Gemini- Iris the winged messenger

Iris, pot Greece, 525 BCE.

Iris, the goddess of Gemini has a message, things to say and do. Josephine Baker had a stellium in Gemini, Mercury, Sun, Jupiter, Pluto and Mars all in her 10th house of career. She was also Virgo rising, ruled by Mercury, Virgo rising often gives beauty and Gemini gives a great sense of fun.

Josephine Baker: Gemini spreading the message: 3.6.1906. 11:00 St. Louis MO.

Josephine was born into poverty and lived rough as a child in East St Louis. She was sent as a live-in domestic servant aged eight to work for white families, where she was treated harshly.

Josephine later talked about the horror of July 2 and 3, 1917, when whites rioted for two days, burning black homes, slaughtering, disemboweling and lynching. At the end six thousand blacks had been driven from the city. Fleeing with thousands of other black people across Eades bridge, she saw one of her father’s friend’s face shot away and pregnant women disemboweled.[ii]

‘Surely the day will come when colour means nothing more than skin tone, when religion is seen uniquely as a way to speak one’s soul; when birthplace has the weight of the throw of a dice and all men are born free, when understanding breeds love and brotherhood.’[i]

At fifteen she moved to Harlem to pursue her dancing career.

‘Each time I leaped I seemed to touch the sky and when I regained earth it seemed to be mine alone.’[iii]

Her Libra Moon would have given her a love of dance and all things beautiful, it is trine Mars in Gemini in the 10th house, dance would have been a way to get her voice and message (Gemini) into the world and make a career of it (10th house). Her Mars also represented the Dance Savage that later made her famous.

Josephine Baker in Banana costume 1927 Lucien Walery from the Follies Bergere, ‘Un Vent de Folie’. Public Domain.

She worked as a chorus girl and socialised with people from the Black Harlem Renaissance. In 1925, offered the chance to tour with a dance troupe in France, Josephine excitedly left America.

‘I realized I was living in a country where I was afraid to be black. It was only a country for white people. Not black. So I left. I had been suffocating in the United States… A lot of us left, not because we wanted to leave, but because we couldn’t stand it anymore… I felt liberated in Paris’.[iv]

Paris, home to intellectuals, writers, Jazz musicians welcomed her and she became a sensation, with her dance performance Dance Sauvage in 1925 dressed in a skirt made of artificial bananas. Later she performed with her pet cheetah ‘Chiquita’ who wore a diamond collar. Periodically Chiquita would ‘escape’ into the pit terrifying the orchestra. Gemini takes great delight in teasing and playing practical jokes.

When she left for France, her progressed Mars was at 7’7 Cancer applying to conjunct her dancerly Venus Neptune. Mars rules her 9th house of long distance travel. More interestingly, her Progressed MC was conjunct her progressed Jupiter at 21′ 27, and 21’40 Gemini respectively, both applying to conjunct her 10th house Pluto at 21’59. Paris was the trigger for her world wide fame and fortune, and an ending (Pluto rules the 4th). Pluto transits can be favourable, if the native is good to go and leaves a toxic situation.

‘Since I personified the savage on the stage, I tried to be as civilized as possible in daily life.’[v]

Josephine performed La Revue Negré in which she danced the Charleston on top of a drum dressed in ostrich feathers. This made her a huge star. The French press went wild and said she was “Nefertiti and the Queen of Sheba and Cleopatra’[vi]

Josephine brought the message of a creative, positive, ebullient, regal and historical black woman to Paris and they loved her.

Josephine also had a beautiful Venus Neptune conjunction in Cancer in the 11th house. Venus Neptune gives a mystique and allure and in Cancer a softness and femininity, as well as a strong nurturing and protective nature.

Hemingway called her “the most sensational woman anyone ever saw or ever will.’[vii] The author spent hours talking with her in Paris bars. Picasso who painted and drew her, described Josephine, ‘Tall, coffee skin, ebony eyes, legs of paradise, a smile to end all smiles.’ [viii]

When war broke out in September 1939, Josephine was recruited by the French Intelligence Deuxieme Bureau to spy on France’s enemies. Because Josephine took her cabaret to embassies and nightclubs, she had the opportunity to listen to the talk among the Italians, Japanese and Germans and report back. Like Iris, she was the messenger bringing secrets from the dark side.

In September 1939 her progressed Mercury was at 8’39 Capricorn, just passing her natal Uranus at 7’29, in a way, she found her mission in the French Free Army, remember Mercury rules both her Ascendant and her stellium in Gemini, so this is a powerful planet in her horoscope. Her progressed Jupiter was at 24’50 Gemini conjunct her natal Mars at 24’35 Gemini, an excellent showing for a warrior. And Josephine fought in the way women fight, with guile and subtly. Lying and spying, networking and taking messages are their superpowers (Gemini). And with her deceptive Venus Neptune, the enemy would have had no idea she was a threat.

