Most know we are not a PC type household, this is something I am proud of. We acknowledge our blood, our culture, our genes and whatever else you can think of. We boast and gloat and mock ourselves and others regardless of whether you approve of our conversation. In short we act like Italians and expect other Italians to act like Italians and we are never let down on that front.
Now you can deny cultural differences if you like. You can deny your culture and you can deny mine. You can deny your genes and try to deny my genes too but if you do you will never understand the Moon in astrology. Something (or someone) looks and feels like “home” to you and whatever that is, it is rooted in the soul. Even if you are a wanderer or some kind of gypsy this is so.
There is a trend now where people claim they are not really what they are. There are facebook quizzes where people test, then proclaim themselves “80% black” when they have blond hair and blue eyes. I am flabbergasted by this. It would be like me saying I’m 70% Asian, er… excuse me but that is insane.
I have written before how our culture worships solar energy and devalues the Moon. This is a major mistake. Whether you like it or not you come from a clan and your roots go back and I mean WAAAAY back.
If you are confused about your roots you will not be able to acknowledge someone else’s and if you’re in this condition you should stay the hell out of counseling, that’s for sure. Working as an astrologer these days, you are going to have clients around the globe and if expect a Filipino woman to have the same emotional reaction to something I would, I am going to be completely misguided. If I expect an Indian woman to prioritize things the same way I do, I will be completely unable to help her. You have absolutely got to honor a person’s history and a people’s way of doing things.
I am talking culture on a broad scale here but if you look closer in there are still marked differences. For example, a woman who grew up in Salina, Kansas is going to be very different from a woman who grew up in Boston, MA and a person is simply not going to understand these nuances when in denial of their own blood and family influence.
A few weeks ago my sister asked me what I thought of the “one world” idea and I just laughed. Sounds like a horror story to me, we are not the Borg. That fact I honor my roots is a pretty good indication I will honor yours.
How in touch are you with your lunar side?
Brilliant. So true. I could say so much on this. I don’t even know where to start.
I am very in touch with my roots. And being an Army brat, I’ve been exposed to many other cultures as well. I love it, wouldn’t trade it for the world. I think anyone resistant of another’s culture is losing out big time.
I’ve created for myself *in my imagination* a career dubbed “cultural consultant”. I will assist Hollywood directors in their lousy attempts at recreating authentic cultural scenarios and characters. I’m sorry, but a gang memeber from East L.A. is not gonna have the accent of New Yorker from the Bronx…sheesh…these things bother me. Lol.
Moon (roots) in Capricorn (tradition) in the 2nd (self-worth).
(Cultural) resistance is futile.
I could be wrong, but I think I’m going to end up marrying someone who is not the “best” for my emotional well-being, but his family and mine share a branch of the same roots. His people feel like where I come from.
I was always acutely aware of how different I felt from my former boyfriend’s family. His mother referred to me as “eye-talian” – it was like she had to emphasize the difference by pronouncing the word wrong on purpose.
The truth was, she had two children by one of us “eye-talians” – but he was no good, he left her to raise them by herself, and she’s probably bitter and jaded toward Our People.
Really though, I do know what you mean about the cultural affinity.
I try to find my way, as it pertains to me and others, who like me are such an endless mix of cultures, who moved many times, who grew up isolated, who have little or no extended family…any way you get the idea.
I try to be true to my virgo moon as best I can.
I really enjoy all the ways people can be as a child I wanted very much to be a cultural anthropologist.
In someways I think my cultural heritage is simply that of the outcast.
(although now people think I am cool)
When I was young I dreamed of marrying someone with a wonderful extended family who would take me in.
Instead they hated me, in part for not being white. Now that is over.
I think of what kind of heritage am I giving my children: Being music lovers, being artists, being passionate about life.
Virgo moon is square neptune, trine asc. and jupiter.
I fend for my background, “my moon”. I have to.
