First, thank you so much Aries and Taurus for your generous comments and feedback. I am taking an entirely new approach to the 2010 annual — using investigative reporting techniques for those extended reports. One of them is interviews. So I’m here to ask Geminis (or Gemini rising – my horoscopes are written for Sun and ascendant) in the reading audience to comment on your experiences this year, and whether you feel you’re in harmony with your transits, as you understand them. Certainly all the Aquarius activity has been ringing all the air signs like a bell. Now, Saturn is about to enter Libra and square Pluto — in large measure, an air sign event for sure, but it hasn’t happened yet.
Please let me know what you’ve been up to. Thanks vividly —
Love and lovingly,
cosmicsigns
Hey! I’ve never read a book. But I can write!
VIA EMAIL
Professionally, Pluto moving out of Sadge has once again decreed that I can actually earn a living.
Since my sun is more or less conj Mars, that makes for Mars opp Pluto
So you are not only doing that David and Goliath thing
You have to keep your TEMPER, too!
When it comes to writing and publishing, I’m such a freaking guru these days I can barely stand myself….
I teach this craft over and over, and am absolutely appalled that people know as little as they do about what story IS
what myth IS
and BTW from whence arises the impulse to WRITE a Book, when its pretty obvious you NEVER READ ONE????
But I am a damn good teacher after all is said and done, and I can say that because I SEE that they LEARN (or at least most of ’em) Craft can be taught, that spark of passion that makes you set your ego aside and do the damn work? Can’t be taught.
Specifically the retros of the summer not only had me reviewing MY losses since 2001 (considerable) moving out of NYC, to Virginia, and now to Tucson, Getting hired, getting fired, etc etc. got me thinking that so much of my own wandering somehow relected movements in the larger culture. People just plain weren’t liking us outsiders and immigrants, legal or illegal.
As has always been true in my life, I tend to wind up in the thick of some social movement or other, whether I like it or not.
These past years have not been so very different, with one possible exception.
I’m not necessarily looking for the next adventure.
But I’m STILL looking for a HOME and the sense of community and shared values that involves.
Oh and yeah, a little sophisticated conversation and exchange of ideas among people who LIKE to THINK?
That would be good, too…пїј
Hi Eric
I’m Gemini Sun, with Aquarius rising and Libra moon. It’s been a challenging year on all fronts; relationship, home, work and family. Underscoring it all, has been the sense of an emotional disconnect which I haven’t felt since I was about 7 years old. This has been coupled with my continual challenge of managing my impact on others, including the need to solve everyone’s problems and the power of my narrative constructs.
What have I learnt? I’ve learnt that problems aren’t the problem. Solutions need to come from the heart not the mind.
I’m in the process of learning how to stop taking on others responsibilities. To stop seeing everything and everyone else as slow, and to learn from their pace. While I may seem to have an inexhaustible supply of mental agility, resilience and a huge appetite for ideas, I need to be responsible about plumbing those depths as it may be harmful to myself and others. Especially, when it involves shifting contexts and realities.
In short, I’m in the process of forgiving my 7 year old self who on discovering the wonderful world of literature and the mental plane, became angry with the material plane of relationships, home and family for not behaving in the same way. For it sometimes being a scary and unsafe place to be. I’m learning how to release this anger and say this is okay and not to take it personally. I’m beginning to trust my other senses to guide me and keep me safe. I’m developing the courage to ask for help, and to speak up when I feel abused. This year I went to my first counselling session.
I’m saying goodbye to power trips, to obsession and to intensity.
I’ve discovered that I love everyone in my life, and that I need to quit trying to fix them.
xxx
Oh and btw Prickle–great writing. “Barnyard chocolate”! And yay carmelized onions.
26 Gemini ascendant. Paring down and pulling back–winding down on the overcompensation. Enjoying my daughter and fighting to keep her from getting overscheduled, just because everyone else’s kids are. Still making only the most thought-out and needed cash purchases, but easing up in other ways. It’s OK to run 6 miles, not 10. Don’t have to do everything, be everywhere. Occasionally even buy a non-local vegetable (I missed celery) or an herb I don’t grow. Literally compressed some identities: Started the year with six pseudonyms (for creative writing and online communication; need to protect my real name if I want commercial work and also to protect my child); pared down to one. Wrote a lot and put on some readings to get other writers out there. After years of just saying it was impossible, I’ve actually been talking with my husband about how to make things more interesting and open so I don’t die of monogamous boredom (he was too; he just had no way to acknowledge it because in the reality where he was raised, it is always happily ever after or you shut up about it). And I’m enjoying being with him, just hanging out. (There was always all this pressure to go on “date nights” and dress up and spend money on overpriced crap clubs, restaurants, etc., because that’s what couples are supposed to do to make things “romantic,” when I can cook what he likes better than that and would rather go to free/donation art events and parties, try new things and meet new people, dress up in a more interesting way, etc.) We went rock climbing and I breathed through my fear of heights. I can still hear the way the wind sounded way over the tops of the trees and coming around that inches-thin fin of rock.
