May 11 through May 28—Mercury changes gears as he enters his home sign of Gemini tomorrow. After plodding through Taurus, we might feel as though our reticular activating system just jolted awake. Mercury in Gemini is the wordsmith, idea pollinator, and life-long learner. Now in his own sign, Mercury is well resourced to provide not only for himself, but also for Venus who he is currently hosting.
Prince’s Mercury was in articulate, curious, and keen Gemini. In his memoir “The Beautiful Ones”, his editor shares that Prince had “fastidious ideas about which words belonged in his orbit.” Prince particularly objected to reviewers using the word ‘magical’* to describe his music claiming that funk was the opposite of magic. His editor explains in a Fresh Air interview: “Funk is about rules. Prince pointed to all the work that went into his music. There was really no magic in it. It was a labor. A labor of love but a labor nonetheless. He learned to play all of these 27 instruments. . . how to mix them, how to master them, how to program the drum machine and that funk was about rules.”.
I so love the idea of funk as Gemini’s expression of Mercury. Mercury in Gemini has a gift around processing and disseminating mental inputs in a mathematical sort of way. There’s a precision around words and a fast-track with learning which gifts the native intellectual passion and a disciplined mind.
There’s versatility too. When one of the Muppets asked Prince where he got ideas from, Prince responded “I can get em anywhere. Even here.” He then went on to create a song from the breakfast menu and sung it in a grade school classroom bringing in glorious symbolism of Mercury & Gemini on several fronts.
As for you and me: look to where Gemini falls in your chart to see what part of your life might be activated this month. Not only will Mercury tour here until the 28th, Venus will grace Gemini for four months and a New Moon in Gemini seeds here just two days after the Sun’s entry into the sign of the twins.