02 February, 2015

Your Spiritual Connection Centers: Feast and Famine: Jupiter and Saturn

  • Jupiter (Feast)
    • Rulership: Growth; kidneys; liver; assimilation of fats; elimination of toxins
    • Native house: 9th House
      • Rise: Cancer
      • Rest: Sagittarius
      • Detriment: Gemini
      • Fall: Capricorn
  • Saturn (Famine)
    • Rulership: Skeletal structure; strength of bones and teeth; calcium; minerals; deposits; knees
    • Native house: 10th House
      • Rise: Libra
      • Rest: Capricorn
      • Detriment: Cancer
      • Fall: Aries
The planet Jupiter was named for the chief god of the Romans, Jove, and it is from him we get the word jovial: if you’re looking for a perfect one-word description of Jupiter, jovial is it. Jupiter can also be called by his Greek name: Zeus. Jupiter is the king of the planets and has some unique qualities to give him that name. Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System: he’s larger than all of the other planets combined. Jupiter is a gas giant whose core is formed of rock and iron but body from the lighter gasses helium and hydrogen. Jupiter is 1/4th the density of Earth, and if a swimming pool large enough could be found, he would float. Because of Jupiter’s iron core, it has an incredible magnetic pull. Although the ancients named Jupiter the king of the planets and described him as a defender or protector, they couldn’t have known that his magnetic core has for centuries pulled large meteors and other space debris away from a deadly collision with Earth. Jupiter is unique in that he produces more heat within his core than he receives and also emits more radio static than the Sun.

When you think of Jupiter, think big. Jupiter operates on a holistic level and governs all manner of expansion, growth, and increase. It is appropriate that Jupiter was the first ruler of Pisces, the sign called the Fish, because Pisces is now associated with the Christian church which shares a long history with the cult of Jupiter. Jupiter teaches benevolence, charity, kindness, goodwill, and using one’s skills, knowledge, and abilities to help others. Jupiter also teaches generosity: he spends 12 years orbiting the Sun and is equally generous to all twelve signs of the Zodiac and bestows his gifts to all in turn. When Jupiter’s having a bad day, he can be boundless (a trait also shared by Pisces.) His principle of expansion turns into a cancer and he simply consumes everything in his reach. Jupiter’s previous goodwill toward man turns into assumption: he knows best for you so he’ll do what’s best for you (whether or not you agree.) He imposes on others and doesn’t ask if they want or need his help. 

Jupiter is the ruler of Sagittarius, the sign of mutable Fire, and the secondary ruler of Pisces, the sign of mutable Water. Jupiter is at home in the 9th House of religion, philosophy, higher education, and travel. The glyph of Jupiter shows a crescent of Spirit rising from and above a material cross. It is known as the crescent-above-the-cross to indicate expansion of both matter and Spirit. As wonderful and terrible as Jupiter can be, restraint is an absolute necessity, and that’s what Saturn brings to the picture. Jupiter governs growth, expansion, and all forms of increase, and Saturn governs limitations, restrictions, reduction, boundaries of reality, discipline, societal demands, and learning to live with less. Together, Jupiter and Saturn form the give and take, yang and yin, plus and minus, and the up and down of the Solar System. Like the Sun and the Moon (the Greater and Lesser Luminaries), Jupiter and Saturn form a pair greater than the sum of their parts.

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and is named for Cronus, the mythological father of Jupiter. The father-son relationship between Saturn and Jupiter is rather conflicted. In Roman mythology, Cronus – one of the titans who ruled before the birth of the gods – was afraid of losing his grasp on power. His wife Rhea bore him many children, among them Hades, Poseidon, Demeter, Hestia, and Zeus. Cronus feared a prophecy which said that one among his children would steal his throne, so he decided to consume his children as soon as they were born. Because the children of Cronus and Rhea were immortal, they did not die but continued to live inside their father. Rhea hid Zeus and fed Cronus a rock wrapped in rags which he ate without consideration. When Zeus grew to maturity, he returned as an adult to overthrow his father. After Zeus poisoned his father’s wine, Cronus vomited out his previous four children and in the battle which followed he was cast down and Zeus took his throne. The irony in this is that Cronus overthrew and castrated his own father, Uranus. What do you suppose this myth teaches about the sins of the father and what children learn from their parents?

