What if astrology isn't just something that tells you about
who you are, but instead it's a tool to help you become all that
you can be? That's what we talked about here
on the Awake Space Astrology Podcast.
I'm Lori Rivers, and I've made it my business to help you use
astrology as a tool for growth, healing and to become the best
version of you you can be on any given day.
We're talking about Jupiter and retrogrades today because
there's a lot of misunderstandings about what
retrograde actually means. And if you're in the Awake Space
community, then you know what I say about the retrogrades.
It's so easy to blame Mercury or Jupiter or Saturn or whatever
else is retrograde in the sky for what's going on.
But when we look at these as an opportunity to switch things up,
to reflect, to go over old ground, to find missed
opportunities, then we're using our astrology instead of letting
the astrology drive us. And that's what we're here to do
this week on the Awake Space Astrology Podcast.
So whether we're going to work, taking the kids to school,
getting ready for Thanksgiving in the United States, or trying
to deck the halls or get whatever winter festival ready
that you celebrate, we're going to do it together.
And we're going to get perfect parking if we're driving in the
world. So get your tea, get your
coffee, get your matcha, get your Red Bull, get your H2O, get
your hot cocoa or your iced tea, because we're going to do this
together. Jupiter is one of those planets
that I think is talked about in all the wrong ways on social
media. I used to call it Tumblr
astrology because it's pop astrology, it's popular
astrology. It's people who've read a book
or two and they think that makes them an expert.
And that happens in every field. OK, People might spend all their
time on WebMD, right? Or in hand spinning and crochet.
You read a book and then you know you're going to go teach
other people and each one teach 1 is great when you have the
right information, but not every book out there and not every
website has great information. And it's easy to think of it
being done by an expert because it's in print.
Speaking of in print, we've got some books coming your way, but
hold tight. Hold tight.
That's 2026. Not, not right now, but anyway,
what we're looking at with Jupiter is it's a magnifier.
It's a magnifier. It's not luck per SE.
That's a 1. I don't even think that's how
actual astrologers ever looked at it.
They could see fortunate or unfortunate.
Yes, in a very determined society, meaning there was no
mobility socially, there was no way to self actualize.
You were born into a certain station in life and you could
never move beyond that. So if you were in the upper
echelon, that's where you were at.
If you were a peasant, that's where you were at.
If you were not an autonomous being, then that's what you were
stuck with. No opportunities for liberation.
We live in a different time and people may be trying to swing us
back, but the thing about progress is it keeps moving
forward even when there's a challenge to it.
So Jupiter is really a magnifying glass.
It highlights and emphasizes the area of life it is in your
chart. It doesn't mean that's where all
your luck happens, but it means that that part of life is very
focused. OK, depending on what house it
falls in. And if you're in the Awake Space
community, hold tight this week you're going to get a little
CHEAT SHEET PDF if you're at the $15 level and up, and that will
help you understand your Jupiter a little better as per its house
placement. Okay, the sign describes the
how. Okay, the house placement says
this is the area and then the sign says this is how this
happens in that area of life. I know it's easier when we're in
a class, but Jupiter as the magnifier isn't about being good
or bad. It depends on your perspective.
Have you ever met anyone who just has the worst luck?
They could have Jupiter in exaltation in their chart.
That's why I don't like the dignities.
The dignities in astrology come from a mindset and cultural
viewpoint of ideal and less ideal behaviors or personality
traits or situations, instead of looking at our consciousness as
the spectrum. And we couldn't get there till
we got there right there. I'm not dissing on ancient
peoples, but we have a different understanding not only of
consciousness itself, but how the brain works.
And the brain is the tool that our consciousness uses to
express. Right there we go.
Consciousness isn't necessarily determined on the brain.
The brain is what determines how consciousness is expressed, and
our mindset is everything. That's why I emphasize so much
in the mercury episode. You get that Mercury trained and
things start to shift and grow. There was a show called Hee Haw
when I was a little kid in the 70s and there was a song gloom,
despair and agony on me. Deep, dark depression, excessive
misery. If I had no bad luck, I'd have
no luck at all. Gloom, despair and agony on me.
Jupiter can function that way when our mindset is one that
only seeks out the problems. I've always said it doesn't take
a genius to figure out a problem.
It does take a genius to find solutions.
Jupiter, when we've trained our Mercury, learns to tune to what
potentials are there in that area of life.
And I'm talking about the Natal chart.
I'm not talking about the transits yet.
But your personal Jupiter emphasizes that area of life and
depending on the relationships it's making in your chart.
And don't think of squares as bad or oppositions.