Biggest challenge is how to make non-commercial work pay the rent, so I don’t have to work for evil corporate mofos anymore. There’s got to be a way, there’s got to.
(Part of my ritual for making that happen is giving value to operations like this one–i.e., paying for a subscription. It’s entirely selfish; planting a seed to see this kind of growth for me, too.)
Gemini Sun. This has been the toughest year since Pluto opposed my sun around 2001. Like a lot of people who posted here, the overarching theme of my year has been to re-connect with myself and shedding various leeches on my energy, whether human or situations.
Got out of a relationship that was making me crazy – quite literally. The sort riddled with so many half-truths and enforced amnesia you wonder if you are remembering things correctly or whether you’re making it up in your own head. I realised at one point that context-changing was power-play, and decided not to play anymore.
I am learning to value myself and trust my judgement more. Geminis can be too flexible, I think, and give people too much the benefit of the doubt. It often takes several major (and painful) disappointments for me to finally write someone off for taking advantage of my goodwill (maybe a function of natal Neptune opp Sun too). Always attracting narcissistic types, always finding the separation messy and exhausting, always wondering if I shouldn’t have seen it coming, and always puzzled by how so many prefer to remain self-deluded.
Going to re-read your 2009 Annual after this. Looking forward to the next one.
VIA EMAIL
Dear Eric,
I am compelled to write in response to your Gemini reach out.
I am a Gemini with Gemini rising Moon in Aquarius. Sun in the 12th conjunct Uranus, trine my moon, trine my Neptune. Mercury in Taurus square Midheaven. I am writing and singing, performing, doing body work (licensed NY massage therapist) and spiritual counseling, earning a modest living. I do many things including astrology. Money issues (always and all of us)..but actively creative…I am writing every day a collection of prayers, poems and philosophy to be published. I am an Interfaith Minister(Non-denominational) Trying not to impose my story, to the best of my ability on any one.
Mystical Philosophy * A Prayer a Day. I spend a lot of alone time…very meditative, keeping good company with self. I am gathering a great deal of intuitive energy..it seems to really have stepped up these past two years. This past year is on one level feeling very fluid and on another feeling hard to contain. I sense fragments of not yet realized truth peeking through.
I do feel strongly a shift in paradigm and a break through in perception for all of us. Not an easy time but a necessary transition. Your contributions of greater insights go way beyond my appreciation.
I thank you for your commitment to higher mind.
Rev. Marjorie Lipari
AKA Rev. Mudra
Mudra
oh yeah, and i think i have reconnected with every single one of my significant past lovers this year, which has been heady and painful and dissappointing and i have no idea why they all showed up this year to touch noses and then move on, but i think it has empowered me to look at why our relationships didn’t work and now that i am wide open to the possie of a new relationship, i can hopefully make better choices or go to deeper places…now, if that new person would kindly show their pretty face after so many years of waiting and preparing, i would appreciate it because one thing that i realize that i truly need is a partner, however that shows up….though i suppose i have my ideas of what that would look like 😉 i really liked the cancer message this week about the person who is truly unusual…i am fairly cancer-heavy (rising, saturn, mars…) and this message felt right. i AM looking for someone unusual, for an unusual relationship of freedom, connection, depth, and dynamic sensuality. yay
i’m really into chogyam trungpa so i love and appreciate the above quote.
hey eric and everyone
i’m a zero-degree gemini, the sun was in gem for three whole minutes when i was born, and the moon was new, and at 28 degrees taurus, so those two (sun and moon) ride together in my life…i’m cancer rising, the water rising over that partnership of air and earth…
damn, dude, this has been the toughest year of my life, out of many tough years. but i will have to say that i have been tracking with the general gist of the gemini transits. i hear what some folks have been saying above: life can be fucked and fucking wonderful at the same time. wonderfully fucked. i’m up to my eyeballs in issues of freedom vs constriction, letting it go and trusting vs deep control (whether for dark or light or a nice mix of the two), i’m looking for a loving sexual relationship that is committed on an honest level but not so committed as to be strangling or jealous or confused, i’ve had conflicts with my spiritual teachers on the issue of freedom vs control or obedience, had issues with said teachers on the level of figuring out how to create and love on my own with my own guidance instead of being overridden by someone else’s sense of what is right for me whether or not the directive is really from a higher source……etc. money issues, work issues ( i feel like i am at the top of my game in my “career” but am stunningly dissatisfied and undercompensated and have no idea what to do next, especially as a single mom). my daughter’s father, who is a bully and was not around for much of her life, is starting to make a lot of trouble for me and i have been lately preoccupied with how exactly to manage a possible expansion of visitation time, and then how exactly to protect our freedom in the future when i do decide what direction to go…..because i may take forever mulling it over, but when i am ready to move i am ready to move RIGHT AWAY.
