New Moon in Gemini

Gemini New Moon, 10 June 2021

Gemini itself is a kind of natural wild card and this New Moon is also a solar eclipse which themselves are chaotic, so expect some wackiness this New Moon. Gemini is mutable air. The mutable quality is just as it sounds - changing, flexible, shifting. The Air element rules the intellect and ideas. Air element is orientated in the mind and the mental faculties and so sometimes has the quality of being cold and unfeeling. When Air is not engaged with consciously, its rationale is not grounded in the practical (earth) or the heart (water) but rather purely in possibility, in whatever thread the mind can conceive and follow. Because Air is a naturally moving energy it can get very heady, lifting us up and out of the body and out of the heart. Gemini naturally governs the 3^rd house – which is all about movement and communication. Its symbol of the twins suggests the binary nature of give and take, back and forth, ideas bouncing off one another. But more than just communication and interaction, the twins reminds us about multiple perspectives and most importantly about synchronicity. Gemini is a very flexible energy that is forever curious. It can bounce this way or that quite, taking in many points seemingly at once and this is part of its Airy mutable nature – it moves, constantly. Gemini in its pure expression does not seek to deep dive, for that is not its roll. It is here to skim and slide and slip and glean. Its point is to be generative and it does so through engagement. It connects seemingly disparate things together because it opens doors, through flexibility, through curiosity, through its need to keep moving. Real magic can happen in these conditions, because pathways are wide open, ideas are not rigid, possibility is set free from practical or even emotionally binding concerns. Synchronicity thrives in these conditions. Gemini teaches us the importance of being in community and in communion with ALL of possibility. And this energy, like every energy has its down sides. Here we can find the 10 million projects started and never completed, or escapist busyness gone rogue. Here we can see a lack a staying power that hinders deep understanding and commitment. Here we can also find dismissive attitudes towards long term repercussions, or anything that might be somewhat slow or requiring patience and time. This energy can as mentioned before, can be hurtful and impractical if it looses touch with physical reality or emotional responsibility. Responsibility is not a strong Gemini trait and this is because it is associated with youth and the energy, vibrancy and eagerness that comes with that. And I don’t say this is one of its shadow expressions per say. For the point of youth is to be less responsible. Youth could not do what it is meant to do if it were bound and tied the way adulthood is. Yes, of course can go too far in one direction, but when strong Gemini energy is manifesting, part of the imperative is to shed something (an idea, a form, a concept, a belief) and slide out from under the weight of responsibility that those preconceived notions have put on us. Gemini wants movement. Its ruled by Mercury after all. That quick silver, messenger to the gods. Mercury who could travel to the underworld and the overworld without having to pass through customs or suffer under all those questions and scrutiny. Mercury like Gemini connects disparate points.

This New Moon in Gemini is also conjunct retrograde Mercury in addition to being a solar eclipse. This is interesting to unpack. So retrograde seems to get folks freaking out. And in the spirit of shadow Gemini, this is a great time to remind ourselves that a little bit of knowledge can be both detrimental and misleading. All the planets retrograde – it has to do with the apparent motion from the perspective of earth – sometimes they seem to move backwards. Retrograde means revisit, redo, reexamine. It is simply a time to slow down and pay attention to details. In our fast paced, instant everything world we have created this leads most readily into frustration, but it is rarely anything that is disastrous. Ok, having your hard-drive crash, loosing your wallet, signing before actually reading all of the fine print, can certainly feel disastrous, but it is never out to flay you or destroy you. Retrogradation is mostly there to teach us about the nature of time (within the context of the planet involved). Mercury is about what we know and say and think. It is about connecting the dots. It is about messages and receiving Divine information and guidance. So a retrograde Mercury is often about revisiting ideas and concepts. It is about slowing enough and getting out of our own way enough to receive a download. Deja vu is very common when Mercury is retrograde. It is a time when we can make connections and understand things not usually as readily available to us. But this only happens when we keep in mind that this is a receptive and reviewing time, rather than one where we forge ahead or try to get ahead of the game. Because you will have a softened focus during Mercury retrograde times, important little details can slip past you (ever more so when there is an eclipse). So don’t freak out about Mercury retrograde, just take steps to behave accordingly. No biggie.

