Jupiter and Neptune conjunction in Pisces
Pisces slows down the pace of Jupiter and invites inward exploration that can enable us to sink into the embodiment of our soulful essence.
Words Gray Crawford.
Full of imaginative potential and peril, the transit of Jupiter in Pisces will sweep across the astrological landscape of 2022 like a wave, drawing us into a liminal passage at sea. As on any sea journey, we will need to mindfully monitor the shifting winds and adjust our navigation in accordance with the changing currents below and the turning of the stars above. Yet keeping track of our direction will be even more important than normal, as the mystical and otherworldly presence of Neptune awaits Jupiter below the waves of Pisces. Like a portal to another dimension, the encounter between Neptune and Jupiter will warp perspectives in ways that can lead us far astray as well as open awareness to vital sources of inspiration and creativity.
Jupiter will return to its watery home of Pisces on 28 December 2021 after previously occupying Pisces from 13 May until 28 July 2021. Jupiter will then swiftly sail through its oceanic home, known as domicile, in less than five months, entering Aries on 10 May 2022. After an initial foray into Aries, Jupiter will come back home to Pisces on 28 October 2022 for a sojourn, until leaving Pisces for a final time on 20 December 2022. The pivotal conjunction between Jupiter and Neptune will take place on 12 April 2022 at twenty-four degrees of Pisces, with the influence of Neptune upon Jupiter intensifying once Jupiter moves within fifteen degrees of Neptune on 27 January. Jupiter will remain within fifteen degrees of Neptune for the rest of 2022 (ending the year within nine degrees of Neptune), creating a lingering effect from their conjunction that will last well beyond their April meeting.
Influences in 2022
Jupiter’s journey through Pisces will be especially impactful due to Jupiter having sovereignty in its own sign, enabling Jupiter to express itself directly and fully. Although Jupiter has a reputation in astrology for being the “great benefic”, it does not mean that transits from Jupiter always bring positively joyful experiences. It is important that one of the central meanings for Jupiter involves a fertile lifeforce that can be both expansive and binding in terms of understanding, creativity, and finding a sense of order within our experiences. Moreover, the moist mutability of Pisces will amplify the capacity of Jupiter for assembling and unifying sources of inspiration, increasing the potentiality of Jupiter in Pisces for synthesising meaning and distilling wisdom from our experiences, generating a new mix of ideas in the process.
Pisces is the nocturnal home of Jupiter, an aquatic landscape full of gushing springs and expansive seas that accentuates the boundless nature of Jupiter. In contrast to Sagittarius, the fiery domicile of Jupiter where it moves fast with outward enthusiasm, the mutable and nocturnal water of Pisces slows down the pace of Jupiter and invites inward exploration that can enable us to sink into embodiment of our soulful essence. With Jupiter soaking within its oceanic home of Pisces, its waves can wash over and weave in between the places we have been fragmented, coalescing a presence that can bring together parts of our inner multiplicity that have become disconnected. By taking our time and acting with the flow of surrounding nature rather than trying to force things to happen, Jupiter in Pisces can create an experience of abundance that allows us to feel more expansive with less by aligning us with our essential nature and values.
With the dissolving whirlpool of Neptune present with Jupiter in Pisces, the coherence we gain through Jupiter will be important to question. The disintegrating influence of Neptune upon Jupiter will make it important to accept not knowing and remain continually open to exploring the multiplicitous ways we are interconnected across time and space with all beings, both human and nonhuman. The combination of Jupiter and Neptune in Pisces will necessitate a descent into the dissolution of our previous beliefs, embodying the essence that will eventually coagulate out of the disintegrating stirring of our inner life.
Astrologer and psychologist Liz Greene has taught that while Jupiter seeks personal meaning that helps cohere understanding for how our personal lives are meaningful within a larger context, Neptune is the antithesis of personal enrichment due to it revealing our sense of egoic control as being a fantasy that we need to transcend or release.
