I’ve been a writer ever since I can remember. I was born
with the Moon in Gemini: words are my birthright. Whenever
I needed to relax, to reconnect with myself, I’d write something.
Usually it wasn’t anything profound. Often, it was as simple
as composing lists of things I wanted to do and be in life.
But there was always something about the sheer act of writing
that I found satisfying… the pen on the paper, the ink stains
on my fingers.
For the past couple of years, I’ve been writing more than
ever. It’s my job now, and I write all day, nearly every day.
The peculiar thing is that unlike other tasks that become
easier with repetition, the more I write the more difficult
writing becomes. It’s as though I had been born with a fixed
allotment of words, and I’m in danger of using them up.
The irony is that now, I have more to say than ever before.
Transiting Jupiter recently moved in Sagittarius, the sign
of big ideas, for a one-year stay. It’s crossing over
my natal Ascendant as I write this, and I can feel something
big stirring in my consciousness, something that craves expression.
But the wild, instinctual, Sagittarian side of my nature is,
for the moment at least, winning out over the verbally facile
Gemini Moon side. In fact, I’ve always found Sagittarius
a much easier sign to experience than to describe.
I sense Sagittarius when I look up at a cloud-filled sky,
or across a limitless horizon, or into the wild ocean on a
stormy day. I sense Sagittarius in the mammoth, silent elephants
at my local zoo. And what I sense resists words, because it’s
enormous. It contains the sky, and the horizon, and the depths
of the ocean and the elephant’s timeless gaze, and all that
I know of God. It’s like ten pounds of flour dumped into
the wide end of a funnel… and it is much too great a presence
in my heart, these days, to be expressed on the other end
through the tiny aperture of language.
So at this Full Moon in Gemini, I’m grappling with this problem
of communicating concepts that are – for me, at least - beyond
words. With Jupiter moving into Sagittarius – the sign
it rules – for the first time in twelve years, aren’t
we all full of saved-up mythic stories and images, profound
inspiration, cloud-filled skies and turbulent winds, racing
horses and wild rapeseed fields? We are filled up with the
enormity of life, and the huge scale of its challenges, its
tragedies, and its joys – so much so that a veritable traffic-jam
of ideas is jamming up the narrow end of the conversational
funnel. This isn’t just a problem for writers, either; it’s
a problem for anyone who has big dreams and visions that potentially
benefit mankind, if only they can be set forth in some form
that is easily understood.
I count on the powerful reflections of Full Moon time to
illuminate solutions to knotty problems – and I suppose the
solution here is to remember that Gemini is a symbol not
just of conversation but of communication,
the exchange of concepts and ideas. When your Sagittarius
dreams and ideals are just too big to fit into language, resourceful
Gemini looks beyond words for alternative ways to communicate
– through art, music, even touch.
All too often when meditating on Gemini, we forget that communication
requires both a sender and a receiver. Some of the best
listeners I know are Gemini folk, because they’re curious,
and they honestly want to hear your story. Your words fuel
their imaginations and help them understand the world. With
this in mind, I realize that a large part of my current problems
with language probably stem from the fact that I’ve been "talking"
– or writing – too much compared to how much I’m listening
and taking in. So the next time you’re struggling to make
yourself understood, maybe it’s time to stop and take a stab
at understanding someone else for awhile.
And celebrate the nonverbal forms of communication. A few
days ago, a blogger friend introduced me to the idea of "soul
collages," collections of images that tell
a story about who you are. I cracked open Photoshop and created
my first digital soul collage that same day, and now I’m addicted.
Expressing concepts visually has excited my creativity and
given me a new way of communicating when words alone are inadequate
for the task. If words fail you during this Full Moon in
Gemini season, maybe it’s time to switch to another medium
for telling your story. Design your own holiday greeting
cards. Play music. Paint a mural. The only rule is that you
must share your creation with someone else; otherwise, you
may be creating, but you’re not really communicating.
The story of mankind is a sprawling, Jupiter-sized saga with
a staggering cast of characters acting out a range of enormous
concepts – life, death, ecstasy, meaning. It’s a story so
large that it must be broken up, mini-series style, and told
in bite-sized chunks. Your personal stories, reflecting
your Sagittarian understanding of the world, are a vital installment
in the story of mankind. We’re all participating in one
huge, collaborative narrative – but each of us carries a different
piece of the story. It’s important to document your portion
of our common history. So during this Full Moon in Gemini,
tell your part of the story in your own way – in words, pictures,
and anything else you can find to widen the narrow end of
the funnel.