Having said that, the solar eclipse will make things far more extreme than usual. To remind you, a solar eclipse is where the Sun – or your conscious orientation – is blocked or has to take a back seat to your lunar concerns - that of your emotional and intuitive realms. Another way to look at it is that the yin aspect of our natures often hold sway over the yang aspects of our nature. One astrologer I heard recently talked about eclipses (solar and lunar) as being this maw of possibility that opens up in the cosmic space time where all the rules and logic go out the window and no holds are barred. For this reason there are many who caution against ritual during eclipses, because things can easily go sideways and give unexpected results. I am not of the school that follows one should try to control magic, so for me, eclipses are certainly times where we should exercise caution in what we wish for – we might just get it, and it won’t at all be what or how we imagined it. But I don’t necessarily avoid ritual at these times. I usually use eclipses as times to really just throw love out with abandon. That’s it. Throw it out from you and let it go. I’m not talking about desire or insecurity or all the things we often mistakenly call “love”. That will often return to bite you in the ass. But Love – that indescribable thing that fills us with openness - however that comes back at you, is always a blessing and never is ill timed. For me, eclipses are not times to avoid ritual, but rather its about fitting the ritual to the time. Eclipses are cosmic wild cards. So know this. Great magic can come from this time. Pay attention to the energetic weather and dress your ritual and your intention accordingly. Remember that Mercury is retrograde. Remember its a solar eclipse. If you know your chart, see where it falls for you. Take all this into consideration. Its actually very potent to have Mercury, the ruler of Gemini conjuncting the eclipse in Gemini. Thought and ideas can really open up. Change and movement can happen so easily. Reality as we know it can do a 360. Guidance in extreme forms are available. And just to keep it real, it also means your head can get farther up your ass than its ever been before. Everyone will be experiencing this, so stay centered and be open. This is not the time to take a stand or to get rigid. Also know that you might flex in ways that feel ok at the time but 6 months from now (the time it is said it takes to integrate the energy of the eclipse) you will be wondering what you were thinking. This too is part of the process. I like to think of it like chopping wood. You never aim your ax at the wood to split it, you aim it through the wood, at the block. Sometimes to get to where we need to be we have to overshoot or we’d not make the mark.

So activities that are great for this time? Go and talk to people. Chat up strangers when you are waiting in line for whatever. Comment on conversations that are happening around you. Share ideas that occur to you. Share information. Gemini is a storyteller, so tell stories, and seek them out. Stay curious, get connected. Dip into new ideas, pick up a book or listen to a podcast on things you’ve not considered before. And above all LISTEN. Retrograde Mercury is very much about ‘receiving’. Try to listen in new ways. What does it feel like if you keep your ear in your head, what does it feel like when you put that same ear in your heart or lower down just below your navel, in your guts? What do you hear when you do this, how does it change your understanding of what is being received, what nuances do you notice from one place that you didn’t in the other? Its all information. So gather it, dip into it, taste it. Gemini is really about being creative and curious, so engage in your internal process of listening. Explore what that means for you and all the ways that it can happen and how it changes. If you find yourself getting stuck somewhere, practice detaching and shifting focus. I am not saying ‘check out’, I am saying see how you can tell a different story with the same facts – give yourself a challenge to bend and flex and flow into a whole new kind of yoga. Gemini rules movement, so get out and move your body. Ambulation of all kinds - dance, run, walk, skip. When was the last time you skipped? Try it and notice what it does inside of you. How it changes how you feel, what you think. Get very curious about your own process. Then find a friend and bounce your findings off them. See where that reveal takes you both. Commit yourself to going on an adventure!

