Red Tent Round Up #7: June New Moon in Gemini
Trigger Warning: The Venus-in-Gemini signature of Brook Shields and sexualised children will be discussed, as will the Photography of Margaret Bourke-White, the Poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks, Aurora too.
The concept of the Red Tent is a revived Native American tradition where the community held space for women during menstruation, honouring their physical embodiment of the natural cycles and heightened intuitive capacity at this time.
As many women menstruate with the New Moon, this monthly round-up of material, relevant to the astrology, is intended to be both comforting and thought-provoking for all those embracing the slow, dark depths of this transformational period (pun absolutely intended).
This Red Tent Round-Up will be published monthly, just before the New Moon, with the Sabian Symbol for the degree of the New Moon provided for reflection. The rest is my redistribution of words and works from the Wise Women (and Men!) I am fortunate to have happened upon. Le grá, in love.
“The secret to the fountain of youth is to think youthful thoughts.”
― Josephine Baker
This New Moon occurs at 16 degrees of Gemini, Thursday (Jupiter’s Day) 6th June 2024, 13:36 GMT (Dublin, Ireland).
Gemini Keywords: Articulation, Expression, Exchange, Logistics, Curiosity, Discrimination, Deception, Flexibility, Chaos, Youth
The Sabian Symbol (Dane Rudhyar & Elsie Wheeler) for 16 Gemini:
A WOMAN ACTIVIST IN AN EMOTIONAL SPEECH DRAMATIZING HER CAUSE.
KEYNOTE: A passionate response to a deeply felt new experience. … What has been “discovered” not only needs to be discussed and tested through an intellectual exchange which permits its formulation, it also demands “exteriorization.” This implies the act of dealing with those who are still unaware of the new knowledge or realization. A public is needed, and it has to be convinced; its inertial resistance to change has to be overcome. This usually requires an emotional dramatization of the issues at stake. … What is at stake is a process of communication of new experiences. The mind is called upon to perform its work, but what comes first is the action of that mind which is violently moved and which attempts to move other minds by violent means, the PROSELYTIZING MIND.
Here I find myself, mid-Gemini season, scrambling to write this just two hours prior to the New Moon - finding a bubble of calm in an ocean of chaos. I’ll be late this week, but meh I say, gotta live with Mercurial spanners in our gears.
Such chaotic Mercurial energy has been at work in recent weeks - we are opening up our home to a house share, all of the house jobs that come with that, passing my driving test at the ripening age of nearly 33, pregnancy no. 2 and all those appointments, finding time to see friends, family and especially my little sister.
This Gemini New Moon is in an almost perfect conjunction with Venus, and within her bounds. Ruler of the Lunation, Mercury, is in a fairly close conjunction with Jupiter, both co-present in Gemini, and again, within the bounds of Mercury - so we have an extremely strong Venus-Mercury energy coming through this New Moon.
How fitting then that we have our Sabian Symbol of the female activist this month? Venus and Mercury can be natural opposites in a sense - Venus wishes to gather and coalesce, Mercury wishes to discriminate and discern. However, both can bring a sense of ease and joy, sometimes a sort of juvenile naivety and youthful light-heartedness.
Mercury is typically expression and exchange, often centered around the mundane such as barter and trade. Mercury’s communication can become a deep and meaningful communion through Venus, while Venus’ love of aesthetics can become a profoundly politicizing force through Mercury.
Beware of emotionally evocative political propaganda - chances are this energy is being hijacked to persuade you.
Persuasiveness is not inherently bad, but Mercury’s tendency towards trickery, coupled with a sweet-talking Venus, could find us flattered into some superficially motivated commitments. Use your communicative powers to express your needs and boundaries instead.
For me, this energy is really inspiring an interest in the science (Mercury) of art (Venus) - my partner signed me up for a ceramics course as a birthday gift and all I want to do is nerd out on the chemistry of natural glazes. Interestingly, I have a Mercurial Venus in earthy Virgo, and Venus rules Copper, the oxides of which are extremely important in pottery glazing.
Whatever nourishes your soul, this is a wonderful time to really sharpen your understanding and intellectualizing capacity within the areas of your life concerned with socializing, nourishing, creating, connecting, learning, studying, planning and expressing.
This is a particularly potent New Moon for anyone with planets in mutable signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces), even more so when on the angles (1st, 4th, 7th and 10th Houses).
THE ARTISTRY ALCOVE
The Photography of Margaret Bourke-White
“If you banish fear, nothing terribly bad can happen to you”
Margaret Bourke-White
Margaret Bourke-White (June 14, 1904 – August 27, 1971) is best known as the first female war photojournalist and photographer of the early Soviet industry. Born Margaret White in the Bronx of New York, she attributed her attention to detail and love of perfectionism to having grown up with an engineer-inventor father, while her constant striving for self-improvement she attributed to her fastidious and resourceful mother.
