Awkward self introduction

[tingding]

Hey all,

I'm new here and am introducing myself. =)

I am a Libra with a Pisces ascendant and Gemini moon. I became fascinated with astrology at the age of fifteen and have played with it ever since.

I have primarily only worked with natal charts. At the age of fifteen (in 1990 or /91) I purchased my first astrology book "The Only Astology Book You'll Ever Need". Not exactly truth in advertising. I then proceeded to use the somewhat inaccurate tables in the back of the book (I thought I had an aries ascendant for several years) to create charts for friends, classmates and anyone else I could pressure into it. I was very serious and used a compass. I would draw in the symbols and hand write information...mostly just copied out of the book (well, I was a teenager!). Obviously, I felt very passionate about astrology and considered it a "hobby" throughout my teens and into my early twenties.

I haven't progressed in my studies since then, but I still incorporate astrology into my daily life. I still love to make charts for people I meet (though thanks to the internet they're now scientifically accurate!), but I'm still just a novice. Being a Libra and having been relationship obsessed until just recently, I've spent a lot of time reading about synastry!

I would love to learn more about transits, progressed charts. I was led here while trying to research how I'm being affected by transits at this very point in my life.

I have relied heavily on astrodienst.com for the last ten years, and my all time favorite astrology book is James Braha's "How to be a Great Astrologer", even though it only focuses on aspects.

I see myself as a non-typical Libra (don't we all). I love camping (the kind that involves relaxing..not climbing mountains), cooking, gaming (!) and my dogs. However, I am very lazy and love nothing more than to sit in a beautiful natural environment, sipping bubbly, listening to pretty music (preferably classical, but my all time favorite group is the Grateful Dead :wink:) and chatting with close friends. I guess I sound pretty libra-like after all.

[VegasGemini]

I was just gonna say, FWIW you do sound quite Libra but all good stuff! I dig Libras, it's very chill energy and you guys have a cool vibe.

I am totally thrilled about the fact that astrology users don't have to do all the painful legwork to generate a chart these days. But it's cool that you dabbled in that!

I dig all kinds of Grateful Dead. Makes me want to hear them right now. I think I will! ("Althea" BTW)

Nice to meet you unofficially...I just arrived here too and am already really diggin' the vibe here.

Pisces asc. is one of my favorite placements. I think Pisces is a complementary sign in placement with air sun. It adds that amount of depth and dimension without overpowering the airy intellectualism that we thrive on. :)

[EhTeam]

Welcome to the site, I am a gaming Leo :D

Mostly Final Fantasy, but I recently got into Warhammer. Fun stuff!

[tingding]

Thank you for the friendly welcome. I take it from your board name that you are Gemini (my moon and mars are there) so you know all about the airy goodness!

I like having my pisces ascendant. I think it's made me a little more compassionate and understanding while negating some of the more superficial qualities usually associated with Libra. Then I have pluto doing god knows what to my sun in a loose conjunction...I assume this adds some depth as well.

Having an air sun, moon, mercury and mars, I find it difficult to deal with people who think emotionally (especially at work)! I guess i would be less tolerant without the pisces. And really, it's only begun to bother me, or maybe I only became conscious of it bothering me, in my thirties. I used to be much more tolerant and patient of all people in all situations. I will boastfully say that I still beat out most people in the patience and tolerance department, or so I'm told by the people in my life.

I have no earth in my chart at all and I've overcompensated for this throughout life by surrounding myself with earth signs (most "best" friends, two husbands and at least fifty percent of all friends in general have been earth). Knowing this, I can understand why I chose these people for my life...but I can't figure out why they like spending time with an ungrounded, unpredictable, spontaneous, at times flakey air sign who shies away from obligation and never notices (or cares) what other people are wearing (unless it's really really bad!) or what kind of car they're driving. =)

Nice to unofficially meet you too!

P.S. I went to my first show in spring of 1991 at the L.A. Coliseum. The last show I went to was in March of last year in SF at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium....not officially GD, but Phil and Bobby played as Furthur and it was a celebration for Phil's 70th birthday! Awesome times!

[tingding]

Welcome to the site, I am a gaming Leo :D

Mostly Final Fantasy, but I recently got into Warhammer. Fun stuff!

Hehe, nice! Thank you for the welcome!

Venus (my ruling planet) is in Leo...oh the drama! My saturn is there too, in the fifth house...that one's a toughie.

I played Ultima Online from 2001 through 2007. I had to set aside the mmorpg's, but I still enjoy single player games. I've been replaying Dragon Age: Awakenings recently (for the third time...it's such a re-playable game!).

