The Gemini archetype makes us aware that we must learn how to deal with duality. The Gemini Twins are sometimes illustrated as two children on swings. Back and forth, they are in a carefree mood and thoroughly enjoying themselves.
Solstices June 21 (and December 21) are the two days of the year when the polarities of light and dark are visibly at their extremes. Then the amount of day light and night time gradually come back into equilibrium at the spring and fall equinoxes.
Observing the natural world, we see that (1) polarities exist, (2) the opposites never go beyond a certain point before swinging back to their balance point, and (3) this movement is always harmonious.
Polarities
The universe operates because of the existence of, and the relationship between, polarities. It is very important for us humans to notice that with all its movement the universe is always at peace. On planet Earth, plants, animals, and all of nature exist in a dynamic, ever-unfolding equilibrium.
Polarities make variety, change, movement, creativity, and transformation possible. Polarities made diversity, nuances, and gradation possible. Mix black and white and we can have many shades of gray. Mix white and red and we have many shades of pink! Polarities make life rich and mysterious.
Polarities make selection possible. We don’t have to like everything. We are not designed to. We are designed to have preferences and desires based on our own blueprint. Our individuality facilitates choice from an infinity of possibilities.
In our human lives, polarities also are the source of conflict, agitation, frustration, indecision, war, and inner turmoil. Why do humans experience so much inner and outer conflict? One critical reason is that the majority of human institutions, religions, and spiritual paths have interpreted polarity to mean duality, defined as two conflicting forces pitted against each other – light and darkness, good and bad, right and wrong. That opposites are incompatible and always at war with each other is built into our belief system and psyche.
We Are Programmed for Conflict
Even when unity and peace are our goals, conflict is what we expect. When we define reality as inherently the fight between good and evil it is difficult to get to unity consciousness. It is hard to experience oneness, when we are taught that God is a commanding force outside us, and that we are separate and inferior.
Separation and conflict are built into foundational beliefs that determine our mindset and how we expect to experience ourselves, human life, and the Divine.
It has been easy to make us believe this for several reasons:
- The experience of Oneness is not always easy to witness in the dense physical frequencies.
- We have been taught that an intermediary is required for the experience.
- We are told that we are inherently sinful and unworthy.
- We are not given the tools to tune into non-physical frequencies, where we can experience oneness with the higher power that is the Source of our life.
It is always possible to achieve unity consciousness, but we have to change our belief system and we have to have our own authentic experience of reality as it is, not as we are taught or been mislead by our limited physical awareness. We can either continue in denial and experience the anguish of separation, or we can do what it takes to have our own personal experience of what is true.
A common theme of most spiritual paths is that acceptance of what is brings us inner peace and contentment. We align with the harmonious nature of universal reality and find that state within ourselves. However, the route to inner peace is through the conflictual territory, the battlefield, in our own psyche. This painful part of our journey is required, but too often avoided and its importance discounted.
The Dualistic Mind
Human suffering is caused and perpetuated by the activity in our dualistic mind. The two facets of our dualistic mind (negative/protective and positive/expansive) are essential parts of our design. They make it possible to perceive differences, evaluate what works for us, and respond appropriately to life situations.
The problem arises, however, when the thinking in our dualistic mind gets set in a certain direction that causes us to fixate on a part of reality and to reject the rest. We become selective, with a judgment of what is good or bad.
And to make things worse, we become so attached to and identified with our likes and dislikes, that we resist reality, we resist harmony and peace. We can’t even see anything else. We lose touch with objectivity because we lose the capacity to be objective.
The nature of the human experience is that we are always at choice. Conflict is always operative in our dualistic mind, when we don’t know how to choose, when we do not have access to the arbitrator of our neutral mind.
The Neutral Mind is Non-dualistic
Without our neutral mind, we believe that choice involves rejection or a negation of the alternatives. Our approach is one of exclusion or elimination. This position fuels conflict. But rejection does not make the alternatives go away. Denial and suppression create more discord and suffering.
