A Cosmic hexagram created by the “clock” of Jupiter and Saturn
The biggest news this year in the world of astronomy is the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn on November 3. The event happens once every 20 years, when Jupiter, with an orbital period of 12 years, meets Saturn, with a period of 30 years. The two planets return to the same positions 60 years later. Connect all the points, and a hexagram emerges. Jupiter and Saturn mimic the movement of a clock.
Conjunction & Opposition of Jupiter & Saturn 2020–2080
November 3, 2020 Conjunction
September 22, 2030 Opposition
December 8, 2040 Conjunction
January 28, 2050 Opposition
February 2, 2060 Conjunction
September 12, 2070 Opposition
May 21, 2080 Conjunction
The giant clock of the cosmos
Long ago, the night sky was a form of media. Just as today we have TV, newspapers, and social networking accounts, people in the days of yore gazed at the star-studded sky, collected various types of data, and put them to various uses. Two of the most likely observed celestial bodies were Jupiter and Saturn.
Jupiter has an orbital period of 12 years, and Saturn of 30 years. The two planets come to conjunction or opposition every 10 years, and return to the same positions in 60 years. The keywords here are 12 and 60. Ring any bells? The base-12 and base-60 numeral systems are used today for measuring time. That is, the cycles of Jupiter and Saturn provide just the right scale for measuring the human lifetime.
The giant clock of the solar system works on the same principle as the watch on our wrist.
Good fortune & Bad fortune
Light and shade, positive and negative, good and evil—according to one system of thought, our world is made up of opposites either generating (inter-promoting) interaction or overcoming (inter-regulating) interaction. Jupiter and Saturn have this relationship of balance, too. In terms of chance or luck, Jupiter is a symbol of good fortune, and Saturn of bad fortune.
Jupiter also stands for organization and society, group consciousness and common understanding, the intangible image of people coming together and joining in merrymaking. Saturn, by contrast, rules the tangible stage, mechanism, or foundation that supports these people. Jupiter is abstract and yet has the potential for ascension and development. Saturn is concrete and takes its time to build and form realistic, steady, substantial results.
The power and virtue of mass
Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system, and Saturn the second largest. Jupiter and Saturn are far apart in distance and yet quite closely associated. It’s little wonder when we consider that Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are composed of rock and metal, whereas Jupiter and Saturn are gas giants.
As we know, Earth has one natural satellite: the Moon. Jupiter has a much greater gravitational field, meaning it also has a larger number of moons. The four Galilean moons—Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto—are well known. If we include the 12 moons discovered in recent years, the total number of moons on Jupiter is 79!
Jupiter is ten times larger than Earth, but it has a rotation period of only nine hours. We on Earth owe our calm, comfortable environment to this ultra-large, ultra-fast Jupiter, as it draws comets that come flying from the outer limits of the solar system, and keeps them from reaching our Earth. At this very moment, Jupiter is attracting more meteors and continuing to grow. Of all the gravity in the solar system, the Sun accounts for 99%, and Jupiter the remaining 1%. Let that sink in—the sheer grandeur of Jupiter.
A SLICE OF SPACE
Jupiter & Saturn Pie
The hot tomato sauce expresses the hexagram created by Jupiter and Saturn from 2020 to 2080. The three cheeses, the conjunctions that occur every 20 years. And the scallion around the salami, the rings of Saturn.
Kaichi Sugiyama
Born 1977 in Shizuoka Prefecture, Sugiyama self-studied calendars and designed the HELIO COMPASS. His invention was inspired, to some degree, by the extremity of time that he experienced in the course of his part-time job at a pizza parlor.
