I was surprised and flattered to be tagged me as an “outsider storyteller”, back in 2008. Mostly I was grateful to be defined. With such a strong Saturn Neptune signature in my chart, I simply have no idea what I am doing or why at least 90% of the time so I was thrilled with the observation, or the label because it seemed right.
Now my husband is also an outsider and I got to thinking about what makes a person this way. In his case, he has lived somewhere other than normal society most his life. He has lived in isolation and other extreme circumstances most his life so it’s easy to see how he could have trouble fitting in with the more socialized people he encounters.
I am from a similar situation having grown up in total isolation without transportation, a phone, a tv or basically anything else. No shoes, no heat, only the most basic clothing, etc. Consequently, when I got to town, I had no basic training around how people are supposed to act which I think explains a lot. People tell me I think a lot. Well what would you do if you were stuck out in the desert with the dirt all day, hmm?
My ideas are going to be original because I was not taught the standard curriculum. It is the same phenomena that has my husband get back after twenty years of war, to be completely baffled as to why all the women are waxing their pubic hair. This is beyond his comprehension see? It makes no sense to him.
I have heard reference to OPP’s in astrology. OPP stands for “Outer Planet Person”. It’s supposed to signify someone who is attuned to the outer planets and acts out of sync with the collective. Sounds like another way to say “outsider” to me, however it makes no sense to me because the criteria is what?
The criteria is that you have an outer planet on an angle? An outer planet conjunct your Sun or Moon? How about an outer planet opposite your Sun or Moon? How about you Sun or Moon in a house ruled by an outer planet? You get the idea.
After awhile it dawns that everyone is an “outer planet person” and since we are not all outsiders, how do we explain this?
What makes a person an outsider?
Great post! outer planets people are in sink with outer patterns of the universe, in sink with slow movements of the cosmic dance… we seem out, but we are really IN! it will just take the collective some time to follow 🙂 it makes us weird, but in time weird will be equal to be a ahead… keep dancing Elsa.
This post makes me want to kind of sob. . . . with recognition? I grew up with heat and TV and all the comforts, but I can so relate to this.
“I had no basic training around how people are supposed to act which I think explains a lot. People tell me I think a lot, well what would you do if you were stuck out in the desert with the dirt and that’s all, hmm?”
At 36, I still feel this way. And I’m never one to mime or watch trends or do what others do (I wouldn’t even know how), but sometimes I really have to stop and observe and go about things differently because, left to my own devices, well, yeah… that might get tricky.
I love definition because of this. People say things to me, and I’m always stunned. You’re this or you’re that. I have no knowledge of it, but it’s always interesting to see how I come across…
I write about outsiders all the time in my fiction. It’s a fascinating topic and I love love love this post and always love that desert picture. Incredible.
But to answer the question, I think it’s just what you said, simple, people who aren’t in the “norm,” like if you’re not waxing your pubic hair, well, in that circle, you’re an outsider.
And, yeah, who comes up with these things? I live in a highly trendy area outside NYC, and I always miss the boat by a mile. Like this certain toenail polish or sunglasses. I guess it’s coming from Hollywood, but man it all just goes over my head. In fact, I’m mostly in my head and just don’t notice.
i had a “normal” suburban upbringing but i definitely didn’t fit in [grand cross with asc/sun/mars/uranus]. i don’t understand how the herd thinks. or doesn’t think, as it were.
my [rhetorical] question is, which is more challenging: growing up in unusual circumstances and then interacting with the masses or being raised in a cookie cutter environment as the outsider? one can’t generalize of course, but it’s interesting to think about.
i felt more at home–as an outsider–living in japan than i do in america. over there the differences were so extreme it was actually comforting. here, we speak the same language but it doesn’t mean the same thing.
I think an outer planet person is someone with a conjunction of the outer planet to the sun or moon or the ascendant. That’s it, otherwise everybody would qualify.
As far as being an outsider….well, to me that’s about Saturn. The orginal training to be an outsider is born of isolation and hardship, which forges toughness and independence, that Capricorn unsinkability. How you compensate for that or respond to it, maybe that would have to do with the outer planets, Uranus making a person resourceful or inventive; Pluto an indestructabilty of spirit and so on.
Retrogrades, too, can be isolating. They give you different types of access to time, which can make a person appear more introspective and send them off in different directions from their peers who are experiencing life directly.
I have Sun conjunct Uranus and I’ve been puzzling over this all day. No real solution yet because you make a darned good point. I guess, like everything else in your chart, it’s how much you feel like you relate to your outer planets that makes the difference. In my case, I was born an alien and trained myself to assimilate over the years. But then I got bored.
