Gemini New Moon

We've hit Gemini - the third sign of the zodiac. Learn about the story of Castor and Pollux, the twins born from a swan's egg (naturally) who let rivalry turn into tragedy when they let pride and pettiness take hold. Gemini is the first of the air signs and this new moon we'll be unpacking the nature of consciousness and doing an exercise in empty-mindedness to see us through these hot summer days!

Transcript

 Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Moon and you a podcast that's all about how to align with the ebbs and flows of the moon to unlock our own potential. My name's Jonah. I'm an Aussie living in South London, and this month we're diving into the sign of Gemini.  Gemini is the third sign in the Zodiac, and it's ruled by the element of air and it's ruled by the planet of Mercury.

Mercury is the planet of communication, travel, and intellect, and we'll learn throughout this podcast how these themes really strongly link with Gemini as a sign and the lessons it has to teach us. The first thing I'll say about Gemini season is that it's hot right now. It's very, very muggy. We've been going through, um, some heat waves here in the UK and we've seen quite a few thunderstorms just over the past couple of days.

So it feels like summer is definitely here and uh, that makes sense. When we think about the fact that the summer solstice on the 21st of June is just around the corner of where we are now. Just in my patch here in South London, I'm seeing that the weeds are going absolutely wild this month and everything's in full action.

I'm surrounded by roses and marigolds and geraniums, which are really thriving in this dry heat and making the air a lot more fragrant than it was even a month ago. Between the pavement cracks, I'm seeing lots of things like green alt and this plant that I hadn't identified before called Herb Robert, which seems to seed in spring and go absolutely, uh, crazy.

At this time of year, I've noticed it in just about every little pot that I own. Um, and something that's also really fun is I've noticed a spot or two of nightshade growing in between the cracks of walls just in, uh, my little backyard here and also all, uh, in my neighborhood. The birds and the bees are still definitely doing their thing as they were last month.

Uh, but one observation I've had is that foxes are more active at night. I seem to be hearing them a lot more. And uh, something that brought me quite a lot of joy this past month was, uh, walking past a little family of ducks with little ducklings following their mum towards the water. So I feel like that sort of birthing season has been and gone, and now we're starting to see this new generation of.

Wildlife, um, springing up all around us. It's also Elderflower season outside of the city, and wild strawberries are starting to grow as our domesticated strawberries so perfect for a jug of PIMS in the summer Sun. June is named after Juno, who's the wife of Jupiter. In Roman mythology, you might recognize Jupiter, Zeus in Greek mythology, which we'll get onto in a minute.

And uh, I mentioned earlier that we have the summer solstice on the 21st of June, which is the longest day of the year, and a day of frivolity and revel and enjoying all of the wonderful gifts that summer brings. So onto Gemini itself, the constellation is dominated by two bright shining stars that are called Casta and Pollocks.

Remember those names? Um, and they're named after the Gemini Twins Polls is the brightest of the two stars, and it's actually the closest giant star to earth. So you've probably clocked by now as of I, that lots of the stories behind these signs are quite bizarre. They're rooted in cultures that are very different to the ones that we live in now, where things like, uh, morality and righteousness meant different things, um, and sort of manifested in different ways.

But regardless, I'll tell you the story about Casta and Pollocks, these Gemini twins, and we'll try to unpack what they could mean and what we could take from them in today's world. Many moons ago in ancient times, there was a queen leader. She was queen of the Spartans, and in typical fashion, Zeus was attracted to her fair skin and her dark hair, and turned his eye towards her.

Zeus knew that leader had a soft spot for swans, so he transformed himself into one and was attacked by an eagle through his own weaving of fate to gain her attention and her sympathy. She, of course, fell for this, went to save the swan, and checked that he was okay. Lo and behold, it was Zeus, but in the form of a swan, he took himself upon her, and this is how leader became pregnant.

She was of course also a dutiful and loyal wife to the king of Sparta, and through means not understood by modern science. She also fell pregnant at the same time to him with twins in her belly. One mortal and one immortal leader birthed to swan's egg, and from that egg emerged a set of twins with two different fathers.

One of them called Pollocks Poly juices in Greek was gifted with zeus's immortality, his godly blood that ran through him. And the other one, Casta was mortal like his father, the King of Sparta. The Gemini twins were also brothers to Helen of Troy and Clemen Stra, who in their own right hold a very important part of the Greek mythological landscape as fate would have it on the other side of the Mediterranean.

Around the same time another pair of twins were born who were rued to be the sons of Poseidon. So even though Pollock was immortal and Casta was not mortal, they did share a very close bond. They did everything together as they grew up. Pollocks excelled in his strength that he inherited from his father and his divine bloodline becoming a well regarded wrestler, and his brother Casta became a famous horseman.

They featured in many myths and battles together, most famously probably was their involvement in the seas of the golden fleece, which we spoke about during airy season. The other pair of twins that grew up on the other side of the med also found their fame and fortune in their battle prowess, and it wasn't long until them and the Gemini twins eventually crossed paths.

So what started out as a friendly rivalry between the two sets of twins did turn sour. After the Gemini twins were tricked out of their fair share of a deal by their rivals. This tit for tat escalated when the Gemini twins stole away with the women betrothed to their rivals in secret and in good old Spartan fashion, a battle ensued.

It was in this battle that Casta killed one of the rival twins. The remaining twin went into mourning and sought about making funeral arrangements, but to make it worse and throw gasoline on the fire, Casta decided to sabotage the morning right of the remaining twin and ended up being killed by him, by the blade of his own sword.