When I identify as my family has raised me to identify (Taiwanese/Taiwanese-American) maaaaaaan do I get hell from some people. But, that’s my family. That’s my history. I’ve got to say what I’ve got to say. To deny that would be to deny who I am. Who my family is. And to forget what they experienced. And what they believe in.
Debate. So much frustrating debate. With very little understanding.
But, that’s what happens in my life. And if I have to say what I need to say (with diplomacy of course) with friends-acquiantances, so be it.
I also like to say strange parts of I’ve come from (born in Louisiana, with parents living in Oklahoma) as well. So people understand all parts. Not just the fact that I’ve lived in a suburbia.
Cap Moon-Mars 9th sextile Mercury-Saturn 6th/7th.
I hear ya circle.dot. I am from the desert, where “the desert” is like none you’ve ever even heard of and I am so frustrated, I just want to go back. Really, I can’t get there soon enough, I am a desert creature and while I can be in your city – why should I?
12th house Capricorn Moon, I go to the Moon for transformation and the Moon always calls to me. I denied my roots as a kid-woman and paid the piper for that when I’d get on an airplane and panic, “Oh no … will i be able to speak pidgin when i land!?” Of course, that’s hot wired and like you say Elsa, deeply wired.
Culture is what grounds me in my truly Gypsy life on the Planet. Who my people are is an ‘illusion’ to most of the world, but to us, we know for sure the speaking up and out about the Hawaiian is the reason we’re on this globe this time. To stand up and be …more than a tourist destination. Deeply rooted in culture, I pay more and more attention to where MAHINA (the moon) is and I feel.
Margaret Mead once said something like to truly be ready to enter another culture, one must be rooted in one’s own. To know where one comes from before we use it to judge anyone else. The quote I can find is this:
“As the traveler who has once been from home is wiser than he who has never left his own doorstep, so a knowledge of one other culture should sharpen our ability to scrutinize more steadily, to appreciate more lovingly, our own.”
I have a problem, in college I was saturated academic talk about relativism (hints from students, not professors). In culture and that thing they call postmodernism. I stereotyped this talk and was put on my guard against it. How can Tolstoy reflect universal truths if this is the way it is? It is important not to take cultural relativism to extremes. One girl told me that Israelis have a different definition of water than people here. I’m like, but they and I would still be able to recognize it.
i was back in scotland last year and was recognized as being “a so-and-so (insert family name)” and that simply wouldn’t happen where i am living now. i was sort of astounded, but also sort of “here i am, dudes! back where i belong!”
i was hanging out with people who aren’t my blood relatives, and i still got recognized. i felt something i can’t even describe…being recognized across the world in the land of my family’s origin. they’re my peeps…what can i say. here i’m just another white girl in a city, lol
I have moon in the first house, a 4th house stellium and I am not only rooted, I am downright fascinated by my culture. I’m Italian, Polish, a bit Irish and Slovakian. I also and firmly rooted in the Midwest, as is all of my family. When you talk about the desert, Elsa, I am completely baffled (yet interested) because I simply cannot imagine a life less water, fields, corn or seagulls. I work at a Chinese restaurant now, run completely by Chinese immigrants and regardless of what the job pays me monetarily, I am rewarded culturally. It is such an INTERESTING place to work. Their language, their humor, their culture is so completely different and yet so completely familiar and, well, HUMAN, I can’t wait to get to work (haha, Jupiter conjunct Sun in the 6th) to learn something new.
As a sort of aside, I did a project on food in high school and came across a quote that said something like “many things about a culture die, the clothing, the language, the attitude but food is always the last thing to go”. In my opinion, you can only really know another culture, or another person for that matter, by eating a meal they have prepared for you.
But I can’t agree more with your point. If you deny where you come from, where can you possibly plan on going?
This is such an interesting write-up and I agree with it. The whole idea of “PC” has gotten out of hand, I think. Respect and appreciation of other cultures and differences in people is a key thing and should be encouraged. But things have gone beyond that and, as you point out, there has been an attempt to homogenize everyone and everything. It’s sad.
I especially make note of this part: “I have written before how our culture worships solar energy and devalues the Moon. This is a major mistake.”
