Blog / September, 23, 2022

⇦ Mars in Gemini ⇨

Prince (Gemini Sun and Mercury)

Hazel Scott (Gemini Sun and Venus), prodigy who could speak seven languages and play two pianos at once, was the first Black woman to have her own TV show before it was quickly cancelled in the McCarthy Era for consistently speaking out about racism.

Happy Equinox, Libra season and soon-to-be Libra New Moon (Sept 25th)! But what I’d love to discuss is not necessarily the topic of the week, but the topic of the next 6 months. This year, Libra season highlights Mars in the early stages of a seven-month spin through Gemini. Mars in Gemini is an interesting beast to contend with. Since Mars will slow down and start to retrograde in late October, staying in Gemini for about 4.5x longer than it usually does, we will be very much contending with it.

Mars rules Aries and co-rules Scorpio, and as I waxed on about in my last newsletter Mars can be a very energetic, ramped-up little cheerleader devil. Gemini, also energetic (though less physically) tends to be all over the place. Gemini is the spirit of all the 4 to 200 thoughts lying impatiently in wait to write or read or research more about - all with similar amounts of urgency pinging at often inconvenient times. Just puppies begging to go on a walk.

Mars in Gemini is ready to charge to the frontlines with all its fellow warriors thrilled even by the task at hand, but within minutes gets distracted by a butterfly, follows the butterfly into a nearby village, reads about the local history, flirts with the bartenders, gets drunk, beats everyone at trivia, calls some friends, and by the time Mars in Gemini makes its way back to all its annoyed friends at the frontline who say “where did you go?? You said you would do this with us!” Mars in Gemini says, “Yeah, but don’t be mad! I had such a great time.”

Carlos Chavez (Gemini Sun) described his style: “The idea of repetition and variation can be replaced by the notion of constant rebirth, of true derivation: a stream that never comes back to its source; a stream in eternal development, like a spiral …" He is one of the many composers with strong Gemini - and really any Air sign - placements, likely because of Gemini’s capability to work with multiple parts at once and tell a compelling and detailed story.—Sometimes to a frightening and prolific degree. Richard Wagner (Gemini Sun) coined the very multi-charactered chatty Gemini concept of “leitmotifs” which are a repeated musical theme throughout a piece representing an idea, person, or place. His anti-semitic and racist views later made his music - particularly “Ride of the Valkyries” -synonymous with the KKK in Birth of a Nation, then Nazi Propaganda, satirized American imperialism in Apocalypse Now, and has now morphed into one of the most used songs in media symbolizing (creepily) just general victory. Richard Strauss’s (Gemini Sun, Uranus, Venus) piece “Also sprach Zarathustra” was initially a response to Nietzsche’s book of a similar name, but has since become hyper-used in media to symbolize Space (or the sun rising, or the sun rising in space). Other composers include Stravinsky (Gemini Sun, Uranus, Midheaven), Schumann (Gemini Sun, Mars), Beethoven (Gemini Mars), Brahms (Gemini Venus), Edvard Grieg (Gemini Sun, Mercury), John Cage (Gemini Moon, Saturn, Pluto and Midheaven), Artie Shaw (Gemini Sun, Mercury, Pluto), Mark Mothersbaugh (Gemini Moon)

Danny Elfman (Gemini Sun), “Breakfast Song” from Pee Wee’s Big Adventure

Gemini, ruled by Mercury (or better known as Hermes, “the divine trickster” and the only one free to move between the world of the Gods and the underworld of mortals) and symbolized by the Twins, is often pegged as a two-faced sign. This isn’t totally fair or accurate. Yes, every sign has its bad representatives, but at its core the duality of Gemini should not be about deceit. It’s the conversation that is important. This side and then the other side. How are we the same? How are we different? Who am I and who are you? We can disagree and we can harmonize, but it is more holistic to have something be known from all angles. Geminis are not concerned with being one self-contained human. That is too leaden with singularity. They need flexibility to morph, to not settle, to bounce off, to observe, to never stay the same. A Taurus is always returning to its source, always returning to the tangibility of beauty and nature; a Cancer always returns to their feelings, the moon’s ever-consistent pull on the tide. Geminis are flitting through the air, tied to nothing but the consistency of change and the fact that there is ALWAYS more to know, and you will never know it all. Geminis can be discursive and effervescent, intelligent and odd. I learned the word quidnunc recently meaning “an inquisitive and gossipy person,” but it derives from the Latin phrase quid nunc which literally translates to “what now?”.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s (Sun and Uranus in Gemini) *The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant* and Agnes Varda’s (Sun and North Node in Gemini) *One Sings, The Other Doesn’t*

**Marilyn Monroe (Gemini Sun and Mercury) & Jane Russell (Gemini Sun) in *Gentlemen Prefer Blondes*, directed by Howard Hawks (Gemini Sun, Mercury, Neptune, and Pluto)**

**Illustration of René Descartes’ (Gemini Mars) concept of Dualism**

Francine Shapiro, inventor and researcher of EMDR, Was an Aquarius Sun with a Gemini Moon and Uranus. On a walk in the park, she came to the realization that when thinking about painful memories, and letting her eyes move from left to right as she walked, the memories felt less painful. Thus creating EMDR, an amazingly effective therapeutic method using bi-lateral stimulation (I.e. following a therapist’s finger back and forth, or alternating pressing buttons or feeling vibrations of a buzzer in each hand) mimicking the brain’s processing of subconscious information during R.E.M. sleep. This allows a traumatic memory, stuck in the highly emotional right hemisphere of the brain, to connect with the left and soothe the situation with logic and perspective.

