Jupiter’s Day: Awakening to Wisdom and Enlightenment on Thursday

Written by Jamie Epstein

I’ve Seen Fire & I’ve Seen Rain

It’s Thursday, August 1, & Moon is in Gemini, in the starspace or Nakshatra called Ardra. Gemini vibrates with the frequency of, well, ruling planet Mercury’s mercurial qualities. Key words: curious, playful, fickle, sociable, quick-witted, unpredictable, capricious, talkative. Gemini is the third sign of the natural zodiac, which represents siblings and our ego. It’s where our ego, our sense of self, is challenged & refined—by playing & fighting with siblings or others, through sports, through intellectual endeavors. It is by trying new things that we figure out who we are: soccer? Not me! maybe archery? Business school? Yawwwwwn! Let’s sign up for an art class! & hopefully we don’t take ourselves too seriously. Hopefully we’re the ones who get the last laugh. Hopefully we can look at our efforts as a form of play.

Ardra is ruled by Rudra, the storm god, a fierce form of already fierce shiva who represents thunder. “Rudra” comes from the sanskrit verb that means “to howl or roar”—just as storms howl, just as thunder roars. This asterism brings a message about transformation through effort, perhaps through facing a dark, stormy night of the soul. But just as the earth is transformed, impurities washed away, after a good soaking rain, so are we—we get to remember that the darkest night is right before the dawn. And ohhhh, how we could use some rain right now with so many fires raging!

iI’s the thirteenth lunar day (tithi), the thirteenth phase of the waning moon, which is said to remove all shortcomings & increase auspiciousness & when. According to Swami Shivananda, “nature assists the worshipper in waking up from his mental deep sleep & in becoming aware of the fourth state (turiya).” more below!

Thursday is ruled by Jupiter, whose sanskrit name is “guru,” the one who shines the light of wisdom on us, which wakes us up from our delusions, removes the scales from our eyes, clears the cobwebs outta our head. this is an ongoing process, as are we. But little by little we make progress, little by little we enlighten up a bit more, thanks to the blessings of the guru, which is a principle, not necessarily a person. Anything & everything holds the potential to allow us to see more clearly. What might that be for you today? How might you welcome that possibility in?

And that’s your daily bliss! which is a sort of lunar weather report. may it allow you to align with the day’s cosmic energy so you can find & create a little more bliss.