Jupiter reflects the spirit within us—the part of us that we perceive to be immortal. The position of Jupiter in your birth chart indicates the areas of life that are likely to be foremost in your thoughts and feelings. The sign indicates your typical approach to the process of being human.

Okay, that was simple, right? So simple, in fact, that most people overlook the obvious in their search for the complex. For me, life became much simpler when I identified the overarching process that means the most to me, and then fit the rest of life’s processes into the most important one. Most of us get off the track because we have several processes that we believe are more or less equally important, possible to pursue independently of each other, and within our expertise to pursue confidently and competently. Over time we discover that our processes:

· Are actually not equally important to us or to anyone else
· Are not independent of one another
· May not be within our expertise, at least not in the beginning.

In short, we discover that life’s processes are intertwined, shifting in importance on an almost daily basis, and hugely complex. We must pay attention to the shifts and gather new information on a frequent basis in order to keep up with life as it unfolds. We even use the term structure when we mean process!

We need both structure and process in our lives. `Without structure we would be unable to move about, create shelter, or organize our lives. Without process, we would be unable to gestate, be born, grow, or prosper in any way. For example, we need the structure of bones and skin to hold our bodies together and to stand upright. We need homes in which to live, clothes to cover our bodies, and food to keep us going. The structured things in this statement are the house, the clothing, and the food. The processes are living, dressing, and assimilating.

The material world is made up of structures and processes that are interwoven in myriad ways. Our entire lives are devoted to grasping, understanding, and manipulating both structure and process. In the end, we also face the task of leaving familiar structures and processes behind as we leave our physical bodies and go on to the next stage of experience after death.

This chapter won’t be exploring structure in great detail—that will happen in the Saturn chapters. However, it would be impossible to examine process without also considering the structures within which a process occurs. Furthermore, each life process has a profound impact on the structures it encounters. Thus we must consider Saturn, the planet of structure, along with all the other planets.

At each Jupiter milestone—called Jupiter Returns—we will get a snapshot of the next twelve years by looking at the chart for the time of the Jupiter Return and comparing it to the promise in the natal chart. Each Jupiter Return focuses on the central developmental issues we each face at specific points in our lives. The chart for the Jupiter Return is read with the developmental issues in mind. You will learn how to identify the most significant issues of each Jupiter cycle, and you will see ways to work with the energies around you instead of against them.

Major Jupiter Milestones

Now we will examine seven major Jupiter milestones. Every twelve years Jupiter returns to its position in your birth chart, giving you a moment of clarity concerning your perspective on life, your emotions, and your spiritual tendencies. Each of these milestones focuses on a particular aspect of the human developmental process, and each illuminates a specific area of your life. This means that each stage of development takes place primarily in regard to one area of life and is affected by the energy you put into that area. Each Jupiter Return marks both the end of the previous cycle, and the beginning of the next. Each cycle grows out of the previous twelve-year period.

Throughout life we notice certain themes come up again and again. We review ideas and renew intellectual and spiritual strengths during each period. If the indications are positive, all will be well. The period will flow, and we experience successful forward movement, particularly in the area of life emphasized during the particular cycle (as indicated in the Jupiter Return chart).

If the indications are less constructive, we benefit from what we learned earlier, and probably modify our behaviors to avoid facing the same difficulties. If we fail to modify your behavior, a little excess can become a huge problem. One of the advantages of astrology is to signal times when we need to rein in wild desires, in order to make the most of opportunities without wasting our efforts.

Jupiter Milestone One: Around Age Twelve

The first Jupiter milestone occurs when most people have achieved nearly adult size and development. Cultures around the world celebrate rites of passage around this time, as young people transition from childhood to teen and young adult life.

People actually reach adult physical growth about midway through the second cycle. One of the problems we face is that we are expected to act like an adult in a thousand ways, yet we feel unprepared for the demands of adult life, especially at the beginning of this period at age twelve. Toward the end of the cycle at age twenty-four, we have gathered the resources we need to lead a successful adult life.

This second Jupiter period can be a difficult one, filled with shocks and disillusionment. You find out that your life up to this point is not the only life there is. Your friends have better ways of doing some things, and they have some less than helpful ideas about how to act. While you no longer need to be protected at every turn, you still rely upon family to take care of most of your basic needs. This is less true in some cultures, but is true to some extent everywhere.

Now you learn that you have your own mind, your own desires. During this twelve-year period you find out more about your strengths and weaknesses. You face choices about what to study, where to work, which friends to spend time with, and you probably face your first romantic encounters.

This period demands huge changes in social relationships, habits, and attitudes. The internal changes set the stage for the rest of your life. You break with some family beliefs, even if you maintain an outer appearance of acceptance. By the end of this period you know how you want to be different, and where you want to go in life.

