Jupiter in Cancer & the myth of progress
Part of the reason capitalism feels harder to escape than gravity is due to the way it has attached itself to the fundamental stories that help us to contextualize and process humanity and life and death. Capitalism has co-opted collective myths and reframed them as evidence of its own natural order. Like a cancer, it has attached itself to the very thing we use to define humanity, in order to proliferate and consume its host—our planet.
One of the most fundamental myths of capitalism, the myth of progress claims that humanity is always advancing, moving through time along a straight, forward-facing line, and that economic growth is proof of humanity’s natural dominance. In this framing, both time and land are seen as savage resources to be tamed. Technology becomes the primary tool of civilization, and progress is measured by technological advancement.
The myth of progress is actually closer to what Joseph Campbell calls a monomyth, because it underscores all other mythologies and establishes a narrative structure. Folklore and folk tales may vary in structure, because they’re generally more about getting a certain point across or explaining a truth of existence. A monomyth establishes a structure which all other myths will emulate. Hence, while different mythologies across cultures may be attempting to explain the same phenomenon, monomyths allow us to differentiate between cultures based on the way the myth is structured.
If this is going over your head, imagine any Disney movie you’ve ever watched. They tell different stories, with different characters in different settings who face different challenges, but the general structure of most stories follows the structure of the hero’s journey. Moana is a very clear example of this narrative structure, as well as films like Aladdin, Brave, Mulan, Tangled, Toy Story… so many of them. There are very few Disney films whose plots are not built on this monomyth.
The myth of progress, sometimes referred to as the infinite growth theory, is the monomyth of capitalism.
One of the 13 characteristics of white supremacy culture, as outlined by Tema Okun, is “progress is better & more.” The myth of progress mirrors this exactly. It tells us that growth, expansion, and profit are the markers of success, no matter the cost. This myth is perhaps the most recognizable and prolific of capitalism’s stories, which makes it a fitting match for a planetary archetype like Jupiter.
Alice Sparkly Kat, in Postcolonial Astrology, describes Jupiter’s power as a judicial one: a “future-making power.”Whoever holds the authority to define right and wrong decides which behaviors, ideas, and ways of relating are acceptable. In doing so, they dictate not only what’s possible in the present but also what carries us into the future.
Jupiter and the myth of progress are both about turning the wild into the ordered; the urge to contain the chaos Jupiter fears. In this way, we can see these myths represented in both the colonizers and the colonized: the colonizers who view the untamed world as a blank slate upon which to inscribe their imperialist “destiny,” and the indigenous peoples who inhabit these “empty” lands, described as animalistic and wild.
This is the essence of the myth of progress: it’s not just about movement forward, but about whose version of the future gets to take shape—and at whose expense.
When we buy into the myth of progress as a moral imperative—the belief that we must grow or be left behind—we become trapped in a mindset that equates our worth and success with constant transformation. The fear of failure under capitalism is such a strong drive that it keeps most people from ever considering slowing down—not when it means a slow, impoverished death.
Under capitalism, innovation isn’t simply about creating something useful or meaningful. Innovation is valued when it results in doing something faster, better, and more profitably than anyone else. The kind of “growth” which innovation hungers after is inherently extractive. When we internalize this, we begin to feel that anything less than growth is failure. It creates a moral hierarchy where more is always better, leaving little room for reflection on whether that growth is beneficial or even necessary. Again, “progress is better and more” is a core characteristic of white supremacy culture, and part of this is because this way of thinking is antithetical to indigenous modes of being that held the earth and its resources in a higher regard, viewing the planet and its inhabitants as teachers for humans.
“Technological ‘progress’ is often celebrated not for its actual benefits but for its symbolic alignment with the myth of overcoming nature, limits, and dependency.”1
Capitalism’s endless growth doctrine—mirroring the principle of a cancer cell—has usurped a myth that’s more about fathers and self-actualization and the circle of death & rebirth than anything else and turned it into a story of constant conquest: we must conquer the past through technology, we must conquer ourselves through self-improvement, we must conquer the earth through extracting its resources, and we must conquer the future through material security.
Myths are explanations of universal truths, and thus can be witnessed on both sides of conflicts where it seems right and wrong couldn’t be more obvious. We don’t need to throw out the myth in order to throw out capitalism’s interpretation of it.
“Jupiter is the planet of expansion. But it doesn’t just expand — it expands whatever system it is placed in. If it’s placed in a system of domination, it expands domination. If it’s placed in a system of liberation, it expands liberation.”2
As we find ourselves floating in the deep, cool waters of Jupiter in Cancer, already there is expansion of violence and domination. Liberation is fighting for its life, but the overcoming square from Saturn for the next few months spurs on the fight for domination. It’s a precarious place for Jupiter to be.
More than simply holding our hope and optimism in his position of exaltation, Jupiter now holds the terrifying, primordial forces of creation in his hands. New worlds clamor to be born left and right, and not all of them are the utopian dreams shared by many on the receiving end of oppression. While Jupiter clashes with the lord of limitations, Saturn in Aries, I see the slow death of the myth of progress, who is going out kicking and screaming. I see more and more people unplugging from the programming of progress. I see the urge to self-optimize dissolving in our hands as they catch salty tears of grief and rage.
Saturn will be fallen for the next few years, doing her best to enforce the laws of reality, but lacking the usual patience she typically possesses. Things will move more quickly than she feels prepared for. How do you get an elephant to move faster? With pain. By cracking the whip.
How do you get an exploited worker to produce more? With punishment. By cracking the whip.
The more you resist endless growth and extraction, the more capitalism will crack the whip and favor those who fall in line. Jupiter placed in a system of punishment and reward will expand the punishment and the reward. Jupiter exalted has the ability to turn systems into civilizations, ideas into worlds. Yes, the time is ripe—but not all are sowing liberation.
It is time to become vigilant about what is growing, and more specifically, why and for whom it grows. The myth of progress insists that growth is good, and harm from growth is merely collateral. But we know better. We are living in the bloated, rotted carcass of centuries of growth-for-growth’s-sake. We are wading through its waste. And we haven’t yet created the systems to compost it—the inter-species collaborations necessary for life to continue on amidst destruction & ruin.
Jupiter and Saturn ask big questions about the external worlds we reside in, but this is also a moment of inward disorientation. To unlearn growth as a moral imperative is not to reject transformation, but to refuse transformation as a sign of worthiness. It is to explore what it means to live without the expectation of always becoming more. It means learning to recognize when the drive to improve is rooted in fear, or shame, or a need to prove your worth through productivity. It means noticing when accumulation—of skills, money, validation—starts to feel like the only real form of safety. Resisting the myth of progress internally might look like orienting more intentionally around what’s already here. It might mean decentering money in small ways, choosing interdependence where possible, and naming what is enough without immediately aspiring to more. The concept of degrowth isn’t about no longer growing, but rather about no longer stretching toward a false sun and creating yourself in the image capitalism gave you.
While Jupiter is ruled by the moon for the next year, a different expression of Jupiter will be available to us every couple of days. Every full and new moon will speak to the movements of Jupiter and where he’s planting his seed. Each lunar eclipse will cast a shadow on his legislative abilities. These moments will reveal where Jupiter’s expansion serves collective autonomy, and where it masks subjugation. We must resist the temptation to only see abundance as a good thing, and instead turn our focus toward what is ballooning (and where) each time the moon changes signs and reorients Jupiter’s germinating urge. Domination wears many masks.
