Graha

Jupiter (Guru)

गुरु

Jupiter, Guru or Brihaspati, is the teacher and priest of the gods, and its name Guru, the heavy one, is also the word for a spiritual teacher. It takes about twelve years to go round the zodiac, roughly a year in each sign, and its change of sign is one of the transits people watch most closely; the Kumbha Mela is timed by its position. In a chart it stands for wisdom, wealth, children, dharma, teachers and good fortune, and it is counted the greatest of the natural benefics. Thursday is its day. Its own setting in the Sun's glare is one of the periods the muhurta tradition closes to marriage, and the site's muhurta finder works out the dates by its visibility at the place. This page gives what the site's tables hold for Jupiter: the signs it rules, its dignities by degree, its friends and enemies, its special aspects, its dasha and its readings in the signs and houses.

At a glance

Nature
Natural benefic
Day
Thursday
Vimshottari dasha
16 years
Directional strength
1st house
Combust within
11°

What Jupiter signifies

The site's table of significations, the natural karakatva the birth report reads, gives Jupiter: wisdom, wealth, children, dharma, guru, expansion, fortune.

Jupiter is one of the natural benefics in the site's table, with Venus, Mercury and the Moon. Natural nature is only half the story: what a graha is for a particular chart depends on the houses it rules from that chart's Lagna, which each sign's page sets out.

Signs and dignities

Jupiter rules Sagittarius and Pisces. Its dignities, as the site's table gives them, by degree where Parashara divides a sign (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, the chapter on the planets, tr. R. Santhanam):

Friends and enemies

The natural friendships the site reckons with (Parashara's, in the table every dignity and strength is worked from):

A planet in the sign of a friend is comfortable there, in an enemy's ill at ease; the sign pages list who is where.

Aspects, combustion and direction

Jupiter aspects the 5th, 7th and 9th signs from the one it occupies. Every graha aspects the seventh; the others are its special aspects. Aspects are by sign, not by an orb of degrees. Jupiter is combust, lost in the Sun's light, when within 11° of the Sun (Surya Siddhanta). It gains directional strength, dig bala, in the 1st house.

In transit, counted from the Moon sign, the classical gochara table the site uses counts Jupiter favourable in the 2nd, 5th, 7th, 9th and 11th houses.

Its dasha and its nakshatras

Jupiter rules Punarvasu, Vishakha and Purva Bhadrapada, one in each third of the zodiac. Its period in the Vimshottari dasha lasts 16 years, of the cycle's 120; a person born with the Moon in one of its nakshatras begins life in it.

Jupiter in the twelve signs

Varahamihira's readings of a birth with Jupiter in each sign, as the birth report quotes them (Brihat Jataka, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer). He adds that a sign's effects come in full only when the planet, the sign and its lord are strong.

In Aries. With Jupiter in Aries, Varahamihira describes a leader of people, wealthy, generous and patient, with good helpers, a happy marriage, many children and wide renown. (Brihat Jataka 18.12, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))

In Taurus. With Jupiter in Taurus, Varahamihira describes good health, comfort and wealth, friends and children, a generous hand and the goodwill of all. (Brihat Jataka 18.12, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))

In Gemini. With Jupiter in Gemini, Varahamihira describes a comfortable life with a good home, helpers, friends and children, and a place as a trusted adviser or minister. (Brihat Jataka 18.12, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))

In Cancer. With Jupiter in Cancer, Varahamihira describes intelligence and influence, a good spouse and children, wealth and fine possessions, and a comfortable life. (Brihat Jataka 18.13, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))

In Leo. With Jupiter in Leo, Varahamihira describes intelligence and influence, a good spouse and children, wealth and comfort, and beyond these command over others. (Brihat Jataka 18.13, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))

In Virgo. With Jupiter in Virgo, Varahamihira describes a comfortable life with a good home, helpers, friends and children, and a place as a trusted adviser or minister. (Brihat Jataka 18.12, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))

