Jupiter in Libra says: It's time for love

September 9, 2016 to October 10, 2017, will be a 13-month planetary transit for Jupiter through Libra.

I've only just been catching up on my astrology blogs (my favourite is this one from Sally Kirkman) and have been discovering that it's a great time for setting intentions and for relationships - which made me smile since my husband and I have been talking about combining our skills and learning, and working together to develop relationship workshops.

So I looked back to see when this transit had occurred previously. They come around every 12 or so years and I was amazed to see each one was completely momentous for me.

The first in my nearly adult life was Oct 27, 1980 - Nov 26, 1981.

In 1980 I was 15 and invited to a Christmas party. It promised to be amazing - all the cool girls in the year above were going and it was being held at a grand house in Oxfordshire. I met a boy who I instantly clicked with. We lived on opposite sides of the home counties, so wrote each other letters, and met again in February, under the statue of Eros in Piccadilly Circus. I was turning 16. We fell deeply in love. I had never felt anything like it before. We consummated this grand passion in June 1981, after my O levels, and had such a blissful summer I still look back on it and smile. But as the winter set in things went wrong. We'd split up by Christmas when Jupiter moved into Scorpio. I was devastated.

The next time Jupiter went through Libra was Oct 10, 1992-Nov 10, 1993.

I never felt I'd met anyone to match that first love and was losing heart that I ever would again. I was 27 now and everyone else but me was settling down.

Around Christmas 1992 I fell head over heels with this man on the right and within a fortnight he'd proposed. We were married in September 1993, and set off on an extended honeymoon around the world visiting sacred sites in far flung places.

I'm an Aquarian which means Jupiter is in my 9th house ruling travel, study, philosophy and spirituality. Sally Kirkman says it's: "An ideal time to broaden your horizons and remember that life is the journey and not the destination. Book the holiday of a lifetime, emigrate, sign up for a life-changing course, be open-minded and explore life to the full." We were certainly doing that, although by November, as Jupiter moved into Scorpio we'd started having some fierce arguments.

By the time Jupiter went into Libra next, on Sep 24, 2004 we were separated and I was going out with Matthew. That Christmas Matthew and I conceived a baby, and on my 40th birthday in February 2005, Matthew proposed. We married that year. Luckily when Libra moved into Scorpio in Oct 25, 2005 we were still deeply in love and continue to be so.

Like all couples we've had some tough things to deal with over the last 12 years, and had our tricky patches, but recently we've been feeling so loved up it's felt like a second honeymoon.

We've been talking about 'taking our relationship to a new level' - using tools we'd learnt to deepen our connection still further. So it looks like Jupiter in Libra is at work again! Who knows what the next year will bring us, but I look back on the previous periods as golden times, so I'll be kicking up my heels and feeling the love until Jupiter heads into Scorpio in Oct 2017 and we come back to earth with a bump.