An Introductory Overview of Sun Sign Characteristics for Gemini

The third sign of the zodiac, Gemini is ruled by Mercury which represents intelligence invested in matter. The glyph symbolizes two pieces of wood bound together. In ancient times this was seen to signify the conflicts arising from contradictory mental processes. Geminis establish their relationship between the self and material substance through a balance of opposing thoughts. This bond may also be interpreted as the link between rhythm and form.

In Gemini we move from the action, reaction response of Aries, Taurus to the interaction response. The Gemini nature Interacts with the environment, investigating, learning, knowing and exchanging ideas. The intellect dominates Gemini, and all things intellectual are valued greatly. As communication is also of importance to Geminis, knowledge is never a thing to be hoarded. Seldom is a twin more entertained than in the midst of exchanging ideas with others of an intellectual nature.

The twelve signs of the zodiac are ordered by their constitutional natures and their elemental natures. The constitutional nature indicates the manner in which we engage the world or face circumstances in life. The constitutions are grouped in three squares. Gemini is one of the Mutable signs of the zodiac along with Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces. The Cardinal signs are Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn. The Fixed signs are Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius.

The constitution of a Gemini framed through a mutable nature demonstrates the qualities of a changeable or adaptable individual who exhibits an open, curious approach to life. Mutable sign natives are concerned with intellectual stimulation guided by a yearning to learn and understand all they encounter. Driven by dynamic engagement with their interior selves Mutable Geminis often appear to others as aloof, indifferent or utterly disengaged with the concerns of the material world. Gemini's adaptable nature, however, allows them to pivot their attention, sometimes on the turn of a moment, from interior to exterior concerns—if something or someone attracts their impulsive curiosity.

The zodiac is also divided into four "triplicities" which are: the fiery, the earthy, the airy and the watery. These are the elementary natures of the astrological signs. Gemini shares the element of Air with Libra and Aquarius. Each of the Air signs relates and responds to the world through intellectual filters first and foremost. With a hunger for knowledge and a native tendency towards analyzing and developing ideas the Air sign folk make avid and interesting communicators. In relation to Gemini consider some Air qualities such as light, ethereal, nonchalant, transient and changeable.

Sun Sign Personality Traits for Gemini

Being the most versatile and changeable of the signs, Geminis are seldom what they seem to be. Chameleon like, they will take a stand, voice an opinion, decide on an option then completely change their mind tomorrow. Nothing is ever written in stone by Gemini. They are truly a free soul, driven by curiosity and a desire to know and do. They usually have several things going at once and within such chaos they thrive.

Geminis are bright, witty, entertaining and rarely get deeply absorbed in any one task. There are just too many things to do and know, and so many new people to meet. They prefer to skim the surface of many things, then to get deeply involved in one interest. If they do become drawn into something, they always feel they are missing out. It will always be what they aren't doing, or don't have, or the people they haven't met that intrigue them the most.

Geminis are optimistic people. All things are fresh and fascinating for the twins, it's the way they like it to be. They often possess the enthusiasm of a child. Routine is boring, and boring is not allowed. Restless, with an active imagination and a keen intellect, life must be lived to the fullest for Gemini. Perceived as a game, life is best played with swift moves and entertaining teammates. With the zeal of a sportsman, Gemini analyzes everything. They often possess a compulsive need to know the why of all they experience. A twin wants to know the causes, motivations, and dynamics behind everything and everyone they encounter.

Geminis are expressive folk, and this may manifest beyond mere speech. Often gifted with their hands, it seems whatever they touch does turn to gold. Their love of communication may also express itself as an affinity for languages, which they tend to pick up quite easily. Known for being great story tellers, Geminis have a knack of making life a little more interesting for the rest of us.

Morality is not an issue, and values are situational. Gemini's are usually affectionate, courteous, kind, generous, thoughtful, and superficial. They are attractive and interesting people who instinctively know how to meet their own needs and will do whatever it takes to do so. Although self interest is always the primary motivator in a Gemini person, they are also known to be honest, straightforward and without guile. They are what they are, and usually have no problem admitting their failings. Whatever they choose as a course of action is done out in the open without a measure of deviousness.

Other Gemini traits include: adaptability, ingenuity and cleverness. They are a mental sign and therefore logical, even brilliant at times, possessing a great deal of charm. However, it is important to remember that the symbol for this sign is twins, and that not all twins are alike. There are broad distinctions within the Gemini character. In contrast to the shining one described above is the shadow twin. On the turn of a moment, Gemini can become cynical, biting, moody and quickly angered. Inseparable as two sides of a coin, those born in this sign can be dazzling and irresistible or inconstant and irrational.

Where is the Planet Mercury in Your Birth Horoscope?