If you're in the astrology crew, we've been talking about that in
the aspects in the Natal chart. But don't think you are stuck
with good or bad luck. That's a very old fashioned way
of looking at life and it's one that doesn't do us any good.
Everybody has highs and lows. Everybody has times where things
are kicking and rolling along and they're doing great.
And everybody has times where you drop your keys in the toilet
and the phone goes into a mud puddle and you don't get the
parking you need and you got to walk 2 miles to get to where
you're going and your shoe falls apart and you walk in the door.
And there's been a lot of layoffs.
It isn't necessarily personal to you.
If you look, what else is going on for everybody else feels
personal. It feels real personal.
And that's why in the last segment, we're going to talk
about what happens when you are reactive and how to manage not
beating yourself up when you aren't as deliberate as you can
be. Because I think sometimes when
we talk about these subjects, there's still this expectation
of perfection. And no human being, not me, not
anybody, is going to be always on the top of their game.
So understanding that Jupiter is a magnifier helps us understand.
And why am I talking about Jupiter today?
Besides, it's the next planet in line from the series that I'm
doing right now. And using your astrology.
Well, Jupiter's in a grand trine right now with Mercury, Saturn,
and Neptune. And it's emphasizing a lot of
feelings. It's emphasizing a lot of very
visceral security issues. It's emphasizing our authority
or lack of it. And so things have been a little
gritty since that new moon in Scorpio because it was a doozy.
It was part of a grand trying. It was a great time to look at
where we want to go forward, and we may have had experiences that
were less than desired to make it very clear about what we
don't want so we can move forward with what we do want or
how we want to live. Jupiter emphasizes everything.
It's a little extra when you look at your Jupiter in your
Natal chart and it doesn't matter if it's in a square or an
opposition, don't worry about that.
That doesn't mean it's afflicted per SE.
That's the language used in traditional astrology.
It means you have to be more creative.
It puts an emphasis on that creativity, whereas if you have
a trine or a sex style, there's an emphasis on having to move
with the energy squares and oppositions can be gritty.
That grit is like grit in an oyster creating a Pearl, right?
We have to ride through things. We have to move through the
frustration into creative solutions.
With the trines, it can just be, there's a lot, a lot, a lot, a
lot of doesn't necessarily mean it's better.
As people have seen over the last week with this transiting
Jupiter, it's a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot of big thoughts.
It's been very easy to identify our thought patterns because our
thought patterns drive the show, OK?
And we have habits in our thought patterns.
And why am I bringing that up with Jupiter?
Because Jupiter's been in a trine with Mercury, we've been
able to notice where we thrive or self sabotage given our own
thinking. It's not about blame, it's just
identification. OK, so Jupiter, it's just a big
magnifying lens. I learned this as a young
astrologer because like every young astrologer, Jupiter was
luck. And I'd look forward to those
Jupiter transits and I'd be like, oh, everything's going to
go my way. I just have to wait for this
transit. And I'm going to be so excited
because so many good things are going to happen.
And then what happened was if there was an issue going on, it
got magnified and I'd get my ass smacked and I'd be like, what
was that? How am I doing life wrong?
I had this great transit and nothing went the way I thought
it would. And this is like in my first
year of being an astrologer, year and a half, and I started
to question whether Jupiter was actually this great benefic.
I was like, I don't know that that was a lot.
And then I realized it had magnified existing conditions
that you couldn't swing from one step to the next step if your
first step wasn't on a strong foundation.
If you're baking bread and your yeast is old, you're not going
to get a good proof on it. Same goes with our hopes,
dreams, and aspirations. If we don't have everything we
need to make it go exactly the way we want, it's not going to
go exactly the way we want. We're going to see what needs to
be replaced, repaired, etcetera, right?
So Jupiter is not always the planet of luck, and you are not
always doomed to just have good or bad luck.
When you're deliberate in your consciousness, being deliberate
is essential. It's essential because if we
just go off, well, everybody in my family said or nobody, nobody
likes what I do, or people don't like me or I'm boring or or or
or whatever our our thought habit is.
One of those could be waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Like every time I'm happy, something bad happens.
That's a really common thought process because it might have
happened when we were kids. Now we're looking added things
from an adult lens. Just because something happened
25 years ago, 10 years ago, five years ago doesn't mean it has to
repeat itself. We might have themes come up and
we have an opportunity to do things differently with those
themes. Jupiter is the magnifier showing
the theme. Mercury is how we find the
solutions. Every situation, whether it's a
challenge or a victory, is an opportunity for growth and
learning. And when we can start looking at
those things like that instead of green lights and red lights
and yellow lights, because we often miss the yellow light.
But when we stop looking at it as a go or a stop sign and we
look at how can, how can I adjust?
