On February 4th, 2025, Jupiter, planet of luck & abundance, as well as faith, philosophy & "higher learning" went Direct at 11'16° Gemini. This put an end to a four month retrograde period that began on October 9th, 2024, when the "great benefic" stationed backwards at 21'20° of the mutable, airy & mercurial twins.
I had intended to write an article, back then. The intended article would have included predictions made prior to the transit happening. However, true to the spirit of this transit, life was hectic and time quickly ran away from me.
Nevertheless, I still feel like there is value in looking back & reflecting on what actually happened during the course of this transit, rather than forget about it completely. Retrospective looks such as these help us to move forward & even, become better astrologers, as watching the ways these symbols can potentially manifest in real life can give us a better idea of what to expect in the future, next time a transit like this comes around.
More to the point, I felt (and still feel) called to write about this transit in particular because of the significance it holds for me personally. Jupiter's station Retrograde was conjunct the degree of my natal Gemini Ascendant, and the retrograde transit took place through my whole sign 1st house, during a Jupiter-ruled (30 years old =7th house=Sagittarius) annual profection year.
Jupiter Retrograde: General Meaning
A retrograde planet is one that appears to be moving backwards. All planets go retrograde at some point (save for the luminaries, which are technically not planets anyway, but in astrology, we usually label them as such). From an astrological perspective, this causes (or indicates that) the energies represented by the planet are turned backward or inward. Often, this means reflecting on the past. People, places & things, lessons, messages, situations & themes, will often return to us during these periods. If not literally speaking, they will still make their way back into our memory. Mercury Retrograde (when communication goes haywire) and even Venus in Retrograde (when our relationships are put to the test) are discussed more often, but what does it mean for Jupiter to go Retrograde?
Well, for starters, Jupiter goes Retrograde once a year, lasting for a period of about four months. Known as "the great benefic" some astrologers consider Jupiter's retrograde period to be "less negative" but this does not mean that its without its challenges.
Generally, Jupiter is believed to bring blessings to whatever part of the chart it is located in, but when Jupiter goes Retrograde, you may find out that the blessing isn't what you thought it was or perhaps, it was never really yours at all. It may feel as if God had gifted you with the most magical thing possible, only to snatch it away just like that. "Why?" you may wonder. I wonder so, myself, but perhaps, we can think of it as a test, a test to see whether we are really prepared for the gifts we are about to receive, or a test to see whether we really want it before being blessed with something better. Such an interpretation is mostly built upon my own personal experience of previous Jupiter Retrograde transits (particularly Jupiter's Retrograde through Scorpio & through Taurus, in conjunction and/or opposition to my natal Jupiter).
On a slightly simpler note, Jupiter Retrograde periods are about spiritual reflection and philosophical introspection. It's a good time for questioning (which is not necessarily the same as rejecting) your faith and figuring out what it is that you really believe, whether religiously, ideologically, intellectually, or just in terms of your most deeply-held personal values. It's also a good time to become aware of whatever is hindering your development so that you can move forward and grow.
Jupiter Retrograde in Gemini: Meaning & Symbolism
Speaking of questioning things, the curious sign of Gemini is known for questioning everything and I mean everything. Intellectual and chatty, this mutable, air sign is known for its creativity & ability to think out of the box. However, in some ways, Jupiter is less about thinking than it is simply knowing in a more intuitive sense. Basically, the faithful nature of Jupiter, a planet defined by its strongly-held convictions, isn't believed to fare well in such an analytical, hyper-conscious but equally, crazy & chaotic part of the zodiac, ruled by the more rational planet Mercury. Feelings aren't facts, but when we think too much, we become less sure, less certain, less confident, less secure...in what we know, in what we believe, in who we are and what we're told about the nature of the world we live in. While such a mindset may be closer to the truth in a more objective, factual sense, when we adopt it, we can become more scattered and less trusting, which makes it more difficult to build a foundation that will allow us to succeed & be lucky in life or to adhere to our "higher" more emotional or value-based "truths."
In other words, Jupiter (ruler of Gemini's opposite sign, Sagittarius, as well as the sign of Pisces) is already considered to at it's "detriment" when in the sign of the twins. Can its retrograde really make matters worse?
Well, Jupiter in Gemini isn't all bad. In fact, I personally love these transits (which take place every 12 years). I mean, I'm a Gemini Rising, so this is when Jupiter crosses into my natal first house, blessing me with better luck, better moods, a more positive mindset, not to mention, an overall increase in energy & creativity. However, even on the broader cultural level, I love that these times seem to make everyone as cynical & questioning as I am all the time, haha, but also, more importantly, people seem more open to new ideas. I do not mean this in a dark sense, but more that, it helps to strengthen my voice (which as a Gemini Rising, I sure do love to use) and more people seem curious & open-minded enough to actually listen to it.