In Libra. With Jupiter in Libra, Varahamihira describes good health, comfort and wealth, friends and children, a generous hand and the goodwill of all. (Brihat Jataka 18.12, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))

In Scorpio. With Jupiter in Scorpio, Varahamihira describes a leader of people, wealthy, generous and patient, with good helpers, a happy marriage, many children and wide renown. (Brihat Jataka 18.12, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))

In Sagittarius. With Jupiter in Sagittarius, Varahamihira describes high standing, as the head of a region, a minister or a commander, or else great wealth. (Brihat Jataka 18.13, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))

In Capricorn. With Jupiter in Capricorn, Varahamihira gives a hard reading: work beneath one's station, little wealth and much sorrow. (Brihat Jataka 18.13, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))

In Aquarius. With Jupiter in Aquarius, Varahamihira gives the reading of the Moon in Cancer: a warm person easily won over by kind words, devoted to friends, with a gift for deep learning, several homes, and wealth that waxes and wanes. (Brihat Jataka 18.13, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))

In Pisces. With Jupiter in Pisces, Varahamihira describes high standing, as the head of a region, a minister or a commander, or else great wealth. (Brihat Jataka 18.13, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))

Jupiter in the twelve houses

The readings the birth report gives for Jupiter in each house, counted from the Lagna:

In the 1st house. Jupiter in the 1st house grants wisdom, optimism and a generous, ethical nature; you are respected, fortunate and naturally guiding to others.

In the 2nd house. Jupiter in the 2nd house blesses wealth, family and wise, truthful speech; you accumulate resources and value knowledge, tradition and good food.

In the 3rd house. Jupiter in the 3rd house gives ethical courage and wise communication; you advise and uplift siblings and peers, though effort brings gradual reward.

In the 4th house. Jupiter in the 4th house blesses the home with comfort, learning and a virtuous mother; you enjoy property, vehicles and deep inner peace.

In the 5th house. Jupiter in the 5th house is excellent for wisdom, children, devotion and learning; you have sound judgement, ethical creativity and good fortune in romance.

In the 6th house. Jupiter in the 6th house helps you overcome enemies and debts through wisdom and ethics; you may serve, heal or counsel, though it can dilute Jupiter's grace.

In the 7th house. Jupiter in the 7th house blesses marriage with a wise, virtuous and prosperous partner; partnerships are harmonious, principled and growth-giving.

In the 8th house. Jupiter in the 8th house grants insight into mysteries, longevity and sudden fortune; you are drawn to deep knowledge, occult study and inheritance.

In the 9th house. Jupiter in the 9th house is supremely placed for fortune, dharma and wisdom; you are devout, learned, lucky and blessed by guru and father.

In the 10th house. Jupiter in the 10th house brings an honourable, advisory career in teaching, law, finance or counsel; you rise through ethics, wisdom and good name.

In the 11th house. Jupiter in the 11th house brings abundant gains, fulfilment of wishes and influential, benevolent friends; prosperity grows steadily and ethically.

In the 12th house. Jupiter in the 12th house turns wisdom towards spirituality, charity and moksha; you spend on noble causes and may prosper in foreign or spiritual settings.

Observances

The tradition's observances for Jupiter, as the site's reference lists them. Thursday is its day and Lord Brihaspati / Lord Vishnu its deity. Its mantra is "Om Gurave Namah", and its beej mantra "Om Graam Greem Graum Sah Gurave Namaha", recited 108 times. The customary gifts: donate turmeric, gram dal or yellow cloth on Thursdays; respect teachers and gurus. Its stotra is the Guru Vandana.

Its stone is the Yellow Sapphire (Pukhraj). The site advises a stone only from a chart: its remedies page strengthens a planet whose Shadbala falls short of what it needs only where that planet is a friend of the chart, and never from a transit or a sign alone.

Use the tools

  • See where Jupiter stands in your chart and how strong it is by Shadbala: free birth chart.
  • Its present sign and the day's panchang: panchang; its transit through your Moon sign: horoscope.
  • All nine: the grahas.