Jupiter As Singleton
Jupiter is King of the Gods and the Father in Heaven, a sky god. On a psychological level he is the dispenser of law and giver of gifts and of grace. The longing for a Heavenly Father and the need to experience some guiding spiritual principle at work in our lives is the Jupiter principle.
There is a restless longing with Jupiter for a future bigger, better and brighter than the present. This longing sometimes prompts us to pursue new experiences, thereby squandering time, energy and resources. Such restless striving does expand our awareness and can give a glimpse of immortality. When we ask, “What is the lesson to be learned from this experience?” it is the voice of Jupiter.
There is a joke about a child who discovers a room filled with manure on Christmas morning. He is delighted and immediately starts digging, declaring, “With this much horse crap, there’s got to be a pony in here somewhere!” That’s Jupiter taken a bit to the extreme. And so is the scene in the movie, “The Life of Brian,” which ends with the chorus happily singing at the Crucifixion, “Always Look on the Bright Side.” Both optimism and humor are Jovan qualities.
We have seen that Mars, the Warrior of the Gods, and the other planets as well can be, as singletons, quite problematic. Jupiter, however, seems to be less so, at least on the surface, because it symbolizes many things that we like and of which we approve, such as wisdom and moral values. However, just as Mars activates the sign it is in and stimulates the qualities of other planets it contacts by aspect, so Jupiter expands and enlarges the sign it is in and the planets it touches.
When it is a singleton, Jupiter can manifest as a God/Deity Complex. We often find the Messiah Complex with its sense of “I can do anything!” The flip side of the sense of one’s own “godness” (god-like qualities and abilities), includes the projection of those onto others, or guru worship. There is an enthusiasm for the god within.
A young man named Stephan heard a Biblical quote, “With God all things are possible.” He was fourteen at the time and blithely replied, “I don’t know much about God, but that sure is true for me!” That is a Jupiter in Aries singleton, only Fire sign! One of the dangers with a Jupiter singleton is a bad case of hubris; that means the feeling that, “I am equal to or better than the gods!” Jupiter eventually extracts a price for that, for Jupiter is also the “wrath of God.” In Stephan’s case, he took for granted his abundant good health (6th house) and abused it through needle injected drug use and unprotected sex, contracting the HIV infection which led to his death on a day when the Sun was exactly conjunct Jupiter by transit.
There tends to be tremendous ambition with Jupiter. There is a sense that, “I am so wonderful; I have to share it with everyone!” There is just so much to do and so much to give out (Saturn is also ambitious, but from a sense of lack, of never having enough; so he works hard to get more and more). People with Jupiter singletons tend to be part of the elite of whatever group or social strata they identify with as their community. This is a manifestation of aspiration toward superiority and a sense of inflatedness. The extreme of this is the Superiority Complex, and the psychopathology may be expressed as thinking oneself to be the Virgin Mary, Christ or Buddha. Jupiter is associated with the manic phase of the bipolar syndrome or manic-depression. The Superiority/Inferiority Complex is particularly common where there is a difficult aspect between Jupiter and Saturn, especially if both are singletons.
Because Jupiter expands and inflates the quality of the sign it is in and the house it rules, as well as the one in which it is posited, we find many famous and successful people with the singleton in their charts.
For example, a successful woman, Marlene, is in the TV news media. Her Jupiter singleton is in Gemini (news), in the 5th house of creativity and children and it rules her 10th house (career and reputation). She has always been lucky in getting highly paid anchor positions. She is always number one in every ratings period (honors and esteem from the community). Not only is she highly creative, but her young son, Chip, is an extraordinarily bright infant, a Jupiter-ruled Sagittarius. His speech and learning ability far exceed his age of one and one-half years. Interestingly enough, the boy also has a Jupiter singleton. Maybe luck and the ability to be among the elite is genetic? He also has a Saturn singleton, inherited from his father. Time will tell if he suffers from the superiority/inferiority complex.
Jupiter includes generosity, expansiveness, optimism and a sense of humor. Sometimes the ambitions and optimism over-ride the practical realities. Fred has Jupiter in Virgo in his 10th house. Jupiter is the only planet in an Earth (practicality, realism), sign. The inferior function, as we said before, can be over-compensated or denied. In Fred’s case, where we might expect to find realistic (Virgo), expectations (Jupiter), we find great expectations and a lack of a realistic attitude (denial of the Virgo quality). He is physically huge, exceedingly obese. He is completely out of touch with the physical reality of proper diet (Virgo), of what foods are best for him and the quantity which would be appropriate. He is ever-optimistic that one day he will be a billionaire. He “bites off more than he can – or should – chew” in both his business affairs and at the table.
