GEMINI May 23rd-June 20th
The TWINS
Gemini is the third concept of existence. Your sign introduces the mind, the thinking, and the perceptions of intellect to the Zodiac. In your sign comes the first recognition of others, of sisters, brothers, community, cousins and neighbors. Gemini is the sign of the distilling consciousness, channeling information from the five senses of taste, hearing, smell, touch, and sight. Gemini discovers the wonders of analyzing, sorting, trading, and playing with all that knowledge. The symbol of the twins is the mirror of the human story. In Gemini are the moving communications of everything in nature as well as everyone around you. The twins are the representation of the human recognition of “others,” the other people that exist in the individual sphere. Gemini is the concept of relationship that is natural, organic and tribal.
As the Mutable Air sign, you are restless, mental and social. Trade, travel, transportation, games, gossip and the news are typical Gemini interests & talents. You have the quality of curiosity, enjoy new conversations, and the varieties of language and speech. You are a quick study and adapt to changing ideas as well as changing environments. This leads to exploring territorially. It is in your nature to want to keep moving, seeking new scenes and places. You are fascinated by far reaching points of view, some never thought of before. One of the greatest fears in Gemini is losing rationality, traveling too far on the rapid concepts and whirling dimensions of the racing mind.
Mercury is your ruling planet, the messenger of the gods, closest planet to the Sun. Mercury rules all forms of
The arms and hands are the parts of the body ruled by Gemini. This sign is the first of the human images in the Zodiac. Hands are the unique tools of expression, dexterity, craftsmanship, eating, and grooming. The hands are profoundly the talisman of the master being—one who can use utensils, writing, and touch to enhance and adapt to the world around us.
The lungs are also ruled by Gemini, and represent the basic faith of all existence, the ability to breathe. In the third trimester of pregnancy the lungs develop and the five senses begin their receptivity to stimulus. A great mystery of life occurs in this relationship between the third and fourth signs of the Zodiac. At the moment of birth, ruled by Cancer, the soul enters the body through the first breath, ruled by Gemini. The last breath allows the exit of that soul.
The general nervous system is ruled by Mercury and Gemini.
Your colors are pastels, yellow, turquoise, pink, green; linear and geometric patterns, with white.
Your stones are aquamarine, citron, and all varieties of clear stones that give light and sparkle.
Metal is mercury, or quicksilver
The Full Moon during Gemini is called the Full Honey Moon, from the activity of bees pollinating the flowers. The bee, like Gemini, is an icon of community and the organization each group must accomplish for survival. This full moon also can be called for the bounty of the season, namely Huckleberry, Strawberry, Raspberry and Mulberry Moons. These full moons represent the activity in nature that produces its livelihood. In the beehive is collective consciousness working toward the production of treasure. Each division of labor contributes to the greater whole, with codes of communication about territory and resources (returning bees dance on the backs of outgoing bees, transmitting to them the news of the pollen fields). Melissa oil is one of the most precious and healing of all the oils and, in Latin, Melissa means “bee,” or “sweet.” This oil would be of highest benefit to Gemini. Because Gemini people are sweet-tempered, and naturally optimistic.
In your receptivity to healing, you are seeking a conversation and intelligence from either the practitioner, or the method. As an Air sign you are seldom in the body, relying more on energies and stimulations of the intellect that quickly link to physical sensation. The psychology of the body interests you more than the corporeal substance. You are mentally suggestible, using a philosophy of life that is the most recent one you have heard.
Your compatible signs are many because everyone is delighted by you, your easy wit, your love of groups and companionship, and your lively conversation. Your mind is the key to attraction, as you love someone to talk to. You have to be careful, though, of getting bored in relationships or feeling trapped. Birds are Gemini and they do not like cages. The paradox is that you are a twin and need your other. This could be a lifelong dilemma for you—wanting newness and yet a constant playmate. Look for youthful signs who like change, like Sagittarius and Aries. Cancers and Capricorns can give you the sense of being parented. Virgo and Taurus become kind of scolding with you. Pisces and Leo are interesting, though demanding. Aquarius and Libra are your type, if they aren’t too slow for you. Beware of shallowness in yourself and a fickle, thieving nature that takes lightly what others give. Make no promises and enjoy your eternal youth. Marriage might come more easily for you in later life, as you spend your adventurous years trying out all the varieties of your remarkable talents.