Milestone Two: Around Age Twenty-Four

By age twenty-four, you have achieved nearly complete intellectual development. This does not mean that you stop learning, but that your capacity for learning is fully in place. This milestone may coincide with the second Saturn sextile (see Chapter Eight).

As you start out on your adult adventure, you may be afraid that no matter how hard you try, you will be unsuccessful. You fear criticism and rejection. The excitement of life is matched by the anxiety level.

You try to "act like an adult" at every turn. Yet the emotions you are feeling remind you of earlier times when you felt the same, and you remember the helpless feeling that you had then too. During the cycle between Milestones Two and Three, you develop a better understanding of the dynamics of all kinds of relationships—romantic and business partnerships, peer relationships, and your relationship to your own children. In the process your relationship to your parents undergoes dramatic changes as well.

During the coming period, you learn to accept your emotions as your own. In fact you regain feelings that you may have suppressed in the past because they were too difficult to face.

Finally, you fill in the gaps in your education, either through more formal education or in the "school of hard knocks." You refine your thinking skills, your social skills, and build emotional strength.

By the end of this period, your unique personality is refined. When you consider your inner mental, emotional and spiritual environment, you discover that it is more important in many ways than the material environment. You feed your material needs and desires, yet learn there is more to life.

Milestone Three: Around Age Thirty Six

At the third milestone you are entering a philosophical phase of life, questioning your own purpose. This milestone may occur around the same time as the first Uranus Quincunx (see Chapter Ten). You may wonder whether your chosen career is satisfying your needs—financial, intellectual, emotional and spiritual. People often associate the unrest during the latter half of this period—the mid-life crisis—with unfulfilling relationships, changes in the job scene, or anything else outside your own personality. In fact, though, your inner mental and emotional mechanism also causes upsets.

We often think that once past age thirty, we no longer continue to grow. Actually, our emotional, mental and spiritual growth occurs largely after that time. While we are busy developing careers, raising children, and expanding our social spheres, we are also changing psychologically and spiritually. It sometimes happens that the love relationship or career we chose earlier no longer suits the person we have become. Life's journey needs to take a new direction.

With sensitivity and love, you can follow the new path with your long-term partner. If both partners understand the individual changes they are undergoing, relationships can continue, and even gain in strength. If the urge to experience more of life leads one partner astray, it can mean the end, or it can set the stage for reworking your values and reaffirming your faith in each other.

By age forty-eight at the next milestone, you probably see the good side of your decisions as well as the downside. You understand that you made choices in the moment, based on the conscious information you had at the time. Now you have greater understanding of your own inner workings. You have had successes and failures, and you know if your life has been fulfilling or not.

Milestone Four: Around Age Forty-Eight

You may not be the round-bellied figure Shakespeare mentions, but at this milestone you are entering a somewhat less physical and somewhat more mental period of your life. There is no abrupt transition here—you just gradually find your interests shifting. Interestingly, this milestone occurs at the time of the second Uranus Quincunx , after it has made an opposition to its birth place. Thus Jupiter milestones three and four are closely connected to adjustments in mental processes, and they may include practice and awareness of psychic or intuitive abilities.

You find that you struggle less with internal conflicts that have marked earlier cycles. By the end of this period you have found ways to integrate and achieve cooperation among your diverse talents, skills, and goals. You still have goals in life, but you have disconnected your self-esteem from their accomplishment. Now you empower yourself, instead of looking to the world for empowerment.

At the end of this period, your Jupiter and Saturn cycles come into close alignment. Your sense of wholeness incorporates substance and process into one worldview. You accept your accomplishments and probably see the larger connections between Self and the Universe.

Milestone Five: Around Age Sixty

This Jupiter milestone occurs at about the same time as the second Saturn Return. Depending on the speed of Pluto through the signs, some people have the first Pluto square at this time (See Chapter Twelve for more information about the irregular cycle of Pluto and its developmental consequences). Your approach to this milestone is probably very different from your parents and grandparents. If you have maintained good health, you can foresee many years ahead of you, and you are not about ready to stop here. With both the Saturn and Jupiter cycles ending close together, you may find you need to re-examine your life and make a new plan. Even if you continue in the same career for some time to come, you are probably going to find the quality of your goals changing, as well as the time you allot to fulfilling them.

This is a time for mulling over the past, not because you are stuck in it, but because you want to distill the values you have found and discard the waste. During this cycle you will learn a great deal about why you acted the way you did, and how those actions affect you now. You let go of old ideas that no longer suit you.