Yes, Jessica! Then that’s the thing, just how much do you want to assimilate – in certain areas, I do . . . so I watch and learn, but others no way.
I have always felt I was an Outsider. I do think it is my Pluto in Leo conjunct Virgo Moon in the 12th.
Amber, is your Pluto in fourth or twelfth? I’m just curious, I have that exact same aspect myself. 🙂
(BTW, isn’t “twelfth” such a weird word? If we were ESL speakers or encountering it in a foreign language I’m sure we’d all be like, “OMG! How do you say that</em??!”)
I was shoved into outsider-dom at an early age, but it’s there in my chart so I suppose it had to manifest somehow. From the outside looking in my life seemed fairly normal, but when I tell people the true story they get whiplash from the double-take. *shrug* I just mosey along, there’s nothing else I can do about it — I certainly don’t want people I can’t relate to all up in my bid’ness.
I do have to remind myself that I’m a weirdo, though. I keep expecting people to act “rational” (ie, like me) and get baffled when it goes awry. *lol*
Gah! Sorry for messing up that tag, y’all.
I don’t know what exactly in my chart makes me an outsider. Aquarius Moon & Mars in my 4th house? Sun conjunct Saturn in the 7th? I have always felt like I never fitted in or belonged anywhere. When I was a kid I was always “weird” for not having a mom (my mom passed away when I was 4); when I was a teenager I was a foreigner and looked different so I experienced a fair amount of racial discrimination. My best friends were the other kids who were weird and different.
So I embraced my outsider-ness. I still don’t feel like I belong anywhere but I’m cool with that. And the people in my life are a totally mixed bunch of fellow-outsiders. I don’t know what this has to do with Outer Planets though…
Is there an inside? I didn’t even notice. I was staring off into space contemplating whether we’ll discover Atlantis or something;)
Pisces
i think i just heard some kind of cartoon slingshot sound like you might hear on roadrunner. that was me with my head in the clouds realizing my feet are still on the ground.
I think there is definitely an inside. I’ll put it this way: When two outsiders meet, they know it. Or how about 3 outsiders?
The soldier and I have met the guy at the gym… he is definitely an(other) outsider and there are all kinds of hijinks trying to know each other. Really it’s one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen. It’s akin to high comedy, I have no way to convey it at the moment because I just can’t figure it out.
Yeah, I see the inside, feel it too (Pisces). I just realized that I observe it like looking into a fishbowl though, or maybe the same way one observes a petri dish. I don’t understand it. I just watch with a furrowed brow. Hubby is the same way, fortunately.
As I’m going through a Saturn transit, I’m doing everything I can to see and do *everything* differently. Pushing myself right off the cliff of my current paradigm. I don’t want to just get out of bed on a different side, but get out of bed by stepping on the nightstand, whatever it takes to shift my “norm.”
That leaves me wondering if there is a way to look at the “inside” differently??? I’m going to go and dream about that one.
Nite nite,
Pisces
well, I’m just going to let my freak flag fly!
Hmm. It’s an interesting thought. I don’t know if I’m in OR out!
I just know that I’ve always the concept of “me” and “them”. And the “them” is most other people.
And that I feel I walk in plane where everyone mostly seems like ghosts. And they see through me like I’m a ghost. Meaning that neither of us really see or respond to each other.
But every now and then, I’ll see someone in full color. And they see me. They REALLY SEE me. And I’m not a ghost anymore.
I think this is kind of like what you are saying about how outsiders know each other when they meet.
The only thing I’ve figured out about it is – in that book, A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle, he talks about a sense of awareness outside of ego. And that you can orient yourself by becoming aware of and then detaching from your ego. And when you do this – you see the world differently. Everything has an essence and an energy and a power of its essential being.
When I read this – after hearing allll this hoopla about the wonders of this book. I thought ‘Well DUH’. He’s talking about the world I live in. The ghost plane. And in the ghost plane, you just see the world differently. I think you just live seeing the essential “being-ness” of everything. You don’t think in similes (“like” or “as”) you think in metaphors. Brand new grass is screaming fresh energy. The sun hanging low is a glowing orange. You drive 60mph on cement arteries that are the artificial blood vessels of the cyborg we are creating form the Earth. Just life looks different. More vivid. Fewer absolutes. And lots of repeating references.
My feeling is that this plane where you see and experience the essential “being-ness” is the spiritual aura of the world – or a realm of it. I live there. It’s what is there by default when I look out my eyes.
When I speak from my world in my language -most of the world does not understand me. So I’ve learned to cope. I’ve learned to dumb down and straighten out my words. And my ideas when I let them “out”. Because I just sound like an alien to people not in the ghost world if I don’t.
