Gemini Season: Virtues of the Double Life.

Robert Rauschenberg's Grand Black Tie Sperm Glut

As we embark on Gemini season, let’s quash some of the misgivings about the twins, and celebrate the benefits of being neither here nor there. The Gemini archetype often gets a bad rap: jack-of-all-trades, master of none, the superficial chatterbox, or worse, the glib double-dealer. People often forget that Gemini also rules equity, diversification, and synthesis. Writing, thinking, lungs, and hands are also its domain.  It’s ruled by the planet Mercury which governs movement, transportation, communication, and versatility. Its astrological symbol is a boy and girl set of twins.

I live a very Gemini-type of existence that used to drive me crazy until I learned how to pay attention to the unique experience it affords. It’s a perspective you can only get from being in motion. For instance, it’s only a two-hour drive to Kingston, NY from New York City, but the distance between my two homes feels vast. Distance is something I’ve always craved because it requires the act of bridging. Distance creates objectivity and a deeper appreciation for the people and situations I think I know so well. I’m also a sucker for the thrill of leaving something behind for the anticipation of whatever’s next. I relish the freedom to experience something from all sides because you’re not locked inside. The “refresh button” and I are on intimate terms.

Come to think of it, I’ve always preferred dualism: multiple careers, relationships, and residences. It’s been less of a juggle, more of a fusion––a stitching together of a wide array of knowledge that intersects at me. I double majored in undergrad and grad school. I used to work on Wall Street (NYC) at the same time I was choreographing dances in LA. I currently work as a medical movement specialist and an astrologer in the city, and co-run an artists’ residency/farm in a smaller city that feels more like a shire. Art and finance, doctors and mystics, town and country. What seems contradictory at first glance actually opens gateways of dialogue. I can’t tell you how many times working with one client’s motor skills has helped me crack another client’s astro-mystery; how departures helped me stay the course.

Gemini often gets called to the carpet for being non-committal. I’ve actually found that commitment isn’t the real issue. It’s exclusivity. Gemini can commit with the best of them, but it needs at least a couple of things to move between. Gemini is BUILT to shapeshift. It is capable of great mastery and longevity if it’s allowed to dance with other partners and change the choreography (from time to time).

I do New York City so much better with Kingston in my rear view mirror. The spiky crackle of city energy, throngs of bodies, and variety of encounters I can have in a day is heady. Sometimes too heady. Certain types (me) can get drunk on that kind of stimulation. But, after a few days of voluptuous stillness (which I can get drunk on too), unstructured time with close friends, and trees—city life feels exhilarating. When I first bought the house in Kingston, I feared I would get bored (a common Gemini concern) or that it would be too quiet. Maybe without the contrast of city life, it would. I know this makes sense to those of you who can spend a whole summer’s day jumping into a cold pool after soaking in a hot tub, and then sinking back into the hot tub after a refreshing dip in the pool, and on and on and back and forth…

Gemini energy at its best dives into the contradictory with all 4 hands and both tongues (remember, they’re a pair). It extracts the essence, dare I say, “truth” of divergent streams of information. There is nothing truer than the present. The present is always in motion.  This is where Gemini can get in trouble with accusations of fickleness or straight up lying. The twins are attuned to what’s happening right now, from all perspectives. There is no loyalty to what was true yesterday because the twins instinctively know that the grand truth of life is change. This is Gemini’s deep end. Yes, it has one. Happy Gemini season. Happy spring-moving-into-summer.

Gemini new moon/Saturn-Uranus trine reading list:

Especially the Interregnum section of this political piece.

And this essay about the body writing, movement, the patriarchy, academics, and poetics.