Fairy straying
Within Irish folklore, the concept of “seachrán sí” or “fairy straying” is interesting to consider in terms of the disorientation and disillusionment that can occur under the influence of Neptune. When under the spell of fairy straying, wayfarers become confused while journeying across liminal landscapes as they experience a sudden shift into the strange and unfamiliar. An impassable fog or mist may obfuscate their view of the path ahead, or a river may block all forward progress no matter which way they turn.
In this way, Neptune can function like the Otherworld of fairy as all familiar reference points dissolve, forcing an interface with the indeterminate. Interestingly, a remediation from Irish folklore concerns turning your coat or clothes inside out to counterbalance the enchantment. Similarly, we may need to take on the inverted stance of the Hanged Man arcanum from tarot, allowing our perspective to be turned inside out while navigating the waves of Jupiter and Neptune.
The Neptune and Jupiter succession
Although unions between Jupiter and Neptune can open awareness beyond the usual limits of material reality, their cycle in mundane astrology is one of the most orderly and consistent. In fact, the Jupiter and Neptune cycle stands out from all others as it occurs in a successive order of zodiac signs, typically moving from one sign to the next with an occasional repeat of a sign. For example, the 1958 conjunction between Jupiter and Neptune was in Scorpio, the 1971 conjunction was in Sagittarius, the 1984 conjunction was in the beginning of Capricorn, the 1997 conjunction was at the end of Capricorn, and the 2009 conjunction was in Aquarius. It takes Jupiter and Neptune approximately 166 years to move through their entire cycle, forming conjunctions with each other every thirteen years or so.
Due to its consistent movement from one sign to the next, astrologer Dane Rudhyar stated that the cycle between Jupiter and Neptune is one of the most important to pay attention to for historical purposes, in addition to the eclipse cycle and the Jupiter and Saturn cycle.
Neptune was discovered in 1846 when it was occupying the sign of Aquarius with Jupiter forming a trine from Gemini. As a result, the first conjunction between Jupiter and Neptune to occur following the discovery of Neptune was their union on 17 March 1856 at nineteen degrees of Pisces. This means that the conjunction between Jupiter and Neptune on 12 April 2022 will demarcate the first time that humanity has experienced the full cycle of Jupiter and Neptune forming conjunctions in every sign of the zodiac sequentially since becoming aware of the existence of Neptune. Their union in Pisces will be especially powerful due to Jupiter being at full strength as the ruler of Pisces, making it the first conjunction between Neptune with Jupiter in its own domicile since their union in Sagittarius in 1971. Since their 1971 conjunction we have experienced three conjunctions in a row between Jupiter and Neptune in signs ruled by Saturn, further indicating that their merging in Pisces may bring about leaps in thought and a potent renewal of jovial hope and vision.
Jupiter and Neptune through history
The French astrologer Andre Barbault has a reputation for being one of the most esteemed mundane astrologers of the past century, and so it is notable to consider the unifying and humanitarian quality he attributed to the cycle between Jupiter and Neptune.
Barbault wrote that conjunctions between Jupiter and Neptune emphasise “unified collective global power” and a “collective liberal order,” with “collective movements that have liberal democratic tendencies” favoring “universal moral values”. For example, women finally gained the right to vote in the United States of America through the 19th Amendment being ratified less than a month before the Jupiter and Neptune conjunction in Leo in 1919. Moreover, both the first and second world wars ended during periods of conjunctions between Jupiter and Neptune, with the League of Nations being formed following their conjunction in 1919 and the United Nations being formed following their conjunction in Libra in 1945. It is remarkable that both attempts during the 20th century to form governing bodies that brought world powers together on behalf of avoiding another world war occurred in exact alignment with Jupiter and Neptune. In fact, the ubiquitous peace symbol commonly used today was invented in 1958 with Jupiter and Neptune within a few degrees from one another in Scorpio.