[VegasGemini]

Hmm, question concerning your personal planets in air.

Are you saying you're intolerant of emotional people? Understandable, I'm beginning to reach that point as well, as in I just don't want any drama...but at the same time, it's hard to imagine life without emotions and I think so long as they're channeled in some semblance of a healthy manner they can be very beneficial...but I've reached the point after progressing through double Cancer (Cancer asc. and moon) into Libra moon now (about to move into Scorp in December...:S) and seeing the logical implications to emotional matters, emotions have certainly begun to become less and less sensible to me.

Earth sounds the same to me...I seek grounding but they seek the alternate, it's good opposite ends of a spectrum, I think. I have been in a long-term relationship with a Virgo...2.5 years, and he taught me a lot about the sign and earth in general...and good friends of about a year now are a Taurus and a Cap. They provide not just a different perspective but that grounding I so desperately seek being 80% mutable. I think we appeal to them as air signs because we DO have that lighter approach, throw mutable into the mix and we're even more of like, say, a challenge or a point of interest...

FWIW I can be as airheaded as they come some days...maybe it's just all in how flexible and adaptable we are...some days it's this way and some days it's not...the Libra transits currently have been messing with my MO most noteably in the decision-making area but I consider this also a time to diffuse from some crazy months now passed and this is time to collect myself...the Scorp/Sag transits are gonna hit us air signs like a ton of bricks. I can feel it in my bones, can you?

[tingding]

No, I would not say that I'm intolerant of emotional people. I myself can be emotional, many of my closest friends are what I would refer to as "emotional people". I believe that emotions are a necessary and healthy part of human expression.

Specifically what I find hard to deal with are situations where people filter reality through their emotions, ignoring the "facts" and distorting reality. I feel the need to point something out here. I have noticed that people use the word "sensitive" to describe others in two very different ways (not addressing the use of sensitive to describe someone who is psychic or strongly intuitive). First is that one is sensitive to others, taking into account how one's own actions or words will affect those around them. For example, not going on and on about how delightful your newborn nephew is to a co-worker who recently suffered a miscarriage.

The second use of "sensitive" I would refer to as "thin skinned". This being someone who is particularly sensitive to everything that is said or done to them (and they may not in turn have any sensitivity to the feelings of others). They are constantly in a state of reacting. In some people there is a sense that the world is happening to them, and they feel helpless and are unable to realize that they have the power to shape their own experiences (reality). The chronic victim.

I can get frustrated dealing with people who perceive events through the reality of their emotions rather than the logical facts. I'm sure part of the reason I'm so aware when people do this is that both my father (pisces sun, capricorn moon and asc) and husband (virgo sun with two degree mars conjunction squared by gemini saturn at zero degrees (!), scorpio moon, capricorn asc) are both this way. (On a side note, my husband and I would seem incompatable, but his sun is conjunct my descendant.) I also have to add that I struggled with this perception when I was a kid/teen, so I believe that makes me hyper aware. I have multiple female friends that operate in this way too.

For example, my husband will say something like "you're always complaining about X ". I will then ask, what did I say about X. His response? I can't remember, but you're always complaining about it. I will then ask "when did I say something about X" to be told that it doesn't matter because I am always doing it. I will then ask for one example, just one...and there is never one to be found.

What I have found is that there are times I might say something like "ack, our dog stinks". When I say that, he actually hears me say "our dog stinks because you are failing as a dog owner and not living up to your responsibilities". This is not what I implied, or even thought. I was just making a simple observation...and then quickly racing onto my next thought (libra mercury trine gemini mars within two degrees...and a 6 degree mercury/uranus conjunction...so my thoughts usually move very quickly). Two days later I might then say "Ugh, we really need to take the dogs to the dog washing place this weekend" (the ugh reflecting my detest at having an event or task planned before hand, being committed to doing something at a specific time..damned confining obligations!). What he hears is me saying "you're again failing at this dog care thing, you suck". Which again, not what I said or meant or even thought.

