Gemini Season 2020
GEMINI SEASON BEGINS on May 20, 2020. The coronavirus crisis continues, coloring our lives with disengagement and uncertainty. The sun has been in Taurus for the last month, where it readily embraces a slow and steady pace. Now, Gemini is ready to shift us into high gear….but not so fast this time.
Retrogrades dominate the current astrological weather. Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto are all retrograde as we begin the season, and Mercury will station retrograde before it is through. Retrogrades ask us to review and reflect before moving forward (scroll down for more info on retrogrades).
Gemini season is usually a time of communing, of traveling, of planning. Right now, we’re clearly being asked to work with these energy in different ways. Venus will be Retrograde in Gemini until June 25, pulling our attention to how we communicate and creatively express ourselves. Venus sits in an itchy square to Neptune pretty much all month, which can either fog our sense of direction or help us to let go of that which no longer serves us. True connection casts light on our deepest shadows. Check your projections. Drop your expectations.
This transit also speaks to the state our mental health in general. Most of us live in a state of chronic mental inflammation. Advertising has programmed us with mental viruses since we were young, leaving us unnaturally hungry for shadow comforts. Toxic narratives that divide and degrade us live like latent diseases in our psyche. Our minds are infected by programmed opinions, for we all share the pollution in the waters of the collective consciousness.
But we can filter and clean these currents. Our inner work is the foundation for any change we wish to see in the world. All self-sabotaging words and behaviors — all problems whatsoever, according to the great teacher Michael Singer — begin in the mind, and nobody can heal our minds but ourselves.
WORKING WITH IT
Mental Nutrition and Mental Hygiene are daily practices. Watch your Thoughts. Watch your Words. Ask yourself:
What media am I engaging with? What words am I choosing to express myself? What emotional energy drives my thought processes? Am I learning? Am I creating? Am I interacting with the natural world? How does all this relate to my mental health day to day?
What is my current mindset? Do I take time to center myself? Do I know when I am centered and when I am not? Where do I get caught up? What automatic thoughts need revision?
DATES TO WATCH
5/22 New Moon in Gemini A great day to take stock of your daily routines. Where can you create even the tiniest improvements in your mental nutrition and hygiene? On a practical, routine basis, how can I improve the quality of my self-relationship? Work with this, and your relationships with others will heal accordingly.
6/3 Sun Conjunct Venus Whenever a planet conjuncts the Sun, it gives our soul a chance to align the energy of that planet toward our ultimate purpose in life. Venus takes us into the powerful realms of our heart, as well as our erotic energy. How do I relate to love, art, beauty and pleasure? What am I ready to heal in my self-relationship? What am I learning about connection and communication?
6/5 Full Moon in Sagittarius This may be an intense day. Fiery Sagittarius does not want to be quarantined or held in retrograde. The square from Mars adds the potential for conflict, so channel yourself mindfully.! It’s a good day for cardio and thinking before speaking. Learning to hold restless inspiration is an ultimate mark of maturity. There’s power and inspiration available here if you can attune yourself to where you most want to go in life without needing to immediately jump into action. What do I most want to achieve and why? What emotional energies are associated with my greatest drives in life? Fear, or inspiration? Lack, or self-reliance?
6/13 Mars conjunct Neptune in Pisces This transit can be as miraculous as open heart surgery or as devastating as a stab in the back, spending on how we work with it. “Worse before better” is often a truth in healing work, and ripping off bandaids hurts. Remember, we’re all growing through this, so if storms arise, be compassionate with yourself and others. What thought patterns and harsh words am I ready to outgrow? What boundaries do I need around escapist or numbing behaviors?
RETROGRADES
Retrogrades happen when the planets, which generally move toward the East, appear to move West, retracing their steps across the zodiac. For a scientific explanation, click here: http://www.scienceu.com/observatory/articles/retro/retro.html
For thousands of years, these confounding anomalies made deep impressions on the collective psyche. We fear things we don’t understand, and so retrogrades traditionally became a time of setback.
We now know it is but an illusion that the planets move backward. It is an illusion we nevertheless can’t not see from our perspective, no matter how open our eyes. It is only with an expanded mental understanding that we can “see” the truth of things. This bears a lot of weight to untangling our mental projections. We often unconsciously resist new ways of understanding. The mind, like the body, responds to pain by locking us into rigid patterns that keep us safe: “it’s just the way it is” is the sign on the locked door to possibility. The downside of these comfortable seats within our own minds is some of our deepest held beliefs, or knowledge that seems irrevocably true, to us are actually just illusions.
Astrology evolves with the collective mind. The deep relationship to Retrograde is still present, but we are as a whole letting go of the fear, doom and gloom associated with retrogrades and replacing it with a more open call to pay attention. When a planet goes retrograde, it gives us a chance to work through any issues we may have glossed over that pertain to that planet and that part of the zodiac.
