Gemini Mysticism
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Hey hi hello.
I have a Sun and Mercury conjunct in Gemini(sidereal! I'm a good boy now!).
Geminis aren't particularly known for their interest in/aptitude for the occult.
My main problem is mysticism. Magick came without effort, but all this sittin' still stuff... I just don't know. Within half a minute, my mind is racing and dancing and flashing and spurring ideas. Not immediately getting up and leaving the practice to go off and brainstorm or play music(I hear music in my head when I'm sitting there! Constantly! I'll find myself swaying and bobbing to it when I'm in my asana
)takes more raw will than I have power over right now, it seems. I've gotten migraines my whole life, I'd always get in trouble in school for constantly drumming on my desk and just being of the generally uncontrollable sort, etc... All due to an overactive nervous system, which is quite a beast to tame.
I was wondering if there was any advice around for someone like me, any certain tricks you may have tested for getting a tighter grip on a rabid mind.
I'm in the process of moving from a sort of wild shamanism, which was quite successful, to actual control and refinement of self so that progress is not lost to indolence. It is not an easy transition.(the rest of my chart, for consideration's sake:
Moon: Cancer, Venus: Leo, Mars: Taurus, Jupiter: Libra,
Saturn: Aquarius, Uranus/Neptune: Sagittarius, Pluto: Scorpio, Ascendant: Aries
The Gemini Sun/Mercury opposed Sagittarius Uranus/Neptune is an INTENSE experience, when fully confronted. THE ARROW is there, right in front of me, all the time, ripping and tearing through ordinary experience.) -
@Diluvium said
"93.
I'm in the process of moving from a sort of wild shamanism, which was quite successful, to actual control and refinement of self so that progress is not lost to indolence. It is not an easy transition."
For the sake of brainstorming this with you...
Why do you feel like you need to move away from something that was successful for you? Are you trying to perfect and refine what you already have, or achieve an opposite to it? What would you be like in this perfected state that your imagining, and would it be a good fit for who you are inside? I think that last question is probably the most important.
If you need to get into a more zen state of mind and need a 'helper' to let you know what that feels like for a while, then Theanine (suntheanine) might work for you. It's an extract of green tea that helps move the brain into alpha level, so your mentally relaxed but sharp. So sayeth the mighty Dr. Oz and his buddy Depak Chopra.
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Thank you.
@RhiH said
"Why do you feel like you need to move away from something that was successful for you?"
I'm moving away from my weird, accidental brand of Chaos/Voodoo/93 Current/Artistic Shamanism because it worked too well.
It took me way into the deep end, really-super-crazy quickly, and left me there without the experience to make my way back.
I believe Maynard of the band Tool referred to this ecstatic dissolution as the "Undertow".
I mean, I'm 17 years-young, living in the stagnating suburbs, and here I am neck-deep in synchronicity-born-hallucinogen-fueled-ego-death, simply because I looked behind The Curtain thinking it was something else and got my head blown off. Clean. Off. In a single year, every aspect of myself defined by memory and imprinting was dissolved, and I was left with a totally raw perception(essentially, just a pure expression of my natal chart), for better or worse. Now I need to learn how to use it.@RhiH said
"Are you trying to perfect and refine what you already have, or achieve an opposite to it?"
I'm trying to move past my dependence on hallucinogens for spiritual experience and progress, because too much is too much, especially when there does exist more, I don't know, healthy methods? I wish for my spirituality to be sustainable.
@RhiH said
"What would you be like in this perfected state that your imagining, and would it be a good fit for who you are inside?"
I aspire to the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. I'm sure I'd be quite thrilled to actually be sitting down with the guy, since he taunted me by revealing his identity in a dream a while back, but hasn't shown up since. By principle, it would be a perfect fit, and ecstatic shamanism only gives fleeting glimpses. I want a stable relationship.
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Wow, the aspects you list in your chart do seem quite intense.
I have a very tight Moon-Neptune square (Moon in Virgo), a Pluto-Mercury square, and a wide Sun-Uranus conjunction, so I have an idea of what you're talking about.
