Information vs Meaning

• Gemini gathers information, Sagittarius makes sense out of them.
• Gemini is unattached to any single idea, while Sagittarius has a definite opinion about which idea is good and true.
• Gemini is a perpetual student, Sagittarius a teacher.
• Gemini continually seeks exposure to new ideas, while Sagittarius seeks to find the one idea that really work.
• Music analogy: Gemini is happy to have access to a million songs, while Sagittarius will stick with the top 40. (Substitute words such as ideas, websites, books, stocks etc in place of songs.)
• Gemini seeks to share information, while Sagittarius seeks to transmit his beliefs and values (i.e. the way he interprets the information.)
• Gemini likes to be informative and entertaining. Sagittarius needs to be respected for his opinions.
• Left alone, Gemini moves toward variety and chaos, while Sagittarius seeks simplicity and order.

Horoscope Application
Natal emphasis in one or both signs suggests that a lot of energy needs to be dedicated to learning, teaching, and growing mentally.

• Gemini emphasis: Energy comes from learning, communicating and gathering information. Love and curiosity guides the mind toward more and more information. Learning to trust one’s own judgment becomes the key in making use of the vast knowledge thus acquired.
• Sagittarius emphasis: Energy comes from teaching and self assertion. Passion for significant knowledge becomes infectious to others. Needs to keep seeking important knowledge in order to stay motivated.

Conclusion
Gemini can’t be a Sagittarius and vice versa. If one or the other sign is emphasized in your natal chart, it’s recommended to focus on the strengths of each sign. My horoscope is decidedly Sagittarian, and I feel a lot of energy when speaking or writing about something I believe in. If I try to be too Gemini (or other Air sign) like in my writing, my passion starts to dissipate.

If you have either signs emphasized in your horoscope and can see how it reflects on your method of learning/communicating, please feel free to share your experience through email or comment.

After the previous post on Virgo archetype, someone emailed me to ask about her natal configuration:

“I’d be interested to see what you thought of my Virgo ‘set up’. I have Leo rising at 23 degrees, Virgo intercepted in the first house. Mars at 7 degrees Virgo, Pluto at 19 degrees Virgo and Uranus at 22 degrees Virgo. Pluto and Uranus are opposed by Moon, Chiron, Saturn in Pisces in the 7th.”

I will use the answer to discuss the interception of signs.

1) Intercepted Virgo: [For beginners, interception means the entire sign is contained within a single house. In this case Leo is on the 1st house cusp, and probably Libra is on the 2nd house cusp, thus containing the whole sign of Virgo within the 1st house.]

Whenever a sign is intercepted, often there is a difficulty accessing its energy directly. Consider the sign on the cusp (in this case, Leo) as the gatekeeper, and the intercepted sign (Virgo) as someone living deep within the house, in a room with no windows. Before you can let the Virgin out of the house, you need to be on friendly terms with the gatekeeper.

So in the above example, this lady needs to be comfortable with expressing the Leo energy (i.e. self love, enthusiasm, creativity & generous expression of emotions) before the Virgo attributes can shine.

2) Gatekeeper (i.e. sign on the cusp) can pose a challenge: Often the challenge with interception is to successfully find a blend of two incompatible energies (in this case, Leo & Virgo.) One or the other won’t do – both signs need to be successfully expressed. This calls for some time to adjust & refine the approach throughout your life, before you can find what works for you.

In the example given, the Pisces Moon is under quite a bit of stress (from Saturn, Uranus, Pluto & Chiron) which suggests interruption in the nurturing bond with the caretaker.

Depending on how deep the wound is, there will be a varying degree of challenge in self-acceptance and self love. This in turn will affect how comfortable one is to express the child-like enthusiasm associated with Leo (which in turn will affect how one behaves in intimate relationships, etc.)

3) If you skip the gatekeeper, the power diminishes: if the growth path of Leo is skipped (i.e. no effort is made to boldly express one’s passion), you may express the Virgo energy in its lower form – i.e. utilizing your analytical skills for unsatisfying careers, or being lost in criticizing and analyzing yourself.

Summary & Further Thoughts
Here the ideal blend of two energies results in a bold expression of one’s analytical intelligence, used to gain personal significance in one’s field. The ego is grounded in reality and service, but is free from paralyzing self doubt. You express yourself through the quality of your work.

We can do this exercise with any intercepted signs – because the two consecutive signs are often incompatible in nature, it calls for a more creative expression to successfully blend together. In my case I have Pisces rising with Aries intercepted, and self assertion must blend with a degree of compassion – otherwise it just doesn’t work…So Pisces is the gatekeeper for me.

