Sedna in Gemini 2023 – 2067

Sedna was a daughter in an Inuit community, prized for her beauty. She was raised by her father, without a mother, and had many suitors whom her father urged her to marry. She was independent and refused. One day, she was approached by a stranger wrapped in furs who proposed marriage to her and told her he would take her far away to his home where she would be comfortable and lavished in furs and skins. She agreed and left with him. When they arrived to his home island, he took off his furs and was revealed to be not a man but a fulmar (gull like bird). He had deceived her and his home was impoverished. She was distressed, uncomfortable and forced to scavenge for herself.

At some point her father decides to come retrieve or rescue her and finds her on the island. They leave together in his canoe to return to her homeland. When her absence is registered, the fulmar husband and his fellow fulmars set chase and begin to attack the canoe and stir up stormy seas around the boat. Her father becomes fearful for his life and throws his daughter, Sedna, overboard. He wants to save himself and is willing to sacrifice her. She clings to the side of the canoe but he methodically cuts off her fingers so she cannot hold onto the boat. As her fingers fall into the ocean they become the ocean animals: the seals, whales, dolphins, etc. Sedna floats to the bottom of the ocean where she becomes the Queen of the seas and the arbiter of food supply for the humans. Ultimately, Sedna forgives those who have betrayed her. If the humans are living in right respect and reciprocity with each other and the environment, Sedna is appeased and there is plentiful harvest from the oceans. But if humans are not living respectfully within their natural environment, there are ocean storms and food shortages. Only when humans have resolved these imbalances within themselves, or sent a shaman to convene with Sedna at the bottom of the ocean, brush her long hair, and address her concerns, is equilibrium and bounty restored.

This is a significant and emotionally charged myth. It encompasses themes of sorrow, betrayal, deceit, forgiveness, autonomy, patriarchy, natural harmony, right reciprocity and sustenance. These are Sedna’s themes in our lives as well.

I will not go too deeply into analysis of the Sedna myth here, but would instead invite further contemplation of this topic by exploring the work of some excellent astrological researchers whose Sedna work is a gift to us all. You can find many fascinating free Sedna articles at A Bigger Picture and an excellent highly detailed course by Dutch astronomer/astrologer Karen Hamaker-Zondag at Astrology University. Instead I will progress to how Sedna’s tenure, first in Aries (1865-1966), and then Taurus from 1966 to 2023/2024 has played out and what we might expect with Sedna’s transit through Gemini.

As already discussed, Sedna made her presence known and felt in a big way around the time of her discovery. But we can see her themes rising to prominence in interesting ways as she has been transiting through the signs. Sedna was in Aries, the first sign of the zodiac, from 1865 until 1966. Whenever a planet or object, especially a *very* slow moving one, enters Aries we consider this a re-start of its cycle. It is beginning anew. And in many ways “a new era” for women began during Sedna’s tenure through Aries. Highly significantly, divorce became legal in most countries during this time. Sedna, of course, is strongly associated with the bonds that tie women to their fathers and their husbands. Women now had a way to legally emancipate themselves from unsatisfying partnerships. It is disturbing, to say the least, to recall that this was unavailable to the vast majority of women for thousands of years prior to this. There was a stand made for independence (Aries) during this time: women refused to continue to be relegated to ‘possessions’ of their fathers or their husbands. This was also the period of the successful fight (Aries) for suffrage and the right to vote for Western women.

Things went one step further during Sedna’s transit through Taurus from 1966 to 2023. There was a very meaningful continuation of the themes of female independence and their right to autonomous resources (Taurus) and livelihood during this time. But we see uniquely Taurean themes emerging as well. Such as a resurgence in respect for the artistic endeavors (Taurus) of women. And many profound connections to Taurean values such as peace, harmony, and interdependence with nature.

Perhaps it is in these final connections we can sense the very strong messages (warnings?) of Sedna over the past several decades. Taurus is the sign that is most connected with the concept of Eden, of a state of peaceful abundance and prosperity on earth. We have come so far away from this in our experience that it seems at surface level to be mythological, improbable if not impossible. But in reality this is how our planet was created and it is not only optimal, but possible, to live this way. We have just forgotten this. Like Sedna’s father, we have become so overwhelmed by fear that we are willing to behave in ways that are totally contrary to who we truly are – creatures who are connected profoundly to one another and all that is. Instead, we have been entrained to a world that teaches us to think only of ourselves and “do whatever is necessary” in pursuit of selfish goals and desires.

