Rose's Astro Academy | An Astrology Podcast

E16 *Transit* Jupiter's Retrograde in Gemini - Getting Comfortable With the Multiplicity of Truth

• Rose Potts • Episode 16

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In this episode of Rose's Astro Academy, we dive into Jupiter's retrograde in Gemini, which begins on October 9th, and explore how this shift brings a period of reversal, revision, and re-evaluation to Jupiter-ruled themes. We break down what it means for Jupiter to be in his "detriment" in Gemini, how the archetypal tension between Jupiter and Mercury plays out, and what the trine aspect between them right now could be pointing to. 

We'll explore how Jupiter's energy becomes more flexible and multifaceted in Gemini, focusing on the themes of questioning, curiosity, and the multiplicity of truths. We'll also touch on possible collective expressions of the retrograde, such as shifts in the legal, academic, and ideological realms, and how this retrograde encourages us to find comfort in the multiplicity of truths. 

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Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome to episode 16 of ROSA's Astro Academy, where we demystify the system of astrology piece by piece For our transit talk. This week we're taking a look at Jupiter's retrograde in Gemini. A retrograde is primarily about reversals, but then each retrograde means something specific, based on what planet is retrograding, what sign it's in, and etc. So we'll get into all of that nuance today. Jupiter hits his station today, which means that he stands still in the sky for a few days before turning retrograde. The retrograde itself begins on October 9th. This station is very interesting to me because it happens pretty much in an exact trine to Mercury, which is currently the ruler of Jupiter. Jupiter in Gemini is in Mercury's home sign, so we'll bring the trine into the conversation today as well. First, though, we will begin by looking at the general meaning of Jupiter in Gemini. In ancient astrology, jupiter was said to be in his detriment in Gemini, and while this might sound like strong language, it was basically a way of saying that Jupiter has trouble expressing his natural archetypal qualities here, because the qualities of the environment are at odds with his true nature. Whenever a planet is in a sign other than one that it rules, we can think of it like a guest in another planet's home. So here, jupiter is a guest in the home of Mercury, but there's an inherent archetypal tension between the planets of Jupiter and Mercury. Jupiter is naturally at home in the home of Mercury, but there's an inherent archetypal tension between the planets of Jupiter and Mercury. Jupiter is naturally at home in the sign opposite, gemini, the sign of Sagittarius, and when I think of a Sagittarius type home, what comes to mind for me is like this open air temple on a mountaintop. It's a place for really big ideas and grand philosophies. But then if we think of Mercury's home in Gemini, that might look a little more like a beehive very busy and bustling and overflowing with books and notes and ideas, and very chaotic and jumbled. It's a place that thrives on diversity and multiplicity and there's a lot of quick banter, let's say, and overflowing ideas, but not a big picture coherence and this coherence is Jupiter's specialty. Jupiter would rather be in his home of grand, unifying ideas, not the buzzing, scattered beehive of Gemini. Jupiter has been here in Gemini since around the end of May 2024, so Jupiter has kind of learned how to live with this energy. Maybe he's grown a bit complacent here. He's learned to make do, and the retrograde process that he's about to undertake shows a big reversal of some kind, a big rehashing process. So essentially, jupiter is about to get uncomfortable once again.

Speaker 1:

Jupiter tends to spend about a year in each sign, so a lot of what Jupiter in Gemini will specifically speak to depends on the whole sign house that Gemini occupies in your chart. He really tends to shine a spotlight on the topics of that house for the year. Jupiter represents growth and abundance and aggrandizement, so wherever he goes in the chart he tends to make the themes of that house larger and more important. That year there's usually a feeling of growth and abundance that goes along with that house placement. For example, a few years ago Jupiter went through my Pisces fourth house of home and I spent a year living abroad in these very Piscean, radical, free-minded hippie communities. So there was definitely a lot of growth and feeling of plentitude coming from the area of my home. So how do we find the whole sign house that Jupiter is currently in in our chart? Well, it's based on your rising sign. So in whole sign houses, your rising sign occupies the entirety of your first house and then the next sign in zodiacal order occupies the entirety of your second house and so on from there. So say, if you're an Aquarius rising, then we count how many signs over Aquarius is from Gemini in zodiacal order, which is five signs, which makes Gemini the fifth house for an Aquarius rising and means that Jupiter is spending the year in their fifth house until May or June 2025.

