How to Listen to a Gemini

Real Life Guidance on How to Get Along and Be Friends with the 3rd Sign of the Zodiac

By Mary L. English

John Hunt Publishing Ltd.

Copyright © 2013 Mary L. English
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-78279-099-0

Contents

Acknowledgements…………………………………………………..viiiIntroduction………………………………………………………1Chapter One: The Sign………………………………………………7Chapter Two: How to Make a Chart…………………………………….26Chapter Three: The Ascendant………………………………………..31Chapter Four: The Moon……………………………………………..39Chapter Five: The Houses……………………………………………48Chapter Six: The Problems…………………………………………..55Chapter Seven: The Solutions………………………………………..60Chapter Eight: Listening Tactics…………………………………….67References………………………………………………………..87Further Information………………………………………………..89Astrological Chart Information………………………………………90

CHAPTER 1

The Sign

Gemini is The Twins. The double-bodied sign of the Zodiac. Theother double is Pisces, which is represented by the two fishswimming in opposite directions.

And here is the eternal dilemma … doing one thing, andthinking something else.

Saying one thing and doing something completely different.It’s something that all Geminis suffer from, this ability to see twosides to a situation, give two versions of events, and want toknow not only the good things in life, but also the worst. My ex-husband,who is a Gemini, used to say he’d never hope forsomething good, in case he was disappointed, so he’d alwaysthink about the worst-case scenario.

Not sure if it works, or if he still thinks like that, but it wassomething he told me.

Here’s Peter, an administrative assistant and part-timesoftware writer. I asked him how he first got into Astrology andhe gave me some good reasons for feeling at home with thedescriptions that his Sun sign is supposed to have:

I’m a Sun in Gemini. But when I read about Sun in Gemini, Ithought, “Yes! This is me!” but underneath it was a sense ofactually is this REALLY me or do I just really relate or resonatewith this because I WANT it to be? And I think it’s a bit of both. Idon’t think I’m actually as amazing as Gemini sounded when I readit, but I really wanted to be and I really came away feeling upbeatand positive that I could do anything and be the best version ofmyself that I could be, but I wasn’t really there yet. I really felt thatSun in Gemini must be the very best Sun sign around. As a controlI read Sun in Aries as I was skeptical that maybe they all relate toyou and they’re written in a vague way that applies to all. But itwasn’t. I didn’t relate to it at all.

Later I went and bought the book (I was a student and prior tothis I was just sneakily reading it in a bookshop) and I read the wholething straight through. Some of the other signs really resonated withme, particularly Aquarius, Scorpio and parts of Libra. I havenothing in Libra, but I later discovered that I also had somethingcalled an Ascendant in Scorpio, whatever on earth that was, andthat other planets counted too, such as the Moon, which was inAquarius.

So what is a Gemini?

To call someone a Gemini, they would need to be bornbetween a certain set of dates. These are the ones you read aboutin the magazines and newspapers and on certain websites, andthey are usually from the 22nd May to the 21st June.

Now, I say usually, because it does depend on where yourGemini was born and at what time of day.

I’ll tell you why.

Here we are on Earth. Astrology is the study of the planets intheir orbit around the Earth, from our viewpoint of the Earth.And even though Astrology bases its calculations on the Sungoing round the Earth, which it doesn’t do (the Earth goes roundthe Sun), it looks as if the Sun moves across the sky when we lookup at it.

All a birth chart or natal chart is, is a little map of the sky onthe day you were born. Those orbits of all the celestial bodiesdon’t occur neatly in time with our calendars though.

So, when the magazine says Mrs Green, who was born on the21st June, must be a Gemini, that’s not entirely correct. Because ifMrs Green was born at 10pm on the 21st in New York, NY, USA,she’d actually ‘be’ a Cancer. She would have to be born before 6amon that date to be a Gemini.

People have got round this dilemma by saying things like,”Oh, she was born on the cusp.” There is no such thing as a cusp.You are either one sign of the Zodiac or another; you can’t betwo. The Sun will move around the sky and at a certain point itwill then be in the next bit of the sky, and you’re either in one bit,or the other. There is a mathematical cut-off point.

As there are 12 signs of the Zodiac, we’ve divided the sky into12 bits. Each one is 30 degrees in size … this will become moreapparent when we look at Bob’s chart in the next chapter, but justkeep that in mind.

There is no such thing as a cusp.

Try to imagine it like the dividing lines on football pitches ortennis courts. A ball is either in … or out. And anyway it’s a mathsthing. It’s not difficult to work out now that computers do all thework.

The Twins

There is no true agreement on how the signs of the Zodiac gottheir names. Some historians say it’s because of the shapes thestars make in the sky but if you’ve ever looked at the stars, youcertainly won’t see anything remotely like a twin in the sky.

More likely is the idea that the original Astrologers (theBabylonians) named the 12 signs after their gods.

Nicholas Campion tells us in his The Dawn of Astrology thatGemini the sign was part of the constellations and was namedafter Mul Mas.Tab.Bagal.Gal or as they called it ‘The GreatTwins’.

