On the Road
Each year, when the Sun enters Gemini (May 20, 2024, 5:59 am PDT), we embark on a road trip for which destination and outcome are entirely beside the point. The Gemini season is for learning and reinvention, not for decisions. It’s the season of summer camp and internships and backpacking across Europe; of long drives across desolate highways, where there is nothing but room—room to be someone different for a while, to let your imagination breathe, and to create a new story for yourself.
For years, during the Sun’s Gemini season, my family took cross-country road trip vacations that became some of my happiest memories. But just before Memorial Day 1971, my mother, sister, and I set out on a road trip not for pleasure, but with a purpose: to make a new home in Los Angeles.
Unlike previous years, when Dad was with us, Mom had to handle the driving chores alone, and often grew tired; I remember one witheringly hot afternoon nap under a freeway overpass in the middle of nowhere, when mom miraculously woke up just as a creepy looking stranger was approaching our car. The sense of adventure and wide-open spaces had given way to an uneasy sense of being pursued, and an awareness of our vulnerability.
This week, as the Sun in Gemini– symbol of the happy, light-hearted road trip – trines Pluto (May 22, 2024, 8:14 am PDT), there’s an awareness of the darker forces we might meet along the road. So enjoy the open highway and its possibilities, but keep your eyes open, too.
Everything Seems Possible
Venus falls into conjunction with Jupiter this week (May 23, 2024, 1:29 am PDT). This heart-opening union between the planets of relationship and infinite possibilities reminds me of something my husband-to-be said just after we became engaged all those years ago. He said that our decision to marry had made everything seem possible.
I knew just what he meant. When you join forces with another person – and this doesn’t have to be marriage, or even love; it happens with business or creative partners, as well as best friends; Venus is in all relationships – there’s a feeling of strength, joy, and optimism. The skies open up. The load seems lighter. And everything, indeed, seems possible.
Pleasures of the Neighborhood
I’ve lived in the same neighborhood for many years now. On my daily walk I encounter neighbors who are familiar, even if we don’t know one another by name. There’s the man with the knit cap and his one-eyed corgi (I do know Tom and Wilma’s names, as it happens); the quiet older woman who, I’m told, single-handedly remodeled her home; the pair of men with the adorable sheepdog who trade quips with me. At the supermarket, I pick the line with my favorite checker.
Gemini is the first of the three relational signs. Libra rules close relationships, Aquarius rules the way we relate as a society, and Gemini rules the casual conviviality of the neighborhood. Venus entering Gemini this week (May 23, 2024, 1:30 pm PDT, through June 16) reminds us of the pleasure to be found in simple, pleasant interactions with those around us. When we spend too much time cooped up at home, we grow hungry for these connections; they are the social lubricant that keeps the gears of society moving comfortably. We won’t become close to every person we encounter in our daily lives, but relationships have to start somewhere; and a passing smile and a cheerful hello go a long way toward making everyone feel less alone.
Making Space
Jonny and I have a deal, the sort that’s common among people who share a home: Anytime a new coffee mug is brought into the house, another from our extensive collection has to be sent on its way. Likewise, when Jupiter comes to visit, backing up a huge truck full of treasure at our door, we have to find space for it. Luckily, this week, on his way out of Taurus, Jupiter makes a helpful sextile to Neptune (May 23, 2024, 2:44 pm PDT), who is happy to help by washing away unneeded things.
It’s not that Jupiter and Neptune are opposites; each of them wants us to expand our horizons. But one expands our bank balance or the number of stamps in our passport, while the other makes room to expand the heart’s awareness, and creates space for a new cup.
Quilting
My grandmother created beautiful quilts, and my sister and I loved going to her house and sifting through her bags and bags of colorful fabric swatches. Grandma’s giant quilting frame dominated the living room of her small, simple house; it always held a quilt in progress. I was fascinated by her ability to turn a seemingly haphazard selection of colors and patterns into something cohesive, a whole that seemed to exist even before the scraps were pulled from the bag.
When the Sun is moving through Gemini, it’s extremely diverting to sort through grandma’s rag bag, marveling at the endless variety of patterns, shapes and colors. But just across the room, a quilting frame is set up and ready to turn the pieces into something more, and if you spend too much time with the individual pieces, you’ll never have a finished quilt.
In this week that includes Jupiter moving into Gemini, the Full Moon in Sagittarius (May 23, 2024, 6:53 am PDT) is a reminder to look for the big picture in all the bits and pieces. Take a deep breath, stick your hand into the bag, and grab a fistful of scraps. Then sit with them for a while in the quiet solitude of your dwelling space, contemplating and rearranging them, until the pattern emerges.
What You have Left
This story really spoke to me when I ran across it. I’ve shared it many times over the years, because I’ve yet to find a better metaphor for Venus/Pluto transits, which often make us feel that too much has been taken from us. Perhaps, in light of this week’s Venus trine to Pluto (May 25, 2024, 4:16 am PDT), it will speak to you too:
Violinist Itzhak Perlman was crippled by polio in childhood and walks with the aid of braces on his legs and a pair of crutches. At a concert on the night of November 18, 1995, at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City, one of the strings of his violin suddenly snapped during the performance. Stunned, the audience held their collective breath, expecting Perlman to stop and leave the stage. Instead he paused, then continued playing – adjusting, creating, compensating as he went along, and when he put down his bow at the end of the concert, a mighty roar of applause filled the hall. When it had died down, he spoke to the audience: “You know, sometimes it is the artist’s task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left.”
(This story excerpted from “Gardening for a Lifetime,” copyright 2010 by Sydney Eddison.)
More Stories
Jupiter enters the sign of Gemini this week, for a year-long stay (May 25, 2024, 4:15 pm PDT, though June 9, 2025). Jupiter was last in this sign between June 11th, 2012 and June 25th, 2013. We’re often told that Jupiter brings good fortune, and I think that that can be true. But maybe Jupiter just inclines toward the kind of optimistic mindset that makes everything seem lucky.
If you happen to be part of what we would call a Gemini profession, such as writing, journalism, transportation, I think Jupiter is quite likely to bring a little more good fortune your way. But mostly, Jupiter brings the desire for more, for bigness. In Gemini, it craves more variety, more socializing, more conversation, more networking, more colorful scraps for future quilts. Use Jupiter in Gemini to read lots of books, to travel to new places that are within reach of a car or train; even if you’re shy, force yourself to get out and mingle. Collecting and telling stories – whether yours or somebody else’s – is what Jupiter most loves to do while it’s in Gemini.
Writing and images © 2012-24 by April Elliott Kent
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