I live in a tree house that sits high above our small town, overlooking a canyon. From my living room window, I can see hawks circling the valley below looking for lunch while in the distance the sun shimmers on the ocean bay. Removed from the bustling town center and with a wide panorama view that Mother Nature reserves only for birds, this mountain-top home preaches the art of perspective. I love it for many reasons, but the consistent effect it seems to have on others and myself is a sense of expansion. It’s near impossible to feel small and insignificant for too long when confronted by such spaciousness. It stuns you into submission. When life has me feeling tight and cramped inside, the feeling doesn’t stick around very long. Not here. All I have to do is take a meditative look at the expansiveness in front of me and I am drenched in the bigger view.

Natal Jupiter, planet of Expansion and Possibility is in my Fourth House of Home and Family. Astrology books predicted I would live in “the house on the hill,” that I would have luck with real estate in my life, have a big house, perhaps colorful and full of travel relics-fitting for the mind-broadening planet. As luck would have it, my Aquarian Jupiter is retrograde, so my home isn’t huge but it’s got character and big energy. Our living room floor is a Tunisian tribal rug, once taken on caravan journeys and unrolled under a nighttime desert sky – a wonderful metaphor for this planet of Gypsies in my house of Home. The Fourth House is also that of the Inner Self, and I attribute Jupiter’s placement here to the bottomless reserve of faith and possibility I seem to possess, despite having been born in the direct path of Pluto’s blowtorch.

Jupiter, Sagittarius’ ruling planet, is the planet of limitlessness and largesse. Where we find Jupiter in our natal birth chart house we find the place we can reliably go to re-fill our spiritual, and sometimes material, coffers. This birth chart house is where the Dreamer, Philosopher, Teacher and Seeker roams freely, filling the halls with the expansive sounds of choir angels, drinking songs, all-night philosophical discussions, laughter. Here we can see that life is neither good or bad, only an experience. If the glass looks half empty, Sag philosophically asks us to turn it another way. If our perspective has been too narrow or negative, Sagittarrian and Jupiter forces encourage us to broaden our self by: going on an adventure, seeking answers with a new system of thought or teacher, or examining our belief system. The Sagittarian/Jupiterian inside of us yearns for a bigger, more meaningful experience of our life, and as counterpart to the planet of Divine Discontent, Neptune, this part of our self is always a little restless, perpetually seeking something “better than this”. We want a bigger home, a better relationship, a more meaningful spiritual life. We want a more colourful, meaningful, prosperous, happy and beloved existence.

It’s not too much to ask. In fact, not asking for more, bigger and better is a waste of a perfectly good Jupiter. But there are times when we just don’t feel that little kick, that optimistic impulse that helps us to stretch beyond what we’ve known. And there are times when Sag restlessness and divine discontent shows its shadow unruly, intemperate, intolerant side.  When that happens we need a change in latitude, attitude or perspective. We need to broaden our experience instead of circumambulating the same old stuff.

This freedom-loving new moon falls at 10’59’ Sagittarius, is square Chiron in Pisces and trine Uranus in Aries. We want freedom from the past, from the chains of chronic and chiron-ic wounds that bind our imagination, keeping us centered on our suffering instead of our possibilities. Have you ever known someone so insistent about their story that you can predict they’ll never experience anything else than that story? Could that someone be you? We can always find reasons to justify our story. Sagittarius’ shadow is a dogmatic insistence on our way -of living, being, relating or thinking. Pay attention to the stories you are telling your self. With Uranus involved, you’ve a chance to reinvent new ways of being, thinking and doing.

Where does this new moon fall in your chart? Expand your vision here. Don’t be afraid to re-envision an old story you’ve told your self about this area of your life. Natal Jupiter in your birth chart? This area of life reliably funds you spiritual perspective, possibility and inspiration. Go there any time. Sit on your mountain top, revel in possibility. Drink from and bathe in Jupiter’s golden, bubbling fountain of well-being.

Right now, I’m on my Jupiter perch but soon my magic carpet will set sail from SFO, to finish out the rest of my Stockholm adventure. I love my home, and during these weeks back I’ve been feeling more gratitude for the blessed place I live. The fact is, the more places I visit, the less I want to live anywhere else but here… and my time in Stockholm has confirmed this for me. But with Jupiter in my Fourth House I know I’m not really leaving anything behind. It’s an inner state. I’m determined to take the view from the top with me.