GEMINI and HANDS

MAY 23 – JUNE 21

Gemini is the consummate communicator of the zodiac. She’s the most social of all types. He’s frequently accused of being an impractical dreamer because he loves ideas so much. She can detach herself from mundane reality and be objective about anything. He overvalues his intellect and undervalues his own and everyone else’s emotion. She feels threatened when her opinions are ignored. He can accept your point of view, even when he disagrees with you. She’s gets mad when her ideas are challenged without good reason. He’s easily distracted when he chooses not to be responsible for his decisions. She resists focus, discipline, and structure. Gemini loves to be mentally free.

Gemini rules hands. It also governs our respiratory and nervous systems. Gemini types are the most adaptable of all thinking (air) types. They have more flexibility in their joints, thumbs, and fingers than Aquarian or Libran types. Their life, head, and heart lines tend to split at their ends. In general, I’ve found a lot of line splits in duel signs. Dominant Libra splits at the end of the head line. Cancer and Pisces heart lines split.

Healthy Geminis have straight and strong pinkie fingers. They persuade you with logic and good sense. Long ring fingers make them even more attractive and irresistible. Gemini hands are firm with pink elastic skin. If you see yellow, there’s probably some nastiness going on somewhere. The trickster is good at hiding his dark side.

You don’t have to be a Gemini to have Gemini hands. It’s very powerful when a person’s sun sign matches their hand type. I’ve read a lot of famous people with sun signs and hands that match. It’s impossible to foretell from a natal astrology chart what symbolism will dominate a character. A sun, moon, stellium of planets, dominant house, or powerful aspects between certain planets or points in a horoscope may or may not determine what the native chooses to embrace. Hands can oppose a horoscope. As we embrace our strengths or choose darkness, our thinking and circumstances will be revealed in the morphology and topography of our hands over time.

I have Scorpio rising. Pluto closely conjuncts Saturn on my Leo midheaven. My eighth house is packed with Gemini planets. Chiron is conjunct my Scorpio ascendant. Based on my horoscope, my behavior should be Scorpio. I’m very Gemini. That’s my hand above. Scorpio is very powerful on my inside. It’s no wonder I’m obsessed with getting people to look at their hands. So much valuable information can be seen at the ends of our arms. All we have to do is learn to see the help in our helping hands.

Gemini is the most youthful and clever of all types. John F. Kennedy, youngest and first Catholic president was Peter Pan. Jackie was Wendy. Marilyn Monroe was Tinkerbell. John was a rogue and womanizer reputed for being raunchy and funny. The charming “Prince of Camelot” suffered depressing physical fatigue from Addison’s disease. The public never saw the pain in his joints. Kennedy wrote Profiles of Courage, which won a 1957 Pulitzer Prize. According to John’s biographers, his greatest challenge was not to choose winning over high moral standards.

Other Peter Pans were Pat Boone, who sold 18 million records by age 24. Tony Curtis was the ‘Great Imposter’. Bob Dylan sang “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”. Judy Garland was Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. Henry Kissinger was the multi-lingual secretary of state under Richard Nixon. Joan Rivers was a comedian. Gene Wilder was Willy Wonka. Michael Jackson lived in Neverland.

A pinkie is the shortest finger. If a tip is longer than the crease between the first and second phalange of the ring finger, it’s considered long. If shorter, it’s short. Hermes (Mercury) was the shortest god. A dominant pinkie fingered person is short in stature (Ed Harris) with a slender body and face. She has expressive hands, dark hair, and penetrating eyes with crow’s feet in the corners. He’s very youthful. Men often have thin beards (Johnny Depp).

Hermes loves children. He’s childlike and androgynous. Hermes and Aphrodite had a fling that created Hermaphrodite. Many dominant Hermes (may not know or admit it) are bi-sexual. David Bowie is a Capricorn with powerful Hermes. Prominent pinkie people prefer small musical instruments that require a lot of dexterity. Music makes sense because hearing is their physical sense. In real life, Peter marries Wendy or a parent. Someone’s got to be practical. Caitlyn (Bruce) Jenner is Peter and Wendy.

