Planet Waves: Good as Gold

July is the month when Jupiter changes signs to Leo. Jupiter takes about 12 years to go around the Sun, so it spends about a year in each sign. It’s been in Cancer since last summer, and quite a time it’s been. During this phase we’ve lived through some genuinely challenging astrology that is, as I write, letting go of its grip. That’s happening exactly while you may be finally getting a grip.

Jupiter is what’s called “exalted” in the sign Cancer, meaning that it’s a very strong placement, which I believe has offered protection from what otherwise could have been considerably more difficult. One of Jupiter’s roles in the solar system is to attract inbound objects such as comets and little asteroids, which prevents them from hitting the Earth. Jupiter can work a similar way in astrology.

To my perception Jupiter in Cancer has also been about guiding us in the direction of keeping matters focused on an emotional level. That’s a fine line to walk in a world that tends to deny feelings and create situations where it seems like vulnerability is dangerous or impossible. Then, as much as people claim to want others to be present in their feelings, or even to express them, they can get just as freaked out when they meet someone who actually does that.

Now Jupiter is about to change signs, from water sign Cancer to fire sign Leo. This happens July 16, with another peak soon after on July 24, when the Sun makes its one and only conjunction to Jupiter in Leo for this cycle. Now is the time to adjust to the new environment, drink up this rare energy with every cell and put it to creative use.

In my perception, the core message of Jupiter in Leo is about focusing on self-esteem. This is directly related to courage. It’s my observation that the most troubling spiritual crisis of our society and our time in history involves self-esteem, which you might think of as self-respect, and which I will do my best to demonstrate is really about cultivating a healthy relationship to yourself and your existence. Courage, or coming from the heart, is integral to this.

A Review: End-to-End Retrograde Inner Planets

We have just experienced more than six months of consecutive retrograde inner planets. This is fairly rare. Inner planets, because they’re closer to the Earth, are retrograde a lesser percentage of the time than are the outer planets. They tend to have more pronounced effects, and they speak to topics that are more readily accessible and that seem more personally relevant.

Sometimes inner planet retrogrades happen simultaneously and other times they spread out throughout the year. And sometimes they come on one at a time, like in The Five Chinese Brothers. Since the Capricorn solstice, first Venus, then Mercury then Mars, then Mercury again, have been retrograde, end to end. No sooner did one retrograde conclude than another one began. This pattern ends/ended on July 1, when Mercury stationed direct in Gemini.

Inner planet retrogrades put us into contact with inner reality. They bring up the past, they resurrect unresolved material and have a way of peeling back the layers to show us what’s in there. Also, when an inner planet makes a retrograde in a certain sign, it sets the theme and tone of that planet through the next cycle. Let’s take them one at a time, in short format.

Venus retrograde in Capricorn (December 21, 2013 through January 31, 2014) described the highly structured ways most people think of “love.” Structured means packing all kinds of rules around feelings—such who is supposed to relate to who and why or why not, and how and when, and trying to dance to expectations that others have on you, or that you have of them. Think of how easy it is for people to go into scandal mode, even when nobody is being harmed and everything is perfectly legal.

This transit was also a challenge to all the judgment and guilt that normally attends loving or sexual relationships. Much of that judgment and guilt is fed to us by family members, religion and peers who got it from their families and religion. Then it’s reinforced by culture and represents the toxic emotional brew that so many people simmer in. The response is generally to adopt a public relations position of prudery and purity, then go for the wild debauchery when nobody is looking, a nearly perfect identikit of Venus retrograde in Capricorn.

The question we are left with is: are your feelings really your feelings, or are in some way obliged to follow emotional and social choreography, or go into guilt/scandal mode if you do not? These are questions that require real awareness, because our conditioned responses are typically so automatic and self-righteous.

Mars retrograde in Libra (March 1 through May 19) was a study in gender and projection. It peeled back a few layers revealing how much emotional garbage the sexes project on one another. We got a look at how the supposed differences between the sexes are greatly exaggerated. Any time you hear someone saying that one sex is fundamentally different than the other, that’s time to stop and question whether it’s vaguely true, and to notice whether it’s part of a marketing campaign. It might be true, though I’m suggesting a moment of reflection—because it might not be.

There was something to this transit about dashed hopes in relationship and how angry so many people are that relationships don’t work out for them. There was something about owning one’s disappointment and anger and not projecting that onto others. And Mars retrograde in Libra (and its ongoing presence there in direct motion, which transitions this month) is about owning your own desire and not projecting it onto others—as if they are the only ones who feel these things and somehow you do not.

