Gemini + The Breath of Life
“Gemini 2025” commences on May 20. Why does this thirty-day season emphasize breathing? In medical astrology, Gemini governs the bronchial tubes, upper lungs, and the inspiration of the breath, in addition to the arms, hands, capillaries, peripheral and afferent sensory nerves, and speech. As the Sun enters this sign each year, the Universal Vital Force enlivens these parts and their functions.
Do most of your Gemini friends enjoy talking (a lot!), writing, reading, and using their fast and agile hands? Or do they gravitate toward games, words, spontaneous fun, or coordinative exercises? Astrologers have observed these traits for over two millennia, but why should this be so? Consider the symbol of twins: two beings emerging from a single source. Gemini symbolizes bilateral branching—the awareness that we are made up of divergent parts—and their essential coordination. But there’s more…
Gemini represents the third zodiacal stage on this ever-revolving seasonal wheel. Let’s relate this to a stage of the human life cycle. Aries, stage one, symbolizes birth. At stage two, “Taurus,” the infant begins to feed. Stage three arrives: “Gemini,” the toddler, voluntarily reaches, walks, talks, and pulls things out of drawers! The nascent intellect forms as synapses expand. Those born at this stage of the seasonal wheel eagerly engage lifetimes of intellectual stimulus and neurological branching. These concepts are fascinatingly detailed in my recent book, The Twelve Zodiac Sign Syndromes of Medical Astrology.
It is no accident that the word “inspiration” indicates both the in-drawing of breath and mental inspiration! The word “inspiration” comes from the Latin “to breathe into.” Gemini natives are famous for their curious minds and love of words, seemingly inspired by air-born messages (words). One observes in the Gemini-born an active thirst for communication, connection, and new information! And my chat room explodes during classes held on Gemini Moons!
Gemini is an air sign. Mercury, the “Messenger of the Gods,” rules this sign. He is depicted as a nimble youth with winged cap and heels, carrying a caduceus. The Air Element has long been associated with the conveyance of messages between this world and the heavens through the use of flutes, incense, and prayer. The Hebrew word for spirit is ruach, which translates as “wind, air, spirit, breath.” Although many traditions conflate concepts of spirit and breath, they are not precisely the same. In Persian Medicine, the substance of the vital force (pneuma) is obtained from inhaled air. However, the air is not regarded as identical to the vital force, but as a substance from which it is obtained.
Metaphorically, Gemini receives the breath of life into the lungs, as this sign governs the inspiration of the breath (as opposed to expiration, as is governed by the opposite sign, Sagittarius). Interested readers can learn more in my class, “Gemini & Sagittarius: Syndromes, Body Types, Physical and Medical Expressions.”
We all must breathe! Gemini governs the top of the oxygenation process where the breath of life enters our nostrils, and air is breathed into the alveoli of the bronchial tree. Here, oxygen enters the capillaries to be carried by red blood cells to the needful cellular destinations throughout the entire body.
As Mercury (Gemini’s ruler) enters Gemini, it increases neurological, speech, and bronchial stimulus potential between May 25 and June 8. However, the New Moon in Gemini on May 26 has also been maintaining this bodily emphasis for a whole month! June 26 marks an ideal time to explore a New Moon Breathwork Journey at Anima Mundi’s Brooklyn apothecary.
How do we utilize our "Gemini time" for better health?
Ancient astrologers believed that the Universal Mind communicates with human beings through the arrangement of signs and planets. This language is not English, but rather, a cryptic language of symbols, cycles, and energy.
Contemplating Gemini’s constantly shifting and airy nature, bodily rulerships, and third cyclic position on the wheel of a human life cycle, opens our insight into the sanative use of its seasonal currents. Gemini signals an ideal time for strengthening our respiratory systems, nourishing our nerves, intellectual branching, and remediating scattered minds. Anima Mundi offers excellent community gatherings, herbal education opportunities, and botanical blends to enhance your Gemini time journey into the wonderful world of inspiration!
My Season's Choice Formulae
Breathe Tea: Lung & Respiratory Tonic
For nurturing Gemini, one of our paramount respiratory signs.
The Mind: Cognition & Focus
Gemini is the sign of constant synaptic branching. Its natives, and the season itself, are infamous for a lack of focus. They read one book halfway through, and then move on to the next. More, more… this ultimately distractible sign might need some botanical brain boosting during Gemini season when Mercury is also in Gemini—double the emphasis!
