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JUPITER-NEPTUNE:
MAGICIAN OR FOOL?
by Simone Butler

First published in The Mountain Astrologer, Oct./Nov. 1997

"Jupiter inflames Neptune's longing, and Neptune raises Jupiter's eyes beyond the National Lottery to the celestial realm above."

---Liz Greene, The Astrological Neptune

Walking along the beach one blustery morning, I began to reflect on the nature of Jupiter and Neptune. Since they are both linked to Pisces, which symbolizes the limitless expanse of the ocean, my reverie must have drifted in with the waves.

My first thoughts were of how connected these planets are with that greatest of all mysteries, death. I remembered how my 92-year-old grandfather passed away peacefully in his sleep when Jupiter trined his natal Neptune. And, alternately, how a friend's father passed on more painfully from an ongoing battle with leukemia when Jupiter squared his Neptune and Ascendant. It is said that transiting Jupiter must be active at death, as a boost to the great beyond. It would make sense that, in addition to the other planetary transits occurring, a harmonious or difficult contact to Neptune could illustrate the nature of the passing.

Next, I thought of certain Jupiter transits in the lives of those with prominent Neptunes. There was the childhood friend who, when Jupiter conjuncted his 1st-house Neptune, came back for our high school reunion and convinced us all that he was part-owner of a successful restaurant in Vail, Colorado. Not long after, one of our classmates went to Vail and discovered that the owners of that restaurant had never even heard of our friend. Here was Jupiter-Neptune as master of illusion and deceit.

Another friend, with Neptune right on his natal Ascendant, planned a showcase for his music during the time when Jupiter crossed that point (I was green at astrology then and told him this could be a really lucky transit). He rented a 2,000-seat auditorium and invited everyone he knew-200 showed up. It was a huge financial loss to him, and caused a rift in our friendship. In this case, Jupiter-Neptune symbolized the delusions of grandeur that led him to believe he could pack a large auditorium. (Be careful when you make predictions for friends!)

I considered the natal chart of a former boyfriend, who has Jupiter, Neptune and the Moon conjunct in Sagittarius. As you might expect, he is a spiritual dreamer, a beautiful soul always chasing after one fantasy or another. He finally found his calling when an older man took him on as an apprentice to his bonsai tree business, then left him the business when he died. By shaping and pruning the little trees into artistic forms, my friend expresses the creative side of his Jupiter-Neptune. Unfortunately, he now stands to lose the business through poor financial management as this planetary combination's dark side is activated by a transit from Pluto.

Jupiter-Neptune aspects also symbolize extremes of magic or illusion. I decided to do a little research on the manifestations of these aspects in famous peoples' charts. In her wonderful book, The Astrological Neptune and the Quest for Redemption, Liz Green offers the emperor Nero (whose chart has Sun/Pluto/Ascendant in Sagittarius, and a close t-square between Jupiter, Neptune and the Moon), as an example of "some of the most florid emotional and artistic excesses the world has ever seen." Nero considered himself a god (how Jupiterian!) and the power hunger of his Plutonian configuration, along with the illusion of invincibility fostered by Jupiter square Neptune, motivated him to claim what he felt was his by divine right.

The square can be excessive in metaphysical terms as well. The horoscope of magician Aleister Crowley contains a fixed t-square, in this case between Jupiter, Neptune and the Ascendant. Crowley was a colorful figure in the early part of the 20th Century, who specialized in forms of magic some considered dark. His Pisces Moon sextile both Pluto and Mars, plus a compelling Sun-Venus conjunction in Libra, gave him an extraordinary power over others. He used his sexual magnetism to charm people of both sexes, whom he then discarded when he was through with them.

Yet Crowley's Jupiter-Neptune also brought him to great spiritual heights. His little-known devotional poetry was truly inspired. He was as influential in the field of metaphysics as Freud or Jung were in psychology, but his Leo Ascendant, with Uranus sitting boldly in the first house, frequently got him into trouble. "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law," was his prescription for living. According to Israel Regardie, Crowley's one-time personal secretary, in The Eye in the Triangle, Crowley's often-misinterpreted law was actually an admonition to find one's true purpose in life and follow it. This was Crowley's definition of genius-another Jupiter-Neptune potential.

Aspects from Saturn can help to bring the Jupiter-Neptune personality down to earth, or inhibit the person's spiritual growth. Sigmund Freud's Jupiter-Neptune conjunction was squared by Saturn. Freud was often accused of being closed-minded or fearful about the spiritual dimensions of his psychoanalytical work. Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, had a Saturn-Jupiter conjunction trined by Neptune and Uranus. Eddy was an advocate of faith healing, a wonderful blessing when it worked. When it didn't, and people died due to lack of medical care, the darker side of "faith" was revealed.

Jupiter-Neptune is also tremendously creative and inspired. Poet Maya Angelou and singer-songwriter Bob Dylan possess the trine. Writer Henry Miller and dancer Isadora Duncan had the square. Visionary artist Paul Klee had the sextile. The conjunction is featured prominently in the chart of otherworldly sitar player Ravi Shankar. Attorney Marcia Clark's trine netted her an extremely lucrative book deal, and Newt Gingrich's sextile lets him get away with far more than he would without it.

When natal Jupiter and Neptune are triggered by transit, one's divine mission in life can become apparent. It can also be revealed when Jupiter and Neptune conjoin in the heavens. Last January's Jupiter-Neptune conjunction at 27 Capricorn powerfully affected whatever house or planets it activated in your natal chart. Since Neptune stays in that vicinity for the rest of 1997, insights or expansion experienced in January may be reactivated throughout the year.

One thing is clear: Jupiter-Neptune is not a combination to be taken lightly. It is a potent cocktail. Sip carefully of the divine nectar and the world of spirit opens its gates. Drink wantonly of the magic brew and risk a death by drowning. If Jupiter and Neptune are prominent in your chart, the choice is yours.

© 1997 Simone Butler. All rights reserved.

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