The Jupiter-Neptune Conjunctions of 2009

A contentious public debate now taking place over the efforts by the Obama administration to enact health care reform legislation is being played out during the five Saturn-Uranus oppositions forming in the heavens between November 2008 and July 2010. The first four fall in the mutable axis of Virgo and Pisces, the medical signs, while a fifth and final opposition occurs exactly on the Aries Point.

The last time in U.S. history that major health care legislation was passed by Congress was the Medicare Act of 1965, when oppositions of Saturn and Uranus were also forming in the signs of Pisces and Virgo. The duel between the need for reform and the entrenched interests of the status quo becomes highly intensified during these once-in-44-year mundane aspects.

Against this backdrop, 2009 has also brought the alignment of Jupiter and Neptune in the sign of Aquarius. Conjunctions of these two planets take place at 13-year intervals and every thirteenth conjunction recurs at nearly the same Zodiacal position. Neptune’s sidereal cycle averages 165 years and the Jupiter-Neptune conjunctions divide the Neptune cycle into 13 sub-periods (13 x 13 = 169).

The last conjunction of Jupiter and Neptune in this degree area of Aquarius took place in 1843. That year, the American social reformer, Dorothea Dix, revealed in a report to the Massachusetts legislature the shocking conditions in prisons and asylums. With recent riots between black and Mexican inmates at the overcrowded Chino, California Men’s Penitentiary, history is repeating itself in foreseen fashion.

As Neptune moves from one sign to the next, eleven out of twelve times it meets Jupiter only once while transiting a sign. Dane Rudhyar and Alexander Ruperti both wrote that the Jupiter-Neptune conjunction is the high-point of Neptune’s stay in any given sign. What does this mean for the remainder of Neptune’s transit through Aquarius until 2011-12?

Aquarius symbolizes the principles of decentralization and distribution, following a concentration of wealth in the hands of the elite during the sign of Capricorn. To finance health care reform, the rich will have to pay higher taxes, the insurance industry will have to become more humane and less profitable, and doctors have to give up perverse incentives to prescribe expensive and unnecessary procedures.

Since the ingress of Neptune into Aquarius in 1998, society has not seen this promise of decentralization and distribution. Rather, the working and middle classes have become noticeably poorer while the affluent have seen their wealth reach unprecedented heights. When the gap between rich and poor reaches a critical limit, the Aquarian principles of fairness and equity in society asseverate – and either a revolution or a legislated redistribution of wealth must take place.

Calculating the conjunction for the nation’s capital, 20°17′ Leo culminates on the Midheaven and this degree symbolizes the leader of the nation. From Sepharial’s translation of La Volasfera, we find the degree symbol for 21° Leo to be:

A human face surmounted by a coiled serpent; a raised hand also appears.

“It indicates not only a powerful and commanding nature, but a keen understanding of the laws of life; much introspection and knowledge of human nature; strong sympathies; much discretion; careful balance of power and effort; intuition and foresight, as well as diplomacy of no mean order. The native will have strong powers of concentration, good memory, and will be successful in commanding others, through his insight into character.  It is a degree of PENETRATION.”

This Jupiter-Neptune conjunction conjoins President Obama’s South Node which in turn is itself conjunct the U.S. Sibly Moon. One theorizes that he is a reincarnation of a past U.S. president who sided with the people over the powerful; this writer believes that Mr. Obama is the reincarnation of Abraham Lincoln. The above degree symbol supports the premise that his sophisticated intelligence ultimately prevails.

With the two spiritual planets of our solar system, Jupiter and Neptune, aligning in the most humane of the Zodiac signs, 2009 holds significant promise for a fairer and more equitable society to emerge. If health care reform legislation cannot pass this year, it never will. Alexander Ruperti, writing over 30 years ago, propounded:

“Neptune brings to Jupiter’s social action the great dreams of social reformers, panaceas which are supposed to do away with all economic and political evils. The tendency of those in public office to present new plans for social and economic reform is generally premature or deceptive at the time of the Jupiter-Neptune conjunction.” — Cycles of Becoming (1978)

Researching Jupiter-Neptune conjunctions during the 20th century, the astrologer finds that one out of every three or four of the 13-year alignments results in a triple conjunction, such as is occurring in 2009. As in 1919-20, when Jupiter and Neptune conjoined thrice in Leo, and again in 1971, when three conjunctions occurred in the early degrees of Sagittarius, 2009 has had its first two conjunctions on May 27 and July 9, with the third in the series to align on December 21.

During this part of the year when both Jupiter and Neptune are retrograde, one sees much misinformation being spread about proposed health insurance reforms by small-minded and self-serving politicians. After Jupiter and Neptune station direct on October 12 and November 4, respectively, the health care reform legislation will evolve into its final framework and be passed by both Houses of Congress and signed into law by the President before December 21.

The global economic crisis brought about by the Pluto ingress into Capricorn has exposed the worst practices of free-market capitalism. Reform in the health care and financial sectors is indeed necessary in order to prevent future threats to the systemic health of the global economy. Millions of people have been devastated by the current recession, having lost hundreds of thousands of dollars of value in their mutual funds and in retirement accounts, or by declining property values having resulted in mortgages now worth more than their homes. Despair is all around us.

Because the symbolism of the number 13 is so prominent in the Jupiter-Neptune cycle, with 13 years between conjunctions and 13 alignments during the sidereal cycle of Neptune, its theme of transcendence is especially poignant during this era:

“The number 13 refers to the Christ principle and as such is the symbol of the power to overcome death and limitations on all planes … Therefore, in essence, the Jupiter-Neptune cycle gives mankind a basic rhythm of and describes its urge toward transcendence.” — Alexander Ruperti

America is healing from an unprecedented 13-year period of violence, paranoia, greed and social decline ushered in by the previous Jupiter-Neptune conjunction of January 1997. The Greater Benefic was fallen and both Malefics were in detriment or fall, opposed to one another on the axis of the lunar nodes, and were in exact conjunction to the MC/IC axis of the Sibly chart. Moreover, the alignment of Jupiter and Neptune was itself exactly conjunct the U.S. Pluto. One has to believe that things can only get better and have nowhere to go but up from here.

A beautiful album by a precious angel was released to the public during the last conjunction in 1997 with lyrics and music to soothe the weariest of souls:

Though we share this humble path, alone
How fragile is the heart
Oh give these clay feet wings to fly
To touch the face of the stars

Breathe life into this feeble heart
Lift this mortal veil of fear
Take these crumbled hopes, etched with tears
We’ll rise above these earthly cares

Cast your eyes on the ocean
Cast your soul to the sea
When the dark night seems endless
Please remember me

Dante’s Prayer
Loreena McKennitt
The Book of Secrets 1997

© 2009 Robert P. Blaschke