Hermes health issues relate to their nervous and bronchial systems. Hermes can have problems with headaches, thyroid glands, memory loss, and speech impediments. I’ve been coping with Tinnitus (ringing in ears). Hermes makes great lawyers, politicians, doctors, orators, writers, engineers, teachers, accountants, bankers, and shopkeepers.

A cultivated Gemini is a social and intuitive prodigy and a great judge of character. Pinkie fingers reveal the ability to communicate and be truthful. Early family dynamic is seen in how a pinkie is set on the hand. If it’s very short or low set, trust may be a major issue. Some women with low set pinkies have told me that they have a hard time having real orgasms. They fake them and keep their secret. Their greater challenge is learning to trust themselves and others enough to have real intimacy. Lengths and proportions of fingers, knots, nails, and shapes of tips reveal language, family, and sexual potentials.

Would you buy a used car from this guy? Gemini liabilities are trickiness, fickleness, nervousness, restlessness, and superficiality. Many preachers on soapboxes, pickpockets, and con artists have inwardly curving pinkies. There are also many wonderful incredible people with curved pinkies.

 

I work at special events with great magicians. These tricksters have a Mercurial nature. They astound audiences by deceiving the eye and mind of the beholder. I’ve watched amazing tricks over and over again and am constantly blown away. One friend, a close- up magician, sometimes works the lines of guests at special events that are waiting for my five minute hand readings. I overhear people asking him, “Is this real magic?” My friend says, “No, these are tricks. If you want real magic, go see Mark.” The real magic of reading hands is not the science and art of palmistry, but knowing oneself and others.

Gold and diamond pinkie rings are frequently found on acquisitive people who sublimate their sexual energies to accomplish something of value. I once examined the hands of fifty men born to wealthy families in the eighties. It seemed paradoxical to me that they all had a tiny bottom phalange on their pinkie. Money for the sake of money will never be a motivation for their major life choices. Family, friends, and good causes will fuel their values and good intentions.

I plan to feature family and friends in future posts. Meet my mother.

“Eighty years of age does not seem old to me. Old is when one is again dependent as we were in infancy – needing help as a constant to feed and care for oneself. Who knows, I may die from an illness before I ever get old, then on to my next adventure.” Mom was eighty-three when Hermes gracefully and graciously escorted her to death.

Mom was a consummate Gemini. Born a day before the summer solstice, she pondered her intentions, roles, and script until her last breath. She cared deeply for family and friends. For the last several years of her life, she quietly battled her mortality via metastasized breast cancer and a mass of malignant tumors in her liver that sucked her energy and tested her fundamental truths. Never complaining, mom’s endless encouragement, noble idealism, eternal optimism, and refreshingly ruthless honesty always inspired me to remain true to myself.

Mom considered herself lucky. She chose to lead a worthwhile and productive life. Her square palms and widely spread long fingers belonged to the youngest child of hard working Russian Jewish immigrants who cherished each other and their five children. Mom’s long strong index fingers symbolize her ambition to achieve. She was the first in her family to attend and graduate from college. Her family struggled financially, but always felt rich. Mom’s father (my Zadie) was the most generous man I’ve ever known. He had abundant warmth and good spirits and loose change for everyone. I remember in early childhood, Zadie showing up at mealtimes with some poor person he’d met on the street. There was always more than enough delicious homemade food for all. I cherish my memories of my Bobie and Zadie.

Mom’s two oldest sisters died tragically when she was young. Her surviving older sister, Bea, was a renegade. Mom was the brilliant talented young princess who could do no wrong. Bea (Sagittarius) was brilliant and talented too, but Bea did what Bea wanted to do. At eighty in this picture, she’s still sassy with her healthy earthy intuitive hands.

