Understanding Gemini and Sagittarius

GEMINI – SAGITTARIUS

In previous articles, we introduced what Zodiac Signs are; we meditated upon the Principle of Polarity operating in reality and the paradigm of Polarization conditioning our consciousness; and we talked about how astrology correlates with this. We invite you to visit these articles in order to understand what will be discussed next.

In this new article, we are going to explore the images, metaphors, and concepts that the Gemini-Sagittarius Polar Axis represent, in order to observe how all of this can be experienced in our lives.

GEMINI-SAGITTARIUS POLAR AXIS

In the Zodiac wheel, Gemini and Sagittarius are located directly across from each other: together, they form an axis.

This means that, although they may appear to be opposites based on their placement, the design in fact reveals that they are actually the extreme points of one same substance; they form a polarity.

In correspondence with this, we will observe how, at first glance, the content of these symbols may seem contradictory, but upon delving into their meaning, it becomes evident that one contains and includes the other.

What do Gemini and Sagittarius symbolize?

Let’s begin by evoking some of the images and qualities that each sign represents, in order to later reflect on the inseparable link that exists between these apparent contradictions.

IMPORTANT

Remember, we are not talking about “people who are a Gemini or a Sagittarius”, but about Gemini and Sagittarius as what they truly are: symbols representing certain aspects of our existence.

Gemini

Element: Air

Modality: Mutable

Ruler: Mercury

What does Gemini symbolize?

Learning

Doubt

Opening Variables / Opening the Game

Dispersion

The “Apprentice”

Sagittarius

Element: Fire

Modality: Mutable

Ruler: Jupiter

What does Sagittarius symbolize?

Knowledge

Certainty

Synthesizing

Sense of direction

The “Teacher”

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GEMINI - SAGITTARIUS: POLARITY AND POLARIZATION

At first glance, Gemini and Sagittarius seem quite opposite. One thing cannot be the other: in certainty, there is no doubt; if there is dispersion, there is no direction; the Apprentice is the apprentice, and the Teacher is the teacher, etc. The fact that these qualities form a yin-yang, that they mutually include each other, seems to go against all logic. But are these concepts really so antagonic?

In a polarized perception of the Gemini-Sagittarius axis, I might think that learning means not knowing, and that knowing means having nothing to learn. This perception denies the dynamic that exists between both states. In reality, only if I learn do I know, and I only know what I learn. It is not true that learning entails the absence of knowledge, nor that knowing eliminates the need for learning. Learning and knowing exist in a dynamic where each gives rise to the other. Although culturally we often place Teachers in a position of ‘absolute knowledge,’ a true Teacher is one who learns by teaching, who is nourished by the exchange with their Apprentice, who understands that Knowledge arises from their encounter and is not something complete or “finished” that is handed down vertically.

Yoga

One could say that the balance of this axis is the state we seek both when taking a class and when teaching one.

From the perspective of a yoga teacher, a class is a conversation with the participants. It is a mutual relationship of sender-receiver. For example, when the teacher gives an instruction, the group responds. Based on that response and how it was received, the teacher sends another message to obtain a further response that will help them better understand how to guide the class.

Although this may sound like a simple back-and-forth, the point is that each of these interactions can teach us something. It’s no coincidence that when we start teaching yoga, we begin to understand our own practice better. By externalizing the instructions we use, we get a purer feedback from the class about what we are expressing.

To put it more simply, when guiding a class into the camel pose, if I simply say “lean back and grab your ankles,” that’s what will happen. Perhaps that was my way of thinking about it, until I see that the students are not lifting their chests or extending their spines; they are just leaning back. This way, I can learn to refine my internal dialogue, understanding the real intention behind what I say.

The culture promotes the perception that the dynamic of knowledge (Gemini-Sagittarius axis) is linear and upward: I learn so as to reach knowledge; as if there were a starting point and an endpoint. But in reality, it is a circular dynamic. There is no such thing as an endpoint, a definitive knowing.

Polarized in Sagittarius—Sagittarius without Gemini—we consider questioning what we believe to be “the truth” something insensible, unwise, absurd. However, becoming fixed in an absolute truth, fixed in certainty, is ultimately the same as falling into dogmas and fanaticism, which can be even more absurd. We often fail to appreciate that taking something as an absolute and unchangeable truth requires a great effort, goes against a natural process, and therefore, causes suffering.

Yoga

One of the reasons people come to yoga is the search for something higher, a spiritual path filled with answers. We can see the need to cling to something beyond oneself. When this happens, one can confuse their personal spiritual path with fanaticism or religion. The inner self ceases to occupy or never occupies the main place, and an external being is idolized. When the path of yoga starts to be distorted, what seemed to be benefits begin to turn into consequences. It is important to remember that the spiritual path is a solitary and circular journey.

Polarized in Gemini—Gemini without Sagittarius—we never achieve synthesis. It is a constant state of doubt; only the question matters, and the answer holds little to no significance. It’s merely accumulating and exchanging information without ever synthesizing it. Although this may seem more flexible and open than, for example, a dogma, it is still the crystallization of one pole and produces the same suffering as rigidly adhering to an absolute truth.

Reaching a new understanding, a synthesis (Sagittarius), organically gives rise to curiosity, new questions arise, new variables open up (Gemini), which leads to a new synthesis, and so on. The Gemini-Sagittarius Polarity is a symbol of the fact that knowledge is something alive, dynamic, and in constant motion; a circular dynamic with neither a starting point nor an endpoint.

THE SEARCH FOR MEANING

The tendency to distort the Polarity of the Gemini-Sagittarius axis becomes evident in the way we respond to the human need to understand its own existence, to ‘the search for meaning’. We often find answers to the big questions of life in ideologies, religions, spiritual practices, philosophies, etc. Feeling at any point in our journey that we have indeed found direction and meaning in any of these, is absolutely natural and even necessary.

What becomes forced and generates suffering is to get crystallized in that position. When we find an answer that moves us deeply, we tend to identify with it, and we would rather deny and silence any doubts that naturally arise, before even daring to dream of questioning our truth. Consequently, this truth loses its consistency, turning into a belief sustained only by the denial of any possibility of questioning. We cannot tolerate and outright reject any internal or external evidence that could cast doubt on it. What once filled us with expansion, direction, and meaning, now causes contraction, rigidity, and suffering.

This type of reaction is not exclusive to the spiritual, the ideological, or the religious; we can just as easily worship and be dogmatic, fanatical, about science, for example.

The Gemini-Sagittarius axis invites us to question whether the social mandate of ‘coherence’ (not being allowed to change your faith, teacher, or philosophy), and the fear that prevents us from questioning, dismantling, and reassembling truths, far from strengthening the sense of direction in life, actually limits and impoverishes it.

CONCLUSION

This article aims to be an invitation to rethink our perception. It in no way seeks to morally judge, nor does it set any guidelines to follow or objectives to be achieved.

What’s interesting is to be able to perceive that often our suffering arises from a polarized perception of reality. In this case, allowing ourselves to perceive the suffering that exists in the rigidness of the dogma and realizing the expansive possibility there is in questioning our own beliefs, knowing that this does not mean denying them, but rather making them flexible to include, broaden, and expand.