How can I do this differently? How can I find the opportunity?
How can I find something to my benefit in this moment?
And I'm not talking about when you're in the big fields.
When we're having the big emotional moment, we just have
to have the emotional moment. It's afterwards.
We're going to sit and assess it.
We're going to examine it. We're going to identify what's
really up on deck. Not that dirty, rotten so and so
that did US dirty. Not that every time I make a
friend, they betray me. That line of thinking doesn't
give you any agency. So what is it about the pattern
of trust that I have? Do I trust people too quickly?
Do I need to maybe ask more questions?
It's not about fault, it's examining.
So you're going to examine, you're going to identify.
Oh, I do I do. I over disclose and and I jump
into all relationships maybe a little too quickly.
I do that because I have the sense of and this need to
belong. OK, all right.
How can I feel less like I don't belong?
What can I do to understand I'm worthy of respect?
What can I do? Jupiter is the lens that
identifies that where we can identify, Mercury goes through
that process of the examination, the analysis, and then seeking
the solution. When we can use these parts of
our chart in this way, it gives us agency, and agency is what
gives us authority, which lines us up for the next episode where
we're going to talk about Saturn.
But before that, we're going to talk a little bit about
retrogrades because we've got things ready to move direct in
the next few days, weeks ahead. We have Mercury stationing
direct on November 29th and we have Saturn stationing direct on
December 1st, which is next Monday.
O that's what we're going to talk about next is the
retrograde. So let's talk about retrograde
for a second, because I think this is one of the other most
misunderstood things in astrology.
Retrograde is neither good nor bad.
Retrograde is an optical illusion, and I've talked about
that on this podcast many, many times, right?
So you've got the Earth based perspective.
We live on Earth and our perception shape our reality.
When we look up at the sky, when a planet is retrograde, it looks
like it's moving backwards. It's not astrologers.
No, it's not. But we know we have this optical
illusion of retrograde. Retrograde is neither good nor
bad, OK? People will feel it's bad
because they're forced to take a look in the mirror.
They're forced to revise projects.
It is not a good time to start new things.
But it's great to resolve matters, especially when we're
looking at Mercury retrograde, which happens about 3 * a year
up to 4. But I argue with that one
because a lot of times when they're like we have 4
retrogrades for Mercury this year, it like starts at the
beginning, like the very end of the year, like you get 2 days in
the year, you know? So people love to be dramatic.
When we're looking at Mercury or any other planet in retrograde,
it is a reflective time. It's an inward versus an outward
time. With Mercury getting ready to
station direct on November 29th, 2025, we have all been moving
through this period of what do I need to change in my thinking,
right? A lot of people have been
blaming the Mercury retrograde for the shit show that's been
going on. I want to remind you it's been
in a grand trine once it moved back into Scorpio with Jupiter,
Saturn, and Neptune. They're all in water science.
This has been some big grand trine action.
If you can imagine you're flushing out a pipe and there's
no restriction on that water pressure.
This has been, you could say it's an emotional colonic.
All the crap is coming up for review.
It's not just Mercury. We're dealing with Saturn, we're
dealing with Neptune, and we're dealing with Jupiter.
Jupiter is in Cancer, Saturn and Neptune are in Pisces.
Mercury is in Scorpio. This has been a deep dive into
what we need to change. If we're constantly looking at
what other people are doing, we're not looking at what we're
doing. And that's the opportunity right
now. So let's say you got into it
with somebody you love very much.
Maybe you had an argument, maybe an old pattern of behavior came
up, something that hasn't been up on deck for a long time.
Maybe you got triggered. Maybe you were having to process
something that was pretty heavy. It's unpleasant, it's not fun.
It's unfortunate when it happens.
But if we can turn our thinking into OK, I see the pattern, it
happens. Do I know why it happens?
Do I know the root of it? Is it really the that person
causing the problem, or is my reactivity to that person or the
situation because of something else?
Do I feel like my security is threatened?
Do I feel like my survival? Is questioned.
Do I feel through this lack of respect or this lack of follow
through or a broken promise or whatever it is?
Do I feel that I am less than? Am I fighting for my worth, my
respect, my agency? It's not fun to be reactive.
There's adrenaline involved, there's cortisol involved.
It can disrupt our sleep patterns.
It can make it difficult to be creative.
It's very difficult to seek a solution in a reactive moment
because we're in our survival, in our instinctual
consciousness, but it's nothing to beat ourselves up for.
We just kind of have to ride through it.
Abraham Hicks equates that to falling out of an airplane.
You just got to wait till you hit, you know, you just fall out
of the airplane. Let it ride.