Saturn is the counter-balance to Jupiter’s expansion, growth, and increase. Saturn teaches the importance of hard work, diligence, and the value of not taking shortcuts. Saturn is a taskmaster whose job is to make demands which teach the value of discipline. Saturn teaches patience through limitations and restrictions: if ever any one thing embodied the principle of delayed gratification, Saturn would be it.

For example, the ancient Romans observed a harvest festival at the end of December called Saturnalia. This festival celebrated the hard work of planting, nurturing, harvesting, and storing the crops through the growing season. It was a time of great merriment and celebration after a season of hard labor and every person from the highest nobility to the lowest farmhand ate, drank, and enjoyed other pleasures (it was a Roman festival – use your imagination.)

Saturn also teaches the importance of practicality and living within the boundaries of reality. Mars teaches us to act and take advantage of surprise and initiative, but Saturn is the doubtful voice in the corner which says never to gamble and to do instead what may be more difficult but more certain. When Mars says “Just do it,” he means to simply get out there and see what happens; nothing risked, nothing gained, right? But when Saturn says “Just do it,” he means for you to tighten your belt and do your work properly so you can enjoy the fruits of your labors. Saturn governs Capricorn, the sign of cardinal Earth, and is at home in the 10th House of career, status, reputation, and the strict, demanding parent (usually the father.) Saturn was also the original ruler of Aquarius, the sign of fixed Air. 

An interesting note is that Saturn spends about 29.5 years to orbit the Sun. Because of Saturn’s unique role in astrology, when an individual experiences a Saturn return (Saturn returns to its location at the time of that person’s birth), he is said to have reached the age of maturity. Thus, in astrology, adulthood is not age 21, but age 29. Most people are fortunate enough to have two Saturn returns in their lives, but some are lucky enough to have three. It’s no accident that age 60 is considered the age of retirement!

Jupiter, the benevolent planet of growth and expansion, is starkly contrasted by Saturn, the stern planet of limitations, discipline, and determination. Jupiter, the largest planet in our Solar System rules the liver, the largest exocrine gland in the body, as well as all growth and expansion, the assimilation of fats, and the elimination of toxins from the body. Jupiter’s rulership of the elimination of toxins from the bloodstream may seem unusual, but a review of history will show us why: before the discovery of Neptune, rulership of Pisces fell to Jupiter.

Jupiter’s broad and arguably vague rulership over growth and expansion can be difficult to understand, but becomes clearer with an application of the Hermetic Law of Polarity. Water and Fire oppose one another, but are in truth joined as opposites at far ends of the same spectrum. Jupiter’s broad, expansive, and adaptable Fire exists at the opposite end of the same spectrum which includes Pluto’s rulership of the endocrine system and the pituitary glands. Jupiter assimilates fats, and his boon influence promotes positive development.

Astronomers say that Jupiter’s tremendous magnetic pull attracts the majority of Earth-bound meteors, and if not for its presence the potential for deadly impacts would be much greater. Jupiter’s role in the Solar System is reflected in the human body: the kidneys and the liver filter and eliminate toxins and other dangers from the bloodstream. The liver is the largest gland in the body: it rests beneath the diaphragm, behind the 8th through 10th ribs on the right side of the abdomen, and is both suspended and protected by a tough fibrous sleeve.

Despite its large and imposing size, the liver is actually four connected lobes. The left lobe is the smaller of the four and is about 1/6th of the total mass. The larger right lobe is divided as the superior caudate, inferior quadrate, and the larger right lobe proper. The liver’s chief functions are the detoxification of harmful substances in the bloodstream, excretion of bile, and the completion of metabolic processes. The small intestine, ruled by Virgo, absorbs harmful substances and then passes them into the bloodstream from where they are directed to the liver. Toxins and impurities nullified in the liver are combined with salt, Water, sodium, bilirubin, mucus, and cholesterol to form bile. Bile is excreted by the liver through the hepatic ducts and stored in the gall bladder, an exocrine gland who we’ll meet under Virgo and the Balance of Earth. Even though Virgo’s gall bladder is responsible for passing bile into the small intestines, Jupiter retains rulership of the bile itself. This is because bile mixes with and lubricates partially digested food in the intestines to break down fats.

