Jupiter, the planet of abundance, expansion, blessings, and growth, is in the midst of its year-long transit through Taurus, the fixed earth sign that is all about sustainability.
The keyword for Jupiter in Taurus is “sustainable growth.”
On September 4, 2023 at 10:11 am ET Jupiter stations retrograde at 15º35’ Taurus, pulling our focus to the transit and the lessons it is here to teach us about how to achieve sustainable growth.
Just before it stations retrograde, Jupiter will form the second of three supportive trines to Mercury, which is currently retrograde in Virgo. Virgo is the mutable earth sign, coming at the harvest season.
While Taurus is an anchor of its season, Virgo represents transition. It’s about what we’re harvesting and learning to take with us into the winter.
Jupiter’s trine to Mercury illuminates the lessons and ideas about how to create sustainable growth and harvest that growth in a way that we can use it to feed on itself.
Here are three lessons about sustainable growth that we can learn from Jupiter in Taurus as it stations retrograde:
(1) Slow and Steady
At the gym, I often slog through my 5:30 am CrossFit class. In any workout for time, I’m typically the last person finished. But long after the others leave the gym, I’m still there, having moved on to a second workout.
It takes me a while to get going, but once I’m in my groove, I endure for longer than most people.
On the other hand, when I try to move too fast — before I’m adequately warmed up — I usually pay the price in the form of a pulled muscle or other injury.
I was born with the Sun at 15º41’ of Taurus, and this is archetypal Taurus.
Things started in fixed signs can take time to get going, but once they get traction, they endure.
This is especially true in Taurus.
The solid ground of Taurus is both our foundation and our sustenance. If we try to expand too quickly, we risk depleting our resources.
A recent investigation showed that over-reliance on groundwater is causing our earth to dry up, threatening both crops and the actual stability of the land.
Jupiter in Taurus reminds us of the old Navy SEAL adage:
Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.
Sustainable growth requires growing in a way that we can sustain: being mindful of our resources so that we don’t deplete them.
(2) Pause to Reflect and Integrate
As planets station retrograde, they slow down and pause, inviting us to do the same.
Jupiter helps us make meaning, and to make meaning we must pause, reflect, and integrate.
On The Astrology Podcast, astrologer Steph Koyfman explained that Jupiter retrograde is like taking a break from a meal to digest.
Unless we properly digest our food, we don’t benefit from the nutrients in what we eat.
The same is true for the other aspects of what we take in and what we do. When we learn something new, we must integrate our learning for it to become embodied knowledge.
After taking actions, we must pause to reflect on the outcomes of our actions to assess how we might adjust going forward.
Through integration, we strengthen our foundation, which allows us to continue to build.
In its shadow side, Jupiter can promote unrestrained growth, and Taurus can tend to materialistic greed and hoarding. Neither of these is healthy or sustainable.
If we try to acquire and consume more and more without pausing to digest and integrate, we become bloated and stuck. We can no longer process new information and ideas.
Consider that in the body, uninhibited growth is called cancer.
Jupiter’s station retrograde is a reminder that we need to pause to digest the actions we have taken and what we have learned before we try to take in or do more.
The trine to Mercury in Virgo reminds us to harvest and organize what we’ve cultivated so that it can serve us as we move forward.
(3) Act With Purpose
In other signs, Jupiter can cause us to leap before we look, to take big risks without solid footing.
Not so in Taurus.
If you want to grow crops, you need to know which seeds to plant, what kind of soil to use, how often to water them, and how to cultivate them.
In Taurus we are intentional, deliberate, and purposeful. We work methodically. Taurus is where we lay the foundation, where we til the soil, where we establish the ground of being on which what we build will rest.
Without a solid foundation, even the most spectacular building will eventually topple over.
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