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Hold it Lightly: Gemini
A Message from Space
Everything that happens is the message:
you read an event and be one and wait,
like breasting a wave, all the while knowing
by living, though not knowing how to live.
Or workers built an antenna — a dish”aimed at stars — and they themselves are its message,
crawling in and out, being worlds that loom,
dot-dash, and sirens, and sustaining beams.
And sometimes no one is calling but we turn up
eye and ear — suddenly we fall into
sound before it begins, the breathing
so still it waits there under the breath —
And then the green of leaves calls out, hills
where they wait or turn, clouds in their frenzied
stillness unfolding their careful words:
“Everything counts. The message is the world.”
– William Stafford
As excitable breezes command the silver dance of new-leafed cottonwood branches above my yard, and the colorful lights concealed within matter emerge through nature’s abundance of joyful flowers, I’m feeling the call to open my awareness to the varied and communicative play of Gemini! The Earth is alive with color and movement, and it’s time to smooth our furrowed brows and allow in the dazzling transmissions of this time.
William Stafford opens the lovely poem above with a perfect Geminian statement: “everything that happens is the message.” He continues by turning over in his curious mind the many ways that this mutable Air sign archetype can manifest: as an antenna or receiver of information, as one who ‘knows by living’, who is themselves the message, as one who turns to the listening breath, waiting in the silent spaces for a message, from no one. Indeed, to the Gemini spirit, everything does count, as the messenger, or the magic, is embedded—hiding trickster-like, in the cracks of mundane encounters and words, if we but know to look and listen for these.
It’s been a rough and tumble year on the outer stage, both with Earth’s continued upheavals and of course the ever woeful unfolding of human misadventures. And perhaps a bit rough as well in our own task of facing the inner allowing, sorting, and releasing of that which needs to die within us, in order to prepare for rebirth into the new forms and modes with which to meet the changes winging our way.
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Passion for diversity
But we can perhaps find relief as the Sun, and other celestial lights, pass through Gemini as the seasonal wheel spins through early summer in the Northern Hemisphere. For Gemini’s gift, as the first Air sign, in the Mutable modality, is to call us to an unattached and curious mindset, and to taking things lightly. Gemini‘s playful spirit also thrives on, and seeks, diversity and variety—which we’ve been seeing already as Jupiter (which expands what it touches) has been positioned in Gemini for the past year. Jupiter in Gemini has reverberated in the plethora of opinions and viewpoints we have seen (if we’ve been looking) about world events, and where we’re headed. One pontiff’s ‘crash and burn’ is another’s ‘birth of the future human’!
Like fellow Air-sign, Libra, Gemini is known for ‘playing both sides’, which can actually come in handy now in terms of loosening up the tension on the polarities we’re seeing, and are perhaps ourselves entrenched in. Yes, even (and especially) when the news of the day describes cultural demise, or moral depravity. In a time of such great volatility (not the first for humanity!), we do well not to take the news of the day too deeply to heart, and to remember to take charge of our minds, and what we set them to. After prior sign Taurus’s tendency to dig its heels in to ensure stability, Gemini arrives to make sure we avoid becoming stuck in the mud. Mix it up!, it exhorts. And let’s play the light side!
As an Air sign, Gemini stays light in the sense of buoyancy, flitting about as do the winged ones that bless our gardens, with its array of ideas, talents, and interests. Known for its open-mindedness, Gemini loves to try new things. In this spirit, I recently ventured out to visit the garden of a woman I’d met at a bee garden presentation, where there was a native California plant I wasn’t familiar with, Scrophularia, which the bees love. This woman—I’ll call her Flora— told me the plant grows well from cuttings, and that I could come get a cutting if I wanted to stop by her garden. Why not? whispered Gemini.
So I took her up on her offer—and wow, were my gardening crocks knocked off! Tucked away at a quiet edge of town, near-adjacent to our local wetlands habitat, Flora’s garden was a stunning, and extensive, botanical garden, with phenomenal variety (replete with many California natives, best for pollinators and insects) and the perfect mix of shade and sun, with towering, graceful, trees grown over the 35 years she’s been there providing shelter from what can be our overbearing summer sun, creating a very plant-friendly habitat.
