By Sara Diamond
There’s a New Moon in Gemini every year about this time. This one on June 6 will be highly unusual. Not only will the Sun and Moon at 16 degrees of Gemini be tightly conjoined with Venus, but Jupiter has just entered Gemini (May 25) for the coming year, and Mercury, too, entered Gemini on June 3. Five planetary bodies in Mercury-ruled Gemini make this a time to revel in Mercury’s domains, refreshing relationships, not just with friends and partners, but also with our perceptions of reality. What is meaningfully worth thinking, talking, writing, joking, singing about in these early days of June?
Gemini’s totem is the twins. Gemini’s glyph is two vertical lines held together by two horizontal lines, symbolizing pairs of things that depend on each other. Night and day. Sky and earth. The material and the spiritual worlds. Bound together.
Gemini is our mutable air sign, the third sign in the zodiac. In the “natural zodiac” the signs correlate with developmental stages. Gemini is like when an infant learns to babble and coo, then makes sounds like “mama” and “papa,” and gets rewarded for it. Gemini is thought and pre-thought, the bubbles of consciousness surfacing even before solidifying into words and sentences.
Gemini’s mode is mutable, moving around a lot, shifty even. Gemini is of the air element, hard to pin down while wanting connection. Gemini’s the archetype of the newshound, the court jester, the postmaster delivering letters, the village yenta who knows everyone’s business and wants to tell you. Not for spite though, but to exchange and receive more information, to entertain you, to make you laugh.
Gemini’s got a reputation for being indecisive. She’s the one at your restaurant table who’s studying the menu and can’t make up her mind. There are just too many choices.
Gemini has gotten a bad rap for being two-faced, maybe shading the truth, just a little. There are just so many ways to present oneself. Is it really a lie to tell different versions of your story depending on who’s listening?
Gemini’s mercurial energy can be restless, nervous, even exhausting. We’ve got a new phrase in our culture now: TMI, too much information. Watch out about now for the urge to talk too much, about too much. I’m telling myself: Curb your enthusiasm for taking in too much data. Much of it is useless, anyway.
With the Sun, Moon, Venus, Mercury, and Jupiter all in Gemini at the June 6 New Moon, what’s a person to do with so much mercurial energy? One saving grace at the June 6 New Moon is the square formed by the Sun, Moon, and Venus, with Saturn, the outermost planet, visible to the human eye. Currently traveling in the free-flowing waters of Pisces, Saturn nevertheless holds boundaries. Make it an intention to limit your words on subjects where you might be revealing too much. Saturn in Pisces offers disciplined meditation to calm a wild and rambling mind.
Each New Moon is a chance to soak in the essential qualities of the sign where the Sun and Moon join. Even more so on June 6 with Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter all together in a Gemini cluster.
A New Moon is a time of purification, starting over.
Gemini’s high road is adaptability, a thirst for knowing, and a youthful innocence. A beginner’s mind, said Zen teacher Suzuki Roshi, has many possibilities.
And, as the great bard William Blake once said: If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear as it is, Infinite. True, and also: be brief.
Blessings for this Geminian time we’re in, and with prayers for peace,
~ Sara
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