Divinely Aligned: the Jupiter Neptune Conjunction

 

A special Jupiter/Neptune conjunction in Pisces is exact on April 12, 2022.

Despite the dark craziness of the times, I’m optimistic. Conjunct this year, Jupiter and Neptune are divinely aligned to inspire both our faith and our ability to create peace and happiness.  After all, the peace sign was invented during a Jupiter/Neptune conjunction (1958). Peace treaties for World Wars I and II were both signed during the years when Jupiter and Neptune met. This year’s conjunction has coincided with an unprecedented surge in global unity and compassion for the victims of Russian aggression in Ukraine.

Among the Neptune signatures running through the culture today are the archetypes of overwhelming emotion, idealism, unity, deception, illusion, creativity, and compassion. Expansive, growth-oriented Jupiter is a long-time guardian of the social fabric. During the years when these two planets meet, it’s like Jupiter inhales a big belly of Neptunian energy and blasts it through the collective.

It’s a sign. Occurring every 13 years, Jupiter/Neptune conjunctions are a celestial signal indicating that it’s time for humanity to become more divinely aligned.

“Every 13 years–and, even more, every 166 years—mankind should take a step forward, even if only a tiny one,” wrote Dane Rudhyar, father of modern astrology. “It should be a step ahead of our past—our traditional social, cultural and religious sense of human relationship.”

We need to think about our brothers and sisters in a more enlightened way. Soulful Neptune wants to reminds us that we’re all one.  Jupiter/Neptune is the only planetary conjunction that occurs in successive signs, ascending through the zodiac in order. This unusual pattern, Rudhyar believed, makes it especially suited to describe the step-by-step spiritual progress of a society. A full J/N cycle repeats every 166 years. That brings us to this moment.

For the first time since Neptune was discovered (in 1846), Jupiter and Neptune meet again in Pisces, the mystical/magical sign they both rule. This happens just once in a lifetime, if at all.

But it’s not pure rainbows and butterflies. Each conjunction, like each moment, has the potential to go in opposite ways. The 1932 conjunction saw the rise of both FDR (and his progressive New Deal) and Hitler (you know, the Nazis).  History’s wild card is always humanity’s free will.  What will people empower?

Humanity’s boots typically step forward, said Rudhyar, in times of chaos, confusion, instability and disarray. Some boots wanna go backwards. People can suffer a temporary blindness as they try to make a panicky escape back to the womb of the past. “However,” wrote Rudhyar, “progress is only [made by going] through the confusion and glowing mist over the hills, yonder. There is no way ever of going ahead, except through!”

So I’m optimistic. But it’s been scary. The cultural potency of dictators and authoritarianism is still shockingly strong.  After studying J/N conjunctions, mundane astrologer Andre Barbault concluded that they generally do bring a swing to the left—a rise in democratic and socialist values. In the US, women got the right to vote as did 18-year-olds during J/N years. During the 2009 conjunction, Barack Obama was inaugurated; the Affordable Health Care Act actually passed.  During this year’s conjunction, after 200 failed attempts, for the first time in US history, a law was passed making lynching a federal crime.

As expressions of the conjunction’s unifying, humanitarian blessings, the League of Nations and the United Nations were born during J/N years. NATO’s new strength today is another testament. Labor protests are also a feature of J/N forward steps. The US’s first significant labor protest occurred during a J/N year. The first labor strike demanding an 8-hour work day occurred in Australia during a J/N time.  Without any loss in wages, the workers got their demands.  And just this month, in what some are calling the biggest labor victory in a generation, for the first time in Amazon’s history, some of its employees voted to unionize.

Of course, it’s not all struggle and peace. Any planetary conjunction has multiple expressions. And true to the spirit of Jupiter/Neptune, the world’s creativity, magic, and its cultural imagination can also rise during these times. The first Harry Potter book hit the world during a J/N year.  During another, Apple introduced the Mac with its iconic Superbowl commercial, invoking 1984 and the battle against authoritarian conformity.  The “Magic Kingdom” opened its Disneyland Resort in Florida during another J/N time.

My favorite J/N story is a less remembered one. During the conjunction of 1984, a pilot successfully completed the first solo helium balloon flight across the Atlantic.  As Jupiter rules helium balloons and Neptune the ocean, it’s spot on, as is the vessel’s name, “Rosie O’Grady’s Balloon of Peace.” But it’s the story of the pilot, Joe Kittinger, that makes this expression so sweet. Twelve years earlier he’d been a POW in Vietnam after his plane was shot down. Through months of torture and despair, he thought of just one thing. He dreamed of all the details he’d need to master in order to make this solo Atlantic flight.

Rosie O’Grady’s Balloon of Peace sailing across the Atlantic is a nice image to plant in your subconscious.  With Jupiter/Neptune rising inside, dreams can come true.   What’s yours?

For more thoughts on how to put this transit to personal use, see my recent “retrograde-free” post here.