That’s so true. I’m fairly new to astrology. I’ve been reading about both Western and Eastern traditions. In the Eastern tradition the Moon sign is more important than the Sun sign. If you ask someone who follows that tradition “What’s your sign?” they would assume that you mean their Moon sign.
I agree. Cultural differences are important and should be honoured.
What puzzles me is the American overidentification with their ancestral roots instead of the roots of their present country. I saw it a lot when I lived in Italy- loads of American girls there claiming to be Italian. I am sorry (I would like to be Italian too :-)), but seen their cultural values they were about 80% American 20% Italian at MOST. The 20% is valuable and valid,and it makes a difference in how you view the world/ family etc, but the REAL common denominator is the American part. It seems to be taken for granted.
It’s different in countries where people could not assimilate into a ‘mainstream’ culture. These people often kept close ties with their homeland. I am thinking Moroccans in the Netherlands, who after generations still have a lot of family there and visit a lot. They are truly bi-cultural.
It’s an interesting topic. I have an English dad, and apparently I have some English values. When I am in the UK it feels like coming home, but at the same time I am very much aware I am not British in a real sense. The culture is VERY different. I am a fake Brit 😉
Well, hi all, hi Elsa!
I was born in Scotland, to a Scottish Father and an English/Irish mother, and oh yesss..my roots are where I was born, no doubt! Been so lucky and travelled the world, friends and clients across the globe and I love being in other cultures, sharing time with folk, love learning the way other folk think and feel, but oh boy, do I adore my homeland ( as I often mention here, I know, I know!!) Scotland rocks! We have mountains and lochs and hills and glens, and turquoise seas where dolphins visit and seals play.
Desert life is something entirely new to me though..wow..sounds special, Elsa! All I’ve done is driven up from Las Vegas ( yep, a friend’s wedding!) through Death Valley, and that was HOT, dry and surreal. Can’t imagine not being near water.. but then I have no earth..(wish I did!)
Many folk tell us rather proudly about their Scottish ancestry when we go off travelling,which tickles us. Blood is getting more and more mixed these days, mind you, with so much travel, so there is more of a global family in that sense, but yes, I agree roots are incrediby important.
Amy – welcome. You might like this:
Live Your Sun, Satisfy Your Moon
“. . . excuse me but that is insane.” Elsa you are a treasure – sometimes I wonder if I’M the crazy one when I see this sort of b.s. and it’s great to find out I’m not the only one out there.
I loved this thread…especially since I have never fully been able to embrace my parents culture. My mother was born in Africa yet is of Indian decent..my father born is also of Indian decent..and I was born in the US, raised in the US, surrounded by other cultures yet never fully feeling like I belong within any culture.
I traveled to Brasil, China, Africa, and all over Europe…and for some time I felt an affinity for the Brasilian openess and passion for life. Something I didn’t feel i found in the more restrictive and “proper” Indian way of life.
I’m not sure I can say I’m lost but I’ve always felt like a citizen of the world with allegiance to no specific culture, religion, or group.
I’m a Sagittarius Sun and Aries moon…does that sum up why I’m such an adventurous gypsy-type of lover of life and all things foreign? I love Ethopian food, my idiosynchrises involves using phrases in portuguese, I create my own sense of whimsical style, my prayers to myself each night include an Indian relgious hymn…and the most common thing I hear from strangers is “where are you from” or “you look really familiar”.
Ha…complicated or just culturally confused?
PS Hey Kashmiri, welcome home!! x
You are so right Elsa. The Moon yes. I have a Taurus Moon in 10th house. But Sun is in the fourth house at my IC point…And I think with that, I am a kind of a Moon/Crab sort of person. Love my home, family and just need to have roots, or I go crazy.
My father who had a lot of planets in Canses, hes big intrest was genealogical research:-))
Sorry Canser…wrong spelling all the time:-(
Hmm. Am I the only one who feels alientated from their roots? I am from the southeastern US and I am a white southerner in a some ways, but with the people in my little town…I don’t think the same ways, I don’t have the same interests, I have trouble making conversation about anything but the weather.
