Mercury in Gemini

Mercury riding Pegasus by Antoine Coysevox (1640-1720)

(Carrara marble, Louvre Museum, Paris - photo credit: Jastrow, 2007)

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For everyone whose wickets have been stickier than usual over the past couple of weeks (that would be most of us), a little good news: Mercury is about to leave Taurus and enter Gemini.

The date? May 1st (at least in the UT/+0 zone), with Mercury doing this deed as of 2:01 in the morning, which makes this ingress later in the day as you move east... and earlier as you think ‘west’ (with the whole of the Americas beginning to take up the many facets of the many things which tend to arise under Mercury in Gemini during the evening of April 30th).

And lest we forget, all of that means Mercury will be at 29 Taurus (after having crossed over Algol, a star of ill temperament earlier in the week) prior to reaching Gemini - meaning we may have a headache even before Mercury, symbol of thought, communication and mentality, even reaches its most "personal" (basic) home sign of Gemini.

The aspirin may come soon enough though - once we reach the ingress, I mean, as this is one of those shifts we tend to 'feel' as a subtle shift in our perspective on ...or our feelings about whatever is on (or going through) our Mercurial mind. Mercury in Gemini is a little less intense than Mercury in Taurus - and more speculative. Even when things get bad, a Mercury in Gemini moment will tend to trend more towards a lot of yelling, screaming and slews of (sometimes highly creative) insults, where Mercury in Taurus says less and breaks more - that 'more' being either physical or more or less about what we might just term as "confidence" (all meanings implied).

Mercury in Gemini also has a reputation for being a busy time, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything gets done.  Sometimes Gemini’s ‘busyness’ is all intake or input - which fits with the function of Gemini as this is the sign which is all about thinking, learning how to think, learning that thinking can help us make good choices - and all that comes from learning how to learn, learning how to think (i.e., critical thinking) and how what we know is just as important as what we don’t know, as one is the voice of experience and the other provides us with the opportunity to expand our knowledge, and therefore our effective use of our life, our brain, our time and whatever resources we have (or can get) which can be focused on some challenge.

Plus there is always the fact that Mercury is about to go retrograde. The date of Mercury’s station is May 19th, but Mercury will be rolling into its shadow (the point at which it’s then in the ‘retrograde zone’) as of May 3rd. Generally speaking, from that date (the 3rd) until Mercury’s station tends to get ‘focused’ on one or more particular subjects - and that’s likely to be particularly true this year, what with this retrograde occurring entirely in Gemini, the most basic of Mercury’s signs of rulership.

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By ‘basic,’ we mean everything about our thinking - or even we even are thinking. Or if we’re capable of thinking something through - does our brain work? Do we have enough information? Do we understand the parameter of the situation?

Mercury is not the astrological Sun here, so this is more about our considering how life works, or how its working at the moment - this isn’t about life itself. With the Sun (and Mars) still in Taurus, Mercury’s shift into Taurus suggests attention being paid to details and values and a sorting through of reasons and rationales, new, old and outdated. With  Mercury going retrograde at 13 Gemini, we can be good at something but not successful at it due to a lack of balance. Or we may become aware of someone else who is good at something ... or something which we think deserves to succeed, but which isn’t getting the attention it deserves.

What is that about?

According to the lore for this degree, the difference between success and lack of success is metaphysical balance - which in the case of genius (or heavy-duty talent) is often the case. In fact, it could be argued that in this day and age of specialties, we’re producing a lot of ‘genius-level’ people and understandings which can’t stand on their own or succeed in a ‘wholesome’ way  simply because such skewing of interest isn’t metaphysically ‘wholesome’ simply because it isn’t ‘whole.’ (You know, balanced and therefore integrated as a balanced whole.)

This makes particular sense to me as I’ve been wrestling with this idea for a while now. And if I’ve been wrestling with it, I expect you or someone you know have been too. We can’t keep on ‘heading’ in a direction we don’t want to go, as metaphysics teaches us that the thing you invest your energy in is the thing you get ‘back.’ So if you prepare for a war (or you spend all your time thinking or talking about how difficult or dangerous things are, whether personally or globally) the laws of metaphysics virtually guarantee that life will oblige and provide some sort of danger to suit the subject you’ve been investing all that energy - be it mental, emotional, physical or otherwise - in.

It's something to think about - and you get my drift, I expect. We all deal with these (im)balances, and this trend towards balance is only going to increase, but become a premium going forward (that's the 'in the coming years' version of going forward) not because we aren’t each and every one of us capable of being many things (a very Gemini concept) but because social forces are looking for personal labels.

No, we don’t like labels. But (part one) the metaphysics of a label is both the reaction we have to it (plus) the reaction we come to when we understand why it has been assigned to us, whether by someone in particular or some blank societal force. Increasingly we are all labeled either by the people we know or by the statistics we represent - just as we increasingly tend to label others, most often without even knowing who they really are.

Or aren't.

And the metaphysics of that is how the less we know about others, the less we want them to know about us.

Yes, we're all living with that, too... (welcome to the Age of Aquarius!).

This is a time when all the things in life which we don’t want to think about, which we don’t even think we should have to think about or concern ourselves with - when all those things are making themselves evident. They may not be so ‘in your face’ that we are forced to deal with them ... but they're moving up on life’s lists.

And for many of us, this Mercury in Gemini and the Mercury retrograde passage which comes with it is going to be a time when we have an opportunity to get perspective on some of these issues. When with a little thought, we may come to some recognitions, realizations and decisions (or at least a few pre-decisions) about what we are going to be, support (or not support) ... and maybe more importantly, what we are going to get ourselves to do.