Mercury's proximity to the Sun insures that its placement will always be near to or on par with the subject's Solar sign.

Of all the planets within our solar system, Mercury is nearest to the Sun. There is a direct correspondence to this fact in the mapping of an individual's birth chart. With the exception of the Moon, Mercury has the fastest revolution through the zodiac.

We are often able to determine where Mercury was at the time of our birth without consulting an astrologer. By reading the three potential profiles, it is often uncanny how clearly one of them will fit us. I thought you would enjoy trying this out—determining where Mercury is in your chart by recognizing reflections of yourself.

Overviews of the three possible positions of Mercury when the Sun is in Aries are listed below.

Physical Tendencies of Gemini

Physically, Geminis have a youthful demeanor, sometimes childlike. Gemini rules the arms, shoulders, hands, lungs and nervous system. They generally have a sensitive nervous system, and don't fare well under too much stress. As Gemini considers danger about as seriously as they consider the rest of life, there is a need to restrain a sense of heroic invincibility.

Insights Into Gemini Relationships

Geminis probably make better friends than they do lovers. They are entertaining companions and are more intrigued by the idea of love than the actual day to day involvement. Remember, what intrigues a Gemini is the unknown. Once something is familiar as an old pair of socks, the interest wears thin and the need for new worlds to investigate grows strong again. Geminis are fickle. This is not intentional, it is their basic nature to be so. Life seems too short a span to get very serious about anything for a Gemini. So, in love as in life, intensity of feeling is always fleeting. It is, while it is!

Discover How Compatible You are with Others

Choose a Sun Sign from the index to read about combatibilty aspects with Gemini.

Aries Taurus Gemini Cancer Leo Virgo Libra Scorpio Sagittarius Capricorn Aquarius Pisces

Gemini with Aries

 

This is Exciting!

Can you hear it? Ideas and energy flowing! This relationship could work based on communication and action. This is also a good business relationship; money flows. The relationship is exciting, built on a foundation of ideas and activity. There is a wonderful interchange here as long as it doesn't end in just a whole lot of hot air! Keep the action going and it could prove to be for the long term.

No inhibitions here either. Both like life to be interesting. New people and events are always on the agenda. Both are types to stray from home base. Aries is fiery, Gemini is inventive so they have a lot going to keep the relationship interesting and end up back with each other.

Gemini needs to watch out though. Aries is prone to stray from the nest, but wouldn't feel to kindly about that in a partner. Double standard here. Gemini strays too but is not jealous normally and is also quicksilver; dances well so is not likely to get bogged down in argument.

Gemini with Taurus

 

To Harness the Wind

Taurus is steady and staid, a lover of comforts and quiet and the practical. Gemini is like the wind, always in motion, a lover of the new and exciting, here today, gone tomorrow. Not a match made in Heaven. Gemini operates in the realm of ideas, Taurus has both feet planted solidly in the material.

The quagmire of freedom and possessiveness is not easy to deal with. Taurus is the status quo, Gemini thrives on the new and untried. Initial attraction is there, but nothing to sustain it for the long haul.

Gemini with Gemini

 

The Twins at Play

Like looking in a mirror. Outgoing, friendly, intelligent, curious and witty, not to mention chatty. You have youthful qualities and love variety and new ideas and ventures. Life is a lark, meant to be experienced and above all enjoyed. You understand and complement each other and your need for the new and unknown. You are best friends, no problem finding things to say to one another. All those irons in the fire do take their toll and though you may want for more settled times, you would find it all too dull.

Problem here is not much staying power, first signs of trouble and you are each on your way. This is intellectual territory, so you make better friends than lovers. Never very serious, always interesting and a lot of humor to smooth over the rough spots.

Gemini with Cancer

 

Don't Tread on Me

Gemini is intellectual, outgoing and detached while Cancer is emotional, sensitive, moody and sentimental. The clash of reason and feelings. No mutual understanding here.

Gemini can be a bit of a tease and a practical joker and Cancer takes everything personally. Gemini never commits, Cancer wants commitment. Gemini is just too ephemeral for the sensitive Cancer. Watch out Cancer.

Gemini with Leo

 

Burning Brightly

Air fans fire and Oh what a sight! These are enthusiastic, positive people who know how to enjoy life. They both love center stage, lights, camera, action, drama, color, and the whole nine yards. Delightful and interesting people, to each other and to those with which they intertact.

This is a good match. Gemini is the intellectual and far more flexible than our fixed Leo. Leo has to give Gemini their freedom, and Gemini has to consider the great Leo pride before it opens its mouth with its natural biting repartee for this to work in the long pull. Happy combination!

