Jupiter's Last Stand

January 12, 2023 Anak Rabanal

At Least for Me — for Now

In the Jyotish system, one way to parse out the eras of one’s life is using the Vimshottari Dasha system. Without turning this into a post about what that is and how it’s calculated, the fastest explanation is that it’s an incredibly elegant system that describes:

the ROLE we are asked to play in our life during this era in order to burn through the karmas we carry in relation to how we played this role in previous incarnations;
the PEOPLE with whom we will interact during this era as well as their motivations and modus operandi; and
the EVENTS & CIRCUMSTANCES in which we will encounter these people and play out this drama

It gives insight into so much more than that — beyond just being a predictive tool. (Not to be shilling, but if you want to see your chart via this lens, please consider booking a Jyotish based session.)

As of this writing, I have 4 days left in my Jupiter Mahadasha.

Jupiter Mahadasha Trauma

It has been a LONG HAUL 16 years with the “Greater Benefic” at the helm — considering that Jupiter is also an extremely strong functional malefic in my chart.

All y’all. I’m the FIRST person to admit that I am a dumb ass tropical Leo. My poor ancestors and guides are tasked with sending billboards. Otherwise, the message will go over my head, or there will be extreme agony over whether something is a message and what it means. Given that, it took until the VERY last period of this mahadasha for me to understand what Jupiter has been asking of me for 16 years.

Better late than never? Oops!

My natural Venusian programming wants to be a channel for beauty, art, luxury, sensuality, generating value, relationships and connections, fairness, the experience of the spiritual through embodiment. However, Jupiter’s ask is alien to that Venusian mindset. It’s like asking Marilyn Monroe to play the part of a Buddhist nun — complete with shaved head and begging bowl — and no running water or indoor plumbing in sight.

Learning how to embody Jupiter has required learning how to be a conduit for wisdom — which first means becoming “wise”. <insert incredulous laughing> How does one become a home for wisdom? It requires going beyond the acquisition of knowledge and traversing the unknown (and often harrowing land) of experience — and getting comfortable with being a traveler.

A traveler doesn’t know when or if they’ll be able to go back home. They are perpetually a foreigner in a foreign land, fitting their mouths around foreign languages and food, inhabiting life through the practice of learning how to function in unfamiliar cultural contexts. They learn who they are by understanding how plastic their point of view is and how capable of humility they are. How many of us have gotten lost in a foreign city — hell, a city in a different county — and wander around and around and around until the only choice is to admit we’re lost, pluck up our courage, and ask a stranger for help? Being a traveler necessitates transformation — and it’s through that liminality of transformation that wisdom slips in.

By contrast, a tourist knows when they’re going back home for the most part — it says it right there on their itinerary. They can visit a foreign place for a limited amount of time and be contented with voyeurism. Transformation isn’t impossible by such an experience; but there remains the remove of me and them — a separateness that allows for one’s identity to be protected and thus remain intact. Sure you pick up a few words here and there to be able to get by — especially to find the bathroom (a must) or your way back to your hotel; but most of the time you’re insulated by following the beaten path — getting the cultural highlights. Being a tourist increases your “knowledge” base.

People. Let me tell you. It was traumatic. It might sound dramatic, but there I was a planetary refugee. All I kept wanting to do was get back to being Venusian — have a steady income, nice things, yummy meals, make films, and (ironically) travel. BUT NO.

You know what Jupiter wanted? Jupiter (especially since mine is natally in Aries regardless of zodiac — welcome to my world for the next year) wanted to “rough it”. (Let me tell you — I grew up with heavily Sag influenced people. My childhood summers were spent in nature camping, fending off bugs, learning how to fish and hunt, and poop in holes in the ground. My karma with this “roughing it” was supposed to be done.) No stability, no nice things, no predictability. Jupiter’s plan? Bitch, we’re gonna wing this motherfucker for 16 YEARS!

Jupiter wants you to learn faith and pray and realize that you are subject to forces greater and stronger than your will and desires. For some people, Jupiter does this by bringing prosperity (which isn’t always money, my darlings) which is simply the realization that someone out there is looking out for you and doing their best to make your life good so that you have the space and time to pray, meditate, and take action to open yourself up to the perception of the Self. When Jupiter’s operating in this mode, it gives Saturn the all clear to let you cash in those previous and present life good karma vouchers.

