Jake Coombs

Giving an Offering to Jupiter

I'm giving an offering of roast beef and red wine to Jupiter over the forthcoming days. Why? Well, frankly it's none of your business.

But, lucky for you, you nosey git, I'll tell you why.

As I'm writing this, my frontal lobe is entering it's final stages of development. No, nothing is wrong with me, I am simply reaching the age of 25 over the coming days.

In some shocking and devastating news (to me especially), it turns out that the frontal lobe fully developing at 25, may not actually be true.

Recently, a friend of mine noticed, that in addition to me existing a quarter of a century, the stars planets have aligned for the occasion, literally. On February 28th, my birthday, there will be a planetary parade, consisting of six planets in our Solar System:

A planetary parade means that the planets will be visible from Earth, with the best time to see them being about 30 minutes after sunset.

After asking what I should do to mark the occasion, she told me:

"You should make a really big birthday wish. And give an offering to Jupiter"

Give an offering to Jupiter? Huh?

As a person who is on a never-ending conquest to known anything and everything, I had to find out what the hell she was on about.

Jupiter, the Roman God, who is essentially the Roman equivalent to Zeus, often depicted as a mature man with regal appearance, usually holding a lightning bolt. Jupiter was often honoured in lots of ways and with a number of annual festivals. Just before the start of the Roman year, which begins on 1st March, comes the Festival of Iuppiter Terminus (Jupiter of Boundaries), celebrating the "yearly renewal".

Giving an offering to Jupiter is a Roman ritual, in which farmer's aimed to bring divine blessing to their Oxen as they plough the fields, ensuring a healthy crop and a good yield. The ritual comes from Cato the Elder's De Agri Cultura (On Agriculture), a farming manual, inside of which is a section of religious rituals which are intended to invoke favours from the gods. Ritual CXXXII (132), The Planting Ritual, invites Jupiter to a banquet which is abundant and magnificent, in the hope that the peasant may receive a benefit, however, it is important to note that it is just an offer, not a request.

Cato's instructions are as follows:

Offer to Jupiter Dapalis a cup of wine, 'as great as you wish'.
When making the offering, speak the following:
"Jupiter Dapalis, because it is proper for a cup of wine to be given to you in the house of my family for the sacred feast, for the sake of this thing may you be honoured by this, the feast offering."
Wash the hands, take the wine:
"Jupiter Dapalis, may you be honoured by this, the feast offering, may you be honoured by the wine sacrificed."
Give to Vesta if you wish.
The sacred feast for Jupiter is roasted meat and an urn of wine.

'Offering to Jupiter' by Michele Rocca (1675-1751)
'Offering to Jupiter' by Michele Rocca (1675-1751)

Although this ritual started with farming, it can equally be used on the occasion of any important enterprise or undertaking, such as starting a new job or opening a new business. In my particular case, it is starting the next chapter of my life with my fully developed brain behind the wheel.

Throughout most of my life, I have considered myself a realist, which is natural tendency for a lot of people who end up an engineer, such as myself. However, recently I have started opening myself up to wider beliefs instead of shrugging them off, as for me I find it makes life a bit more fun and enjoyable.

One thing I have been more open to recently, is astrology. You know, the zodiac signs, 'Mercury in Retrograde', all that malarky. Well, I was looking into how Jupiter impacts me through my astrological reading, and it turns out that my Jupiter is in Gemini, which means "I grow and find understanding through curiosity, mental adventure, and trying new things". The curiosity part is definitely true, because it must be why I went down this rabbit hole in the first place, and hence writing this very paragraph. Furthermore, the Gemini sign is ruled by Mercury, and both Jupiter and Mercury are in this upcoming planetary parade.

My star sign, if you haven't worked it out from the dates, or from the type of person I am, is Pisces. The twelfth and final sign in the Zodiac. The two fish (literally Latin for "fishes"). And, if you didn't know, each sign has a ruler (also known as domicile), which is meant to be very influential on you. Now, there are two interpretations of ruling planets, traditional and modern. My modern ruling planet is Neptune, and my traditional ruling planet... Jupiter! Both of my ruling planets will be present in the planetary parade on my birthday. Coincidence? I think not!

There are way too many signs from Jupiter for me to simply ignore, to summarise:

  1. I am turning 25, marking the end of my brains development.
  2. There is a planetary parade happening on my birthday.
  3. I was told to give an offering to Jupiter for the occasion.
  4. Jupiter will be present in the planetary parade.
  5. Jupiter was celebrated in the festival of Iuppiter Terminus, "Jupiter of the Boundaries", signalling the end of the Roman year, which starts on March 1st, the day after my birthday.
  6. Jupiter is the traditional ruling planet for my star sign.

Jupiter is clearly trying to talk to me, and I am choosing to listen. So, to mark the next stage of my life, in the hopes of invoking the divine blessing of Jupiter, I will be giving an offering of roasted meat and a glass of wine, just as Cato instructed.

Finally, I want to say a big thank you to my friend Bryony, the friend who told me to give an offering to Jupiter, and without, these characters would never have been written in this combination with these fingers.