But I tell you what – when I meet those other people in the spiritual plane, it’s such a relief. It’s like being able to take full breaths and let my hair down and unfold my real energy which I hold clenched tightly to me lest it alienate me completely, and let it flow.
But the real point about the Tolle book – is his idea (built on the ideas of many others) is to let go of ego to get to this other state / realm of being where you are more consciously aware of being part of a collective.
And to me that matches what I’ve read about in astrology – with the idea that there is a dividing point between the “me” (ego) oriented signs (Aries through Virgo) and the “us” (collective) oriented signs (Libra through Pisces) – which, if I am not mistaken, align with the division between the inner and outer planets.
althera- that was absolutely beautiful! you nailed it! when I am not tapped into this, I know I am out of synchronicity!
Yes. Out of alignment – exactly! It’s funny, because when you say it like that it also ties to the ideas in the Law of Attractions books – where the goal in life is to live authentically in true alignment with your essential being. That will bring you the most happiness and allow you to give the best of your gifts to / put the best of the energy you have to offer into the world.
You are absolutely right!
Living disconnected from it when it is so much who you are, puts you out of alignment.
Hmmm. You have me really thinking.
I’m learning astrology, and am checking the ole’ natal, and at least in terms of what’s been defined here, I fit the outer planet person profile. But once again, what I’m learning seems to affirm what I’ve always known about myself. It’s funny. I have a very “public” job, and while I enjoy it very much, I’ve always felt like I was somebody who hides in plain sight. And this is something most people don’t seem to understand when I try to explain it to them. Those who do understand…well, thank heavens..
Definitely an outsider, definitely an outer planet person. I do understand the collective though–Always been this way, outsider on every level. Not proud of it, i would love to be a normal “something.” Hardship, isolation — check, check.
So i tend to run with marginalized people, other outsiders. I don’t try to – it just kinda happens that way. Anyone i’m close with doesn’t quite fit in with whatever group they are kinda supposed to belong to.
um *raises hand* saturn conjunct uranus in the 11th (in 29 sag), neptune in the 12th, pluto conj scorpio mc ( Sun in Scorpio ) .. cap asc with aquarius intercepted in the 1st. Saturn at 0 deg cap… need i say more?
In middle school i was the religious one… and now i’ve completely turned around. Complete transformation ( Pluto ) of my Beliefs ( 9th House ) … ( and yes i do have pluto in the 9th, as well as venus there.)
though surprisingly even in middle school when i was religious my friends were still of the most off-beat, “weird” variety! hee.
What a powerful force – the misfit. How many movies are catered to the feeling of disenfranchisement? How much of our popular culture, beat into us through advertising, makes clear this distinction to us: if you have/do/are this this and that, then you are “in”. But with so many whirling images and demands of what it is we need to do/buy/be/etc to stay hip/in/alive, it is inevitable we will all feel overwhelmed.
The many varieties of outsidership are pretty astounding. It isn’t surprising – if being “inside” means conforming to a certain set of standards, rules, beliefs, an ethos, how much easier is it to fall outside of that, in any number of ways?
For some reason I have been feeling this theme powerfully this holiday season, embracing ones own strangeness, ones differences, ones oddities, ones outside-ness. I love that this post came up. I wonder if there is anything in the astrology, especially regarding the longstanding Saturn/Uranus opposition, that would point to the collective trying to process this idea at large.
Someone mentioned that the idea of outsideness was a Saturn thing, an unsinkability.
There is a kind of perspective that one gains as an outsider, which often involves a form of leadership, albiet of an altruistic sort. Little praised, but there to save the day because they’ve had their eyes open and have been on their toes, attuned to the strangeness overlooked by others the whole time – I definitely agree, outsiders just look at each other’s eyes sometimes and know.
I think it can also be something one perpetuates purposefully. One can decline accolades and honors, main stream integration, and remain on the periphery. This can sometimes manifest as a fear of success in the conventional terms, on anyone else’s definition but their own.
Finally, I’d like to underscore the underlying biological basis for outside-ness: without anomaly, adaptation and evolution would be severely compromised. Vive la difference, literally.
Also, sun conjunct pluto? And Saturn Uranus opposition? How does this play into our consideration of misfitism?
Down wit OPP, yeah you know me!! Now of course that song was NOT talking about the current subject matter howeva… lol Uranus & Pluto rising, Sun conjunct Mars in Aries the 8th house. Venus in Aquarius square NN.
I have never felt that I fit in because my thoughts tend to run counter mainstream and I’ve hidden many of those quirky aspects of my personality.
