Leaving Doors Open, Gemini-Style

5.8.15


As I mentioned in my last article, there's presently little need to make decisive calls that would immediately shut down the multiplicity of options.

With Mars entering Gemini on Monday (May 11) and thus 'reporting' (by dispositorship) to a Mercury-in-Gemini soon to begin a 3½-week retrograde (on Mon May 18), this is not the ideal time to choose one thing over another.

Instead, these next several weeks are perfect for getting ourselves to think about alternatives, variations, detours, and departures which might pique our interest, break limiting mental habits, and/or connect us with inspiring new characters. More than just to 'think' about 'em, actually: Having Mars along for the ride encourages us to take a few preliminary or speculative actions toward a specific alternative or two, which would provides us more than just a passing engagement with some conceptual flight-of-fancy but an actual real-life sampling of how such an alternative could be plausibly manifested out in the world.

Mars doesn't treat 'coming up with a good idea' as an action in itself. There's no outward assertion-of-will in allowing a thought to cross one's mind and saying 'hmmm' before allowing it to pass on by. Mars wants us to do something to express a desire, to make it noticeable to others, to create some sort of impact, no matter how modest, on our environment. As the warrior planet, Mars needs us to 'fight' for that which we want, whether we're fighting against some concrete obstacle or merely our own inertia, whether we're fighting for a particular purpose-project-or-passion or simply for our own right to self-determination. We must demonstrate we've got the fight in us, or we're just a bunch of hot air.

However, in Gemini, the sign of multiplicity and flexibility, Mars isn't entirely sure what we're fighting for. Do we want this, that, or the other? Are we headed left, right, or straight ahead? Which obstacle is the biggest threat? Which approach will yield the best results? Which desire is the most compelling? If we're being honest, we must admit we can see the advantages to more than one of the possible choices splayed out in front of us. Depends on the day, our mood, who we're talking to, what we just read on the internet or watched on TV last night, the direction of the wind.

Mercury, meanwhile, is happy as a clam in Gemini, a sign it rules. Mercury in Gemini can simultaneously hold different perspectives, dabble with disparate details, and communicate with a diverse bevy of distinct individuals, all while keeping the clever quips streaming forth. It gives us a quick mind and a killer capacity for multi-tasking… even if, at the same time, we struggle to concentrate on a single focal-point for very long, before the next bit of input (or distraction?) arrives to shuffle our attention elsewhere again.

Because of Mercury's agility and versatility when in Gemini, it's better equipped to respond to the flipped-switch perils and pitfalls of a retrograde. But a Mercury retrograde is still a Mercury retrograde, and most of us know the standard drill by now: Watch out for mangled communications, mixed messages, miscommunications, mistakes, and other such Mercurial mischief. Be careful and patient with malfunctioning machinery, muddling transit or travel snafus, and sputtering data-transmissions. Read the fine-print. Expect, and accept, the delays. When frazzled and about to make things worse, pause and step away.

Combining the influences of (1) both Mercury and Mars, along with the Sun (as of May 21), in Gemini, (2) while Mercury's turning retrograde and (3) moving backwards into another conjunction with Mars (exact on May 27), then, we can see why it would be unwise to hedge our consolidated bets on any singular judgment, final decision, or action-plan. We'll want not only to leave the promising doors open, but grant ourselves the freedom to dip through their passageways and then back out again… to take our curious glances at what's going down on the other side of each door, to see who else is passing in or out or through, to ask our questions and collect our tidbits of qualifying data, but without ambling so far that we lose our direct sight-line to the entry-that's-also-an-exit… and to never let a door close, potentially locking us into something before we've had a decent chance to more fully assess its appropriateness.

Except, that is, for those doors which open into something that is obviously and/or exceedingly inappropriate for us, insofar as the possibility it presented is irresolvably out of alignment with a larger responsibility or life-goal to which we've already consciously committed ourselves. Yes, there are exceptions to this 'entertaining all the possibilities' rule, courtesy of Saturn in Sagittarius. Saturn-in-Sagittarius's longer-term job is to keep us moving along a focused track toward that which we've deliberately determined to be 'what really matters the most' to us and/or what'll provide us the most meaningful experience. This Saturn demands cut-and-dry priorities, judgment-calls, simplicity: black or white, left or right, this or that. How else can we ensure we're ultimately headed somewhere that matters, someplace meaningful?

Obviously, Saturn in Sagittarius is in conflict with the heavily Gemini picture I've painted, as is represented by the oppositions Mercury, Mars, and the Sun will form to it. Mars opposes Saturn next Friday (May 15), which means that we could feel thwarted in our asserted efforts—or else we probably ought to thwart ourselves—if one (or more) of the various speculative actions we take is unambiguously in direct violation of a personally meaningful goal or purpose we've already chosen as a primary driving motivation and do not intend to change our mind about, that type of commitment which we might look back upon and regret should we not follow through with it. The Sun in Gemini opposes Saturn a week later (May 22). Though Mercury already completed its exact Saturn opposition last weekend (May 3), it'll be back within the opposition's orb-of-influence during the closing days of its retrograde (roughly Jun 6-14).

If, for instance, we really want to move to New York City, we probably shouldn't leave the door open to job prospects which would require us to be in Houston full-time. If we really want to have children, then we should probably shut the door on dating people who decidedly don't want children. If we really want to be sober, then we'd better shut the door on having 'just one innocent drink'. Sure, leave most of the doors open, just not those which lead in an opposite direction from that which we've already consciously selected (provided, of course, this selection still currently applies). The rest of the alternatives, meanwhile, are fair game.

The other major planetary aspects impacting this major Gemini influence are the squares Mercury, Mars, and the Sun will form to Neptune in Pisces. Neptune squares can provoke our overly idealistic or wishful-thinking streaks, blinding us to certain clarifying details or operative realities (or at least inspiring us to willfully ignore them), perpetuating the hope or bliss we feel—at the potential expense of practicality or reason. In the current context, Neptune could dazzle or delude us into believing that one of the open doors in front of us leads straight to some magical wonderland, miraculously delivering us from our stagnant or dreary or otherwise problematic circumstances… or, in a less dramatic manner, simply convince us that the singular angle from which we're gazing at a possibility is showing us everything we need to know, when, in fact, we're only getting a partial glimpse.

Mercury will square Neptune three times, the first this Saturday (May 9). The second occurs while Mercury, in the midst of its retrograde, is conjunct Mars, with the conjoined duo both squaring Neptune simultaneously (May 25-28) and the Sun forming its Neptune square right around the same time (May 31). Mercury won't complete its third-and-final pass past Neptune until June 23. Only after that has happened can we earnestly begin to assess, with greater clarity and sense, the feasibility, appeal, and potential consequences of confidently bounding through one door over another. Until then, leave 'em open—most of 'em, anyway.