They first recorded the path that the Moon took along theSun’s ecliptic, its apparent path through the sky, and divided itinto 18 constellations “which stood in the path of the moon.”

When the Babylonians were looking at the sky, the planets’orbits had in their backgrounds various constellations of stars.And I would just like to make a distinction here. Astrology is thestudy of the planets, not the stars. Stars are the twinkly thingsyou see in the night sky and are billions of light years away fromus here on Earth. Planets are celestial bodies, like the Earth, thatorbit around the Sun in our ‘Solar System’. Some of the planetsare made of gas, some are made of rock like ours, but all of themgo round and round the Sun. The Moon, our nearest neighbour,orbits around the Earth, while we orbit around the Sun.

So, Astrologers originally plotted the paths of the planets,through the sky, by matching the bits of the sky with the starconstellations behind them as you view them from Earth.

Now, because of our orbit and a thing called the precession ofthe Equinoxes, those planets don’t line up with the constellationsanymore. So what we do now is divide the sky into 12 equalportions and start the division at the 0° Aries point at the SpringEquinox.

So now the Astrological signs match up with the seasons.

Each sign of the Zodiac has a planet that looks after it. We callit their ‘ruler’ and the ruler to Gemini is Mercury as there aresimilarities to Mercury the planet and Gemini the sign. Just tomake things a bit difficult, this is also the ruler to Virgo, but that’sonly because there were originally 7 planets that the Babyloniansused: the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter andSaturn. It wasn’t until Uranus, Neptune and Pluto werediscovered that the rulerships changed, as Astrology is a livingand breathing art-and-science and there is always room forchange.

The Speedy Planet

Mercury is a funny little planet. It has a very erratic orbit.Sometimes it can be seen in the morning, sometimes in theevening. Goodness knows how the ancient Babylonians saw it, asit’s not easy to see even with a telescope.

In our solar system it’s the planet that is closest to the Sun.This makes its surface boiling hot in places, and freezing cold inothers, as because of its orbit round the Sun only part of theplanet actually faces the Sun. Bit like standing in front of abonfire on a cold winter’s night. If you’re facing the fire, yourfront can get hot, but your back can get really chilly.

Mercury’s orbit around the Sun is four times as fast as theEarth’s, so its year is only 88 Earth days long. However, it spinsso slowly on its axis that one day on Mercury is equal to 59 dayson Earth. It is also the smallest planet in our solar system and isnot so easy to spot; the best times being early evening in thespring and early morning in the autumn in the northernhemisphere.

NASA’s Messenger Probe

The American space agency NASA sent a probe called Messengerto explore the planet in 2004 and it became the first spacecraft toorbit the innermost planet on 18th March 2011. It was going tocease its investigations in March 2012, but has secured fundingfor an additional year of research. There is another missionplanned for 2013 called BepiColombo which will carry twoorbiters, one from Europe and one from Japan.

So far they have discovered that the surface of Mercury iscovered in volcanic explosions, craters and evidence of floodvolcanism. The surface temperature is of two extremes. On thesunny side it reaches 430° C and on the dark side of the planet itgoes into deep freeze with temperatures to a low -180° C. Hmm,don’t fancy living there!

Mercury the Go-Between

If we look at Mercury in our solar system, we see that it standsbetween the Sun and us and I agree with Christina Rose whowrites in her Astrological Counselling:

Mercury, positioned closest to the Sun, stands rather as onewho introduces the solar energy to all the other planets, andvice versa. Thus, his function is that of an introductory link,transmission, connection and we may liken Mercury to a go-between,an agent or courier between the Sun and the rest ofthe solar system. On an incoming wavelength, this function isexperienced within the individual as recognition, perceptionand awareness. On an out-going wavelength, it is that whichspurs us toward the communication of those perceptions andawareness.

Astrologers therefore think of Mercury in the birth chart assomething that acts as a mediator or negotiator and helps withcommunication.

Mercury the Messenger God

In myth Mercury is named after the God that the Greeks calledHermes. And Hermes replaced the Babylonian god Nebo andthen later the Romans named him Mercurius. This poor God hada number of name changes before it was agreed to call himMercury.

In the Greek myths soon after being born, Hermes set off insearch of the cattle belonging to his brother Apollo. He madetheir “hooves go backward, the front ones last and the back onesfirst” and hid them in the cave of the Sun god Apollo.

He is also known as the trickster God because of all thenaughty things he got up to.

Hermes was also the only God capable of travel to the deadlyHades underworld and back again. This is similar to the reality ofthe planet’s surface temperatures being so extreme. Hot/cold.

Mercury is now depicted as a God with winged feet, travellinggreat distances with lightning speeds, being the messenger of thegods. It is these attributes that we mirror in Astrology. We’re notsaying that the attributes of Gemini are exactly the same as theplanet Mercury, just that they’re similar, that they have alikequalities.

Mercury has a dark and light side: Gemini can be bright andbreezy sometimes, and dark and moody at others.

So what do other Astrologers say about Gemini?