I'm also quite hyperactive, mentally. I've recently made great strides in control of my mind (though I've had some chemical help), and I have one piece of advice: repetition and persistence. Every thing that we do as a habit eventually begins to form "grooves" in our psychological architecture, and after some time (be it a few weeks, few months, a few years...) they start to become easier and more natural, even if they are not what our personalities are typically used to doing.
Try to relax yourself before you sit down and do your Asana or other chosen practices. If you're anything like me, it's easy to "go through the motions" of the practice while being somewhere else mentally. Try to get the mind and body on the same page, and then do the practice.
Hope this helps!
93, 93/93.
EDIT: Perhaps try meditating using a mantra in order to give the mind something to do. Or maybe take a crack at Dharana.
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Ash gave you quite excellent advice. I suggest you take his post as the basic answer/instruction, and run with that a while. Meantime, I'll add a few extra notes on side issues.
@Diluvium said
"I have a Sun and Mercury conjunct in Gemini(sidereal! I'm a good boy now!).]"
Bottom line: Very mercurial!
"Geminis aren't particularly known for their interest in/aptitude for the occult.
My main problem is mysticism. Magick came without effort, but all this sittin' still stuff... I just don't know."One thing Gemini is naturally good for is use of words... they have awesome power for you. In this case, you are use some of them inaccurately. Working on that aspect may help the mind align a bit better.
To start: It's not really true that Geminis aren't known for interest in or aptitude in the occult. "The occult" is too broad here - for example, Geminis are often very interested in astrology (and have been recognized in this for at least 2,000 years), can be especially interested in the intellectual aspects of occultism - and Gemini Moons can be downright psychic!
But Geminis are skeptical "doubting Thomases" who need pragmatic evidence. They tend not to passionately align with faith-based religions (well, except for the politicians <g>), practical application, etc. So they're not so hot on things that seem outside of the realm of evidence, or rely on belief. - This trait can serve you very well at present, because there are few things more capable of producing measurable effects than yoga,
Next: Don't confuse mysticism with yoga. What you are talking about isn't necessarily mysticism at all (and mysticism doesn't have to involve stillness - it's just "union with God" stuff, which admittedly doesn't interest most Geminis). You are discussion the techniques of yoga, though, and I suggest you refer to it as such in order to clarify your new path of thinking about it. (And, in this, I again refer you back to Ash's solid post.)
"Within half a minute, my mind is racing and dancing and flashing and spurring ideas. Not immediately getting up and leaving the practice to go off and brainstorm or play music [...] takes more raw will than I have power over right now, it seems."
OK, so ride the horse in the direction it's going. Don't fight it. Gently direct it. Ash's suggestions will move you in the right direction, especially his final remarks on a mantra. Don't try to do nothing - try to do something, and then keep your mind on the particular something that you pick. For example, just silently repeat "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law" silently, over and over, for 5 minutes. Don't worry about thinking other thoughts - you will! - success is measured by the one criterion that you do keep thinking the selected thought. No other criterion matters. If you find your mind has wandered, then just start again. Continue for 5 minutes twice a day until it's easy, then go to 10 minutes.
Or witness your breath: Really FEEL it, actually OBSERVE it. Notice it going in and out. Keep your attention on the tip of your nose, where breath feels cool on the way in vs. hot on the way out. At first, you might want to silently repeat to yourself your observation, "breath is going in... breath is going out..."; but don't let this turn into a mantra that you are repeating independent of OBSERVATION.
Third: Throughout your day, practice being bored. Yes, practice boredom! I could have told you to stop letting your mind jump from subject to subject, but stopping doing something is far, far harder than picking a different thing to do. So, explore boredom. Get really curious about it! Challenge yourself to find new ways to be bored. Struggle with the demon-fact that persisting in looking at something boring usually turns it into something interesting.
Fourth: Practice other meditations that encourage the mind "running around the yard" - streaming ideas, as long as they keep kinda sorta centered on an original topic. If you get my free book Liber Theta, the assigned Tarot meditations are of that sort. Think of the mind as a dog on a long leash in the back yard, and only when he lunges too far does a reflex - the leash - bring the attention back to the original post in the middle of the yard where he is tethered.
