As we become more reflective, we begin to realize how much our initial perceptions can be colored by expectations based on our cultural learning and past experiences. We do not always accurately perceive what is “out there.” What we perceive is often based on our needs, expectations, projections, and, most of all, our culturally learned assumptions and categories of thought. Thus the first challenge of really listening to others is to identify the distortions and bias that filter our own cognitive processes. We have to learn to listen to ourselves before we can really understand others. Such internal listening is, of course, especially difficult if one is in the midst of an active, task-oriented discussion. Dialogue, however, opens up the space for such reflection to occur. Edgar H. Schein

Most children are naturally inquisitive. According to a recent study, a child can ask an average of 73 questions every day: this is, in fact, a mechanism for cognitive development all of us enacted as kids, with the purpose of enhancing our knowledge structures. Astrologically speaking, in modern astrology at least, this stage of development falls under the rulership of the Third House, of Mercury, and Gemini.

Growing up (speaking from the perspective of someone who was born and raised in an European country), we are almost obsessively pushed to focus on having allof the answers. Our questioning decreases. The basic schooling model we become accustomed with at an early age is largely based on repetition and regurgitation; our worth as students — and individuals — is defined in terms of grades and test scores, and rests on our ability to memorize notions, rather than accommodating our unique learning style and encourage us to sharpen our analytic faculties. With a frontal, teacher-centered instruction, the emphasis is on what to think, rather than how — with the what being mostly reflective and representative of the dominant group, of those people whose experiences and characteristics are seen as default.

The same principles inform the world of academia, which, in fact, also has a long history of invalidating the lived experience of people in favour of hierarchies of ‘knowledge’ that, too, reflect the power structures of our society, devaluing the perspective of those who are, very often, subjects of study and analysis. Astrologically, academia and higher education are ruled by Sagittarius, Jupiter and the Ninth House.

Meanwhile, the fast-paced environment outside the walls of academia is one that encourages rapid decision-making, fast solutions and, more often than not, jumping to conclusions. Knowledge becomes a performance; the urge to assign a meaning to events that disrupt our certainties, like the current COVID-19 pandemic, paves the way for a plethora of misleading conspiracy theories that, even in the spiritual community, are presented as ‘truth’ and taken at face value.

There is no doubt — we prioritize answers, often provided by a source that is outside or above us, over questions and questioning. Honouring the limitations of our knowledge as a way to grow through the continuous exchange of information between us and the environment is, mostly, a lost art. On some level, we are aware of the danger in pursuing a truth that is monolithic and absolute, of the abstract nature of the very concept — yet, the idea that we don’t know everything, ever, seems to terrify us.

Even when it comes to spiritual workers and practitioners, many of us seek definitive answers, in some cases striving to understanding everything in terms of laws — the law of attraction, the law of compensation, the ‘seven spiritual laws of success’, and so on — and swearing by the word of gurus, teachers and ascended masters, rather than embracing our spirituality in an experiential and relativistic sense, focusing on the questions that hold meaning to us and promoting dialogue and conversation around them.

The need to unlearn false consensus and dogmatic belief systems is likely to become more pronounced as the North Node of the Moon enters loquacious, inquiring Gemini, on May 5. The Nodes of the Moon have been transiting the signs of Capricorn and Cancer — South and North Node, respectively — since November 2018; during this time, the North Node tracing its path through the sign of the Crab pointed towards emotional clearing, and in-depth understanding of our needs and cravings; conversely, the South Node transiting through Capricorn highlighted the need to loosen up our emotional defences and contractions, so that we could bear witness to the emotional tides underneath.

Most of us are familiar with the Lunar Nodes in Astrology, but, for those who are not, they are our Soul’s compass. They reveal where we come from, where we are going. While in natal Astrology, the placement of the Moon’s Nodes is capable of providing crystal-clear insight into our life’s narrative as well as into the habits we need to outgrow and the awareness we need to incorporate, the transiting Nodes map avenues for growth and expansion on a collective level.

Thus, the South Node in Sagittarius asks us to take a step back from our internalized narratives, categories of thoughts and mental models, and rediscover what is left out — a manifold, multifaceted soundscape of sounds, voices and colors. A whole universe of information for us to delve into and revel in. An omnipresent, ongoing conversation  between us and the surrounding environment. The North Node in Gemini yields an invitation to question, absorb, digest and exchange data. To rediscover the wonder of curiosity. To become reacquainted with  the iridescent, wavering movement of life as it happens and unravels beyond the blinders of our assumptions and beliefs.

This does not mean, of course, that we will be forced to disavow our worldview and moral compass as a whole. The movement from South Node to North Node is one of repurposing and rechannelling, rather than an operation of destruction and rebuilding; when we work with polarities, we deal with facets of the same prism, ends of a spectrum. While it’s true that we will most likely end up shedding aspects of our life philosophy that are no longer aligned with the person we have become, Gemini suggests that our problem-solving process and our ability to connect with others can improve greatly if we get in touch with the assumptions, judgments and cultural conditioning that inform our thinking, and if we open up to the possibility of addressing, discussing and brainstorming them in a way that fosters a shared understanding between individuals — the birth of a common code of communication that holds space for every voice, every story, every perspective.

As we de-center ourselves from and allow our visual field to expand, we begin to grasp the subtleties and variations of human experience, the nuances in the way everybody thinks, the changeability of what we consider fixed, unmovable. Rather than partaking in conversations from a place of self-righteousness, the Gemini North Node asks us to create spaces where we can learn collectively through inquiring, cross-pollinating, bouncing ideas off one another — spaces that are non-hierarchical, inclusive, judgment-free, socially aware, mindful of the positions of privilege and power dynamics that undermine mainstream narratives.

It’s never too late to let our inner child, that part of us that is perpetually hungry for mental adventures and filled with awe at the multiplicity of the world, reclaim their space.

The North Node of the Moon will remain in the sign of Cancer until January 2022, when it will enter Taurus.

If you want to know more about how the North Node entering Gemini will affect you, you can purchase an astrology reading. Tarot readings are also available!
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