If you are in relationship with a Gemini, be happy. Be delighted and be willing to live lightly in companionship. Your Gemini is the same person you loved from the beginning, even
if your name has escaped their memories. Require no promises and make no rules. Your moving target will always return, not on time, but just in time. Your Gemini is the hit of all the gatherings, but is not one to seethe jealously over, because for all that flirting (and they are the best flirts) they don’t follow through with anything deep or serious. Gemini is about the conversation, the fun of talking and new exchanges. And they are cute. The greatest leash you can put on your Gemini mate is the invisible one; of consideration, attention, and tolerance. Be easy and learn to enjoy the moment. You are with the master of the changing moment, and one who will be forever young. That requires play. Do not forget to play and that the object of life is fun.
As a professional person, Gemini is the original multitasker. Since communication is your domain and .com rules the world, all kinds of stunning opportunities are yours in these times. Make sure you like who you work with, as Gemini’s love is to be one of the gang, in the game, and not be left out of the explorations. Sameness, dullness and no chance for interesting variety will drive you simply out the door and
“While thy booke doth live, And we have wits to read,
and praise to give, Thou art alive still…”
sign on a Paris bookstore , Shakespeare & Co. on the left bank.
The Age of Gemini was during the time of the Egyptian culture. In the Twins are threads of understanding that embody high contrast, as well as the most natural human combinations. The naming and listing of the rising and setting of all the stars was Egyptian. There is speculation that Christ was a twin. This is a veiled allusion to brotherly love and human compassion.
The Biblical oil associated with Gemini is Cassia, a twin to Cinnamon, but earlier. “All thy garments smell of Cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby stringed instruments have made thee glad.” Psalms 45:8 Cassia oil is one of the most antiseptic and antibacterial of all oils, matching the Gemini freshness.
CANCER June 21st-July 23rd
The CRAB
Birth comes to the world through the sign Cancer. Your position as the fourth principle completes the elemental story. Fire introduced life, earth contained it, air awakened its senses, and now Cardinal Water, the element of Cancer, brings it to being. You are the archetype of the feeling, emotional, and intuitive human being. Your sign carries the incredibly important icon of The Soul. The symbols of the crab, the oyster, the scarab and the nautilus are the beings that live in a watery, yet protected world. So you, as the vessel of the soul, need a shelter of some kind that contains you. The home, the family, and the mother are this protection. For you, the making of a home is paramount. Your need for privacy is not to be denied, and yet your need to love and be loved is just as strong. Your battle ground is the world of yearning and of striving to fulfill needs.
Cancer is called the “gateway of the heavens.” Its name in old middle eastern texts is, the one who holds or binds. In the center of the stars of Cancer is the multitudinous cluster that moderns call the Beehive. Cancer resides under the polar constellations which are known as Little Bear and the Great Bear. The ancient names for these two were called rest and security. The polar star is referred to as “the nail” or that which is turned upon. All constellations revolve every day around the one which never moves, Polaris, in the tail of the Little Bear, just north of northerly Cancer. The Summer Solstice is when the Sun enters Cancer, the sign of fertility and abundant life.
The Moon is your ruler, the force behind the pulling of the tides of the oceans and, more deeply, the pulling tide of the eternal soul. Memory is such a profound part of you and your
All forms of water will be attractive to you, Cancer, as you are from the great ocean mother, the sea. Lakes and rivers are ruled by the later water signs, Scorpio and Pisces. But for you the deepest water is your home. Ruled by the moon, your other realm is midnight, the time of the instincts, blindness, and primal knowledge. The cerebellum, the back of the skull, the oldest, instinctual part of our brains, is lunar. The empathy between emotion, water, and the moon resides in your spirit.
The parts of the body that are ruled by Cancer are the organs of nurturing and containment: the womb, the stomach, the breasts, the sac around the heart, and the membrane that holds the brain.
Sensitive stomachs (including the esophagus) are problems for Cancers. Certain foods can be problematic and these can change with the moon cycles and the seasons. You, more than any other sign, are highly cyclical. Studying the Moon’s cycles, both the one you were born under and the waxing and waning of the actual moon, will help you cope with your own restless tides.
Depression can be a problem for water signs, the sinking of the moods, and the wetting of enthusiasm. The signs that know death are Water: first at birth, in Cancer; then crossing over through sex at Scorpio; and, finally, the transcendence of the soul at Pisces. These are the signs that experience other worlds, which can bewilder, frighten, and be impossible to explain to others. Intuition is not really a choice. We are not taught to use or even to acknowledge it. But it is the essence of your sign and your ways of absorbing the world.
Your colors are all blues, and your Metal is silver.
