Jupiter in Taurus (and the Taurus' "dark" flip-side)

(photo: Sergey Larenkov)
On the 4th of June 2011 planet Jupiter entered in the sign of Taurus (after completing a crazy race in Aries -  very apropriate to that fiery's sign nature).  I wanted from the begining to post on my blog an article interpreting Jupiter in Taurus but I had the sense that I was missing something. I could not figure out what it really meant for Jupiter to be in the sign of "the earthy reality". I was reading other colleagues' articles who were interpreting Jupiter in Taurus as a "world-wide financial growth" but that interpretation seemed simplistic to me and not very congruent with the current global situation. So, I decided to shy away from any possible interpretation till some kind of inspiration would illuminate me.


I was recently watching on Youtube a documentary on the German occupation of France. Seeing all these German soldiers in front of the beautiful monuments of Paris felt kind of creepy and grotesque. It made me wonder about the astrological "spirit" of that particular period. Was there too much Pluto and Scorpio emphasis back then? Then I suddenly realized that this was the period of the famous Taurus Stellium! No Scorpio at all, but too much Taurus instead (Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus in Taurus)! How could it be? Taurus is supposed to be a sign of peace and prosperity! Why was that much emphasized at the very peak of world war two, when Europe was plunging at a period of utter destruction, misery, famine and massive extermination of lives?

It might have been prosperous just to the Germans, as they had occupied back then rich lands, taken over the conquered countries' production, factories, people's gold etc. But to the other Europeans it was an inferno, as even the most simple and carefree to us actions like obtaining food turned to be - to most of them - a desperate everyday battle. So definitely Jupiter in Taurus does not necessarily portend a financial and material prosperity. On the contrary, sometimes Taurus' "flip side" might come out, a side which is very similar to the nature of Scorpio (not by chance these two signs are polar opposites in the zodiac - and polarities partake and fuse in mysterious ways).

Pondering on this I came up with this conclusion: Jupiter is the planet related to "the expansion of awareness". Taurus on the other hand is the sign of material goods, of our resources, of our ability to survive and endure, of serenity, of the simple pleasures of life, of our basic, elementary needs. If we combine the two then we might arrive to this interpretation: with Jupiter in Taurus our consciousness will expand to the direction of how important are after all the simple, basic goods and pleasures of life, to which we were not paying too much attention previously as we were thinking of them as trivial, just a matter of course, eternally there for us...But now we will realize how precious they are, that we have to seriously take care of them because they might not always be there! Remember, a loaf of bread, a pair of dirty, worn shoes or just the fact of being alive was enough to make people revel back in the 40's! How many people revel today over these things? But the point is WE SHOULD! And that's exactly what Jupiter in Taurus will teach us.

Additionaly, with all these volcanic eruptions ocurring lately all over our globe we realized that Earth is not after all as rock-steady and solid as we thought it to be. It is in its nature to produce every now and then mega-earthquakes and unimaginable volcanic eruptions. This notion will radically change our attitude towards Earth and towards ourselves! We will realise that after all we are just minuscule ants on the surface of an often troubled planet. And of course we will start missing - somehow - our planet in its previous rock-steady state, when we thought that such a state was eternal to our Earth...Well, it turns out it's not and we'd better start realising it, respecting more the power of the Earth and protecting as much as we can ourselves from its intemperancies!

Another Jupiter in Taurus element that stroke me lately is the fact that two friends of mine are creating a sort of shelter, filling it with food and water just in case something goes very wrong. Although their words sounded as if they were coming out from the past, from the 40's they were actually the words of relatively young people spoken in 2011! And they sounded very much Jupiter in Taurus! People want to better protect themselves now, to expand their resources and security, in case things turn ugly. They create shelters, they accumulate food while they are investing on gold, silver and precious metals...

Jupiter has to do a lot with travelling (especialy in far distant places). But Jupiter in Taurus is one of the less travelling-prone positions. Look what is happening lately with all these volcaning eruptions and the volcanic ash spreading over entire continents: till a few weeks ago people could not fly over Europe because of the eruption of the two Icelandic volcanoes. And till yesterday they could not fly over South America because of the eruption of the Chile volacano, nor they could fly over a large chunk of Africa because of the recent Eritrea volcanic eruption etc. So, what is the message coming out of all this? I think this one: "if you don't want to get stranded in an airport for several days avoid to travel by air! Meaning avoid to travel far away! Stay where you are, in your own land and try to make the best out of it. Enjoy the little things everyday life is offering you, avoid pursuing an ever more unattainable happiness in far away places. And as the world is turning ever more crazy and insecure you should seek true happiness and serenity in yourself!"

Thus with Jupiter in Taurus we will mainly expand and cultivate our "inner landscape", our inner values, our practical skills, while we will start taking a better care of ourselves. We will learn to appreciate more the simple, everyday things that life is offering us. The small pleasures - that is - and the fleeting moments of relaxation and serenity of which previously we were not much aware how important they are! And after all, Jupiter in Taurus will at some point attract prosperity, stability and serenity for us. But only in a second phase and rather as a "by-product" of the insight and wisdom we will have gained of how valuable and crucial the basic goods and the "down to earth" matters are!

Thomas D. Gazis