The mischievous and playful twins are ruled by the planet, Mercury, the trickster god. So, basically, Jupiter in Gemini likes to stir the pot, exposing our world for what it is & our assumptions for what they are, shattering our faith wherever the facts don't align, and personally, I feel right at home in such crazy, beautiful chaos. In other words, while as an astrologer, I understand the "negative" nature of Jupiter in Gemini (i.e. the logic behind why it is in "detriment" here), I also know that all transits & placements serve their purpose, and honestly, I believe that there are many times when we need to question things, when blind faith needs to be challenged. I would even go as far as to say that people should be questioning things more!
But yes, back to the original question: how does the retrograde period of Jupiter in Gemini actually differ from Jupiter in Gemini's normal motion.... aside from making things even more crazy & chaotic (or even full-on apocalyptic)? Well, personally, I feel that, as a time centered more on reflection than action, it gives us the opportunity to reflect on & make sense of, whatever crazy, chaotic revelations or exposes were revealed to us when Jupiter first entered the sign. Sure, this transit may have challenged our previously-held beliefs and ideas, so what better time than now to develop new ones, that are more in alignment with logic & reason? This will help us to move forward, grow, adapt & survive in this crazy, chaotic but nevertheless, beautiful world.
Jupiter Retrograde in Gemini ~ Aspects & Movement by Degree: October 2024 to February 2025
So, as mentioned before, Jupiter stationed Retrograde at 21'20° of the adaptable, ever-changing air sign, on October 9th, 2024. This is the third decan of Gemini, home to the star, Bellatrix, on the left shoulder of the Orion constellation. Latin for "Female Warrior," it is also known as the "Amazon Star," (which, along with the following description, explains a lot for me, personally, but I digress). Ptolemy considered it to be of the nature of Mars and Mercury, giving the native a courageous, warrior-like nature that could simultaneously bring wealth, honor (especially in civil or military matters) and friends in high places, but also, danger of sudden dishonor (again, especially in civil or military matters) and accidents that result in blindness and/or ruin. For women, especially, Bellatrix can indicate luck, loquaciousness, and a "shrewish" nature, as well as a high-pitched or sharp voice (again, explaining a lot about me personally hahaha). I basically see this star as representative of strong women, who maintain a fighting-like spirit, even in harsh times.
Meanwhile, while beginning its journey backwards, Jupiter in Gemini made a trine to the Sun at 16'29° Libra, as well as Gemini's ruling planet Mercury at 22'38° of the Venusian sign of the scales, similar to the twins in terms of intellect but more motivated by beauty, harmony, and both aesthetic & philosophical ideals. In other words, this puts a more positive spin on the retrograde transit, increasing the potential for luck, abundance, and insight in the most unlikely & unexpected of places. Sure, as with all retrogrades, there may have been difficulties & challenges, but Jupiter in Gemini's trine to the Sun & Mercury in Libra provides us with the confidence and the smarts to weather through them. The emphasis placed on Mercury in particular may have indicated important messages, insights, synchronicities & communications that enabled our opportunities for learning, development and growth. These opportunities may have come from our ability to find meaning, even beauty & harmony, in all the crazy & chaotic challenges we were presented with.
The Libra planets were square Mars at 19'03° Cancer (which likewise, went retrograde itself later on, and now, direct) so there was some tension and a possible threat to our equilibrium, whether internally or socially. This could have taken the form of arguments, conflicts or even violence, stemming from the unraveling of our most deepest emotions and primal instincts. However, this Cancer Mars made a trine to Libra's ruling planet, Venus, at 19'41° Scorpio, which once again, may have helped us find some sense of meaning or even beauty in these challenges, pushing us to move forward and grow. In particular, these are relationship planets placed in deeply-feeling water signs, suggesting that strength may have been found in vulnerability, the kind that allows us to connect on a more intimate level with other souls and/or find solace through our personal relationships in the face of difficulty. Also, this aspect may simply suggest an emotional-relational theme may have been present throughout the Jupiter Retrograde transit overall.
The Moon, planet of emotions & instincts, ruler of the Cancer zodiac sign, but also, a symbol of the people in mundane astrology, was placed at 28'38° Sagittarius at the moment of Jupiter's station Retrograde. While wide, it actually opposed Jupiter in Gemini, suggesting an emotional discomfort present for us, the people, at a personal level, as we try to wrestle with & make sense of the crazy, chaotic revelations & insights brought by Jupiter Retrograde. Furthermore, the t-square to Neptune (also retrograde) at 28'01° Pisces may have "caused" people to stick their heads in the sand, preferring to hold on to their convictions to the point of delusion rather than adapt or change their point of view by dealing with things as they are.