Gemini with Virgo

 

With Wit to Win

Both signs have mercury as ruler, both are basically intellectual. One lives in the realm of ideas, the other is earthbound. Emotions don't present a problem here, but biting words do. Virgo, the perfectionist pics and pics some more, Gemini has a biting wit and takes no prisoners.

The positive side is Virgo can be quite witty too, the combo promises some interesting repartee. Gemini also likes to live on the edge, a risktaker, while Virgo is discriminating and careful. No passion here, but great intellectual rapport. Virgo could help bring to fruition some of Geminis grand ideas. Good friends!

Gemini with Libra

 

Refined and Complementary

This combination is what the word delightful was created for. Both are intelligent, witty, with panache and style. Both have refined manners and are basically gentlefolk. Both are social creatures who live for interaction with their peers. This is a social combination bar none. Image is important, and style goes with image. Not a lot of depth here, but not missed either.

Very complimentary combination. Both are idea people and have trouble making decisions. Gemini because it is so difficult to settle on one when there are so many options, Libra because they want everyone to be happy, and are ever looking for the perfect solution to accomplish this. So decision making is a problem with these two. Otherwise—delightful!

Gemini with Scorpio

 

The Dilettante and the Sublime

The emotional intensity of Scorpio is a thing to behold. Picture this with the flippant, devil-may-care airiness of Gemini. Can you picture it? I can't.

Scorpio bonds rarely, but completely. They allow themselves to become deeply attached to those they commit to. Gemini can't handle a commitment. Gemini is the butterfly of the universe, flitting from person to person, thing to thing. Getting to know you, getting to know all about you—and then on to the next.

To Scorpio, Gemini seems superficial and childish; while Gemini sees Scorpio as too serious, intense and demanding. This combination works in a business relationship, where emotions are kept in check. But, as a personal relationship, much too volatile.

Gemini with Sagittarius

 

A Great Adventure

Kindred spirits here. Both have the curiosity of children, both are restless souls, always on the go. Fire and Air, Sagittarius lends inspiration to Geminis ideas. They learn together, grow together, take risks together, make changes together and feed each others thirst for knowledge and understanding.

This is a positive combination, but can be a relationship that produces nothing more than a lot of hot air. These two stay up to the wee hours in conversation, just for the sake of conversation. You will have to find an anchor somewhere else if there are practical needs. A little earth would help this combo out.

Gemini with Capricorn

 

The Allure of Opposites

Air and earth here, ideas and results. Good for business. On a personal level Capricorn is fascinated by the easy going, intractable Gemini. Capricorn, so practical, so contained, they admire the free spirit of the Gemini. Everyone loves to capture the butterfly. These two live in different worlds.

Capricorn a pragmatist, ambitious, realistic, and serious, while Gemini who takes very little seriously, is carefree, versatile and superficial. Gemini likes to dabble, Capricorn wants tangible results. Beside admiration for opposite traits, there isn't much here for a relationship. These two tend to get on each others nerves when they spend a lot of time together. Keep it to business and it works.

Gemini with Aquarius

 

Till the Wee Hours

Two air signs, great rapport. You speak each other's language. Love to stay up all night discussing ideas and issues. Both of you admire intelligence and seek it out. Gemini is far more adaptable than Aquarius. Aquarius is quite fixed in opinions and doesn't give up or change their mind easily. Gemini, on the other hand can see both sides of an issue equally and agree with both sides.

Aquarius can be dogmatic and quite rigid, but alas, Gemini can easily deal with this. Gemini is quicksilver and nothing sticks for long. Aquarius has beliefs and philosophies that stick, and will take on a cause as easily as it slides into home base. This is an excellent combination for friendship, they understand each other and can be quite interesting, even fascinating people. Both can charm the birds out of the trees, and they make good companions. These two have lots in common.

Gemini with Pisces

 

Facts and Fantasy

What do we have in common between an air sign and a water sign? Both of you are open-minded, adaptable and flexible. You can enjoy each others point of view as well as many different points of view. Both of you can be inconsistent and unreliable; charmingly so. If it wasn't for the sensitive feeling nature of Pisces, this could work. Gemini's hectic pace and high strung nature is too trying on the slower paced and sensitive Pisces. Also, Gemini is rational, looks at everything in an analytic and intellectual manner.

Pisces on the other hand, uses intuition and feelings to discover or problem solve. The two are totally different in how they approach situations and people. Not much understanding here, Gemini finds Pisces enigmatic and Gemini is far too cerebral for the mellow and sensitive Pisces. Lots of problems, some commonality but doesn't look good for the long haul.

