Jupiter turns to go retrograde and I go to the dentist

Yesterday, January 8, expansive, generous Jupiter turned to go retrograde. Jupiter will travel backwards, asking us to pull back, pull within, expand internally, rather than externally, for the next four months, until May 9, when it turns again, to go direct. From May 9th on, our external projects can begin again to flourish.

The fact that Jupiter turned only two days past when Mercury turned, also to go retrograde, makes this turning time even more potent. (Mercury will pull out of retrograde after three weeks, on January 25th).

That’s the cover story. Underneath, we notice that the still extremely potent Uranus/Pluto square (even now only one degree out of alignment!), has just been successively crossed, first Uranus, then Pluto, by the Sun itself. The volatility and unpredictability of this time gets illuminated, in spades. And what happened?

Well, for one thing, a possible nuclear test, by North Korea. And for another, the stock market tanked. But guess what, we still didn’t blow ourselves up! Or not yet, anyway.

Meanwhile, a sweet little personal story, my own small outpicturing of these astrological signatures.

Yesterday, I had a 9:15 am appointment to get my teeth cleaned. He told me that the two areas on the left side of my bottom jaw, just at the gum line of those back molars, were getting worse. (I had been delaying getting those cavities filled, as when I asked, he had told me that all the substances he uses to fill them are toxic. That he didn’t know another way.)

Okay. Bite the bullet time. I’ll do it.

Then Janet, gentle Dr. Dunigan’s wife and sweet receptionist, told me that somebody had just cancelled. I could do the fillings ‘TODAY’ at 1:00 p.m. Geez! Okay!

That was my Uranus/Pluto moment, you might say. A sudden opening, sudden, unpredicable change completely altering the trajectory of my day.

I was also aware that this was the day Jupiter turned, though I had not looked its location up in the ephemeris.

On my drive back to the dentist’s office in the afternoon (after eating an avocado only, my mouth was so sore), I asked my guides to protect me from all harm, to have this experience be as easy and nonthreatening as possible.

Well, that actually happened! In fact, though I sat in that dentist chair for another two hours (after one hour already in the morning), with my poor jaw screwed open the whole time and huge difficulty in numbing the area — in fact, it never did go numb enough for my body to not flinch, over and over again, from nerve pain — I experienced those hours in their presence, as they hovered over me, wincing in empathy to witness my eyelids flutter and my hands suddenly jerk, as one of being cushioned by higher forces. I was inside a sort of soft cocoon or womb, not really concerned about even the nerve pain that I was subject to! The experience was unprecedented, truly; wild!

I was also concerned, of course, as to how my jaw would feel when the numbing wore off, how sore it would be. But amazingly enough, as it wore off, I noticed absolutely no pain, no soreness, none! That has never happened before.

Chalk it up, I’d say now, to Jupiter, expanding internally, helping to cushion me from the nerve pain forces of Sun crossing Uranus/Pluto!

Just this morning, I did look up the position of Jupiter. Aha! 23° Virgo. Exactly trine my 23° Taurus Moon and exactly sextile my 23° natal Jupiter in Cancer. My dentist is intensely Virgo; he works slowly and carefully, and with great technical finesse. That Moon/Jupiter natal signature in my chart felt bathed in love, cushioned from harm, nourished by their care, despite the intensity of the Uranus/Pluto experience. Really! Amazing.