 

When Bobie was very old, her Alzheimer’s forced us to place her in a home where she could receive constant care. It was sad for everyone. Mom and Bea visited her often. Mom’s greatest fear was losing her mind. Bobie had no idea who mom was. That scared the crap out of her. One day, Bea visited Bobie. Bobie asked, “Who are you?” Bea replied, “I’m your daughter.”  “I have a daughter?” Bobie inquired. “You have two daughters” said Bea. “Which one are you?” asked Bobie. “The bad one!” exclaimed Bea. Bobie remembered, “Oh Bea!”  Bea eventually ended up like Bobie.

Richie (Libra) ~ TANGLEMAN ~ Bea’s middle son

Mom was blessed in friendship. She attributed her ability to make friends easily to having to move frequently in childhood. With so many changes involving multiple schools, mom had to adapt and develop social skills. She fulfilled her friend potentials. When you examine the balls of mom’s thumbs, you see long lines parallel to her lifeline. Mom maintained intimate friendships for her whole life. She and her friends faithfully loved each other through their joys, tragedies, children, grandchildren, heart attacks, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Diabetes, Cancer, and many other dis-eases of old age.

The best thing our mother did for herself and her children was to marry our father. Dad spotted mom at a bus stop. It was love at first sight. She was a twenty-one year old virgin princess. He was a twenty-five year old former bad boy, turning good, just back from the horrors of World War II.

 

She played Eurydice to his Orpheus. Dad (Pisces) literally sang his ideas and tunes. Mom would craft his lyrics and refine his tunes as she accompanied his singing on the piano. We kids thought they were nuts, but our parents thought enough of themselves to peddle their wares down Tin Pan Alley, hoping for the next bestselling 45 rpm record. They promoted their favorite song “The Crack of the Carbine”, a tragic tale of a young murdered white tail doe, her homeless fawn, and a remorseful hunter. Dad sang it so passionately and mournfully that I had to fight off the tear in the corner of my eye. Our parents’ tragic mistake was hiring a professional demo singer, a hunter without a soul.

Dad was sentimental and sent mom a romantic anniversary card every month of their marriage until he suddenly and unexpectedly died at age fifty-four. We found albums full of them that mom had organized and saved. Dad also left short love notes around the house for mom to find and always had plenty of gifts and hugs for everyone else. He left mom a 3 X 5 notecard on the day he died ~ I LOVE YOU. Mom laminated it in plastic and placed it in a special spot on her dresser where she would always see it.

I was conceived on my parent’s wedding night and born nine months and one day later. Mom wanted natural childbirth; however, after fighting with me for thirty-six hours, the time had come for me to be cut out. I needed my horoscope. A natal chart is a mother’s transits at the exact moment and location of birth. My mother was inches from dying. She spent several weeks convalescing. I don’t remember bonding with her. When I first began to explore astrology, I hired a famous astrologer for my maiden reading. “This is a death chart”, she told me. She reflected many interesting things about my character, patterns, and habits. What I walked away with was this, “You will die and be reborn many times until you learn to fully love and let go of fear”. OK. I accept. What’s next?

When I was forty, I hired Dr. Laurie Nadel, a psychologist to take me back in time. She’d written a book, The Sixth Sense, on past life regression and was well known for her work in the field. Laurie encouraged me to visualize my life as a tunnel with a series of lights going backward through time. As I journeyed back, my job was to turn on the lights wherever they were out. I needed to jog my subconscious memory for that. After an hour or so, I arrived somewhere between age two and three. The tunnel was black. As I began turning those lights on, I found myself sitting on a tiny wooden potty, not needing to have a bowel movement, but still making grunting noises while my mother was concurrently teaching me to read. No one could ever accuse mom of being unambitious or inefficient. I’ll bet I was the first boy on my block to be out of diapers and reading at the same time. Mom set a timer on a variety of occasions (with threat of punishment) to help me achieve tasks that needed to be completed in a timely fashion. In her defense, with my highly flexible thumbs and fingers (my dominant thumb became stiff as I aged), I was talented, but also the most unstructured, undisciplined, and unfocused kid on the block. Peter Pan doesn’t like restrictions. I never did get to past lives in that session.

