Juno’s Flight to Reunite with Jupiter – the Launch

by Marilyn Muir, LPMAFA

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On August 5, 2011 at 12:25 PM, I was in my bedroom checking the weather on television. As the set came on I heard the words “launch 5, 4,” and I bolted from the bedroom, ran down my hallway yelling “get out in the front yard now,” scaring my daughter and grand-daughter half to death. I did not stop and got out the front door with the two of them on my heels. Now I should explain something here… I live on Florida’s central east coast, a community about 30 miles south of Cape Kennedy (Cape Canaveral) where the U.S. rockets are launched. What I had inadvertently tuned into on the television was the launch of the Atlas V rocket blasting off for Jupiter. To continue my story… From my front lawn, facing north, in about ten seconds, there it was: the rocket itself, flames shooting out the bottom, boosting it into the heavens. We were watching history being made.  The three of us carried on like crazy women waving the rocket successfully into space. You cannot imagine the thrill of watching a launch live. If it is ever possible to view any launch, take advantage of the opportunity, especially when it is historical.

This solar-powered probe launched has a very long and circuitous 400-million-mile journey to the giant gas planet Jupiter arriving in July of 2016. Once it arrives it will spend a year in a highly elliptical polar orbit studying the planet and its ingredients, hoping to answer more questions about the formation and evolution of our solar system,.Jupiter is the largest member of our solar family.  Once the Sun had been formed, Jupiter gobbled up most of the leftover gas and space dust debris leaving a limited amount for the rest of the “family” of planets. Astronomically, mysterious Jupiter has twice the mass of everything else in our system. Why and how did it form? Does it have a core? Juno will study the atmosphere, potential water vapor, magnetics, gravity, the polar auroras, you name it…if we can make a study of it, we will. The probe will take photos, tons of photos in all possible light: visible, ultraviolet and infrared. We will be up very close and personal with the giant of our solar system, the king of the ancient gods.

There is a deliberate irony involving the name of the probe and the name of the planet. Juno, the mythical wife of the Roman god Jupiter will be visiting and eventually taking up residence on her mythical husband. Onboard the spacecraft are three Lego figurines representing Juno, Jupiter and Galileo Galilei, the Italian astronomer who discovered four of Jupiter’s moons with his handy, dandy telescope. The probe also contains a plaque commemorating Galilei’s discovery.  Over the year Juno will remain in orbit it will complete 33 orbits, flirting with her husband and then will jump into Jupiter’s arms (crash land on the planet). Juno will actually physically impact on her husband but Jupiter can handle it. Why? To prevent potential landing and possible contamination on any of Jupiter’s moons, which scientists believe may be capable of supporting life. We are trying to behave responsibly for once!

Why is this space flight important to astrologers? Astronomy and science provide the measure and astrology provides the interpretation. As our science community ferrets out and develops information on our origins and makeup, mankind grows and develops from that information as well. Astrology must also expand with that growing information. We must listen and learn from the cold, hard facts (science) and then interpret those new elements into useful delineation (art). Mankind’s reality is expanding rapidly and our astrological skills must expand with it.

Earlier today I finished an article on the spacecraft that recently arrived at the asteroid Vesta instituting a year-long orbit and study. It will then move on to Ceres and perform another year-long orbit and study.  In the past I have written about the 1994 Shoemaker-Levy 21-piece comet strike on Jupiter, the fly-by photography of the dark side of the Moon in the 60’s plus the landing in 1969 on Earth’s Moon, the incredible 83-million-mile bull’s eye landing on Comet Tempel in 2005. This summer (2011) another of our satellites got up close and personal with Mercury. And what about Mars? We’ve had earth’s satellites, photography and two Mars landers on the surface, plus photographing the two moons of Mars (the  god of war): Phobos and Diemos (fear and terror).

When we develop such up close and personal information on a planet or celestial body, we must change our perspective. That which was invisible and therefore unconscious has had a spotlight placed on it as it becomes visible and therefore conscious. What has been has been changed so astrologers and astrology must change with it. All of these space shots and more, including the probe Juno’s visit to Jupiter, are not simply astronomical and scientific, they must also be astrological, so our ability to interpret comes into play. New information must be developed with new paradigms established. Mankind is poised for massive discoveries. Are you ready to step up, research and help develop the new body of information?

On a related note…it has been said that the coming of the Avatar for the new age will happen when the sign of man is in the heavens. To my knowledge, that has always been interpreted as Aquarius. But I ask you…is the sign of man already in the heavens?  One of my favorite photographs ever is of a lone astronaut in his white spacesuit floating in the dark sky, his umbilicus cord anchoring him to the space station trailing behind him, reaching for the half circle of the distant Earth in the dark sky. Very inspiring! The sign of man definitely is in the heavens.

New Juno article http://www.space.com/16164-jupiter-magnetosphere-nasa-juno-mission.html?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=SP_06182012

First published on All Things Healing website Jun 2012, republished with slight editing.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.