Insights for Gemini

Mercury is retrograde May 29 – June 22.
Alignment is preferable to anxiety about such a thing. Find us here.

May 20
Sun enters Gemini 3:37 PM EDT:
As the Sun slips across the invisible border from Taurus to Gemini and Mercury prepares for its retrograde journey nine days later, we might acknowledge the stress and anxiety that has been generated over the last few years regarding information, misinformation and how we, the people, have been manipulated and robbed in many ways of our attention. We are told that the biggest game in town is won by those who can control our attention. We feel the difficulty of a world whose children too easily fall into the pit of attention deficit disorders. Have we created a monster with our collective external brain (the internet)? Are the synapses of our brains over connecting? Are we doomed to become extinct because we can’t focus our intention on things that matter such as climate change, equity, health care and the common good? Gemini doesn’t answer questions. It only asks. When you think of this sign, think of birds and butterflies, the flying things, the pollinators. Breathe. Gemini is the breath: The twins of inhalation and exhalation, equal and necessary in the most fundamental of ways. We inhale our first breath at birth, we exhale our last at the end. In between we don’t spend too much time on either. This is the gift. This is the biggest game in town: To focus now and again on the breath: To marvel at the blessing of such a strong and gentle thread that connects us to life itself. If you want to own your own attention, breathe and know that you are breathing. The more interesting you find this (even more interesting than the latest episode of your favorite TV drama) the more you own your attention.

May 21
Sun square Jupiter  
It’s all well and good to extol the virtues of the breath/mind connection but how do we deal with the thought arrows which pierce us from within? Some ancient wisdoms might help.

 May 22
Mercury square Neptune
Arrows of inattention, distraction and too much of a good thing, or maybe too much of everything, keep coming. All the good advice coming along with them begins to sound like just one more distraction, one more attempt to own your attention. So let the Great Wheel spin. Marvel at winged creatures, how they take flight and land in seemingly whimsical patterns. Mercury loves whimsy.

May 23
Saturn stationery, retrograde
Saturn’s job is to ground us. You might say they’ve been at it for a few weeks already, reminding us to focus on knowledge rather than random information. If there was an archive or library that held the greatest knowledge you could imagine where would it be? What would it look like? Most importantly, what would be inside it? As we grow toward the Full Moon in a few days a little active imagination might be a good thing. When it comes to Aquarius (Saturn is in Aquarius) it’s good to have a blueprint in the mind. It’s how we build the world. 

May 26
Full Moon: 05 degrees Sagittarius 07:13 EDT Eclipse
Total lunar eclipses are also sometimes called Blood Moons because of the reddish-orange glow the moon takes on during the eclipse. On the day of the eclipse the Moon will be closest to the earth, so it may look larger in the sky making it a Super Moon eclipse. This eclipse will be the first total lunar eclipse since January 2019. It will be totally visible in all of Australia and partially in other parts of the world.
Astrologers pay attention to where the totality of an eclipse falls as it would have the greatest impact in that part of the world.
Themes of this particular eclipse seem to underscore issues of breath, mind, information, distraction and attention. You might say that the Moon as it shines down from the night sky is revealing an enormous tangle of lies, gossip, truth and all the shape-shifting wisdom you could want. Imagine yourself at the center of a spinning wheel. Let it spin, you can’t stop it. It’s a hologram. You are always at the center.

May 27
Venus square Neptune
Particular cautions are advisable regarding the game of love and seduction. Consider the wisdom of the fable of the fox and the crow. Flattery might get someone everywhere but how will it feel in the morning?

May 29
Venus conjunct Mercury
Mercury stationery retrograde (6:34 PM EDT)
What if instead of running for cover when Mercury goes retrograde we chose to honor the Trickster, the Magician for their clever magic which opens us, time and again, to seeing things from a different perspective which doesn’t have to be fear based? What if we allowed ourselves to be guided by the ‘signal in the heavens’ ?What if we took Mercury’s retrograde period as a suggestion to turn inward, to be more contemplative, to review and consider, most importantly to practice the art of listening? There is music in everything if we have the ears to hear, even in the noise of traffic and the cries of the world, certainly in our dreams and from our poets. We can listen and be privy to the magic of hearing. We have three weeks to practice.