Is it some kind of Sag. moon issue?
With Libra Moon conjunct Neptune and Pisces on the 4th, I feel adrift most of the time. Having no earth in my chart doesn’t help either.
Solution? After moving from place to place for 20 odd years, my husband & I bought a part of the centennial farm I grew up on and live in the old farm house. Really helped ground me.
Ethnically we are such a mix of northern European, there is no one culture dominant. However, when I spent a school year in Finland in my twenties, the locals assumed I came from another of the Scandinavian countries rather than the USA. Still will NOT eat raw fish . . . 🙂
The thing is, if one speaks with Italians in Italy, they will probably tell there’s not “an Italian way” to act. Even the ones who aren’t Northern Italian separatists.
For instance, my ex was born and raised near Florence, and was always instantly regognized as “Florentine” by his accent when he travelled around Italy for business. Still, his parents moved to Tuscany from Puglia in the early 1960’s, and he always acknowledged his heritage. His family ate diffently (much less meat, more pasta, vegetables and soft burrata style cheese), and even in a different time than the Tuscans. They had slightly different saints (although an uncle, his father’s favourite older brother, was a Franciscan brother, and so St. Francis who has a big following especailly in Southern Tuscany was maybe more important to them than most Southern families) and different ways of celebrating – or not – special occasions. His parents were definitely more traditional than the Tuscan parents of his friends.
Beth.. think Sag Moon can be at home in many places, gypsy in your soul..as I understand it, your roots don’t have to be in as narrow a furrow as the actual town you arrived in, although if that feels right, it just is. Although I adore my home land I don’t connect to the tiny country village where I was born, as it has been all but steamrollered now into an urban landscape, and no sign of the place I arrived in.
Pisces moon in the 6th. I grew up in a small town in upstate New York. My mother was a war bride….from Australia. I didn’t feel I was as authentically American as others because I had a foreign parent…and the fact that she didn’t seem very foreign added a layer of confusion. I have a shyness I associate with my Welsh/Irish/Scot side..and a seriousness I connect with my German half. My neighbors growing up were Italians from Brooklyn and I hung out at their house a lot. There was more conversation in an hour there then there might be in a week or two at my house. I liked going over there for the food, talk, hugs and kisses and my friend escaped to my house to get away from her mother…and for a little peace and quiet. Great thing about America is we can go next door to find a missing piece.
“Great thing about America is we can go next door to find a missing piece.”
Beautifully said, lindsey, and so true.
Hearing some uncertainty about the issue of roots, which is different to affinity, to my mind, in the sense that you might feel nurtured by certain people, but they aren’t depicting your roots, your own inheritance.
There are of course many “branches” of astrology. Countries and indeed US states have charts too, and as well as depicting your clan and all that’s been mentioned about one’s roots, the Moon sign might well resonate geographically to places one feels an affinity with.
Yeah, I think this can be complicated in practice for many of us who have diverse or diffused roots. I supposedly grew up Jewish, went to Hebrew school and the whole bit, but I always felt no affinity with everyone else. Realized over time it had to do with so much of Jewish culture being transmitted maternally, in the home, and my mom grew up Christian and Appalachian, although she converted. None of the same nuances, common phrases, etc. My dad only held to the value of learning in Judaism, otherwise is wholeheartedly scientist.
I don’t know how that would clearly be linked to my moon, though. Moon in Virgo in the 11th, ruling the 9th – recent Saturn pass has me taking more responsibility within an astrological group. Makes me happy for sure, but can’t see the connection with my cultural upbringing/background. I feel at home around learning but I also have a Sag Sun/stellium.
I can’t feeel my roots. Mutts don’t have roots, I guess.
Fabulous post! while I appreciate lotsa different kinds of people I REALLY love being with loud mouthed Italians like I grew up with!!
In my house we honor our roots. Since we are Italian I make no bones about the fact that our grown son is obligated to have a family dinner here at my table once a week for the rest of his life.
