This Saturday, we have the much-awaited Jupiter Uranus conjunction. This is when the grandson Jupiter and grandfather Uranus join up in the skies in this most-talked-about 2024 transit. The last time these two came together was in late 2010 and spring 2011 (they did a three-time dance due to retrogrades, while this year, it will be a one-and-done conjunction). So it’s been about 13/14 years since they’ve rendezvoused in the skies.
Both of these archetypes have an expansive, future-driven, exploration-bound tone and lean heavily toward breaking/blurring boundaries in the social, political, and scientific realms. In the words of astrologer Brian Clark, they carry with them the dichotomy of FURY and HOPE.
They bring with them an electrifying energy that can help us take leaps in our evolution, but when in an already volatile time, it can be the spark that unleashes chaos or fury. So there’s a need to balance these out with Taurus’s practical, earthy elements, where they’re meeting up.
There are many angles from which we can explore this, but I’d like to focus on a more personal one: idealism vs. practice.
As the boundary breaker, Uranus brings elements of IDEAL & IDEALISM to its list of attributes. Uranus’s long list of attributes is linked to IDEALISTIC VISIONS of progress through social and scientific means and a PERFECT utopian dream for the collective. Perfection is a profound shadow aspect of Uranus/Aquarius, where the pursuit of the idea/ideal/ideology will do what it can to be made manifest, even if at the cost of our humanity, ironic for a sign that is often linked to the love of humanity. One can easily forget that the collective trumps the individual when it comes to Uranus/Aquarius. Remember, there’s always the other side of the coin.
Enter Jupiter, like the cosmic baking powder that it is, and this idea/ideal expands like proofing dough.
What dough do we want to proof and bake?
The Jupiter Uranus conjunction is a knock on each of our doors.
It’s an opportunity to get PRACTICAL, a good Taurean word, our idea/ideal steps. Since this conjunction is happening in Taurus, it invites us to make things in the physical world simply, practically, and without much fuss. Plus, we should remember the power of our bodies’ wisdom and knowing. This is the hard part of this transit because Jupiter and Uranus tend to gravitate towards the skies, as both are sky gods, and Taurus is the realm of nature and its rhythms. Being that this conjunction is happening in Taurus, it’s a cautionary reminder that we mustn’t forget nature and the needs of the body. Pie-in-the-sky ideas have very real consequences in the physical world, and for the next 14 years, we will be constantly reminded of why we’re on this planet: to incarnate, not escape through sublimation.
The path to the heavens is through nature, not by dissociating from its wisdom and knowing.
The essential question is: can we deal with birthing our ideas in the world, even though they’ll not be perfect, but messy? Remember, Uranus pushed many of his offspring back into Gaia’s belly because he found them imperfect and hideous, which ultimately led to his castration by his son Saturn.
The shadow side of the Idealist.
In their own ways, Jupiter and Uranus are different expressions of the idealist. Jupiter through opportunities for expansion and growth, and Uranus through inventiveness and awakening us from the rut of routine, status quo, and deadening tradition. Both are needed; otherwise, we’d still live in caves and struggle to make fire. At their best, idealists help us see things from a different perspective, lifting us from the grind and inviting us to see things from a bird’s eye view of expansiveness.
At its core, the Idealist doesn’t accept what is but focuses on what it can be. Right there, you have a future-oriented position that sees something just behind the horizon. What animates the Idealist is the belief in positive change, authenticity, cooperation, and collaboration.
However, it’s challenged by its shadow aspect of frustration at what is, and a victim stance of ‘woe is us’ who have to live under the shackles of this system, whatever it may be called (i.e., patriarchy, capitalism, religion, the human condition, to name a few top-billed enemies of what could be).
The shadow aspect of frustration and victim stance leads to a constant stream of blaming and a complaining position that, instead of inviting us to see what might be possible, does something worse: it stalls our ability to get practical in taking any step toward change, by the constant circling the drain.
This is where idealists get a bad reputation – the whining idealist.
The unconscious shadow aspect of victim and blaming dulls the idealist’s ability to help us see the world with a sense of practical hope – not pie-in-the-sky, rose-tinted, impractical hope. But practical hope, which is the very thing that an idealist wants us to see.
In a world that has gotten cozy with constant blaming of anyone and anything, it’s tough to turn towards taking practical steps toward one’s vision. This is where the gift of Taurus comes in handy during this potentially innovative conjunction of Jupiter and Uranus.
Moving from stating the obvious to making something happen – cracking the eggs.
A shadow aspect of Uranus/Aquarius is perfectionism. The idea/ideal always looks pristine in our minds.
Theory is clean. Practice is messy.
I have seen many clients struggle with birthing their ideas into the world because of perfectionism. I, too, have struggled with this and realized how tricky and conniving perfectionism can be, stalling us from birthing something in the world.
This is where I feel ideal becomes sickened by the suffix: -ism of ideal-ISM. It loses its connection with the real and the now, always stuck in what could be and never addressing the cold grip of perfectionism that stalls us from behind.
During the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction of this week, I invite you to take an honest look at your ideas and ideals and see what step you can take towards making them happen.
Can you stop complaining and blaming the awful state of affairs and instead bring up actionable steps towards the change you want to live in the world?
The constant drivel of circling the drain of repetition of the status quo is a thinking trap, a mental masturbation that leads to nothing, although it makes us feel in the moment that we are doing something. It’s classic neurotic avoidance.
Remember that Taurus is a no-fuss, no-muss sign. It’s about keeping it simple and practical.
Don’t wait for perfection; go for results.
As I often jokingly tell my husband, I don’t expect perfection; I expect results. That’s my Taurus Rising speaking, much to the chagrin of my Gemini planets and my Jupiter in Aquarius, who would love to stay in the perfect world of ideas. Taurus Rising, the only earth element in my birth chart, has taught me that it’s vital to come back down to Earth.
Remember what happened to Uranus when he kept stuffing Gaia with offspring he didn’t find perfect? She retaliated by having him castrated. That’s an earth element not messing about. It will get you out of the high perch of mental masturbation in no time. The body doesn’t lie.
So, let’s get messy during this cosmic opportunity for insight and fresh ideas by taking actionable steps toward making them take shape.
If you’re an idealist or just filled with ideas, remember that these are gifts from the Muses to you. They resonate with an ingredient that only you have to make them happen.
Refrain from letting these ideas stay constipated, locked up in your perfect vision of how they could be. Get them out.
And let’s try to complain less about the state of things and over-exercise our blame fingers. Instead, let’s exercise our practical muscles by taking steps towards what we want to happen.
Don’t just talk about the cake; make the damn cake.
When opportunity knocks, you answer the door.
Photo Credits:
Main image: Tim Mossholder – via Unsplash
Subsequent images: Jan Tinneberg, CoxnirhpHCI, SHOT, and Sincerely Media via Unsplash
