Jupiter-Neptune

Overview: Jupiter-Neptune in tense alignments joins together the high ideals, broad visions, and good fortune of Jupiter with the imagination, spiritual faith, dreams, and dissolving boundaries of Neptune.

The challenges: the overblown (Jupiter) vision, dream, or fantasy (Neptune). the gregarious celebratory (Jupiter) tendency to seek intoxication (Neptune).

the strengths: having a sense of the positive, optimistic, encouraging, and benevolent (Jupiter) dimension of spiritual transcendence (Neptune) that is the redemptive backdrop of all reality.

Below are examples of well-known individuals born with this combination in their natal charts (an astrological birth chart is a symbolic map of the sky at the moment of birth). Observing how this combination appears in their lives can help us recognize it in our own. The more consciously we engage with these astrological alignments—or “aspects”—the more their underlying tensions can be integrated, allowing their strengths to emerge.

Please note: the expression of this archetypal tension, as seen in the lives and work of the people below, may reflect varying levels of integration.

  • Jupiter-Neptune combines the heights, good fortune, and broader vision of Jupiter with the spirituality, faith, and inspiration of Neptune. This shows up in the following quotes by singer Erykah Badu: “Personally, I don't choose any particular religion or symbol or group of words or teachings to define me. That's between me and the most high. You know, my higher self. The Creator.” “I consider my musical ability to be a gift from the Creator. It's not that I try to work hard or nothing like that, it's a gift, it was given to me, and I appreciate it.”

 

  • The Jupiter-Neptune combination in the chart of Franklin D. Roosevelt can be seen as the broad (Jupiter) vision (Neptune) and the uplifting (Jupiter) empathy (Neptune) in the following quotes: “We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon.” “We are trying to construct a more inclusive society. We are going to make a country in which no one is left out.”

  • The Jupiter-Neptune combination can be seen in the birth chart of author Jack Vance, who wrote novels that richly (Jupiter) imagined (Neptune) high cultures (Jupiter) of make believe (Neptune) lands.

  • Neptune’s association with intoxication, imagination, and fantasy, mixed with the expansive and celebratory quality of Jupiter, can be seen in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. Known for its air of celebration and intoxication, New Orleans has a Jupiter-Neptune combination in its natal chart. Similarly this combination in the natal chart of musician Michael Jackson can be seen in the Neverland Ranch amusement park he built for himself as a place of expansive fantasy and imagination. In a similar vein, the Jupiter-Neptune combination can be associated with “getting high,” which connotes a Neptunian intoxication and a Jupiterian height. Bob Marley was born with the Jupiter-Neptune combination in his natal chart; Snoop Dogg was also born with the Jupiter-Neptune combination in his natal chart. Both musicians are known for their use of marijuana. As is Willie Nelson, also born with Jupiter-Neptune in his natal chart.

    Bob Marley is particularly known for the uplifting and redemptive lyrics to his songs. Such as:

    “Rise up this mornin', smile with the rising sun
    Three little birds pitched by my doorstep
    Singin' sweet songs of melodies pure and true
    Sayin', "This is my message to you"

    Singin', "Don't worry about a thing
    'Cause every little thing is gonna be alright"

    and 

    “In this life,
    In this, oh sweet life
    We're coming in from the cold”

    and

     

    “The Sun is shining,

    The weather is sweet,

    Makes you want to move,

    Your dancing feet,

    To the rescue,

    Here I am.”

     

    and finally

     

    “All I ever have

    Is redemption songs.”

     

  • The Jupiter-Neptune combination in the birth chart of musician Isaac Brock can be seen in his song entitled Float On with the band Modest Mouse. Overall the song’s lyrics offer a positive (Jupiter) redemptive and unifying (Neptune) anthem for the listener to take with them into life’s difficulties:

I backed my car into a cop car the other day
Well, he just drove off, sometimes life's okay
I ran my mouth off a bit too much, oh, what did I say?
Well, you just laughed it off, it was all okay

And we'll all float on, okay
And we'll all float on, okay
And we'll all float on, okay
And we'll all float on anyway, well

A fake Jamaican took every last dime with that scam
It was worth it just to learn some sleight of hand
Bad news comes, don't you worry even when it lands
Good news will work its way to all them plans
We both got fired on exactly the same day
Well, we'll float on, good news is on the way

Bring it on, here we are, win or lose, win or lose
Win or lose, win or lose, win or lose, win or lose
Win or lose, win or lose, I can't say

And we'll all float on, okay
And we'll all float on, okay
And we'll all float on, okay
And we'll all float on, alright

Already, we'll all float on
No, don't you worry, we'll all float on, alright
Already, we'll all float on, alright
Don't worry, we'll all float on

(Alright, already) And we'll all float on
Alright, already, we'll all float on, alright
Don't worry, even if things end up a bit too heavy
We'll all float on
Alright, already, we'll all float on (I'm told don't function and listen everyday)
Alright, already, we'll all float on (The worlds' still going strong)
Okay, don't worry, we'll all float on (I lose hair)
Even if things get heavy, we'll all float on (while living here)
Alright, already, we'll all float on (Alright!) (float on)
Now don't you worry, we'll all float on (Alright!)
We'll all float on

  • Perhaps one of the most classic and obvious examples of the Jupiter-Neptune combination is the famous version of the song “What a Wonderful World,” performed by Louis Armstrong, who was born with this combination in the birth chart. The song portrays wonderfully the positive, uplifting, and hopeful characteristics of this combination: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBrd_3VMC3c

  • Roger Waters, member of the band Pink Floyd, captures the Jupiter-Neptune alignment in his birth chart, in the song “Comfortably Numb,” which narrates an experience in which he was injected with some sort of drug to overcome the pain of an injury so he could play a concert. He sings:

     

    There is no pain, you are receding
    A distant ship, smoke on the horizon
    You are only coming through in waves
    Your lips move, but I can't hear what you're saying
    When I was a child, I had a fever
    My hands felt just like two balloons
    Now I've got that feeling once again
    I can't explain, you would not understand
    This is not how I am

    I have become comfortably numb”

    The words “Comfortably Numb” reflect the escape away from reality and into a place in which discomfort is masked by euphoria.

  • In the song “The Seeker,” by the band The Who, Roger Daltry, also born with the Jupiter-Neptune combination in his birth chart, expresses the frustrating side of Jupiter-Neptune’s tendency to seek Jupiterian heights that are too Neptunianly subtle or elusive to actually reach. He sings:

     

    I asked Bobby Dylan
    I asked The Beatles
    I asked Timothy Leary
    But he couldn't help me either

    They call me the seeker
    I been searchin' low and high
    I won't get to get what I'm after
    Till the day I die

    Focusing on nowhere, investigating miles
    I'm a seeker, I'm a really desperate man

  • The Jupiter-Neptune combination in the natal chart of theorist, spiritual teacher and author Ken Wilber can be seen in the following quotes that combine spiritual themes and practices (Neptune) with an open and ecumenical broadness (Jupiter) of expression:

    “Meditation, then, is not so much a part of this or that particular religion, but rather part of the universal spiritual culture of all humankind—an effort to bring awareness to bear on all aspects of life.”

    “I have one major rule: everybody is right. More specifically, everybody—including me—has some important pieces of the truth, and all of those pieces need to be honored, cherished, and included in a more gracious, spacious, and compassionate embrace.”