Persons born from May 22 to June 22, or those who have this sign rising at birth (which can be ascertained only through a knowledge of the hour of birth), will come under the dominion of the sign Gemini, symbolized by the Twins.
Gemini is an airy, mutable sign, so lacking in stability that it, or its equally impressionable ruler, Mercury, will nearly always be influenced by some other planet in such a way that the type is constantly and radically varied. Gemini is the all-wandering air, the ever-varying and fluctuant mind of man which changes its color with every new impression.
Consequently it is very difficult to find the pure type; and Gemini may often be indicated as the rising sign when a face is so intensely planetary in character that the zodiac seems to have little influence upon it. The extraordinary profile of Dante, for example, is thus characteristic of Saturn.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
As a general rule, people with Gemini rising are rather small, rather slim, generally blond, with gray or brown eyes and a pale complexion, but a very slight planetary influence may change any of these indications, or all of them.
One characteristic, however, is sufficiently pronounced {25} to be practically always present. This is the alertness and the activity pronounced both in the eyes and in the movements of the whole body. Where planetary influence accentuates this, it becomes greatly exaggerated and the restlessness amounts at time almost to St. Vitus Dance. Where it is modified favorably by such steadying planets as Saturn or Jupiter, the effect is admirable, since their dignity corrects the boyishness of Mercury, and the agility of Mercury lightens the gloom and heaviness of Saturn, or gives more joy to Jupiter.
Another marked characteristic of Gemini is seen in the mouth, which is almost always small with rather thin lips, frequently somewhat contracted. The nose is nearly always a recognizable feature, being long and generally aquiline. Altogether, these significant points combine to give the alert, birdlike face, which is a marked characteristic of the influence of Mercury, the ruler of the sign. Another almost invariable indication of Gemini rising is found in the unusual length of arms and fingers.
The health of the Gemini native is usually very good. He is rarely robust, and may sometimes be of the frequently ailing type, but disease commonly sits lightly upon him; it does not seem to take strong hold. He is almost entirely dependent on his nervous system, which is extraordinarily sensitive. It is often hastily supposed that this means exceptional liability to derangement, but this does not seem necessarily to be the case. The real danger of this sign is lung trouble, since Gemini rules the breathing apparatus of man. There must, however, be a quite definite affliction of a serious character, if this danger is to materialize. The sign also rules the hands, arms, shoulders, the {26} brain and nerve centers, and sympathetically, the thighs, feet and intestines.
MORAL CHARACTERISTICS
An Ascendant Gemini typifies the mind of man, considered as a mechanism. It is capable of doing any kind of work, and of itself does not care in the least what that kind of work is, for the mind of man is entirely unmoral; the same ingenuity of invention may be used to combat a disease or to plot a murder. This being so, the activity of Gemini needs the right kind of direction, for unless the mind is kept busy with useful and uplifting work, it will occupy itself with the useless and deleterious. Moral education is therefore all-important to people with this sign rising. The mind is not wicked in itself, but under temptation it makes all the difference whether there is any principle in the man to prevent his mind from working in improper ways. The unmodified native of Gemini has little or no inborn sense of discrimination. The childishness of Gemini is very characteristic of the nature of his mind, and this is further indicated by the dual nature of the sign. We have to deal not merely with one child, but with twins. This readiness of the Gemini native to work on any material, without much consideration of whether it is inherently good or bad, is practically always to be found in these people. It is not
only a moral question; such matters as aesthetics are equally to be included. Whatever be the subject presented to it, the mind works logically and accurately on that subject, produces the conclusion and presents it with the perfect confidence {27} that it has done a very fine piece of work. The logical mind being an extremely rare object, other minds are very apt to be shocked by the coldness and rigidity and formality of its productions. People born under warmer signs instinctively resent the method of presentation, even where they agree with the conclusion. They feel the absence of heart and account it devilish. St. Paul’s method of argument is very typical of Gemini. There are many earnest Christians who resent St. Paul’s teachings as incompatible with those of Jesus, but this is really more because of his style than because of his conclusions. The real difference is that Christ invariably appealed to the emotions; St. Paul only to the intellect. The mind of the native of Gemini being thus exceedingly quick to seize upon any material and work it out to a logical conclusion will reach the very highest results in existing channels. It has also the power to combine, to perceive the relations between all sorts of things, and thus to produce results which appear entirely original; but the Gemini mind of itself does not do more than combine, clarify and develop -- it never creates. We may take Dante as a superb example of this sign. In his "Divine Comedy," he has used practically the whole of the knowledge of his time. He presented it with matchless lucidity and, thanks to his rising Venus, in a most attractive form; but it is impossible to find in the whole poem a really new idea.
