In our Solar System Jupiter, the optimistic and expansive Greater Benefic planet, is followed by Saturn, the realistic and limiting Greater Malefic planet. While Jupiter’s energy enthusiastically embraces optimism, with sardonic wit the Saturnine archetype claims the title of realist mockingly reminding us that their input would be gloomier if they were actually a pessimist.
Any work with Jupiter and Saturn asks for us to resolve the tension between hope and reality or growth and sustainability. With Jupiter in Taurus our growth is more material and our hope focuses on comfort. Saturn, struggling in Pisces, insists we find the sustainability of our dreams and beliefs even when the timing for bringing them into reality remains fluid. From January to March, Jupiter and Saturn are roughly 60 degrees apart. This sextile creates friendly attitudes and allows their individual efforts to blend more comfortably. Improvement comes when we tone down just a little our indulgence in material comforts in order to provide for more sustainability in the foundation of our dreams. Now is the time to make the most of Jupiter’s growth in an Earth sign to help build the solid future Saturn wants for us.
Jupiter and Saturn meet every 20 years creating a cycle that is influenced by the sign where they meet. In 2020, these two planets started our current cycle at the very beginning of Aquarius making their ebb and flow more focused on innovation and community service. The Aquarian themes that run in the background for the 20 years of the Jupiter & Saturn cycle are highlighted when any planets move through the sign of technology and social identification. While we started the year with no planets in Aquarius. On January 20, 2024 the Sun and Pluto enter Aquarius. Then the Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars join them in February. By the end of March, Pluto stands alone in the beginning degrees of Aquarius still helping us dig into buried power that shapes this cycle.
During any planetary cycle, the first round of tests come when the two planets have moved 90 degrees apart to form a square. Because Jupiter and Saturn spend so much time retrograde, we get 3 intense exam periods as part of this first round of testing. Two of those challenges are very similar and must be faced this year in August and December. The third time these planets come into a square in the middle of 2025, they will both be in different signs and we’ll have to learn a new way of handling the test. The good news is that we’ve got a lucky study period for the first quarter of 2024 to help us prepare for the coming tests.
By the time we reach August, Jupiter will have moved into Gemini which brings out the worst of the optimistic planet especially strong during its cycle of innovation and social dynamics. The planet of expansion wanders with the ever changing winds of mutable air. Distractions as well as competing hopes hobble the Greater Benefic in Gemini from May 25, 2024 to June 9, 2025. Jupiter’s confidence usually brings success but in Gemini that optimism is poured into words until the boasting grows too big to be sustained. While this energy will peak in August and December, we’ll be feeling it as a background energy for 13 months.
In 2025 when the final challenge of the opening square happens between Jupiter and Saturn both of them will have moved into new signs and the areas in which we must resolve their tension will have shifted dramatically. Of course with a 20 year cycle, the story doesn’t end after we survive the first round of tests. There will be two other periods of challenges to balancing Jupiter’s optimism with Saturn’s reality. Before we face the 2nd challenge at the end of this decade, we get two years of bonus to our efforts that will start in 2026.
Here’s a quick look at the dates for the Jupiter and Saturn cycle.
January through March ~ Jupiter in Taurus in range of a sextile to Saturn in Pisces
August and December ~ Jupiter in Gemini roughly square Saturn in Pisces
12/21/2020 ~ Jupiter and Saturn conjunction at O degrees Aquarius
6/19/2023 ~ Jupiter in Taurus sextile Saturn in Pisces
8/19/2024 ~ Jupiter in Gemini square Saturn in Pisces
12/24/2024 ~ Jupiter in Gemini square Saturn in Pisces
6/15/2025 ~ Jupiter in Cancer square Saturn in Aries
8/31/2026 ~ Jupiter in Leo trine Saturn in Aries
Wanna know more? Check out this YouTube Video about Jupiter, Saturn and the other 2 slow moving planets or this one about their movement. You can also find out more about Pluto in Aquarius here.