Hi there Dr.Jan!
I’ve been wanting to ask something I find hard to put into words, but I’ll try. I’m not sure how much astrological information to give either but here’s what I’d love some help with, if possible.
I’ve never really ‘fit in’ with this culture very well. I am extremely sensitive both emotionally and psychically and am a professional artist who lives a quiet, solitary life that is deeply rich and spiritually active. I have a packed 12th house in Scorpio (Sun, Venus, Mercury-Rx, Saturn, Pallas, Juno) and an 11th house Libra moon exactly conjunct Neptune; Sagittarius rising is conjunct Ceres.
As I get older (I am now in my mid-50’s) I feel myself retreating even further from what is going on in this culture because it is so exceedingly out of balance and an anathema to everything that I value personally. Is it healthy to choose to disconnect with ‘the world’ when it seems that most of what is happening ‘out there’ (in our American culture especially) is toxic, dysfunctional and verging on the point of madness? When I was younger I used to feel that I could ‘make a difference’ by contributing my energy and time in various ways. But now it seems as if who I am and what I have cultivated in terms of inner process is not anything that is useful to anyone else except myself.
I do not mean this in an elitist way, it is just that I see the struggle between the warring factions is reaching a fever pitch out in the outer world, and I refuse to be a part of that war any more. I am not depressed or suicidal, I’m just deeply spiritual and inwardly oriented but living in a culture that seems to have gone mad and is terribly out of balance. I cannot fix that. I can only attend to what is here within me, and in that case, I prefer to minimize my contact with what most people consider is ‘normal’.
So my question is: Is it healthy for some people to withdraw from society and ‘culture’ when it is simply too toxic to be immersed in it any more?