The Ascendant of Immanuel Kant is nearly all Gemini, and Mercury is particularly strong, in exact conjunction with the Sun, just above the horizon, and in his philosophy we find an incomparable power of analysis and resolution. Dissatisfied with this, he attempted to create, but {28} his later work is little more than an example of cleverness in concealing fallacies. It is, of course, rare to find the native of Gemini with such high power of concentration; indeed, in the cases quoted, this is due to the strength given by planetary aid. The natural tendency is to spread the intellectual energy over a great diversity of subjects. Most Gemini natives try to walk in two directions at once. There is no beginning or end to any occupation of the average Gemini mind. Unless the education has been so thorough that a real liking for intellectual pursuit has been created, the mind scatters itself and what, in properly trained people, is a thirst for knowledge, becomes a mere craving for novelty and excitement of different kinds. There is apt to be a great lack of heart, and to natives of such signs as Leo and Pisces, Gemini people seem to be ungrateful, disloyal, lacking in affection and incapable of true comprehension of serious matters. The native of Gemini is quick to retort and finds no difficulty in winning the argument -- as if argument settled everything, or indeed anything.
The United States of America is ruled by Gemini, and one sees its influence in the quick-change method of its inhabitants in the matter of occupation. One never sees such perfectly common and characteristic types as one finds in England; for instance, the old butler, who was born in the house; the lawyer’s clerk, who has outlived half a dozen partners in the firm; the agricultural laborer, whose forefathers have tilled just that one bit of soil since England was. The average American has engaged in a dozen different kinds of business before he is fifty.
The acuteness of his intellect, its rapid comprehension of anything new, is assisted rather than hampered by the {29} complete lack of solid mental training. An Englishman is frightened when he is asked to make even a slight change in some business method.
This adaptability, of course, is the most valuable of all qualities in an undeveloped country, since specialization of labor is a late development in building up a civilization. It is natural, therefore, that such qualities should persist, even after the need of them has passed.
In America we find an extraordinary diversity of occupation which works without appreciable friction simply because of the pace. If the expansion of the country should be stopped for any reason, the situation would immediately become critical. A "modus vivendi" would have to be found; a settlement of the million questions demanding adjustment would become urgent. It
would be impossible to carry on a government where the laws of every state, even on so important a matter as marriage, conflict with those of every other state, and many of these again with Federal laws, if anybody would spare the time to consider the matter.
An extreme freedom of thought and speech is characteristic of this sign. It may be said paradoxically that the native of Gemini is so busy thinking that he never stops to think. Fortunately, as we have seen in our consideration of England and Ireland, modifications of national character come from the impinging influence of the succeeding sign. The domesticity of Cancer makes the love of and pride in the home a strong factor in our national life, and gives immense power to our operations in war when once started, although, crablike, we are slow in getting into motion, the sign steadying to a large extent the almost scatterbrained, tumultuous Gemini activity. In the {30] survival of the Puritan instincts, even beyond their spiritual reality, may be seen another Cancerian trait. The average community is often accused of a hypocritical regard for conventions that it does not actually observe.