Give yourself a moment. Tomorrow's another day, right?
These awarenesses, these opportunity for awarenesses,
give us a chance to find solutions.
They give us a chance to do something differently.
Remember in the mystery School, what do we say in the awake
space Mystery School? The powers in the noticing.
The perfection is in the correction.
That's what makes things so powerful.
Retrograde isn't bad. Retrograde is a time to be
inward in our thinking, and I'm talking about personal
astrology. I'm not talking about mundane
astrology. They're different.
They're different kinds of energy.
When we look at it as an astrologer, if you do mundane,
you're looking at instinctual consciousness. 90% of the time.
When we're looking for human beings in a Natal astrology or
transits to Natal astrology, we're looking at things where
people have the option for agency.
OK, there's a big difference. And when we look at retrogrades,
whether it's in a Natal chart, which doesn't make you less or
better because of the frequency of retrograde.
If you've studied with me, then you know, right, We've talked a
lot about the frequency of retrograde.
Mercury goes retrograde for sure, 3 * a year, sometimes 4.
Venus goes retrograde every 16 months or so, 14 to 16 months.
Mars goes retrograde every 26 months, so about two years.
OK, so those two are a little less common.
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, they all go
retrograde every single year. Any other thing from 3 1/2
months to about almost six months.
So it's not uncommon to have retrogrades in your chart.
It's more uncommon to have everything direct or having
stations. Biggest station is when it a
planet appears to be stopped. So a station is a very very
powerful placement. But none of these mean good or
bad powerful can go either way. Powerfully good.
Powerfully not good. Retrograde is a time to
reassess, a time to prepare, a time to get your ducks in a row.
And ducks are very hard to get in a row.
It's a time to review and revise.
Now with Mercury, it's not a time to start anything new.
You can start new things with other planets in retrograde.
Mercury is just very quick and it usually shows where we have
to slow down, redo, pay more attention, not run around with
our head in the clouds, but be a little more grounded.
And by the way, in the retrograde cycle, there's no
such thing as a pre shadow. I've gone on and on about that.
I don't know who made it up, but my God, they've made a mess.
So we have the pre retrograde, we have the station, we have the
retrograde, we have the shadow. Well, the station and then the
shadow and the shadow is in a negative space.
The shadow just means the retrograde planet is moving back
over the space it retrograded. So it's in the shadow of the
retrograde or the wake. And you know, if you look at the
wake of a ship, if you're following the wake, you're
following where that ship is already gone.
And I hope that's a good analogy for you.
Retrograde is powerful. It's a powerful time.
One step forward, 2 steps back isn't always the case.
It can be a cha cha, but nothing is ever supposed to be done just
Willy nilly. If you want a strong foundation,
we're going to take a look at Saturn in the next episode.
And of course our what's in the headlines is in the Patreon for
the $5 level and up. We get that up for the $15 level
and up first. And then Tuesday it'll be
released to everybody else in the supporting tiers.
So you're not missing out, I promise.
But since the magazine tier, which is the deep dives and
horoscopes, since they sponsor that part of the podcast, they
get it first and then it goes out to the $5 level.
So if you've been wanting to become a supporting member of
the Awake Space community on Patreon, make sure you read the
show notes. You can save 50% on annual
memberships without patrons. There is no podcast because this
is 100% listener supported, no ads, no corporate sponsorships.
We are 100% listener supported and that I'm very proud of.
So I hope that all made sense today.
Let me know in the comments, how did Jupiter change for you in
hearing this? Perhaps new information or a
refresher if you've studied with me.
All right, so on the 29th we have Mercury stationing direct,
so yay, but it might be a wibbly wobbly day.
And then December 1st we have Saturn stationing direct.
So let's talk about when things start moving forward again,
whence a planet stations a lot of times are like, yay, it's not
going to be retrograde anymore. Usually the day of the station
where it looks like it's standing still, there's an
emphasis. It can feel like the brakes have
gotten hit or you've been steeled for One Direction of
movement and it comes from another direction.
So you know, like if you're on a subway and you're standing there
and it stops and instead of going this way and you're ready
for it, you're going forward kind of like that.
It can be a bit wibbly, wobbly or jarring to our consciousness,
and that's because we like everything to stay the same.
We don't like movement. We don't like changes.
We don't. We don't like those things as
human beings, and that's OK. We like predictability.
That's why some people become astrologers.
Guess who hates surprises? This astrologer.
