Forget what you’ve heard about Gemini, because it’s probably only half true. Or conditional. Or capable of being pinned down the way Schrödinger’s cat is both alive and dead as a result of quantum superposition.

No one is maligned quite like a Gemini, and no one is as willing to entertain the slander that rises against them. When a Gemini does this, they’re not saying, “Yeah, you’ve got me.” They’re saying, “I can see how you might think that.” To those who lack the mental dexterity of a Gemini, this might seem like an admission. But to not push back too strongly against the version of you someone else made up in their mind is to live with the ability to hold space for multiple contradicting truths.

Gemini is ruled by Mercury. The word “mercurial” literally means “subject to sudden or unpredictable changes of mood or mind.” This mutable energy blows hot and cold, and it can quickly exchange one viewpoint for another as new stimuli flash between its synapses. Its presence of mind lies in the truth of “right now,” and “now” is a thing that’s in a constant state of motion. People love to say “liar” this and “two-faced” that, but we rarely talk about the fact that it is not easy to be honest because it’s impossible to be complete (that’s an Ariana Reines quote, by the way). Gemini attempts to do the work of completeness — maybe more-so than any other sign. Ironically, this makes them harder to trust for those who believe that truth is inherently consistent.

Mercury’s glitchy, trickster nature could, of course, only feel at home in mutable signs. Both Gemini and Virgo are where it thrives. But mutable air is different from mutable earth in that it’s even less encumbered. Mutable air is a literal Wi-Fi signal. It’s an ecosystem of soundbites and quips and puns and tweets. Things have to move quickly here because we’re in a process of information exchange, of scattering as a means of discovery. The massaging and finessing of Virgo is what gives form to all that data. Put simply, Gemini is the writer and Virgo is the editor. Gemini is the survey and Virgo is the analysis. It’s the “interesting raw material” to “precise execution” pipeline.

The Gemini universe can be chaotic, it’s true. But what’s overly busy for some can be profoundly liberating for others. Gemini isn’t overly attached to its own ideas or ways of being in the world. It doesn’t judge — it just approaches everything with a beginner’s mind. The more variety and multicolor splashes on its sampler platter, the better. You can maybe fault Gemini for dabbling and sticking its finger in too many pies — of being a powerhouse of mostly useless trivia — but this makes more sense when you consider that Jupiter is in detriment in Gemini. Jupiter is the one that needs things to cohere and make sense and produce discernible truths and principles — to be wise, and not just clever. Gemini is fine with being clever. It excels at it.

In this sense, Gemini is not too different from Virgo, where Jupiter also feels like a fish out of water. But beyond the obvious difference of being an air sign, or of being Mercury’s diurnal (extroverted, daytime) home, Gemini is also different from Virgo in that it doesn’t beef with Venus as much. Whereas Venus experiences its fall in Virgo, Venus feels fine in Gemini — even playful and fancy-free. A Mercury-ruled sign where Venus feels out of sorts is a workshop. A Mercury-ruled sign where we have an easier time deriving enjoyment is a playground. Gemini may not always have a sophisticated product to show for all of its tinkering, but if you follow its lead, you’ll never be bored.

This post was originally published on 5/21/2021 on thedailyhunch.com.