The nervous sensitiveness of the native of Gemini does not particularly imply ill health; for example, he is not nearly so irritable as the native of Aries, and his magnificent Sensorium, acting like a perfect network of sentinels, warns him of danger of which the Taurus man is quite unaware. Such a man would be inclined to assert that the perpetual alertness and activity of the native of Gemini was bound to tire him out and break him down, but Gemini is a very enduring type. His power to resist pressure or to push obstacles aside is not great, but he is warned so early of any difficulty that he can sidestep it. The Gemini native, therefore, represents rather closely Herbert Spencer’s idea of the fittest. If his surroundings do not suit him, he changes them or adapts himself to them. The result is that, as a rule, he has a pretty good time during life. Coincident with the disinclination to resist is the lack of any wish to attack. It is true that the Gemini native is up in arms very easily in a fussy kind of way, but to him this is only an argument. The senses of the Gemini native are, as a rule, exceedingly acute. It would take a serious affliction of the Moon to upset this natural tendency. There is, therefore, not merely the faculty of picking up things easily in a rough-and-ready sort of way, but there is the possibility of extreme advance in any subject which depends primarily on delicate and accurate senses. One may, therefore, expect such people to make good musical critics, workers in anything that requires extreme fineness {31} of perception, observers of minute differences, and so on. In money matters, the native of Gemini is not always reliable. In well developed types, the mercurial influences will be shown in a tendency to acquire money by schemes, and the nature of the sign will often incline him toward handling a number of different schemes at the same time. In undeveloped types, this scheming may degenerate into actual trickery.
In speech and correspondence, the Gemini native is exceedingly eloquent, logical and clear. He has some tendency toward diffusiveness and repetition, and he is not always very good at keeping to the point, nor is he very honest in his method of argument. St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans was a masterpiece of this kind of writing. He was obliged to tell the Gentile that circumcision was unnecessary to salvation, and in writing to the Jews, bound by his previous utterances to that effect, he had to answer the question, "Then of what use is circumcision, since salvation is the only important good in life?" His efforts to solve this contradiction are classical. It is the legal type of mind entirely unscrupulous in its method and rejoicing in its own cleverness, only the more because it has fooled the opponent.
This type of mind being limited by the formalities which it has devised as safeguards of truth is sometimes rather blind to the truth behind the fact, the truth of the deeper planes. It is possible for accurate statement to convey profound falsehood. Gemini is often shallow and superficial.
It is too little understood that the mind contains more powers than those of pure reason, and that those other powers are based upon fundamental principles quite opposed to those of reason.
Purely intellectual analysis {32} ends in an irreconcilable duality, whereas the higher principles of the mind are founded on an irrational, or rather, super-rational unity.
True family life does not appeal very strongly to the Gemini native, but it is not distasteful to him. He acquiesces in the domestic circle without being moved either to intensity of affection or to revolt. This is pretty true of all his relations with humanity. To him, human beings are only factors in his problems. He has no strong inclination to travel, but it is likely that he will do so as soon as opportunity arises. He accepts all the facts of life so easily that he does not mind very much where he may be. Once he is away from home, he will not hanker after it.
The Gemini native is apt to be as shallow in love as in all his relations. In fact, he may fail altogether to understand it. St. Paul, for example, remarking "it is better to marry than to burn," can hardly be considered as having shown a complete comprehension of the subject. He sees nothing in it but an animal passion, as gross as a gorilla’s. Bernard Shaw’s treatment of the sex problem is almost equally untrue and unsatisfactory, and he has four degrees of Gemini rising. To him the passion of love is rather contemptible, rather ridiculous, a great nuisance, and so far as it is explicable at all, is a manifestation of a mystical abstraction of his own invention called the life force.
Compare this with the profound understanding of the subject shown by Alexandre Dumas, "pere," who has Leo rising. While not a profound writer, his understanding of love is perfectly normal with that of the average human being, and he never falls into a mistake or commits a solecism. Compare this again with feeling shown by Robert {33} Burns, who has Taurus rising, or Byron with four degrees of Cancer on the Ascendant.
The study of the signs is enormously facilitated by observing the expression of their characteristics through those few children of humanity who are capable of self-expression. We might just glance at the case of Rossetti, who has the reputation of being an extraordinarily passionate poet, whereas a closer examination reveals the Gemini point of view very clearly. It is somewhat derivative; he gets his passion from Petrarch. It is reflected an idealized. Tennyson is another Gemini poet. We get the same idealization of the passion, the vision of it from afar through a beautiful literary telescope. To Tennyson, love is a branch of good manners. None of these Gemini people have the idea of it as a consuming fire. They try to separate it from those powerful and primitive elements that sway the soul; that shake it to its depths, and make it an instrument by which man is identified both with the Most High God and with the lowest of the brutes.