In addition to its abundance of exuberant colors, textures, heights, and shapes, the garden featured numerous sitting areas for contemplation of the habitat’s activities, including a recirculating bubbling bird bath carved out of a tall rock that I got to see an oak titmouse take an extended bath in, a small pond edged in stone with blooming water lilies and goldfish darting around betwixt, 10 vegetable beds in a lower section, and a large patch of raspberries at the back.
Clearly the archetypal spirit of everything everywhere all at once Gemini is at play in this other-worldly garden and its keeper, a retired social worker who now spends 8 hours/day busily tending her plants, on her own—she says her husband has no interest, which she confessed she’s glad of as it’s “less complicated.” Amazed to have stumbled into this sacred realm, I felt like I was in the Crystal Palace of backyard gardens, dropped into a fairytale.
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Ideal-Real fusion: Neptune-Saturn conjunction
While humbled by the magnificence of Flora’s garden, I must say my own is looking pretty fine as well—never such an abundance and variety of florescence I have seen here. The garden devas are evidently not reading the news—bless them! Surely this experience of magic bursting through the earth partakes not just of Gemini, but as well of the big astrological event of now—and for the coming year— the Saturn-Neptune conjunction.
While there are many ways to unpack this signature, in this instance it is relevant that Saturn calls us to patient hard work that serves to ground and manifest on the material plane; while ‘far out’ blue Neptune presides over the transcendent and ever-elusive ideal—the stuff of dreams. Flora’s garden was surely a dazzling dream made real (a more enchanting garden habitat I could not imagine), over time.
Saturn is the builder of civilizations, but life would get pretty dull if it were all about hammers and nails. Like Gemini, Neptune brings in the magic, but on an ethereal level. As a watery signature (ruler of the last water sign, Pisces), Neptune can both erode and infuse. In its shadow side, it promotes fear in the collective psyche, negative fantasies, self-doubt, and crises of faith. In this sense, it has the capacity to “destabilize the global psyche” (in the words of depth astrologer/author Jessica Murphy). The challenges of keeping our inner boat afloat are real.
But Neptune’s potential for magic is founded in the power of the imagination, which is what seeds reality. If Saturn is the earth-bound work crew, Neptune is the divine architect. So it very much matters what images we cultivate at this time, as these will effect what comes to pass. Coupled with the Geminian capacity to change our minds, Neptune’s gift is to seed a vision of the new, and not necessarily a literal vision—it could be a subtly felt emotional or bodily sense, or a myth we choose to live by. Once a vision has landed within, our work is to infuse it into the world.
I like to hold in mind the qualities of the Divine Feminine, such as beauty, justice, collaboration, relatedness, wisdom, and caring. Not to mention, the master-glue, love. While Neptune travels in tandem with Saturn for this next, critical year—as we navigate the crux of death-rebirth at hand—we are urged to take responsibility for holding to our positive thoughts and dreams, to not getting pulled down into fear-based, destabilizing rabbit holes that do not serve the future.
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The caterpillar must die
Neptune’s eroding capacity will continue the work that transformation agent Pluto has started—first when it was in Capricorn (ruled by Saturn), during which we’ve seen the slow toppling of tired structures and systems, and now while it’s in Aquarius (co-ruled by Saturn), for 20 years. Neptune with Saturn can serve to assist Pluto in dissolving the old paradigm of patriarchy, hierarchy, and war, in preparation for a new-old alignment in which humans live harmoniously abiding by the natural laws of Earth and Sky. The calamities we’re seeing are the death throes of this transition.
I recall the words of a leather-clad, longhaired ‘seer’ I met at the sacred Callanish Stones on Scotland’s Hebridean Isle of Lewis in 2022. He described this civilizational ‘dying phase’, and said the horrific acting out of this end of an era, such as we continue to see in increasing extremes, could be likened to the crazed bite of a dying animal in pain, such as a dog biting their master. Death comes with suffering, and loss will continue to be present as we proceed; but along with being present with grief and compassion, we are called to fearlessness. For this, Saturn and Neptune are well positioned in Aries—known for its courage in the face of battle. Under this ‘warrior/crusader’ Aries influence (Saturn for 2.5 years, Neptune for 13), violence and war will likely continue to compel the shadow forces, but the powers working to birth a new, light-infused paradigm are rising between the cracks, if we discipline ourselves to train our gaze on them.
