Myth of the Month

We are now in the sign of Gemini. In that sign we can sometimes feel as if there are two completely different sides of the same person. But it's not always easy to get into contact with the other one. In the sign of Gemini there is a hidden challenge or whish to reconnect with "the other half". The story of Castor and Pollux is quite illustrative of that dilemma.

They were not really twins, one was of divine descent, Pollux having Zeus himself as father, but Castor was the son of a human king of Sparta. They grew up together with their cousins like brothers and shared everything, and becoming fostered to great swordsmen and successful athletes.

But one day they became enemies over a herd of cattle, which they in fact had stolen from some shepherds. The cousins got away with the cattle, breaking their promise to share the herd equally among them. Castor and Pollux could now only think of revenge and followed their cousins and arranged an ambush.

It happened that they tricked themselves, for their cousins lay already in wait for them and Castor was immediately killed. Pollux then slayed one of the two cousins and made a narrow escape from being killed himself, when his father Zeus, who had been watching from above, threw a lightning at the remaining cousin, thus saving Pollux.

He was now left alone, the only survivor. They had stared out as brother and friends and it had all ended in revenge and death. He buried Castor with all the ceremony it took and his mourning was deep. He had never been parted from his brother and he found it hard to be alone, yes, impossible. But suicide wouldn't help him, he was the son of a god and therefore immortal. So he pleaded with his father Zeus to give Castor back his life.

Not even Zeus can change the laws that rule over the lives of gods and humans. But he made a deal with Hades, the god of the Underworld, that one of the twins would stay alive on Earth while the other one spent his time as an immortal on the Olympus. After a certain amount of time had passed, they had to change places with one another, the other one was to live on the Olympus and enjoy the bliss of the gods, while the other one had to endure the daily life on Earth with all its hardships and joys. But they can never be at the same place at the same time. They are doomed to be forever parted, and to forever long for each other.

The connection to Gemini

Some persons with Gemini strong in their chart seem to feel as if they had another half of themselves, maybe even like in the myth here, one part earthbound and practical, the other one living more in another realm, an almost "divine" plane of existence. Others again are totally unaware of anything else than their normal everyday "me". Maybe it has to do with what we call spirit and body, or Man's deep longing for his "spiritual home", maybe also the concept of a "soul mate" existing somewhere.

These two halves, the divine and the human one, are in a sense complimentary. The divine one we often perceive as free, creative, inspiring, uplifting, light, eternal and other things like that. It is something ethereal and unbound, above and untouched by human misery and pain, and the struggle of existence. It holds a promise. The human half is well used to these things, the hardships, struggling, sorrow, loss, failure, and in the end mortality.