| Gemini Part One | [audio:http://planetwaves.net/2012/audio/RRR_Gemini_pt1.mp3] |
| Gemini Part Two | [audio:http://planetwaves.net/2012/audio/RRR_Gemini_pt2.mp3] |
| Gemini Part Three | [audio:http://planetwaves.net/2012/audio/RRR_Gemini_pt3.mp3] |
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Reality Check for Gemini and Gemini Rising | 2012 Annual Horoscope by Eric Francis
The very thing that makes 2012 what it is — besides the Mayan calendar rounding off to 13.0.0.0.0 on Dec. 12, and besides Uranus square Pluto — happens in your sign. That very thing is the Venus transit of the Sun in Gemini. It is one of the few clues that 2012 was specifically chosen by the Mayans as one of the anchors in the span of their long count. The Mayans loved Venus, and this is a tribute to her; for you, it’s as if the ancient daykeepers are reaching out and placing their hand on your shoulder. Let’s first take a look at the astronomy involved, and then do some gentle interpreting. With an event of this magnitude happening so personally for you, we don’t want to be predictive — we want to be visionary.
RESONANCE. Painting by P.C. Turczyn
Venus transit of the Sun is one of the rarest predictable events in astronomy. They come in pairs, separated by eight years; the pairs are themselves divided by more than a century. Venus passes between the Earth and the Sun so precisely that you can see it move across the disk of the Sun. It is the only time Venus is visible during the day, though notably you will need special equipment to see it, and cannot see it from all parts of the world. There were no transits of Venus in the 20th century. The current pair is situated in 2004/2012; then there won’t be another pair until 2117/2125. Barring some astonishing life-extending technology (an actual possibility), nobody alive today will be here to see the next one. Most people missed the one in 2004, and if you want to tune in, here is an article about what it was like. We’re including a photo by our friend Anthony of that event, so you can imprint that in your consciousness.
Now, in astrology, the potency of events is often judged by how rare they are, or how slowly the object in question moves; this counts for rare. Events are also sized up by how personally they manifest in your chart, and since this takes place in your Sun sign (around the time of your birthday) or in your rising sign, it counts for personal. Without going into specifics yet, in general we could say that this event describes some kind of highly unusual, or even seemingly impossible, emergence in your life. By emergence, I mean an unexpected event for which all the ingredients were already there, yielding a result that you could not have logically predicted based on the available facts.
This event is associated with Taurus (Venus is the planet of Taurus) and that is your 12th solar house — the veiled realm, the dreamtime, the world of gestation and of your most distant ancestors. So something comes ‘out of the 12th house’ (in the form of Venus) and manifests in a precise, visible conjunction with the Gemini Sun, during the season of your solar return. Then this kind of event does not happen again for hundreds of years; that’s it — or rather, this is it. The implication is that something that is usually hidden from view, or that is accessible only in a kind of veiled or nocturnal world, becomes plainly apparent in broad daylight; which translates to some aspect of your deeper self becoming plainly apparent in broad daylight.
While this is an ‘event’, it is also a threshold event. It is the expression of something latent, that then can no longer be denied. It may take you years or decades to process what you’ve become, or experienced, but that is the nature of rare transits. They never really leave us, and we never really leave them — but when they happen, it can certainly be advantageous to be fully present and accounted for at the time. Now you know; you’re aware that this event is potentially very significant. You’re also aware that there was an anchor point on June 8, 2004, where something nearly identical happens and that defines a span of time that counts as a transitional phase.
This information can provide context for whatever has happened between 2004 and now, though the other end of the span — the Venus transit of June 2012 — will take some time to settle in and manifest. I suggest you not think of this as representing one specific event, but rather something connecting to and influencing everything you experience, everything you do, every option you have. It is almost enough to be aware of it and then live a little more consciously, remembering that your choices at this time may present extremely rare options that may not be obvious as such. Said another way, we are experiencing rare and highly improbable astrology; the events that surround it will very likely share that quality.
More Than a Goal: A Sense of Calling
For the past year or so, you’ve likely felt something that I can only describe as a higher calling. This might be arriving in the form of knowing it’s time to focus on your true mission — the one that you’ve always wanted to do; the one that taps your true potential and gives you the opportunity to express it to the world in a meaningful way. I say meaningful — not glorious. The mantle of power you’re being given is not about glamour, appearance or personal gain. It’s about fulfilling your true function, which has for much of your life had an intangible quality.