I felt that I was born to be a performing and interpretive creature, that I was meant to take part in a peculiar, exalted game. For there are good grounds to consider this, together with other forms of civilized behavior and ceremony, a game. At its noblest this game is played, under discipline, before God himself—so Plato said and others as well. The game can be an offering, a celebration, an act of praise, an acknowledgment also of one’s weaknesses and limitations. I couldn’t have put it in this manner then. All that appeared was a blind obstinate impulse expressing itself in bursts of foolishness. I loved great things. I thought I had a right to think of that exalted game. I was also extremely proud, ornery and stupid.
Saul Bellow (Gemini Sun) on being a young writer, from his book There is Simply Too Much to Think About.

Whichever house in your chart contains Gemini will be getting a lot of action through next March (and has been since August 20th, 2022). It may not be very clear action! It may at times play out more like a ticker tape of word salad—which can be frustrating, anxiety-inducing, and inspiring. Probably all of it. The beauty is that you don’t even necessarily have to make sense of it all. Take cues from the spirit of connecting the dots, zig-zagging right-to-left, without the pressure to make it add up. The variety is the spice!

If Gemini falls in your:

1st house: your physical energy may feel like a yo-yo. It’s good to move around right now, go on walks and runs, get in heated debates with people you meet, but be careful you don’t get too mindless and trip, or walk into a tree thinking too hard. If you don’t rest sometimes you might be forced to.
2nd house: Watch the shopping. Or if that’s not your thing, be thrifty in general because unexpected expenses could pop up. You could be really productive at work, and maybe even feel more confident because of it, but could also see tension building with the people you work with - even if you’re not directly involved. Try not to gossip about it.
3rd house: Please start journaling if you don’t already. This is a lot on one person’s mind. You may just be socializing so much you get overstimulated. You might be reading so much you burn out. Write it down even if it seems dumb. You can come back and refine the ideas later. You might be taking a lot of trips, writing even more emails. Relationships with siblings, extended family, and neighbors could ride the line between fun and frustrating.
4th house: You could be getting a lot done around the house. Motivated to familiarize your surroundings both internally and externally. Watch for feeling a little touchy, a little defensive when vulnerable. The desire to root down and feel secure is there, but may not totally feel that way yet. In the meantime, make your home a fortress of all your interests.
5th house: Fun! Fun will be your fuel. Great for making art. Great for hooking up. If you have a crush, ask them a lot of questions about them, Play harmless games. Be mischievous with others and with your art. If you have kids or work with kids, they might just be hyper and annoying a lot of the time.
6th house: Your to-do list is probably way too long. co-workers or employees might be annoying. It might be making you feel completely frazzled at times. It could even flare up some physical stress-related symptoms. Devote extra time to things like what you’re eating and how you’re moving your body. You might get really into learning about how to take care of yourself.
7th house: You are having a lot of conversations in relationships and about relationships. With your partner, with your clients, with your business partner, with your best friend. Try not to make your point too hard and just let yourself hear all that’s being said. Once you know the parameters, the two of you could finally master the art of good productive disagreement.
8th house: You could be feeling brave enough to enter the cave within, Try a lot of kinky kinks. You could have some really productive therapy sessions. Maybe a psychedelic experience is transformative. If you have debt, get clever about how you’ll pay them off — financially and emotionally.
9th house: Wow, so much to see and do. Taking a class or taking a long trip to let your mind fully wander and absorb new information. Get knee-deep in a fat book. If you’re a teacher, take your students on some field trips. If you’re a student, make sure you’re taking walks between saturating your brain. Find a guide who somehow fills you with awe and optimism about the world, even at its most daunting.
10th house: If you’re not your own boss, you might really wish you were right now. If it’s not your boss, a parent could be aggravating you. Regardless, you at least might be craving a career switch-up. The need for variety is calling, more social connection, more communication, more writing. Let yourself toy around with the skills you’ve already mastered—they might need to be a little lighter on their feet and more flexible.
11th house: The future is alight. You could really be projecting yourself down the line and wondering how you’ll fit into all of it, how you’ll develop. It could feel daunting at times, but given how forcibly stifled we’ve had to collectively be the past few years, a glimpse of what is over the horizon could be liberating. You’re likely hanging out with a lot of people these days, too. Might be fun to choreograph them into some fun and bizarre group dynamics.
12th house: Buckle up for some high-octane dreams. Mars here is stirring up your subconscious, and because its Gemini might be extra cartoonish. Write down the dreams you’re having, though, because they are likely telling you what kind of conversations you’ll have later. You could get a lot done alone right now, but if you catch yourself spinning, talking to yourself passionately - it might be time to join the world.