We are all experiencing the Saturn/ Pluto/ Jupiter/ Neptune retrograde.
My study below is of my chart, as it transits my 9th house mars, however it could also apply to any planets sun or moon in Sag…

This is affecting my chart in a myriad of ways. My Mars is @ 23* Sag., and that is the primary focus of this essay; Jupiter almost hitting that Mars then going retrograde. Usually, an exciting new venture, then having it turn out very differently. However other factors are there in my chart strongly as well. The Capricorn planets in my MC, but square my Saturn and  planets in Libra, exact square my Neptune on the descendant, opposite my natal Uranus @ 18*Cancer, and Neptune retro on my moon in Pisces.

All that said, I am primarily looking at Jupiter over my 9th house Mars, while quincunx my natal Jupiter @ 18* Taurus. The question this year is what to do with my life, now that I am 66, on social security, and unemployed. I do not need to work, my needs are met, but not the extras that my Jupiter in Taurus is accustomed to. So to assist in the decision process, (as usual for a Saturn Sun) I looked to the past to make sense of past transits of Jupiter and its retrogrades.

The first would have been age 7- 8, throughout 1960. It was a good year, my first, (and last) piano performance ant the Book Cadillac Hotel in Detroit. However, the most important thing that happened to me involved right and wrong, and justice, (not surprisingly). My third grade teacher was beautiful, and of course, as a budding young Libra, I had a crush on her… So; when she accused me (wrongly), of taking a pencil off of her desk, I was mortified! (Saturn Sun in Libra can be a stickler for justice, but also a scapegoat). As it turned out, she realized her mistake, and apologized to me, and later got me on some sort of local TV program where children were interviewed.  Justice was served! How important was this incident to an 8 year old’s perception of right and wrong, and justice? I feel I took that with me the rest of my life…

The next time Jupiter rolled around to my Mars was 1972. I was in my freshman year at Wayne State Univ., Taking classes in an alternative seminar type setting, and playing chess all day, and listening to Miles Davis. A wonderful, enlightening year, indeed, but also the year I pulled a low number in the military draft lottery. So, I enlisted in the Navy, and went in the day Jupiter went direct in Sag. I would here note that, all of these transits would be happening in the year after my Jupiter opposition, which is also a learning time outside of one’s self.

At any rate, I went in a political neophyte, and came out politically and spiritually much more aware…The Viet Nam war was not in any way justifiable, and this would color my political views for the rest of my life, as well as confirm my career path in the medical field… (I entered the Navy Hospital Corp, and went on to work in psychiatry and neurology much of my working life).

However the theme now emerging was/ is being shot off on a 9th house adventure, and with the retrograde, that adventure turning out differently than expected. I entered the Navy knowing little about myself at age 20, and left a Buddhist/ Taoist, who was much more politically aware. Needless to say, the rest of my 20’s were exciting and enlightening, but not the subject of this study…

Next time around was 1983. The transits of Saturn, Jupiter and Pluto through Libra had seen me married and divorced in quick succession (on my Saturn Return), and going back to finish my last year of college (on the last year of availability of the GI bill; remember 12 years ago?) I now knew who I was, (an astrologer, surviving his Saturn return), but not sure what degree I wanted finish to come back out into the world. I liked biology/cell morphology, but also as an astrologer certainly liked psychology. After some Libran angst and indecision, I chose psychology, with a minor in neurophysiology.

This year, there was no retrograde in Sag; it happened in Capricorn, and there was no real reassessment of my choice in paths. I went to work in a psychiatric hospital as a mental health professional, and enjoyed that work for the next 14 years, (half of a Saturn Cycle).

The next passage of Jupiter in Sag was 1995, with Saturn in my 12th house in Pisces, soon to go into my 1st and oppose my natal Saturn in Libra. However, at the time of the transit, I was already starting to work as a carpenter with another mental health co-worker. He had started a business, and asked me to help. I had spent the last 6 years renovating my house in Detroit. Carpentry has always been my hobby, and now, as the inpatient insurance reimbursements were going down, I knew I was going to need a change of career. The usual “unknowing” was there, since carpentry was always going to be a hobby, not the next career.

Since this segued into my mid-life crisis, there were too many changes to be noted in this essay (see my book on Mid-life crisis according to Astrology). However suffice it to say, this shot me into a different career, out of mid-life, with all the unknowing of the initial transit into Sag, with a retrograde, and consequent new adventures, which took me to the next 12 years. One was a foray to a Renaissance festival with a new girlfriend, and seeing the astrology booth there. A year later, I was working in the booth, and 2 years later, I bought it. The other new adventure was a start in EEG based neurofeedback, and I have worked in neurophysiology ever since.

The next time this hit was 12 years later, in 2007. I was working in Atlanta at Emory Hospital, in a good job in EEG, but had just gotten rid of my house in Detroit, (on the Jupiter in Scorpio opposition to mine), and had fallen in love with a women in Ann Arbor, while already moved to the ATL area. She was not going to move to Georgia, and the last gasp of that was in April of 2007, on a date weekend in Kentucky, with Jupiter going retro a couple of weeks before, and Saturn going direct on my South Node in Leo that weekend. Needless to say, the relationship blossomed and crashed in the same weekend (with Pluto in Sag, and Uranus on my moon, so; a very difficult time for me). Cutting last ties to Michigan, and continuing to blossom in Georgia, but did not see that one coming either.

Now, we are up to the current Jupiter transit with the retrograde, in Sagittarius. As it got close to my Mars in February, I quit my job as Senior Technologist trainer at Grady Hospital, and took a job as a manager of a neurophysiology department in another system. This lasted only six weeks. Apparently I was too hard on them, bringing them up to Grady/ Emory standards. Definitely did not see that one coming, since I knew I was doing a good job as a manager, and had already smoothed over some of the staff’s resentments, but the director let me go… which was OK, since I was driving 100 miles a day, and he was not going to be supportive of me with my goals in the department. So now, as mentioned above, I have income, and have the time to look around at what I want to do.

However, from the transits above, I think it is safe to say that; Jupiter over Mars in Sag brought new beginnings, yet with the retrograde, brought turnarounds and unexpected diversions and paths unforeseen at the beginning of each Sagittarian adventure.

In my case, these transits are quincunx my natal Jupiter. While the quincunx does not enjoy such a good reputation with some astrologers, to me, the angle (past the opposition) brings the opportunity to resolve and choose paths that are too fraught with the opposition; at least in my chart.
I may follow up with a study on the national stage if time permits, since this happens on the US’s ascendant…

I am worried about Neptune going into Pisces.
Will the Middle-Eastern revolutions fold; for the status quo, and go back to being followers; when Neptune goes into Pisces?
We may be in flux, but at the danger of re-entering a "dark age" of sorts; while at the same time, revolution is in the air everywhere!
Astrological conundrums, as usual...