Jupiter

King of the Gods-rules Sagittarius

The jump from Mars to Jupiter takes us into a whole new realm--astronomically into the domain of the gas giants, astrologically into the larger social, cultural milieu. Jupiter is the King of the Gods from pure size, at least, with an equatorial diameter of almost 89,000 miles. Big as it is, it rotates like a speed-demon in a10-hour day, making the middle of the planet bulge out with the rapid centrifugal motion. A wild world, Jupiter signifies expansion, growth, BIGness. It is more massive than all the other planets, moons, asteroids and known comets combined, PLUS. Its magnetosphere expands way out beyond the planet itself, suggesting it was once a wanna-be Sun. It takes almost 12 years to orbit the Sun, transiting one year per zodiac sign. It has a tenuous ring system and over 20 moons. The largest, Ganymede, is bigger than Mercury. Io has more intense volcanic activity than Earth, and Europa may have water. We are not soon to forget the spectacle of the string of fragments from comet Shoemaker-Levy dive-bombing into this huge world. Jupiter represents what we enjoy, where we grow and expand our personal horizons into the a greater social context. It is what we believe about life, where we find meaning.

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