- Symbol
- ♃︎ (U+2643)
- Orbit
- 11.86 years
- Day and metal
- Thursday, tin
- Rules
- Sagittarius and Pisces
Jupiter at a glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Roman god | Jupiter, king of the gods and of the sky |
| Greek counterpart | Zeus |
| Day of the week | Thursday (jeudi in French, from dies Iovis) |
| Metal | Tin |
| Traditional dignities | Rules Sagittarius and Pisces, exalted in Cancer, detriment in Gemini and Virgo, fall in Capricorn |
| Time in a sign | About a year, since the orbit is 11.86 years |
Jupiter and Saturn meeting
Jupiter overtakes Saturn every 19.86 years, an event called the great conjunction. The last one fell in December 2020 at the very start of Aquarius, and the next will come in 2040 in Libra. Astrologers have tracked these for many centuries and group them into runs of about two hundred years, each in one element, before the series shifts to the next. The glyph pair is the visual shorthand: the curve of Jupiter set beside the cross of Saturn.
Why the shape looks like a four
Take the glyph apart and you find a crescent-like curve on the left and a vertical bar that crosses it low down. The curve is the part that gets compared to the upper half of a Greek zeta, and the bar to the stem of the letter. Other readings see an eagle, the bird of Jupiter, or a thunderbolt, the weapon of the god. The old manuscripts from which the shape was copied vary a good deal, so the glyph invites several readings and settles on none.
A neat detail: in some printed charts the Jupiter and Saturn glyphs are easy to confuse, since each is a cross joined to a curve. In the Jupiter glyph the curve sits at the top and the crossbar is low. In the Saturn glyph the cross is at the top and the curve hangs below it.
What the symbol stands for in a chart
1. Expansion
The planet Jupiter is the largest in the solar system, and the tradition treats it as the planet that enlarges whatever it touches. In a chart it marks where a person looks for more: more room, more meaning, more experience.
2. Belief and meaning
It rules law, travel, higher learning and religion in the older lists, the areas where people try to make sense of a larger picture.
3. Generosity, and excess
The older texts called Jupiter the Greater Benefic, the most helpful planet. Modern astrologers add that the same expansion can overreach, since a planet that always enlarges has no brake of its own.
The twelve year clock
Jupiter turns retrograde for about four months out of every thirteen, so a sign change is sometimes followed by a brief return to the sign before. Jupiter takes 11.86 years to circle the zodiac, so it spends roughly a year in each sign. That makes it a convenient yearly marker: astrologers describe a year as a Jupiter in Cancer year or a Jupiter in Leo year. Every twelfth year it returns to the sign it held at your birth, an event called the Jupiter return, read as a time of renewed growth. The dates for each current sign are on the transits pages.
Putting the glyph on a page
- In Unicode it is simply JUPITER, U+2643 (♃︎).
- In HTML, ♃ produces it.
- In ASCII charts, Jupiter is often abbreviated Ju or Jup.
- Calendars sometimes print the glyph alone in the Thursday column.
Find it in your own chart
A symbol or an aspect only means something against a whole chart. Look up your placements, then read the planets in their signs and the houses they fall in.
Frequently asked questions
Why does the Jupiter glyph look like a number four?
The shape is usually read as a stylised zeta, the Greek initial of Zeus, and zeta drawn with a crossbar can look like a four. The planet it marks is the tradition's symbol of growth, belief and generosity.
What is the HTML entity for the Jupiter glyph?
♃, which writes ♃︎, the character at U+2643.
How long does Jupiter stay in a sign?
About a year. Jupiter circles the zodiac in 11.86 years, so it changes sign roughly once a year, with a few early or late changes caused by retrograde motion.
What metal is linked to Jupiter?
Tin, in the traditional pairing of the seven classical planets with metals.
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