The Thought Thinker is a Loner Girl: 2005-2008

On Being is an astrological case study in a longitudinal, diary format. Author J. Guzmán compiles, transcribes, and publishes the unedited diaries of Ana Elizabeth Mizer, with astrological charts and commentary to supplement the narrative. J. Guzmán invites and encourages other astrologers to analyze and comment on the astrology of Ana’s life in an attempt to explore a variety of timing techniques and theoretical concepts from this ancient system of knowledge. In this way On Being is a public research project investigating how astrology works in real time, in a real life.

In volume one, The Thought Thinker is a Loner Girl, we meet Ana. She is an introverted, self-deprecating teen girl, trapped in a culture she despises - middle-class America’s suburbs and public schools. She examines her struggles with identity and mental health as she finishes high school and prepares to enter college and play on the women’s soccer team there. She describes an internal conflict omnipresent in adolescence, highlighting themes such as drug and alcohol use, existential despair, self-doubt, insecurity, and the formation of a personal philosophy and spirituality.