Pronounced ILL-AHN / ЫЛАН.

Picking a name was not simple for us. At some point we came across ILAN and kept returning to it. Each time we talked about names ILAN kept moving up our lists.

ILAN is a Hebrew name meaning “oak tree” or “great tree.”

One of the fun things about the name to us, is the hint of magic in it.

Our ancient ancestors saw “faces” in trees and eventually those faces thought and felt emotions. They were acting from two uniquely human brain functions, Theory of Mind and Hypersensitivity Agency Detection Device (HADD), which injected spirituality into the world. Theory of Mind causes you to map how you think onto other things. HADD wires your brain to suspect a strange sound you hear is caused by “a thing,” instead of the whistling wind or a creaking window.

Tree worship is one of the oldest forms of religion. Most every religion has found a spiritual connection through trees. Celtic druids, Indian mystics and Greek oracles talked to God through trees. The three major monotheist religions all have stories of God speaking to prophets at ancient trees.

The magical qualities of trees extend to post-religious societies in which studies of happiness find that spending time in forests are consistently found to make people happy and relieve the stressors of life.

If the stork just delivered a Gemini baby to your house, sharpen your roller skates and shake the cobwebs out of your brain. You’ll need to be fast and alert for the next fifteen to twenty years.

You may be able to count only ten toes and ten fingers, which adds up to one infant in most cases, but not in the case of a Gemini infant. There may have to be a change in your concept of mathematics. You’ll swear you just this second saw him with his hand inside the electric mixer in the pantry. But how could that be? There he is, all the way out on the front porch, blissfully chewing the petunias. How can he be two places at once?

Gemini children often make older, more placid people nervous with their bird-like, quick movements. Grownups are always telling the little Geminian to stop fidgeting, or to be patient and do one thing at a time. But doing two things at a time is natural to these youngsters.

The Gemini child who argues with you that he can do his homework and listen to the radio at the same time is probably telling the truth. If his grades back him up, why not? Geminis are never satisfied with one pursuit at a time. It’s as if they had two lives to live in only one lifetime, so they must absorb all they can, as fast as they can. Your Gemini child may find it hard to be punctual, because he’s always running into some new discovery on his way to anywhere. He may also find it hard to listen without interrupting, because he’s caught the thought instantly and doesn’t want to hear the details.

In the classroom, he can be distracted by a fly, a piece of colored paper or a wisp of smoke outside the window. It’s never easy to get his attention, but when you do, you’ll be richly rewarded by the Geminian’s intent curiosity and flattering interest. When your Gemini child finally grows up, lots of people will tell you disapprovingly that “he has too many fingers stuck in too many pies.” You’ll smile then, and they may be annoyed. But you’ll be remembering one spring day when he was seven. He stuck his fingers in your chocolate pies, his father’s shaving cream, the fish bowl, the garbage can, a pot of hot soup and an electric socket. After a while, you sighed, and asked yourself aloud, “Why must he rush around so? Why must he get into everything? What in the world is he searching for?” He overheard you and answered. “Gee, Mommy … I don’t know. But don’t you worry. I’ll find it.”