The Gemini Character -- The Third Sign of the Zodiac

Gemini is one of the Zodiac's most intellectual signs. Reading, writing, learning, talking, sharing viewpoints and opinions, gathering facts and data, communicating in all the ways you can imagine is what Gemini is all about.

Geminis love words ... and jokes, and puns. They love odd pieces of wisdom like trivia, and word games, and "Twenty Questions," and "Jeopardy." Some are an intellectual collection of clutter, hoarding interesting but useless anecdotes, silly paradoxes and contradictions, obscure "facts" about peculiar subjects, and "things you always wanted to know but really didn't care enough to look up." (Geminis take the time to find out so they can either share or "show off" to the rest of us.)

Others are walking encyclopedias to whom friends and family turn when they need "just the facts." Most Geminis can spin a fascinating story around a few pertinent details, sell ice cubes to Eskimos, and talk the hind leg off a billy goat -- sometimes simultaneously. They love knowledge -- accumulating it, possessing it, offering it, and adding to it. They usually know "something" about almost any subject under the sun, and are always willing to learn something new.

Geminis can hold opposing views on the same topic, and see nothing inconsistent there. It fuels their reputation for being two-faced according to some folks ... and "quick to change their minds" according to others who find this trait interesting rather than sneaky. They try the patience of calmer, more focused souls ... but Geminis can sweet-talk (or fast-talk!!) their way out of most binds. Their silver-tongued talents are that fine.

As the sign of the twins, they love having things in pairs. One of anything is just never enough. They need back-ups, spares, and extras -- on everything from cars (because they have to be mobile) to options and opinions. ("On the one hand ... . . but on the other hand ...," is a classic Gemini debate.) It gives them a reputation for being scattered, unreliable, and even shifty, when they're just presenting all the options ... or maybe just arguing with themselves. Gemini is a radiant, restless, pyrotechnic display of intellectual fireworks ... as if that alone could light up the world.

That's the way mental energy burns ... incandescently. But some of this spills over into physical habits, that make Gemini one of the most easily identified signs -- revealed often by an intense, fidgety manner that can best be called "antsy-ness." Gemini seems to be always in motion ... tapping his foot, or drumming his pen, or doodling during some boring, boring, boring meeting, or dashing out the door on a quick errand, or picking at his fingernails, or playing with the car radio buttons. Well, you get the idea.

Gemini is high-strung and finely tuned, but he also has wit, charm and dazzle, which gives him a wide circle of acquaintances and even admirers. Most of these folks have a terrific sense of humor, a gift for turning a fine phrase, and creativity that's second to none. They can be not just cerebral, but darn interesting -- passing their special stuff along to new generations of eager minds, to keep the cycle of investigation and discovery moving on into the future.

Gemini is the perpetual student, intellectual butterfly, and raconteur. He gathers facts in bits and pieces ... and he loves variety. Gemini's knowledge is wide-ranging and eclectic, a hodgepodge of details and tidbits on completely unrelated subjects, but he may not have much depth in any of them.

It's like the collection of odds and ends you keep in a drawer, or a box, or in an entire room -- for some, or out in the shed or the garage. It's the jumble of unrelated little treasures from which Gemini someday may need to scrounge just the right item to fill the bill on a job at hand. Gemini's data is a collage, and the more diverse, the better, as far as he's concerned. Gemini is first and foremost a collector, but he knows scads of places to find the specific knowledge it needs.

As you can imagine, however, it's awesomely easy to overload the circuits with energy this elegant and this ... electric. Under too much stress, Gemini becomes nervous, inattentive, strung out, and spread too thin to be effective. He turns hypercritical, closed-minded, opinionated, argumentative, intolerant, intellectually proud, and becomes the know-it-all everybody loves to hate. At his worst, he is gossipy, infuriatingly "chatty" while having nothing to say, superficial, shallow, cynical, and downright dishonest. As with the other signs, the downside of this one can be pretty ugly -- without meaning to be.

Then again, he may be out the door and down the road again before you can notice his quick-change from Dr. Jekyll into Mr. Hyde. As I said earlier, he needs to be mobile. He hates to be pinned down or fenced in. In fact, confinement can make him physically ill. A person might as well try to catch the wind as hold onto one of these elfin spirits when it has a yen to be ... somewhere else. Whether he's hot on the trail of another good idea, or just chasing his own tail, Gemini is always on the move ... with grace, dexterity, and cleverness. And wherever he goes, he learns something new.

Combining a little of this, a little of that, and a pinch of something else, the Gemini soul, like an intellectual alchemist, can create new forms, new expressions, new theories, and even new ideas that are breath-takingly inventive. In the end it's hard to match this energy for sheer brilliance ... and, as the lyrics go in "Some Enchanted Evening" ... wise men never try.