We need our neutral mind to see that the alternatives include acceptance. We can be aware of what is without trying to change it, discard it, or fight with it. This is the attitude of non-duality. There is no struggle. Acceptance sets us free. There is no longer a fight. The optimal choice appears; we wait for it to appear; the situation changes on its own; or we deal with the situation to the best of our ability. Gemini says and acceptance instructs: Whatever arises, swing through it.
There often appears to be opposition when we don’t perceive the dynamic dance and continual unfoldment or creation that happens in the context of overall unity. In duality, rejection, and opposition are natural tendencies. But they don’t clear the path to peace. Basically we are fighting with ourselves. We are resisting growth, understanding, and maturity. We are resisting reality and the possibility of being at peace within ourselves.
Our journey to inner peace requires that we see and understand how we operate in duality. Inner freedom becomes possible when we understand what we are doing and how we have been programmed to think and react in a certain way. Peace can be present when we cease the fight. Thinking does not have to get in the way.
Political Polarization and Identity Politics
To see the relationship between inner and outer conflict, we can examine the example of identity politics, i.e. our identity is defined by what we believe. Instead of personal values, we adopt fixated group identity positions that define who we are and how we defend our survival.
Some want to be ‘free’ to do or say whatever their emotional instincts dictate. They (or someone else) makes things up and those in this ‘group’ believe it. There is an absence of personal discretion and wisdom. There is another tendency that wants to censor the ‘craziness.’ The problem here is that the truth is also censored. And a further problem is that neither ‘group’ is open enough or motivated to try to find out what is true. Both are righteous. But righteousness is a separating, not a unifying force. The need to be right and in control are ingredients of polarization.
Polarities also play out as the denial of others’ experiences. As we have seen with spiritual teachers, students can and do have very different experiences. Instead of acknowledging that ‘I liked and benefited from my experience; and I see that you did not like and were hurt by your experience,’ the polarity position is to call the other side liars. Maybe we are both unable to access compassion in our hearts, where we honor, instead of negate each other.
Polarization and inner and outer conflict are perpetuated when we are under the spell of duality thinking. We can end the war only if we are directed by our hearts and give priority to kindness and to understanding our common humanity.
The Aquarian Age is not about attaching ourselves to a herd and getting lost in the frenzied crowd. The ideal of the Aquarian Age is to find our identity and freedom inside ourselves, and then align with others to achieve collective goals that serve not separate.
Transform Our Perspective
There is no fundamental change when we maintain the same attitude, posture, belief, and misinterpretation of what we believe is the truth. We must transform our perspective to be able to develop a non-conflictual relationship with both our internal space and the external world and with others who do not hold our own views.
First we have to deal with ourselves, with our inner reality and how it is constructed and operates! Our mind has to have access to our neutral channel to identity and change our perspective and to find inner peace. Then both a different choice and experience become possible.
In astrology polarities exist as partners to help each other, not to fight each other. Opposite signs complement each other. In its awakened state, Gemini’s partner Sagittarius connects us with what is indivisible. In our awakened mind, we experience neutral space, silence, and stillness.
Neutral Is an Agent of Transformation
Neutral makes objectivity possible. In our neutral mind we can cultivate the capacity of clear discriminating consciousness. We can penetrate deeper into things the way they are without distortions. We can still have preferences, but our desire for inner peace becomes our first priority.
Neutral is a universal agent of unification and transformation. It is a quality of universal intelligence that can transform our mind into a clear, lucid space that perceives reality as it is.
The quality of neutral is a mysterious and miraculous force. It teaches us by directing our experiences toward unity. But we must allow it to function. We must allow it to transform us from the inside out.
In neutrality we can free ourselves from our mental and emotional disturbances. We can find inner peace and think rationally. In neutral, polarities become partners that illuminate differences and make wise choices possible. Neutral gives us the capacity to stay present to what we see, hear, and feel. Neutral removes the veil and reveals the light in our mind.
Both Gemini and Sagittarius remind us that we are on a journey. Our mind does not rest until it knows what has been hidden from our view. Our heart yearns for love until it is held in the space of total acceptance and non-judgment. The will of our soul directs us toward this awakening and this freedom.