Jupiter’s ability to clean the body of toxins and purify the blood is not limited to the liver and the gall bladder – it also extends to the kidneys. The kidneys are ovalshaped organs located at the lowest of the thoracic vertebrae and extend to about the 3rd lumbar vertebrae. The average adult kidney is four inches long, three inches wide, and only an inch thick. The kidneys are behind other organs in the abdominal cavity, with the right kidney slightly lower than the left because the comparatively massive liver displaces it. To give you an idea how much the kidneys do, consider that 20% of all blood pumped by the heart is fed into the kidneys for processing.

It’s fortunate that the body comes with two kidneys, because it can’t function with less than one: the kidneys dynamically adjust the Water in the blood and also filter excess content such as chloride, potassium, sodium, and nitrogen. Content filtered from the blood includes of course uric acid, a waste product of protein metabolism. The kidneys aren’t a mechanical balance which automatically responds to extreme variances: through a complex process of filtration and examination, the kidneys adjust the chemical balance of the blood stream in real time and in response to a variety of stimuli to maintain homeostasis. If not for the kidneys’ dynamic filtration and adjustment of blood, homeostatic balance of the body would fail and death would quickly follow.

Saturn, Jupiter’s sanguine neighbor, has an equally broad and important influence on the body: he rules the skeleton, all bones, the strength of bones and teeth, calcium, and all minerals and deposits. At first glance, Jupiter and Saturn may appear to oppose each other, but it just isn’t so: both promote growth and progress. The difference between the two is revealed in the planets’ astrological roots: Jupiter, the benevolent ruler of the heavens; and Saturn, the stern disciplinarian of time. Jupiter is the quantity, and Saturn is the quality. Saturn is significant in that it is the last of the inner planets and is the segue to the outer planets Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.

Saturn principally resides in the sacrum, the bony foundation which anchors the spine and enables us to walk on two legs. The sacrum, like all bones, is a dynamic, living, growing tissue which depends on the arterial, venous, and lymphatic systems to cycle blood, deliver nutrients, and remove waste. As the body develops and the skeleton matures, so does the sacrum: in children it is five separate vertebrae, but with time these vertebrae fuse together and reach their full maturity usually no later than the 27th or 28th birthday.

The skeletons of men and women are not the same. Generally, men’s bones are thicker, heavier, broader, and more pronounced than women’s. Women have greater flexibility through the sacral vertebrae and for obvious reasons are also wider through the hips. The external visible surface of bones is named compact bone: two thirds of compact bone is formed from salts and minerals, one third from collagen. Compact bone encases cancellous bone tissue which is soft, spongy, and looks like many criss-crossed, overlapping beams. By mass, bones are eighty percent compact bone, and twenty percent cancellous bone. Besides the obvious functions of the skeletal system – shielding internal organs such as the lungs and giving the muscles a frame to pull against – it also acts as a vital reserve of minerals and provides a gestation area for new blood cells. Cancellous bone’s spongy, porous network forms the support structure for red bone marrow, the greatest concentrations of which exist in the ends of long bones, plates of the skull, ribs, pelvis, and sternum. Red bone marrow is important because it contains hematopoietic stem cells, the means by which the body forms new red blood cells. 

For reference purposes, the skeleton is divided into two categories: the axial skeleton, and the appendicular skeleton. The axial skeleton is the “axis” or “axel” from which the appendicular (appendage) skeleton extends. The axial skeleton includes the skull, jaw, entire spinal column, ribs, sternum, sacrum, and coccyx. The skull is several bones: the frontal bone (forehead); parietal bones on either side; occipital bone; nasal bone; zygomatic bones (cheekbones); maxilla (upper jaw); and mandible (lower jaw.)

