A Narrow Vista of Considerable Extent, Resembling a Square

Charubel, the pen name of the Welsh astrologer John Thomas, catalogued an image for every degree in 1898. His entry for this one describes a narrow vista of considerable extent, resembling a square tube, the interior of which is luminous, rendered so by some means I do not understand. It falls in the first decan of Gemini (degrees 1 to 10), and is Gemini's second degree. Its decan is ruled by Jupiter rather than Mercury, which colors the degree with something Gemini does not supply on its own. The narrower term division belongs to Mercury, a still finer layer of rulership laid across the sign and decan.

The degree symbols themselves date to 1925, when Marc Edmund Jones and the clairvoyant Elsie Wheeler sat in Balboa Park, San Diego, and drew all 360 blank cards in random sequence so that no degree's image could be planned in advance. Jones published his findings in 1953, yet the reading in general circulation since is Dane Rudhyar's 1973 restatement, not Jones's own words, and Rudhyar's text is still in copyright and is not quoted on this page. Gemini is the zodiac's first air sign, occupied with contact, exchange, and the quick traffic of information between people. What a degree reading offers here is orientation rather than forecast, a way of naming exactly where in Gemini's cycle a person or moment sits.