Pollocks consumed by grief, then acted his own revenge, taking the life of the last remaining rival. Three men had died and what was Pollock's gift became his curse. His brother was gone, his rivals were gone, and he was bound forever. To the wander, the worlds with grief heavy in his heart. In desperation, he pleaded to Zeus to share his immortality with Casta, which Zeus did oblige by placing them both in the heavens as the constellation of Gemini where they live on today.

It's a pretty sad story, but what do we learn from it? Um, I think one of the most obvious lessons is all about pettiness and pride and how many wrongs made a ride in this situation and what was actually gained. The story could have ended very differently if they chose to break the cycle. Sabotaging the morning process was particularly questionable, and it reminds me of AIC saying, um, which goes something like, pride of wealth destroys wealth.

Pride of strength destroys strength and pride of knowledge, destroys knowledge. And in this case, the Gemini twins let their pride of righteousness destroy righteousness and what was actually right for everyone. Another reflection I had was about the nature of duality that Gemini TWIs personify. This idea that opposites attract with Pollocks embodying eternal life and casta embodying the stark reality of mortality.

I think on this level, Gemini teaches us to reflect on the helpful and harmful potential of binary thinking. And uh, on a deeper level, I think on the nature of consciousness itself. In many cultures, there is a belief that in order for the universe or God or spirit or whatever you want to call it, in order for life to exist, it must have a point of reference to reflect on.

So in some beliefs, you know, God or the Gods saw their own reflection and thus life came into being. Um, I think this is the root of the whole. I think therefore I am philosophy, um, and also the belief that that friction between yin and yang is. What gave rise to all that is and continues this cycle of life that we are all a part of.

My take home this month and with Gemini in general is that it's all about choice. We can choose to push our mental and emotional energy into kindness, compassion, humility, and gratitude. Or we could choose like castor and Pollocks to be spiteful, petty, and impulsive. We, of course, can't be one all of the time because it's the human condition to be flawed.

But we can develop tools within ourselves to break out of cycles that don't serve us, and to also question and share what our best qualities are with the rest of the world. I think Gemini's lesson is all about the nature of the mind, and, you know, anyone that's looked into a little bit of psychology will recognize terms like ego and super ego and iid and all that sort of stuff, and all of these binaries that, that, uh, sort of help us conceptualize our different thought processes at different times and on different levels.

I think there's also something about the nature of consciousness itself and our ability to, uh, sort of shift our awareness and our entire focus away from just our mind. And I don't say that lightly. I mean, thinking about when we're in extraordinary modes of pain or pleasure, where our mind actually isn't sitting there and cognitively processing all these sorts of things and thoughts and feelings, but you are just being very, very, Present as a conscious being without the sort of like mental clutter or mental narrative in our heads.

So in the spirit of Gemini and the sort of polar mental energy that it embodies today, we'll be doing a really simple meditation that's all about thought observation and trying to separate, I guess, consciousness or what I would call like the monkey mind and thinking, and feeling and all that sort of stuff, and looking at our mind as an observer and trying to get sort of a heightened perspective of what flows in and what flows out of our awareness and our consciousness on a day-to-day basis.

So go ahead and make yourself comfortable and do what you need to do to get yourself ready for this exercise, whether that's sitting or standing, or lying in a bath. So we're about to journey inwards,

and we'll start as always, by drawing attention to our breath, breathing in through our nose and out through our mouth. And giving ourselves permission to relax in through our nose and out through our mouth,

in through our nose,

and out through our mouth.

And one more time into our nose. And out through our mouth.

Now I want you to imagine you're looking down at yourself, sitting in your chair, lying in your bath, lying on the floor, watching yourself breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth.

I want you to hold this vision in your mind's eye. Focusing only on your breath and on holding this image in through your nose and out through your mouth.

If thoughts arise, imagine them like clouds passing through the vision in your mind's eye, focus on your breath. To breathe in through your nose and push them away with those outward breaths saying farewell to that thought. Returning again to the rhythm of your breath and the image of yourself in your mind's eye.

Now hold this rhythm and steady pace in through your nose and out through your mouth.

In through your nose, holding your consciousness with your breath and with the picture in your mind and out through your mouth, blowing away those incurring thoughts like clouds in through your nose

and, and out through your mouth.

In through your nose, hand out through your mouth,

in through your nose, hand out through your mouth,

in through your nose, hand out through your mouth. Letting yourself be empty minded and one with conscious breath and emptying your mind of any other intrusive thoughts in through your nose and out through your mouth. Hold this space for as long as you might need it. And when you're ready to return to the waking world, slowly bring your awareness from your breath back to your body, starting with the rise and fall of your chest and expanding that consciousness outwards, feeling your abdomen, feeling your shoulders and hips.

Feeling your limbs and gradually drawing your attention to your physical form.

And when you are ready, open your eyes to return to the waking world.

I hope you enjoyed that. Everyone know that you can return to that space whenever you need it. I find it a really helpful exercise when I'm finding work stress or whatever, a bit too much. Cause it reminds me that my brain is just an organ and that actually I have power and control over my own consciousness.

So the call to action this month is to really draw our attention to our own inner monologue and hold a mirror up to it. So practice finding balance in your own head by doing exercises like this and really question whether the thoughts you hold and the words you share with friends, family, and colleagues actually do help you share your best qualities and gifts with the world.

Or whether like the Gemini twins, you're being stuck in cycles that don't actually allow or support you to grow. I think the mantra of this moon is very much keep your thoughts in good order, as the Buddha would say. So make sure that as all the summer festivities ramp up, you are taking that time to sort of check in with yourself mentally and emotionally, and that you are achieving that balance that we all need to thrive and survive in in a modern world.

And that wraps up another exciting cycle. So, uh, join me next month where we'll be diving into the K crabby watery depths of cancer, which is the first water sign in the Zodiac, and one that I'm really looking forward to exploring with you all till then.