Transits & cycles

Jupiter cycle

Also known as: Jupiter clockJupiter phasestransit Jupiter to natal Jupiter

The Jupiter cycle is the path of transiting Jupiter from the place it held at your birth, through the squares, trines and the opposition, back to the same degree — on average in 11.86 years.

Jupiter goes round the zodiac in 11.86 years, moving on average about one sign a year. The Jupiter cycle measures how far transiting Jupiter has moved from its position in the birth chart. It starts at the moment of birth, and every return of Jupiter to the same degree opens the next cycle. The first return therefore comes around age 12 and the next ones around 24, 36, 47 and 59 — but each person’s real dates are different.

Western astrology names six main points in the cycle: the return (the conjunction with natal Jupiter), the waxing square (90°, about 3 years after the return), the waxing trine (120°, about 4 years), the opposition (180°, about 6 years), the waning trine (240°, about 8 years) and the waning square (270°, about 9 years). The sextiles (60° and 300°) count as minor points. The distances are averages: Jupiter moves unevenly, so a given point can come months earlier or later.

Roughly every 13 months Jupiter turns back in the sky for about 4 months (retrograde motion) and slips back about 10 degrees. If the target degree lies in that arc, Jupiter crosses it three times: forward, backward and forward again. The point is then a window lasting months rather than a single day — this happens at roughly one point of the cycle in three. For the same reason each return comes on average about 7 weeks earlier than the “anniversary”.

The four quarters of the cycle are set by the angle, not by years. From the return to the waxing square comes a new beginning: a time of sowing and looking around. From the square to the opposition, growth and building. The opposition opens the culmination and review: what has been growing since the return becomes visible, often in other people’s reactions. From the waning square on comes clearing and preparation for the next return. This description of the phases is an interpretive convention echoing Dane Rudhyar’s cycle model, not an astronomical fact; the points describe themes and questions for a time, not events.

A birth in the morning or in the evening moves the dates by a day or two at most, because Jupiter moves slowly. Vedic astrology reads Jupiter’s transits differently: its basis is Guru Gochar, Jupiter’s position counted from the Moon sign. AstroSensus calculates the Jupiter cycle from an astronomical ephemeris and shows it as the Jupiter Clock — with the phase, the dates of the passes and a life timeline.