The spine is formed of many stacked bones named vertebrae. The hard vertebrae form a protective tunnel for the spinal cord and are named as four groups according to size, shape, and relative location. They are the cervical, thoracic, lumbar, and sacral vertebrae. The seven cervical vertebrae extend from the base of the skull to the shoulders; the 12 thoracic vertebrae from the shoulders to the lower back; and the five lumbar vertebrae from the lower back to the sacrum. The sacral vertebrae, since they fuse together with age, are not strictly counted. The division of the vertebrae is not arbitrary – it is a distinct division made by structural differences and nervous pathways. Spinal nerves extend from the spinal column to every part of the body through the peripheral nervous system.

Each group of vertebrae are nervously linked to broad areas of muscle and skin respectively called myotomes and dermatomes. Dermatomes are broad areas of skin innervated by a particular spinal nerve which stems from a specific location in the vertebrae, and myotomes are broad areas of muscle likewise innervated by a particular spinal nerve from a specific location in the vertebrae. Myotomes are more specific and accurate about which nerves are connected to which muscles, but dermatomes overlap considerably; despite this, dermatomes are an accurate, consistent roadmarker to measure dis-ease.

The spine, though it is bone and primarily ruled by Saturn, has the distinction of being ruled secondarily by each of the four fixed signs of the Zodiac: cervical vertebrae by Taurus, thoracic vertebrae by Leo, lumbar vertebrae by Scorpio, and sacral vertebrae by Aquarius. If the Aquarian rulership of the sacral vertebrae seems unusual to you, it shouldn’t: before discovery of the outer planet Uranus, Aquarius belonged to Saturn. As with the previous chapters’ emphatic illustrations of the Hermetic Laws of Polarity and Gender, the union of masculine Air and feminine Earth in the sacrum is one more example that all opposites are connected and that the Spiritual division between the masculine and the feminine is artificial. Because it will be more relevant, dermatomes and myotomes will be reviewed by element under the respective Balances of Air, Fire, Water, and Earth.

The sternum is the long, narrow bone which extends from the clavicle notch to the solar plexus. It is formed from three pieces, and in descending order they are the manubrium, body, and xiphoid process. The manubrium is less than half the size of the body, and the xiphoid process a much smaller tip pointing down from the body and resembles a spear tip or a dagger. The sternum is the solid anchor for the ribs which extend from the vertebrae of the spine and wrap around to join the sternum in the front.

10 of the 12 ribs anchor directly or indirectly to the sternum by way of coastal cartilage, a connecting bridge which adds stability and structure. The first through seventh pairs of ribs are named “true ribs” because the coastal cartilage which connects to the sternum does not connect to the coastal cartilage of the rib above it. The eighth through twelfth ribs are named the “false ribs” because of how they do or don’t connect to the sternum. The eighth through tenth ribs’ coastal cartilage does not anchor to the sternum, but instead joins to the coastal cartilage of the ribs above them. The eleventh and twelfth pairs of ribs are additionally named the “floating ribs” because they have no coastal cartilage and connect neither to the sternum nor to other ribs.

The appendicular skeleton includes the bones of the feet and legs, pelvis, the bones of the hands and arms, the shoulder blades, and the clavicle. The principal bones of the shoulders include the clavicle and shoulder blades. The upper arm is built around the humerous; and the forearm around the ulna and radius, two separate bones which permit greater articulation of the forearm and wrist. The hand is formed from the wrist’s carpals, the palm’s metacarpals, and the phalanges of the fingers. The arms and hands will be covered in greater detail under Gemini and the Balance of Air. 

Not counting the sacrum, the pelvis is principally formed from the ilium, ischium, and pubic bone. The ilium is the large wing whose hard edge can be felt through the skin and which in women is so often admired by men. The ischium and the pubic bone form a passage way for nerves, veins, arteries, and lymphatics; they also provide an anchor for the muscles of the hips and thighs. The upper leg is formed around the massive femur bone, and the lower leg (like the forearm) benefits from two bones – the tibia and fibula – for greater articulation and balance. The foot is divided into the tarsals of the ankle, the metatarsals of the foot, and the phalanges of the toes. The legs and feet will be covered in greater detail under Pisces and the Balance of Water.

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