There is stillness that comes from immobility - asana is a great example - and still that comes from smooth, uninterrupted mobility - pranayama and some mind practices demonstrate this. For a while, you can turn asana into an "immobility" practice by letting yourself sway and move as long as it's rhythmic and regular. That's where the boredom practice comes in: I suspect your low boredom threshold would have you varying and altering the movement so there was nothing regular about it. That's something to work on overcoming, either right away or over time. (Think of it as a drummer whose job is to give an uninterrupted consistent tempo throughout an entire 10-minute number, rather than a drummer who ornaments and varies.)
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@Diluvium said
" was wondering if there was any advice around for someone like me, any certain tricks you may have tested for getting a tighter grip on a rabid mind."
Exercise. Run around the block and/or masturbate. It is usually illegal to do both concurrently, though. As funny or mundane as this sounds, it really does help an overactive aminergic system. Sex with others is something that I always strive for, too.
Learn about the aminergic and the cholinergic system. See your different chemical processes and how they match up to your personality patterns. They are both biological systems that can be trained: magick and yoga are great for this. Understand what you're learning to manipulate and why it can help.
Yoga -- helps with concentration. Of course it's going to be difficult! It will ALWAYS be a challenge. You mentioned music -- will you ever be completely satisfied with your level of performance? Maybe. But the mediocre ones never strive. And you don't perfect silence until you die.
Eventually, the music in your head dies down...eventually, there are other sounds that aren't even intelligible, the more non-linear your consciousness gets. Practice, practice, practice.
As Jim said, and I wholeheartedly agree, 5 minute Asana at first. Even just once a day is good. Monitor all of your body movements. Monitor the "breaks" in posture. Record them for posterity! You will start with a few breaks, and as your concentration grows, you'll realize how much you move, and your concentration becomes more one-pointed, and your "breaks" will most likely spike. Then you'll start to settle. I would try to get down to a steady number of "breaks" before moving to 10 minutes, but even before that, I would then try to monitor how much your mind stops concentrating on your body movements, which is monitoring the movement of mind...a whole different ballgame...and much more challenging. "Following the breath" works in this direction too, as Jim mentioned.
Also:
Read Eight Lectures on Yoga if you haven't already. One of the best yoga books on the planet IMHO.
If it is any consolation, your musicianship will improve LEAPS AND BOUNDS with constant use of your newfound concentration techniques.
Or, in a more spriritist sense, you'll soon be communing with the angels.
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I have Sol and Mercury in Gemini as well (Mercury squares Mars, which makes for a great deal of nervous energy that I have trouble directing at times)--so I feel qualified to offer the following advice.
Meditate! Find a discipline such as yoga or the martial arts that encourages focused bodily effort. Pranayama. Asana. All these methods serve to focus and ground the Gemini.
I've heard that the Chinese refer to Gemini as the "monkey mind." Subject your monkey to the stern application of mind and body control exercises, and the latent genius of your Mercury in Gemini will blossom.
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As an update: I've begun working the Secret of the Golden Flower.
After all my searching, that is what finally resonated enough to anchor me in my discipline.
All of your advice has been helping me greatly(especially what you said about Gemini and words, Jim. I've found that speech is the only means to actualizing will in Malkuth, and incomplete speech is incomplete will.)I hope this 108th Spring Equinox is ushering in as much change and ecstasy for you all as it is me.
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@Diluvium said
"I've begun working the Secret of the Golden Flower."
I recommend Thoman Cleary's translation over the more famous Wilhelm-Baynes (just my 2 cents).
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To reiterate, this was great advice.
@Jim Eshelman said
"Ash gave you quite excellent advice. I suggest you take his post as the basic answer/instruction, and run with that a while. Meantime, I'll add a few extra notes on side issues.
Diluvium wrote:I have a Sun and Mercury conjunct in Gemini(sidereal! I'm a good boy now!).]Bottom line: Very mercurial!
Geminis aren't particularly known for their interest in/aptitude for the occult. My main problem is mysticism. Magick came without effort, but all this sittin' still stuff... I just don't know.One thing Gemini is naturally good for is use of words... they have awesome power for you. In this case, you are use some of them inaccurately. Working on that aspect may help the mind align a bit better.
To start: It's not really true that Geminis aren't known for interest in or aptitude in the occult. "The occult" is too broad here - for example, Geminis are often very interested in astrology (and have been recognized in this for at least 2,000 years), can be especially interested in the intellectual aspects of occultism - and Gemini Moons can be downright psychic!
