Holly Jolly Jupiter

In the US, the holiday season traditionally coincides with the sun's transit through the Jupiter-ruled sign of Sagittarius, give or take a few days. That is, it lasts from around Thanksgiving to around Christmas. This year, it seems to have stretched a little further, starting earlier than ever. The holiday creep has been taking place for years, and I'm only just now getting around to noticing it. At first I was grateful, thinking it was getting longer to give old folks like me who don't do things as quickly as they used to more time to get those holiday tasks accomplished. But then I found out it was just cuz retailers are more nervous than ever about consumer spending. At any rate, here's my very informal musings on the astrology of the holly jolly Jupiter season.

First, the general symbolism of Sagittarius and the holiday season are quite in synch. Sagittarius is generous, expansive, cheerful, social, blunt, and religious. The generosity, sociability and general emphasis on cheer of the season are pretty easy to spot. The religious tone of the season is obvious too, although perhaps it used to be more obvious before the season got quite so commercialized as it is. Sagittarius, as it happens, also deals with commerce and foreign trade, and I suppose the toy factories of China can testify to that aspect of the season.

Sagittarius is notoriously tactless as well, and I somehow relate this to the upwelling of family tensions that always seems to occur during this season. People who normally do their best to keep the peace somehow or another find themselves blurting things out during the stress of the season, and the secrecy-averse Sagittarian influences encourage people to speak their minds, however briefly, on the spur of the moment. Strange and hectic moments of conflict often occur as families jostle around dealing with the often upsetting aspects of sudden candor.

Sagittarius and Jupiter are also symbols of excess, and Thanksgiving and the various winter holidays are our prime cultural celebrations of excess. A little excessive tippling at the office party, and you'll find plenty of unexpected candor among your work-mates, too. I can testify to the Sagittarian effects in force at office parties, and I've participated in a number of jolly good bouts of excessive cheer, candor, and generosity during the holiday season throughout my life. Ah, the memories!

This year, we have most of the usual suspects in Sagittarius during the holiday season and a couple of bonus guests as well. The sun is in Sag, of course, and Mercury will zip through the sign, although he'll leave before Christmas itself. Hanukkah celebrations, however, will have the benefit of Mercury's cheery outlook for the duration of the festival.

Venus, however, is sticking stubbornly to the sign of Scorpio, and won't give in to the partying atmosphere until New Year's Eve. Silly prediction: a lot of people will actually be getting their gifts in January, perhaps thanks to the current mania for gift cards. If the malls are lucky, hordes of happy-go-lucky shoppers will descend on their establishments during the Venus transit of Sagittarius, being plenty generous with themselves and ringing up a few more purchases than the gift cards actually pay for.

Meanwhile, our bonus guests this season come courtesy of holly jolly Jupiter himself, as well as our old friend Pluto in Sag. Jupiter and Pluto are planning on having a blow-out in the middle of the month (December 11), joining for rare conjunction before Jupiter kisses the entire sign of Sagittarius good-bye for a dozen years. What this means for holiday shopping, I don't know, or even for the holiday season itself. I have secret hopes for major good doings on a global scale, but I've been disappointed in my hopes for peace on earth and goodwill toward mankind before, so I won't divulge what I'm praying for this time, other than peace on earth and goodwill toward mankind. I will be praying, though, and I invite you to join me.  Couldn't hurt. Might help.  

After the momentous conjunction, which I take as being as much of a symbol of an ending as it is of a beginning, Jupiter will enter the sober sign of Capricorn on December 18. Get your drinking and shopping done early! Although it probably won't be obvious immediately, an era is ending. I've spoken before, and I'll undoubtedly end up gabbing again, about the shift from excessive, expansive, visionary Sagittarius energy to constricted, conservative Capricorn energy.

The holiday season has been oozing out from beyond its traditional confines for almost the length of the time Pluto's been in Sagittarius, but although it probably can't be stuffed into an oranges-or-coal little box of stinginess and judgment, it's probably not going to enjoy the free reign it once did, either. The times they are a-changing. Christmas trees are going green, and responsible gift-giving will eventually worm its way into our consciousness. Electronics and grown-up toys like energy-guzzling TVs the size of Montana won't go away entirely, but sooner or later all of us are going to figure out that we can't count on consumer excess to cheer us into a sustainable future. On purpose or unwillingly, the Capricorn era is going to nudge us all into growing up a bit and facing the reality of our national and collective situations.

Fortunately, Jupiter will cheerfully lead the way, easing us into the earth-centered focus in the holliest and jolliest way possible.  Think practical if you'll be buying gifts after December 18, and maybe the recipients of your thoughtful attention to their tangible needs will love you all the more for it. Or maybe not. Maybe this is the year to indulge in one last major major blow-out frenzy of investment in iPods and iPhones, computers and the latest in Wii entertainment, and in virtually every other visionary device that sucks power from the grid and makes our lives more excessive, social, cheerful, tactless, irresponsible, and fun.

We can always pay the bill later, when Pluto gets really serious about Capricorn in 2009. Right?