For a lot of us, balance can be achieved through a little cutting back. For others, it’s their relationship to what is ‘lacking’ (in their personal balance) needs more familiarity, more ‘friendliness’ on our part about things we’re not comfortable with, on some level.

The Sun won’t be entering Gemini until just after  Mercury’s station, so during the run-up to that station (a period often noted for pressures, lots of things needing to be sorted out and a desire to get XYZ ‘done’ so its off your plate) we’re still going to be dealing with our own insecurities even where we want to be at the top of our game.

This is the Gemini combination and the story of the two stars - Castor and Pollux - we know as the Gemini twins. Our brain works to think through (Pollux) something even as we try to (Castor) mange the situation or ‘bully’ through it based on personal presence (representing Aries strength + Taurus instinct, those being the only two signs of the zodiac which precede Gemini).

Mercury moving into Gemini is bound to ‘lighten the mood’ and increase the pace of communication, travel and general activities, along with the number of people involved (or getting involved) in such activities.

It also increases our need to care about how we go about doing all those things ... and the need to cope with whatever happens as we do them and in response to what we do. That’s the Gemini polarity: the ideas we get under Gemini get tested and reacted to under Sagittarius, hence all the ‘course corrections’ and ‘did you forgot that part...?’ moments which come through Sagittarian channels.

With Saturn currently transiting Sagittarius (in opposition to Mercury’s position in Gemini) some of what we meet up with in the next few weeks is going to be hard. Or it may seem harsh. We may even be tempted to not believe it or to reject it out of hand simply because it doesn’t ‘work’ with how we want things to work.

For those willing to commit to owning why they do things (the Mercury choice we make to do or not do something for reasons which make sense to us), things are likely to change - or at least you’re likely to come to a different set of parameters or realizations just after Mercury goes direct again on June 11th.

And yes, that is a common comment with Mercury retrogrades, at least in part because of Mercury’s association with communications, whether spoken, in text, in digital form or otherwise. Under Mercury retrograde (or even as Mercury goes into its station to go retrograde) its common for messages to go astray, for letters to not get sent, for personal schedules to get off track and for cars and computers to act up.

Often it takes the whole of the retrograde (plus a couple of days) to get such things straightened out. And given how retrogrades tend to internalize energy, during that time we end up (Mercury) thinking about such matters.

Yes, it can be annoying. People are often annoyed or frustrated under Mercury retrograde. Either they can’t think of something, are being held up because someone else can’t think of something (or can’t seem to get around to doing it) or we’re trying to decide what to do.

Given all this, you may think it’s odd, but there are some people who thrive and do hugely well under Mercury retrograde. Some are people who simply have Mercury retrograde in their natal chart - a natal Mercury retrograde does seem to indicate a degree of ‘immunity’ to the feelings of being ‘pent up’ which so many experience under Mercury retrograde. But others where we get involved in making a choice which by its own nature isn’t the ‘end’ of the process, such as when or where something gets bought for the express purpose of reworking and eventual resale.

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With Mercury coming out of retrograde at 4 Gemini just before Neptune goes station-retrograde at 9 Pisces (on June 12) gives us a square between the two stations - and an indication that some of us are in for a few surprises. Things will be revealed and things will melt away during these days, affecting choices, plans (especially long term plans) and opinions or estimations of ... (as opposed to our feelings about) ... others or their choices, opinions and plans.

And with Mercury conjunct Industria, there’s effort involved - whether this pertains to your actual work (career, job) or not. So maybe you don’t want to think about ‘this.’ Or perhaps you don’t want to think that all the effort you’ve already put into something now has to be reworked or tweaked in some manner.

With Saturn in opposition from 0 Sagittarius, there is some ‘danger’ of getting caught up in a debate or the energy of competition (against our Self or others). Or even that we may dig our mental heels in during these days, refusing to listen to sense because we don’t want to be seen as anyone who ‘doesn’t know’ ... or because we believe we have somehow been endowed with the right to act pig-headed.

And yes, you may have that right. But if that amounts to the right to defeat yourself in the long run, is that a right you want to exercise?

Why we do what we do (and don’t do what we don’t do) is of course probably the biggest part of why our lives - and our world - ends up being what they are. And the idea of Mercury in Gemini, whether in direct motion or retrograde, is about learning how to learn. Mercury’s annual passage through Gemini (which for 2015 doesn’t end until July 8th) is all about just that - which is why we tend to run into so many new ideas and new perspectives on things we already know (or think we know!) during this passage. That old wives’ tale which starts out with ‘I’m a Gemini, I’m supposed to be into all sorts of things’ is just that - a tired old story which doesn’t get anyone where they want to go. Yes, Gemini is about learning what the options are. But after that, Gemini is about making an informed choice which, by how it works or doesn’t work over time teaches us ever more about how to choose, think ... and for those who happen to also have a Moon in Gemini - how we can choose to deal with, or with regard to our emotions considering they are emotional and thus are not ever precisely entirely manageable.

Once we get through this Mercury cycle, we will all probably have a greater sense of what we’re doing. By the time that happens (i.e., by the time Mercury moves into Cancer come early July) we will have sorted through the recent eclipse-timed upheavals we are all still wading through the many repercussions of.

By then we will have hopefully realized where we’ve been fooling or compromising our Selves of late, and how in light of who we really are and aren’t - and who we know we need to (Gemini) choose to be and become, how so much of that depends on whether we really know what we're 'up against' - not so much in life but in our own mind.

And some of that we will understand because of all we experience under Mercury in Gemini, which if nothing else is a suggestion about the thinker - one who thinks about both their thoughtless and thoughtful thoughts.
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