Also, we eat “gravy” not sauce.
Meatballs do not come in plastic bags from Costco.
Talking with our hands and interrupting is perfectly acceptable behavior.
Italian children of all ages may drink alcohol , at the dinner table only, preferably out of juice glasses with polka dots on them.
We welcome all nations to our home and our table, but you will have to clean your plate, ask for seconds, and praise the cook.
Also.. if you bring a bottle of Chianti we’ll like you even more.
Even if we don’t like you, y once we know you, you’re always welcome to Sunday dinner.
My husband told me that I am the only person in the US who owns an icebox. I call the refrigerator an icebox. Drives my kids and husband crazy. No, I am not 90 years old. I am only 51 and I never lived in a household which had an actual ice box. But I grew up around my grandparents and great-grandparents. These people did have ice boxes at one time. They called the refrigerator an icebox.
thanks, Lynne E.:) Ambidee your comment reminded me of something my Uncle said to me when I was visiting:
“We’re not fully Scottish because we came from Denmark in the 1100s.”
haha hahahahh
Hahaha Kashmiri! ““We’re not fully Scottish because we came from Denmark in the 1100s.” Although I worship at the altar of my cultural inheritance, I guess I cannot remain in denial of the fact that as a fairly small country (with a lot of attitude!) we have, through the mists of time been regularly marauded, pillaged and err..impregnated by many a Scandinavian!
Big melting pot huh : >
Madeline, what’s for dinner?
Flip: I love the “icebox” ..to me across the Pond..it just is so evocative of the America I grew up fascinated by.
I can’t bear to go travelling and see everything being standardised. We really should honour our own cultures, language.
Rooted or rootless, we usually have an answer to “where are you from?”
This is a great post..really enjoying it.
america is a cancer nation. thus soemwhat obsessed with roots. but also very very young… not much time to grow roots into the landscape. not like the first nations (i have a friend who called us “coyotes” because we never settled, kept moving.)
the closest i feel to rooted is the county where i was born, where a branch of my family has had five generations born.
but that’s nothing compared to some places.
the closest i can come to the idea of “homeland” in my head is where i trace back the “motherline”- to ireland. but i’m not very irish. i think. i imagine the irish would think so, any way.
i think americans are extremely disconnected from that deep sense of identity. most of us came here from somewhere and mixed with people from all over (well, i’m a western european mutt, the best i can figure) and have a hard time pointing to a spot on the map and saying “i belong here” which i think is a blessing and a curse.
Don’t forget, wyrdling, America is also Gemini or Sagittarius Rising. Mutable rising sign. We can change, we are diverse!
I have Moon in Leo in the 6h house. Don’t know how that has to do with my roots, but then again, I’m not a professional astrologer, am I?
Lynne–lasagna! And A GREEK salad–i forgot to mention–that’s the other half!!
I absolutely LOVE cultural diversity- though I enjoy my fellow Italians I also appreciate my friends’ matza ball soup, corn beef and cabbage (well, not so much..), and a good Hungarian goulash!!
I also enjoy learning about various HOLIDAY traditions of the cultures around me..
But, astrology does say we need to relate to and experience our “ROOTEDNESS” once in a while to “feel safe..”
I sure know I DO!!
With a Gemini moon I pretend I’m part of the tribe of whoever I’m talking to. 😉 No, seriously, I have a lot of the roots a lot of white Americans do (northern European) but mostly could give a crap about it. My family is definitely heartland Midwestern, and even though I’ve flitted since my childhood, I recognize my “peeps” as small town Illinois people. For a while I lived in Mexico and my heart always resonated with that – I truly believed myself Mexican at heart and I still feel kinship with that even though I’ve been away for a long time. Typical Gemini pretending to be someone else. But it’s still my roots!
thanks, Elsa. 🙂
I’m mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup T1 haha.