When the Germans invaded France, Josephine left Paris to live on her estate in the Dordogne where she sheltered Free French volunteers and provided them with visas. She also single-handedly organised entertainment the Free French fighters.

In recognition of her war work, Josephine was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Rosette de la Resistance and the Chevalier de la legion d’honneur by the leader of the Free French, Charles de Gaulle.

Josephine Baker in French Air force uniform, Studio Harcourt, Pars, 1948. Public domain, Wikipedia.

In 1951 she was invited back to America. When she arrived in New York with her husband Jo, they were refused reservations at thirty six hotels because she was black. Speaking of the experience, Jo wrote,

‘Josephine left Paris rich, adored, famous throughout Europe. But in New York, in spite of the publicity that preceded her arrival, she was received as an uppity colored girl.’
Jo Bouillon, Josephine’s fourth husband[ix]

Furious, Josephine wrote articles about racism in American. She gave a talk at Fisk University, a Black College in Nashville entitled, ‘France, North Africa and the Equality of the Races in France.’ In 1951 Josephine exposed the Stork Club Manhattan when they refused to serve her. Actress Grace Kelly, who was in the club rushed over, took her by the arm and stormed out with her entire party, vowing never to return. The two women became close friends after the incident. Josephine said,

‘I have walked into the palaces of kings and queens and into the houses of presidents. And much more. But I could not walk into a hotel in America and get a cup of coffee, and that made me mad. And when I get mad, you know that I open my big mouth. And then look out, ’cause when Josephine opens her mouth, they hear it all over the world …’[x]

Josephine refused to perform for segregated audiences in the United States, although she was offered $10,000 by a Miami club, eventually the club agreed to her demands. She began receiving threatening phone calls from people claiming to be from the KKK but said publicly that she was not afraid of them. Josephine followed up her sold-out run at the club with a national tour. Rave reviews and enthusiastic audiences accompanied her everywhere, climaxed by a parade in front of a hundred thousand people in Harlem after she was named NAACP’s ‘woman of the Year’ Sunday, 20 May 1951 declared “Josephine Baker Day.”

March on Washington, 28.8.1963. Josephine in her French Uniform with French medals. Fair use image from https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/speeches-african-american-history/1963-josephine-baker-speech-march-washington/ The article also includes her entire speech.

In 1963, Josephine spoke at the March on Washington August 28th 1963. Her speech was just before MLK’s famous ‘I have a dream’ speech. She wore her Free French uniform with her medals. Her speech was hard hitting.

‘I was hounded by the government agencies in America, and there was never one ounce of proof that I was a communist. But they were mad. They were mad because I told the truth.’^[xi]

On that day, the Sun and Venus were conjunct at 3′ Virgo, both on her Ascendant, showing her visibility (Ascendant) and power (Sun). She was one of only two women (Venus) who spoke on that day.

Josephine began adopting children, forming a family she called The Rainbow Tribe. Baker wanted to prove that “children of different ethnicities and religions could still be brothers.” She adopted two girls and ten boys from, France, Morocco, Korea, Japan, Columbia, Finland, Israel, Algeria, Ivory Coast, and Venezuela. They all lived together in her huge Chateau Demilandes in the Dordogne. She brought her children up in different religions as part of her experiment, two of the children from Algeria were raised one as Muslim and the other Catholic. The rainbow family brings us back to Iris and her sacred rainbow, bringing all worlds together and her Venus Neptune in soulful, caring, home based Cancer, wanting to heal wounds by nurturing her children.

Josephine and 10 of her children, Amsterdam 1964. Wikipedia Creative commons.

Josephine remained a huge celebrity in France. More than twenty thousand people crowded the streets of Paris to watch her funeral procession, she was honoured by a twenty-one gun salute. Place Joséphine Baker in Montparnasse, Paris was dedicated in her honour.

As Iris, the messenger, she passed the torch on to the next generation.

‘I am not a young woman now, friends. My life is behind me. There is not too much fire burning inside me. And before it goes out, I want you to use what is left to light that fire in you.’ [xii]

Next week on my substack I will talk about the mythology of Iris: Out June 16th 10 am. Link here

Other voices of resistance: Harriet Beecher Stowe:14.6.1811. 11:00 Litchfield Conn. (Sun, Fortuna, Jupiter, Midheaven and Mercury in Gemini) author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Anne Frank, 12.6.1929. 06:30 Frankfurt. Sun, Mercury in Gemini. Diarist.

Extract from Goddess Astrology. Buy here