Crazy Gemini — Cryptosophy.FM

Over the last month and a half or so, I’ve been making my way through Dante’s Divine Comedy in translation by Anthony Esolen. I read the Inferno for the first time when I was in high school, but had never before read the Purgatorio or the Paradiso. I was intrigued by a reference early in the Inferno to the Gemini star sign. In fact, it turns out that that Dante himself was born under the Zodiac sign of Gemini and therefore could thanks ‘his stars’ for his wit, intelligence, and poetic ability. He goes on in the Purgatorio and especially in the Paradiso to elaborate on the implications of this.

I knew previously that I myself was a Gemini because I’ve always had a sort of distant fascination with the Zodiac signs. When I was a young boy, my parents used to take me to St. Meinrad Archabbey in southern Indiana. In the monks’ Chapter Room there are, painted on the ceiling, the twelve constellations of the Zodiac. Of course, I had always heard that horoscopes, the Zodiac, Ouija boards, mediums, and psychics were forbidden by the Catholic Church (see Catechism of the Catholic Church 2115–2117). The appearance of the beautifully painted Zodiac signs in the monastery gave me such incredible delight. You see, the contrarian awoke early in me. The great irony, of course, is that we Gemini are notoriously contrarian. So inspired by Dante’s comments and knowing full well that we were in the month of Gemini already, I decided to look up the horoscope for June 3rd, my birthday.

I’ll be honest, I couldn’t believe the accuracy of the description of my Zodiac: “Being a Gemini born on June 3rd, your greatest skill lies in your ability to communicate. You are energized by the world around you and can create insightful observations with ease. While others describe it as a talent, you only know it as something that comes naturally.” Perhaps I’m merely flattering myself, but I genuinely hope that the articles I am writing here on the Annals are a testament to what I’m talking about. I love to write and communicate and share my ideas about the world with anyone who’s willing to listen. I love to teach. In the words of a good friend of mine, speaking about myself, my dad, and my uncle: “The Baxters are incredibly didactic.” (His lovely South Carolina drawl simply cannot be recreated by the written word.) I seek and I find in the world things that are interesting and delightful, dramatic and tragic, and I hope to find yet even more wrapped up in them if only another person could share his perspective with me. It turns out that I could attribute my ability to write, my intelligence, my curious outlook on the world, and even my contrarian tendencies mentioned above to my stars-the Gemini (1).

Dante describes with poetic force the Gemini sign in the Paradiso:

“You couldn’t have struck your finger in a flame and whipped it back before I saw-and was within-the sign that follows the Taurus. O light bursting with virtue, glorious stars, unto whose influence, as I see, is due whatever I possess of native powers, The sun was born with you and hid with you when first I felt the air of Tuscany, the sun, the father of all mortal life; And when grace was richly granted me, I was assigned your region of the skies for entering your high wheel. Devotedly Unto you starry Twins my spirit sighs to gain the strength to master the hard test that draws on all my force.”

• Paradiso 22, 109–12 (2)

That Dante is graced with poetic ability is not a question-even in translation. Especially in this passage his ability to describe the nature of a thing with words shows its force. The language of his poem-significantly-became the standard for the Italian language itself and thus he is called the father of Italian. As when Homer calls upon the muse at the start of his epics or before a scene a grave importance, so Dante-even in his description of the Gemini sign-calls upon its inspiration for assistance in the completion of his magnum opus. This motif is so common in Western poetry that it has almost become a platitude, but on the lips of Dante this invocation is far from that.

In the research for my recent article “Rage & Death,” I listened to quite a lot of G-Eazy, not limiting myself to When It’s Dark Out. In “Him & I” (which has over 500 million listens on Spotify…) G-Eazy references his star sign as well (3), (4). Describing himself, he raps: “I’m a crazy fuckin’ Gemini.” G-Eazy conflates the artistic persuasion bestowed by his star sign with the darker side of creativity-madness and insanity, boozing and philandering and getting lost. I find it curious that we poets and writers lean in on our star signs. Perhaps it’s because it’s true that they influence us. Perhaps it’s because if it’s not true it should be. In Dante we see a paean of thanksgiving to the starry twins of the Gemini. G-Eazy perhaps doesn’t quite give us enough to judge with certainty, but I think it’s fair to call this line a condemnation. G-Eazy is haunted by the demons of his artistic success as we saw in “Rage & Death” and thus cannot embrace the same level of indebtedness to his stars as Dante could.

Given the choice between the two, Dante and G-Eazy, I believe the attitude to adopt is Dante’s. Art motivated by love and gratitude will always emerge better than that which is an expression of pent up rage and aggression. The motif of invoking the muse, the Goddess, or the starry Twins, is Good. We artists can so easily fall into the prey of solipsistic nihilism. By asking for grace and inspiration from some outside spirit, we bring ourselves back out into the world, out of which our art arises and to which it will return.

-DMBB

Notes & References

(1) For the sake of being abundantly clear, I looked up my wife’s horoscope as well and it couldn’t have been less accurate about her temperament. I don’t ‘believe’ in this. I don’t lean on it. It’s something else.

(2) Paradiso 22, 109–123 : https://amzn.to/3glZgSg

(3) Lyrics to “Him & I” : https://genius.com/G-eazy-and-halsey-him-and-i-lyrics.

(4) “Him & I” : https://open.spotify.com/track/5k38wzpLb15YgncyWdTZE4?si=6hpnRg7eSOytr8DV1BRHpA.

Originally published at https://www.cryptosophy.fm on June 3, 2021.