What is the True Nature of Jupiter in Astrology? with Mychal A Bryan

The next planet we're going to dive into is Jupiter. From a traditional astrological perspective, Jupiter is thought of as being a benefic planet. And like I said previously in our video on Saturn, the planets derive their natures based on their proximity to the Sun, the Moon and the Earth. Jupiter is considered to be a benefic planet because Jupiter is considered to be hot and wet Now you might say that if moisture is completely within the realm of the Earth and the Moon, how can Jupiter derive any moisture to have as an intrinsic part of his nature? This is because of something interesting within traditional astrological thought, which may not make the most sense if you think about it purely from a left-brain analytical perspective, but it does make sense if you think about it from the perspective of the stories that we find underpinning our astrology are all stories that are meant to elucidate larger spiritual truths that exist within our cosmos. And, resultantly, we probably shouldn't take them at face value. So for Claudius Ptolemy, Jupiter contained both heat and moisture within his nature, because we know that in the Chaldean order, we have Saturn, followed by Jupiter, followed by Mars, followed by the Sun. Therefore, for Claudius Ptolemy, Jupiter held an extraordinary amount of heat within his nature because he was directly above the double-burning sphere of both the Sun and Mars. Therefore, for Ptolemy, Jupiter was thought to be primarily heating. However, as a result of the heat that was passing through the body of Jupiter, Ptolemy held that that heat caused some of the ice of Saturn to melt, and it caused precipitation on the body of Saturn. And the melting of the ice of Saturn directly above the sphere of Jupiter caused those water droplets to fall down into the sphere of Jupiter, therefore giving Jupiter this quality of being primarily heating, but also having some allotment of moisture within his nature. Therefore, Jupiter is representing a source of heat and moisture and is a Banathic planet. Because we know that all of the Banathic planets are directly responsible for the maintenance of life. And as far as the ancients were concerned, life could not be maintained by planets that did not have a natural relationship with life to begin with. Therefore, Jupiter was thought to be a planet having a natural relationship with life. Because in the same way as our physical bodies are hot and wet, Jupiter, like Venus, like the Moon, were also thought to be hot and wet. Now, much like the glyph of Saturn, the glyph of Jupiter is also having a great wealth of esoteric meaning within it. Unlike the glyph of Saturn where we found the glyph of the cross subjugating the crescent of spirit, in the glyph of Jupiter we find the crescent of spirit serving as our entry point by which we interact with the cross of matter. And what that means is that we have a complete opposite reality manifesting within Jupiter than the reality that's manifesting within Saturn. I think it's interesting that in both of these glyphs for both of these planets, the cross of matter is absolutely a must. And the inner meaning of that is, no matter what we do within this lifetime, we still have to interact with the realities of the physical sphere within which we live. From an eastern perspective, this is the part of why, after the ancient yogis outlined their principles of ethics in terms of how we interact with the world and ourselves, the third limb of yoga is asana, or the physical postures that we do within a yoga practice. And the reason for that is because you could be as ethical as you want to be, but if you're in a physical body that is rife and stricken with pain, that pain has the ability to greatly distract you from the fulfillment of your natal promise within this lifetime. So for the ancient yogis, they thought that by alchemizing the realities of the physical body, and turning our entire physical body into a field of pure and utter freedom and bliss, that was one of the things that assisted us in our larger path of spiritual unfolding. Within the glyph of Jupiter, what we find is something that is foundationally yogic. What we find is, we still have to interact with the cross of matter, because that is a foundational reality of this life in which we live. But our entry point to interacting with that cross of matter is through the crescent of spirit. This reminds me of the jump within the Qabbalistic Tarot, from the Hermit card to the Wheel of Fortune card. This jump is meant to signify that as we contemplate the world, which is essentially what the Hermit card signifies, it illuminates for us a vision of the world unlike anything we've ever seen before. What we see within these two cards being side by side, is that through our spiritual contemplation of matter, which is what the Hermit card is representing, which corresponds with the crescent of Jupiter, we find a vision of the world in which we see the world as Ezekiel saw it. As an unfolding mechanism of wheels within wheels, where there were titanic forces of nature, both creating universes and destroying universes simultaneously, we see the internal spiritual mechanism that exists behind all things. And as a result of that vision of the world as it truly is, even if that glimpse of truth only lasts for one second, that glimpse of reality as it actually is, completely changes how we then go on to interact with that physical world of matter. Because once we've had that initiatic experience of seeing the face of the Eternal, we can never close our eyes and pretend as if we did not see it. And so, within the Qabbalistic Tarot, both the Hermit card and the Wheel of Fortune card are corresponding with the crescent that we find within the glyph of Jupiter. And therefore, both the Hermit card and the Wheel of Fortune card are corresponding with this idea that when we go within ourselves and we look at nature as it truly is, we see that nature is unfolding as the manifestation of unalterable universal law. And that unalterable universal law is held together and held in place by these spiritual principles and by these spiritual