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Astrology:
Excerpt from Donna's e-book:
The Outer Planets and Inner Live, Volume 2: Outer Planet Aspects to Venus and Mars. |
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Jupiter and Gambling
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by Donna Cunningham, MSW |
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Note: This is an excerpt from Donna’s ebook, An Astrological Guide to Self-Awareness, available at http://www.moonmavenpublications.com.
During Pluto’s long transit through the Jupiter-ruled sign of Sagittarius (1995-2008), gambling got legitimized in the form of state lotteries, Indian casinos, gaming machines in restaurants, and online poker playing and became gigantic industry. Traditionally, Jupiter is associated with gambling and other forms of risk-taking, along with education, foreign places, and religion. There are you may be surprised to learn, connec°©tions between, gambling and other meanings of Jupiter[1]. The sailing of the Mayflower to colonize the New World was financed by a lottery in England. Yale, Harvard, and Dartmouth were built with funds raised by a lottery. Lotteries supplied funds to form the Revolutionary army and win American independence. Even today, some proceeds of legalized lotteries finance education. In certain states, bingo and "Las Vegas Nights" are legal only so long as a church runs them. Finally, churches and other charities are perpetually selling raffle tickets for some long-shot dream car.
Many Jupiterian people love to gamble, though others never so much as buy a lottery ticket, for their “high” comes from taking other kinds of risks. Some of the risks are wonderful ones—like taking the risk of opening up to new ideas or to experiences you have always dreamed of—while others take foolhardy risks out of the misplaced belief that they are divinely protected. However, some Jupiterians who do gamble can become compulsive about it, especially those with Mars-Jupiter aspects.
In moderation, though, gambling can have some positive effects. Jupiter correlates with optimism, and pessimistic people rarely do much gambling. The cockeyed optimist keeps on playing, despite repeated losses, knowing the odds are against him, because he doesn't really believe he can lose. Maybe he just lost a bundle, but this time, mind you, he's sure to win. Don't tell him different, because he’ll turn a deaf ear. "Are you trying to jinx me or something?"
Closely related to optimism is hope, and none of us could go on without it. For many people stuck in slums, in boring jobs, or in life situations where they feel hopeless, a little gambling keeps their hopes alive. That dollar a slum dweller puts on a lottery ticket provides a reason to live through today and a hope that tomorrow will magically put an end to the nightmare.
Mario Puzo, who wrote The Godfather, was once a compulsive gambler and writes eloquently about it with a great deal of insight. In his book, Inside Las Vegas, he says:
“What possesses a group of mature people who know what life is all about to think that gambling can solve their problems? Desperation, that's what, and something to put a little spice in your life. [In psychiatric explanations for gambling]... what gets left out are the solace and pleasure it's brought countless millions living in worlds without hope and without those dreams essential to life.”
People who have more to live for and who have hope for the future are not so prone to compulsive gambling. Puzo confirms this, in explaining why he quit gambling:
“Now for the first time in my life, making more money than I have ever made in my life ... I have come to the decision that I cannot afford, economically, to gamble. The simple reason being that to gamble is to risk, that is to approach the ‘ruin factor.’ When I was poor the ruin factor was not important. Hell, I was ruined anyway.”
Closely akin to this connection between poverty and gambling is the fixation so many people today have on that other Jupiterian long shot, the lawsuit. For many, the only way they can envision out of their financial woes is to hit the lottery or win a big lawsuit. Mind you, many of their woes came about through negative expressions of Jupiter—overspending, overextending their credit, and overindulging in luxuries they couldn’t afford as they insisted on living beyond their means. In a similar way, people from poor countries throughout the world have acted upon the Jupiterian hope of emigrating to a foreign country to seek their fortune.
As we've seen, Jupiter is related to faith and religion. The connection gambling has with faith is easy to see--faith is an upwardly directed extension of hope and optimism. But religion? Here are some very interesting insights by Puzo:
“The truth is that gambling is a primitive religious instinct peculiar to our species ... Religious leaders, those supreme hustlers of the long shot, are revered, but gamblers are sneered at because most people think of gambling as a foolish vice.
“It's not that you want to lose what you've won, it's just that you don't believe it's possible to lose. When winning, you are convinced God loves you. It is as close as I have ever come in my life to a religious feeling. Or to being a wonder-struck child.
