Jupiter

Jupiter in natural colours with shadow of the moon Europa, from photos taken by the Cassini-Huygens telecamera on 7 December 2000.

Today's Jupiter (ancient Egyptian: Hor-wepesh-taui; Hebrew: צֶדֶק Tsedeq; astronomical sign: ♃) arose from a spiritual-scientific point of view, when the so-called Old Sun's existence was repeated in an abbreviated form during the earth evolution. It consists essentially of gas and heat. Jupiter's sidereal orbital period is 11.86 years.

„Jupiter has a moderate active power because its motion is between the cooling influence of Saturn and the burning power of Mars. It heats and moistens; And because its heating power is the greater because of the underlying spheres, it produces fertilising winds.“

– Claudius Ptolemy: Terabiblos, Book I, The Power of the Planets

A Great Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter occurs about every 20 years. Some astronomers and historians suggest that the Star of Bethlehem at the time of Jesus' birth may have been a Great Conjunction in the years 7 to 6 B.C. The most recent, spiritually very significant Great Conjunction occurred in the evening of December 21, 2020.

The physical planet

Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system, with an equatorial diameter of about 143,000 kilometres. With an average distance of 778 million kilometres, it is the fifth planet as seen from the Sun. It is named after the Roman chief god Jupiter.

It has no visible solid surface. Due to its chemical composition, Jupiter is a gas planet. These "gas giants" form the group of outer planets in the solar system; they are also called Jupiter-like (Jovian) planets. In this group, Jupiter is the innermost planet; it orbits the Sun beyond the asteroid belt.

In 2018, 79 moons of Jupiter were known. The four largest so-called Galilean moons, Ganymede, Callisto, Io and Europa, have diameters between 5262 and 3122 km and were discovered as early as 1610.

Jupiter is the third to fourth brightest object in the night sky (after the Moon and Venus; depending on the orbital constellation, Mars is sometimes brighter). In Babylonia, it was considered a royal star because of its golden-yellow light (see also Star of Bethlehem).

Spiritual significance of Jupiter

The planetary seal of Jupiter according to Rudolf Steiner.

Jupiter is the seat of the Jupiter beings that stimulate the consciousness soul (Lit.:GA 98, p. 198). The Jupiter sphere is the domain of the Spirits of Wisdom. The leading Archangel of Jupiter is Zachariel.

In the human organism, Jupiter's forces have a special effect on the formation and activity of the liver, and in speech they reveal themselves through the vowel O. In plants, Jupiter's influence is reflected in the formation of fruit. As a tree, the maple is associated with Jupiter, and among the earthly metals, tin came into being through the direct influence of Jupiter.

The Great Year of Jupiter and the Appearance of the Christ in Jesus on Earth

„It is of marvellous depth, and it is immeasurably touching, how in the sense of the Gospels - one tells the one time, the other tells the other Gospel - men are taught of the appearing of the Christ Jesus. On the one hand, there are the three wise men, the magi from the Orient, the bearers of the ancient wisdom of the stars, the explorers of the word of the world from the starry script of the cosmos. They are gifted with the highest wisdom that was accessible to humanity at that time. And it is indicated by the Gospel how the highest wisdom can speak nothing else for that time than: The Christ Jesus appears, the stars tell us. The eternal word of the world, which came in the stars, which lives in constellations, tells us that the Christ Jesus will appear.

In the schools, in the schools of wisdom, it was proclaimed that Jupiter has completed its planetary orbit 354 times since the creation of the present humanity on earth. A Jupiter year, a great Jupiter year, has been completed since the time when, for example, the ancient Hebrews assumed the existence of mankind on earth. In the sense of this world view of that time, an ordinary year had 354 days. 354 Jupiter days have passed and these 354 Jupiter days are something that speaks from worldly wisdom, like the sentence, the great sentence, and the individual words in it indicate the revolutions of Mercury, and seven times seven a Mercury day has passed forty-nine times in the same time in which a Jupiter day has passed.

Such connections these ancient sages sought in the star-script. And what was inspired into their souls by such deciphering of the star writing, they interpreted in such a way that they could clothe it in the words: The Christ Jesus appears, for the time is fulfilled. The time of Jupiter, the time of Mercury is fulfilled. The great world timepiece, which is in the stars, speaks of the time being fulfilled. The Gospels proclaim this from one side. From the other. From the other side they proclaim, as the poor shepherds in the field from the dream that springs from their simple heart, without all wisdom, merely listening to the pious, simple voice of the human soul, what the poor shepherds received revealed from the depths of the human breast. And it is the same message: the Christ appears.“ (Lit.:GA 209, p. 143f)

Literature

• Fran Bagenal, T. Dowling, W. McKinnon (Hrsg.): Jupiter: The Planet, Satellites and Magnetosphere. Cambridge University Press, 2004, ISBN 0-521-81808-7.
• Guillaume Cannat, Didier Jamet: Jupiter und Saturn – die schönsten Bilder der Raumsonden Galileo und Cassini. Aus dem Franz. von Gottfried Riekert. Delius Klasing, Bielefeld 2007, ISBN 978-3-7688-1877-3.
• Alexander J. Dessler: Physics of the Jovian magnetosphere. Cambridge University Press, 1983, ISBN 0-521-24558-3.
• John W. McAnally: Jupiter and how to observe it. Springer, London 2008, ISBN 978-1-85233-750-6.
• Rudolf Steiner: Natur- und Geistwesen – ihr Wirken in unserer sichtbaren Welt, GA 98 (1996), ISBN 3-7274-0980-0 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
• Rudolf Steiner: Nordische und mitteleuropäische Geistimpulse, GA 209 (1982), ISBN 3-7274-2090-1 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org

References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated. Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com. Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English. Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA) Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.

References

Solar system