Your stone is the pearl (the moon at the bottom of the sea).Note the deep mystery of this stone. In the real pearls, (wild ones, not cultivated) the grain that starts the irritation causes layering of the pearl substance around the stone, then is completely dissolved in the center of the final pearl. The ability to layer is Cancerian, to coat all surroundings with mother-of-pearl. More interior decorators are Cancer than any other sign. The crab is also known for its ability to shed the shell (home) when it is time. As the sign of the great Mother, Mere, Mary, Mara, all names of the Sea, Cancer nurtures life.
The Full Moon during Cancer is the Full Rose Moon, the Full Milk Moon, or the Full Pearl Moon. All full moons have strong influence on you. Studying the phases of the moon will aid you to be a sailor on your varying seas.
Your receptivity to healing is secretive, defensive. You do not tell about your inner world easily, so want the healer to guess and figure out what is wrong, accurately and intuitively. It will work best for you to participate in healing with someone who gives you a feeling of familial security and who does have gifts of insight and maternal nurturing. Each layer must be lived and acknowledged and also found. Your timing in healing is also crucial. If you are in one of your moods, then it will not be an effective process to meet with your healers and doctors. Learn your cycles and rhythms. Be real with your instincts and reject people and paradigms that you do not feel
Your compatible signs are other Cardinal signs, like Aries, Libra, and especially Capricorn, your opposite sign. You require a strong mate, because your nature is so extremely selfish and closed to others. Beware of having “mother” issues, putting too great an emphasis on who and how you were nurtured. The moon (the mother) rules our needs. By leaving the mother, we learn to fulfill all of our needs—feeding, clothing, sheltering, loving, & growing.
It will be important for you, Cancer, to study the families of those you love, and to be aware that a negative home dynamic in the beloved will spoil much of your time together. Look for the strength that you admire to match your own. Be careful of weaker beings who need you to parent them, or be the advocate to always problem-solve. And above all, know your communication style and the way in which others miss what you are trying to accomplish or say. If you communicate by moods and hints, others will make their own assumptions because they really can’t guess. If you hate to talk about yourself, find a mate who can psyche you out and know what is going on, like Pisces, Aquarius, or Scorpio. Know that love is a giant thing for you. To many, it’s just a word.
If you are in relationship with a Cancer, you will need patience and intuition, learn to not force issues, and to leave well-enough alone. You will be rewarded in your abilities to understand without prying, to ask without seeming to ask. If you find the lights out and the doors locked, you will need to discern if this is a cry for attention, or that you should go shoot pool for a while. When that Cancer shell goes up, no force will tear it off. It is a formidable wall. But its function is to support the tender and empathic being inside. You are with someone who feels more than they mean to, more than they want. All emotions are felt by Cancer. If you are pained, so are they. All persons ruled by emotion are made that way, absolutely. The way to please a Cancer is—whatever they say.
Professionally, this sign is the corporation builder, the creator of great dynasties and schemes. Cancer does everything in a whole encounter and puts the life of the feelings into whatever is the objective. There are always two worlds with a Cancer in business or enterprise, the one making everything happen, fully visible, and the other one, deep inside the innermost chamber of the nautilus shell, dreaming the thing. Art and beauty are the soul of Cancer, so whatever the workplace, Cancer will fill it with beauty and riches. You have a great capacity for success in many different fields. As long as you remain your own master, you can do everything.
The United States of America was born in the Sun Sign Cancer, hence our totems of mother, home and family. The individual ownership of homes is developed further in this country than any other in the world. But we have a Moon sign in the universal sign Aquarius, combining to bring the world into this shell—the melting pot. Another Cancerian concept is our iconic image of Liberty as a woman, with a nurturing message. “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free…. I lift my lamp beside the Golden Door.” Again, Cancer is the doorway to life.
The biblical oil most attuned to Cancer is Onycha, debated whether it was a shellfish or a plant, or both. The Talmud states it is a plant, and the oil comes from its resin.
“And the LORD said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices…. onycha, and galbanum; these sweet spices with pure frankincense: of each shall there be a like weight :Exodus 30:33 A component of the sacred ointment, made from the shells of a species of mussel, possessing an odor.” It is known for its soothing and comforting properties, and origin in your lifeblood, the sea.
A note on the word Cancer and its unfortunate association in our medical language. When one of the early technicians observed carcinogenic cells under the microscope, they resembled crabs. In a testament to an astrologically literate time, this visual image of the crab was tagged after the constellation of the crab in the sky. It is the mission of this author to get this name erased from medical terminology, and to restore the noble sign Cancer to its purity. For the sake of 1/12th of the world, please use the terms carcinoma or malignancy instead of the title of this sign. JEC