Margaret was quite the Gemini - Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars and Pluto! A harmonious sextile between Saturn in Aquarius and Jupiter in Aries likely afforded her a sense of personal security and an assertive approach, bolstering an insatiable technical curiosity.
Despite originally studying herpetology - the study of reptiles and amphibians, she quickly realized that photography was her passion and started her commercial photography studio in Cleveland, Ohio, 1928.
Bourke-White’s scientific and technical fascination is evident in her industrial photography. While working for Otis Steel Mill (a position almost denied to her due to the intensity and hazards associated within the steel mill) one of her first technical breakthroughs was the use of a magnesium flare to mitigate the against the blue light sensitivity of the old black and white film.
Not only was Margaret technically brilliant, but she had a wonderful depth of feeling towards the human condition and a gentle ease when working with others. There is an obvious contrast between the objectively cold and progressive technology vs. the evocative and touching human subjects, often portrayed in trying circumstances.
“Usually I object when someone makes over-much of men’s work versus women’s work, for I think it is the excellence of the results which counts.”
Margaret Bourke-White
Bourke-White’s achievements are so numerous I could hardly begin to describe here, and her contribution towards photojournalism was of epic proportions.
Of course, I’m more interested in the inspiring astrological signatures at large, and what I find fascinating about Margaret Bourke-White’s story is the kind of Geminian androgeny that she exemplifies. No concept too technical, no job too manly, nowhere too far afield, for Margaret Bourke-White. Gemini is associated with the Lovers card of the tarot, the union of masculine and feminine qualities, so we tend to see this theme play out in the Gemini energy.
Her bravery and fearlessness are also typical of the playful Gemini - we may incline towards attributing these qualities to Leo or Aries, but the Geminian ability to "gamify life” is exactly why the Gemini energy can have an unusually healthy relationship with risk and reward. When life is a game the outcome doesn’t really matter, which paradoxically often leads to better outcomes.
Bourke-White’s work is an inspiration on so many levels, but for me, it’s really the union of technical appreciation and a wonderfully sharp intellect with artistry and human compassion that makes Margaret so memorable.
RELISHING READS
The Poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks (June 7, 1917 – December 3, 2000)
Pulitzer Prize winner Gwendolyn Brooks was a dedicated poet, author and teacher - a true Gemini. Brooks is most famous for her canny observations of the human condition and her ability to convey the everyday struggles of her fellow community members through her poetry.
Speech to the Young is a wonderfully concise yet poetic expression of her wisdom, and a demonstration of her appreciation for the struggles encountered in youth - a two-in-one for Gemini themes.
Speech to the Young: Speech to the Progress-Toward (Among them Nora and Henry III)
Say to them,
say to the down-keepers,
the sun-slappers,
the self-soilers,
the harmony-hushers,
"Even if you are not ready for day
it cannot always be night."
You will be right.
For that is the hard home-run.
Live not for battles won.
Live not for the-end-of-the-song.
Live in the along.
Another wonderfully light-hearted and observant piece is kitchenette building, where Brooks delightfully describes the use of words and their powerfully different evocative effect - she demonstrates that, how we articulate our lives, complete with their challenges, is how we walk through them, and all the while Brooks is describing a simple scene of community life within cramped living conditions.
kitchenette building
We are things of dry hours and the involuntary plan,
Grayed in, and gray. “Dream” makes a giddy sound, not strong
Like “rent,” “feeding a wife,” “satisfying a man.”
But could a dream send up through onion fumes
Its white and violet, fight with fried potatoes
And yesterday’s garbage ripening in the hall,
Flutter, or sing an aria down these rooms
Even if we were willing to let it in,
Had time to warm it, keep it very clean,
Anticipate a message, let it begin?
We wonder. But not well! not for a minute!
Since Number Five is out of the bathroom now,
We think of lukewarm water, hope to get in it.
PODCAST PANORAMA
Healing Childhood Sexual Abuse
This theme requires some explanation. We don’t usually associate sexuality or childhood abuse with the youthful joy of Gemini, however, with Venus present I couldn’t help but notice that this theme does indeed (and unfortunately) make itself present.
As I scanned my birth chart files for Sun/Moon/Venus in Gemini, I noticed the name of actress Brook Shields, the child star of the film Pretty Baby (1978).
Pretty Baby has always been extremely controversial given the subject nature of the film, a child in prostitution, and the fact that Brook Shields was only 11 years old at the time of filming (which included explicitly sexual scenes and imagery of young Shields).
Now, the only reason I knew about Brook Shields and Pretty Baby was through an interview I had watched some months back with a woman about her childhood abuse. She was groomed for sexual molestation on frequent holidays with friends of the family, at the tender age of 12, by being forced to watch Pretty Baby with the male perpetrator (there was a complicit woman too) every single day they were away.
