Introduction to Jupiter and Saturn
- written by Philip Graves - 9 Jan 2004


Jupiter

The glyph for Jupiter shows a vertical crescent of the Moon connected at its lower end to the left edge of a cross of the Soul, indicating the elevation of Matter to quasi-spiritual status, and its outpouring through experience (the Soul). This is a product of human evolution, whereby the lunar mechanism of response to material sense perceptions gradually develops into more sophisticated personal feelings and social responses, leading in turn to the growth of the higher mind with its abstract capabilities. Thus, Jupiter represents wisdom arising through a long chain leading ultimately from response to sense impressions of the material world.

Schulman interprets the glyph as showing the crescent of Soul rising from the West of the cross of Matter (the West symbolising maturity), denoting the assimilation of early material learning into later soul wisdom.

Jupiter assimilates the sensorily absorptive, material and family values of the Moon with the qualitative, aesthetic, social values and inspirations of Venus to generate an abundance of explanations, morals, and wider-ranging civic relationships. It is confined only by Saturn's restraining handle. It evokes expansion and foresight, which when positively expressed manifest as optimism; when negatively, as extravagance. Through its high-minded, expansive nature, it serves as a very positive psychological influence on any point contacted in a nativity, and therefore has conventionally been regarded as the greater benefic.

Jupiter governs the abstract creative faculties; the acqusition of wealth; the appreciation of beauty on a grand, artistic scale; the balance of feeling with thinking; comparison; common sense; the desire for social service; growth; generalisation; good fortune; harmony, in physical form as health, in social form as law, and in spiritual form as religion; idealism; impersonal argumentation; order; positive thinking; profit; satisfaction derived from material mastery and ownership; the search for deeper meaning, purpose and understanding; and sound judgement. It is benevolent; broad-visioned; devoted; dignified; dramatic; free from miserliness; generous; genial; good-natured; honest; hopeful; integrity-conscious; law-abiding; merciful; open-minded; peace-loving; philosophical; prestigious; prophetic; prosperous; reasonable; religious; respectable; respectful; ritualistic; self-controlled; sociable; temperate; and vital; but when denied expression, potentially boastful; complacent; dissipating; gambling; hypocritical; procrastinating; and proud.

Jupiter governs charitable and philanthropic movements and institutions, the clergy, clothing, devotion, duties, education, expansion, the father's relatives, good fortune, growth, godfathers, guardians, increase (esp. in wealth), legal affairs, long journeys, public assemblies and functions, religion, social gatherings, theatres, and wealth. It also signifies friends, happiness, honours, plenty, productiveness, protection, success and supremacy. It confers an ambitious, courtly, generous, humane, jovial, prudent and sympathetic nature.

People signified by Jupiter include bankers; chancellors; clothiers; councillors; drapers of woollen fabrics; judges; lawyers (esp. civil); legislators; ministers; philanthropists; physicians; priests and clergy; provision dealers; restaurant workers; young scholars and university or college students; and senators.

Places described include altars of churches; courts of justice; neat and pleasing places; oratories; public conventions; convocations; synods; and wardrobes. Minerals include amethyst; crystal; emerald; freestone; hyacinth; marble; sapphire; and topaz. Colours signified are ash-colour; sea-green or blue; green mixed with yellow; and purple. Flavours are those sweet and well-scented, with inoffensive, mild smell.

Herbs under its dominion include agrimony, alexanders, asparagus, avens, balm, barley, basil, beet, betony, bloodroot, borage, bugloss, bur marigold (Bidens spp.), centaury, chervil, chick pea, chicory, cicely (sweet), cinquefoil, colewort, costmary (alecost), daffodil (narcissus), dandelion, endive, feverfew, flax, garlic mustard, hart's tongue, houseleek, hyacinth, hyssop, liverwort, lungwort, marjoram, meadowsweet, milk-thistle, milkweed, mint, ox-eye daisy, ox-tongue, paeony, pimpernel, pinks, Polygonum spp., self-heal (all-heal), rhubarb, rice, rose (esp. red), sage, samphire, scurvy grass, squinancy (quinsywort), St. John's wort, stonecrop, strawberry, violet (sweet), water figwort (water betony), wheat, and willowherb. Trees include almond, apple, apricot, bay, beech, bilberry, birch, (sweet) chestnut, clove, fig, gooseberry, hazel, linden (lime), liquorice, manna, maple, mulberry, nutmeg (inc. mace), oak, olive, peach, pear, pine, pistachio, spruce, sumac, thorn-apple, and (grape) vine.