Intentions to set? Basically the same thing…. Try to avoid putting things in boxes with labels on them. If something rubs you the wrong way, find a way to bring curiosity into the space. Remember that this is not a time to hold an impossible yoga pose, all you need to do it flex into it for a brief moment and then slide away. Its not a time to be fixed in body or mind. Nor is it a time to fix, but rather to explore. So have your intentions follow. Try to remain fluid and open. You can practice mantra along these lines. If you find yourself getting bogged down with unhelpful mental chatter, give your little monkey mind “go with the flow” as a stick to hold onto and wave around. Put your feelers out – all of them. Fully extend your range and see what you pick up. Remember that this is not really a time to ‘do’ anything with whatever information you receive, its more about exposure and taking in abundance. So stretch your container and see how much you can fit in. By opening our hearts, we make room in our minds. Try to shift your habitual patterns – whatever they are. Bring in newness and even a bit of chaos. Make the intention to simply engage differently. Gemini energy is not about judging a thing, its about exploring it. Gemini energy is an open mind – wide open. If you need a meditation tool at this time, I would recommend the Tarot card #6 of the Major Arcana. Angeles Arrien gives a beautiful interpretation of this card from the Thoth deck. Therein she quotes the I-Ching of Break-through saying “Even a single passion still lurking in the heart has the power to obscure reason. Passion and reason cannot exist side by side. Therefore, fight without quarter is necessary if the good is to prevail. In resolute struggle of the good against evil, there are, however, definite rules that must not be discarded if good is to succeed. First, resolution must be based on a union of strength and friendliness. Second, a compromise with evil is not possible: evil must under all circumstances be openly discredited. Nor must our own passion and shortcomings be glossed over. Third, the struggle must not be carried on directly by force. If evil is branded, it thinks of weapons, and if we do it the favor of fighting against it blow for blow, we lose in the end because thus we ourselves get entangled in hatred and passion. Therefore, it is important to begin at home, to be on guard in our own persons against the faults that we have branded. In this way finding no opponent, the sharp edges of the weapons of evil become dulled. For the same reasons we should not combat our own faults directly. As long as we wrestle with them, they continue victorious. Finally, the best way to fight evil is to make energetic progress in the good.” If you take issue with these words, well, this is a time where we all get to explore them a bit more. Gemini can help us unpack our own shadow natures and it can open our awareness to our own prejudices and inform us about our own privileges. None of our hands are clean. So how do we learn to join them? Gemini holds a key at this time.

For ritual this month I mostly recommend to just spend time in communion. Talk to the bee, the bird, the stone and listen in return. This time is about making contact and being open to receiving contact. Again if you are going to ritualize an intention to try to set something in motion for this New Moon, keep it really simple, very basic – and be sure to let go of all your expectations and illusions of any kind of control. This is a wild New Moon, so please dress accordingly.

Finally in parting this month I would like to add that there are A LOT of weighty aspects from the Full Moon (lunar eclipse) when I post this, right on through to the New Moon that I have shared a little bit about. This is a very pregnant time. We have all been called to show up here and now on this planet. One way or another we answer that call through our willingness (or unwillingness) to be present for our life as it unfolds day by day. This is a time when great change is afoot. Minds can 360 at the drop of hat. We can connect all the seemingly disparate parts of ourselves too. Any dip into quantum theory or history for that matter shows us that physical reality changes as mind changes. The downfall of this time is skimming across the surface of the information and formulating a belief to stand on where we can wield our righteous emotions. History will provide endless great examples of such hubris too. I urge us all to practice breathing into whatever conflict we find ourselves in – whether on the outside of us as we engage with the world, or inside of us as we come to terms with our own shadow nature. Just show up and be honest. Our jobs are not to pick up the banner of a truth from something outside of ourselves. This time we are all in calls us to listen to the wisdom that is seeded within each of us. So what really is your bottom line? What are your core values? Are you able to stand there and not get carried up and out of that truth? If not, use this time to simply practice just being uncomfortable and to take in as much information from all sides as you can. Use this yin time to receive and to stretch your capacity to sit with multiple and even conflicting perspectives. The Gemini twins can bring polarities into stark relief, but the binary energy of the twins can just as easily be lovers and two halves of a greater and far yummier wholeness. So pay attention to the twinning energy that you encounter on your travels.