Wowza. It's June already. It's also already pretty hot here in Florida.
The heat has me a bit spaced out and that's totally fitting since I got a request to make this month's
Patron rewards theme "something cosmic".
With no more cosmic specificity than that, I chose the May/June sign of Gemini and melded astronomy and astrology into one, because that's how Gemini floats. The air sign has a unique mythology and history behind it. I TIED IT ALL IN, there's a lot to unpack, but I'll try to be brief.
The gemini (Latin for twins) Pollux and Castor are the namesake of the stars in their constellation. To make a long story short, Queen Leda, the mother of the infamous Helen - was seduced by Zeus/Jupiter in the form of, wait for it, a swan, and became pregnant. In the same night, she was also made pregnant by her husband, Tyndareus the King of Sparta, hence the twins. One was immortal- Pollux, one was not- Castor. These twins were super tight, fought in the Trojan War, had major adventures, and when Castor finally died, Pollux couldn't handle it. He went to dad (Zeus/Jupiter) and begged him to do something. He did. He made them both immortal, flinging them into the sky to shine as stars, forever and ever, (well you know) and that's the happy shiny ending.
Geminis are ruled by "air" making them a thinking yet very chatty bunch, and that chatty part is in tune with the next connection- Mercury.
Hermes, or Mercury, was the god in charge of messages. To the gods, between gods, between gods and mortals, between mortals and the dead (he also took the dead to the underworld/Pluto-that's coming up) you get the idea.
Okay, I mentioned Mercury/Hermes and communication. Mercury got his moniker as the quicksilver messenger with winged feet because Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun. This makes its orbit much faster, hence the speedy association. Messengers need speed, hence communication was probably just a natural trait to ascribe to this planet. So, as DMB would say- Sa-te-lliiiiiiiiiiite. Find the Astronaut. In the second, I just put together a nifty mandala of the stations of Saturn with some fun doodles and comet thingys. Lots of artistic license in that one, but the planets positioning in the Gemini Journey printable ($10+ ink line drawing, $20+ reward print download ) was fairly accurate as of a few days ago, so think about the symbolism in twins positioning, Pluto & Jupiter. What do you see? What does it say to you? Talk to me about it!
Okay- this month also couched RN week! Yay, nurses!!! I love you, we all love you! Thank you. <3 I'm sure you've all seen the caduceus on some nursing stuff. It's a staff with two snakes wrapped around it. Here's the fun part- it's not actually the symbol for healing, that would be the staff of Asclepius, which is one snake wrapped around a staff. The caduceus is actually Mercury's/Hermes' staff, and is a symbol for merchants, commerce, and communication/messengers. However, snakes are super symbolic of healing because of their regenerative powers, and nurses are very much the intermediaries between life and death (Hermes and Hades!) so that makes the caduceus an entirely appropriate symbol. Boom. Caduceus away, nurses. One of the repeat patterns is a caduceus. Do with it as you will.
The second repeat pattern is about cosmic communication on a much larger scale.
Om . The sound of cosmic creation, but, ummmmm, more meta? All that is, was, or ever will be. It's nebulous yet simple. It's also relaxing to hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
So that's the story behind this month's rewards! Stay tuned to the next few Patron only posts over on
Patreon for your downloads and let me know if you have questions.
This is a communication themed month, so please let me know how you're doing, or just say hi. :)
As always, thank you so very much to my
Patreon Patrons for their support. I really appreciate it from the bottom of my heart, even though I'm floating and I don't quite know which way is up or down...
In gratitude,
D. Renée