Would Venus and Sun opposing Uranus contribute to being an outsider because that’s part of my chart and people call me “weird” all the time.
I can relate to being an outer planet person.I have neptune in the twelfth conjunct my ascendant in Sag by 12 degrees by strong nonetheless!I also have pluto conjunct my mc by 6 degrees sextile neptune,which is square my moon in pisces.
hey i think that acronym is already taken. lol. 80s rap.
i guess i qualify – moon conjunct neptune and uranus on the midheaven (and chiron on the ic if that counts). i had a pretty normal childhood but i have always felt like an outsider.
and elsa your point really resonates with me – when two outsiders meet, they know it. i tend to bond deeply with folks, but it doesn’t happen all the time. and actually, the lack of those connections in my current hometown is, i think, what’s left me feeling discontented.
I was only going to lurk or not visit for a while, but I saw this. I have Uranus conjunct my Scorpio ascendant, and it also opposes my Sun, inconjuncts moon/venus/node, trines mars. It affects me.
I wasn’t born an outsider, that I know of – like jenfullmoon said something about chiron conjunct her sun, and being born broken, that didn’t happen to me either. ever since the anxiety developed as a kid, due to specific things, I have to push myself past the feeling, “that isn’t acceptable from *me*” – like others can joke about something, but I can’t, or other people are allowed to want a relationship, but with me, I’m supposed to be a robot, continue to be “strong” and “quiet” (as described by someone), and go it alone. my problem here on the boards was from maybe talking too much about my current upsets, and losing my temper over taking something personally – feeling like others were saying I deserved the bullying and other things that happened to me when I was a kid. I was already upset over deaths and another one that was going to happen, and that just got me… but in the past, I didn’t lose my temper, didn’t talk about things that upset me. I had been conditioned into feeling unacceptable and unwanted, even though I was taught the right things, and my manners were just fine for *years*. It may have been a confidence issue – i almost said, “simple” but there’s nothing simple about actually dealing with it at times.
the glasses were unacceptable, the shyness was unacceptable, etc. I wondered why they couldn’t just accept *me*. Just take me as a i was, when I wasn’t doing any harm. I like fitting in, but I won’t do much of anything to actually fit in, if it goes against my principles. I don’t like the bridge that exists between me and most others. Someone who was in my life, pushed me over the edge, and then had the audacity to say that I had an attitude problem, that i was too negative… after he’d pushed me there. I always kept my manners, tried to separate myself from him – and he is the one person in this world that I truly detest. I take responsibility for my actions, but he doesn’t – and he was all about making it clear, most of the time, that he was an outsider, being rude and cynical (leaving me wondering why he chose to bring me and others down), making choices and practically shouting from the rooftops that he was not going to fit into society, he wanted to go crazy, and actually freaked me out a couple of times – and now he’s mr. mindfulness, insulting me by talking down to me, has a relationship, and telling me that I shouldn’t want or need these things. this is what I get.
and this is why I was supposed to be lurking again. too quiet, too talkative, with manners or without, I’m unacceptable.
that was longer than I thought. sorry.
I made the mistake of bonding with him, because he was mostly an outsider, and I was a semi-outsider. He has mars/saturn, but otherwise, he has uranus/pluto in the third house, and uranus opposing sun/moon/mercury.
Waxing pubic hair? Oh my. Am I an outsider because I don’t remove my wild. I would feel like a child without it. A man once requested that. End of relationship before it was the end of me. If he can’t handle some body hair, how’s he gonna handle the tough stuff.
I do so love outsiders. As long as they are not angry and crazy about it. Outsiders are more interesting. I think it’s what’s called “individual”.
All outside here: Pluto to the Nth degree (Scorp rising/8H personal stellium (Moon/Sun/Merc) all aspect Pluto (Moon/SQ, Sun/Sxtl, Merc/Sxtl. Pluto in the 10th w/tight conj to Uranus so he aspects all my personal planets too. Neptune is right on my Ascendant (aspects all personal planets too!) and it rules the house (4th) where my personal ruler naturally resides (moon/4th). Saturn has but one aspect and it is Sq to my Sun (Saturn in the 5th sq the natural ruler of that house in my 8th). I personify all things Pluto. Grew up in an absolute hellish environment. I agree with the sentiment that I see it in my chart so it was going to manifest, and I cannot change the bad things that have happened. I also think that the key to relating to the collective is thru ones Sun, for me thats in cancer and my kids have given me the joy and happiness that I missed as a kid. The Sun is the farthest planet from Pluto I see the contrast as a Heaven and Hell polarity. Intense post by the way.
