The following interview was recorded. Here is his transcript.

Your birth sky is characterized by the following elements:
▶ a Pluto-Uranus-Moon opposition in the Virgo-Pisces axis on the horizon line;
▶ an opposition from Saturn in Gemini to Neptune-Jupiter in Scorpio-Sagittarius in the axis of the culminations, linked by sextile and trine to Pluto;
▶ a Sun-Venus conjunction in Cancer, the Sun being at the trine of the Moon and Neptune and Venus at the square of Uranus;
▶ a Mercury-Mars opposition in the Leo-Aquarius axis, Mars being at the square of Jupiter-Neptune.

Your ruling planets are Pluto, Saturn, Moon, and Neptune. The least valued planets are Mercury and Mars.

Astrologer: Thierry, you say you know nothing about astrology. It is for this reason that we have chosen to interpret your chart in this section. You are kind of a “guinea pig” ideal: devoid of any astrological culture, you will be able to pass judgment without a priori on the relevance or impertinence of the analysis of your chart. Before starting this interview, I would like you to introduce yourself to our readers. What social background are you from? What kind of family relationships have you experienced? What type of education did you receive? What studies have you done? What profession do you practice? Do you live alone or as a couple?

Thierry: I come from a modest background, my father was a miner and my mother looked after children. Relations between my parents were often tense and difficult. My mother was rather lax in education, while my father was very strict, directive. I continued my education until a commercial baccalaureate, which I failed. Then, for a year, I had a severe depression, I was a vegetable. Then I took my baccalaureate again, I failed it again, and after that I entered a preparatory course in fine arts. I was accepted at the Beaux-Arts in Saint-Étienne, but I didn’t want to go so as not to cost my parents money. Currently, after having worked a little in multimedia and then finding myself unemployed, I am training in DTP and graphic communication. I live with my parents, but I have a girlfriend who lives very far away. We see each other very rarely and that suits me fine.

Let’s begin the analysis of your chart by studying your first three planetary dominants: Pluto, Saturn and Moon. Pluto and Saturn are in trine, while the Moon is opposite Pluto. In the R.E.T. developed by J.-P. Nicola, Pluto and Saturn belong to “intensive transcendence”: these two planetary functions have in common a sense of the complexity of things, perspective, coldness, a taste for abstractions. The Moon in Pisces predisposes you to seek harmony and peaceful osmosis with your environment and loved ones. Saturn and Pluto sharpen your critical spirit, while the Moon is a factor of receptivity, even naivety. Saturn and Pluto encourage you to dissect, to seek truth beyond appearances, while the Moon favors a global perception of things. Do you recognize yourself in this first approach to your chart?

Yes, I am fine. I actually manage to contradict myself. When I find myself in a group, with people with whom I feel good, I let myself go, I don’t think, I talk, I’m often naive, and then afterwards I think.

Another formulation: the saturno-plutonian dominant makes you worried, a perpetual dissatisfied, a chronic recalcitrant, while the lunar dominant needs peace of mind above all else. Under the Moon-Pluto opposition, this need for tranquility must often be undermined, or difficult to maintain?

Yes that’s right. I am very unsatisfied to still live with my parents at 27, to be dependent on them, but I have no choice. But even if I wasn’t in that situation, I still wanted more. I remember always being lonely. As a child, I liked to play by myself, because I am very orderly, even in play, and I found other children too messy for me. I invented long stories with my little soldiers, sometimes for a week, and I couldn’t stand my brothers intervening in them. My chronically recalcitrant side manifests itself in silence. When the conversations do not please me, and it is often, I prefer to stay in my corner, in a silent refusal. It allows me to be quiet, to have peace, but I don’t think less of it. I’m better at listening than talking to say nothing. I’m very observant, I dissect people to try to understand how they work. On the other hand, as soon as I have had a drink or two, I start talking, and there I become very critical, very incisive, sometimes hurtful, while remaining very objective most of the time. Apart from that, I love to be quiet, in my bubble, I have great nights like a big baby. But even when I’m like that, most of the time, I’m always wondering. Worry is stronger than tranquility.

With a lunar dominant, you undoubtedly need to feel that you belong intimately to a couple, a group, a family. Pluto’s opposition can make you feel alienated from any group that would like to incorporate you. If the lunar function dominates in your behavior, you can constantly fear being rejected, marginalized, losing your peace of mind, your security, your support, and thus becoming extremely dependent on your close entourage. If, on the contrary, it is Pluto who dominates in your behavior, you may be tempted to refuse to integrate into any group whatsoever, or to play the role of the troublemaker, the black sheep, the ugly duckling, the one who detects its flaws and reveals its hypocrisies… How do you experience this major tension in your chart?