Alongside all this, Saturn-Neptune holds great potential to usher in consciousness change, urging us to ‘get serious‘ (Saturn) about hooking ourselves up to the rising frequency of the consciousness field. Saturn in Pisces was in its own way very much about this ‘cloud of unknowing’ chrysalis phase of reformulation and uncertainty, and now, with Saturn travelling with Pisces’ ruler Neptune, we’re getting an even stronger boost to continue fortifying the chrysalis. For some (depending on where Neptune-Saturn falls in our charts), we will soon die to our caterpillar selves, and begin to take form, and action (Aries). As Jessica Murray says, it will be time to make the Neptune impulse ‘official’—Saturn-ize it! Bring it into the social reality of our time. This does take courage, and as well the faith to let go and let Neptune be our guide.
Because the shadow side of Neptune is loss of faith and uncertainty, we will likely experience states of doubt along the way; but we benefit from examining these doubts. Joined with a practice of inquiry, doubt can help us expand our consciousness (as does Gemini with our thinking). Everything can be included, and held to the light of contemplation. I think of Byron Katie’s The Work – do we know this (doom) to be true? Or have we just presumed so? Doubt can be a guide on our path to expanding our awareness, and we may just encounter some glimmering shards of Truth along the way!
The Saturn-Neptune conjunction influences us for the next year, and moves into exact conjunction at 0° Aries (the ‘world point’) next February, with the potential to invite profound global change, given that this degree is the inception point for the entire 360° wheel. Yes, we can expect to see dissolution and loss with Neptune’s prominence, but the miracle-making powers of this small planet can have a profound influence the collective consciousness.
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Saturn in Aries
Saturn’s transition into Aries is significant in and of itself, with Saturn describing structures of governance, control, and personal goals, and Aries the sign of taking initiative. As an instinctual, creative force, Aries likes to make it up as it goes along. So during these next 2.5 years we will be called to ‘get serious’ (Saturn) about improvising courageously on behalf of our goals and intentions. Saturn’s focused energy when filtered through Aries also brings a spirit of confidence and energy for tackling tasks at hand. And as Aries pertains to claiming selfhood, this signature asks that we fearlessly take charge of our own experience. (Fitting, as we’ve been working for the past couple years with the North Node in Aries to gain skill at this, while letting go of South Node Libran codependent tendencies.)
Saturn in Aries can in its less easeful sense show up as excess control or harshness, or as a fear of taking action. However it’s also possible that when Saturn—a heavy, earthy energy that works and grows slowly through linear time—is placed in a Fire sign, especially cardinal sign Aries, Saturn’s natural resistance to change can get ‘fired up’, generating the capacity to transform. I think of the ‘hot rocks’ used to fuel the Native American sweat lodge, which I participated in several times in my 20s. Indeed, the fire-heated, hot rocks brought into the low-ceilinged dome structures built for the purpose surely turned up the heat! Likewise, Saturn in Aries can help us with the work of purification, of releasing the dross of old habits to prepare for new ways of acting for change.
Teacher/author Mirabai Starr speaks about the purifying fire of radical unknowingness, and through my reading, suggests how the fire element might join with the nature of Saturn, given that Saturn’s cold, hard determination often invokes the conditions of loneliness, and fear of intimacy. Quoted in the Friends of Silence newsletter, she says:
At the mystical heart of each of the Abrahamic faiths lie teachings about the transformational power of fire and the identification of the Holy One with light. In Judaism, the Shekinah—the indwelling feminine presence of God—took the form of a pillar of fire at night to lead the Israelites through the desert. […] May we let ourselves down into the arms of fire and allow it to melt the armor of our hearts. The excruciating fire of our loneliness and our fear of intimacy. The sweet fire of our longing for union with the Beloved. The purifying fire of radical unknowingness, which all the great mystics assure us is the beginning of knowing God.