Barbault also stated that the unions of Jupiter and Neptune tend to bring “a swing to the left” with “democratic, socialist, or even more or less revolutionary” tendencies. There can thus be tension between the more revolutionary manifestations of Jupiter and Neptune with efforts by global powers to expand their influence and power. For example, while the League of Nations mandated the territories of Palestine and modern Iraq to the United Kingdom and Syria to France during the period of the 1919 conjunction, the Cuban revolution achieved victory following the conjunction of Jupiter and Neptune in 1958, and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation was founded in 1983 with Jupiter and Neptune within fifteen degrees of one another in Sagittarius. Across the world there has often been an upsurge in strikes and protests on behalf of the labor movement and workers’ rights when Jupiter and Neptune come together. For example, the Coxey’s Army march of unemployed workers to Washington D.C. during the time of the Jupiter and Neptune conjunction in Gemini in 1894 was the first significant protest march in history upon the capital of the United States of America.
2009 Jupiter/Neptune cycle
Concerning the most recent cycle of Jupiter and Neptune that began in 2009 in Aquarius, within the United States of America there was not only the inauguration of President Barack Obama, the first African American president in the nation’s history, there was also the landmark Affordable Care Act signed into law by President Obama that dramatically expanded healthcare coverage to the US populace. The ability of President Obama to lead congress in the passage of liberal legislation had a parallel to the election of Franklin Roosevelt to the presidency during a previous conjunction between Jupiter and Neptune in 1932. Roosevelt became president during the initial stages of the Great Depression and was able to have his New Deal legislation passed to address the economic depression gripping the nation, bringing hope and increased opportunity to many during a bleak period. Similarly, the recent election of President Joe Biden suggests that as a new cycle between Jupiter and Neptune begins, President Biden will continue to push for legislation addressing the economic crises emanating from the Covid-19 pandemic.
April 2022 conjunction
It is important to place the April 2022 conjunction between Jupiter and Neptune in Pisces within the context of recent and current astrological alignments. Most importantly, the union of Jupiter and Neptune in Pisces will follow the new cycles initiated between Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn in 2020 that correlated with the onset of a global pandemic, the conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn in Aquarius at the end of 2020 that established a volatile new era of Jupiter and Saturn uniting in the air triplicity, and the waning square between Saturn in Aquarius and Uranus in Taurus that will coincide with rapid innovations and sudden collapses across society in both 2021 and 2022.
It is especially notable that the meaning of the Jupiter and Neptune cycle is diametrically opposed to the meaning of the Saturn and Pluto cycle that shaped 2020. Astrologer and historian Richard Tarnas in Cosmos and Psyche described Saturn and Pluto as aligning with “conservative empowerment” and “eras of international crisis and conflict, empowerment of reactionary forces and totalitarian impulses, organised violence and oppression”. The inspiring vision of Jupiter and Neptune can provide a counterbalance to the difficult despair brought by Saturn and Pluto, helping to nurture new dreams and ways of recovering from the setbacks and resets brought about by the pandemic.
The creative influence
Indeed, the union of Jupiter and Neptune in Pisces will stimulate and galvanise new trends and imaginative forms of creative expression across diverse disciplines around the world. The last time that Jupiter and Neptune formed a conjunction in Pisces, the fashion and textile industries were revolutionised by the accidental discovery of the first synthetic organic dye by William Henry Perkin, who was trying to synthesise quinine for the treatment of malaria. Only eighteen years old when he discovered aniline purple, known today as mauveine, Perkin was primed for the impact of Jupiter and Neptune as he was born with a stellium of Mercury, Uranus, Venus, Mars and the Sun in Pisces. Before Perkin’s discovery the only materials available for textile coloration came from plants or animals and involved long, laborious processes to extract color. Significantly, the brilliant purple hue revealed by Perkin had previously only been accessible to the wealthy. There was even initial thought to name the dye Tyrian purple after the legendary coloring created from sea snails that became a sign of eminence in ancient cultures. After the discovery of mauveine, there was an immense wave of clothing and textiles dyed purple as the color became widely accessible for the first time in human history.