governors of destiny that we call the planets. And as a result of that, after knowing that, after seeing that, we all have to face a decision. And that is why the next card that comes after the Wheel of Fortune card within the Qabbalistic Tarot is the Justice card. Which brings us to the decision that we find all of ourselves having to face within the Justice card. Because these three cards side by side, the Hermit card, the Wheel of Fortune card, and the Justice card, they say to us, after seeing the machinations of nature as they truly are, after seeing the unfolding of reality as it truly is, what will you decide to do? How will you return to life? How will you return to the world? Will you return to the world and live in the same meat-based way that you've been living previously? Will you continue to live in this world as if you were nothing but flesh and bones and sinews? Or will you allow that vision of the Eternal to inform every decision you make as you travel within this material plane, within this individual lifetime that you've been given? And this is the question that we find within the Glyph of Jupiter. Within the Glyph of Jupiter, we find the Crescent representing the Hermit card and the Wheel of Fortune card saying, This is life as it truly is. This is reality as it truly is. This is the Eternal as it truly is. And because the Glyph of Jupiter has this element, we associate Jupiter with religion. We associate Jupiter with science. We associate Jupiter with higher education. We associate Jupiter with philosophy. We associate Jupiter with all of the things that expand our experience of what it feels like to live within this physical world. Therefore, the Glyph of Jupiter opening to the Cross of Matter via the Crescent of Spirit is meant to show the way in which philosophy, religion, mysticism, and science are meant to broaden our spiritual perspective so that yes, even though we do return to bearing the Cross of Matter on our shoulders because we are in a physical body that started decaying from the day that we were born, even though we are in this physical body with its bones and its sinews and our issues and our tissues, we still can live within this body without associating every part of who we are with this body. So, the Glyph of Jupiter is a reminder to all of us that indeed, we are a body of fire which is represented by the Crescent of Jupiter's Glyph and we are also a body of flesh which is represented by the Cross of Jupiter's Glyph. But this Glyph of Jupiter is meant to say that that within us which is fiery and eternal should be our primary place from which we govern and from which we organize our affairs within this physical plane. The part of us that is non-physical is meant to inform how we interact with the part of us that is physical which indeed is the responsibility and it is essentially what every religion or philosophical system or spiritual system is meant to do for us. The purpose of religion at its core is to perform this Jupiterian task of reminding us that even though we are in a physical body of flesh before we were flesh we were spirit and through reminding us that we are still spirit even as we exist within this physical body the purpose of religion is meant to pave the way for us back to the eternal. Within the cycle of embryological human development we find that Jupiter is corresponding with the second month of pregnancy and for the ancients Jupiter is thought of as having dominion over the vegetative part of the human soul and by vegetative it's referring to that part of us that naturally has the desire to grow that naturally has the desire to develop into something else that naturally has the desire to fructify as is the nature of Jupiter the god of the bountiful harvest. The ancients thought that Jupiter bestowed both spirit and life in the form of the breath of life onto the human child within the womb. So for the ancients within the first month of pregnancy Saturn held sway and Saturn simply represented that fetus growing from a cluster of cells into an actual fetal body but it was in the second month of pregnancy that fetus for the ancients began its respiratory process or began to partake in this larger process of becoming oxygenated and breathing and taking into itself the spiritual substance that would allow it to grow and become a human being. Now this association between Jupiter and the breath is a very fascinating one because if we go back to the nature of Jupiter being hot and wet we remember that within the ancient metaphysics of the fathers of western philosophy the air element was also thought of as being hot and wet. Jupiter was thought of as having a direct relationship with the air element in general and there are some schools of traditional astrology that associate Jupiter with the god of the northern wind which is why some schools of traditional astrology tell us that Jupiter is having his exaltation in the sign of Cancer because Cancer is the northernmost sign from our celestial equator therefore when Jupiter is in Cancer Jupiter is associated with the god of the northern wind and resultantly Jupiter himself is also thought of as being a god of the air. So this vital life which in Hebrew is called the Ruach this breath of life that the child partakes in his second month of fetal development is thought of as being under the domain of Jupiter because Jupiter is representing not only a god of life but he's also representing the breath of life which is interesting because within the Kabbalistic tarot the wheel of fortune card which is associated with Jupiter bears the name of the ruler of fate the forces of life. So here we see Jupiter not only being a god of destiny in a sense but we also see Jupiter being a god of life and for the ancients the breath of life was more important than any other element that we have because you might be able to lose any other part of your constitution and still live but if you lost that vitalizing breath of life which is represented by Jupiter we would all surely die. Therefore Jupiter is thought of as this god of life which is a wonderful compliment to Saturn who is associated with death within a traditional astrological perspective.