Speaker 1:

The fifth house is about the creation principle, where things are born into being, so to speak, and often connotes having children. Jupiter is also a planet of fertility, so Jupiter in the fifth can possibly bring big themes around becoming a parent, but doesn't have to. The fifth house also represents creativity in the sense of being an artist. Jupiter, the planet of fertility in the sense of being an artist. Jupiter, the planet of fertility in the house of creation, can look like a year where someone is really stepping into the artistic side of themselves and letting that part really shine and grow. So the house topic is very important for making sense of transits like this and not something I can really go over here for every rising sign on this podcast. But we're going to stay with this Aquarius rising example for a bit to give you some more context on how these interpretations start to get combined. So for the example of an Aquarius rising.

Speaker 1:

Their fifth house of creativity is being activated this year by Jupiter, and Jupiter was called the greater benefic, so basically a good doer of grand proportions. So wherever he goes in the chart, good changes tend to occur. But remember, jupiter isn't very happy in Gemini, so these good changes come with a definite note of difficulty and of figuring things out. When Jupiter is in Gemini it's like he has traveled abroad and he's in a foreign country where the culture is very, very different from his own. In fact it's polar opposite to his own. So there's a big learning process happening here, where Jupiter is maybe learning to open his mind a bit to this different way of being. So don't be surprised if whatever house topic is being activated for you by Jupiter this year, that there's difficulty in the growth and it feels a bit uncomfortable and like you're being exposed to a whole new way of viewing things and relating in this area of your life. So for our Aquarius rising person, maybe they're focused on growing a lot as an artist this year, but it's a challenging process. Also with Gemini, there's often an energy of bouncing between many different ideas and maybe having a hard time settling on or really focusing on one thing at a time. Maybe there's so many different creative projects in the air that they're feeling overwhelmed.

Speaker 1:

But let's talk more generally about the archetypal tension between Jupiter and Mercury and how Jupiter in Mercury's sign of Gemini shows up generally and for the collective. In ancient astrology, jupiter was seen to represent the will of the god Zeus, who represents the cosmic unifying order. Thus, jupiter aims to create coherence and unification. Thus, jupiter aims to create coherence and unification. This is why Jupiter has a lot to do with philosophy and being philosophically minded, because philosophy helps us to make sense of the cosmos and feel like there is coherence within it. Jupiter is associated with sages and wisdom and teachers of high-minded ideals.

Speaker 1:

Mercury is rather opposite in nature to this. Because Jupiter is in Mercury's sign, jupiter has to try to do the types of things that he wants to do, but is forced to go about them in a Mercury-like fashion, and that fashion is opposite to his own nature. In ancient astrology, the retrograde was seen as a process of the planet journeying to the underworld. Mercury, because he takes this journey at least four times more often than any other planet, is most at peace with this process. This represents a kind of comfort that Mercury has with journeying into the unknown. What happens in the journey to the unknown is the descent into chaos. So we can really think of the tension between Jupiter and Mercury as the tension between order and chaos. And now I'm not the first astrologer to say that, but I think it is a really great way to distill this archetypal difference. It is a really great way to distill this archetypal difference. So we've been in this process for quite a while. Jupiter entered Gemini about four months ago, so at this point we've kind of gotten comfortable with this uncomfortable journey. It's become our status quo in a way.

Speaker 1:

Jupiter also represents having a grand unifying faith in life. So while Jupiter is in Gemini and this is happening collectively, for us it's like our faith is being thrown into doubt. We're questioning the grand unifying structures that make up our society and, of course, with the cost of living crisis happening around the world and everything else that's been occurring, I feel like now, more than at any other time that I've been alive, I really feel that sense of doubt heavy in the collective. There's a collective questioning taking place and that's a really big theme with Jupiter in Gemini. But the questioning of our faith is an important process to go through because ultimately this is how we move towards a greater sense of coherence. If we only have blind faith and never question it, then that's not true faith. We can only get to the place of true faith once we have gone through that questioning process.

Speaker 1:

So with Jupiter in Gemini generally, and especially with the upcoming retrograde process, we're re-evaluating truths and re-evaluating those unifying principles in our lives and in the collective, and this can make a lot more sense for you individually once you ground this into a tangible space based on the whole sign house that Gemini falls into in your birth chart. For me it's been a process of letting go of the things that I thought were true about this Gemini area of my life and accepting new truths. We don't know what we don't know until we know it. So there's a sense of curiosity, a sense of questioning and learning. Maybe there's a process of teaching and questioning, and teaching and questioning and this back and forth playing out, jupiter being the archetype of the teacher, and Gemini encourages skepticism and curiosity. So Jupiter here acts less like a preacher of established truths and more like a Socratic guide. It's more about posing questions and encouraging the curiosity. Gemini is about looking at multiple viewpoints instead of holding one truth. So while Jupiter is in Gemini, we're learning to live with the multiplicity of truths. Jupiter prefers to have philosophical certainty, but Gemini thrives on duplicity. This forces Jupiter to be a lot more flexible in its thinking. Whereas Jupiter is all about finding the sense of certainty, gemini then tells Jupiter that there's never any certainty. So, anyways, that has been a bit of a longer tangent than I anticipated on Jupiter and Gemini. But if we have any hope of understanding what the retrograde means, we have to first understand what Jupiter in Gemini talks about generally. So thank you for bearing with me. Now.