Animals include bees; does; dolphins; eagles; elephants; harts; hens; larks; oxen; partridges; peacocks; peahens; pheasants; pigeons; serpents; sheep; snipes; stags; storks; tigers; unicorns; whales; and all that are mild, gentle, beneficial and well-suited to humans.

Physically Jupiter governs the adipose tissue; adrenal glands; arteries; arterial circulation; assimilation; right auricle; blood haematopoiesis, and fibrin; breath; cell division and tissue building; digestive organs and functions; fat disposition; feet; filtration; genito-urinary veins; glycogen; growth; hams; liver; lungs; nutrition; phagocytes; ribs; sides; starch; sugar; teeth; thighs; and viscera.

When prominent, Jupiter describes a tall, straight, upright stature; a large, deep belly; a lovely, ruddy or brownish complexion; large grey eyes; a long or oval, full or fleshy face; long, awkward feet; a high forehead; soft, auburn-brown hair, and abundant beard; strong, well-proportioned thighs and legs; and an inclination to sober speech and grave discourse. If Jupiter rises before the Sun, the body is fleshier; the eyes large; the skin clearer; the complexion is honey colour or white-red; the right foot usually has a mole or scar. If after the Sun, the complexion is purer and lovelier; the hair light brown or close to dark flaxen; the stature shorter; the temple or forehead smooth and bald.

Illnesses include acidity; apoplexies; congestion; cramps; heart palpitations and trembling; liver infirmities; low blood pressure; lung inflammation; pleurisy; quinsy; rib diseases; spinal pain; and vein and blood diseases and disorders.

Unto character, when well placed, Jupiter confers affability; bashfulness; charity; a desire to benefit all people and to relieve the poor; a distaste for sordidity; fairness and justness; faithfulness; glorious achievements; honorable, high aspirations and nature; indulgent treatment of spouse and children; liberalisn; magnanimity; prudence; religiosity; reverence for the aged; sweetness in conversation; thankfulness; virtue; and wisdom.

When poorly placed, it produces carelessness; divisiveness; a gross, dull mind; hypocritical religiosity, with tenacity to false religious tenets; ignorance; self-abasement in company; and the wasteful expenditure of one's inheritance.

In ancient astrology, Jupiter signifies benefit; magnificence; opinion; and sociability; when well-placed, generosity, graciousness, loftiness and piety; but when poorly placed, the absence of these particular virtues unless other indications produce them (as Jupiter can only confer them, not deny them, by its placement). As a vocational significator, it produces administators, businesspeople, priests and religious authorities..


Saturn

Saturn's glyph consists of a vertical crescent of the Moon (or Matter) connected at its top end to the bottom of a cross of the Soul. The crescent hanging heavily from the cross of the soul represents being burdened or crucified by the weight of material responsibilities.

Schulman sees Saturn's glyph as a crescent of Soul connected at its top end to the southern point of a cross of Matter, symbolising the requirement of the Soul's desire for self-expression to be united with Matter; the consideration of how much of one's Soul can be manifest as Matter; the desire for one's actions to reflect one's inner self, and thus the feeding of one's actions back into the nature of one's Soul; and the Soul's discriminating evaluation of Matter with a view to selecting what to integrate into itself and what to leave out.

Saturn's glyph also resembles a sickle: the instrument of death through time, which closely corresponds to the functions of Saturn. An ancient mythological analogue of Saturn is Chronos, the father of the Horae (hours). Time bounds human corporeal existence; and in the ancient understanding of space no slower-orbiting planet was known than Saturn, so it was the greatest marker of time.

Through its restrictive, dampening and sometimes lethal influence, Saturn has conventionally been regarded as a very negative conditioner of any point it contacts in a figure; and therefore it has been known as the greater malefic. It curbs Jupiterian optimism and bars Martian drive. It evokes limitation and restraint, which when positively expressed manifest as discipline; when negatively, as repression.

Saturn governs the ability to express thought in material form; achievement through disciplined, dutiful adherence to rules; aging; awareness of the separateness of the individual ego; the concrete creative faculties and mental awareness; the desire for self-preservation; emotional inhibition; hard times; the imposition of restrictions to ensure personal survival and growth; learning through hard experience; mathematics; scientific research; senility; seniority; strenuous self-exertion; and termination. It is ascetic; binding; cautious; cold; compressive; conscious of justice and injustice; constant; conservative; contracting; conventional; customary; death-dealing; defensive; deliberate; demanding of hard labour and self-control; desirous of authority; detailed; disciplinary; exacting; experience-valuing; faithful; fearful; firm; hard; inhibited; isolating; jealous; karma-dealing; laconic; law-setting; moralistic; non-committal; non-communicative; obedient to rules and higher authorities; oppressive; orderly; persevering; protective; prudent; reactionary; realistic; reserved; rigid; secretive; separative; serious; slow to arouse; solidifying; steadfast; tough; unaffectionate; and wilful; yet potentially also avaricious; enslaved by tradition; fatalistic; inexorable; materialistic; narrow-minded; pessimistic; tyrannical; and ultra-conservative.

