Saturn square Neptune. Clarity is so hard to come by. Recently my husband made a remark that explained a lot to me.
My husband is from the South…and Latin America. He’s also, Italian and Arab if you want to talk about DNA. But he did grow up in America and several countries in Latin America. We met in my hometown, Tucson, as teenagers.
In his shoes, it makes sense a person would try to figure out the people in whatever city they were in. He decided at the time, the people in Arizona were similar to Southerners.
“They’re country…you’re western. Together, you’re country western.”
Hmm.
The people around here are “country”. They call themselves that. It’s a point of pride. I don’t know that I feel the same about being “western”, but I can’t deny I relate to the concept and I’ll tell you how I know.
I was sitting in the local salon, getting my hair done. There is an old man who comes in there to visit. Actually, everyone comes in their to visit. Or drop off tomatoes or cake or soup or whatever. But this man, I liked him instantly. For one thing, he was wearing a cowboy shirt…a western shirt. I recall feeling this kind of familiarity. This was long before my husband explained this to me.
“I like that shirt,” I said.
“Me too,” he said. Turned out he’s a Southerner, a local man, but he lived in, Texas, for twenty-five years. So he’s, “country western”, I’d say.
The dancing is different. It’s all banjos around here. They stomp and stuff. In Tucson, it was western swing music. But there is a kind of simpatico between the two cultures.
Both groups place high value on independence and hard work. They like to solve their own problems. They’re nice but not keen to take much crap…from anyone for any reason.
I thought this might be interesting to read on a number of levels. If nothing else, it seems a good idea to focus what you have in common with others as opposed to your differences. But what I really like is concept, the cultures combine to make something.
My husband figured this out via taking to cowboys. “Where I’m from, we eat cows. Never thought of hopping on their backs and ridin’ ’em.”
He was a big hit, you can imagine.
How do you fit in? Can you think of a culture that would blend well or compliment your own?
I guess one culture that’s similar to the deep south is southern Italy and Sicily especially. Their culture is relaxed, they have a relaxed dialect that often gets made fun of by northern italians, they are more carefree and even have a sort of hospitality (some of them are mean but then some souther people in the US are also mean- racists, sexist etc) and they are VERY proud of their culture just like southerners here in the US.
I have Saturn square Neptune in my natal chart. I was born and raised in Southern California, near the beach and would watch the fireworks from Disneyland from my backyard fence every summer evening. My family immigrated to California around 1908, from Scotland. I felt like a fish out of water growing up, I have pale freckled skin, red curly hair and a thick build. The beauty ideal was a skinny tanned skin blonde in a string bikini. During puberty I thought I was ugly.
I learned astrocartography in 2000 and tried it out. I moved to my Venus Ascendant line which runs thru east Texas, a state I had never set foot in and knew nothing about. I will celebrate my 10th year of bliss here next year. I absolutely adore the culture. I still smile when I encounter a native with a thick accent. This is the only place I have ever lived where I truly feel at home and completely safe. I swear I wake up everyday and give thanks for my new home town and neighborhood, where the motto is “Keep it purty”. And now that I am about to turn 53, I see the most beautiful woman staring back at me in the mirror. I no longer feel ugly as I felt growing up in So. Cal.
Another SoCal gal here who used to watch the Disneyland fireworks from our roof :o) I can so relate to your story. Mum’s family came to the states from England. I’m fair skinned with auburn hair and a sturdy build. When I moved to the west side of Oregon some 20 years ago, I finally stopped feeling like a fish out of water. The moist climate feels like home and I blend in better with the quirky folks up here. My relocation chart shows that Uranus backed off its exact conjunction with my AC into the 12th house *and* my IC goes straight through the focal point of my interconnected yod and kite. I feel integrated at last. I’m so glad you feel at home in Texas !!
I’m from Atlanta and now live in Kentucky. I’ve had to explain time and time again that I am “southern” and Kentuckians are “country” (at least in this part of KY). They get confused as to why I “don’t talk like country folk.” That’s because my accent is classical southern… We’re definitely different, but very similar.
I’m a native Texan. I moved to New Mexico with my first husband in 2002 and said I’d never return to Texas. I returned in 2007 when my son was born. Bullshit Rodeo is my love hate letter to Texas and my unrequited love letter to California. I believe I would have flourished in California, Oregon, New York, Germany, Portugal. I’ve had to fight all my life. Saturn in Gemini opposes Neptune in Sagittarius. My Gemini mom put wire rollers in my hair and put me in beauty pageants. I wish she had bought me a microscope instead.
Tucson was hard for me to get a read on but I loved it. Id agree somewhat with your husband
He decided at the time, the people in Arizona were similar to Southerners.
There is actually a book about this called Albion’s Seed (Amazon link). Basically it details how the British settlers in the US broke up into groups and then spread out to their West – that is, Southerners tended to be the people populating Arizona. There is a variant version of this – the 11 Nations of America (WaPo link) which is just a finer breakdown of the same basic idea.
Tucson would’ve been heavily influenced by Mexico (‘El Norte’) making it tougher to nail down.
