Airy Ideas: Gemini etc.

By David Palladini

We're into Airy Gemini times once again. There are a few posts on Gemini stashed in the archive, accessible by clicking on "Gemini" in the label cloud in the sidebar. Apart from what's written in those posts, what more to say?

Louis MacNeice, in his book titled simply, Astrology, writes:

"All astrologers agree that the Gemini type enjoys argument; after all this comes naturally to a double man, born under a double sign.
[André] Barbault stresses this "bipolarity" and points out that Gemini rules the lungs with their double process of breathing in and breathing out. He adds that if Aries symbolizes the original fire at the source of life, and Taurus the condensation of this life in a material form (as it were, an egg) it is when the process arrives at the stage of Gemini that this egg is polarized and we meet the differentiation into the masculine and feminine principles."

Carrying the idea of a process of development through the signs, one could assess development of the zodiac's three mentally-oriented Air signs, Gemini, Libra and Aquarius in that way. Gemini could be seen as youthful Air - an impulsive, exuberant and flexible mentality. Libra, having learned a few lessons during the onward journey, matures to emerge in a more careful, deeply thoughtful state of mind. Aquarius has matured still further, to become more determined and stringently analytical and logical - in some ways mirroring its traditional ruler, Saturn.

So... the light gusty, playful winds of springtime Air, become the sweet, warm languid breezes of late summer, then finally, the more demanding chill winds of winter.

Ivy Goldstein-Jacobson, in Here and There in Astrology, wrote this:

In Air Signs, the Sun develops the individuality through logic, reason and keen insight into basic or underlying principles. It is therefore the most impersonal approach to the most personal development. In Libra, judiciously and calmly, sure of the laws and regulations he leans upon; in Gemini, with an open and inquiring mind, probing for what is factual; and in Aquarius, by depending on universal principles that he knows can ultimately be proven scientifically: an individuality at once remarkably human and godlike.

Back to Gemini!
Liz Greene, in her Mythic Astrology:

"Gemini is a fascinating sign, it presents a profound insight into life's diversity. In Gemini's world no truth is the whole truth, and nothing exists without its opposite...........For those with a strongly Geminian nature, there is often a sense of being several different people. Walt Whitman, the 19th century American poet, was born with Sun in Gemini, and wrote that he contained "multitudes".