Saturn governs sound advice, ascetism, bruises, cemeteries, chronic ailments, churchyards, corpses, countryside, darkness, debts and their payment, decay, disease, earth, physical falls, fasting, the father, friendships, habits, hermits, hindrances, karma, longstanding ties, misers, mountainous and hilly places, old plans and people, poverty, practicality, restrictions, and widowhood. It also signifies defects, delays, falls from position, fatalities, hurts to women and children, impediments, melancholy moods, misfortunes, secrets, and sorrows. It confers a cautious, habit-governed, independent, jealous, miserly, secretive and unhappy nature.

People signified by Saturn include animal farmers, such as herdsmen and shepherds; beggars; bricklayers; brick-makers; bridge-makers; builders; candle-makers; carters; clowns; colliers; corpse-bearers; day-labourers; dealers in land, property or earth-produced commodities; ditchers; dyers of black cloth; fathers; gardeners; grandfathers; gravediggers; jailors; Jesuits; labourers; lead-dealers; leather-finishers; malsters; miners; monks; old men; plumbers; police; potters; scavengers; adherents to sects; security guards; sextons; stablemen; sweeps; tinners; underground workers; undertakers; and night-time workers.

Places described include ruinous buildings, burial places, caves, church-yards, coal-mines, dens, deserts, dirty places, holes, mountains, obscure valleys, office buildings, sinks, stinking muddy places, wells, and woods. Minerals include ugly, unpolishable stones, and those of a sad ashy or black colour; dust and rubbish; lapis lazuli; lead; and sapphire. Colours signified are black, dark brown, indigo. Flavours are sour, bitter and sharp.

Herbs under its dominion include aconite (monkshood), amaranth, angelica, baneberry, barley, beet (red), belladonna (deadly nightshade), birdsfoot trefoil, bistort, burdock, cabbage, candytuft, castor oil plant, lesser celandine (pilewort), cleavers (goosegrass), comfrey, cornflower, crosswort, cudweed, cumin, bearded darnel, dodder, ground elder (bishop's weed / goutweed), endive, ferns (Asplenium), Royal fern, fireweed, flax, fleawort, fumitory, stinking gladwin, hare's ear, hawkweed, heartsease, hellebore, false hellebore, hemlock, hemp (cannabis), henbane, horsetail, houseleek, knapweed (greater), lentil, mallow, mandrake, marrow, mullein, nightshade (common), parsnip, pepper, buck's horn plantain, polypody, poppy (inc. corn / field), rue, rupturewort, meadow saffron, saffron, sage, shepherd's purse, Solomon's seal, starflower, melancholy thistle, toadflax (flaxweed), tutsan, valerian, vervain, water-parsnip, water-violet, willowherb, and dyer's woad. Trees include acacia, blackberry, blackthorn, box, buckthorn, caper, elm, holly, ivy, myrtle, olive, pine, poplar, quince, savine (dwarf Juniper), sloe, tamarisk, turpentine tree, willow, yew.

Animals include adders, bats, bears, beetles blackbirds, cats, cranes, crocodiles, crows, cuckoos, dogs, donkeys, eels, elephants, gnats, grasshoppers, hares, hogs, lapwings, mice, moles, ostriches, owls, peacocks, scorpions, serpents, shellfish, swallows, thrushes, toads, tortoises, weasels, wolves, and all kinds of creeping creatures that breed in putrid conditions.

Physically Saturn rules the left auricle; blood composition, circulation and coagulation; bones, joints; calves; cartilaginous tissue building; contractions; right ear; gall, gall bladder; hair; knees; leukocytes; liver; constrictor, peripheral and sympathetic nerves; ribs; skin; spleen; teeth; tendons; and urinary organs.

Illnesses of Saturn include agues with recurrent fevers; apoplexies; atrophy; circulatory impairment; consumption; debility caused by falls; dropsy; impediments in the right ear; gout; hazardously fluctuating haemorrhoids; black jaundice; leprosy; malnutrition; melancholia; palsies; rheumatism; skin disease; streaming from the nose or eyes; spinal ailments; subnormal temperature; tooth decay; tremblings; and vain fears and fantasies.

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