The Jupiter-Pluto Trine in Earth: 2011-2012

Jupiter enters Taurus, cooling his heels after a year-long trek through Aries on June 4th. Jupiter and Pluto will then be trine each other for about a nine month period from June 2011 through March of 2012 (with three exact trines: July, October, and March). Jolly, optimistic Jupiter meets brooding, intense Pluto…hmmm. At first glance, these two don’t seem too compatible. However, they are meeting by the trine, a harmonious aspect. The trine aspect also generally means that those planets will be in the same element. Jupiter is in matter-of-fact Taurus, and Pluto is in let’s-get-real Capricorn. So what happens when these two planets meet by a trine in earth?


Taurus is about our connection to the physical world, our bodies, and what we value on the material level. Jupiter in Taurus can help us to reconnect to the positive aspects of our physicality. What is good about life within these bodies? With Pluto trining Jupiter, we may also be confronted with where we have been neglecting our health, and perhaps healing is found in the simplicity of Taurus medicine – relaxation, good food, rest, and quiet.

Pluto also connects us to the cycle of endings and beginnings: in order for something new to be born, the old must die. Pluto has been traveling through Capricorn since 2008, and we have certainly seen the literal endings of governments and the crumbling decay of the world economy. But while Pluto connects with Jupiter, we might at least for this time more easily be able to see the advantage in letting go of the old, and become optimistic toward the birth of the new.

For the collective, a Jupiter-Pluto aspect will embolden both these planets’ energies on the world stage. We recently saw the results of the last contact between the two planets when they formed a square, exact on February 25th (and within orb for a couple weeks either side of that point.) February of this year was marked by an increase in the momentum of the Arab Spring, the uprisings in Libya, and the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand. The Jupiter-Pluto square was most notably also still in orb at the time of the Honshu, Japan earthquake on March 11th. However, Jupiter was in fiery Aries, making a stressful aspect – a square – to Pluto. The upcoming trine between the two planets does not in itself carry the same signature of unrest, catastrophe and upheaval.

But even with a trine, there is always a shadow possibility – that each planet brings forward the dysfunctional behavior of the other. The dark side of Jupiter in Taurus is a rigid adherence to dogma, an over-attachment to wealth, and gluttonous tendencies. Pluto in Capricorn’s shadow, which we’ve had the opportunity to become acquainted with over the course of the past three years, is coldness, cruelty, and power-mongering. But ultimately, Jupiter and Pluto now coming together for an extended trine offers the gifts of healing and regeneration after a rough period. It is up to us to remain aware of both the opportunities and the dark possibilities, and to act consciously. Ultimately, it is a time to count our blessings, reconnect to the earth and its creatures, and remember where our “true source of nourishment lies.”*

*From the passage for the rune “Fehu,” The Book of Runes by Ralph H. Blum.