If you have intercepted signs in your horoscope and would like to try the exercise, please feel free to share comments or send me an email.

As the Sun enters Leo, we have a collective opportunity to feel genuine pride in expressing our true selves. The sign Leo represents authentic self expression, delivered with true emotion.

3 Scenarios for Leo
When Leo is found in a certain house, we can expect one or more of the following experiences, depending on how much you’re able to express your true self without fear or shame:

1) Experience of Personal Significance – You feel like a rock star in that area of life: people love and honor you for who you are, and you love expressing this part (defined by the house) of yourself to others. You will most likely be elevated somehow in others’ eyes, in this life area.

2) Experience of Insignificance – You feel like you’re nothing, no good, and nobody in this area – or at the least, not enough. This is a negative extreme of Leo, where the self image was somehow damaged in the psyche, and now you’re afraid to show yourself or be who you are.

3) Experience of Arrogance – You feel very strong or significant in this life area: in fact, you feel like you’re better than others in general – so you pass judgment on others, etc, and pride goes before the fall (i.e. you go back to the state described in #2). This is another extreme, which is most likely an overcompensation for feeling insignificant underneath.

A Personal Example about Personal Significance, Pride, Joy etc.:
I have Pisces Rising and Leo in the 6th house of health, work and service. Besides astrology I’m quite involved in a volunteer activity and is on a board of an international nonprofit organization. The good thing was, the service gave me so much sense of significance, meaning and purpose in my life, and I felt loved and honored by others that I worked with.

The catch was that I was feeling rather full of myself (although I was unconscious of it at the time,) and it was affecting my relationships in a negative way, especially with the people I worked with.

Regarding this my life coach told me once: “You look like you’re trying to get your own worth out of this important position – but it doesn’t work like that.” Ouch. And she was right – in truth my self worth at the time was so low that I needed the outer prop (a significant position in an organization, in this case) to feel good about myself.

Once I’ve got in touch with the underlying lack of self acceptance, I realized that I was out of balance. I had to be able to feel good about myself regardless of what I did or what position I had. So I began working on myself some more, and things have improved.

It’s this kind of issues around personal significance (or the lack of it) that we tend to experience in the Leo houses (we can make a similar case for the house occupied by the Sun, Leo’s ruler.)

Leo Through the 12 Houses
Let’s briefly take Leo through the Houses, keeping the 3 scenarios in mind:

Leo in 1st House (self image): Here we may need to start from feeling more or less “I’m no good,” especially if the Sun is under stress via aspects. The goal is to reach a state of deep self love & acceptance, which leads to authentic (and therefore courageous) self expression in relationships.

Leo in 2nd House (possessions): Here we may feel genuine (or false) pride in our possessions – our material accomplishments as well as spouses become a source of deep personal significance. Everything you own will reflect who you are and how you feel about yourself – in the best scenario, this means you’ll derive pure joy from your possessions. In the worse scenario, you identify with your material props, so you’re never sure whether people love you or your possessions.

Leo in 3rd House (communication): At best we’re authentic communicators that can reach the hearts of an admiring audience. There is a gift of communication (note that commonly Gemini rising coincides with this placement.)

A problematic experience in the early life may delay this development, however – it’s possible for you to start out feeling less intelligent than others, thereby making you feel shy about speaking up or trusting your own mind.

Leo in the 4th House (Home, Family): You may be the star within your own home – the household revolves around you, and everyone knows you’re the one in charge. You may be quite proud of how you keep your home.

If the early home environment was hostile to healthy self expression, then one’s home becomes a place of healing, retracing steps and dealing with the unfinished businesses of childhood.

Leo in the 5th House (Play, Love Affair): You may have others’ attention, love and respect through your athletic ability, as well as your sexual prowess. Later you may take delight in your own children’s growth, or in coaching younger people.

A blocked expression (the feeling of insignificance) here suggests deep hurt around self expression, the body, and sexual confidence. Arrogance about or overdependence on one’s sexual attractiveness could be masking similar anxieties about one’s core self image.

Leo in the 6th House (Work, Health, Service): (See above) You may derive personal significance through health, service or your work. You might be the health expert, or the person everyone looks up to in your workplace. If you feel insignificant, you might turn into a workaholic in order to feel some sense of worth. If you try to overcompensate, then you could become a tyrant at the workplace.

Leo in the 7th House (Relationship, Public): You may feel your best when expressing yourself to the public in some way – the public love and honor you for being authentic. If you feel insignificant, then you become dependent on others’ approval in relationships in order to feel worthy.

