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Jupiter
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Jupiter is the planet of growth and of meaning: abundance, generosity, faith, wisdom, law and justice, and the wish to see one's life as part of something larger. It describes where a person tends to find opportunity and confidence, and how they look for understanding. The tradition gives it judges, clergy, teachers and counsellors, the wealthy and the well-meaning, and it signifies benefits, protection and good counsel.
Nature
Jupiter is hot and moist — temperate, the tradition says, which is why it is the greater benefic. It is masculine and diurnal, belonging to the day sect with the Sun and Saturn. Its virtues are generosity, fairness and confidence; its faults, excess, overreach and a careless optimism that promises more than it can deliver.
Signs it rules and where it is strong or weak
Jupiter rules Sagittarius, its day house, and, traditionally, Pisces, its night house. Modern astrology gives Pisces to Neptune and often keeps Jupiter as co-ruler. It is exalted in Cancer, traditionally at 15°, where its kindness becomes protective care. It is in detriment in Gemini and Virgo, the signs of Mercury, and in its fall in Capricorn.
Motion
Jupiter takes almost twelve years to go round the Sun and so spends about a year in each sign — the reason a "Jupiter year" is so often spoken of. It goes retrograde once a year for about four months, which can carry it back over a degree it has already crossed. Its return to its natal place, around the ages of 12, 24, 36 and so on, is often read as a new cycle of growth.
In a chart
Jupiter's house points to where life tends to open: in the 2nd, toward resources and earning; in the 9th, toward travel, study and belief; in the 10th, toward advancement; in the 7th, toward generous partners. Strong by sign or angle, it inclines toward good fortune in its matters; under strain, it can incline toward overspending, overpromising or taking too much for granted.
In transit
A transiting Jupiter often coincides with expansion and opportunity in the house it crosses and with encouragement for the natal planets it meets — a year's chance to grow in that area. It does not hand things over by itself: its transits tend to reward what is reached for, and can also enlarge a problem left unattended.
In the tarot
The Golden Dawn's correspondences, which most English-language decks follow.
Major Arcana: Wheel of Fortune
Decans it rules: Eight of Swords (Gemini 0°–10°), Six of Wands (Leo 10°–20°), Four of Swords (Libra 20°–30°), Two of Pentacles (Capricorn 0°–10°), Nine of Cups (Pisces 10°–20°)