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Change is the game
Ruled by mercurial god Hermes (Mercury), Gemini finds both meaning and fun in shifting perspectives and gathering viewpoints, while remaining unattached to any specific one. Like in a circus or fun house, with a humor-full glint in its eye the archetype coaxes us to look at things upside down, or through curved mirrors, so that we might try on, enjoy, and even be inspired by taking ‘alternative views’ on things.
In a prior journal post on Gemini, Magic Is Alive, I amplified on magic and its correlations with Gemini. So here I will but remind us that magic most typically alights when it is invited. Meaning, it requires our participation: our attentiveness, our listening, and our seeing. Our capacity to set aside pre-conceptions, judgments, and opinions, to open our ears, eyes, and hearts to messages, insights, and guidance that may be trying to reach us, to teach us, to bless us, from behind the veil of the mundane. Beauty and insight lurk in the ordinary, if we learn to let our feet leave the ground and dance a bit!
Gemini is a welcome player in this time in which the archetypal transformational energies of all four outermost planets (Pluto, Neptune, Uranus, and Saturn) are each changing signs within eight months of each other. Such a time of great change is surely destabilizing. The uncertainties fed by the news bytes instantly sour the mood, while inwardly we remain in the liminal realms not yet knowing what forms or qualities our ‘new life’ will don. But the continued assignment is one of letting go of old ways and frameworks, including how we think, and the stories we tell ourselves. Gemini’s light-hearted detachment and capacity to play the neutral witness, to see beyond appearances to find the gems, is most needed here.
With Uranus, the ‘higher octave’ planet of Mercury—thereby signifying higher mind— poised to enter into Gemini in July, we can expect our minds to be ‘blown’ by the winds of change, or epiphany! So it’s good to get our Gemini gears in motion now by chewing on the saying, Things are not as they seem. Nor are they otherwise. This is a good one for the Saturn-Neptune conjunction as well! Taking this even further is the classic Zen story about the vagaries of ‘fortune’ (narrated here by Alan Watts), which tells of the Chinese farmer who lost his horse, and ensuing events. Was this good or bad? Maybe.
Indigenous teacher and author Sherri Mitchell, in her book, Sacred Instructions, points to this same wisdom, of taking a less entrenched witness stance relevant to the unfolding of events. She suggests,
We allow ourselves to become the observer. When we do that, we see life in a whole new way. There is no more right and wrong, no obligation or expectation, No commitment or entitlement. There is only the thread of life rising and moving and returning to the Source. There is only the expression of life coming to know itself, and seeking to transform itself into something new. This awareness releases us from our old stories, and allows us to live our lives fully present and completely free. And when we live our lives connected to the Source, we realize there is no separation, no limit, there is only boundless possibility and endless truth.
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Gemini New Moon
The Gemini New Moon on May 26 sows seeds urging us to begin linking the power of the observing mind with the work of bringing the ideal into the real. The stellium (very close grouping) of Sun-Moon-Mercury in Gemini is harmoniously sextiled by the Saturn-Neptune conjunction, calling us to infuse (Neptune) the diversity of our experiences and communications (Gemini) with our higher intentions as well as our actions (Saturn in Aries); and to accept what comes our way while considering what life is teaching us, and how it might reveal inspiration for our service to life.
Intensifier/transformer Pluto in Aquarius quickens the project by sextiling Saturn-Neptune, and trining the Gemini lights, creating a helpful ‘working wedge’ triangle between planets in the three signs – Aries, Gemini, and Aquarius. This cohesive configuration offers us the opportunity to engage with the work of shifting our awareness and broadening the perspective on our lives—and the state of the world at large—while joining with the practice of breathing in faith and openness so as to sense into the Mystery.
It’s also time to tackle the Aries project of embracing, or further considering, what our new beginnings might look like. Meanwhile, with all the communicative Gemini energy aloft, including ‘it’s all good’ Jupiter, we will likely be in the mood to get social, to share our thoughts with others, and to gather fuel for our learning. May your hearts and minds be joyful, and remain open!