Jupiter has officially reached new ground in the sign of Taurus, having finally made it beyond the 15˚ mark where it stationed retrograde last September.
Something I’ve said multiple times on Metacosmios (and potentially in these letters, though I can’t remember) is that Jupiter in Taurus is an invitation into grounded expansion. This interpretation of the transit was one of the first times I can remember where a planet intervened and guided me towards the message that needed to be shared. “Grounded expansion” was channeled through me, but it did not originate within me.
And when I wrote it down and said it aloud, it felt right. It felt aligned. It felt like such a nourishing call. And I had faith (very Jupiterian) that, even though I didn’t fully understand yet what it meant, it would become clear in due time.
The imagery and symbolism of it all did make perfect sense. Jupiter is our planet of expansion and amplification. It speaks to capacity for growth. Jupiter encourages us to stretch outside of our comfort zones. To reach beyond ourselves for greater meaning and wisdom. To broaden our perception. To seek.
Taurus is a fixed earth sign. Fixed signs come in the middle of a season of nature and anchor it in place. They hold it steady. Fixed signs maintain, deepen, strengthen, and stabilize. Earth signs connect us with our bodies and nature, and with the material and tactile aspects of life. They’re solid and structural.
For my money, the fixed earth combo makes Taurus the slowest mover of the Zodiac - which isn’t a bad thing, by the way - and so the kind of expansion and growth Jupiter encourages here, would naturally be slower, more methodical, considered, and turned inward.
Whenever I think of the words grounded expansion, my mind goes immediately to the roots of a tree or plant. I sometimes think specifically of the tree in the 6 of Cups card from The Wild Unknown Tarot, and the beautiful and vibrant root system it has. It brings such a rich visual to something we don’t often get to fully witness, because it’s busy doing its thing underground, buried in layers of soil. But even if we never see these root systems, we know they’re vast. We know they stretch and broaden. We know they take up space.
The idea of growing in ways that could help us to anchor and root down into the places where we already stood, made perfect sense. I didn’t know it would take 10 months and a retrograde cycle for that understanding to become more fully embodied, though. For me to come into a greater awareness around how this deepening of steadiness and balance, this enhanced connection to my body and environment, this highly sustainable approach to growth, had been occurring within and underneath me this whole time.
Turns out, grounded expansion is a slow process. It takes patience. Cultivating and nurturing your root systems can’t be rushed. At least that’s been the case for me. To quote one of my favorite TV shows, Twin Peaks, “a path is formed by laying one stone at a time.”
Like a root system, the type of growth and progress we make with a grounded expansion isn’t always visible either. It requires a good deal of belief in the bigger picture. Faith in the idea that our roots are growing, even if we can’t always see them. It took some serious self-reflection to acknowledge all the ways in which I had grown over these past 10 months.
One of the biggest lessons of this transit for me has been learning to trust that growth does not have to be quick or urgent to be valuable. In fact, growth that is SLOW AF can actually be really rewarding and even pleasurable. As a Mars-ruled person, moving slowly and not pushing, pushing, pushing, is so completely foreign to me. Or, at least it used to be. It’s become a source of liberation for me now. Releasing urgency gifted me with space for more freedom.
But believe me when I say this expansion was not without its fair share of contraction. Again, it’s taken nearly a year to fully sink into the wisdom of this transit.
Jupiter’s capacity for expansion can be SO large. It can bring experiences that feel (and probably are) so big they’re actually uncomfortable. Sometimes we’re unable to receive and move through that discomfort, and that’s ok. But sometimes we’re ready to become more of ourselves to meet the moment. To stretch and take up the new space that’s on offer.
Choosing a slower pace was one of the ways in which I was encouraged to move through that discomfort, and become more of myself in order to receive Jupiter’s invitation.
I’m curious to hear if you’ve been invited into something similar? Were you encouraged to become more of yourself to meet the moment of Jupiter’s opportunities? Have you experienced a deepening of your root system since last May?
If you have any planets or angles between 0˚-15˚ of Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and/or Aquarius (and perhaps even Virgo or Capricorn), Jupiterian themes might have been especially potent for you over these past 10 months.
Jupiter can bring confidence and enthusiasm, opportunities for learning, a desire for adventure, and/or a willingness to take a risk for something really meaningful. And if you’ve got planets or angles in those same signs, but between 16˚-29˚, the next couple of months might bring these themes more into focus for you.
Let me know in the comments - have you just been through a Jupiter transit, is one happening right now, or are you gearing up for one soon? How does the concept of grounded expansion feel to you? (Seriously, let me know, I love hearing from people about how Astrology is manifesting for them!)
Our time with Jupiter in Taurus is waning, much quicker than I’d like, to be honest. By May 25th, Jupiter will be heading into Gemini, and we’ll be called towards expansion and growth in new areas of life. And the pace of that growth will most likely quicken. A lot.
The qualities of Gemini are vastly different than that of Taurus - mutable air vs. fixed earth. Where Taurus might be a rock garden with hardy, mostly unmoving succulents, Gemini would be the bee buzzing from flower to flower, never staying in one spot too long. With this shift we’ll be moving up and out of the body, and into the mind and the intellect.
Before Jupiter even makes it to Gemini though, it’s going to form a once-every-14ish-years conjunction with Uranus, at 21˚ Taurus on April 20th. I’ll probably talk more about this once the energies are more present - and I’ve already talked about it on this podcast episode - but suffice to say this interaction is likely to stimulate and energize the growth processes we’ve been undergoing.
The slow and steady expansions we’ve been working on might get some kind of jumpstart, where things are suddenly accelerated, even if only temporarily. Uranus might be like a flash of lightning that somehow illuminates those root systems, even just for a moment.
By late May, we’ll all be making a leap of some kind towards more outwardly focused adventures, and invited to grow in multiple ways at once. For now, there’s no rush. We still have time to strengthen the foundation and make sure our footing is solid. When we do leap, we’ll be doing so from a place of steady connection to and unwavering support from our root system.
Oh my gosh!! I am so feeling this transit in Jupiter. My moon is Taurus 9°, Jupiter in Taurus 3°, Saturn in Taurus 16°, and Rising in Taurus 27°.
The past 10 months have been some of the biggest transitions and rebuilding of foundations in my life and how I live in this world and in my relationship with my partner. I'm really excited to see how it plays out with my rising✨️✨️