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Mitakuye Oyasin! I find that even my snarky ego can be forgiven. . .

August 31, 2026

Yesterday, during an official neighborhood meeting hosted at my house, I noticed myself being snarky, with snide comments on others, who were not present. I noticed this, not as I was doing it, but within a few seconds, due to those present immediately countering, even flooding, the atmosphere with non-snarky responses.

 Thank goodness for other people!

Thank goodness that “all my relations” includes not just the natural world but fellow humans too!

Mitakuye Oyasin!

 

I have a sense that most of us see this Lakota phrase as helpful for us to feel our interconnectedness, our “interbeing,” with all more or less fleeting forces within the ever flowing web of life; every creature or any size or temperament, every structure and process in this mysterious multiverse. I’ve long identified with this phrase, and find Nature herself deeply welcoming.

But other people! That’s where I fall short.

Very short.

Even so, I realize that the only way I learn about myself is through relations with others. And am eternally grateful for the mirrors they provide.

I see the origins of what seems to be my lifelong tendency to snarkiness as stemming from my Libran mother. Not that she’s “to blame” for my snarkiness, but she too, was quite capable of this kind of behavior (her Mars in Scorpio). When I was young, my siblings noticed this; I, however, did not. Even though I was the oldest. And it may be because I was the oldest, born so early on. My Dad left for the WWII when I was only nine months old. So it was just the two of us, Mom and me. This, in contrast to my sisters and brothers, all but one of whom who were born after the war, and so by that time, human relations in family life were growing more complex, with more personalities involved, more chances for each of us so see how certain behaviors from others, both sibs and mother, were not helpful in getting along!

 

In any case, whatever the origins, I do of course, also utilize the language of astrology for self-analysis and development. My own chart happens to include a rare triangular formation called a YOD. It includes first house Capricorn Mercury/Venus square (90° friction) (very public) Libra Neptune/MC, plus inconjuncts (150° uncomfortable, constant adjustment) to both primal, generational Pluto in Leo and stern taskmaster Saturn in Gemini, themselves in a harmonious 60° sextile . . .

Here’s the kicker: This entire, and in my case, very tight, difficult triangular YOD formation (with Mercury/Venus/Neptune/MC/Saturn/Pluto)  is also known as a “FINGER OF GOd.” In other words, get with it Ann! Learn this lesson before you die!

 

Meanwhile, my snarky egocentric self is, and has always been, always just a hair’s breadth away. And can infect any atmosphere, like it tried to do in yesterday’s group discussion. Luckily, the other three present were having none of it; and their subtle reach to include me in an atmosphere of kindness, forgiveness, etc. managed to soften my “stance.”

As I said, thank goodness for the “others” in my life! Without them I would not even notice my own projections!

I am so “sick and tired” of my controlling nature!

 

The good news: on today’s early morning walk with Scampi, I noticed what happened yesterday more fully, and then noticed, way more fully than usual, THAT I HAD NOT FORGIVEN MYSELF FOR THAT SUDDEN, ERUPTIVE, EGOCENTRIC BEHAVIOR.

THAT second, higher level noticing, was impactful. In fact, it may be that this was the very first time I noticed it so quickly! I thank my daily, decades-long walking routine, my strong, resilient, 83-year-old body’s daily immersion into the natural world — striding under gigantic sheltering oak trees, myriad twittering birds, scampering squirrels, shadows on pavement with the rising sun —  for my sudden eruptive (Uranus!) capacity to thoroughly forgive myself.

For this was, as usual, the crucial step needed to begin again.

Mitakuye Oyasin!

A NEPTUNIAN TALE: And yes, my world? the world? is swirling swirling . . .

August 29, 2026

If you are confused by the fact that I published two posts yesterday, and none the day before, mea culpa.

When I opened the admin for this site yesterday I noticed that the post for the day before (August 27), was still in draft form. Feeling disgusted with myself, I instantly posted it. This was just prior to yesterday’s post, about our morning visit to Griffy trails. The post for August 27, published on August 28, also referred to my morning . . . but it was a different morning.

Okay, that latest befuddlement of once-in-a-lifetime transit Neptune opposite Neptune gaff out of the way, here’s another post, this one also looking like I’m confused; and I am! Recent memories fragment and swirl around; case in point: This morning (August 29), I was at Bloomingfoods Coop, when a man walked in, greeted Scampi, then looked up at me, and said “Hi! Remember me? I met you at Bryan Park when we were walking our dogs.” I was flummoxed by his instant friendliness, first of all. Flummoxed by the fact that he remembered something while I did not; or rather, I have a vague memory of a recent Bryan Park walk; but when was it? Two weeks ago? Just can’t recall. We walk long distances each day, and are constantly meeting up with people and their dogs.

So while to him, I probably just appeared a bit lost, perhaps even in the first stages of dementia, what actually went on within me then was I did remember him, in the sense that his face was very familiar. I wish I would have said that; instead, I just looked startled.

Hmm . . . am I entering the “first stages of dementia”? Somehow I doubt it. I do think, however, that I am fully participating in the collective unconscious confusion during this time, when “things” (including the incorporation of AI into Life on Earth) are moving faster and faster and literally nobody can keep up. What does it even mean to “keep up”???!? in what feels more and more like “the singularity,” catapulting from 3D space/time into  . . . what? WHAT? A black hole? A dimension beyond anything we have even considered? Because it’s too much, just too much?

Some humans, I realize — call them NPCs?— are into their own little worlds, blind to whatever mystery swirls beyond their tiny, solipsistic bubbles.

I envy them . . .

For more on this theme and beyond . . . check out Elizabeth Nickson’s latest:

 

Unfortunately, with visionary, idealistic Neptune at the my natal Midheaven, square (in friction with) both Venus and Mercury in Capricorn in the first house of my chart, I naturally, and always, want to (Venus), give linguistic (Mercury) form (Capricorn) to the atmosphere, aura, invisible collective unconscious mood, currently infecting/infecting (Neptune at Midheaven) Life on Earth.

(Come on, Ann! As if the map could ever be the territory!)

And since Neptune, for my generation (born 1942-1957), is oriented towards personal relationships (Libra), including those I encounter in daily life, like the friendly man who felt so familiar this morning — a few moments after our sudden, fast moving (Neptune in ARIES) encounter, I was startled to realize that he HAD remembered where we met (Bryan Park), even though that was a couple of weeks ago. Does he walk his dog every day in that park? So that our encounter would be more likely to stick with him, since I walk in so many different places each morning?

Would that make the difference between my memory and his?