Do you know why Mercury is so sparkly? Because it borrows the light of the Sun.

It never leaves the Sun. It’s always seen at a close distance away. Sometimes, Mercury gets so close to the Sun that it disappears. This is one interpretation of the dynamic between Mercury and the Sun. Another interpretation would be that the Sun never allows Mercury to leave.

Gemini is the talented sign. Planets here glimmer and wink. They can get away with a lot because they’re just good at things. They say witty things that leave you gasping. If they offend you, you might not even notice because you’re laughing too hard.

Gemini sextiles Leo. It’s the Mercury ruled sign that sextiles two signs where the Sun is at its strongest.

In a relationship between Leo and Gemini, some people might be surprised to hear that it’s usually Gemini who shines brighter. We associate a lot of things with Leo—bossiness, dominance, and strength. It’s easy to forget that Leo is a fixed sign. It’s nature is to not move.

Gemini gives Leo the relief of motion. Gemini is so funny, so charming, and it changes its mind every half second. This is a tremendous thing for Leo. Leo can finally breathe a sigh of fresh air. You see, Leo doesn’t know that it can change its mind all the time. Leo is a sign that wants to be a good person who does good things in the world. It believes that, to do that, it must remain loyal to its own objectives. Leo fools itself into believing that accomplishment is the feat of achieving what you set out to do.

And Gemini knows the folly in that. It knows that you never get exactly what you planned. If you make a well constructed plan, then only one or two things will go wrong. If your plan is badly thought out, then everything will go wrong.

This is unless you’re very, very lucky.

I think that this is something Gemini gives Leo. Gemini is a lucky sign. It’s not only happy go lucky, it’s actually really very lucky. Leo is primarily a moralistic sign. It believes in earning good things by doing good deeds. Gemini knows that the world is a swirl of chaos and that good things and bad things happen randomly to a motley of people. From there, Geminis create opportunities. They learn to listen to the wind.

There’s a quality of Leo that I think is understated—Leos know themselves too well. They know what they like. They understand their own preferences. The Sun’s glyph is a big eye and the big eye sees everything. Leo is the sign of self knowing. That’s why Leos are so freaking cool and confident. They’re like big cats. They walk around like they own the place.

Then, Leo meets Gemini. The big cat, the king of the animals, meets an agent of chaos.

Basically, I think the Geminis can really push Leos in all of the right ways. They show Leos how to flip equations in their brain. They tell Leos about all of the hidden secrets of a social scene. If Leo is a big eye, then Gemini doesn’t let Leo get away with only focusing on the same thing. It shows Leo how to dance around, how to spin.

Leo loves this. What do eyes love most? They love to be entertained. Gemini provides this in bounds.

There’s something that Leo gives Gemini as well. Leo gives Gemini direction and structure.

Gemini is mostly a vessel. Leo is the one who has the strongest internal structure of the zodiac. Again, Leos know who they are. Using that knowledge, they have a good sense of where they are going as well. If Leo were a compass then that compass would be trusty and true. Leo have ambition. They don’t want to just stand out for any random reason. They know when to be visible and they know when to hide as well.

Attention is something that Geminis struggle to wield. A Gemini often acts as though they have no idea which weird statements will get them the most attention and which will be ignored. Mercury wears a cup like hat on top of its head. Gemini sometimes sees attention as something that it can receive, refuse, or be deprived of.

Leo doesn’t see attention in the same way. This is the rule of the Sun. Leo gives. Attention is a tool that follows a Leo’s command. Leo gives attention, measures it, and tempts you with it to leave you even more wanting. This is how Leos flirt. They understand that attention is a primal need for most of us. That’s why Leo, being a big cat, is an animal type sign.

There’s something about Leo that grounds a Gemini like no other sign. They speak the same language and can refer to the same things. They relate to one another eagerly. And then, Leo shows Gemini that ambition isn’t about getting attention for all of the things that you are very good at. Leo can teach Gemini that ambition is a deeper, more personally worthy goal. Your talents are just your talents. They’re not a doomsday prophecy that forces you to honor your gifts. It’s quite alright to not be interested in something that you excel at. It’s also alright to love something that you’re very bad at.

Gemini shows Leo that identity isn’t static, that a single person can be many things at once. Leo shows Gemini how to properly look at themselves, how to see not just all the versions of yourself who you can be but the person you want to be.

Jackie O was a Leo and JFK was a Gemini. JFK brought her to his every campaign because he noticed that only when she was around did the crowds get big. When historian Arthur M. Schlesinger visited them, he said that Jackie O had an “an all-seeing eye and a ruthless judgment.”

Vision is something that is hard to define. We sometimes say that people have it and we sometimes say that people don’t. Vision has to do with perception but it also has to do with inquisitiveness. You need to be curious about the world, need to have some means to read it, and you need to be willing to shift your perspective so that your vision doesn’t form into a tunnel-like shape.

Something magical happens when Gemini and Leo come together. They develop vision. Leo brings the dauntlessness and the will. Gemini brings the sharp ears that they use to hear everything so well. They come together, neither naive nor jaded, and they create vision. This is something that they give one another that not a single one of us can piece together in isolation.