The past seven years, however, have been different — that intangibility started to develop into actual ideas, and some distinct opportunities that demonstrated your potential to you. Yet in many ways your talent remained on the level of potential, concealed and not fully developed. You may have experienced a shaky ride in your professional life, as if you were not able to keep a grip on what you were doing in the past, or as if disruptions manifested that made it challenging for you to proceed in a ‘normal’ way. At the same time you had some real breakthroughs. Instability in the economy over the past three or four years may have facilitated that shaky quality (depending on your profession), but it also looks like there were some promising opportunities that turned into false starts.
Leave that all behind — along with any shaky feelings that may remain after having taken that particular trip. Remember what you learned, or the useful stuff you learned (there was a lot, much of it in the form of ideas). There is something about 2012 and what I am calling the 2012 era (approximately 2011 through 2017) that is different from anything you’ve ever experienced.
Everyone has been in a long buildup to the astrology of this era that is reaching its first peak this year. And there are, to be sure, many points of focus and precipitation of events that will propel us through time.
The ‘higher calling’ you’re feeling — related to Chiron and Neptune ingressing Pisces, your house of profession, career and reputation — is influencing everyone. But it is in particular a guiding star for you, which will be influenced and accelerated by other events.
While this may have various manifestations in that part of your life that you think of as your work or career, I want to encourage you not to see this outside yourself. What is happening is developing from the inside out. You are literally embodying something that was previously veiled as a potential; and as you embody that something and let it expand your self-concept and self-presence on the inside, you will resonate with certain ideas, experiences or desires that precisely match this thing you’ve been feeling as a ‘calling’. If it would help to sketch out the astrology, here are the basics.
Pisces, your house of profession, career and reputation (10th solar house, or 10th by whole-sign houses for Gemini rising), is being taken over by Chiron and Neptune, which represent that higher calling and which are starting to help you focus your mission in a whole new way. At the same time, Venus is about to make a direct conjunction to your Sun (the Venus transit). Venus ’emerges’ from the hidden realm of potential (your 12th house) and it resonates with Pisces and the planets in Pisces. The result is a kind of energy circuit that is connecting something deep and profoundly original inside you with conditions in the world that are just right for whatever it is that will develop.
If I had to narrow this down to a few words of advice, I would start with DREAM BIG. I would add, move with the flow, but focus on preparation and a measure of discipline. Don’t be flaky. Show up places on time. Express your real ideas. Remember that however creative you are, and however uniquely talented you may be, your work has value inasmuch as it offers a service to humanity: and by service I mean everything from saving the whales to creating something beautiful. What you’re doing is not limited by service; that is one mode of participation. The key will be thinking in ways that are not self-limiting but rather fully expandable, and in particular, going with that sense of knowing what you really want to do. The notion that you ‘cannot do it’ is ridiculous, though you will have options for how you go about it.
Everything, All at Once
I have described the 2012 era — for everyone — as the time of ‘everything, all at once’. That is how I would call the astrology of May 20 through June 30 for you, in particular. Those 40 days are going to be some of the most interesting we’ve ever seen, and you may feel like your life is at the epicenter. It is — for you. This stretch of 40 days contains so many astrological events it’s astounding, and most of them occur along the Gemini-Sagittarius axis. I can only surmise this connects to global events that are going to influence a lot of people, and where we will see an emergence (as previously defined) of something that was in truth entirely unpredictable.
I suggest you view all of the time until then as being a preparation phase, and then listen for the bell when Venus stations retrograde in your sign on May 15 (this will be big news on all of the astrology blogs, but I suggest you mark your calendar just the same). In this stretch of time, you will experience solar and lunar eclipses that directly affect your sign, mixed in with your solar return (birthday). Then in the midst of that will be the Venus transit of the Sun.
Then there is the solstice. And then, as if that all were not brilliantly interesting and eventful enough, the first exact contact of Uranus square Pluto happens on June 24. In other words, this aspect is nearly exact in your solar return chart for 2012, and not only that, you have the first exact square precise to within arc-minutes in your solar return chart for 2012.
So — first, let’s look at the preparation phase between now and May 15.
Preparation Part 1: Mars Retrograde in Virgo
Everyone walking the Earth has some emotional material to process, or issues to resolve. Everyone has some psychological issues. Not everyone cares about working them out. In fact, saying ‘not everyone’ is an extremely polite way of saying ‘hardly anyone’. However, as part of your preparation for the most interesting 40 days in history, you will have some opportunities to massage through some of your emotional and mental kinks; what you might think of as your unnecessary complexities.
One of the distinctive (but transient and somewhat routine) events of 2012 is Mars retrograde in Virgo. Mars is retrograde every two years; for reference, it was last retrograde in Virgo in early 1997 (though the first part of the retrograde was in Libra). If you are curious about Mars retrograde in general, here is an article from a few years back (it will be updated before the new Mars retrograde begins).
