Note: All archive entries are from Emergence-Activate Zoom poetry readings, organized by Nicky Rainey and Lucien Aeon.
Welcome to the season of doubles, where every truth has two sides! Welcome to an air sign, where words and concepts nourish us like good grub! Welcome to a mutable month, where adjustment is the name of the game! (And then adjusting again, as changes come.) Welcome to Gemini, a month of masks, each one real and yet easily discarded!
I asked my Gemini partner for some input on this most je ne sais quois of signs and he opined that the emphasis of this season is less about oppositionality, and more that opposites share truth and equal weight.
Today is also the Gemini new moon, so it’s a fine time to set intentions. Mine, for this sign, is deceptively simple: I am adaptable. I have been called back to work, but to a new location with a different schedule. Hopefully this mantra will help me and my fixed ways. (I can struggle with change. I studied Buddhism extensively in my 20s to help, and it did, but still let’s call a tomato a tomato: I am totally funked up by a change in routine.)
Luckily, “I am adaptable” is very on point for this season. Recently we discussed Scorpio; Gemini is, arguably, the other bad boy of the Zodiac. And like all bad boys, they are just misunderstood. If Scorpio gets flak for darkness, Gemini gets a bum wrap for its changeability. In superlatives, they are the sign most likely to reverse direction on (seemingly) a whim. Yet this is actually a great strength. Mutable signs are able to keep the most core parts of themselves and mold them to fit any situation. For example: my partner is a military veteran, and also a seasoned anti-establishment agitator. It makes sense for him. He’s fine with it.
As an air sign, Gemini is also skilled at clicking with complicated ideas. Known as indecisive, it is more accurate to say that Gemini can see both sides of an issue equally, and suffers no illusions regarding which is the “right” choice. Both sides are valid; everything is true. The “evil twin” trope of Gemini’s personality is tired and an undoubtedly Christian way of putting down an intelligence that can hold so much reality within itself at once.
Lastly, Gemini is a boss at communication. Words are bread and butter to the third sign of the Zodiac. If Aries is the core self, and Taurus the physicality of that self, then Gemini is the first attempt at articulation of the self.
So, Activators, how are you a unity of opposites? This season is an excellent time to express the contradictory realities of the self that are, somehow, not mutually exclusive. We can be both anxious and calm, hopeful and terrified, growing and steadfast. Acknowledging and adoring the multiple dimensions of your spirit will lead to a greater whole, and less suffering when you surprise yourself with your changes and depths. It is a time to be open-minded about the multitudes you contain.
I advise you to set an intention regarding the variance within; and as always, I wish you (and me) luck with this inward exploration.
Ellen The Red 