Your natal chart is no accident. Your natal chart is indicative of your personality, the gifts you have brought into this incarnation, as well as the lessons you need to learn. Your personal planets such as your Sun and Moon represent some aspects of your karma. As you have learned already, the retrograde planets in your chart present lessons that you need to learn from previous lives. The same goes for intercepted houses, as well as the social and outer planets.
The social planets or transpersonal planets are Jupiter and Saturn, and they present unique karma to you.
The social planets being Jupiter and Saturn represent different types of karma that you had brought in from previous lives. The social planets are somewhat generational only because they move at a much slower rate than personal planets. However, they are strong areas of focus in your chart based on the house where it is as well as the sign.
You are probably aware that Jupiter is the lucky planet as it is referred as to the ‘Great Benefic’, and Saturn is the stern planet as it is referred to as the ‘Great Malefic’. Let’s explore both further and learn about what both of those planets mean to you, starting off with Jupiter.
Jupiter has been considered to be the ‘good luck’ planet. Really, what Jupiter represents is an opportunity, abundance, spirituality, and knowledge. But in past life astrology, Jupiter is the planet that indicates where you have done good deeds in the past, sharing any kind of help, knowledge, power, or benevolence. When it comes to harsh aspects, it also indicates the abuse of gifts from previous lives.
Does this necessarily mean that the areas of your life that have been touched by Jupiter are ‘easier’ for you? The answer to that is yes and no. It really depends on the aspects of Jupiter to other planets. Easy Jupiter aspects can give you a lucky streak. But the only challenge with those is that gifts that Jupiter had brought to you can easily be taken for granted. Therefore, they can be misused as well and as a result, those lucky streaks could turn into hard lessons.
For instance, Jupiter that trines Venus will easily make you a likable person, and you’d be given the gift of popularity with this aspect. However, there is also a strong love of luxury and the arts which is fine. This aspect can be problematic as it is not a motivating one and can result in laziness. That will end up becoming a problem if there are no other strong motivating aspects in the natal chart. On the flip side, Saturn has a very different karmic effect on you than Jupiter.
You already are aware that every planet and aspect, and house cusp in your natal chart is an indicator of past life experiences, lessons that were not learned, challenges, and gifts that were brought into this incarnation from prior lives. However, the one planet that is considered to be the planet of karma is Saturn.
Saturn is the planet that rules restrictions, limitations, responsibility, discipline, and areas in life that require hard work. It is the karmic planet because Saturn’s placement is the indicator of areas in your life where you need to learn some intense lessons, and responsibility. Saturn’s placement represents past life lessons that were clearly ignored, abused (more so Saturn can represent past life gifts that were severely taken for granted and/or abused) or not taken seriously.
This time, Saturn is not allowing you to get away with those lessons that were forgotten, by creating areas in your life that you would consider to be the biggest areas of stress. And whenever you are faced with areas of stress in your life, you simply cannot ignore any of it. Therefore, it requires hard work in order for you to create balance and security. However, once you have a handle on mastering those lessons, the rewards are grand. Those restrictions that you had, would be released and you would feel so free.
If you can pinpoint two areas in your life that are the sources of stress and fears that you have had to deal with for the majority of your life, then those are the areas in your chart that are influenced by Saturn’s placement. Forget about the other planets that form hard aspects to Saturn (and if you really think about it, those other areas in life that you consider to be challenging as well are connected to the main sources that are influenced by Saturn-planets that square, oppose, quincunx or even conjunct Saturn). The sign and house where Saturn is located and the house cusp where Capricorn is located are where your karmic lessons are found. Aquarius is also ruled by Saturn; however, Saturn’s role is different in Aquarius. Although Aquarian energies are difficult to handle if you are not able to embrace your uniqueness and creativity.
However, Saturn can present a gift to you as well when it comes to easy aspects. You can think of it as giving you a helping hand when it comes to learning some life lessons. For instance, if you have the Saturn trine Venus aspect in your natal chart, you have good control over your relationships as well as spending habits. You will know how to create a budget and will think before making any large investments. In that case, Saturn can help you save a lot of potential trouble.
Those are the karmic roles of the social planets. What about the outer planets?
Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are the outer planets and are referred to as the generational planets. They represent group karma, karma you share with your soul group in each of the signs. However, in the houses in your natal chart, it represents karma more so on a personal level.
Group karma is when a group of people meets a certain karmic lesson simultaneously. An example of group karma operating would be either a plane crash where hundreds of people die at the same time if a group of souls had agreed to experience it at that time. However, group karma can also be defined as a group of souls who banded together in regard to culture, religion, even organizations. The house where the planet is, and how it aspects to other planets indicate how it all affects you. Let’s briefly look at the role of Uranus and the group karma.
Uranus is an outer planet and Uranus goes through the zodiac every 84 years and spends about 7 years in a sign. Uranus represents change, innovation, detachment, humanitarianism, and shocks. Issues that you had faced in previous lives you are breaking out of in this incarnation. You are not alone with the karmic effects of Uranus. Those who were born within the 7 years of the time of your birth share the same karmic implications, which also depends on the location of the sign Uranus was in during the time of your birth.
However, the house that Uranus was located in your personal chart is how the energies of the planet affect you on a personal level. What about Neptune? Let’s talk about the group karma shown by Neptune.
Neptune is also a generational planet, and what sign it is in indicates group karma as it is an outer planet. Neptune spends about 14 years in each sign and goes 165 years around the zodiac. What Neptune really represents is a higher consciousness within you. It represents how you can connect with the spiritual level and the way you connect to your soul group.
Neptune also shows how you are spiritually connected with certain aspects of your life, and what area of your life you are the most attuned to. the role of Neptune involves dissolving, imagination, and mysticism but if not used properly, it becomes deception, self-destruction, confusion, and denial. The purpose of Neptune is that it is the spiritual factor that can allow you to evolve beyond your highest good, and escape some of the pain of karmic retribution. What about Pluto?
Pluto is a generational planet that stays in each sign for around 12-30 years. Pluto asks you to serve or to suffer, as it is transformative. If you were born with Pluto in any sign, that indicates group karma or lessons. Whatever sign Pluto is in, you are meant to make global transformations, and you will even if you are unaware of it as with outer planets in signs, it affects the subconscious as it is the most powerful and intense planet.
What may interest you the most is knowing more about the social karmic planets which are Saturn and Jupiter since Saturn is the planet of karma and lessons. And Jupiter is the planet of luck. In the next part of the series, Saturn in each of the signs and houses will be examined so you understand the strongest areas of your lessons. During the last part of this series, Jupiter in the signs and houses will be examined so you can see where you have ‘luck’.