This particular Mars retrograde, at this particular time, seems to be offering a truly useful component in the equation that will assist us in processing all of the other events of this year. I would sum up the message of this transit as a blend of ‘impeccability’ and ‘learning how to get out of your own way’. Another way to describe the experience is a kind of test of our psychological systems to find the flaws in our thinking, so that we can see them and work them out before they cause bigger problems.
This event takes place in one of the most sensitive angles of your chart, what astrologers think of as the emotional angle; that is what Virgo is for you. Gemini is often thought of as a mentally oriented sign, and this gives an illustration of how that works — on the emotional angle of your chart you have one of the most intellectually driven signs, Virgo. Virgo resonates with Gemini because both are ruled by Mercury.
I am referring to your solar 4th house (4th house by whole-sign houses, if you’re Gemini rising), the house of home, security, insecurity and the baggage you may be carrying from childhood. Well, everyone has some baggage, and mostly it shows up as a collection of insecurities. And it has a way of manifesting in the kinds of sensations that you cannot tell whether they are coming from your mind or your feelings.
The truth is there is a strong overlay between the two — they are all seated in the brain. Memory and thought are subtle forms of feeling; what we call emotion may have less attached to it in the way of detail or logic. Memory is often connected to senses, and contains sensory data. But it’s all your brain, and the brain is organized in patterns — and these are the patterns you’re working with. This transit is not exactly what any astrologer would call a comfort zone, but it’s designed to get a lot of clutter and garbage out of your comfort zone so that you can actually be comfortable there.
If I may work out the goal, using the astrology as a map: this is about discovering all the ways you get in your own way — and then learning to get out of your way. It’s about seeing the patterns of emotional violence that were inflicted on you and that you learned to take out on yourself. It’s about noticing how your thought process is clouded by your feelings, and the ways in which you use your mind to override your emotions. In short, you will be doing a lot of work with your inner boundaries, at the end of which you will figure out how to feel safe on the planet.
Given that we’re talking 2012, a time when nobody is supposed to feel safe, I realize that is a big statement. Most of the sensation of danger, wherever we are on the planet, originates in our early home life. Most fear is simply the mind spurting out impulses that have no bearing in reality. Most of that, in turn, was put into us by some violent means, reinforced by guilt. The 4th house is where one’s personal ecology (home and the study of home) meets the global ecology (the planetary environment and what we understand about it).
The planet is in crisis, and you are uniquely situated to be able to understand that crisis as it relates to individual people and their issues. In other words, people’s individual feelings, experiences and emotions — much of which are rooted in inner conflict — add up to a much bigger picture. While it helps that each of us individually gets our act together, which contributes to the greater good, there is a need for people who understand the whole pattern — and you will be one of them. Imagine, as you go through Mars retrograde, that you’re working out some much larger karma as you make up your mind about whether, and how, to feel safe on the planet. I cannot tell you the exact means by which you will do that, but I can tell you that if you establish that as a goal, you will be very likely to work out what you need to work out, in order to feel safe and grounded.
Uranus square Pluto
Let’s end with a discussion of Uranus square Pluto. This is a meeting of two outer planets that are covering your 8th and 11th houses — Capricorn and Aries, to be precise. Let’s take them separately and then together. They point to a theme very similar to that of Mars retrograde in Virgo; you know the astrology is talking if it starts delivering similar messages over and over.
Pluto in Capricorn is moving through your solar 8th house (whole-sign 8th house, if you’re Gemini rising). This is your house of partnership. This transit is stirring up all kinds of adventures where shared resources, financial structures and the financial matters of your relationships are concerned. There is something here about establishing a balance of power, and about not having resources get in the way of the balance of power. Said another way, whoever has the money (or more money) is not automatically the boss, nor is the person who can manipulate the one who has the money. Rather, you are gradually cultivating an understanding of resource-sharing and balancing out the influence of resources within your partnerships. This would also count for creating a balance of power related to sex.
This takes more work than most people think — but then, most people don’t think about it. They just get caught in the structures and caught in power games without understanding how that happened — something we all have faced at one time or another. Pluto is doing some major housecleaning and teaching you the necessity for self-reliance, which also means reliance on what you think is important to you, rather than having to always, or often, honor what is important to others. Note that you’re breaking free from some old (as in ancient) patterns, on the way to establishing a measure of autonomy. If you want to see what patterns, start considering the marriages in your family and observe the extent to which people gave away their power as a result of those relationships.
You are also learning something about standing up to powerful people besides your immediate partner(s), including in-laws, if you have any. There is, by the way, a caution here to be especially careful when dealing with inheritances, trusts and major investments. You will need to be cool as ice when making decisions about these things, and proceed with only the best legal advice. If family conflict surrounds matters of wills, inheritances and legacies, note the extent to which others seem to have power over you, and remember, you can take away that power by bowing out of the situation.