Peace or your opinion? What is most important to you?
Self-Observation, Inquiry, and Experience
What Can We Do?
How can we live with reality the way it is, not the way we want it to be, or think it should be?
To do so, we can
- Stop our rejection, judgment, intolerance, and attempts to control what is not ours to control.
- Witness that the conflictual mode of existence is painful and unproductive.
- Identify the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that cause our pain and suffering.
- See what we are doing and how it affects how we feel and what we create.
Self-Observation Is Required
An essential part of our spiritual journey is to witness and understand what our mind and emotions are doing and why! Deep self-inquiry is a very subtle inner process where we observe
- how our mind and emotions work,
- how we interfere with or avoid what is there,
- how our interpretations distort what is transpiring.
When we understand and experience within ourselves the above at a very deep level, we can choose to stop interfering with our natural unfoldment, which will always be an expansion and bring us more happiness, contentment, and maturity.
With this understanding, we can identify when and why we are fixated in our dualistic mind and not in our hearts, where resolution is possible. Being awake in the present (not controlled by the past), peace and unity consciousness become available.
Personal Experience Is Also Required
All of the above require your personal experience. You must do this with yourself alone!
How can you have the experience of what we are talking about? Practice paying attention!
Practice – Use your inner faculties of look, listen, and feel to experientially get in touch with the above points. This requires more than one session! Practice alone for at least a few minutes daily and then periodically during the day. You will experience significant progress.
Practice – Pay attention from non-duality in your neutral mind and witness what happens. Notice the impact of thoughts and judgment on your experience.
When resistance and thoughts appear, revert back to neutral and acceptance of the resistance. Notice what thoughts create tension and stuckness. Allow and feel what is happening inside your space and body. Notice that what you experience and feel changes.
Meditation – Practice Neutral Mind and Heart
Below is an exercise to awaken your neutral mind and heart. While doing this exercise feel what is happening in your mind and your heart. When finished sit silently and do the same. Notice how your experience has shifted.
In Easy Pose, bring arms out to the sides, parallel to the ground, palms up. Stretch the arms out and slightly back so you feel a sensation at the heart chakra and in the spine.
Hold the position with Breath of Fire for 2-3 minutes.
Concentrate on the energy coming in the left palm, moving into the heart, and going out the right palm, forming a powerful arch of energy over your head, between the hands, and through your heart.
To end: Inhale, hold, feel the energy continue to enter the left palm, course through the heart, enter the right palm, forming a rainbow arch around your upper body. Exhale and relax.
As the Sun moves into Cancer at the time of Solstice allow yourself to be embraced by the love of the Mother. Resolution is found in her arms, in the heart.
Enjoy the dance. Celebrate Life!
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Hi Guru Rattana,
I need your help, I always feel like ‘I’ am away. When I try to do any exercise or basically anything , it feels like I’m not there to feel and support that activity. How I noticed is somehow once I felt how it’d be when ‘I’ ‘am’ ‘doing’ it. After for few mins I was back to normal. When I try to do anything it’s like I’m doing it without I’m actually present and whatever that activity I’m doing feels stressful, If I do deep breathing or anything , it deels stressful and when I try to focus on the feeling in my body , some parts like at the throat and back of my neck feels stressed and the legs are always like pulling.
I don’t know what to do and where to start, please help me. Also give your opinion on anti depressants, I had few tablets for sleep from a doctor and they worked for a week and then back to normal. So , I just wanted to seek your opinion whether these pills mess with any of the natural stuff in our body which could be a problem when I practice your exercises.
Thank you.
I am truly so grateful for taking part in your insight, dear Guru Rattana. Sometimes, when I feel weary of standing up for my Sat Nam confronted with oeple, even dear loved ones that I know wish me well but need to hold themselves tight to old paradigms and fears I call on you. When my loving, sharp, wise and giggeling pink Guru surfaces, I feal warm in my foundation again. Thank you for that.
Sat Akal