Jupiter and the Tarot

As the son of Saturn, the apple couldn’t fall farther from the tree. Where Saturn may be the Senex archetype―older, wiser, more established elder―Jupiter, despite his royal pedigree (i.e., King of the Gods; Zeus in the Hellenic Pantheon) has occasionally represented the other extreme: the Puer, or youth.

Lower-octave Jupiter can point to an immaturity that connects us with pleasure and excess. In this expression, Jupiter is less stately and more concerned with self-aggrandizement and hedonism — more Falstaff than Wise King Solomon. It can make us the life of the party and maybe even lead us to impulsive behaviours―like blowing our whole paycheque on a weekend in Vegas. This behaviour can leave us with a pretty bad hangover when we come to our senses. When embodying Jupiter in this range, we can also be overly concerned with the trappings of wealth and status, and, to our detriment, think a little too highly of ourselves.

Wherever Jupiter may appear in our natal chart suggests the area of life where we’ll be particularly blessed or seek out opportunities for growth, expansion, and fulfillment. Sure, there’s an element of luck associated with this sign, but Jupiter also reminds us that perspective matters: seeing the glass half full, looking on the bright side, and always, always trusting in the Universe. For yoga practitioners, the different Jupiterian qualities are clear between the mudras that invite abundance, wisdom, and Divine intelligence versus those that seek to achieve receptivity and calmness. Both of these remind us that our solar…