What do Mars in Gemini and Mercury in Aries have in common?
What makes them different?
To be able to understand deeply, let’s switch on our right brain hemisphere, or if you prefer, our contemplative mind, the part of our soul that is able to surrender and be inspired.
Let’s let go of the desire to dissect, analyse and control the language of the stars with brutal logic. We don’t want to bin reason altogether but we definitely need less of this attitude.
Sacred symbols are much more likely to reveal themselves if we approach them in a state of loving innocence. We need to take the time it takes to “wonder”. “Wonder” means both wanting to know and admiring. Let’s wonder.
Let’s think in pictures and remember something fundamental: Planets are called “rulers” or sometimes “lords”. Signs are “domiciles”.
Rulers or Lords… are characters. Kings, princes, dukes, CEOs, landlords, owners…
Signs are domiciles. That’s where you’re home.
Home is also country. When we are kicked out of our homeland, we are in exile, like a planet in the opposite sign.
The analogy is built in the astrological system.
Is your home an energy field? Does it resemble you? Or course it does.
With metaphorical pictures, the process is to wonder, to play with them like children and let the symbols reveal themselves…
If you have switched your right brain hemisphere on, you have not been impatiently wondering how long it would take me to get to the point and talk about Mercury in Aries and Mars in Gemini.
The left brain wants to get to the point quickly, it says: “Focus focus focus and don’t get distracted!” The right brain doesn’t care for that. It is in constant overview mode.
Situating stuff in context is the way to make sense of stuff. This can be done walking or listening to music, daydreaming or just being downright lazy.
A lot of accusations of laziness in our world are proffered by hyperactive idiots suggesting poets stop wasting time loving. Astrology is sacred poetry, it is divination.
Don’t worry, I have not forgotten Mercury in Aries and Mars in Gemini!
Mercury as a character can be a postman (a young one, with a cheeky smile but friendly), a student, a trader, a reader, a writer, a journalist, a gossiper, a thief, an imitator, a clown, a sibling, a neighbour…
There are many options! We need to pick one or two, and see if we can make sense in the context of interpreting a whole chart. If not, we can try another one.
Also, as everyone has Mercury in their chart, we need to evaluate how dominant Mercury is. Some of us have it more prominent than others.
Mercury could be a student, not just a student floating in the middle of nowhere after coming out of the blue, a student in context, sitting in a classroom. To think in pictures we need them to be alive! Let’s say this student is a she.
She is listening to the lesson, she understands very quickly – she can have a chat with her classmate and follow the lesson at the same time, but the classmate is not that quick: she loses the thread of the lesson – Mercury is too funny!
Let’s dip this picture of Mercury into Aries: the student is talking to her mate in the classroom. She understands the lesson, maybe not as precisely as if Mercury was in Gemini, but maybe even quicker.
The element is Fire: she gets intuitively what the teacher is talking about. Trouble is, she is too loud for someone who is supposed to shut up and listen. The teacher becomes annoyed and scolds her. She answers back: if the teacher really wanted her to shut up the teacher would make an effort and be more interesting. The teacher is upset. Mercury in Aries hardly understands why!
If you want to please your left brain, and those of the people you’re providing interpretations for, you can translate this little story into a list of personality traits.
You can also imagine that Mercury is the postman. In Aries, which is Mars’ domicile, he comes over to deliver a parcel. Mars is busy punching a bag. He has boxing gloves on. Mercury wants him to sign a receipt. He has to insist. No he won’t just leave the parcel on the table there and go, he wants his receipt signed. Mars has to understand that the only way to get rid of Mercury is to take off the gloves, grab the pen and sign! Mercury wins. Key words: insisting, persuading, standing our ground.
Writing this, I would love to rush forward and carry on with Mars in Gemini, but there are always moments of saturation. My mind is full of Mercury in Aries now, I feel excited but I’ve got the writer’s block. Or the astrologer’s block, it’s the same.
It’s time to remember what I was talking about at the beginning of this post… I can’t force my way through.
Dear Great Spirit, please, let me see the pictures, Mars in Gemini, please, reveal thyself!
…
A good night’s sleep did help. I am currently reading a novel called Red Sparrow, by Jason Matthews, it’s a story with Russian and American spies. What they are doing is called “intelligence”. Isn’t this a good illustration of Mars in Gemini! This Mars brings its Scorpio side to the equation, these agents are warriors but it’s all happening underground, top secret…
I am used to thinking of Mercury in Scorpio as the spy in the astrological wheels. There are various facets to realities. Mars in Gemini may show the one who takes risks, get tortured on occasion but resists, in the service of intelligence. Mercury in Scorpio may emphasise more the nosy creature side of the spying business, the flair, the cunning…
This morning, I opened my inbox… I was shocked. A message from Paypal talking about an unauthorised operation and that they would debit my account of £590. Gasp! It was a scam indeed. Someone sent me a fund request. Paypal notified me. Therefore the message I got was from a trusted sender. The note associated with the request appeared in big letters in my inbox, and it sounded very official. Mars in Gemini, I got scared! Thank you for revealing thyself, I asked for it!
I went for a run in the neighboring park. . There is an outdoor gym. Exercising is a great way to flush the mental overload and restart thinking; without knowing it, I had become another living illustration of Mars in Gemini.
As I was running, I had a mental picture coming up, Mars was rushing like a shepherd dog herding scattered energies: a number of writing projects I started in the past and forgot… Mars in Gemini can really help boost Mercury’s business! At the time of writing, Mars is retrograde in Gemini.
Still running, I got a phone call. A recorded voice talked to me about a subscription to a service I didn’t subscribe to. That was another scam. Thanks for insisting, Mars in Gemini! Is “insisting” another key word to remember? Insisting was also what Mercury was doing in Aries.
Mars in Gemini and Mercury in Aries have a lot in common in my opinion, but I will keep repeating, and it will be my conclusion for now, that placements are metaphors and they have to be understood in the context of whole charts, as characters in stories…
A last thing: I offer readings and classes. I love teaching one to one, or one to groups of two or three people (prices shared between participants).
There is a rather affordable option on my website: the “spontaneous reading”. It’s not because I don’t believe in my own value that it’s affordable, but because I wish to be affordable.
Jean-Marc Pierson