Getting Excited in Gemini Season!!!
Lately, I’ve been pondering the elements, ya know, the ones that govern our Earthly reality, the true law hidden beneath all that we’ve overlaid in this modern society. And I’ve been thinking about how much they effect me from an energetic standpoint crossed over to a physical plane. What I mean is, thinking about the elements and what role they might be playing in your life, your body, in any given situation, might shed some light on things, might allow for some space in order to create balance in a fundamental way.
This vocabulary is drawn from my overlapping practices, studies, understandings and assimilation of Ayurvedic wisdom, Shamanic wisdom and Western astrological concepts.
Air- Associated with Thought, the mind, movement, breath, qualities of lightness, talking and being social, wind and sky, Father, masculine energy, fall and winter, symbolized with a sword, astrological signs include Gemini, Libra and Aquarius
Water- Associated with Emotions, feelings, dreams, astral planes, cleansing, love and groundedness, freedom or containment, part of the structure that makes up the physical body, the moon, feminine energy, springtime, symbolized with a cup, astrological signs include Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces
Fire- Associated with Creativity, desire, action, competition, digestion and transmutation, passion or rage, the sun, masculine energy, summer time, symbolized with a wand, astrological signs include Leo, Sagittarius and Aries
Earth- Associated with Material, stability, ambition, work and labour, physical plane, finances, reality, comfort and sensuality, qualities of heaviness, moving slowly, mud and mountains, valleys and rivers, the structure that makes up the physical body, Mother, feminine energy, also springtime, symbolized with a pentacle, astrological signs include Virgo, Capricorn and Taurus
(Note: many studies talk about 5 elements, including “ether” or “space”, but I believe that idea is encompassed in each of the elements as well as all things, for physical matter is not as densely contained as our perceptions would lead us to believe.)
So, this month (Gemini season, I mean) I’ve had many beautiful things come my way… friendships, a new home, internal freedom, external freedom, love, a haircut. The basics, lots of really, really positive basics. Needless to say, these experiences have left me in a pool of excited energy, especially when thinking about my new home (haven’t moved quite yet). Now while excitement is great and a beautiful part of human life, I personally gotta keep it in check, or else I end up feeling imbalanced. To my point, excitement is the kind of energy that can be both airy and fiery, masculine for sure. And that means when I’ve felt triggered in this way, I’ve tended to react in masculine ways, airily talking and writing and jumping around about my excitement, or fiercely researching and planning and fixating on future creative home projects also due to my excitement. Let’s just bunch all these ideas together into one word for the purposes of this talk and call my feelings “Airy”.
Now here’s where it gets a liiitttle esoteric. I’ve been feeling Airy because of these life events… and they’ve been happening during the Airiest of Airy seasons, Gemini, one of Mutable Air. A mutable quality means that something already so mutable, Air, is now doubly mutable. So, the platform on which my Airy feelings have come up has already been twice labeled with those same qualities. It has been highly unstable for me mentally, BUT with all my practices, tools, and preparation knowing it was coming, I made a vow to allow this energy to lead the way. I vowed not to fight it, but to go with the Air, let myself be taken back and forth even if it makes me feel like I’m on a rollercoaster and going to throw up. It is what nature intended, and so I must surrender to these feelings during this time and definitely not make any finite decisions. That was my vow at the beginning of Gemini season, and I’ve surprised myself with how beautifully it’s worked and how much freedom it’s given me.
But that’s not the whole lesson. Just part one.
Part Two:
After I made said vow, I then realized I could find a way to work with all four of these universal energies, use them to my advantage to achieve a sense of balance. You have to understand, for me there’s another added layer to what I’ve just explained. On top of the (1) Airy quality, during (2) an Airy season, with (3) Airy feelings, I also have (4) my Moon in the sign of Gemini. Now, this is from my personal chart, and everyone’s is quite different. For me, this placement of my Moon in Gemini means that my emotional and internal life is ruled by this Airiness. I’m easily pulled in different directions at ANY time of the year, but especially so when a major component like the Sun is placed there for an extended period of time. This is when I become that much more prone to my natural tendencies. Being here in Gemini season is like adding the power of a gargantuan sized leaf-blower to an already flying kite… not necessary (for me). But I’m accepting that it is natural, it’s all part of when and where I was born and when and where the planets are moving.
My idea of how to balance this extreme for myself is through incorporating a lot more of the other three elements into my life to balance the scales, leaning especially in favor of earth and water. And I mean physically! Taking these metaphorically, esoteric concepts, and translating them into the physical plane where anyone, meditator or not can physically feel into these things. I’ve been hiking so much, being by the water (going to swim soon!), drinking more fresh spring water, eating more cucumber and coconut, practicing Qi gong, throwing pottery, painting, dancing and practicing slow, cooling pranayama.
Again, that’s just my situation. And that’s a glimpse into the multifaceted, converging, metaphysical shit show that is my brain on high. (I say that with so much love and acceptance for my brain.)
Now for anyone else, I think starting with looking at the time of the year or a feeling inside, noticing the qualities, and going from there, would be a great start. Do you feel the pull of Air, Water, Fire, or Earth? Or a blend of them? And what can you do to bring it back home?
It’s an ongoing experiment, not at all a perfect science, and because everything is always shifting and evolving, the answers will as well.
Look at what’s happening on a global scale right now, all the events and movements. They could be looked at from this perspective and parallels could be drawn between the timing… certain planets in retrograde in certain signs, events happening during certain seasons or astrological events…. But perhaps this one layer I’ve offered within this multifaceted, ever-evolving, universal knowledge is enough to work with for now.
Meditate on it. Or not.
Just another view. Another day. Another perspective. Same hammock.
Aho.