Our children often say that we are better parents to our grandchildren. This is because we can let go of old rules and methods, and take on new attitudes. We have faced the darker, shadow side of our own personalities, and we can joyfully engage life in a fresh, relaxed way. We can spend time with grandchildren, experiencing the world with them, without worrying so much about how to take care of them and teach them.

This can be a period of spiritual inspiration. As you let go of the daily concerns that bogged you down and kept you busy for so many years, you find more time to consider your spiritual position in the world. You are ready to take up the business of completing your life, where previously you were fully engaged in the business of running it. This is a time to recall goals from an earlier time, choose the goals you still want to accomplish, and focus on them as fully as possible. While we often think of the period before age sixty as the productive time of life, many people are accomplishing their greatest work after that time.

Milestone Six: Around Age Seventy-Two

This milestone ushers in a cycle in which you are able to embrace both the light side of your personality and the dark, hidden side. The mysteries of your own mind that had escaped you until now can be examined. Unexpressed desires and thoughts can now be revealed. In the process you discover a higher power that resides in and acts through you, and you can surrender to this force.

This cycle is ideal for mentoring younger people. You have come full circle in many ways and are able to offer support and advice without any attachment to what your student does with the information. You are both receptive to the student's needs and expressive of your own wisdom. You feel less attached to outcomes, and more focused on clear, effective processes.

You may find that unique opportunities come into your life during this cycle. You are able to undertake activities that didn't even find a place on your list of things to do during previous cycles. While they are less demanding physically, your activities now are just as important to your developmental process. Another interesting point is that you may experience a life filled with miracles large and small, and you also are able to help other people experience their own miraculous growth and development.

Milestone Seven: Around Age Eighty-Four

With modern medicine and longer life spans, many of us never get into this condition, or if we do, it is very close to the end of life. What we do experience is an inevitable slowing down of the physical machinery. Healthy nutrition keeps many people alert and aware right up to the end of life, even in the nineties and past.

A person who has traveled life's path for eighty-four or more years has seen pretty much every side of life. This is not the time to quit, but it is time to take a different approach to life.

This milestone may coincide with the Pluto trine , and definitely coincides with the Uranus conjunction . This is the time to be exactly who you are. Engage in social activities, consider your relationship to the Universe, and celebrate your connection to the Divine and to the people around you.

Symbolically we reach the climax of soul development at this milestone. This does not mean that development ceases at age 84, but rather that we are no longer pushing to expand our lives and acquire material things. We have fulfilled the human roles that have presented themselves to us. The one remaining challenge for this lifetime involves the interior life. It is during this cycle, more than any previous cycle, that you attain a sense of dominion over your personal motivations. If you have experienced successful development in previous cycles, you now experience your connection to the unity of the universe in a direct way.

Donald Trump

It seems like everything clicked for Donald Trump. After a period in military school where he learned both self-discipline and competitive spirit, he graduated from college in 1968. During his senior year he experienced a triple pass of Jupiter to semisquare his natal Jupiter. He studied at the School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania, and then moved back home to work with his father, having decided that real estate was more promising than a career in the film industry.

During the early 1990’s, as Trump approached his fourth Jupiter return, he experienced devastating financial problems. His rapid expansion into the casino business and the airline industry created a mountain of debt. Also during this time he had an affair with Marla Maples that led to his divorce from Ivana Trump. By the late 1990’s and the following Jupiter opposition, he was on the rise again. By 2001 he had completed the Trump World Tower and begun construction on Trump Place.

In October of 2004, again approaching a Jupiter conjunction , Trump faced bankruptcy. Trump stated in a May 28, 2004 Wall Street Journal article that “bankruptcy bothered him from a psychological standpoint, but added, it really wouldn’t matter that much.” Actually it meant the loss of controlling interest in his casinos and hotels, and he was forced to resign his CEO position. This occurred during the Jupiter conjunction that hit his natal Jupiter three times in January, July and August of 2005. Additional events in 2005 revisited his earlier interest in performing, including a singing appearance at the Emmy Awards, appearances on Live with Regis and Kelly and Days of Our Lives, and his marriage to Melania Knauss.

Summary

As you read through the different milestones, you have probably observed some repetitive themes. Where you find similar concepts, you can identify periods during which you are building on previous experience. Where fresh ideas arise, you find opportunities to take a different turn in your life.

Most of us won’t have the public careers of Louis Armstrong and Donald Trump. Many of us, however, can relate to the financial ups and downs they experienced, as well as the powerful fluctuations in personal relationships. Throughout the various cycles marked by the seven milestones, we develop wisdom and love. At each stage we have the possibility of expanding our lives in every way—physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. By looking ahead to each milestone, we can set goals that are consistent with the promise of that period in our lives, as seen through astrology.