Issue Number 3: The known and the explorable unknown

June 23, 1:58 PMAstrology ExaminerMaria Barron

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Some things we figure out for ourselves, through observation, logic, trial and error, living our lives and drawing deductions from experience, and that’s the Gemini side of our intellect. Other things we learn with the help of others – teachers, books, online resources, sometimes judges in courts, sometimes through travel to different places – and that’s Sagittarius. The balance of these two forms of intelligence rests on the Gemini-Sagittarius axis of the known and the potentially discoverable unknown.

Issue Number 3 of the six on the wheel of life is the risk of relying on our own reckoning of a situation versus the risk of seeking knowledge from others or striving to discover new knowledge through exploration of unknown realms. Each certainly has its risks and benefits.

Gemini-type thinkers can zip through the prodigious amount of factual material they have filed away in nicely sorted stacks in their databank brains, and then say the cleverest things, quite definitively. Sagittarian thinkers, on the other hand, are going to get back to you on that question once they’ve gathered some additional information and a variety of viewpoints and have thought it all through on a philosophical level. You probably relate more to one type of thinking than the other because we all have a usual place on this axis.

The scientist and the priest

Gemini and Sagittarius are the home signs of Mercury and Jupiter. Mercury is the planet associated with the speedy messenger of the heavens and Jupiter is named for the top god of the Greek and Roman pantheon, a jovial, just and powerful benefactor, a real gods’ god. On this intellectual axis, Mercury is the purely mental end of things. He uses his winged helmet and sandals to fly about making connections in thin air, objectively so.

The Jupiter end of things is more concerned with lofty ideas as they relate to Earthly realities. Jupiter, in his Zeus identity, granted the request of a wise, wounded yet immortal centaur who had been tutor to the gods and placed him in the heavens as the constellation Sagittarius, and so Jupiter’s home sign is represented as part man, part beast (horse) and both mortal and immortal. Sagittarius is the philosopher’s sign; Gemini the logician’s. In an alternative formation, Gemini is the scientist and Sagittarius the priest.

Being the Twins, Gemini is also the sign of brothers and sisters and those of similar background, while Sagittarius is a sign of public standing and public fortune attained later in life and in the wider world. Another layer of the symbolism of this axis goes to truthfulness and deception, with Sagittarius represented as the archer who always shoots straight and Gemini depicted as deceptively two-faced. The rather obvious lesson there is that if we rely on only our own thinking, we could end up fooling ourselves, whereas the further we broaden our knowledge and experience, the better our aims will be.

Yet too much exploration has pitfalls of its own. These questions are also known as third- and ninth-house issues, because those are the houses ruled by Gemini and Sagittarius in the natural chart. People born under the signs of Gemini and Sagittarius tend to be strongly centered on issues of what they know or could learn or teach. This is even truer if the Gemini-Sagittarius axis is highlighted by natal planets in opposition.

Where are your sun and moon?

The sun stands for the conscious self and the moon for the subconscious ways of a person. So if, for instance, your sun is in Gemini and your moon is in Sagittarius or vice versa, then you have an internal opposition, but one which, on this axis, can be very helpful to you. Your conscious drives and subconscious habits keep you tuned into both the big principled picture and the objective details of life and allow you to make well-informed and thoughtful decisions.

On the other hand, matters of objective reality versus the doctrines of learned faith could become major issues for people with this opposition prominent – with some drawn toward religious fundamentalism and others toward rejection of any teachings that can’t be scientifically proven. (If you don’t know your moon sign, you can find it here.)

What about that person you’re crushing on?

Opposites attract in natural astrology because they’re riding opposite ends of the same see-saw. Scientific analysis and prophetic vision are the yang and yin of the same issue of trying to increase our understanding of life. Also, every opposition involves compatible “elements.” For Gemini and Sagittarius, it’s air and fire. It’s also fire and air for the Aries-Libra opposition and the Leo-Aquarius opposition. The other three oppositions are made of compatible water and earth.

So passionate attraction can certainly happen for couples on the axis of an opposition, and both Gemini and Sagittarius are flexible signs, generally willing to make room for other people’s views, but there can be a lot of arguing in a Gemini-Sagittarius relationship. Both signs are smart, both verbal, and neither is afraid to speak up, but they tend to frame the picture of any situation in very different ways. They’ll invent arguments neither can win, Gemini clutching facts like sparkling gems to prove he’s right and Sagittarius aiming arrows of overarching truths to prove she’s righteous.

This can be an enduring pair, though, if they have a joint mission and can put their brainpower and problem-solving skills to work fixing something other than each other, which they’ll never manage. Brangelina – Sagittarius Brad Pitt and Gemini Angelina Jolie – are the poster couple for this approach. Although not married, they are known for their common devotion to their six adopted and biological children and are recently becoming known as well for their joint foundation and its million dollar donations to aid refugees and hospitals.

Societal issues on the Gemini-Sagittarius axis

Freedom of speech and belief are issues on the Gemini-Sagittarius axis, as are matters of academic freedom and intellectual honesty, especially when those academic issues involve new explorations versus an established orthodoxy. Politically, isolationism and internationalism are here, along with exploration of distant lands and of the universe. Comparing the six main astrological issues of life against the Seven Deadly Sins, we find none of those linked to this thoughtful astrological axis.