Jupiter in Scorpio: Outing the Shadow
When a planet enters a new sign it takes on the qualities and interests of that sign. It can be understood as a kind of archetypal renewal that gives rise to origin stories, carrying sparks of insight that unfold throughout the planet’s passage of the sign. These principles have been at work as October cradled Jupiter’s annual move into a new sign, Scorpio (October 10th).
On the edge of Jupiter’s ingress into Scorpio, on the morning of October 5th Harvey Weinstein’s sexual harassment story was published in the New York Times [i]. Over the following days more actresses came forward to speak of their experiences of Weinstein’s predatory behavior.
On the heels of this story came the social media hashtag #MeToo that women are using to self-identify as victims of sexual harassment and making consciousness [ii]. Scrolling down the #MeToo page my heart ached and I wanted to hug each woman, look her in the eye and say, “I know, me too”.
The widespread culture of male abuse of power and serial sexual misconduct and abuse has been outed. It’s as if there has been a groundswell that has required each previous egregious perpetrator [iii]to get to this level of visibility. Following quickly on the Weinstein story, the California state capital legislators, aides and lobbyists came forward to denounce sexual harassment in the legislature (October 17th). On the same day, the New York Times headlined an article about the Nxivm cult where women are branded and called ‘slaves’ [iv].
The stories continue. Actors, comedians, journalists, executives, and or course, politicians.
There is an astrological correspondence or coincidence of Jupiter moving into Scorpio and the exposing of these issues of power and sex in our culture. These stories of sexual harassment may be understood as the opening gambit of Jupiter in Scorpio.
Astrological Openings and Insights
Scorpio has to do with the taboo subjects of power, sex and shared resources (other people’s money and how we use it).
Jupiter is the planetary archetype related to the principles of expansion, growth, increase. Jupiter magnifies and illumines. When things grow, they become more obvious. Jupiter in Scorpio exposes what has been hidden. The shadow of male power has been outed.
As Jia Tolentino expressed it, “For years—for centuries—the economic, physical, and cultural subjugation of women has registered as something like white noise. Lately, it appears that we’re starting to hear the tune. What has been a backdrop is now in the foreground” [v].
Jupiter is a collective planet showing something of our connection to the larger whole. So we are dealing here with a culture-wide issue of male power and its abuses, its limits, its privileges.
The medicine is given with the wound. Astrological symbolism reveals to us the homeopathic treatment. Jupiter seeks an expansion of awareness, shining a light on what has been under wraps and needs to develop. This awareness needs the full spectrum of Scorpio vision, which is introspection, Scorpio’s signature super-power.
This coincidence of characteristics suggests a meditation on what is brought to awareness. This was made evident to me this past Sunday morning while I was reading the New York Times and I came across a full broadsheet ad by the men’s shaving needs company Harry’s.
The bottom reads:
“If 2017 has taught us anything, it’s that we need to rethink what it means to be a man. And what better time to start doing that than right now, on International Men’s Day, which, believe it or not, is a thing. Now more than ever, being a man demands introspection, humility, and, we believe, optimism. We have to question what has become normal, and know that to stay quiet is to be complicit. Because it we’re ever going to get to a better tomorrow, we need to take a long, hard look at today, and at the harmful, misguided stereotypes that hot us here in the first place. And then we need to act, and change, together.”
In other words, there needs to be some soul-searching.
We women and men also need the positive masculine quality of discernment as we explore these issues of male power and sex. As described above, Jupiter inflates and expands, so we must be careful of how things can get lumped together. There needs to be discussion about the levels of sexual harassment, perpetrators and the appropriate consequences for their actions. There is a certain ethical and moral threshold to meet if you are to be a public figure, but so too if you’re simply a part of a community, whether professional, social or private. One-size will not fit all. Our anger and outrage is a right response, and its natural that there is discomfort in these discussions. But we have to keep one eye on the Jupiterian proclivity to ignore distinctions in favor for large sweeping generalities. Part of this will be developing a discernment about boundaries, which is also Scorpio territory.
We are in another stage of an elimination process of the old patriarchal paradigm, and when the old is cut loose then can come restoration. But we have to mid-wife that renewal through our deepening sense of integrity and a courage for introspection to face what needs to be brought into consciousness.
October and the trees are stripped bare
Of all they wear.
What do I care?
October and kingdoms rise
And kingdoms fall
But you go on
And on.
[i] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/05/us/harvey-weinstein-harassment-allegations.html
[ii] Following the trail of these two simple words I have learned that #MeToo was created by Tarana Burke in the late 90s.
[iii] Most notable last year: Donald Trump and Bill Cosby
[iv] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/17/nyregion/nxivm-women-branded-albany.html
[v] Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker Oct. 30, 2017 “Limits of Power”