the new moon in gemini for writers

creativity is a relationship

First, some Church Announcements! I know that these can be boring to folks who just want the newsletter (it’s below, feel free to scroll down!), but I am also aware that I am losing increasingly large numbers of subscribers whenever I include these. Even after so many years of newsletter writing, that trend makes me sad! While I am, of course, excited to bring you the New Moon in Gemini newsletter, I can only do that because of people who are paid subscribers here and who also buy my classes, sign up for birth chart readings, and otherwise kick some financial support my way. I’ve been self-employed (with no familial or spousal safety net) for 3+ years now, and this has been one of the leanest years. I would not be able to spend as much time as I do on the creative, spiritually rich free offerings that are delivered to your inbox if not for the generous, incredible folks who patron my work. All this is just to say, I appreciate your patience when I share the offerings that pay my rent. 

Nonfiction writers: I’ve now made my How to Write a Book Proposal class into a self-paced independent study. Whether you want to rush through it all in one day or pause and reflect over the course of months, in accordance with your own writing process: it’s here for you whenever you need it. 

Also for nonfiction writers — especially those who are getting ready to query agents! Those of you on Instagram may have seen that, for Pride month, I am doing a FREE agent query letter review for two LGBTQIA+ writers! The drawing is on June 15th. Comment on this IG post to enter. 

Last but not least: I have finally set up a tip jar on PayPal. I am trying to keep this newsletter’s cost down, while also trying to make a living as a self-employed person. I’ve had some recent unexpected expenses like a new laptop purchased just this week (my old one that I’d been trying to make stretch completely kicked the bucket), and things like the tip jar help to offset that kind of large-but-necessary expense. If you feel so moved, or have simply enjoyed reading the newsletter for free and want to kick a little something my way without committing to a paid subscription, it would be appreciated more than you know. 

And now, let’s get into today’s New Moon!

The New Moon was exact at 16* Gemini at 8:37am Eastern this morning, and whew, is she busy having conversations.

Sitting close to artist-lover Venus on a loveseat, and hanging out in the same room as trickster Mercury and mentor-coach Jupiter, this moon feels distinctly supportive for writers and for anyone interested in deepening their relationship with creativity through the written word. 

This is one of the more generative New Moons we’ve had in a while. It’s good for seed planting, for idea tending, for sparky glittery conversations with your writer friends, for get togethers and going out to creative and literary events and workshops. Also: New Moon energy lasts a few days, so you don’t have to do it right this minute. Take the weekend. 

There is something profoundly collaborative about a New Moon that is ruled by Mercury and sitting with Venus. Let’s break that down, shall we? This New Moon — a time of beginnings and fresh starts — is arriving in the sign/style of information-collecting magpie Gemini. And the planet that is in charge of Gemini is trickster-psychopomp Mercury… who also happens to be a patron of writers. So this lunation has a mercurial flavor: a little of this, a little of that. It wants to throw the rulebook out the window and, rather, honor the Rule of Fun. The vibe of a conversation that is naturally flowing between humor and tears, that you don’t want to end? That’s this moon’s energy. 

In this moment, we are reminded that none of us are an island, and that creativity doesn’t happen in a silo. Conversation is the key to unlocking our creative projects right now. Collaboration. Our respective lived contexts. Reading and research. Long text chains and chaotic voice memos with your beloveds. 

Something I talk about with my clients almost every day is the question of what counts as writing. When you say you’ve worked on a book project, or a screenplay or what have you, are you only thinking of it in terms of words on the page? What about all the mental meandering that goes into how you understand your characters or their context? The ideas that arrive in the shower or on long drives? Do those not contribute as much as when you are sitting down at a table with a notepad or laptop to do the output? Does all the backburnering and synthesizing, reading and research not count? 

I think it does. 

This New Moon offers a chance to consider the way that those everyday meanderings are part and parcel of our art, and are, in fact, a vital component of keeping our relationship with Creativity alive. I would reframe a common question, or expectation, from what are you doing to finish the project? to, instead, what are you doing to invigorate your conversation with Creativity? 

I understand Creativity as a spirit, and that we, each and every of us, have had a lifelong relationship with. We knew Creativity long before whatever long-form writing project we are feeling guilty about not “doing enough” on came into existence, and we will continue our relationship with Creativity long after this particular project has left our hands. Our ability to connect with Creativity is not dependent on output, nor on word count, nor on finishing, even. (One of my favorite quotes that I keep posted on my desk, from the wonderful Matt Bell/

No Failure, Only Practice

in Refuse to Be Done: “Today’s task is never to write the book.”)

Which is all to say: this New Moon in Gemini is inviting you into a deeper conversation, a deeper relationship, with Creativity — and a simultaneous encouraging of pursuing all the rabbit trails and research holes and internet deep dives that your current project is inspiring. 

Today’s task isn’t to write the book. It’s to connect with it.

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