I dealt with this with family members all the time growing up. I say something. They interpret it with their feelings. They later say that I said or did something I did not. Instead of operating on the level of fact (what has actually been said) they filter what is said through their emotions (how they feel about what I've said, which is probably influenced by their own past experiences more than anything) . Then their memory of the interaction or conversation becomes not what was factually done or said, but instead the feeling they had about the interaction. Often times it gets stored away as a "negative" interaction when it was in fact positive or neutral. So, for instance, me commenting several times about the dog smelling is stored in another person's mind as my commenting several times about how bad they are at caring for a dog. This, in my opinion, isn't rational or fair (hi Libra sun!). =)

I deal with this at work frequently and I think it irks me more than others. For me, the truth is important. So if someone is going to state that I said something, I expect it to be accurate and if it's not, I feel that the person is lying. Even if they don't mean to be lie, it still drives me crazy as what they're saying is not true as a fact. I understand it's true to them in their reality and perception, but if we had cameras rolling and could replay the scene the words actually said are the fact I believe in. =P

Also I find this constantly when talking to girlfriends about man trouble. A friend will call me very distraught because the guy she is dating said this "horrible" or "hurtful" comment. Often I find that I'm "talking them down" from an irrational emotional state. Most of the time the horrible thing said isn't actually horrible, but when the person brings their own emotional baggage to the process of perceiving the statement becomes amplified, distorted and loses all ties to the words that were actually used. I have one friend in particular where this happens over and over again and I find myself on the phone often trying to calm them back into reason. I am usually the person my friends call when they're in a crisis.

The odd thing is that when I'm having an emotional upset, the last thing I was is to talk to friends. I prefer to be alone with my own thoughts/suffering (ha). I rarely ever seek advice from people and I don't usually look to others for support. I think it would be healthier if I did lean on others more, but most of my friends like to say "oh poor you, you poor thing, you must be so miserable right now, let me give you a hug, I'm so sorry" and I don't see that as support..it seems to me that it just amplifies an already negative feeling or situation.

Sorry for such a HUGE response to the simple question "Are you saying you're intolerant of emotional people?". The simple answer is no, I'm not intolerant of emotional people. I am never bothered by people who cry often, express sadness, joy, and even anger when it's expressed in a healthy way. I actually find myself brought to tears quite easily. But I also love to stick to facts when analyzing a situation. =)

Sorry for the long-winded explanation :lol:.

I'm just learning about transits so I have not given these upcoming transits any thought. Actually, I first began to pay attention in 2007/2008 when Uranus was conjunct my ascendant and then opposing my sun. That was a crazy crazy time. I revolted against everything, temporarily separating from my current husband for six months, for instance. I know Saturn has been beating up my seventh house, recently conjuncting my sun and now pluto. It's been a rough season...and I am desperately hoping things clear up soon.

[VegasGemini]

Hmmm, it's okay, I'm inclined to do the same (with long-windedness) so no worries :)

I should maybe preface by saying that "intolerant" might've been the wrong choice of words for the question, as it does have a rather harsh connotation. Also I was thinking of the type of people who are dramatically reactive most, but you covered all the ground there so that was cool!

Although I understand how things might stack up with being misinterpreted. It would certainly bother the Gemini parts of me that like to very clearly and concisely communicate. Although I'm not misinterpreted often, some people struggle when it comes to my sarcasm thinking I'm being 100% serious or that I'm angry which is hardly the case. I tell them to trust me, that when I'm really angry, they'll know it.

This has been one of the most difficult years of my life. April was my last good month this year, the trouble began in May when Merc remained in Taurus and Venus in Cancer and went downhill from there. Just managed to pull myself out of a very deep depression over the course of the Virgo planets...thankfully sun moved into Libra to give some relief, and then Merc (I can't remember which houses of mine were most strongly hit ATM), although the indecisiveness this time around is not helping my sun, which is creeping toward the 12th. I've been taking a lot into account with my progressed chart aspects as well. I try to put all the pieces together and it makes some of the puzzle easier to grasp but as always, there's so much to learn still...that must be why I love astrology so much. Always something to learn. :)

[MysticGypsy]

Hi there, welcome fellow Libran.

Like you I dabbled in astrology when a teen, and also used tables and compasses and calculators! ah, how technology has helped us, lol.

I thought i was Taurus asc for years, and could see some but never felt it was my outer face at all. Turned out I was Aries asc. That's more like it, always putting my foot in my mouth. :)

[EhTeam]

Hehe, nice! Thank you for the welcome!

Venus (my ruling planet) is in Leo...oh the drama! My saturn is there too, in the fifth house...that one's a toughie.

I played Ultima Online from 2001 through 2007. I had to set aside the mmorpg's, but I still enjoy single player games. I've been replaying Dragon Age: Awakenings recently (for the third time...it's such a re-playable game!).

Awesome~
I have Venus in Leo, but it is in the first house. I sometimes wonder how much more awesome it would be to have the sun/moon/venus in 5th house, or the way it is in 1st.

I played EQ2 online once, but never Ultima. It does take up a lot of time, and I have to set aside an exact time for it, or one raid or quest turns into 15 and 15min turns into 10 hours....

FPS are fun too though =)