moonflower honeysuckle twins

new moon in gemini and the magician contains multitudes

May 25, 2025

Thank you for being here and reading Between the Moon. This article is a part of the ongoing moonflower series exploring the connection between flowers, astrology, and creativity.

New Moon in tropical Gemini Monday May 26th 10:21am Pacific

Gemini is the sign of the zodiac that is often shamed for not being able to commit, for being scattered, two-faced, and generally all over the place. In this article we will explore the magical gifts of this sign along with some practices and prompts.

Refer a friend

“Imagine me and you, and you and me.” - Twinberry Honeysuckle

The magic of two, self and other, day and night. Perhaps instead of being separate from each other, these dualities are part of a whole.

This is one of the gifts of Gemini — seeing beyond the boundaries and boxes of reality and into the rainbow of possibilities.

As a part of the Moonflower artwork series I created last year for the Lunar Wall Calendar, I chose the Twinberry Honeysuckle to pair with the new moon cycle and season of Gemini. 1

I was not familiar with this native wildflower and the week my dear friend Megan from Seven Ravens Studio mentioned it to me - I saw this whimsical plant growing along the stream trail in the redwood forrest in the Oakland Hills and then later fruiting that summer in the Sierra Nevada.

Twinberry Honeysuckle Bay Area and Sierra Mountains 2024

Sometimes all it takes is learning something new and you start seeing it everywhere. I find this happens all the time with new plants and flowers I’m learning about.

This is know as the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, or frequency illusion, which apparently happens for two main reasons:

Selective attention – you’re subconsciously looking for the thing now that it’s on your radar
Confirmation bias – you notice it more and believe it's happening more frequently

One tiny experiment you can do this Gemini season is to play with this phenomenon by being more aware of what you are thinking about, learning from, and listening to — and see what reveals itself.

Gemini knows that the mind creates and alchemical process between thoughts and reality. Follow your curiosity and see where it leads…

The Magician Contains Multitudes

Gemini is air, mutable, and changeable.

Mutable air is that sudden gust of wind that brings an unexpected change in the weather. A detour in the conversation. This is how Gemini refreshes anything that gets stale or stuffy — by bringing a youthful curiosity that keeps everyone on their toes. Gemini takes a playful approach to not knowing what will come next and is able to shapeshift by not being attached to one for or another.

The guardian of this sign is the trickster Mercury - a intermediary, go-between, god of alchemy…

“Hermes…enters alchemy as Mercurius, the ambiguous and unpredictable, dark-light spirit that guides the opus yet threatens always to destroy it. He/she is volatile, androgynous, both base matter and elixir, the carrier of every conceivable opposite, and is portrayed as the dark twin to Christ. Thus Mercurius is the chthonic double of the Son of God, who is born to the darkness of Mother Earth.” – Liz Greene, The Astrology of Fate

A society that operates from a model of domination, likes to have things fit into tidy boxes arranged in a hierarchy so that they can be more easily controlled. Gemini disrupts this confinement and blurs boundaries, defying definition to keep people guessing. This magician of the zodiac seeks to occupy the space between fixed realities.

Gemini reminds us that we all contain multitudes.

The archetype of Gemini helps us realizes that where there is two, there is also three. This refers to a third space illustrated by the Vesica Pisces of two overlapping circles. Something unique is created through the relationship of two beings that is not solely one or the other.

This can also refer to the polarities within the individual self.

Beyond the Binary

Dualities come in pairs. Latin: dualis ("consisting of two").

In a non-Gemini way of perceiving the world — aka the Western Mind — dualities are polarized into binaries that are seen as opposite or separate from each other.

This trend has been going on since at least the 4th century BCE and has been reinforced by philosophers such as Plato, Descartes, Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, and Immanuel Kant to name a few.

Thanks guys!2

This binary can trap the mind into either / or ways of thinking which leads to perceiving reality in disconnected categories such as:

good / bad
black / white
right / left
human / nature
animate / inanimate
heaven / earth
body / mind
day / night
logical / intuitive
light / shadow
dual / non-dual
sacred / profane, etc.

These opposites derive from a paradigm that doesn’t exist in the Gemini consciousness. There is always a third space created through the relationship between two polarities.

Gemini goes beyond the binary of either/or to both+and thinking and a full prismatic range of experience and expression. A detour which is often leads to new discoveries.

Partners in Crime: Greek Myth of Gemini the Twins

One of the many ancient stories of twins that informs this Gemini archetype comes from Greek myth of Castor and Pollux.

These Gemini twins were a part of a fourfold quaternity all born from Leda, the Queen of Sparta and two different fathers. Leda produced two eggs that each contained a pair of twins: one egg had Pollux and Helen (divine twins from Zeus); and the other egg had Castor and Clytemnestra (mortal twins from King Tyndareus).