May 31
Mars trine Neptune
A bit of ease for those who are not afraid to feel the tender places, not just your own.

June 2
Sun sextile Chiron
Venus enters Cancer
The practice of allowing feelings without wallowing in them could develop and strengthen us in aid of encouraging greater wisdom. There is a saying that goes something like this: To gain knowledge, learn something new every day. To attain wisdom let go or remove something every day. We might imagine that the Sun in Gemini, aspecting Chiron encourages us to become knowledgeable regarding the nature of wounding and trauma. But Venus (and Mars) in Cancer pull us toward wisdom, asking us to forgive if not exactly to forget. There is room for both, of course. It benefits us as humans to live in a ‘both/and’ world rather than ‘an either/or’ one.

June 3
Sun trine Saturn
Venus trine Jupiter
The getting of wisdom is a gently held aspiration. You can’t grab it or fake it (although many try). Generally the greatest wisdom, the longest held and most useful kind is that which we learn from experience.  

June 5
Mercury (retrograde) square Neptune
Mars opposite Pluto
Sooner or later all journeys turn down a road or around a corner and the journeyer must face fear or/and confusion. We cannot and should not avoid these turns. Life is the teacher. What kind of student are you? Which is to say, how are you meeting the fears and confusions of the moment?
Mercury reminds us we don’t know enough (it’s not possible) and Mars suggests that the greatest enemy comes from the projections of our own mind.

June 10
Sun conjunct Mercury retrograde
New Moon: 19 degrees of Gemini: 06:52 AM EDT Eclipse
That which was a seed, a thought seed, wants to take root in your mind, in the mind of humans everywhere. Some of us cannot accept or imagine a better way to live than the way we have been living in the dominator paradigm. They want to get back to what seems ‘normal’. For them this seed has fallen on unfertile ground and may fail to take root. For others however, there is great curiosity in imagining how we might live together with all living things, what it might mean to learn from nature, to learn a new, old way. Today this thought is a whisper on the wind, if you have ears to hear.

June 11
Mars enters Leo
There won’t be much for Mars to do, all alone in a fire sign, save to remind us when the time comes (when it opposes Saturn and squares Uranus next month) that bold action has its place. Mars in Leo is constantly tasked with differentiating genuine courage from foolish acting out.

June 13
Venus sextile Uranus
Sun square Neptune
We are not really done with the seas, the tides, the floods of misinformation washing up on the beaches of our lives. Take every opportunity to use your common senses, to think horses not zebras, to honor thy mother Gaea, the Earth, even as you think outside the construct of colonizer mentality (no matter which side you’re on).

June 14
Uranus square Saturn
Saturn, moving slowly near its station (May 23) is squared by Uranus. Usually Saturn moves faster than Uranus and we would see it as the planet creating the square. We are half way through this aspect which frames 2021. This has indeed been a year of being caught between rocks and hard places. Given that Uranus is the acting planet this might be a moment of explosive realization that there is no turning back to the good (for some) bad (for many) old days of systemic dysfunction and relative stability for those who tell the story. No going back because, like they say, you can never step into the same river twice. Change is indeed the only constant. The real struggle within each of us is in how we meet the change. Awakening equanimity is the practice.

June 20
Jupiter stationery retrograde
Today is the last day of Gemini and the first day of Cancer. It is the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. Before the Sun enters Cancer Jupiter makes a station. Here is a call to check in, if we will, to our best wisdom. What are the beliefs that guide you to live as wisely as you can? Who are your teachers? Humans are driven by belief, the felt sense of meaning. From these knowings we go to war or make peace. We cultivate compassion or point and blame. What will you do with all that light?