One brief thought about the three Mercury retrogrades this year. They all involve Mercury’s movement between water signs and air signs, starting on the watery side and retrograding back into the air sign. The Mercury retrograde that ended on March 1 began in Cancer (a water sign) and ended in Gemini (an air sign).

The message here is that you cannot think with your emotions. It’s necessary to feel and to think, and to know the difference—and to apply an appropriate response when you have the chance to do so. There’s also a message about the difference between emoting and feeling; emoting is output mode, feeling is input mode—it really is that simple.

We are about to move into new territory. This month two elements of the grand cross that’s been the defining factor of 2014 astrology move on to new signs—Jupiter ingresses Leo on July 16 and Mars ingresses Scorpio on July 25. Put simply, the grand cross is over, though the Uranus-Pluto square I’ve written about many times in this space continues well into next year. More on that another time.

Jupiter in Leo: The Gold Standard of Self-Esteem

Jupiter in Leo is to me an image of self-esteem. It’s an image of valuing oneself, and of allowing that sense of value to grow and expand. It’s difficult to describe the self-esteem problem because it’s so widespread, and because so many people take it for granted in their own lives.

It’s a kind of ever-present cultural toxin that fades into the background, then seems to run the show. It does this by setting a low standard of what one’s own life and ideas are worth. It is this standard that we need to raise for ourselves and put out as an example to others.

Let’s look at the astrology first. Leo, as the sign ruled by the Sun, is the backbone of the zodiac. It is a symbol that represents the idea of vital force, or the main line of energy that supports life and consciousness. It is possible to block or afflict the vital force but not to make it go away. You might think of self-esteem as having a connection to one’s own vitality and sense of one’s own existence, and the lack of self-esteem as blockage to that connection.

The problem is that this thing in the way appears as a lack of some kind, when it may be that what has to happen is that a blockage must be removed and one’s own natural energy allowed to flow. It’s just that there are so many judgments around that flow of vital energy—of really being alive—that the judgments become part of the blockage, which appears as a lack.

Think of Jupiter as the place where you invest your faith. It’s the place where you expect to get a result of some kind, without having to do much except allow yourself to be who you are. The most effective ways to block that are guilt, denial and deception. But if those are seen as some kind of helpful thing, serving some kind of purpose, then one might not want to address them.

That’s exactly what I think the core problem is. We all possess innate vitality, which we’re taught to suppress; then the means of suppression are sold back to us as productive, helpful or socially beneficial in some way. I’m suggesting that if you struggle with self-esteem issues, you might look at what you value as a good thing that is really blocking your access to your own strength and awareness.

Cultivating self-esteem might begin with a reevaluation of all those “good things”—the things that supposedly make one socially acceptable, but which really involve self-denial and suppressing one’s desire to live.

One other aspect of this is avoiding what people know might help them. Obviously there are many injuries and insults that we collect in life, some of them truly significant, and a source of ongoing pain. There are ways to address, resolve, and heal these issues. Humans are amazingly resilient and you can be sure that people have healed from much worse than you’ve been through.

I have heard people say many times, “I don’t want to go to therapy because I’m afraid to find out what is in there” (i.e., learn about myself). When it comes to therapy, healing or support, this is the, “What will come first, the chicken or the egg?” question. Will I pluck up some self-esteem and do something for myself that will help me, or will I recognize that I am struggling and then do something in an effort to make my life better?

This can be applied to relationships as well. Is the equation, “I will get out of this relationship when I feel better about myself,” or is it, “I really need to make some room in my life and use that space to get myself sorted, and get a little closer to myself”? There are many who would benefit from the affirmation, “I really need a little time between my relationships, maybe a lot of time, and I can give myself that. I’ve lost track of who I am and I want to find out.”

Who you surround yourself with is crucial to your self-esteem. Some people will affirm your value and your beauty and you will learn from them. Some will tear down your value and your beauty (for many reasons) and you will learn just as well from them. However, beyond choosing who your examples are, it’s dangerous to invest your self-esteem in relationships because they tend to change so often, and can be so unpredictable.

Jupiter in Leo is saying: set an example for yourself. Within you is a source of life and of value that is yours to draw upon, invest in, have faith in and access as a source of inner love. It’s saying become your own teacher. Become your own student. Devote yourself to teaching and learning. This is the gold standard of self-esteem.

This article appears in July 2014.