Gemini is divine and mortal.

In the book Mythic Astrology,3 Ariel Guttman and Kenneth Johnson write: "Sometimes the Gemini process involved the challenge of having a soulmate on another plane. Like Castor and Pollux, the mortal one having died." The Magician sees no separation between life/death as a binary, but rather as a continuum.

the dioscuri_gemini.gif — The mortal and the immortal twins

Castor was killed in a fight with another set of twins, and because he was a mortal he was sent to Hades. Devastated, is half-brother twin Pollux asked Zeus to bring Castor back. Zeus took pity on his son and offered to give half of his immortality to his brother. The twins were reunited in the heavens and transformed into the constellation of Gemini. As a symbol of the duality of life and death, they had to divide their time between Hades and Olympus.

In Egyptian astrology, the Gemini constellation was called the ‘Two Stars’ or Pimahi, meaning ‘the United.’4 The Dendera zodiac depicts the zodiac sign as a man and a woman, symbolizing duality but holding hands in a gesture of unity.

Temple of Dendera with Egyptian zodiac constellations around 1st century BCE

Gemini can teach us to integrate the part that feels missing — the “other half” — as something that already exists within the self. As we learn how to transmit ideas and communicate between the realms, we can expand beyond the binary to acknowledge and integrate the polarities within.

Gemini as Double Goddess

The book The Double Goddess, Women Sharing Power by Vicki Noble5 looks at sculptures and depictions of two figures, not in their duality, but in how they complement and support each other. There is an intimacy in the two-ness, a kind of bonding and relationship based in multiplicity.

*Twin Idol from Alacahoyuk (Turkey) - 3rd millennium BC [Credit: Ankara Museum of Anatolia Civilizations]*

These sculptures take the power back from the idea of being "two-faced" to actually being valued for being able to occupy the polarities and still be whole.

Noble writes: "The image of the Double Goddess is a vital missing piece for modern women, as it portrays the exquisite and unique bipolar existence in a positive, healthy way."

This has been pathologized and even demonized in modern society, but the figures of the Double Goddess make it appear that this wasn't always the case.

Noble describes this polarity as the innate back-and-forth mystery of ovulation and menstruation. Just like the opposition of the new and full moon, we encompass extremes as well as all the phases in-between. Is there something inherently wrong about that?

"The Double Goddess in all her various forms depicts women in relationship with ourselves and one another... It is not so much about difference, but rather a mirroring of the differences within each of us.”

“At best, our twin selves are met and mirrored back in complexity and an experience of fluidity, a subtle shape-shifting dace, a kind of graceful ‘taking turns.’ Each of us is always oscillating between the yin and yang of our own individual internal polarity; although we may tend towards one pole or the other, we are actually both, and constantly changing."

The idea of being static or consistent may actually go against out nature as a part of natural cycles. Something to be curious about.

Gemini “My mind is …”

The Twins, Double Rainbow or Double Goddess, the Curious One, the Magician

Listen and be heard, cross-pollinate
Fine tune the vibration of your communication
Find stillness in the buzz, calm the nervous system
Allow your song to take flight
Be with friends, befriend yourself
Cross-pollinate
Quicksilver

Gemini is like Pollination

Gemini is a mutable air sign - which relates to thoughts and the mind. Too much air, wind, or thoughts can lead to feeling scattered or anxious.

This buzz can be felt in the nervous system (which is one of the parts of the body that Gemini rules).

Communication is a form of pollination. It’s an exchange.

Pollination starts the production of fruit which contain seeds.

Our words start a sequence that has an outcome or consequence.

Be clear on your intentions for what you say, your personal sound current

“Like any good pollinator, this sign (Gemini) knows the power of frequent flier points. Abundance requires diversity, cross pollination is essential to the survival of any species. Mono cropping is the antithesis of life.” - Chani Nicholas

Imagine blowing on a dandelion and dispersing the seeds - this is the energy of Gemini. Maybe something will take root, maybe not.

Gemini Practices and Prompts

Take a moment (or a day) to observe silence
Listen to the birds, to sounds in your environment (river, wind, ocean, water boiling for tea, crackling fire), imagine these sounds as a language
Record something in your voice and listen to it
Make a new friend
Make a list of everything you value about friendship, embody those qualities
What modes of communication do you gravitate towards?
For example: voice, writing, music, song, paint, visual art, reports, data, touch, movement, dance, meditation, telepathy, social media, telephone, books, newspapers, radio, animal communication, nature, signs and symbols?
What sources do you gather information from? Is there anything you want to change about this?
Work with your dreams to create a bridge between the dreaming and waking states, record the symbols
What starts to show up when you track where your attention is going?
Do you agree with this quote? How is it different or similar to your experience? “The creative process is all about listening. It’s not about doing, it’s about listening and responding.” ― Peter Kater, Composer