Sag Moon. I’m mostly a EuroMutt Eastern, Western, Northen, Southern & my cultural roots are a tapestry of locales, languages, cultures and religions. Every generation has been on the move. No one ever lives in their native place. Many paradoxes but I’m comfortable with it.
if talk truthfully we don’t have any culture at-present in the world,all some meaning less conducts by arrogant and greedy preached by pervert gurus,messengers, apostate,just to usurp others power,money and how to justify it cleverly and if someone ask us to follow it is ridiculous,culture is a system of living developed by most sophisticated,sensitive human beings handed only to them who are interested in higher pursuits of human existence,if some sexual pervert say i follow tradition it is just arrogance,a culture takes away kama greed arrogance et-all if someone with this say i follow,it can never be that.only we are cheating our fellow human beings,which the rel crime,practiced nowadays,in the name of culture
12 october 1492
AMERICA is a libra ¡¡
Cristobal Colon- christopher columbus was an italian Genova, (hahahaaa)
AMERICO VESPUCIO
Was a Portugal
————-
The indians are my roots.
Something occurred to me this read-through.
It’s not just values or culture that feel like home to me. I have those – definitely. I am a citified hillbilly girl, and it’s hilarious if you know the back story. (I have a happy Sagittarius moon, so I adapt and blend well no matter where I am.) But when I landed in LA – almost 8 years ago to the day – I just felt like I’d come home, immediately. I meet certain people – and I notice, men of a particular type – and they feel like home, too. Clearly there’s something going on at a deeper level than I’m yet aware of.
Elsa,
I am glad you brought this up. I find that American’s more so, seem to deny who they really are, they ignore what is in their blood and don’t care about there history/Culture. Then they wonder why they don’t even know themselves and/or why they are depressed all the time.
I am extremely interested in my history,I embrace my cultural background and I want to delve deep into my roots to connect with my ancestors. Moon in Cancer 8th house oppose Venus and Neptune. I am a German, Irish, Scottish, Danish, Mexican, Yaqui Indian.
I am one of the only people in my family that keeps them connected to their history. When I had my Dio de los Muertos Birthday party, my Mexican aunts and uncles were asking me the history of Day of the Dead, I was shocked. My Dad is from Zacatecas, MX and I bitched him out for not teaching us Spanish. Now I am taking Spanish lessons and I want to go to a Midwifery school in Mexico. I also want my Father to connect with the Yaqui tribe in Arizona so that way I can feel rooted as well. I am trying obsessively hard to connect with my Lunar side, so when I have children I am able to pass to them what I should have had/known as a child, it is like the complete nurturing a parent can do for their children so they can feel secure about themselves.
HA, I dunno, maybe I’m just a hippy!
I study Anthropology and I’m familiar with concepts such as cultural conditioning, habitus, cultural appropriation and the likes. Just yesterday I was reading an essay written by an Anthropologist which explained how this figure is sometimes bound to end up being a “stranger” in his/her own homeland, which is an in-between condition that allows the necessary measure of detachment to spot the cultural patterns being acted out by others. I guess this is me. I have things and places that make me feel “home”, but I don’t consider my emotional roots to be in the culture of my country even though I was raised in an Italian household, from Italian relatives, on Italian ground. It’s not a tragedy. It’s how people like me are wired.
Windowlicker! It’s very cool that you ‘resurrected’ this great old post. After rereading the thread and ending with your comment, I was sent a word, in Portuguese, and link to the wonderful bridges that can come from an intuitive anthropology … a knowingness for home. I am not Portuguese, but the word, the pronunciation and the meanings ahhhh. The word is SAUDADE and if you’re interested the link to the essay I was given is here: http://communicatingacrossboundariesblog.com/2012/02/07/saudade-a-word-for-the-third-culture-kid/
Saudade!!! I love that word, as I love all words that convey nuanced feelings and longings. Thanks Mokihana. I’m reading the essay 🙂
Ah, I have talked about everything but the Moon. I should mention that mine aspects Jupiter and is involved in a Cardinal Grand Cross so anything Moon-related mentioned in this post is naturally entangled in my own existential crises for me, this I think explains my mindset towards issues of this kind. But also, Pluto in Scorpio in 4th, disruption w/one’s own roots.