I don’t know that I feel the same about being “western”, but I can’t deny I relate to the concept and I’ll tell you how I know.
Being a sixth-generation Texan (at least by one branch of my ancestry) I can say I definitely relate to the Plains and the West far more than I relate to the South (and ‘country’). As a Dallasite, semi-urban/urban suits me just fine. I tend to get a little claustrophobic though (I dig the big sky) so the really dense urban stuff can be a bit much. But then, that’s why we have trains, planes and automobiles.
In Tucson, it was western swing music.
I much prefer swing over bluegrass. Of course, I like zydeco even better.
How do you fit in?
Uh, pretty terribly, actually.
Can you think of a culture that would blend well or compliment your own?
California (I know that works), the Midwest, France, UK, Italy, Greece. (I might be full of it on Europe.)
max
[‘I’ll just wear black and not care.’]
Both cultures, the men get together to solve problems. They form a posse in Arizona. I don’t know what a similar thing is called in the South, but the men take you (let’s say you’re a thief) to the county line and make it clear, you best not come back.
I have a Mazda. There is no Mazda dealership around here so the car stands out. I routinely get eyed / followed by sheriff cars or whatever, until they see my local license plate. It’s the same in the “west”. You ride into town and everyone wants to know if you are friend or foe.
Haha, I understand what you are saying. After we moved out west, from the south, my husband was standing around talking to a group of guys. Almost all guys like to talk about hunting (though my husband is not a hunter). So they’re talking wildlife and shooting and one of them says he’s looking forward to cow season. The other guys heartily agree. My husband looks at them in shock and says, “well, don’t ya’ll think that’s kinda unfair?”, thinking of the cows we’ve always seen in family pastures.
Turns out a female elk is called a cow. They ribbed him about that for years.
A priest, about 10 years ago, told me I’d fit right in, in the parish he’d just retired from, in Brazil (he had intuited, that I, too, express my gratitude for my blessings.. even in moments where linear-minded people wouldn’t see any – yes, I checked my understanding of what he was saying, at the time.)
PS (by asking questions) 😉
Even in a tiny country like Denmark there are several dissimilarities. A couple of years ago I moved from one end of the country to the other (350 miles or so) – and yet, there are differences.
People here are nice to me, they provide excellent service (hardworkers), but their mentality is that you donmt give a lot of praise or feedback. They’d rather turn a compliment to something like “It’s not that bad” and similar ways of expressing their satisfaction.
Naturally this is also present on the workplace. Not much praise or feedback are being given, and if any it’s very lowkey. The parole seems to be: “If I do not complain it’s fine”
I’m sick of it, to be true. I feel extremely demotivated in my work efforts because where I come from people know how to recognize an honest effort and act accordingly. Your work is not regarded with a lifted eyebrow but with a “thank you”.
I’m growing more desperate by the day. My boyfriend says “If you don’t do something about it you could end up with stress and depression in a year”.
But frankly, I’m terrified of doing anything. I like it here. I just don’t like to work anywhere. And well, that’s just not an option. So, this must be a typical Saturn/Neptune situation I guess.
“Even in a tiny country like Denmark there are several dissimilarities.”
I’m amazed how people distinguish themselves, stating they are from X, not y, when the two towns are twenty miles apart, of similar size or whatever. But then you go to these towns and they do have their own vibe.
I love topics like this. 🙂
Would you not recommend it..
I fitted right in with a Tuscan-Apulian family, but then again, I’m much more outgoing than people in my country, generally speaking, and come from an exceptionally tight family.
One culture people from my neck of the wood seem to have found compatible, is Ojiwbe/Chippewa Native Americans in Great Lakes Region in The US and Canada. When Finns – who were mostly from the Region my Dad’s from, in fact all the siblings of my great grandmother but one immigrated – arrived to the area, the good agricultural land was taken by Germans, Swedes and Norwegians, and Finns settled to Chippewa Region. Turns out, they got along with Chippewa for various reasons. They worked the woods, only hunted or fished what they needed, and had their variation of sweating as a form of purification. Both were looked down as “savages” by traditional Anglo society, but not by each other. There were enough marriages between two peoples for “Finindian” to become a thing.
I don’t know where I fit in, really. I’m too conservative for the liberals, too liberal for the conservatives 😉
I’m American but live abroad now and love it. I’m not much of a community person however, so I live in a big city in a touristy area. I *hate* having shopkeepers, etc recognize me. Makes me feel trapped. If someone gets too friendly and I’ve been there too often, I make sure not to return again for a very long time. I like to feel anonymous and invisible. I know its weird, but its how I feel. (Yes, I’ve got a lot in the 12th house 🙂 )
What country did you move to if you don’t mind me asking… I feel the same as you do but I’m getting really unsatisfied and lonely here
Hi Kri! I’m in the UK, in one of the countries that make up the United Kingdom. To interact, I’ve chosen to emphasis my religious side. So I meet people through church and I’m just the ‘liberal believer’ in their midst. Its just enough contact so I don’t turn all Howard Hughes 😉 but not so much that I feel like a caged bird (I have a sun/uranus, venus/uranus).