Too Much Information vs Mindfulness

Various Aspects by Deborah Stevenson

Is your head about to explode 

From information overload?

Just asking.

Last time Jupiter was in Gemini, the internet was probably not in your pocket. That was 12 years ago.

Jupiter is the planet of expansion. Gemini is the sign of facts, data, journalism, curiosity. Combine the two and what you get is a lot of information. Currently we are deluged with this stuff.

Jupiter is said to be in detriment in Gemini. As you surf from Twitter to Facebook to Reddit to your newsfeed, switch on the radio, you may have just an inkling why. 

As the words, images, moving pictures, music cascade through you screen, past your retina and wash around your cerebral cortex, you may find yourself thinking, "I am not thinking; I am data processing." And then after a while, you brain may seize up and you find yourself aimlessly flicking from Twitter to Facebook to Reddit again, reading half a sentence here, a word or two there, glancing at some pictures, listening to a snatch of a song. Your information may come in more and more fragmentary form....until it all begins to spin apart.

There is such a thing as too much information. You are constantly filtering the good from the bad; the useless from the useful; the lies from the truth. But at a certain point your filter may just clog up and refuse to work.

Then it's time to get out the mental Drain-o.

Jupiter's retrograde right now, so the information swamp may have you in deep. You could find yourself up to your neck when Mercury goes into Sagittarius on December 11th. That's going to put Mercury and Jupiter in mutual reception. But like Jupiter, Mercury will also be in detriment.

Bogart: Bad diction was one
of his strong points

Mercury is about detail; Sagittarius is about overview. Mercury is about analysis; Sagittarius is about Weltanshauung. At a more mundane level, people born with Mercury in Sagittarius can have trouble shutting up, a torrent of words explodes out of their mouths. They are so full of ideas they don't know where to start with them.

Gemini/Sagittarius is the information polarity, and when their ruling planets swap houses, and oppose each other, as they will this month, you can expect more news from nowhere than you'd imagine possible.

BUT....

Some astrologers argue (and I'm one of them) that a planet in detriment can become a big asset, because it does not act normally. Jupiter in Gemini does not follow the usual Jupiter rules. He needs to know stuff before he can be compassionate. He needs the information to feel nurtured. That's weird – but not bad. Planets in detriment aren't bad, just different. In particular, people born with these Mercury/Jupiter combinations can think outside the box; they really can think big; and when everything's working well, they can make the connections between ideas that other people just can't see.

Gillian Anderson as
Miss Haversham,
one of Dickens most memorable characters.

Often in overcoming the difficulties of these placements, the person becomes a mistress of words or ideas. Isaac Newton had some pretty large ideas, so did Voltaire; Bjork sings in a foreign language, so did Jane Birkin. Or you might make mumbling an asset – look at Humphrey Bogart or Jeff Bridges. All these people had Mercury in detriment in Sagittarius. In fact Bjork has Jupiter in Gemini, too. Jane Austen, JK Rowling, Charles Dickens, all with Jupiter in Gemini, created worlds with their words. So you see, this "weakness" is a strength.

This December we all have an opportunity. Since Jupiter and Mercury will be in mutual reception, they may learn how to behave a little better in each other's worlds. We should all be able to communicate better – at least for a while. We can gain some of the benefits of expressing and playing with ideas, speaking to foreigners or in a foreign language, thinking big.

Let's get back to the current information overload. It is simply a fact that there is a lot of information out there, much of it is crap, and it may be doing your head in. That is our current situation. Jupiter's transit through Gemini has simply expanded that overload. But this is Jupiter, who also brings grace, and if you stop and listen, you (and I) may find a way to adjust our minds and worlds to this new reality without going completely doolally.

One way to deal with the information overload is through mindfulness, which when you parse it, is a Jupiter (fullness) in Gemini (mind) word. Mindfulness is a much-bandied about idea. It's a Buddhist concept, which essentially means paying attention, giving full commitment to the thing that you are doing. As Ram Das said, "Be here now."

Mercury in Sagittarius may also be inviting you to think your way out of the overload. You could try installing Freedom software. Or just fritter some more time away watching this amusing Ted talk, or reading this excellent piece by Pico Iyer in The New York Times.

Jupiter's in Gemini until June...as our Prime Minister would tweet OMG.