Leo in the 8th House (Other’s Possessions): One possibility here is that personal significance is achieved through people’s trust in you. You may be in a position to add considerable value to others’ wealth, health, or well being.

Another possibility is that you feel immensely proud of your partner’s possessions, or what the two of you have purchased/accomplished together (like a dream home). We can also add the dimensions of occult, alternative healing and psychology as possible pathways to achieve significance and authentic self expression.

Leo in the 9th House (Philosophy, Higher Ed, Internationalism): Personal significance is experienced through expanding the mind and mingling with other cultures. If you feel insignificant, you may try to get your worth out of credentials (e.g. doctorates, MBA etc.) Spirituality may become an important source of personal significance.

Leo in the 10th House (Career): In the best scenario, you are the shining star within your organization, perhaps even the head of your own business. If you feel insignificant in your career, chances are that you aren’t expressing your true self at work, for whatever reason. A job title can’t give you self worth, but meaningful work can help a great deal. If you lose balance, you may use your position of authority to feel superior to others – this is a dark road.

Leo in the 11th House (Friends): You feel super among groups of people, and have lots of like minded friends. You’re a star in the social community (note that Libra rising is common with this position.) If you feel insignificant, then you become desparate for your friends’ approval.

Leo in the 12th House (Secrets, Self Undoing): This may be that you experience personal significance in ways that are not obvious to others. Much of your work may be done behind the scenes, but still give you plenty of satisfaction. Spirituality is a possible expression of this – the experience is completely internal. In the internet age, a famous virtual identity is also a possibility.

In summary, we can’t experience true feelings of personal significance through what we do or have – rather, we’ve got to start feel better about ourselves right now in order to start shining our light. The house signified by Leo points out which life area is most likely highlighted in this quest.

Cancer represents the feeling of deep security of the womb, which we try to create in our home and family. Whether physical, emotional or financial, the feeling of security can be elusive (witness the current economic shakeup and its effect on the sense of financial security held by many.)

When a person’s Moon or 4th house is under heavy tension through aspect, most likely such security wasn’t available (or was disrupted) at home. This may lead such a person to seek the security in quite another way – through money, career, friends.

Here we’ll look at Cancer through the 12 houses. There are at least two ways to look at the house that contains the sign on its cusp:

1) We’ll try to seek emotional security through the activities represented by that house.
2) We’ll behave in Cancer-like ways (e.g. private, intuitive, security conscious) with regard to the activities represented by that house.

• On Ascendant (i.e. Cancer rising), the security concern becomes a large part of the identity: you need that intimate emotional connections shared with your “family” – the word used in the widest sense – so you try to create it by showing caring and empathy wherever you go.
• On 2nd house we can naturally expect the need for financial security to be great – wanting to save in order to protect the family, retirement, etc. A great deal of money may be spent on creating and taking care of a home one lives in.
• On 3rd house we can expect thoughts of caring, especially for the family, to be great. There is a security oriented mindset, befitting a Taurus Ascendant (commonly expected with Cancer on the 3rd.)
• On 4th house, the family and one’s home become the haven of emotional safety.
• On 5th house, emotional security may be sought through playing (creative expression), connecting with the child within (or without) – or perhaps sex and romance may become the substitute for family security.
• On 6th house, the work environment has to offer a family-like feeling of emotional empathy.
• On 7th house, the partner is expected to provide emotional security (the implication is that one has to be mature enough not to make his/her partner a substitute parent.)
• On 8th house, the emotional security may be sought through (again) sexual intimacy, or a healing encounter with others (such as nurturing the self esteem of others.)
• On 9th house, interestingly, emotional security might be sought through higher thoughts (spirituality, philosophy, academics) or a journey overseas, somehow pertaining to family or the feeling of security.
• On 10th house, your career might become the source of emotional security (this can include full-time mothers, of course). Another possibility is that one’s vocation somehow evokes the feeling of emotional security (i.e. helping others feel cared for, fed, protected, or secure.)
• On 11th house, friends may become the source of emotional security – one exists to help and care for others (Virgo rising is commonly expected.)
• On 12th house, emotional security may be found only by going deeply within oneself, as in meditation.

In all cases, the idea to explore is how the need for security and private space plays a part in the activities represented by the Cancerian house. If you relate to the Cancer placement within your own horoscope, please feel free to share your experience via email or comment.

Problem Solver
Gemini is the part of us that lets us find new, practical solutions to our problems. Planetary aspects to its ruler Mercury modifies the way we think and communicate. Those with several planets in Gemini become naturally curious and eager to learn new information.

