The Courage to Let Go
The Courage to Let Go
Jupiter, Ketu and the Healing Journey
As we look to the sky at this time, there are some energies worth taking a moment to reflect upon. Jupiter has just recently entered Leo and at 1º meets Ketu, the South Node of the Moon, a conjunction of somewhat opposing energies at a charged gandanta point.
Wherever Jupiter goes, he expands the energies present and wherever Ketu travels, he strips away what no longer serves. So while both are ultimately forces of liberation, the effect they have in consciousness is felt very differently. Therefore, what many of us may be feeling at this time is an unexplainable unease – a kind of push and pull of forces within our own psyche and lives that can be confusing. However, when we can understand what is happening beneath the surface, simply knowing can allow us to take deeper breaths and return to centre.
For the past eighteen months, Ketu has been travelling through Leo, the fiery kingdom of the Sun, associated with identity, sovereignty, leadership and soul purpose. Ketu, itself a fiery force, represents the past, karmic patterns, detachment and liberation.
Through Leo, Ketu has been burning away false identities, outdated structures of power and the things that stand between us and our authentic nature. Collectively, we can see this reflected in the exposure of corruption and the questioning of leadership and integrity. Individually, it invites us to examine the identities and patterns we have outgrown.
Now, in the final and often most intense degrees of its passage through Leo, Ketu meets Jupiter, the great benefic, associated with wisdom, grace, abundance and expansion.
And there is something profound about this meeting.
What Ketu has been stripping away, Jupiter now has the opportunity to nourish.
But space must first be created for something new to enter. You cannot pour water into a cup that is already full.
And this is the great paradox of healing.
So many people seek healing as though it were something to acquire, something another person or practitioner, a "healer", might give them. But healing is not always about adding something new. It is more often about releasing what no longer serves us. It is about letting go.
Think of a person drowning in a river. They are struggling to stay above water and are desperately calling out for someone to save them. Many people reach out to help but what if the drowning person is holding onto a heavy rock, not realizing that it is the rock pulling them under the water?
The rock may be literal but more often than not, it is an idea, an identity, a story, an attachment to some ideal or expectation of how things "should be" that they cannot let go. Perhaps they cannot yet see it, or maybe they simply refuse to accept that things have changed. More often than not, the rock is what is familiar and even though it is drowning us in suffering, it is what we know and therefore feels paradoxically safer than the unknown.
Until they recognize what they are holding onto, and find the courage to release it, they continue to struggle.
This is where the inner work becomes essential. And this is where Ketu shines. Though sometimes Ketu's medicine can feel punishing, when his energies pass through certain areas of our lives, it is those aspects of who we are and how we live that will be tested.
In Vedic mythology, Rahu, the North Node of the Moon, and Ketu are represented by the serpent. Rahu is the head and the tail is Ketu. The tail can whip suddenly, severing our ties to the things we have been unwilling to release. Ultimately, releasing us from bondage.
And here is where the conscious choice becomes so important. We can recognize the rock we are holding onto and consciously choose to release it, or we may find that life itself creates the circumstances that force us to confront what we have been unwilling to let go. Ketu's severing action can feel sudden and merciless when we are deeply attached to what is being taken away. But when we participate consciously in the process, what might otherwise feel like loss can become an act of liberation.
This is why Ketu can feel fierce, even cruel. But, this is where I want to highlight a very important principle of depth astrology – the universe has your back. Jyotish, the science of light, exists to help illuminate our paths, to help us see into our blind spots and recognize the unconscious patterns of thought and behaviour that may be creating the very struggles we seek to escape.
"Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will forever direct your life and you will call it fate." - Aion, Carl Jung*
This is also why knowing which house Ketu is currently transiting in our birth chart can help us understand certain events and even prepare for what lies ahead. Depth astrology is all about empowering our free will, allowing us to move through the world with greater self awareness and conscious choice.
Dreams offer another window into these unconscious patterns. In depth psychology, we analyze our dreams because they often reveal what we cannot yet see in ourselves. This is why working with others to understand our dreams, exploring our shadows, and bringing unconscious patterns into awareness can be so important. What was hidden becomes visible, and with that awareness comes the possibility of choosing differently.
But awareness must eventually become choice.
We cannot embody the life we dream of while remaining attached to everything we have been.
And letting go requires faith.
And Jupiter represents faith – not necessarily faith that everything will unfold exactly as we wish, but trust in the process itself.
A path is only ever laid one stone at a time. Yet so often we become so focused on the destination, on the life we want or the person we hope to become, that we miss the steps unfolding beneath our feet.
The real leap of faith is not jumping over those steps. It is trusting that when we take one, the next will reveal itself.
So many of us are willing to trust the promise of an outcome, but have not yet learned to trust the process.
And perhaps this is the deeper invitation of Jupiter's meeting with Ketu.
Ketu represents the past and the patterns from which we seek liberation. Jupiter offers wisdom, grace and the possibility of a more expansive future.
And they meet in the present.
This is where transformation happens. In our willingness to look deeply, to recognize what we have been holding onto, and to consciously choose what we are ready to release.
Depending on where Leo falls in your birth chart, this meeting will illuminate different areas of your life.
If you wish, you may think back to around 2015-16, and reflect upon what was unfolding in your life back then. Even though Ketu was not in Leo then as he is now, this may offer you some clues as to which areas of your life are activated by Jupiter's transit through Leo. What areas of your life are asking for expansion? What wants to grow and asks you to have the courage to trust in the next step taken along that path?
And, you can think back 18 years ago, around 2007-8, and reflect upon that time in your life and perhaps gain some insight into how Ketu in the sign of Leo plays out for you. And, if you wish, ask yourself: What are the rocks you are still holding onto? And, what might become possible if you found the courage to let them go?
Because this time, as Ketu meets Jupiter, the expansion of consciousness available for all of us is a tremendous opportunity for growth. And it's worth wondering if the greatest healing comes not from becoming something more, but from releasing what has prevented us from embodying who we truly are... The healing journey is the human expression of that cosmic relationship.
December 5th Ketu will move into Cancer and Rahu will move into Capricorn. This shift will bring another 18-month cycle of tremendous change for the world and many opportunities for each of us to grow, but more on that to come in future letters.
As above, so below. As within, so without.