In the film, Shields’ character Violet becomes jealous of her mother’s relationship with the photographer Bellocq. Later in the story, Violet is forced to flee the brothel and entices Bellocq to enter into a sexual relationship with her, in return for shelter and stability.
You can understand how grotesque and disturbing this was to me, and how ethically dubious it is for films such as Pretty Baby to even exist.
Of course, for every positive and empowering transit signature we seek, there’s an equal and wholly opposite one waiting to be recognized. I’m a firm believer in the idea that we must explore the shadows before we can truly enter the light.
So the combination of Venus and Mercury in Gemini unfortunately quite literally translates into a lust-for-youth, and Brook Shields became a very public child sex symbol with this signature in her 10th House of Career/Public Persona. She was also the victim of rape in her early 20s.
For a detailed exploration of Shields’ life and childhood sexualization, watch Lana Wilson’s Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields (2023).
For some this Venus-Gemini signature may simply describe the innocent “coming of age” phase, where sexual curiosity begins to peak. At best, some endearingly awkward memories may be made, but at worst, even sexual exploration wanted and initiated with consent can leave long-lasting scars of sexual trauma - and I don’t think this is spoken about enough.
Admittedly, I’m resentful towards the producers of such sex icons as Brittany Spears and Christina Aguilera - I grew up with these women, I thought they were powerful and that I should be adored just like them. Little did I realize just how overtly groomed and sexualised I had been by the media I consumed.
Long story short, this caused me to make some choices in those tender years I would rather not have made, and I think many women my age would identify with the inner turmoil this caused much later in life - when I could see the bigger picture.
How can we women step fully into our roles as agents for positive change, as described by our proselytizing Sabian Symbol for this New Moon, when we have yet to heal from decades of sexualization, conditioned “good-girlism” and me-too shaming? AND this is increasingly happening with young boys too.
It’s a big, messy and disturbing issue for a quick lil’ astrology round-up article, but a fascinatingly direct translation of the Venus-Gemini energy signature all the same.
Maybe it’s time to discuss the birds and the bees with our budding babes, or maybe we need to retreat and heal the plethora of wounds we carry around regarding our own relationships with sex and youth.
While I genuinely hope that the lighter themes of playfulness and creativity are thematic for your New Moon, I would like to hold space for the lesser-discussed heavier themes some may be dealing with too.
If this applies to you, I hope that these podcasts will be supportive and insightful for you:
Healing Sexual Trauma & Reclaiming Pleasure with Dr. Holly Richmond
Tim Ferris: My Healing Journey After Childhood Abuse (Includes Extensive Resource List)
SOUNDSCAPES
Through the Eyes of a Child by Aurora
Time to lighten the mood…!
Norwegian Aurora is our most adorable Gemini musician of the month, and her track Through the Eyes of a Child is so beautiful, especially this breathtaking KEXP performance.
Aurora has that sparkly-eyed, airy fairy quality to her self-expression that just exudes Gemini. Her Mercury is in gentle flowing Cancer, a sign associated with rhythm and traditions, so we see this channeled through her musical style of electro-folk-pop fusion.
Aurora’s Venus is sensual and empowered in Taurus - everything about her style is such an interesting blend of the softer sensual feminine energies mixed with an expressive, energetic and more masculine Mars/Sun in Gemini.
Born 1996, she was only six years old when she commenced her studies of music and dance, and signed a recording contract with three labels in 2014, just eighteen years old.
It’s hard to believe that a young girl with such an unconventional life can write such a relatable and touching song about the innocence and preciousness of youth.
Here’s Through the Eyes of a Child.
World is covered by our trails
Scars we cover up with paint
Watch them preach in sour lies
I would rather see this world through the eyes of a child
Through the eyes of a child
Darker times will come and go
Times you need to see her smile
And mothers' hearts are warm and mild
I would rather feel this world through the skin of a child
Through the skin of a child
When a human strokes your skin
That is when you let them in
Let them in before they go
I would rather feel alive with a childlike soul
With a childlike soul
Hey-oh, oh, hey
Oh, ay
Ah-ah, hey
Oh, ay
Hey-oh, oh, hey
Oh, ay
Ah-ah, hey
Oh, ay
Please don't leave me here
I.C.Y.M.I
Here’s last month’s Red Tent for the New Moon in Taurus…
I finally started my RedBubble shop called Lexophilia (still in its infancy!), where you can get a Selenophile notebook, or other surreal art prints, along with some other interesting words (and patterns coming soon!)
Retreat. Regenerate. Rebirth. Xx
Hello, Hello There!
I’m Sarah Griffin, this is Griff-in-Theory. Irish Vilomah, ex-pharmaceutical scientist, creative and inquisitive spirit, lover of both the macabre and the mystical. This is a space for pondering, so I would love to hear your ponderings in the comments.