But Geminis are skeptical "doubting Thomases" who need pragmatic evidence. They tend not to passionately align with faith-based religions (well, except for the politicians <g>), practical application, etc. So they're not so hot on things that seem outside of the realm of evidence, or rely on belief. - This trait can serve you very well at present, because there are few things more capable of producing measurable effects than yoga,
Next: Don't confuse mysticism with yoga. What you are talking about isn't necessarily mysticism at all (and mysticism doesn't have to involve stillness - it's just "union with God" stuff, which admittedly doesn't interest most Geminis). You are discussion the techniques of yoga, though, and I suggest you refer to it as such in order to clarify your new path of thinking about it. (And, in this, I again refer you back to Ash's solid post.)
Within half a minute, my mind is racing and dancing and flashing and spurring ideas. Not immediately getting up and leaving the practice to go off and brainstorm or play music [...] takes more raw will than I have power over right now, it seems.OK, so ride the horse in the direction it's going. Don't fight it. Gently direct it. Ash's suggestions will move you in the right direction, especially his final remarks on a mantra. Don't try to do nothing - try to do something, and then keep your mind on the particular something that you pick. For example, just silently repeat "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law" silently, over and over, for 5 minutes. Don't worry about thinking other thoughts - you will! - success is measured by the one criterion that you do keep thinking the selected thought. No other criterion matters. If you find your mind has wandered, then just start again. Continue for 5 minutes twice a day until it's easy, then go to 10 minutes.
Or witness your breath: Really FEEL it, actually OBSERVE it. Notice it going in and out. Keep your attention on the tip of your nose, where breath feels cool on the way in vs. hot on the way out. At first, you might want to silently repeat to yourself your observation, "breath is going in... breath is going out..."; but don't let this turn into a mantra that you are repeating independent of OBSERVATION.
Third: Throughout your day, practice being bored. Yes, practice boredom! I could have told you to stop letting your mind jump from subject to subject, but stopping doing something is far, far harder than picking a different thing to do. So, explore boredom. Get really curious about it! Challenge yourself to find new ways to be bored. Struggle with the demon-fact that persisting in looking at something boring usually turns it into something interesting.
Fourth: Practice other meditations that encourage the mind "running around the yard" - streaming ideas, as long as they keep kinda sorta centered on an original topic. If you get my free book Liber Theta, the assigned Tarot meditations are of that sort. Think of the mind as a dog on a long leash in the back yard, and only when he lunges too far does a reflex - the leash - bring the attention back to the original post in the middle of the yard where he is tethered.
There is stillness that comes from immobility - asana is a great example - and still that comes from smooth, uninterrupted mobility - pranayama and some mind practices demonstrate this. For a while, you can turn asana into an "immobility" practice by letting yourself sway and move as long as it's rhythmic and regular. That's where the boredom practice comes in: I suspect your low boredom threshold would have you varying and altering the movement so there was nothing regular about it. That's something to work on overcoming, either right away or over time. (Think of it as a drummer whose job is to give an uninterrupted consistent tempo throughout an entire 10-minute number, rather than a drummer who ornaments and varies.)"
Thank you. Very helpful now that my Probation is underway.
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@Dara Allarah said
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@Duo Columpnas said
"To reiterate, this was great advice.@Jim Eshelman said
"Third: Throughout your day, practice being bored. Yes, practice boredom! I could have told you to stop letting your mind jump from subject to subject, but stopping doing something is far, far harder than picking a different thing to do. So, explore boredom. Get really curious about it! Challenge yourself to find new ways to be bored. Struggle with the demon-fact that persisting in looking at something boring usually turns it into something interesting."
Thank you. Very helpful now that my Probation is underway."
I think this bit excludes boring people though. They hardly ever turn out to be interesting.
I wonder if Jim knows that when a Gemini calls someone boring it is (to us) the deadliest insult in our arsenal?"
Por shame. I found your arguments boring a long while ago.
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Have you tried dancing?
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Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
This has been a very beneficial thread for me, being a Sun in Gemini myself.
