The T-shaped pillars are abstract and stylised but clearly anthropomorphic, with hands resting above a belt: Temple reconstruction in Sanilurfa museumĪside from ancestors or gods, the pillars may represent the dual principle of creation, or perhaps a doorway between worlds.

Huge twin pillars stand in the centre of each temple that may have represented ancestors or gods. Something similar could have been going on at Gobekli Tepe, the hunter-gatherer temple in Turkey dated to c. For example, the Nommo are the ancestral spirits of the Dogon people of Mali in West Africa, consisting of four pairs of twins. But many also have a primordial pair of gods and/or goddesses to whom they trace their lineage. This pattern is found in Egyptian, Sumerian, Babylonian, Akkadian, and Greek creation myths. Many feature twin gods and goddesses as brother and sister who stand for the dual principle of the universe: unity becomes duality becomes many – all contained within one wholeness. Duality is fundamental to reality and the creation myths of ancient cultures reflect that truth. The concept of twins in mythology goes back into the Palaeolithic and may be one of the earliest ideas we ever used in our stories. Let’s dive into the pile and see what we can learn about the myths behind the twins… Gemini – Symbols of Duality Gemini is ruled by Mercury and balanced in its search for information by the opposite sign of Sagittarius which provides context and meaning for the big pile of facts accumulated by the winged messenger. The twin pillars are bound together, connecting heaven and earth, suggesting that the link between these worlds is to be found in the human mind. The Gemini symbol is two upright parallel lines joined at the top and bottom, so the duality of the sign also implies a unity. This is the first sign of the zodiac that has a human representation rather than an animal one. The Gemini twins represent duality and communication, which can only happen when there are two. If Aries stands for the subject and Taurus stands for the object, then Gemini is the relationship between these two: the knower and the known giving rise to a third, knowledge itself. As a mutable air sign, Gemini provides the ability to know and understand reality. Gemini has been supported by funding from Cancer Research UK, 2007-2012 (C1418/A7974) MQ:Transforming Mental Health, 2018-2023 (MQF17/4) Economic and Social Research Council, 2020-2021 (ES/V005006/1), Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, 2022-2023.From the earth of Taurus springs the butterfly mind of Gemini. Data also include repeated measures of: child eating behaviour, food preferences, temperament and sleep parental feeding practices, eating behaviour, sleep, wellbeing, and physical activity the early home family food, activity and media environment DNA and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on health and wellbeing. Gemini also has the largest contemporary dietary dataset British toddlers, collected using 3-day diet diaries when children were approximately 21 months old, and repeated at 7 years of age. Gemini has one of the richest datasets of early life growth, with anthropometrics collected every 3 months from birth. Gemini aims to advance understanding of the genetic and environmental influences on obesity risk to identify potentially modifiable determinants of excessive weight gain in adolescents and to contribute to a longer-term programme of integrated genetic environmental research in preventive health behaviours.ĭata have been collected from birth, and data collection is ongoing. The twin design allows researchers to establish the relative contribution of genetic and environmental influences on early growth and behaviour the prospective design enables researchers to understand the cause-effect relationships between weight and behaviour from birth, as these traits emerge and develop.

It is the largest study of the genetic and environmental contributions to early growth ever to be undertaken. Gemini is a population-based birth cohort of 2402 families with twins born in England and Wales between March and December 2007, set up to assess genetic and environmental contributions to early life growth, with a focus on behavioural pathways.