Jupiter Retrograde ♃ 2022

July 28 – Oct 28: Jupiter Retrograde in Aries

Oct 28 – Nov 23: Jupiter Retrograde in Pisces

Nov 23 – Dec 20: Jupiter in Pisces

Dec 20: Jupiter returns to Aries

Planets in retrograde are not moving backwards – it is an optical illusion as seen from Earth. Click here to learn more about retrograde motion.

Jupiter turns retrograde for 4 months each year. This year Jupiter Retrograde will fall in two constellations. The retrograde first begins in Aries, then all the way back to Pisces. Jupiter first entered Aries in May.

Jupiter Retrograde is when we go back and revisit all the lessons and other shit we hoped we’d get to skip. This is a journey of personal, inward growth. Normally Jupiter operates on a large scale, guiding the arc of shared human destiny. During the retrograde, we reach instead for the highest version of ourselves.

Let’s start by talking about Jupiter Retrograde in Aries, where most of the retrograde takes place. So far Jupiter in Aries has proven to be just as reckless and revolutionary as promised. So much tumult and upheaval comes with this fiery, primordial energy. Emotions are up for review, especially rage and the way we express it.

In essence this retrograde will help us determine how we want to proceed for the next 12 years. Jupiter returning to Aries marks the beginning of a brand new 12-year cycle. There are things to work out, details to which we must attend. Basically we have been hauling ass since May, charging forward, sometimes with excellent vision, sometimes blindly, and now we need to stop and rewind.

Jupiter Retrograde in Aries will help us re-create ourselves. We are sculpting individual and collective identities with new materials and new ideas. Powerful feelings arise concerning the preservation-protection-fortification of the delicate new Self.

Jupiter Rx in Aries will help us embody this fiery blaze – this self-love, confidence, exuberance – and still communicate calmly and tactfully. In Aries there is a tendency to burn bridges and self-sabotage. It is not in Aries’ nature to hesitate, to be still, to rest, to take accountability (this requires stillness and reflection!).

There is something incurably restless in Aries, something which burns white hot. If we let it, the slowness of the retrograde takes us deeper into the coals so we can better understand the rage, the pain, whatever burns inside.

As a cardinal sign, Aries is all about beginnings and initiation. This is the perfect time to think about our plan/vision/identity going forward. Remember that this is the beginning of a whole new cycle, as well as the ending of one which began in June 2010. We can completely start over. We can become a new person, a stronger one, someone who knows themselves better. We can live our own lives on our own terms.

One of the greatest gifts of this cycle is the blessing of being able to let go of – or redefine – the past. We can move forward with a fresh, invigorated heart. We can reframe our life. We have so much agency and ownership now with this renaissance energy in the air.

Let’s talk about Jupiter Retrograde in Pisces, where just the last few weeks of the cycle take place. This is a mini review of 2021 and early 2022 with a focus on regaining emotional and spiritual balance.

Jupiter Rx in Pisces will prove to be more confusing than anything. Unlike Aries, Pisces is neither direct nor straightforward. There will be days in November where we wonder wtf we are doing. By late December we will be at the end of a very long exhale, then inhaling slowly as we depart from this mysterious realm.

When we look back on the once-in-12-years conjunction of Jupiter and Neptune in Pisces on Apr 12, there was a major influx of forgiveness and understanding, a newfound sense of purpose in our lives, a new way forward which feels so much more cohesive and loving. This feeling, of being wrapped up in the oceanic arms of Neptune, is something we can touch once again during the Jupiter Retrograde in Pisces cycle. It is something we can take with us as a reminder, as wisdom, into the dawning of this new and totally unknown cycle.

To find your Jupiter sign and whether this planet was direct or retrograde at the time of your birth, click here.