That's one of the reasons. When I realized I could predict
fairly accurately just kind of what the energy was going to be
on the day-to-day, I was like, cool, I don't have to worry
about it too much. And as many young astrologer, I
learned to dread certain transits and be excited about
other wins. And then I had to learn some
lessons around that because sometimes when we dread
something, it doesn't show up. And sometimes when we dread it,
we make it happen. We give a self fulfilling
prophecy. And sometimes when we're overly
optimistic, we find disappointment.
And so learning to be the observer is a really important
thing. Mercury going direct does not
mean that you will have no problems, that you won't have
any tech issues. So many times throughout the
year when Mercury is minding its own business and people have a
day and a half, you know, where it's just everything goes wrong.
They'll be like, Laurie, is Mercury Retrick, right?
And I'm like, no, that's why we need to stop blaming Mercury for
everything. Something else may have changed
signs, You know, the moon could have been doing something.
We have global transits where we look at the big world events,
the big weather events, and then we have our individual
experiences. So I always like to use the
analogy of an airport or a train station where you can go and
watch people. If you're a people watcher.
I am. I love to just sit, watch and
observe people. And if you go to a place where
there's lots of people, they all have one thing in common.
If you're in an airport, people are looking to get on a plane to
go somewhere else. But there are reasons that could
be very different. Some people might be going home
for a wedding and maybe they don't want to go.
Some are really excited about it.
Sometimes it's the people getting married and sometimes
it's people who are showing up out of obligation, right?
Other people might be going home for a funeral, and some of them
are really sad and some of them are going there to make sure
that person's gone. And then you've got the people
who maybe you've had a really hard day and they're really,
really stressed out and they can't even explain why.
And other people, they're having the best day and the best luck,
and we can meet in the coolest people.
Every single person's having a different experience, and that's
our Natal transits. So we could have, let's say the
air space gets shut down like it did recently and flights get
cancelled. You're still going to see people
having a different experience. There could be a large amount of
people very angry and disgruntled and freaked out.
And you could have some people who are maybe a little less
reactive, a little more deliberate in their
consciousness going, well, let's make the best of it.
Let's play a game or let's go find out what we need to find
out and when we can do things. And then we're going to make
arrangements to make ourselves comfortable.
It depends on how you wield your consciousness, how deliberate
you are, how much you can let go of the things outside your
control, and how much you can just step back.
And the same person who can be philosophical and determined and
self determinate on one day can be the person having a reaction
on another day. Because we all have weak
moments. We all have days we can be tired
and hungry and didn't prepare the way we needed to prepare.
We might have been in a rush, we could have stubbed our toe and
that cascaded the whole thing. The one thing you can't do and
thrive is is sit in self condemnation and beat yourself
up for not having this perfect attitude.
Everybody, including me, has very human moments.
Every, I always say every sign can be a jerk and every sign can
be an Angel, OK? And all of us have that jerk
side to us. There's times we can all be a
pain in the butt. There's a time we all can react
and there are times where we can respond.
And if you're responding more than you're reacting, you're
ahead of the game, OK? If you're reacting more than
you're responding, that's a lot of strain on the body and it's a
lot of strain on your mind, and it makes it hard to function.
And it doesn't mean there's something wrong with you.
It means you have tools to learn.
That's it. You got tools to learn.
And sometimes with all the tools in the world and all the
practice in the world, something comes up for examination that
makes you human. It doesn't make you a rotten,
low down son of a bitch. OK?
I want you to remember that as we go through the next week or
two, they're going to be volatile energy wise.
It doesn't mean it has to be bad for you personally, but it can
also mean it can be crunchy. It can be crunchy and we have to
take our time and work on things.
There's not a single person on this planet, no religious
leader, I don't care who it is, is perfect all the time.
There are people who will be reactive.
It just depends on how much training you've got and how much
of A course correction you can do and how quickly you can do
it. I just want to leave you with
that. Our next episode we're going to
be talking about Saturn. I'm so excited because Saturn is
one of my favorite planets. And remember, if you're at the
$15 level and up, you're going to get some companions to go
with the Using Your Astrology series.
My apologies. As life retrograded, I had some
sound. I did so much recording, you
guys wouldn't believe it and all of it.
I sounded like I sounded like Astrolary because the sound was
very off. It was a software conflict.
We got it figured out, but there's more to come and I look
forward to some things going direct so I can get the schedule
going. It's a new thing, so you know,
of course it got retrograded. Even astrologers are not immune
to transits. All righty, let's give a big
thank you to all of the patrons at the Awake Space next next
episode, I'm going to put in our Patreon shout outs.
But this episode I just want you to thank all patrons.
And again, if you want to join the Patreon, the Awake Space
astrology community, please look at that.
It's 50% off for annual subscriptions for the tears at
the $15 level and up, that's a hell of a deal.
You might want to get into that.