Over the last two days, the cards that I drew as daily meditation were the 8 of Swords and the 4 of Swords. They are both cards of the rational and mental plane, the intermediate sphere of Yetzirah, and are also associated with Jupiter. This is relevant because. in any context, what does Jupiter enjoy? It likes to expand, increase, augment. It is the superior astrological benefic, the cosmological Architect, the ideologue of the cosmos. Jupiter builds systems of meaning.
It is important to remember that Jupiter always expands, even when it is placed in a sign that is adverse to it. The expansion never disappears in it. Only its quality changes. This is exactly what happens in the 8 of Swords, which corresponds to Jupiter in Gemini.
Before looking at this case, it is necessary to understand what Jupiter in Sagittarius, the sign it rules, means. Here we have Jupiter in its most idealistic and philosophical mode, looking upwards. In medieval astrology, Jupiter signified the clergy, religious leaders, and influential mystics. Sagittarius gives it the capacity to exercise a clear philosophical will. Being mutable fire, it is a double-bodied sign, a mixture of cardinal impulse, which initiates, and fixed stability, which sustains. This is Jupiter the prophet, pointing the Sagittarian arrow towards a specific focus high in the sky.
When Jupiter is in Gemini, the logic changes. Jupiter continues to expand, but now it expands something that is already naturally multiplicative. The element Air has an inherently dispersive tendency, and in Gemini this is even more evident. Gemini is the throne of winged Hermes, the principle that plays, that mocks, that keeps opening paths and symbols to instruct and to deceive. When Jupiter occupies this sign, those paths become endless because he multiplies them ad infinitum.
So, the naturally benefic Jupiter becomes accidentally malefic. The options are so many that they turn into symbolic prisons. The mind loses the ability to choose or to fix itself on a single direction. Jupiter becomes an adversary of the will, because the will, when properly applied, is unity of desire focused on a single point, not dispersion across countless stimuli. This is precisely what the 8 of Swords represents. It is the decan of Jupiter in Gemini. The prison is mental and results from the proliferation of possibilities that prevents the act of decision.
On the following day, I drew the 4 of Swords. Again the Great Superior Benefic, again in an Air sign, but now in the cardinal mode. We must step back and see how the Lord of Chesed behaves on this plane. What is the nature of Libra, this throne of Venus? To balance, to weigh, to measure, to apply divine justice with equanimity. In the zodiacal wheel, Libra is axially opposed to Aries, the sign ruled by Mars and where the Sun is exalted. The two principles of action, will, and ego encounter their opposite disposition in Libra. The solar and martial ego is weighed by the scales of Ma’at.
When Jupiter is in Libra, it expands precisely this function. Its benefic nature makes it magnanimous when it comes to applying the right measure and the right correction. It becomes the cosmic physician of justice and mercy, precisely the concept most associated with Chesed. The 4 of Swords corresponds to Jupiter in Libra. More than a card of temporary truce, it is the capacity to apply justice with this magnanimous quality. Being a four, it is indeed associated with Chesed, the sphere of Jupiter, which doubles the influence of the planet in the card. And, like all fours, it stabilises the energy opened by the Ace.
The Ace of Swords is the unitive awakening of thought and reason. The 2 of Swords is the contemplation of the division opened by reasoning, the separation between subject and object. The 3 of Swords is the comprehension of that division, the clear recognition that this division exists and can be worked upon. The 4 of Swords shows that this division can be stabilised and applied with benevolence instead of doing it with cruelty.
Kύριε ελέησον