Gemini Tarot: The Lovers
With the sun firmly entrenched in Gemini, it’s time for the third installment of my analysis of the connection between astrological signs and the Tarot. So far, we’ve looked at the cards associated with Aries (The Emperor) and Taurus (The Hierophant), and this month we continue on to Gemini with The Lovers. These cards are numbered #4, #5, and #6 in the Major Arcana, and we’ll continue to go sequentially until #9, so if you’re familiar with the Tarot, you’ll know what’s coming until September. But you’ll still have to tune into this blog to see each sign’s corresponding card in the Baseball Tarot, which for Gemini is The Team.
In the tradition of the Tarot, The Lovers is one of the most evocative cards in the deck. In his book The Pictorial Guide to the Tarot, Arthur Edward Waite connects the imagery to that of Adam and Eve in paradise, but the implications are more personal and less biblical in nature. “This is in all simplicity the card of human love, here exhibited as part of the way, the truth and the life.” As Gemini is known as one of the most social (or at least sociable) signs of the zodiac, the connection to human love makes sense here.
The social theme is continued in the Baseball Tarot’s version of this card: The Team. In the book that accompanies the deck, Mark Lerner and Laura Phillips put the following bullet points at the top of this card’s entry: Relationship, Synthesis, Belonging, Honest Intimacy. All of these qualities are indeed extremely important for being part of a successful team, and they also apparently come naturally to your average Geminian.
According to Lerner and Phillips, “The Team is the magical blending of talents, skills, and attitudes that becomes more than the sum of its parts. You cannot simply collect a bunch of great players and have a sensational team.” This statement – while undeniably true in the world of real-life sports – is somewhat ironic when applied to our purposes, for two distinct reasons. One is that this blog is primarily concerned with Fantasy Baseball, where success is measured by the individual statistics of the players on your roster, each playing for their separate teams. In a format where there is no interaction between “teammates,” a sensational team is pretty much just a collection of great players.
The second reason that the emphasis on teamwork is somewhat ironic when applied to Gemini’s current player pool, is that the majority of Gemini’s strongest players are starting pitchers. Jacob deGrom, Shane Bieber, Aaron Nola, Zack Wheeler, Jose Berrios, Freddy Peralta, Aaron Civale… the list goes on. While it’s definitely important for pitchers to be good teammates, their role is perhaps the least team-centered on the baseball diamond, as operate pretty independently while they’re on the mound. Obviously they form a unit with the catcher and they rely on their defense, but once the ball leaves the pitcher’s hand, there’s generally very little interaction that goes on.
Of course, the composition of each sign’s player pool is constantly evolving, and at some point Gemini’s balance will surely tilt away from pitching and back towards position players – much like in the early-mid 2000’s when the offense boasted Manny Ramirez, Jeff Bagwell, Miguel Tejada, and Jose Reyes. But in the meantime, I wonder if we can look at the comparison (or contrast) between the particular players on each sign and the general attributes of what the sign represents (in the spiritual or divination sense) to determine their chances of success?
Next time, I’m returning to my All-2000’s roster project. I started last Sunday with Leo, and now I’ll be moving to the Negative Polarity to focus on Scorpio.