The sign Gemini is by nature singularly unsympathetic with Uranus; for its force is dispersive and gentle, easily moved, but not persistent in motion; and the influence is accordingly weak. We shall find persons indeed pre-eminent for driving force of will. Their power will be mainly that of idea; and unless the rising sign be thoroughly harmonious, and both its lord and Uranus himself, well-dignified . we may expect examples of failure rather than of success.
We have, however, three great religious teachers, and all are distinguished for the gentleness of their doctrines and suavity of their methods. These are the founder of the Christian religion, Swami Vivekananda and Dr Rudolf Steiner.’
In the first case, Libra is rising, a sign peculiarly harmonious with Gemini – Jupiter is ascending squared by Sol, which is in exact conjunction with Mercury and in direct opposition to Mars and Neptune. Uranus himself is on the cusp of the tenth house. This makes Uranus by far the strongest planet in the figure, so much so that we may regard his influence as paramount and unchecked, thus summing the career insofar as the will is concerned in the one word ’emancipation’.
The Hindu adept [Vivekananda] has Capricornus rising, with the Sun and Venus, and these are square to Mars. Uranus is in the eleventh house, and this made his doctrines readily acceptable to many minds. But there is no great harmony between Gemini and Capricornus, so that the complete temperament is not nearly so efficient as in the case previously considered.
The German mystic [Steiner ] has Scorpio rising, which adds great scientific accomplishment to the Uranian vector, Mars, too, its lord, is exactly semi-sextile to Uranus; but the latter is squared by Sol, gravely diminishing the general potency of the planet, which is, moreover, if} the seventh house, by no means a powerful position in such a case.
We now come to it group of notoriously weak personalities. George V, the Duke of Clarence and Avondale, Alfred Dreyfus, Don Carlos of Spain, Florence Maybrick, W.B. Yeats, Marie Bashkirtseff and Vaillant. Everyone of these may be classed as a failure in his or her own line of life, and one need look no further into the horoscope to discover the reason.
A more successful type is Maurice Maeterlinck, but here Scorpio is rising with its lord Mars in sextile to Uranus. Consequently, the driving force of the one compensates the weakness of the other.
We have an even better example of this in Lord Brougham, with Libra rising, and Venus in her own house just above the horizon. The influence is still mental; Gemini can never act on the material plane directly; but Uranus is in the eighth house, and so the great lawyer became what he was through dealing with the minds of the dead by his study of precedent. Libra, again, in material matters implies the judicial faculty, and :Mercury the mental ruler is just below Venus.
An even more strenuous politician is John Burns. Once more the forceful Scorpio is rising, implying iron determination. Uranus in Gemini here gives the limit and the means. His trust is in his eloquence, and Uranus being trined by Mars makes him a great fighting orator. Both he and Brougham display the same dogged will, but the difference between them is most clearly characterised by the difference between Libra and Scorpio; the one adroit, supple, weighing every word, the other hacking through.
Not dissimilar to either, indeed a sort of mean proportional between them, is Theodore Roosevelt. Here Sagittarius is rising and Uranus is in the fifth house. There is a sort of boyish pleasure in the will, a spontaneity in the eloquence, which appealed immensely to the great hearted children of the Republic. The breeziness, the spirit of the vast deserts that they have wrung from the bison and the Indian, was in his words. The affliction of Jupiter by the opposition of Venus makes the temperament somewhat rash and tactless; and when the people were not swept off their feet by the first gust, there was no reserve of fact to influence their second thoughts. Here then, in this simple configuration of three planets, we read the whole secret of his success and of his failure.
Not so far removed, either, from this category is the preacher, Billy Sunday. Once more, Scorpio is rising Mars and Jupiter in close conjunction just above the cusp of the ascendant, and once again we see the brutal thrust of the personality almost blatant, breaking through all obstacles to attain its ends. And here again the effort is upon me minds of men. But there is nothing subtly persuasive; the only weapon is the bludgeon. He liberally bullies men into belief or what for the moment passes for belief.
Another vigorous personality is that of the suffragette Mrs Pankhurst, with Aquarius rising, but its lord Saturn in some trouble on the cusp of Leo, his own decan, whose name is strife.
Aquarius and Gemini are friendly enough however, and thus we observe that within the narrow limitations Mercury is afflicted by the conjunction of Saturn in the sixth, a most unfortunate house for the mental ruler – her will has produced remarkable results.
Turning to music and the arts, we have the composer Richard Strauss, with cancer rising, and Uranus not far above the Orient. The Moon, lady of Cancer, is in the third house, in Virgo; thus the mind and the temperament are in tune; and Cancer is a sign most delicate and pleasing, receptive of harmonious impulses from without. The Sun too, lord of !music, is with Uranus, and Venus stands, the morning star above them. How beautiful a picture or the temperament or the composer of Electra and Salome.
The painter J.M.W. Turner is another most excellent example of this thesis. One may ask where lies the peculiar force of Gemini; hut a further investigation of the horoscope will justify wisdom of her children. Capricorn us is rising with Saturn in close trine to Uranus, thus harmonising the personality, while Uranus himself is modified by the conjunction of Venus, the Planet of gracious form and brilliant colour. A certain ruggedness and power is added to these by the square of Mars.
Far less amicable dispositions are found in the nativity of the poet Thomas Moore. Scorpio is rising, and there is the successful man, no doubt, especially as Mars is in his own house, just above the eastern skyline. But he is sorely weakened by the conjunction of the moon and of Saturn, while Uranus is squared by Jupiter. Hence the extremely narrow limit of his art, and the monotony of his melody. Uranus, too, is in the seventh house, and it is never well for the will to conflict with the personality. Moore was consequently but a feeble singer; his ambition was never equalled by his achievement; and his best-known work is not as vital and elemental as with happier configurations it might have been. Even more than William Morris, he is ‘the singer of an empty day’, the least brilliant of that extraordinary galaxy of genius which dazzled the eyes of men a century ago.
One of the greatest chemists that ever lived was Sir Humphrey Davy. He, too, has Scorpio rising, but its Lord Mars is in exact trine to Uranus, in Libra, giving him that noble devotion to justice, in Nature, which made him so perfect an observer. Here then is a temperament of ideal balance, and the will worked freely al its gigantic and most honourable ambition. It may be objected that Mars is in his detriment, but the trine of Uranus fully compensates for this weakness. Scorpio gives the inquiring mind, and the position of Uranus in the Zodiac could not but operate freely with such assistance. With Neptune and Jupiter in exact conjunction in the House of Fame, the will was assured not only of success but of recognition.