Then there’s Uranus. That is in Aries — your 11th house, another house addressing resources, mainly collective resources. This is also the house where you collect on the benefits of your reputation and the long-term efforts you’ve made in your career. Basically, what you are capitalizing on is 1) your absolute authenticity and more lately 2) your innovation — as long as you can do this in a way that is grounded and solid.
This is a time in your life when you can make a splash, but you want to make just the right one, calculated with a little strategy in mind. You have the power of invention on your side, and you’re extremely visible — but you want to use that judiciously, and make sure you’re willing to do the work to back up any appearances you project or promises you make. Indeed, ideally the work would come first and the presentation last, though this will not always be the case. You are getting accustomed to having impact and influence, but these things are not the goal — they are a byproduct.
Reprise: Chiron and Neptune in the 10th House
Indeed, it would be wise of you to play your life as low-key as possible, and focus on the real work that is at hand. There is plenty, and it is visionary work. You are entering a very significant new phase of aligning your professional life with your soul’s mission — a phase where what you accomplish can make up for many prior disruptions, if you’re able to handle your creativity responsibility. There are two challenges here.
I began this discussion with a description of Chiron in Pisces, a relatively new (and long-term) transit in your life, which is primarily influencing your career options and your reputation. Pisces is your solar 10th house (10th house by whole-sign houses, if you’re Gemini rising) — the house of reputation. This transit is halfway between ‘coming of age’ and ‘responding to your calling’, but there are special themes of being able to function within an authority structure. It is possible to get into trouble with this transit, because suddenly you may find yourself playing out of your league.
Chiron in the 10th house suggests that you must be both your own authority as well as accountable to others. Because the sign involved is Pisces, there is what you would call a spiritual accountability involved — what you might call fidelity to your higher purpose.
This sounds great; lots of people yak about it. Not so many have a clue what it means. You could say it’s about trust and integrity of the highest order. There is a reason you need to emphasize this, and get it right. Along with Chiron, Neptune is about to enter Pisces. Neptune, on the surface, is adding a visionary flavor to your professional aspirations and your vision for your life. If you feel a sense of glamour about what you’re doing, remember that glamour is always a toxic illusion. If you feel a spiritual calling, remember to test that out in practical ways. Neptune may say ‘believe’ but Chiron says ‘prove this through repeated experiments’. This would be an extremely challenging transit, were it not for Chiron’s presence. There really is no way to contain Neptune, but it’s possible to harness its energy, and this is most effectively done with Chiron: conscious focus and staying on-mission.
Neptune still speaks to the potential to go out of integrity, and there are certainly many opportunities to do that in life, in business and just about anywhere you go. Neptune speaks of the potential of your vision, if you stay in alignment with your purpose — and if you do not, you could slip. For example, deception in any form will be extremely costly. I am talking about being honest with people to whom you are accountable, being honest in your tax returns, and not taking any ethical shortcuts. Do not overstate your resume or your abilities — but reach for actual confidence in your real abilities and accomplishments.
Years of challenge and disruption as you tried to make your way in the world are not an excuse to take an ‘easy’ option. I think of Chiron above all as a teacher of ethics; what seems the easy, appealing option may be the most potentially disastrous. Integrity is not necessarily something we have, but rather a pattern formed as the product of a series of decisions — and if you are not committed to that pattern, and not committed to a certain outcome, it’s possible to cash in by making just one bad decision.
Therefore, I suggest that you play by strict rules that you agree are the right rules. I suggest that rule one is be honest. Rule two could well be keep alcohol far away from work or work environments. That might mean having no drinks or just one at an event when your bosses and/or colleagues have four or five. I suggest you also steer clear of those whose lives are in any way infused by questionable ethics. If there is a ‘reality check’ angle to your life, I would say it starts here.
There are people who are actually embarrassed to do the right thing. Some think it makes them seem weak or goody-goody, and others are the type to yield to peer pressure. This would not be wise. You are in a phase of your life where, if you want to succeed, and if you want to make your mark on the world, you need to stand on your own — and by that I mean, you need to be brave enough to stand on your own. If you want someone you can trust, trust yourself. If you do, and if you listen to what your inner voice is saying to you, for you this will indeed be The Year of the Impossible.
Your 2012 annual interpretation also includes an extended audio reading. That is available at the top of this page.
Don’t forget to read and listen to your rising sign. Use this link to purchase additional signs of Revelation. Revolution. Reality Check.
Read the past three years of Gemini annual interpretations for just $19.95. Includes Next World Stories, Cosmic Confidential and Light Bridge. These were designed to be multiple-year interpretations, preparing for and extending into 2012.
