Santa Claus Meets the Grim Reaper

The Christmas Holidays are set at the Capricorn Solstice, as are many other sacred observances. The Solstice marks where the sign Sagittarius ends and Capricorn begins. Sagittarius correlates with fun, abundance, and plenty of good stuff. Jupiter, the Sag ruler, is closely akin to Santa. But at the solstice, the vibrations change to the clear sight and objectivity of Capricorn. We have Santa morphing into The Grim Reaper—that guy you see with a sickle on all the New Year’s Eve cartoons. This year the planet of transformation and death, Pluto, is right at this point. Let us look more deeply at the old "gifts under the tree" versus “lump of coal” paradox of this season.

The sign Sagittarius is ruled by the planet Jupiter. Jupiter has many images, among them the Divine Teacher or Guru, and Santa Claus. The subsequent sign, Capricorn, is ruled by Saturn. Saturn is the Divine Grandfather or Grandmother. But Saturn is also Father Time and the Grim Reaper.

Jupiter can range from hopeless and dogmatic, to approval seeking and excessive, but is mature and stable when expansive and wise. Similarly, Saturn ranges from bitter and cruel and controlling to ambitious and acquisitive, but when mature and healthy, Saturn thrives on solitude.

Each of us embodies some degree of both qualities. We have our own internal Santa bestowing blessings, and our own internal Grim Reaper taking them away. A healthy, mature life is a creative mixture of the Jupiter’s expansion principle and the Saturn’s contraction principle. Most of us prefer Jupiter to Saturn, though. By secondary progression, a way astrologers use to measure our lessons of this lifetime, usually Jupiter and Saturn make so few changes that they are not important (since they just maintain the influence they gave at birth). However, should either planet change signs (or houses) by secondary progression, this is major!

A more common occurrence is the transits of Jupiter and Saturn. Jupiter brings his largesse all around the zodiac in 12 years, about one year per sign. Saturn takes 29 years to go around the circle, about 21 years in each sign. This is good news/bad news. Good news if Jupiter is doing good things and Saturn is not causing troubles. However, the bad news is that it does not last.

How are Jupiter and Saturn influencing you? May it all be good!

Lalia