When Gemini occupies the cusp of a house, we can expect Geminian behavior and experience in the life area represented by that house, for example:

1) You’ll end up gathering a lot of information about that life-area, out of curiosity or necessity.
2) You’ll be naturally communicative and inquisitive in the life-area represented by the house.
3) You’ll experience diversity or multiple solutions to the problems represented in that life area.
4) You’ll likely become an expert about the life area, able to teach and share information with others about it.

Let’s walk through the 12 houses:

• Ascendant: Gemini rising suggests that the identity of the savvy, knowledgeable problem solver must dominate the personality. There is an eagerness to learn from others, and generosity with sharing what one knows.
• 2nd house: Your may end up learning a lot about finances and how to establish material security, achieving practical competence as a result (as befitting a Taurus rising, a most common combination with Gemini on the 2nd.)
• 3rd house: Here the mind loves diversity and is open to all kinds of interesting information.
• 4th house: There may be more than one place to call home. Possibly you will be exposed to a great deal of knowledge about houses, real estate, families, or emotional roots.
• 5th house: You may become knowledgeable about children, sports, romance and sex, and creative expressions of all kind. There may be a diverse interest in any of these subjects.
• 6th house: Here a person becomes especially knowledgeable about one’s work, and is able to mentor or be mentored by others (this placement accompanies Capricorn rising in most cases.)
• 7th house: The partner can become the problem solver. Diverse relationships are sought in order to become more informed. Speaking to the public comes naturally. I believe the classic delineation is “more than one marriage” etc, but the real question is: what can you do when one person can’t satisfy your need to experience diversity in relationships?
• 8th house: You may gather a lot of information about healing, psychology, occult, or taxes and other people’s finances (Scorpio rising is most common with this placement.)
• 9th house: Learning a lot about other countries and cultures, law, academia, philosophy, spirituality and/or religion. There may be an involvement with publishing, or simple love of books.
• 10th house: Multiple vocations (pursued simultaneously or one after another). Communication and problem solving becomes the key to career success.
• 11th house: diverse friends, love of communicating in large & small groups (Leo rising.)
• 12th house: knowledge about hidden things, perhaps within oneself. The interest toward introverted, self contained activities (Cancer rising.)

If you are experiencing a problem in the house represented by Gemini, this may be the time to start deepening your knowledge, as well as start sharing with others helpful solutions to their problems. May the New Moon awaken the inner problem solver in all of us!

Mercury’s position reveals how we need to think and communicate effectively. When Mercury occupies a different sign from the Sun, this often calls for conscious adjustment. Let’s go through a few examples:

1) Sun in Gemini, Mercury in Cancer: Social and intellectual energy fuels the Gemini Sun – when this energy gets channeled to Mercury in Cancer, it has a hard time reaching the depth of emotions – so we may like to talk about feelings, but without experiencing much of it.

In order for us to be truly effective and powerful in our communication, we need to learn to feel our emotions fully, rather than just skimming the surface of it. Talking about emotions can never be a substitute for feeling them, and if we take that route, we end up appearing insincere.

This can apply to any Sun in Air signs with Mercury in Water signs.

2) Sun in Scorpio with Mercury in Libra: Deep, emotional energy fuels the Scorpio Sun. When this energy gets channeled to Mercury in Libra, it has a hard time rising up to the surface of social communications – so we may choose to be quiet even when clarity and openness of communication would be more effective.

In order for us to be truly effective and powerful in our communication, we need to think without letting our strong emotions get in the way. Some objectivity and detachment from our emotional experience is called for, in order for us to gain proper perspective.

This can apply to any Sun in Water signs with Mercury in Air signs.

3) Sun in Leo with Mercury in Virgo: Enthusiasm and Ego-oriented energy fuels the Leo Sun. When this energy gets channeled to Mercury in Virgo, it has a hard time coming down to Earth, to see what the situation really demands – so we may choose to be reckless or self-centered when caution and humility would be more advisable.

In order for us to be truly effective and powerful in our communication, we need to think without letting our ego get in the way, to see how we can really be helpful to others, or to apply practical common sense into our decision making.

This could apply to any Sun in Fire signs with Mercury in Earth signs.

I think you get the idea – the Sun’s excess gets corrected through Mercury in different Sign. Sometimes the process works in reverse: the Mercury may get overly critical of the Sun’s modus operandi, causing self doubt. Astrologer can help sort out what is going on simply by discussing the dynamic with the client, and bring a holistic awareness into the picture.