Indulgence, or over-indulgence, in food, wine, drugs, and good times are some of the dangers that lurk in Jupiter’s shadows. The “fairy godmother complex” is another possibility. With a tendency to feel special to god or providence, and to be watched over and protected by unseen forces, people may take their health, wealth, and social position for granted and loose them all at some point. Wastefulness is another Jupiter shadow quality.
Conceit, hyperbole, hypocrisy (“do as I say, not as I do”), and exaggeration (as used in advertising and propaganda), can also hide under Jupiter’s throne. The tendencies to sermonize and proselytize are Jovan character flaws, too. “God told me and I’m just telling you for your own good!”
The Jupiter Complex ordains that everything should be light, white, and bright, and demands conformity to the community’s, or group’s, ideology (to follow the “party line”). Many “New Agers” suffer from this. They will not look at the dark side; they are terrified by Pluto, and so can never get in touch with their inner power and be truly effective in the world. An example of this Jovan conformity among New Agers was encountered at a Crop Circle Presentation in Mount Shasta. Those of us who dared not to conform by offering possible scientific or realistic explanations of the phenomena were regarded as heretics, and our input was completely unappreciated. There may have been a lot of Neptune going on too.
Values are associated with Jupiter, and the sign Jupiter is in defines the values in a specific chart. The house it is in also defines those values. For example, Jupiter in a fixed sign values the unchanging, loyalty, sturdiness, and a staunch attitude. Mutable sign values include adaptability and versatility, while Cardinal signs prefer enterprise and action. Since Jupiter inflates and exaggerates the qualities of its sign, in Pisces, for instance, it may glamorize suffering and humility, or feel that suffering makes one superior. “He who sitteth upon a hot stove shall arise,” implies spiritual growth happens only through suffering.
As the archetype of the priest, Jupiter is associated with the quest for the divine. There is an interest in higher consciousness and in ethics (the eternal principle of what is right, or dharma), morals (a specific society’s consensual version of ethics, i.e. we say we believe monogamy is best, but have girlfriends or boyfriends on the side). Exaggeration of the Superego or conscience goes along with Jupiter. Where Jupiter is in your chart is where (house), and how (sign), you expect to be good and to do your best, and to be applauded as the best. There is a children’s story called “My Nest is Best,” that would be Jupiter in Cancer.
The Australian Olympic swimmer, Ian Thorpe, is an example of someone whose singleton planet defines his “name and fame.” He has a “lucky” chart to begin with. All the planets are contained within a trine from Moon to Neptune, and all are above the horizon. Jupiter in Scorpio is the only Water sign planet, and it is in the 10th house. All three things, planetary energy, sign, house, are very evident in Ian’s life. He spends a lot of time doing his career in the water, literally. His nicknames (Jupiter and Sagittarius love nicknames) are “Thorpedo” (Scorpio) and “Flipper” (Jupiter-humor). He has huge feet, size 17! Jupiter disposes of Neptune in the 12th house. Pisces, Neptune and the 12th are associated with feet. The black full bodysuit he prefers to wear is called a “frogsuit” (water, Scorpio) and “Mr. Condom” (Scorpio).
A well-known West Coast guru, J. Donald Walters, a.k.a. Swami Kriyananda, has his Jupiter singleton in Aquarius (only Air), in the 9th house. It is one arm of a Fixed Grand Cross. Fixed Grand Crosses are often found in the charts of people who found things – institutions, governments, and so forth. It is also implies deeply ingrained habit patterns acquired and repeated over many lifetimes (samskaras). It is the hardest configuration for a psychologist to work with; often the person would resist psychotherapy anyway. The Grand Cross is a closed system, and it is difficult for anyone to get into or through to the individual. When it is in Fixed signs that is almost impossible. The Cross is comprised of the Jupiter singleton squared to the Sun in Taurus and a Saturn singleton in Scorpio (only Social house planet); Jupiter opposes a Moon/Neptune conjunction in Leo.
We have discussed the Jupiter/Saturn contact as indicating possible manic-depression and the superiority/inferiority complex. Sun/Saturn and Moon/Saturn suggest difficulties with parents, authority figures, with early childhood experiences and one’s conscious and unconscious sense of identity.
Mr. Walters founded a spiritual community in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada which he calls the “Expanding Light” – how Sun/Jupiter! It is based on his version of the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda, but is in no way affiliated with Yogananda’s group, Self-Realization Fellowship. In Palo Alto, California he has a church that has been known over the years by various names: Fellowship of Inner Communion (very Jupiter in Aquarius, 9th house!), Ananda, Ananda Church of Self-Realization, and Ananda Sangha. Renaming the group Ananda Church of Self-Realization was an act of hubris on Walter’s part, and the SRF brought suit against him for that and other infringements on their copyrights.
Later, another suit was brought to court against him for sexual harassment (case #390230, filed in Santa Clara County on November 21, 1994). The case was covered extensively in the Palo Alto Daily, a local newspaper. It came out during the trial that Walters had been sexually involved with many of his female followers over the years, not just the young woman who filed the suit.