you know, the usual. but internally, i have made connections to the greater good that were impossible in the past. i have recently and miraculously shed some deep issues with self-esteem and expression. i have learned to recognize the truth in my heart. i have been able to see myself for the miracle that i am. even as the shit hits the fan….
maybe some more later.
love
suzy
My daughter is Gemini, and 2008/2009 were truly the years from hell for her.. But she is doing well, health is improving, she has grasped the bull by the horns and is making a strong statement for the causes that matter to her. She has saturn in taurus, is libra rising. Instead of crying about my autistic grandson she took up teaching autistic children, and is writing a book on the subject. Gemini people are such wonderful problem solvers, even in the middle of the most tragic circumstances. Sometimes the negative twin kicks in, but usually the twins work in unison to bring lovely creativity to the rest of the the universe. If I have a choice of team mates to choose, I’ll pick Gemini for getting along, getting the job done, and giving rather frank truth where it is needed. Gemini’s might hog the limelight at times – and why not? They are so darn sexy. But they never take credit for work that wasn’t rightfully theirs. All ya’all are good people to have for friends, co-workers, and family.
This quote showed up in my in-box this morning – I offer it to all of us who are struggling to make sense of their life:
A GOOD DOSE OF FEARLESSNESS
Fearlessness will also be punctuated by occasional fear, uncertainty, and confusion. Fearlessness comes from fear. The logic is quite simple. You might ask, for example, why someone takes a shower. You shower because you feel dirty. You aren’t inspired to shower purely because you have clean clothes in your closet. We might say that basic goodness is like the clean clothes in your wardrobe. It’s great to know they are there, but it’s not always enough motivation to get you to shower. The dirt is what really makes you want to clean up. Similarly, fearlessness comes from fear…..When as warriors we experience doubt and fear, then by rousing both our mind and body so that they are joined together, a good dose of fearlessness comes into our state of mind and is reflected in our body as well. Then we can appreciate the basic goodness we possess.
From “Joining Heaven and Earth,” pages 76 to 77, in
SMILE AT FEAR: AWAKENING THE TRUE HEART OF BRAVERY
Teachings by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
After reading your request,I couldn’t
help but visualize a mummy tightly wrapped in his cloth holding an Uzi. This year,more than ever in my life has been about unraveling all the layers of bullshit that led to a pathetic state of codependency and self destructive behaviors. More than ever it has been about recognizing self worth and creating a life that’s satisfying and fullfilling. I have spent a large amount of time going down “memory lane” trying to figure out how I got to where I’m at (that’s where the Uzi comes in,anything non-condusive gets obliterated). Of recent months I have opened my eyes to the beauty that surrounds me not only in people but to the sacredness the earth holds. It has been a journey of awareness on many levels. Although I still have many layers to go, Carli Simon put it best by singing “I can see clearly now the rain is gone”!I envision getting to that last layer,completely naked and free.
Dear prickle, I second shebear’s hug and add another one from here. Far from losing your mind, it seems you found it. Along with your heart. H.
in the interest of full disclosure i’m gemini rising, not gemini sun, but i think the principles still apply. this year has been, for me, about growing comfortable with the paradox of seemingly opposing ideas/concepts/beleifs operating simultaneously within one person or a situation. This year I’ve learned:
-that two completely independent and opposed realities can be true
-that you can be in love with two people at the same time and that truth does not diminish the love for either in any way
-that ‘professional’ and ‘punk rock’ are not mutually exclusive
-you can be free, yet trapped
-life can be fucked and fabulous all at once
-that most people are more uncomfortable with the contradictions in me than I am
I could go on, but you get the idea.
thanks E.
Prickle; I just want to send you a cyber hug and thank you for this generous and honest look at your year in review. Enjoy those pints of Guinness and your Drinking Liberally group (!), your spinning and knitting, your reconnecting with old friends, your walks along the river and your rediscovering eating actual food.