Lastly, Saturn, also retrograde at the time, at 13'50° Pisces was widely trine the water planets but eventually made a square to Jupiter Retrograde in Gemini. This square was (and is, even now that the planets have since gone direct) a long-term influence of far-reaching importance. Aside from simply indicating major & extreme ups and downs, on a political or mundane level, when considering the nature of the signs they are placed in, indicates propaganda & disinformation, and even more importantly, limits, restrictions & inhibitions on the freedom of our speech, movement & thought. I will say more in the next section below, but in particular, I am reminded of the TikTok ban, but also, the threat of A.I. (i.e. deep fakes) and computer-brain interfaces such as "President Musk"(another example of a dishonest takeover)'s Neuralink project.
Jupiter Retrograde in Gemini ~ Events & Happenings: October 2024 to February 2025
So, how did Jupiter's Retrograde in Gemini actually affect the world? How did it affect us on a broader socio-cultural level?
Well, let's start by looking at what happened initially with Jupiter in Gemini Direct. So, once again, I'll mention that Jupiter left the sign of Taurus for Gemini on May 25th, 2024. During that time, the following happened:
Spain, Ireland, and Norway were amongst the nations to recognize the State of Palestine, while the United Nations called it to be among members (recognizing both Hamas and Israel as guilty of war crimes).
Donald Trump was the first American president to be found guilty of a crime during his hush money trial, while also running for a second term and surviving two assassination attempts.
U.S. President Joe Biden dropped out of the race for 2024/2025, and V.P., Kamala Harris, ran in his place.
Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, was freed from prison in a plea deal with the U.S. and left the U.K for his native home of Australia.
The ANC party failed to win the majority of the South African vote for the first time in the nation's democratic history.
The 2024 Summer Olympics were held in Paris, France amidst widespread controversy.
The Brazilian Supreme Court upheld its decision to block X, the social media formerly known as Twitter, amidst Elon Musk's and its rampant disinformation.
Israel attacked Lebanon and Syria, with pagers & walkie-talkies exploding in 2 cyberattacks, while assassinating Hezbollah leader, Ibrahim Aqil.
P. Diddy got arrested in September, after allegations of sexual abuse/trafficking etc. that was an open secret in Hollywood for a long time. Accusations against many other celebrities and associates of the rapper (most notably, including Jay-Z) follow.
These are, by no means, the only newsworthy events to occur after Jupiter entered Gemini. These are only just a few of the major ones.
Meanwhile, here are a few things that happened after Jupiter went Retrograde on October 9th:
In space-related news, the long-period comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS), made its closest approach to Earth on October 12th, while SpaceX achieved its first successful return & capture of a Super Heavy booster from Starship, and the Europa Clipper spacecraft is launched to investigate Europa, the icy moon of Jupiter
In November, Republican businessman, Donald Trump was, once again, elected President of the United States, with running mate, JD Vance.
Yahya Sinwar, leader of Hamas was killed in a gunfight by Israeli forces, while Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu announced a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
In December, martial law was declared in South Korea after their President Yoon Suk Yeol accused their Democratic Party of sympathizing with the North.
United Healthcare, CEO, Brian Thompson was killed and Luigi Mangione was arrested for murder, sparking widespread debate about the health insurance industry (as well as general classism) in the United States.
Liechenstein became the 37th country to legalize same-sex marriage while Thailand became the 38th, and the first in Southeast Asia. This is interesting considering marriage equality and LGBT rights seems to be a theme with Jupiter Gemini in transits in general, as I discuss in my previous article.
Indonesia became the 10th country to join BRICS while Bulgaria & Romania completed the process to join the European Union's Schengen Area.
L.A., California experienced the most deadly & destructive wildfire in its history, fueld by strong winds (Gemini = air sign) and prolonged drought conditions, while Storm Eowyn brought record high winds to Ireland and the U.K.
TikTok was supposed to be banned in the United States on January 19th, 2025, a day before Donald Trump's Inauguration, but supposedly the president "saved" the app and it was bought out by an American company (rumor has it: Facebook/Meta).
Donald Trump unleashed a string of controversial (and just plain destructive) executive orders and cabinet picks (most notably, transhumanist oligarch, Elon Musk and his "Doge" initiative) within days of his inauguration into the White House.
Again, these are just a few of the newsworthy events to occur and the majority events associated with this transit are by no means limited to this list. In fact, I feel like I might even be forgetting some important ones...