We all feel alienation on a fundamental level because we’re all unique, but then there are people I consider OOP — those who have very strong outer planet aspects, as a final dispositor, or have it prominent on an angle.
Everyone is “weird” in some way to everyone else who is limited by social (saturn) conventions, but we just can’t ignore it when prominent – the OOP is aware of it when others aren’t, and others see it, but don’t necessarily understand or don’t know how to handle it all of the time.
Any very strong planet energy in a person can be felt by other people, e.g. a very Marsy sportsman is evident to all. But when it’s an outer planet, it smacks you.
Think of Tesla who had Uranus on the Ascendant. Some of us experience this transit once in our lifetime. But he had it ALL the time everywhere around him! The energy is all around us, but he was directly tapped in.
I think we can all learn to deal with it, but OOP do it all the time, and we learn so much from them.
Mum & I both have Aquarius moons and we are WEIRDOS 🙂 each in her own way, Im sure my granpa had something similar because a close friend of my mum told her she never understood why mum was the way she was until she met her father 🙂 And my dad is an eccentric Aquarius Sun weirdo
Sun/Pluto conjunct, both being squared by Saturn, Chiron on the AC, Uranus on the DC. (Nessus on the IC) Aquarius Rising.
I have never “fit” anywhere, I’ve been an outcast since conception. I spent the first 3 months of my life in a foster home, while my birth mother struggled with the inevitability of giving me up for adoption. I was eventually adopted by a woman who didn’t want to adopt–she was just doing it to make my rageaholic father, a man who I believe she already feared, happy. My father “procured” us because he didn’t have much of a family growing up, and we were there to provide him his happy family fantasies. Guess what, nobody would have been, could have been, right for this role, I certainly wasn’t. Everything I did was somehow lacking, I could never be good enough. I was bullied at school, but my mother made it somehow my fault. Even the one thing that they pushed that I was at least competent at–school, was somehow lacking. Education was everything, but somehow, not important enough for them to bother attending my college graduation.
I have a few friends, a few more acquaintances, but I still feel a little “off” in crowds. I’m not good at inane small talk, I’d rather be discussing something meaningful, and that gets in the way of acceptance by the group. Still, I exude a certain power. All my artwork, well, most of it, is about what I call “Dancing with Pluto”–the ability to withstand the gut wrenching, life as you know it annihilation that Pluto bestows as it transits one’s chart, and still remain calm, peaceful, serene in spite of it all.
Natal Uranus square my Sun, transiting Uranus moving through my 4th house, upending my comfort zone. Today I had to do some shopping, and by the time I got home I had decided I need to keep my exposure to other people in an uncontrolled environment to a minimum. In other words, I don’t do well in the middle of the herd – I need to be on the outskirts.
eh, i thought “outsider” was an afflicted uranus/aquarius/saturn function.
or, uhm, eris 😛
To loosely quote Martin Schulman, “…in our uniqueness, we are no different from anyone else”. Our Society makes it easy for many of us to feel alienated and isolated. I think that, to the degree your chart “works with” outer planets, you’ll feel a bit odd. But if you have an outer planet on an angle and strong interactions with that planet, “normal” operations are out of the question. Generally speaking, an OOP’s life is ALL ABOUT not fitting in – even for those who are handling it very well.
I thrive in isolation.
I think someday, we’re going to have to get full circle – back to the SOUL. does the SOUL created the Chart or MAKE THE BIRTH TIME? It must. And past lives must have a credence – a slew of slug lives or skating thru would create a certain type of chart, imo and then if you’ve got this dynamic SOUL that is not going to fade into the woodwork of materialized socialized thought. I think there are Souls on Earth who have been HONED into finely tempered metal. And their charts reflect it.
And we then too, need to look at just what is TIME – the Biggest Illusion of All – and we are in an Evolving , Expanding Universe. So some children go and repeat grade school over and over again. While others came in to to teach the classes when they’re matured into High School. And I know people have what I term a God Channel – that’s wide open, and others can’t even find the frequency they are so dense.
At the very least – all people should always be questioning the nature of reality – and not sit swallowing someone else’s thought. We all need to figure out where we came from and where we are going to end up. Start there – then run the race.
OPPs, I’ve talked about them for decades bein one myself. Yes, we’re all under the influence of the outers but OPPs have close aspects from the outers to their personal planets. It’s, er, personal! So Opps carry the energy of the time and often lead, often being called weird and definitely ‘ahead of their time.’ Who knew then? It’s going to be interesting watching as the Pluto opposite Pluto transits begin. Wowser, Pluto oppositions! I’m Saturn (8) Pluto (13) in Leo it’s ramping up. Interesting times.