This has wrought havoc in our lives and in our collective experience. The result is profound systemic inequality and suffering. The result is the poisoning and polluting of our natural environment, including our oceans. The result is a population so devoid of the notion of interdependence with nature that they have no awareness of their food supply, of the rhythm of the seasons and the synchronistic and energetic flow of life. The result is indifference, atheism, greed, scientism and violence of all kinds. We not only live with an imbalance of right reciprocity between each other and between humans and nature, we are no longer even aware that this is a value or principle that we should strive for.

Needless to say, this does not ‘please’ Sedna. And it is unsustainable. The writing is on the wall all around us: things need to change, things will change. And if we cannot come to peaceful resolutions amongst ourselves (which first requires acknowledgement that change is necessary), as the Inuit would do when there was crisis in their community or food supply, then ‘nature’ or ‘the cosmos’ or Sedna makes interventions for us. Conditions are created that ‘force our hand’ into a new way of being in community with each other and the environment.

So how does this all play out? Well, that remains to be seen. But perhaps Sedna in Gemini can give us some clues. Sedna enters Gemini on June 16, 2023 for a 5 month ‘warm up’. In November 2023 Sedna retrogrades back to 29 degrees Taurus where it will remain until April 2024 when it makes its final permanent ingress into Gemini. So just as 2023 has been year of a 3 month ‘warm up’ of Pluto in Aquarius, so this is also a year of ‘tasting what is yet to come’ with Sedna in Gemini. By late 2024 both Sedna and Pluto will be residing in air signs for several decades.

So there is a deep sense of shifting from Earth (Taurus/Capricorn) to Air (Gemini/Aquarius) with both Pluto and Sedna moving into air signs. This also falls in line with how the Jupiter Saturn Grand Conjunction of 2020 – the energetic template setter of the upcoming 20 year period (until 2040) occurred at 0 degrees of Aquarius. That conjunction also marked the beginning of a 200 year period where the Jupiter Saturn grand conjunctions will occur exclusively in Air signs. For the PAST 200 years, the grand conjunctions have been occurring in Earth signs (except for in 1980 which was in Libra and the ‘warm up’ for the air sign period we are now in). So there is a shift on many levels from earth to air.

The air signs (Gemini, Libra, Aquarius) are concerned with ideas, information, communication, and the impartial laws and governing mechanisms of life (metaphysics). Whereas the earth sign energetic that has been most dominant in the recent past, is concerned with physical resources, ‘hard sciences’, ‘money’ and commodities, and structures. Those things are now ‘crumbling’ in many ways. This was part of the action of Pluto in the 3rd and final earth sign, Capricorn, since 2008- a deep transformation and purging of the existing ‘status quo’ institutions and structures of our modern lives- the ones that had been built since the LAST time Pluto was in Capricorn, during the US and French revolutionary wars (when the pre-existing structures and institutions of those times were demolished). And the process will not be ‘complete’ until late 2024 when Pluto makes its final exit from Capricorn.

Then Pluto in Aquarius (2023/2024 – 2044) will highlight the stark chasm between those who wish to use power (Pluto) as a means to streamline and control ‘the masses’ (Aquarius), and those who wish to support genuine empowerment (Pluto) and true equality and autonomy (Aquarius) for all people. And like all things Plutonian this will be happening ‘behind the scenes’ as much as (if not more than) it is happening on the surface level and will have profound and irreversible implications.

This is part of the essential background for understanding Sedna in Gemini. What is most valuable and significant during this air sign time? Ideas, knowledge and information. The ‘battle’ for our attention in an attention economy. And we can already see how different ‘news’ sources ‘promote’ completely different understandings and interpretations of history, of reality, and of what is happening in our world. We must have utmost discernment and keep our eye on the ‘big picture’ rather than getting swept up in the battle between competing ideological currents. The more swept up we become, the more we lose our grounding and the easier we are to manipulate through fear.

So what of Sedna and her connection to weather and nature? Perhaps more storms, still oceanic to be sure, but also of a more ‘airy’ nature. Hurricanes are the most obvious example of water/air type storms and we may expect an acceleration in the ferocity and frequency of these kind of tropical storms. Electrical storms and solar flare storms also seem ripe for the provenance of Sedna in Gemini, especially after Uranus (associated with lightening and ‘awakening’) also enters Gemini in 2025. While Sedna in Taurus storms such as Hurricane Katrina and the Indian Ocean tsunami involved breaches of the earth (levees breaking and an underwater earthquake, respectively), Sedna in Gemini storms may come from ‘the air’ and disrupt the Geminian steady stream of news, communication and information. There could be power outages, wiping of databases, catastrophes with ‘the cloud’, or perhaps even what could precipitate a true modern cataclysm: a disabling of the satellite network which makes our entire technological infrastructure possible.

