, it will provide a welcome refuge for our inner life. We will be incubating certain of the ideas that have rushed through our lives during Jupiter in Gemini. It is time to care for what really matters.
During its passage in Cancer, Jupiter will begin to form connections with many other planets in a watery autumn sky. I am looking forward to Celebrating the Feminine in Astrology in early October at the Omega Institute with Maurice Fernandez, Anne Ortelee, Nadiya Shah, and Hanna Tanajura. I so love connecting with participants in person, and I can imagine the beauty of the Hudson Valley in the fall. I hope some of you will join us there. Learn more here.
Here is the link to Miles Neale’s Elixir Festival. You can register for free, and the recordings will soon be available.