When I was four, my brother, Gary (Pisces with Libra hands) was born. At seven, Jennifer (Taurus with Aquarius hands) arrived. Mom said, “Parents make their biggest mistakes on their first”. That was true for me. Mom considered raising her children the greatest accomplishment in her life. At twenty, I confronted her to let her know that I wasn’t perfect and that she had made plenty of mistakes. Here is her response.

“My mistakes were not intentional. I’m sorry for anything I did which caused you any harm. I tried my best to be a good parent. You’ll understand when you’re a parent. You’re an adult now. You must grow up and get past whatever holds you back and be as healthy and happy as you can be.” She was right. What could I say? I forgave and thanked her. Gary and Jennifer were spared my most challenging lessons. Fortunately, we’ve all turned out well in ways that matter most to all of us.

Mom was a cultivated Gemini. The unearned princess became a self-appointed Queen. Mom’s friends and family accepted and supported her highness. Like Athena, mom ruled with strength, courage, dignity, and nobility. I was ten years old when mom read ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ by Victor Frankl. It powerfully reinforced what she already knew and confirmed her most important value in life, which was her understanding that while she couldn’t always control what happened to her, she had the power to choose what she thought, felt, and did about it. “Whatever happens to you”, she said to me, “Whether you’re going out in the rain with or without an umbrella or going to the electric chair screaming or with dignity, you have the ability to choose your behavior”.

My family was like a 1950’s TV sitcom. ‘Mother Knows Best’. Mom was an ‘at home’ mom during our formative years, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t work. She was a freelance gag writer for The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, and Family Circus (weekly comics in syndicated newspapers). She also wrote articles for women’s magazines. Mom was a wiz at crossword puzzles, jingles, or saying something in fifty words or less. I remember her winning about fifty contests one year. Some were national. The rewards were small.

Mom was a daunting scrabble player and the most formidable opponent for the Queen of Scrabble in our family, dad’s sister, Aunt Ruth. Ruth has a strong independent pinkie on her right hand and long practical head lines. She always gave me birthday presents like plain underwear and sox. I treasure her and Uncle Sam’s memory, and my cousins Shirley, Roz, and Max…

 

Check out the strong family resemblances and hands. The biggest differences are in hand flexibility, consistency, and elasticity of skin which you can’t see in the picture.

Shirley ~ Cardinal                 Roz ~ Mutable                      Max ~ Fixed

Even in the direst of circumstances, mom had a sense of humor. While lying in her hospital bed with tubes going in and out of her, she said to me, “What worries me most is how nice everyone is to me. Do they know something I don’t?” Jennifer warned, “You’re not allowed to die until you finish raising my (teenage) kids”. She joked about buying mom’s casket at Costco. Mom loved the idea. My brother said, “I’ll start worrying when you stop putting on your makeup”. He threatened to taxidermy her and promised to consign her to a corner in his living room if she didn’t stick around. In intensive care, the doctor told us that in all his years, he had never had a patient who was so sick and so determined not to look like it. Wheeling mom around the hospital, people thought I was her husband. I’d say “Thanks for the compliment, but I’m her father”. “Pleased to meet you”, they’d say. It’s never too late to embarrass your dying mother who’s still 39 at 83. Some things never change.

To get a real taste for mom’s Gemini personality, watch her exercise ball video. She was 78. It was made in response to my sister sending her the ball. Though the quality isn’t great, I guarantee the humor!

 

If the definition of a genius is an average student with a Jewish mother, ours was father (Pisces). It’s impossible for me to show mom’s humor without sharing dad’s antics.