In their treatment of inferiors, the natives of Gemini are often unsuccessful, because they are unsympathetic. They are apt to regard the relation as of a purely business character, and neither give nor acquire the affections of those whom they employ. In the management of public affairs, the native of Gemini is an ideal administrator as long as things go well, but he is quite incapable of understanding the depth and strength of a really unpopular movement. He will try compromise and arguments; failing altogether to touch the source of the trouble. Even so, his intellectual ability will often enable him to succeed in pacification of a temporary character, though sometimes {34} his confidence in the efficacy of argument may lead him into great error.
With regard to marriage, it may be said that the native makes an amiable and useful partner. No great trouble is to be expected, unless produced by adverse planetary conditions; petty irritations arise from time to time, but it is not likely that any serious cause of disagreement will come into the household. Those who are married to the native of this sign may, however, suffer a good deal of unhappiness, if they happen to be of such types as Taurus, Cancer or Leo, which demand a great deal from the marriage partner, for the native of Gemini is incapable of giving himself; one might say that he had little self to give, and the attitude of the other will appear to him absurd, objectionable, and perhaps rather disgusting. Moreover, so far as Gemini ever loves, he loves diversity; he is a flirt, and if he is taken too seriously, great unhappiness will follow. It is a great mistake to be angry with a person of this type.
Parents would do well to realize that their Gemini offspring are highly organized nervously, that they require a calm atmosphere, and should not be told exciting or terrifying stories or anything that would work on their imagination, as this would upset their nerves. They require more sleep and fresh air than the average child; it is essential that they should not only be put to bed early, but that they have frequent periods of sleep or relaxation during the day, for their great excitability and overwrought imagination often cause them to suffer from sleeplessness or restlessness. If they do not get the proper care during childhood, they will suffer from "nerves" all {35} their lives, and their natural tendency to be dissatisfied will be intensified. While everything should be done to encourage composure, their imagination or love of physical activity should not be suppressed. Parents should allow Gemini children to express their "different" side, either through masquerade, their love of "pretending," dancing, or outdoor activities. On the other hand, they should be made to realize that becoming bored so quickly with their toys or playmates is due to their own changeable or dissatisfied disposition, and contentment with their environment and appreciation of what they have should be encouraged.
The parents should, however, be careful as to the associates of these children, as they are so mercurial that they will take on the coloring of those about them.
In determining the education of Gemini children, it would be well to study their natural leanings or desires, for their great adaptability may cause them to acquiesce in the wishes of their parents or guardians, and keep them from entering the field they prefer; consequently, they are likely to be "square pegs in round holes."
People born from the 21st of January to the 20th of February, when the Sun is in the airy, humanitarian sign Aquarius, and from the 24th of September to the 24th of October, when the Sun is in the airy, balanced sign Libra, are naturally sympathetic and helpful to those born under Gemini. Because their characteristics are complementary, they are good partners for the Gemini-born, matrimonially or otherwise. If too intimately associated with those born from the 20th of February to the 22nd of March (Pisces), 24th of August to the 24th of September (Virgo), or the 23rd of November to the 23rd of December {36} (Sagittarius), Gemini people will find it necessary to be diplomatic but firm in order to get on harmoniously together; such an intimacy might result in the native of Gemini becoming too vacillating and adaptable to the extent of being insincere. For this reason, people born under Pisces, Virgo and Sagittarius would not make the most sympathetic or helpful partners, either matrimonially or in a business way. A period of about seven days -- June 21 to June 28 -- when the vibrations of Gemini are merging into those of Cancer, and Cancer still retaining some of Gemini, is known as the cusp.
People born between these dates will partake of the mercurial side of Gemini, as well as of the maternal and conservative side of Cancer, or a combination of the two. As Mercury, ruling the mentality, and Venus,the love-nature, are so close to the Sun, they, too, may partake of some of the qualities of the adjoining signs of Gemini. This will account for some of the complex personalities so difficult of comprehension.
With this sign also, the deductions have been drawn from the position of the Sun or Ascendant, therefore it is probable that some friends or uncongenial associates will be found under other signs than those mentioned. In such cases, the individual horoscopes must be consulted to ascertain how the stars combine with those of the Gemini-born, and to determine the effect of the combinations of influences upon both persons.
These indications can be only general, and will not cover all the characteristics of an individual as he knows himself, since the influence of the planets modifies the signs. A detailed statement, or horoscope, must be made to discover the whole truth. {37}