Jupiter in Aquarius square Saturn in Scorpio in the 5th symbolizes self-righteous egoistic rebellion () against past self-denial of romantic and sexual pleasure ( 5th). He chose confused, very pretty women, often blondes. The square from Sun to Jupiter is the signature of megalomaniac tendencies; he thought what he was doing was all right for him to do, but not for anyone else. A quote from the Palo Alto Daily states, “The women said that when they were having sex with the swami, they were in tune with the pure channel of God.”
The prosecution based its claim of fraud on the fact that “the swami, while holding himself out as a spiritual leader who has taken vows of celibacy, was trying to have sex with his young devotees.” The jury was asked to “find the church negligent for not supervising the conduct of Walters.” That would have been impossible for the church due to Walter’s Fixed Grand Cross; he is a “closed system,” a law unto himself. Jovan hypocrisy was at work.
The case was filed as transiting Jupiter was in Scorpio conjuncting natal Saturn and squaring Jupiter’s natal position. The trial was in process in January and February 1998 as Jupiter returned to Aquarius, transiting natal Jupiter and squaring natal Saturn. The trial lasted around three months and the swami lost. A planet by transit always carries with it the natal significance and implications. We can always wonder if Jupiter (the inner guru) finally broke through the Grand Fixed Cross and released Walters, to some degree at least, from its karmic hold. As the “wrath of God,” Jupiter by transit caught up and loosed his lightening bolts. The lesson here is: if you want to teach, do not preach; simply live the example of your philosophy. Be your best and be true to yourself.
Shirley MacLaine has her Jupiter singleton in the first house of self-image and personal interests. It is the only planet in a personal house. Interestingly, her chart shares some common themes with Walters’: a Moon/Neptune conjunction, Saturn in the 5th house and Pluto in an angular house. But where Walters had a square between Sun and Moon, MacLaine has a trine; where Walters had Venus in the sign of its fall, Aries, MacLaine has Venus in its sign of esoteric exaltation, Pisces. She, too, is a Sun sign Taurus.
She was first a dancer, then a comedian as an actress. MacLaine may be zany and “out on a limb,” but she believes everyone should be his or her own guru ( 1st), and to the extent that she teaches or preaches, it is done through her books, her writing. Mercury, well placed in Aries, opposes Jupiter and squares Pluto, while it rules her first and tenth houses. She’s a “natural” for communicating her philosophy in a direct, easy to understand manner to the masses (Pluto).
The Cardinal T-Cross takes action and initiative, and is open and vulnerable, not a closed system. Kriyananda wrote a book, The Path, about his spiritual journey with Yogananda. In the Jan.-Feb. 2001 issue of Modern Maturity (a magazine for and about people over 50), there was an article about MacLaine titled Shirley’s Way. The article describes Shirley’s 500-mile hike on a pilgrim’s trail, The Camino, from the base of the Pyrannees in France, across Spain to Santiago de Compostela.
The Camino’s lesson: you will discover you are more than you thought you were when you began. The words path, way and camino all mean the same thing. Jupiter demands we travel (both inwardly and outwardly), to expand our consciousness and to become more. I have always believed one should leave the country for a foreign land every two years just to keep things in proper perspective.
There are a few other well-known names that have Jupiter singletons. Albert Einstein (Jupiter in Aquarius 9th opposite Uranus three times a singleton in the third), is remembered for his theory of relativity and won a Nobel Prize for discovering the photo-electric-effect law.
Madame Marie Curie (Jupiter in Aquarius in the first house sextile Pluto, also a singleton), won two Nobel Prizes, one for physics and the other for chemistry.
The Duke of Wellington, an aristocrat, also known as Arthur Wellesley (Jupiter in Scorpio in the 10th, part of a Grand Trine with Moon in Pisces and Saturn in Cancer), was a British soldier and statesman nicknamed “The Iron Duke;” he is remembered most for defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo.
Jupiter is the inner guide and benevolent protector so long as we refrain from offending the gods by committing the sin of hubris. He rewards our good works and our acts of integrity with honors and grace.
Next we look at Saturn as a singleton. Often Jupiter and Saturn appear, at least at first glance, as behaving the same. That may be. But the motivation of Saturn is fear, dread, and a sense of limitation, quite the opposite of Jupiter’s “the sky’s the limit” -or maybe there is no limit!
Example Charts Used in the Article
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About the author:
Eleanor Buckwalter has studied, practiced and taught astrology in Los Altos, CA for more than twenty-five years, including three years with the late Richard Idemon, a psychological astrologer. Her primary astrological focus of interest is parent-child relationships and family dynamics.
Last updated on December 17, 2014 at 12:35 am. Word Count: 2807