The thrill of wearing brilliant colors and the lift they can provide to the spirit corresponds with the imaginal potency that popular trends within the arts, humanities and entertainment possess, which tend to emerge within the zeitgeist when Jupiter and Neptune form conjunctions. Indeed, the archetypal mixture of Jupiter and Neptune brings together the expanding and elevating functions of Jupiter with the fantasising functions of Neptune that stoke desire for fusion with transcendent sources of idealism or spirituality that can temporarily remove us from the travails and limitations of mundane reality. The crux becomes whether or not we become addicted to avoiding our purpose in the world through Jupiter and Neptune or whether we can drink from their enlivening well in order to instill a deeper sense of our purpose and destiny. For example, the virtual reality technologies likely to emerge within the new cycle between Jupiter and Neptune simultaneously have the potential to bring healing as well as massive escape from reality.
Unconscious forces
The purpose and passion that can be uncovered beneath the waves of the oceanic unconscious when Jupiter and Neptune unite is exemplified by the publication of the Red Book by Carl Jung during the period of their conjunction in Aquarius in 2009. A testament to the deep meaning that can eventually be extracted from disorienting, disillusioning and disintegrative experiences of Neptune, the long-awaited publication of Jung’s personal odyssey has revolutionised not only the understanding of Jung’s work during the past cycle of Jupiter and Neptune, it has also expanded the potential meaning all of us can gain through encounters with the mystery of unconscious forces. The field of Depth Psychology has important links with the Jupiter and Neptune cycle, as the famous meeting between Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud took place during the period of the Jupiter and Neptune conjunction in Cancer in 1907. Moreover, Sigmund Freud was born with both Jupiter and Neptune in Pisces.
It is not just the boundaries of inner space that dissolve and expand when Neptune and Jupiter unite. Their cyclic conjunctions have also consistently coincided with developments within the exploration of outer space. Within the present global climate in which the internet and social media possess unprecedented influence over the dissemination of information shaping public perspective, it will be of vital importance to engage with inner work while working toward the achievement of external goals.
Dane Rudhyar wrote that a key issue with Jupiter is the tendency for people to seek success through conformity with the expectations and rules of the present power structures, whereas the influence of Neptune may render a future form we may seek that transcends the problematic and oppressive aspects of the dominant cultures we live within. Rudhyar stressed that it can be the accumulation of smaller changes within our relationship that occur in correspondence with the merging of Jupiter and Neptune that later allow for the greater revolutionary events to materialise.
The volatile finale
Once Jupiter leaves Pisces to enter Aries on 10 May 2022, it will remain within fifteen degrees of Neptune until its return to Pisces on 28 October. This means that while there will be an initiatory push forward with plans and visions once Jupiter enters Aries, Jupiter will not get far enough into Aries to completely remove itself from the influence of its union with Neptune. As a result, there will be a degree of Neptune’s influence lessening upon Jupiter from May through October 2022, with the influence of Neptune returning with intensity once Jupiter returns to Pisces on 28 October.
At the time Jupiter returns to Pisces at the end of October, Mars will station retrograde in Gemini in range of a catalysing square aspect with both Jupiter and Neptune. Due to the slowness of Mars when stationing it means there will be an unusually long square aspect building in magnitude between Mars with Neptune and Jupiter, creating a volatile finale to our initiation into the new cycle between Jupiter and Neptune. It will be essential during this time to maintain relationship with the shadow side of belief so we do not exacerbate conflict with others through becoming a dogmatic crusader or persecutor. Constructively, the conflicts that erupt in correspondence can bring about important disillusionment for those in need of having their crystalliSed beliefs confronted and questioned.
With that in mind, it will be important to allow Jupiter and Neptune to aid you in dreaming well and deepening into the meaning of your myriad relationships within the world around you.