“Is that so different from these religious fanatics who think that after death they will go to their particular heaven? I think the whole magic power of gambling lies in its essential purity of endeavor, in its absence of guilt. No matter what our character, no matter what our behavior, no matter if we are ugly, unkind, murderers, saints, guilty sinner, foolish, or wise, we can get lucky.”
Ready to accept that religion and gambling are connected? After all, many of the tools of divination we use in spiritual studies are ruled by the laws of chance—laying out the Tarot cards, throwing the / Ching, or setting up a horary chart. Yet we believe that some higher power is arranging the cards, the coins, or the horary chart into a spiritually meaningful pattern that will elucidate our lives. Is that so far removed from the faith a gambler exercises?
To gamble successfully, you have to have another Jupitter trait—wisdom. You have to know the odds; in the numbers game, for instance, your chances of winning are 1 in 999, but in blackjack you have a better than even chance. You have to know that your chances of winning in lotteries and at slot machines are miniscule. If you still enjoy the thrill of it, that rush of adrenaline while you wait for the results, do it so long as you regard it as entertainment. But the compulsive gambler will believe he can beat the odds and pours large sums of money into hopeless games.
The bad luck that can come from gambling, then, also relates to Jupiterian traits—overindulgence, over-confidence, and foolish optimism. In its place and in moderation, gambling can have some positive effects. It gives hope to the hopeless, excitement to people whose lives are dull, and a feeling of divine grace in those moments when we actually win. As we saw earlier, gambling has even financed some worthwhile institutions. As with all things, however, balance and wisdom are needed to keep what can be a harmless pastime from becoming a self-destructive obsession.
[1] Mario Puzo, Inside Las Vegas, Grosset and Dunlap, 1976. This quote and others in this chapter are taken from the excerpt in Book Digest May 7, pp. 33-57.
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Donna Cunningham,
Astrologer
& Healer |
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Donna Cunningham is an internationally respected astrologer and the author of 19 books on metaphysical topics.
She has been an astrologer for almost 40 years.
Her newest career direction is to lead writing seminars for those who wish to write about astrology, metaphysics or self-help subjects. See her summer offerings at www.moonmaven
publications.
com/writingseminars.html.
Donna Cunningham has a dual background in astrology and psychotherapy, with a Masters in Social Work from Columbia University and over 30 years experience as a professional astrologer. She considers doing the astrology charts of children to be a sacred trust. It is a way of knowing who these Indigo children are on their own terms rather than as their families, teachers, and society expect them to be.
In these sessions, she focuses on typical childhood concerns such as family and peer relationships, the best educational approaches, and the child's special gifts and abilities. She can be reached for consultations at (503)291-7891, by email, or at her web page. Ask about her special rate for children's charts.
Donna is also co-editor of Vibration and a frequent contributor. She has written fourteen books on astrology and other metaphysical topics, including her Flower Remedies Handbook. Astrologers who want to know the special considerations involved in doing children's charts can read the chapter on this topic in Donna's text, The Consulting Astrologer's Guidebook.
Listed in several Who’s Who volumes, she has given seminars on astrology around the world and won the prestigious Regulus Award at the 1998 UAC.
email:
moonmaven @spiritone.com
Phone:
(503)291-7891.
Donna teaches astrology classes online at:
Academy of
Astro-Psychology:
www.astropsychology.
org/index.asp?pgid=1
Donna Cunningham, one of astrology’s best-known authors and teachers, is now offering a 14-lesson correspondence course by e-mail. If you’ve already studied the signs, planets, houses, aspects, and transits but don’t know how to put the pieces together, Astrology Chart Interpretation and Synthesis is for you. See details at: www.moonmaven
publications.com/
correspondancecourse.html .
For the past 20 years, she has worked with the flower remedies, and she is co-editor of Vibration Magazine, a free online educational quarterly at:
essences.com/
vibration/
Donna has 17 books available, including 7 ebooks with more to come! See them at:
www.moonmaven
publications.com
This series is reprinted with gracious permission from Donna Cunningham.
©2002 Vibration Magazine/The World Wide Essence Society
PO Box 285
Concord, MA 01742
978 369-8454
www.moonmaven
publications.com
If you are interested in ordering a copy of Donna's ebook:
"Flower Remedies--How Plant's Energies Can Heal Us,"
It is $15, available at Moon Maven Publications:
www.moonmaven
publications.com
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