We are now most of the way through the Gemini 1 decan, which corresponds to the Eight of Swords, Interference, so some Part II updates on the ways this decan has manifested so far are in order.

To recap, Gemini and Eights are Mercury ruled, the Gemini 1 decan is Jupiter ruled.

The first few degrees of the Gemini 1 decan allowed for a sudden great burst of writing for the upcoming book. Gemini, and Swords, are after all associated with words, and decan ruler Jupiter with expansion. I got a ton done in a very short time.

Then things took a different turn. The Memorial Day weekend is a sad time for me, due to the unexpected loss of a sibling on a Memorial Day weekend in years past; one never really gets over getting an unexpected phone call like that.

For example, after spending a very long day in the hot sun putting in hundreds of plants, we heard a loud humming sound: one of our beehives was swarming. That is when bees decide to take a short trip and change neighborhoods (Gemini things).

We were lucky in a sense, it landed down low in an apple tree where we could reach it to capture it, should we choose to. But it was a snag as it was the last thing we needed at that moment. It landed in a very awkward position on the tree, and we were very hot, tired, and very much not wanting to deal with it. So we did an old beekeepers trick of placing an empty beehive box nearby, which sometimes will entice them to move in, if you are lucky.

Well, the next day, we realized we were not lucky. The bees had moved on, and not to the provided new digs. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. It was our choice not to more actively try to get them.

But that same day, we got another chance: another hive swarmed! This is a common thing to happen when the hive grows overly strong and fast; they get too crowded so they raise a new Queen to move out with a good portion of the workers to start a new colony.

This time we got lucky: it landed in a birch tree, higher up but in a less awkward position to get to. So my husband made the choice to suit up and manually sweep them into the bee box, and give it a go to see if they would accept the new home. This time, they did, so we got a new hive. We only had one extra box anyway, so we could not have caught them both. At least we got one. And there is an old saying:

• A swarm in May is worth a field of hay.
• A swarm in June is worth a silver spoon.
• A swarm in July ain’t worth a fly.

So we caught one of two, still in May, which gives them time to build out into a valuable hive that can survive a winter.

Some other little snags happened during this Gemini 1 decan period, all fixable and caught in time. Interestingly, many were delayed failures or at least problems resulting from things done in the Taurus decans.

Some plantings done in Taurus and placed under a row cover were being deprived of water, because the row cover was diverting it. Interference. So in spite of all the rain, some were revealed to have perished from drought. Yet it was not a total Failure, as I luckily actually had many spare extra seedlings I had set aside in the greenhouse as a Plan B for just such a contingency, so had enough to replace most of them. The only ones I didn’t have, happened to be ones there was still time to restart from seed. And we learned that a neighborhood farm who didn’t use covers, lost all their brassica seedlings to flea beatles as they were bad this year due to the wet spring. Most of ours were pristine, except for the ones that weren’t getting water through weird water run off pattern, which reminded me of the Telos image!

A major “customer experience upgrade” (hah, yeah right) done by a local bank over a three-day period in the Taurus 3 decan, turned out to be a minor hassle in the Gemini 1 decan. Though of course they marketed it (Gem-Jup) as a big benefit to the customers, it actually ruined our statements to not be monthly cutoffs, changed the online banking, and increased fees in some cases unless one restructured some accounts, because of course it did. It was also intuited that the local bank employees were having a hard time due to fallout from the changes: interference. And of course new online banking protocols added yet more layers of security which, while they are supposed to be good, yadda yadda, are kind of a pain in the ass, and cause an extra step (interference) each and every time one logs on, now you have to run looking for a device. So it goes.

I misunderstood something said by a friend, but figured it out soon enough without it being a problem.

Some people in the neighborhood (neighbors are a Gemini thing) have been escalating the doing of some very annoying things during this decan, involving long, loud, repetitive recitations (words=Gemini). The words are supposedly religious (Jupiter) and in a foreign language (Jupiter) and are Interfering with my ability to enjoy my space when relaxing, or to focus when working. I made a choice to rise above it – for now. If it keeps up I may go all Cruelty and Ruin on them in the next Gemini decans! I want to find out where they live and stand outside their spaces loudly reciting Thelemic poetry, LBRP, and Liber Resh repeatedly for hours, see how they like it! Yeah, I probably won’t unless I lose it, but I think about it.

I also misread some directions due to being distracted, annoyed, and busy, and thus did something wrong setting up an online thing and got locked out. More interference and blockage. Minor snag but nothing a stupid phone call with some hold time couldn’t fix.

A fun thing planned with a friend had to get cancelled when her child was under the weather.

Some former good and unexpected news we had received about a property matter got, not reversed, but put on hold in such a way that means it may not happen, or might happen, or who knows? However it is somewhat blocking our ability to move forward on the matter.

An old dock we helped someone install in the Taurus 3 decan (Failure!) had a partial collapse, so now we have to go rebuild a portion during this decan. Too many speedboats (Gemini?) exceed their size limits, making big waves (Jupiter) that interfered with this very old construction from the 1940s. All the other docks at this location are new aluminum things. This one is a big old wooden monstrosity that we have to roll into place using an old Model T axle. (Gemini-Jupiter!) It is all cobbled together with old boards and cinder blocks, added over the years.

Interferes a little bit with other plans, have to drop everything to go do it, but it is a minor thing. It’s an easy fix, easier than it looks.

There are only about two more days left in this decan, so besides the dock fix I hope to do more writing. Did a lot of that over the last two days, and only stopped to do more writing: this update.

I expect that today or tomorrow I’ll finish the last chapter of the new book!

If there aren’t more snags.

Of course that just means moving on to the next phase of the book, adding stuff, deleting stuff, correcting stuff, making and organizing tables and images, formatting, etc. And making more choices around all that. A lot to it, but it will feel good to be at this next checkpoint within a day or two.

Haven’t noticed much 5th house activity yet, though in whole signs Gemini is my 5th house. It has been mostly work – although we did get together with friends one night. Sleep has been poor; it has been interfered with through my own poor choices of turning towards too much caffeine (Gemini) and alcohol (Jupiter) at times of overwork and minor stresses. All minor stuff though, thankfully!

It is said that the Eight of Wands can mean paying too much attention to insignificant things, so I’m trying not to sweat the small stuff, and just keep on keeping on.