The Gemini Wave: Bicycles Cars Trains and Airplanes; Newspapers Books Comedy and More!
The last time Neptune was in Gemini, Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain take center stage
Note for all those listening: The embedded audio strip, that follows this note, is an excerpt from The Sign of the Times by Stan Barker (1984). The book is currently out of print and very hard to find. It is a classic in the field of mundane astrology. It is an extraordinary ride through Neptune’s ingress into each of the zodiac signs that incorporates a vivid depiction of our American history from the beginning, through each chapter, to the end.
If you are listening on a mobile devices, the audio button located at the top of this page is an animated voice reading of this article and does not include the Stan Barker excerpt, but you can still hear The Sign of the Times excerpt by selecting the embedded audio link below.
Chapter 4
Stan Barker, writing in 1984, only speculated about what things might be like in the Neptune Aquarius wave of 1998-2011. It is interesting to note how this wave is similar to the other two air sign waves of recent history. Comparison of the Gemini wave of 1887-1901 can provide us with evidence as to whether or not the Neptune Factor has continued to be in effect into the first decade of the 21st century. If this evidence can be found, it may well indicate that we have not yet entered the Age of Aquarius.
I can’t help but wonder if the new-age movement that was really taking hold in the 1970s and 80s may have caused the relatively small astrological community, of the time, to be overly eager to become a part of the coming Aquarian age. If so, perhaps this eagerness made the idea of “The Neptune Factor” so unappealing, to it base of readers, that they chose to not engage with it and the work of self-reflection that it required. Ready for the coming new secular era, perhaps they were too eager to be done with Pisces and its Christian fish symbolism and requirements of self-sacrifice. The 1980s, with its yuppie gurus and go-go mentality, just might not have been the best time to produce a work that forced a good look in the mirror to a devout religious past.
When thinking of the Sign Gemini, two main themes stand out transportation and communications. When it comes to transportation, I couldn’t think of much off the top of my head that related to similar air sign of Aquarius and its most recent wave of 1998-2011. However when I began to Google, I quickly learned there had been much. To start with, there is the two wheel people transporter, the Segway, which came to market in 2001. The Segway was invented by Dean Kamen who also invented the iBot stair climbing wheelchair, though, it was discontinued in 2009. During this period he also assisted in the development of advanced prosthetics that had unprecedented dexterity and precision. He also helped in the development of the ReWalk exoskeleton to help those with spinal cord injuries to walk again. Gemini rules the arms and hands; Aquarius is in charge of the calves.
While the electric automobile was invented in the Gemini wave, the first Tesla Roadster came to market in California in 2008. Though Sony introduced the lithium-ion cell powered electric bike in 1993, they did not gain in popularity until the Aquarius wave when the prices for the batteries had fallen by several fold.
When it comes to communications there is even more. I didn’t have to Google to come up with any of the following. From the rise of the internet, invention of the I-phone, YouTube, social media, and the beginning of streaming technology for meeting in groups, communications were transformed like never before. While the newspaper may have taken on its modern form during the last Gemini wave it was largely eliminated from the diets of modern living in the recent Aquarius wave. College classes began to be taken online and textbooks were downloaded. Even money became digitized with the advent of Bitcoin in 2009. Money originating and evolving under the the Taurus waves was no longer required to take on any material form whatsoever. Now money became nothing more than 1s and 0s electronically transferred, through the air, at the speed of light using digital technology. Money was now under the purview of the sign of the New World Order, Aquarius. I am sure the reader can think of long list of other things I have neglected to mention that were also transformed during this Aquarian wave of a new communications technology.
Chapter 4
When it comes to great writers or wits from the Aquarius period of 1998-2011, I can’t think of anyone with the stature of a Ben Franklin or Mark Twain, but I can name a half dozen phenomenal performance artists from the last half of the 20th century who were born under a Gemini Sun. This is a bit off topic but they are big names. Judy Garland, Paul McCartney, Tupac, Prince, Bob Dylan, and Marilyn Monroe.
Next time we will visit “Big Mom” riding the Cancer wave.