I also don't mind mentioning that this has also been an extremely humbling thread, as I am a 25-year-old running into these same problems without having started Probation with an A.'.A.'. lineage. I seem to have had a similar background as Duo, with one exception being that almost every one of my teenage years was explicitly about "sex, drugs, rock'n'roll" without any overt religious/occult context (it took me until I was 18 to start adopting that kind of mindset).
Cheers, Duo.
I hadn't read any sacred text other than the Bible until I read the Dao de Jing at 18. Ever since then, I've been on this autodidactic kick that's taken me across classics, philosophy, psychology, and a slew of other subjects. Its been fun, but I often feel like my diversity of interests compromises the speed at which I progress.
Jim:
Do any other Geminis have this problem? If so, are you aware of some explorable solutions? I believe my sign corresponds to the Prince of Swords; I read there about having trouble being patient with slow progress. Am I doing wrong by drawing astrological insight from Court Cards this way? If not, can any aspect of the Thoth Tarot be appropriately referenced in this regard?
Not to derail the thread, but I would like to have as much insight as I can about my natal chart. I thought I would go ahead and do this here since I am a Gemini, too. Here are the particulars:
Sun in Gemini, Moon in Aquarius. No foreground planets. Got Mars in Gemini, too.
Strongest Planetary Aspects:
- [:3ix3mids]Sun opposite Uranus[/
3ix3mids]
[:3ix3mids]Sun square Moon[/3ix3mids]
[:3ix3mids]Moon square Uranus[/3ix3mids]
[:3ix3mids]Mercury conjunct Mars[/3ix3mids]
[:3ix3mids]Venus semi-square Jupiter[/3ix3mids]
I've gotten a lot of insight from Solunars. Thank you so much, Jim.
Here are somethings (other than what has already been addressed here by Duo) that I struggle with:
- [:3ix3mids]Temper. I get hot-headed easily when things don't go my way. I was forced into anger management classes in elementary school and its something I still have bouts with to this day.[/3ix3mids]
[:3ix3mids]Bridging my solitary life and my social life! I find this particular challenge overtly implicit in all the "Sun opposite Uranus, Sun square Moon, Moon square Uranus, etc." aspects of my horoscope. There is an abysmal dichotomy between my daily social grind and how I am/what I do when I'm by myself. ANY advice/guidance on how to overcome this would be immensely appreciated.[/3ix3mids]
- [:3ix3mids]Sun opposite Uranus[/
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Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
@Zalthos said
"... almost every one of my teenage years was explicitly about "sex, drugs, rock'n'roll" without any overt religious/occult context (it took me until I was 18 to start adopting that kind of mindset)."
I thought I should come back and clarify that its been 7 years since then, and I don't really consider my approach a part of the shamanistic/new-agey subset of occultism as I see it... I still have the Carlos Castaneda series and some books on the Flower of Life, but I diverged into more orthodox academics as I got into my 20's.
I lost many of them because of it, but I did make some great friends during all that debauchery. I began to take Thelema seriously because of a friendship I made with an older gent who saw I was interested in sacred geometry and the kind of enlightenment that comes from getting bombed on psychedelics.
Had it not been for all of that, who knows? -
I always thought it was very helpful in understanding a sign, such as Gemini, to look at how that sign manifests in all components of a chart.
So for example gemini suns are like this
And gemini moons are like so
And gemini mercury is such
And gemini mars is....And even to examine how gemini ascendant is, gemini midhaven, ect. Ect.
So that when I look at my own personal chart and see that I have gemini rising, i have an understanding of the bredth, width, and depth of that sign. I can then hone in, identify and fine tune how its energies are manifesting for me, and how I can capitalize on its checks and balances.
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Frater Duo Columpnas, when I saw the name of the thread it automatically aroused this association - I have no clue how or if at all it may be of some use to you in this regard, but it doesn't hurt to share:
Gemini mysticism = the Path of Zain (also called "The Children of the Voice; the Oracles of the Mighty Gods") -
@danica said
"Frater Duo Columpnas, when I saw the name of the thread it automatically aroused this association - I have no clue how or if at all it may be of some use to you in this regard, but it doesn't hurt to share:
Gemini mysticism = the Path of Zain (also called "The Children of the Voice; the Oracles of the Mighty Gods")"Thank you for sharing that!
