Jupiter · Guru

Guru, Bṛhaspati in the older name, is the great benefic and preceptor of the gods: kāraka of wisdom, children, and wealth. Jyotiṣa reads him as the graha of increase, and whatever he touches the tradition holds he enlarges. So the whole ethics of the planet sits in a single question, whether the thing deserved enlarging.

He rules Dhanus and Mīna, and exalts in Karka at five degrees, where the classical texts read wisdom as growing best in a sign that feeds it. He falls in Makara, the placement where every gift is read as something first earned. His mahādaśā runs sixteen years on the Vimśottarī clock; his guna is sattva, his register the open hand. His aspect is counted protective, the benefic glance that classically softens whatever house it reaches.

Read Guru for where grace is said to enter a chart without being invoiced: luck, counsel, faith, the teacher who arrives on time. Well placed, the tradition gives him generosity with judgment. Afflicted, the same expansion loses its editor, and the reading turns to promises past capacity, faith gone to fat, the sermon nobody asked for. He rhymes with the Wheel of Fortune, increase riding the turn of the cycle. His question stays gentle and severe at once: what are you growing?