However, when Jupiter is a functional malefic, it uses other means to teach these lessons.

In my case, my syllabus consisted of learning how to: be self reliant in the context of cooperative partnership, recognize the fear and take the leap, be humble and learn how to ask for help (everyone eventually needs it at some point), and — you guessed it: become fully immersed in astrology and how it is a language that elegantly wraps itself around explaining the human condition in the Universe.

Resistance WAS Futile

Oh but how I resisted.

I kept looking for love in all the wrong places (OMG the stories) and for completion from all the wrong partners — both personal and business.

There isn’t anything WRONG with my partners. They are all wonderful people who had very hard lessons to teach me about “partnership”, trust (yes, you do have to ask those hard questions to enable the intimacy and vulnerability that allow for sharing resources to build something greater than the sum of its parts), interdependence, accountability, and guess what else? Being a trauma doula — I mean, hell, what was all that trauma from Rahu Mahadasha going to be good for anyway? (Silly me thinking it would make great material for my films.)

For a great part of my Jupiter Mahadasha, my resentment was all engulfing regarding this last demand. It seemed like the only way I could access the resources I needed to do xyz project was by having to transmute my partner’s current trauma narrative that completely mirrored my own past — but without their acknowledgment (even once) that I might be triggered — that it might take me back to some state of mind that cognitive behavioral therapy had taken years to program me away from.

But, you know what? THAT was THE WORK — the karma.

NOT making a film happen or a company or whatever other entrepreneurial scheme to help “save the world”…because a lot of those failed. (OKAY. FINE. Saturn did come through during the last phase of my sadesati and let me direct 4 shorts and go to Cannes twice. Thanks, Saturn! PREVIEW of Saturn Mahadasha maybe?)

The work was realizing that one’s experiences can be for the collective good — not only through a mass medium like film or a climate change/social justice capital platform — but through the boots on the ground holding of space, of being the one standing there as a ballast as someone shores up their guts to open a door and cross a foreign threshold, of SEEING and reflecting another person with compassion and respecting their dignity.

Thankfully, Jupiter didn’t give up on my dumb ass. LOL.

But, man, it was a struggle — for both of us.

Jupiter’s Last Stand

The understanding and use of astrology as a tool for navigating the journey of life towards self/Self acceptance and integration was one of the greatest gifts that my Jupiter Mahadasha charged me with sharing with as many as possible and who would resonate with the way it’s channeled through my instrument. (Whether I’ve become wiser is still up for review, but, giving myself over as a conduit for the sages that have preceded me, that I’m fully stepping into.)

In this final Rahu Antardasha, both my jyotishi (whose podcast Vedic Mythology, Myths, and Mantras is an absolute must) and a jyotisha/teacher, Gina Lyhane of Astrology Loka, who I came across as I was trying to make sense of the reading I recently received, blew my mind open and finally allowed me to piece it all together and pushing me to be brave about being of service.

As part of my final hurrah to my Jupiter Mahadasha, I’ve crafted an offering that getting called Jupiter’s Last Stand.

Because times are challenging — especially materially — for many of us, this is one way for me to be able to fulfill my duties to Jupiter (and do some Jupiter penance for the copious Jupiter slander I slung in the last 16 years) and be of service in a way that also maintains a balanced exchange of energy. Jupiter’s Last Stand makes available a curated selection of my readings at a sliding scale until December 31, 2023.

Since I am still only one person, this offer will be limited to 18 spots.

The readings that are included are listed below with descriptions on the Scheduling Page:

CHECK IT OUT

And with that, I leave you with this link to a mantra that got me through a lot of the most hopeless seeming and dire times when it seemed that all was lost and that my existence was negligible. (Who knew? It was just some of the ego death necessary for me to be a more pallatable being. LOL.)

May it help you navigate Jupiter’s transit through tropical Aries and the rest of sidereal Pisces.

If this newsletter in any way feels like it’s been of service, please consider making a donation that will enable me to keep writing this content here.

Books are Open!

January books are open!

Lots of light,
Anak.

P.S.

Watch out for an announcement of my updated menu of offerings as well as an ALL NEW type of Relationship Analysis reading done in conjunction with Mo Olufemi of Austral Taur that utilizes the work that we’ve been doing with the Davison Chart. (Hint: You get two astrologers at once!) Stay tuned! More Jupiter Mahadasha and transition in Saturn Antardasha goodies on the way.

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