Bowing to the Gods of Change

Full moon at 23° of Gemini, Mercury stations direct in Sagittarius

Dr. Greg Dunn is an artist and neuroscientist and Dr. Brian Edwards is an artist and physicist. Together they created this series of images using a technique they call "reflective microetching” to capture neural choreographies in the human brain, and visualize how we are constantly exchanging information with the universe.

In the dark first hours of Sunday morning, at 1:01am PST, the Moon will be bright and full at 23° of Gemini, bringing us the last full moon of 2024. Gemini is mutable, transformational air and the cosmic archetype of duality, represented sometimes by the twins, and sometimes by the lovers. Gemini teaches us about the mutable nature of form itself, that it’s an experience of boundary and separation and limitation, but that is also forever seeking connection and an end to that separateness. It teaches us about how forms change and evolve, by splitting and making more and more distinctions, and then combining and merging, and then splitting again, ultimately proliferating into brand new forms. It’s the part of you that knows you are a living process, inside of a living process; the part of you that can hold a shape or definition lightly, and stay curious and learning. It’s deepest spiritual teaching, perhaps, is about how to tolerate all of this— the mess and multiplicity of it, the not knowing and never really finishing or arriving—long enough that you can learn to actually enjoy it. You are not meant to be static or fixed; you are glorious change, in a world of glorious change. It’s a wild ride and you are killing it. Who cares where all this going? Focus on loving the process, and you will want to be there when you get there!

All full moons highlight the tension between two opposite signs—the sign the Sun is in and the sign the Moon is in—in this case Gemini and its opposite or complement Sagittarius. Where Gemini wants to keep exploring each individual sparkle of partial truth on the great diamond of reality, Sagittarius wants to focus our energy into a single arrow or story arc, to go on an epic, mythic journey to find the One Great Spiritual Truth. It wants to channel all that processing and learning into a big finish, so it can crystallize a beautiful new philosophy. Comparatively, Gemini’s energy can feel immature or childish, or like it’s this student with ADHD, and Sagittarius is the old wise beleaguered teacher; breadth vs depth, intellect vs spirit.. The tension between these two is intensified right now, not just because of the full moon, but because Gemini’s ruler Mercury continues to be in Sagittarius (its full transit dates are November 2, 2024—January 8th, 2025) and Sagittarius’ ruler Jupiter continues to be in Gemini (full transit dates are May 25, 2024 to June 9, 2025). This is a condition called mutual reception, where both planets are in the other’s house, and it can ease the difficulty of being in a sign or house that the planet usually struggles in. Like, Jupiter usually struggles in Gemini, and Mercury struggles in Sagittarius, but right now, they both have more access to their powers than normally would have in these signs. but it’s still a proper entanglement.

To complicate things further, Mercury stationed retrograde on November 25th, taking us into a three-week adventure of side journeys and trickster misdirection and longest-possible-routes. Today, just 12 hours or so before the moon is full, it stations direct, creating a pause and pivot that should actually feel like quite a relief. It’s been actually very difficult to settle down and write anything about this full moon, for many reasons, but as I get closer and closer to Mercury stationing direct, my fingers are typing faster and faster, and thinking and communicating is getting easier and easier. So this is a pretty auspicious occurrence—the ruler of the full moon stationing direct under the light of the full moon. These conditions are amplifying Gemini dramatically, and its Mercurial magician powers, as well as the work of Jupiter’s transit in Gemini.

Altogether what this says to me, is that while sometimes Sagittarius can lead us toward some big finish at the end of year, delivering us to the Winter Solstice full of clear reflection and high spirits and big-picture perspective, ready to fire our arrow into the future and call the light back, there’s just no way that’s happening cleanly this year. Gemini is very much in charge of this this lead up, and it wants things to stay complicated, and in mysterious process. We have just one week to go now until the arrival the Winter Solstice, which is a big moment on the cosmic clock. I like to head into it with a sense what seed to plant for the next cycle, or with a clear intention for my own transformation before I enter the chrysalis. With Gemini in charge, it’s like I have a hundred fragments of starts, a hundred mystery seeds that might not even be seeds. Maybe it feels that way to you too, a little scattered or overwhelming. It might even feel like you’ve lost the plot. It’s been a year y’all.

With Jupiter here, though, retrograde but ever-benevolent, and with the mutual reception humming, and Mercury freshly direct, what this last full moon of the year can do is help us tap into some faith in the process, a faith that may have felt lost to us recently. Even if we don’t where this all going, or what we’re meant to do exactly, we can let Gemini give us this gift, and restore our faith in the process, and love for the process. It’s also just the last full moon of the year! So it is ok to let go of whatever is no longer working, or whatever you no longer need, even if you don’t know yet what will replace it. It’s ok to admit failure, and just relax into humanness and humility. It’s ok to dissolve ties with the way the world once was, the way you once were. Gemini says, don’t be afraid to change. You are change. You can let hope burn in your heart for resolution, but let go of needing to know what that resolution will be, let go of your attachment to any particular outcome. Stay curious and patient. Tap a vein of wonder, then another, and another. Soften into the part of you that stays open to new perspectives, new connections, new understandings; the part of you that knows how to adapt, and keep adapting. A way will reveal itself, it always does. You will know what you need to know when the time comes to know it, and not a second before.

The human brain is made up of approximately 86 billion neurons and almost 100 trillion synapses. There are more than 1,000 times more connections in the brain than there are stars in the Milky Way.

Ritual & Writing Prompts

For paid subscribers, some shortcut links to the archive of Gemini writings in In the River of What’s Happening Now and specific suggestions for ritually working with this very attractive full moon. And as always, a generative creative writing prompt brought to you by my mind in collaboration with the current astrology.