Speaker 1:

A retrograde can signal a reversal, the script getting flipped and retracing one's steps. Jupiter in Gemini has been in this process of maybe somewhat begrudgingly learning to think more like Mercury, allowing room for that multiplicity. And now, just as Jupiter is starting to get comfortable, perhaps the tables are turning in some way and Jupiter has to learn how to get comfortable all over again. Jupiter wants to find one unifying truth that he can hold on to, but Gemini is constantly reminding Jupiter that there is a multiplicity of truths and that ultimately, nothing can ever be held on to. Gemini is the sign that comes right before the summer solstice, the time of the year when the sun reaches its peak and then will begin its descent for the rest of the year as the darkness in the day grows longer. So Gemini also inherently represents this reversal shown by the retrograde. Also, you might remember if you listened to my episode all about retrogrades, and if you haven't listened to that one yet, I recommend you go and check it out after this. But when a planet turns retrograde, it actually starts moving in the same motion as the rest of the stars and in this sense it was seen to lose its own autonomy or will. It's like the planet has given into the tides of fate that are stronger to it. So when a retrograde happens, especially with a slow-moving planet like Jupiter, it can come with this feeling of the hands of fate coming in and turning things around for us, coming in and reversing our circumstances in some way, and we have to give in to whatever this process is and just go with it. When Jupiter stations to turn retrograde, which he is doing today, it can often suddenly cause those big themes that this retrograde is going to be about for you individually to surface in your life. So definitely watch out this week for what's coming up Now.

Speaker 1:

The trine from Mercury is really interesting, and even more so because Mercury is in Libra, which is the sign of the fall equinox, and this is actually the moment where we see more darkness than light in a day and actually serves as the symbolic threshold of the underworld. For that reason and remember I said that Mercury has an inherent comfort with this journey, with allowing the destruction process, whereas Jupiter struggles a lot more with this. So the trine from Mercury here, right when Jupiter is turning retrograde, is like Mercury encouraging Jupiter in this process. The image that comes to mind for me is that Jupiter and Mercury are standing at the top of a cliff and they're going to hang glide, and Jupiter is like I don't know, I don't know, I'm not ready, and Mercury just winks at him and jumps, and then Jupiter has no choice but to follow suit. Mercury is very comfortable with this process and Jupiter is not. So, anyways, I see the trine as a knowing wink from Mercury telling Jupiter to be comfortable with the discomfort and to leap. So, anyways, this can be big on a collective and individual level, because Jupiter comes back around to a sign about once every 12 years and the retrograde is a big moment in his journey through each sign. So Jupiter is going through a process of revisioning and revising this plan of attack that he's taken during these first four months in Gemini. Perhaps he's learning to let go and accept and embrace and just go with the flow of this Gemini sign more, rather than fighting against it. There's a definite turn in circumstance and that could potentially be very highlighted for you this week.

Speaker 1:

I'll finish off today with a bit on how we might see this retrograde for Jupiter showing up collectively. The biggest one for me is collective reconsiderations. Jupiter rules the courts of justice and the law and there's a questioning and revising process here indicated so we could see some legislative changes taking place. Maybe there's a heightened awareness of misinformation and an effort to get a handle on all of the multiplicity of information that is out there. There could also be academic reforms. You know the standards of acceptance for research papers and things like that In this new age of AI. A lot of things which were previously held true in terms of this spread of information are getting overhauled and completely revised, and it's a very rapid process. There could also be a collective questioning of dominant ideologies and an effort to deconstruct some of our larger belief systems that we as a society hold true. So this has been a bit of my take on Jupiter's retrograde in Gemini. It felt maybe a bit fragmented and all over the place for me, but well, hey, that's Jupiter and Gemini for you, trying to get a sense of unification and coherence and not really ever getting there.

Speaker 1:

If you had any questions about this episode or in general, you can send those on my contact page. On my website, rosesastroacademycom, and on my website you can also take a look at my schedule and book a reading with me. You can also follow along on my Instagram at rosesastroacademy. Finally, if you enjoyed this episode and you want to help this podcast grow and find a larger audience, then it's so, so helpful if you follow the podcast and leave a review. It's so, so helpful if you follow the podcast and leave a review. Well, that's all I have for you. See you on Wednesday for a new episode.