The Twins

The two bright stars of Gemini are prominent in the winter sky—a beautiful sight just east of Taurus and Orion. Since earliest history, this constellation has been recognized as the Twins.

Just what these twins represent is somewhat of a mystery. The Greeks and Romans named them individually as gods and heroes, but they had names before that.

In researching the meanings of eight named stars in the constellation, I find that they fall into two classes: auspicious and dire. In one class is judge, lord and branch (sign of a rising ruler). In the other, burden, sorrow and scorn. The myths make one brother mortal and the other immortal.

Some believe the Twins represent the Messiah, the promised God-man (Genesis 3:15), and that they stand for the great mystery of his being.

This mystery has been the subject of long speculation and investigation. The orthodox view was hammered out in the early church: Messiah is fully God and fully man—two natures united in one person.

Though the stars names in Gemini fall into two distinct classes, the stars of each class do not belong to a particular one of the twins. Each twin has both lordly and sorrowful names. This further supports the idea of two natures fully united in one person. He is the Lord who came to suffer, and the scorned one who will judge.