So, what now, that Jupiter's gone Direct? Well, since its station forwards occurred on February 4th, here are just a few of the things that have happened so far:
Russia & U.S. restore diplomatic relations, while Ukraine considers potential peace talks with Russia.
Israel P.M. Netanyahu met U.S. President Trump during the 2nd phase of negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza...but with Trump announcing a plan to seek "long-term ownership" of Gaza.
An increase in plane crashes and airline problems is reported particularly in the U.S.
USAID is shut down, as a result of Elon Musk's DOGE initiative, while thousands of IRS employees are similarly laid off.
Israel withdrew from UN's Human Rights Council while Argentina withdrew from the World Health Organization (WHO).
South Korea calls for a renewed dialogue with North Korea.
Hamas released 3 Israeli hostages in exchange for the release of 369 Palestinian prisoners, the vast majority without any charges or convictions.
White South Africans claimed discrimination at the hands of their government.
Trump announced his potential plans for Stargate, which I understand to be an A.I surveillance network of some sort?
Facebook/Meta apparently has developed the technology to read our minds, which feels a little invasive.
It has been reported that China has developed a computer-brain interface chip, prior to the development of the "invention" Elon Musk has been killing monkeys with. '
Once again, this list is by no means comprehensive and there are many more major news events to come out over the last month or so, but I can only name a few.
Despite the title of this article, most of these events are pretty damn ugly, quite far from "beautiful." What's beautiful isn't what's happening itself. What's beautiful is seeing our response to it. What's belief is seeing the truth come out. What's beautiful is seeing a widespread population of people throughout the globe unwilling to tolerate anymore of this ugliness. This wouldn't be the case, if we continued to pretend that it didn't exist.
Jupiter Direct in Gemini
Now that Jupiter has gone Direct, as of February 4th 2025, hopefully we have been able to make sense of the world's chaos and come to terms about what we believe, finding enough hope, meaning & optimism to move forward and find solutions to the problems affecting us during these crazy times.
Jupiter's station Direct took place at 11'16° Gemini, the second decan of the sign, where it was conjunct the star Aldeberan. Aldebaran is located in the left eye of Taurus, the bull constellation (which is different than the sign) and according to Ptolemy, it is of the nature of Mars. The name is Arabic for "the follower" because it is perceived to follow the Pleiades cluster. It is associated with intelligence, integrity, eloquence, courage, honor, and popularity, although these benefits might only be experienced in the short-term. The star is also often associated with the Archangel Michael, the military commander of the Heavenly Host and protector of Divine Justice.
Similar to its station backwards, Jupiter once again made a trine to the Sun and Mercury during its move back forwards, this time at 15'49 & 12'07 Aquarius, another idealistic air sign but more specifically, one concerned with humanitarianism, innovation and progress. This aspect, once again, blesses us with the intelligence, confidence, insight and courage necessary to learn from whatever challenges we may have faced during the retrograde. In particular, it suggests that whatever insights we gained during the reflections we had during Jupiter's retrograde period, may have inspired & encouraged us by providing us with creative & inventive ideas and/or solutions to problems that we can now put into use.
Interestingly, Mars Retrograde in Cancer has returned to the same degree it was placed in at the start of Jupiter's journey Retrograde:19'31° of the crab. This suggests a repetition of similar challenges, a return to old conflicts, but complete with a new mindset in facing them. This time, Mars is trine Saturn at 17'47° of the Jupiter-ruled sign, Pisces, where the "great malefic" or planet of organization, government & societal structure is joined by a conjunction between Neptune & the North Node at 28°, a very spiritual and even psychic influence.
Meanwhile, the Moon is 3'36° of Taurus, the sign where it is exalted, suggesting a stronger sense of emotional stability and the security to move forward & withstand the winds of change that a Jupiter in Gemini transit will inevitably bring. The square to Pluto at 2'09° Aquarius might, of course, indicate a "purge" of some sort, maybe even destruction or revolution, but its purpose would be to help us heal from any old wounds caused by an imbalance of power or unhealthy competition. In any case, Pluto's sextile to Taurus's ruling planet Venus at 00'03° Aries balances out the destruction & pain of rebirth by enabling a sense of beauty & harmony, however fiery.
Conclusion
Of course, all transits, including Jupiter Retrograde in Gemini, are experienced differently by everyone. These differences depend on the specifics of the individual natal chart. In general, those with planets, luminaries and/or angles between 10 & 22 degrees of the mutable signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces) were likely to have experienced the strongest effects from this particular transit. That said, to learn more, or make sense of how this transit affected you personally, you can request to book a reading with me here. Please let me know what you think in the comments!
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