I do not share these potentialities to create fear, but rather to continue to share the thematic understandings and progressions of how energy shifts and evolves over time and how that can play out.

And what of Sedna in Gemini’s more personal and psychological implications? If Sedna in Taurus since 1966 created a new wave of understanding about humans complex relationship to nature, environmental protection efforts, and a renewed advocacy for pacifism .. Then perhaps Sedna in Gemini will offer more airy and cerebral lessons. Perhaps we come back to an innate understanding of some of some of the metaphysical realities of our world: that our thoughts, beliefs, expectations, and ideas create our experience of life. Perhaps new ideologies arise and paradigms shift. This happens through collective consensus which occurs first at the air/mental level. Perhaps we finally ‘go back’ anew to deeper and more accurate understandings of who we are and our mental and spiritual capacities as humans.

On the shadow side, Sedna in Taurus and its connection to sustenance and resources has seen a peak in extreme wealth and income inequality. As the population has exploded during this time the gap between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ has ballooned and reached unsustainable levels. The average person cannot afford access to resources no human should be denied: healthful food, clean water, a safe home, education and health care. These have become luxuries for the wealthy which demonstrates an extreme lack of balance and fairness.

The ideological insights of Sedna in Gemini will strive to correct this. And we will become more aware as a collective just how much our ideas (Gemini) of who we are, what is expected of us, what we are ‘allowed’ to do, who we are ‘allowed’ to be, are arbitrary and inherited and in reality we have many more choices than we have known or are ‘taught’. This will lead to an explosion of ‘new ways of living’. The gender norms and repressive roles/rules put upon women that began to crumble with Sedna in Aries, will finally fully blossom in the exploration of unique lifestyles. Traditional legal marriage will likely decrease, for example, and any number of alternative lifestyle communities will emerge with people who share similar beliefs and values (also connected to Pluto in Aquarius). And many of these communities may be wholly removed from the mainstream economy and ‘agenda’ which will continue to falter. Sedna was stifled and unhappy with the ‘choices’ she was offered in life, and now we have the opportunity to ‘choose differently’.

Shadow low vibrational Sedna in Gemini conjures our worst imagination about overtaking our personal and collective ‘air’ space. Artificial Intelligence being used for nefarious purposes, digital crimes and identity theft, dramas in the world of digital currency and crypto, manipulation of fear around aliens and UFOs, manufactured enemies ‘in space’, continued mass media distortions and corruption, the collapse of the system of travel and infrastructure, a new level of intrusiveness of robo calls/direct advertising/etc, lack of transparency in big tech firms with regards to data mining, extreme monitoring and exploitation of personal privacy ‘digital footprint’, and extreme attempts at repression of ‘ideas/beliefs’ that are deemed ‘dangerous’. We can already see this beginning to play out and how it overlaps with Pluto in Aquarius.

But above all, Sedna does not stand for hubris, inequality or disrespect, and strategies designed to manipulate or deceive for the purposes of greed and control, can and WILL be ‘called out’ by Sedna. Continued attempts at the exploitation of nature and fellow humans will engender ever stronger ‘pushback’. Those who are playing in this shadow realm may have ‘big paydays’ temporarily in their bank balance, but Sedna will ultimately correct imbalances and right wrongs. She is not an adversary to be underestimated. Just ask any corporate titan who tried to dismiss environmental concerns when Sedna was in Taurus.

Sedna’s myth is extraordinarily powerful, as is the role she plays in our psyche and the collective consciousness. In astrology it is understood that planets or objects in our solar system do not ‘show themselves’ to us until our consciousness is evolved enough to incorporate their energy and lessons. Since 2003 when Sedna was discovered we have reached a new level in our understanding of the consequences of our actions and the need to take responsibility and accountability. Sedna too was forced to take accountability for her decision to leave home and marry the fulmar. Both those who willingly deceive others, or sacrifice them, as well as those who are fooled or ‘victimized’ must all come to understand the motivations for their actions and take accountability before true restoration and rebalancing can occur. Likewise, we have increasingly had the opportunity to see some of the ways that we have been betrayed by those we have trusted, both personally and on the larger scale and to seek inner repair and healing for these damages, including ways in which we have betrayed ourselves. It is after we tend to this work that we can most consciously engage with the new possibilities that are opening up with Sedna in Gemini. These are some of the lessons and experiences that will increasingly lie before us as Sedna shifts signs for the very first time since her discovery.

*art by @jenny.baumert