Other Astrologers’ Views

Here’s Rae Orion in her Astrology for Dummies:

The Sunny Side

Forever young, they say. You’re clever, cheerful andthoroughly interested in life. In your never-ending quest formental stimulation, you are fascinated by the diversity of theworld … when you master a skill, travel to a new place,explore a new area of knowledge, or meet someone new, youfeel invigorated …

The Sorry Side

You talk too much. You drain people. You can even exhaustyour own interest in an idea, simply by talking it to death.When you go into overdrive, which is often, you becomenervous and tense … You’re the original chameleon.

Here’s Christopher McIntosh in his Astrology:

… As Mercury is the planet of the mind, so the typical Geminian isquick-witted and resourceful. He can turn his hand to manydifferent activities, but often finds it difficult to settle for any one.He can be something of a Jack of all trades, master of none … theyalso excel in written communication. Gemini is a double sign, andthe Geminian often lives a double existence moving easily from onerole to another.

How about Linda Goodman, what’s her take on Gemini?

Almost every Gemini speaks, understands or reads more than onelanguage and French is the favourite. One way or another, theGemini will triumph with words. He cut his teeth on the OxfordDictionary. He can sell ice cubes to Eskimos or dreams to apessimist. If you happen to catch him in some dodge, he can changethe subject so fast, and direct the conversation away from himself soadroitly, that the whole affair ends with you on the carpet instead ofhim.

Let’s ask Maritha Pottenger in her Easy Astrology Guide: How toRead Your Horoscope:

Sun in Gemini. You need to shine fluently. You may gain or seekrecognition for your verbal skills. This could vary from theteacher/professor to the neighbourhood gossip, from the punster tothe use of extensive vocabulary. You need to shine by being versatile.You are likely to be proud of your versatility (or ashamed of yourtendency to scatter with multiple interests). Driven by wide-rangingcuriosity, you may shine in diverse areas. You (also) seekrecognition for your mental brilliance and for nimbleness and flexibility …

Felix and Bryan tell us in The Instant Astrologer these Geminikeywords:

Versatile, curious, shallow, stimulating, communicative, restless,sociable, quick-witted, fickle, dexterous, ingenious, diffuse, inconsistent,chatty, artful, flippant.

Bright, sociable and communicative one day, sullen and moodythe next, Gemini, the Twins, is unquestionably the most mercurialsign of the Zodiac. The fact is that, while we are all made up of many’selves’ somehow masquerading as one person, Gemini is the livingembodiment of the split personality … The Twins signify Gemini’sdual nature, and its challenge to get to grips with the world ofopposites – for example, between light and dark, belief and cynicism,intuition and reason.

I think we can safely say Gemini encompasses the attributes ofcommunication, duality and changeability.

Loving to Communicate and Languages

This is the quality that a Gemini excels at. Being heard andunderstood. If you want to understand something, get a Geminito explain it. They love to explain things. It’s not that they wantto appear more clever than you; they just enjoy the process ofpassing on information.

Ulrika lives and works in Zurich, Switzerland as a translatorand teacher. She tells us a bit about her Gemini self:

What I think is typical Gemini in me is that I am very fast, on theroad, in picking things up, trends … I ‘find’ things long before theybecome a trend, or mainstream. I am definitely a messenger andconveyor of information to others.

I asked her how many languages does she speak? “Five” was heranswer.

I then asked Veronica about her language ability. She lives inthe UK in a large metropolitan university city and works there asa lecturer:

Well, I’m a bit rusty with some of them, but I know/have known atleast a bit of these languages in varying degrees: Ancient Greek,Modern Greek, Latin, French, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish,Spanish, Welsh; and if I weren’t so lazy these days I would havebeen learning a bit of Portuguese and Serbo-Croat, because itdoesn’t feel right to me to go on holiday abroad and not knowanything of the language.

One language I like but have never managed to learn isIcelandic, because classes conflicted with my working hours when Iwas studying Scandinavian languages. I am fluent in Norwegian,almost bilingual, as well as my mother tongue English & cantranslate from Swedish and Danish better than my oral skills mightsuggest.

I then asked her what her favourite form of communication is. Isit e-mail, letter, phone or face-to-face?

You forgot telepathy!

E-mail is the easiest (I used to love letter-writing before we hade-mail, and found it a real lifeline e.g. during my marriage), buterotic texting is great fun. Phone can be great, especially with peoplewho are not so good at being present when you are with them inphysical reality – they pretty much have to make an effort on thephone!

I also love receiving handwritten letters and really enjoy goodhandwriting; in fact it can even be a turn on. (I am also interestedin graphology.) In affairs of the heart I think to write the object ofdesire a letter – or poem – would be most appropriate.

Face-to-face communication works best with some people, but itdepends on the individual. I go for whatever will be the most satisfyingmode of communication with the individual in question.

Among other hobbies she even liked learning Greek at school!

Ancient Greek, Modern Greek (which I was teaching myself for fun),Latin, French, English, swimming, riding, reading, specially poetry,creative writing …

Julie is a British citizen but now lives and works in Florence inItaly. She tells us her preferences:

Communication – I prefer face-to-face to talk and chat, then thetelephone. I use my mobile to send messages and arrange where tomeet friends etc. I’m a bit lazy to send e-mail and letters, quicker topick up the phone and talk.
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