The Lore of Gemini in Mythology

Mythology is closely interwoven with Astrology. Despite all that we do not know about the origins of either lore it is certain that starwatching began with passion on humanity's first night beneath the open sky. Somewhere in time, shapes were perceived, figures imagined, names given and stories were told about the densely populated tapestry of the heavens. All elder cultures throughout the world developed tales of the constellations which over time were imbued with meaning to explain various phenomena of our existence within the cosmos.

Astrology and Mythology serve a similar function in this regard. We benefit from Astrology not so much as a tool of fortune-telling but as a directional guide to understanding who we are individually and what our unique role ought to be in this life. As Carl Jung stated, “Astrology claims only that we each possess the qualities of the year and of the season in which we were born.” To discern just what those qualities are is as fascinating to each of us as the night sky.

The constellation of Gemini has been seen as twin figures by cultures throughout the world, back into prehistory. The 'Two Stars', referring to its very bright suns, which the Greeks recognized as Castor and Polydeuces, were named for the younger and elder forms of the god Horus by the Egyptians. To the Romans they were Hercules and Apollo. Often perceived as twin boys, the lore sustains that they were placed in the night sky by Jove to honor and exemplify the fidelity of their brotherly love. In other instances they were seen as a sister and brother or two angels, then within later Christian traditions, as Adam and Eve.

Stories of hero twins are also related throughout the world. For the Greeks their was Castor and Polydeuces, also known as the Dioscuri, or Heavenly Twins. They were the children of Zeus and Leda, queen of Sparta, thus also the brothers to the infamous Helen, late of Troy. The exploits of these twins are many, and all heroic. In their youth they sailed with Jason to retrieve the Golden Fleece.

To the Romans, who knew them as Castor and Pollux, the twins were invoked on the field of battle to assure victory. For centuries beyond they were held as guardians to sailors on extended or risky voyages.

“The conception of a sky couple for these stars has been universal from remote antiquity, but our Latin title dates only from classical times, varied by Gemelli, which still is the Iatlian name.  The Anglo-Saxons knew them as ge twisan, and the Anglo-Normans as Frère; the modern French as Gémeaux, and the Germans as Zwillinge.

“While on earth these Twins were sons of Leda, becoming, after their transfer to the sky, Geminum Astrum, Ledaei Fratres, Ledaei Juvenes, and Ledaeum Sidus; Dante calling their location Nido di Leda, the Nest of Leda. Cowley, the contemporary of Milton, wrote of them as the Ledaean Stars.  Individually they were Castor and Pollux,—Dante's and the Italians' Castore e Polluce.

“With the Greeks the twins were Δίδυμοι, then Dioscuri in Rome: the Sons of Zeus.  In India they always were prominent as Acvini, the Ashwins, or the Horsemen, but popularly they were Mithuna, the boy and girl. Some of the Jews ascribed them to the tribe of Benjamin, although others more fitly claimed them for Simeon and Levi, jointly, the Brethren. They called them Teōmïm; and for the Arabian astronomers they were, Al Tau'amãn, the Twins."

—Richard Hinckley Allen; Star-Names and Their Meanings, 1899

“I find myself watching the stars more and more. I have noticed a primary aspect, Mars to the Sun, for the month of May, and four days ago was sitting with my portfolio of calculations upon my knee, wondering what quarrel it would bring upon me, and at what hour. An old thought came back to me—we are completing in this age a work begun in the Renaissance. We are re-uniting the mind and soul and body of man to the living world outside us. What the painters and poets who rediscovered landscape, joyous movement, the voluptuous body, began, the astrologer and the spiritist and the student of Eastern contemplation are carrying into the very depths of the soul, restoring to us the meaning of the night’s mystery, bringing into our houses lucky hours that double time’s mystery, and hours that measure the tides of being, setting stars to keep the bounds of pleasure and excitement.”

—William Butler Yeats
(Poet & Astrologer) born June 13, 1865

• Dante Alighieri (Trad: May 21, 1265)

Florentine Philosopher-Poet; Divina Commedia - Divine Comedy

• Ben Jonson (June 11, 1572)

English Poet, Playwright, Actor; Bartholomew Fair, The Alchemist, Volpone

• Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (June 6, 1599)

Spanish Baroque Painter

• Marquis de Sade (May 1, 1740)

French Noble, Poet, Novelist; Justine, Juliette, Les Crimes de l'amour

• Aleksandr Pushkin (June 6, 1799)

Russian Poet, Playwright; The Bronze Horseman, Mozart and Salieri, Eugene Onegin

• Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803)

American Transcendentalist Philosopher, Poet; Society & Solitude, Self-Reliance

• Richard Wagner (May 22, 1813)

German Composer, Conductor; Lohengrin, Tristan und Isolde, Der Ring des Nibelungen

• Victoria (May 24, 1819)

Queen of the United Kingdom