I’ve turned this subject over in my head and still am. I think that reflecting on roots can lead to false conclusions, frequently based on stereotypes. For instance, I didn’t use the word ‘neurotic’ until recently, and I didn’t really grow up calling salmon lox or eating bagels and lox but now I call it my Jewish brunch and say I love it because I’m Jewish. Maron said the less religious people are or less connected, the more they trumpet their Jewish identity. I think generalizing about my personality paints me with a broad incorrect brush, and what I have to do or what I am experiencing is more important than what I think I came from. Because I came from it, it is indisputable. I am sifting through my childhood and finding out what didn’t happen or what I’m not. But, talking about what I am isn’t instructive to me. I’m jealous and don’t really understand the framework of many western European cultures, like I get it french people are intelligent and wonderful and don’t get fat. I get that you think I’m an undereducated, sex and career obsessed binge eater. I am more of that than many other americans.
But, it is easy for me not to feel familiar or connected so I notice where I’m connected. Usually I feel more at home with eastern cultures, I felt no different from people in shanghai and strongly identify with Chinese people, also people from India are more easy for me to understand. The tight knit, intrusive family, the overfeeding. My friend asked me once if I’m more eastern or European. I answered eastern. There are porous familial boundaries and strong linkages. But, it could be that my parents brought many work friends from those countries as a kid. I know that I am easily repelled by olive oil on bread and polenta, that grits and southern food like Sean Brock was proselytizing about on mind of a chef puzzle and disgust me on a deep level, because he’s just as serious about his roots as I am, and uses the same language, but it feels different. It is also easier for me to understand Puerto Rican food and culture than Mexican. I think? Not sure why.
As an immigrant my cultural identity is weird and convoluted, and my family doesn’t think we do many stereotypically Jewish things. But, it is convoluted in the same way as a lot of others’. I listened to an interview with Alex karpovsky and found some strong similarities. I listen to Jewish comedians and I feel like they express some of my feelings. It is cathartic. I am horribly alienated from hipsters as by a chain wall because their provenance is so different from mine, basically white bread midwestern kids trying to pass off as citified.
I can definitely say that I came from a strong tradition of overprotective mothering. I think that maybe what your parents did with their culture and the environment you are brought up in is more important and a more flexible tool to use in figuring out how you came to be who you are than ‘I am Jewish so…’ Or ‘my grandfather was a rabbi so…’ Its like my parents saying ‘you’re acting surly, you have your grandmother’s genes.’ (Attitude or emotional traits are not passed down genetically.) Yet, I love to connect with people on a basis of shared background. I love it when a stranger shares a cultural thread and tells me who I am through stand up. I love korean food and the familiar lovely flavors of rice, vegetables, meat, pickles, and soup. Kimchi is like a tarted up version of my favorite pickled foods, i just love it. I don’t fully reconcile cultural differences (I.e. in Thailand I really missed hugging, I find European kissing hello weird, I don’t like it when the tall Italian guy I had the good fortune to have sex with was showing off about how he likes quality food and they don’t have it here. And I don’t like queso fresco. )
I’m true to my Gemini moon in every way being a teacher and an avid reader with numerous hobbies but my roots are difficult to explore. Having Uranus in the 4th always made me feel divorced from my family emotionally, spiritually, historically, culturally. My mother is foreign and yet I barely know her language and disagree with her religion. Her family was all overseas and never visited so I hardly knew them but from social media and old photos. My father was largely absent from my life and it was common practice for our extended family to live in the furthest corners of the world and country and not speak to one another for decades. Try piecing that together? You can’t.
It is what it is. We’re not always meant to be close to our family of origin nor to understand our roots. My destiny has always been to create a new family tree with a new understanding of loyalty.
Roots are not that simple often based on stereotype.
Moon pluto transit teaches us when our roots are illusory. It is useless to contemplate roots. It is beyond speech
I am uprooted i dont have roots. I dont need to know what they are. One thing is certain.. i am very un italian and un hispanic.