I’m with you all the way in love and support for all the wonderful changes you are making for yourself – hurrays and courage to keep it going.
So what, I’m the only gemini (leo ascendant, virgo moon) who reads this? I can’t tie it in to transits, because although I read the emails and blog avidly, I don’t seem to be able to make sense of anything these days.
Ok, here comes prickle’s year in review:
I think I’m starting to figure out how I lost my mind, if indeed I ever had it.
I was thrown out of my home and year-long relationship with my unemployed, cough-syrup drinking, highly manipulative, possibly sociopathic boyfriend back in March. It had never been comfortable or easy or even pleasant being with him (especially since I felt I had to support him financially and willfully shut out all knowledge of his thieving and infidelity), so once I got over the initial shock, I felt a great deal of relief . . .until the stories started rolling in, giving me evidence of the truths I had always known in my gut but had chosen to ignore. I’m still struggling with the shame. My friends have been some comfort, but they make me angry, too — there in their gilded cage marriages. I acknowledge the trap but envy them their security, too.
Getting dumped by the manipulative ex dredged up a lot of feelings about my past. My feelings about the childhood abuse I experienced resurfaced — only this time, instead of being angry at the one doing the abusing, I have been angry with the women of my family who experienced it themselves or witnessed it happening to others and chose to turn a blind eye, believe it wouldn’t happen to anyone else, etc. I have no idea how to deal with this, as it means I am very angry at one who is extremely dear to me. I cannot and will not discuss the subject with her. It is up to me to forgive and let go, and I don’t seem to know how. Some family members woke up a bit after learning of my experience, and took steps to protect my younger cousins. I suppose I should be pleased about that, but really it just makes me angrier. Why were they deemed worthier than I was, or than my older cousins were?
For job #1 (of 3, although I do very little work for the 3rd) I work in a factory full of uneducated women. In some ways, it’s like getting paid to go to middle school — cattiness, cliqueyness, and pointless bitchiness abound. I’m supposed to be aiding in the construction of tiny plastic parts for use in . . .god knows what, but even though there are many engineers on staff and file cabinets full of drawings, the rules are somewhat obscure, and I can’t ever quite figure out what I’m supposed to be doing. Hell, I can’t even read the measurements correctly when using calipers. It’s been a prolonged exercise in failure, and I’m ready to move on to something else. But what? All I can tell you is that I want to work in an environment that doesn’t feel abusive. I’m tired of the truth shifting depending on the time of day and who is doing the asking and the mood of the person answering. But how do I find something that I can not only live with, but which might actually be fulfilling on some level? Since moving back to my rural home state in 2006, I’ve only held crap jobs that eat up my time, sap my resolve, and barely pay the bills.
This spring I started dreaming about a once-dear friend. We haven’t been in contact in over 4 years. Now he shows up in my dreams and won’t talk to me. I’m trying to figure out the point of this. It seems like if he’s going to show up in my dreams, the least he could do is carry on a decent conversation, or perhaps we could go out for a dream pint of guinness and a dream plate of bacon cheese fries, like in the old days. He doesn’t need to snub me — he already did that, I’m well aware of it, I’m done grieving and would like to move on, please.
What do I have for good news? Well, in April I moved into a spacious and cheap apartment above an office. The fellas have been very kind and generous and good to me, and it’s good to live someplace in my price range that feels safe and where the neighbors aren’t arguing or playing Rock Band at top volume all night. This summer, I was able to make a couple of trips back to Minneapolis to visit old friends and eat good food. I hadn’t been able to do that before — supporting someone ate up all my money, and to tell the truth, I was uncomfortable being away from home for long periods of time when he was around, anyway. I’m starting to reconnect with friends I’d neglected locally, too, which is mostly good, although I feel pretty awkward. I even started meeting up with the local Drinking Liberally group. I’ve been on their email list for two years, and never had the guts to actually go. I’m trying to spend more time working with the crafts I love, spinning and knitting, and trying to remember to go outside and walk around — especially down by the Missouri River. The water is quite soothing.
I have rediscovered cooking actual food this week, and have kind of been going nuts with it — two kinds of squash soup and more on the way, caramelized onions, slow cooked pork as pizza topping and for burritos. I’m stuffing myself with goodness. It’s a welcome change from peanut butter toast and frozen pizza and the piles of dollar coins spent on barnyard chocolate from the vending machines at work. Easy enough, but not delicious, filling, or fulfilling.
And that’s pretty much been my year, E. I hope it is of some use to you. Your words often bring me comfort and help keep me going, even when I can’t quite seem to absorb them the way I would wish to.