My Good Friend in the Heavens

On Monday, New Year’s Day, I read my horoscope in the Chicago Sun-Times. And though I’m not given much to astrology, it was the first day of 2018, which means the prediction blather was in full tilt in both print and online media.

So why not take a look, I figured, at how the planets might align for Scorpios in the new year? Here’s what it said: “This is the beginning of a very lucky year for you because lucky Jupiter is in your sign. The next time this happens will be 2030. Enjoy your good fortune!”

Now, I’ve no idea why Jupiter is lucky, or what it means for it to be in my sign, but I quite liked the idea that it was. I know that luck plays some role in how things go in our lives, maybe even a significant one, so I’m willing to let it arrive in whatever form it takes, even, per NASA, as “the largest planet in the solar system….so large that all of the other planets in the solar system could fit inside it. More than 1,300 Earths would fit inside Jupiter.”

OK, that’s a good start: like Walt Whitman, Jupiter contains multitudes, which is kinda, sorta how my own mind works.

Next, I had to investigate how all that we know scientifically about Jupiter translated astrologically. A simple google search brought this from astrology.com:

“Luck and good fortune are associated with Jupiter for good reason. This is a kind and benevolent planet, one that wants us to grow and flourish in a positive way. Jupiter may be judge and jury, but it's mostly an honorable helpmate, seeing to it that we're on the right path. While our success, accomplishments and prosperity are all within Jupiter's realm, this largesse can, at times, deteriorate into laziness and sloth (Jupiter, at its worst, is associated with weight gain!). More often than not, however, Jupiter will guide us down the primrose path.”

OK, not so crazy about the laziness and sloth and weight gain part, but then it turns out that leisure, as distinguished from laziness, is “also one of Jupiter's pastimes. Sports of all kinds, games of chance and a stroll in the park with the family pet (Jupiter loves animals) –- these are all ruled by this planet. Finally, Jupiter often presages great wealth, material and otherwise. This is a good friend in the heavens!”

So given all of that, and my penchant for journal keeping, this next year I plan to record how and when good luck and fortune show up in my life. Which I guess I may already be doing, though I call it a gratitude journal.

And maybe in the end that’s what having a “good friend in the heavens” really means: some one or thing that helps us focus on our life’s great wealth—in whatever form it takes—and of how grateful we are for it.