Jupiter and Saturn have a good claim to be the spirits of Christmas in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. The whole story of Mr Scrooge and his ghostly Christmas Eve encounter seems symbolic of the two planets that rule the signs either side of the Winter Solstice. Jupiter and Saturn were the same pair that Dickens had in opposition on his own birth chart and that some say came together in the Bethlehem skies to form the Christmas star.

Miserly Mr Scrooge exemplifies Saturn at its worst but he will turn into generous Jupiter at the end of the tale. It all starts on Christmas Eve when Scrooge retires to bed and is visited by the ghost of his old business partner, Marley. Symbolically "7 years dead" (the length of a Saturn square), this wailing apparition appears loaded down with Saturn symbols. He trails clanking keys and heavy locks and warns the terrified Scrooge not to put business before compassion as he did himself for so many years. He also tells Scrooge to expect visits from three more spirits.

The Spirit of Christmas Past, the Spirit of Christmas Present and the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come, are three faces of destiny that are simply full of images of either the Greater Benefic (Jupiter) or the Greater Malefic (Saturn). Christmas Past is neutral in character but presents cold and lonely Saturnian images to the humbled Scrooge. The expansive Spirit of Christmas Present is so Jupiter-like he even lives for twelve days, as if he were a telescoped Jupiter Cycle of twelve years. And Christmas Yet To Come is Saturn again as the hooded Reaper. It all comes right in the end as the two forces balance out and Scrooge discovers the Jupiterean joy of distributing some of his hard-earned wealth. To quote Dickens, Christmas is "when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices", a Saturn-Jupiter quote if there ever was one. And the famous Christmas message has remained evergreen for over 150 years. Even the story itself is book-ended by Saturn-Jupiter: its first sentence begins "Marley is dead..." and its last sentence "God bless Us, Every One!"

Charles Dickens: 7 February 1812, 7.50pm London. (Chart shown below). Source: AA Newsletter July 1994, time quoted from The Elements of Astrology by Dr Broughton 1906, giving data from Dickens to Professor Wilson "a London astrologer".

A Christmas Carol was published 17 December 1843, London. Saturn was strong in Capricorn, as it is in Dickens' natal chart, and Jupiter was in humanitarian Aquarius conjunct Dickens' Sun and trining his own Gemini Jupiter.