When I was 19–20 years old, I was an animator for children and adults. I belonged to a group where I felt very good, in total harmony, in osmosis. And then one day my family and I were the object of unfounded gossip, and I realized that all was not so rosy. It opened my eyes, and after that, there was a crisis, a total refusal of the group. I no longer wanted to be the nice, naïve little boy. By causing the break with my group, I felt great, finally myself. On the other hand, the others perceived me as very badly: “what is happening to him, he is no longer like everyone else.” I no longer fit into the frame, I felt free. Now, in couple or group relationships, I am always distant, I refuse osmosis. In a group, I am all alone in my corner. There is also the fact that I am lazy, that I do not want to make an effort to fit in.

Let’s move on to Saturn’s opposition to Neptune-Jupiter. Jupiter and Saturn have in common to raise awareness of concrete, tangible, experimental realities. Through Saturn, one digs into the facts to discover their hidden laws, while through Jupiter one prefers to classify the facts into simple and convenient categories. Saturn makes introverts who doubt and question themselves, Jupiter makes extroverts who have certainties and answers to everything. Under a Saturn-Jupiter opposition, the antagonism between these two tendencies takes on very great relief. In your chart, Saturn is much more powerful than Jupiter: you must constantly be in search, question yourself about everything you do and experience, and have trouble deciding, finding clear answers, accepting peremptory judgments and definitive…

Indeed, I don’t like people who say right away, when they see another person, “She is like that”. When we pass judgments on people without really knowing them. No one has the right to judge. We can have opinions, but not judgments. As soon as I am told “that one is a fool”, I must immediately check if it is true: there may very well be something deep that cannot be seen. There is always something to look for beyond the obvious.

Saturn is opposite Neptune. However, these two planets have exactly opposite functions: where Saturn strives to transcend, to go beyond what he observes and feels to go towards the unknown, Neptune feels, senses the unknown. Saturn dissects beings, things and situations, while Neptune feels them intuitively, without asking questions. One wonders if your cold, analytical side is not wary of your intuitions, bizarre perceptions, moods that sometimes cross you…

Well, when I was an animator, when I felt in perfect harmony with my group, intuition, feeling worked very well. I immediately felt people deeply. Without even thinking, I automatically went to people I perceived as interesting, and indeed they were. I was operating on subtle emotion. And then I broke everything.

Another formulation: you can be full of distrust, caution, circumspection vis-à-vis deep aspirations that you feel rising in you and of which you are unable to understand the source, the how and the why…

Indeed, after this ordeal, the intuition, the feeling, it is something that I more or less lost. Intuition, I no longer play with. I prefer to rely on solid observations. When I feel something deep, I’m not necessarily wrong, but I’ll look anyway. Intuition is under constant control.

Let’s analyze this Saturn-Jupiter-Neptune trio from another point of view: with Jupiter-Neptune, we easily find the words to express our deepest feelings, to express our moods, to translate the twists and turns of our imagination. Saturn’s dissonance can make this expression difficult: you may fear spreading out too much, getting too excited, lacking modesty or depth by exposing yourself too much…

Yes, in general I do not spread out too much. I must have had a few glasses of alcohol, but not too much, and then I really manage to express myself, I become very talkative, I speak easily, I say nonsense. But most often, alcohol pushes me out of my silence to become extremely virulent. This is the great unpacking of criticism. You should never overdo it. There is no longer any interior, one is no longer someone. If you undress too much in front of someone else, you end up naked, and that’s not good.

We haven’t talked much about the zodiac yet. The grand trine Sun-Moon-Jupiter in Cancer-Pisces-Scorpio will give us the opportunity. With a Moon in Pisces, you are no doubt seeking to maintain your state of tranquility by cutting off contact, quietly refusing to respond to solicitations from the outside world that could disturb you. The Sun in Cancer is not dominant in your chart, but its trine to the Moon makes it co-dominant. We can therefore think that to maintain your peace of mind, you know how to spontaneously self-regulate yourself by adopting simple principles of life that protect you from any excess?

Yes. To be quiet, I cut the image, I cut the sound, I lock myself in my room, I organize myself to be able to do the bare minimum, so that I can be left alone in my little world. I don’t have set principles. I usually concentrate all my social obligations (paperwork, etc.) in very short periods. When it’s over, I go back into my shell.

Saturn in Gemini favors a freedom of thought which should not have too much difficulty in quickly questioning the reassuring and stabilizing certainties of a non-dominant Sun-Cancer…

Yes, I use intuition and I’m never sure of anything…

Sun, Mercury and Venus are not dominant in your birth sky. This probably implies a lack of spontaneous sociability: one way or another, it must not be easy for you to communicate with ease and relaxation on all occasions…

It’s true, but before, when I was an animator, when I felt good in my group, I was very communicative, but since then I’ve put a cross on it. But I was never able to have superficial relationships. I wanted to be loved, appreciated, to feel good with everyone. But in the work, I always remained serious, meticulous, orderly. Before, I was afraid to speak, and this experience freed me. It was a bit like a trance: I was with other people all the time, I felt really good. I thought that was it, being myself. Now, I feel less good in my skin since I am myself, away from any group.

Your weakest planets are Mars and Mercury. By Mercury, you must find it difficult to indulge in curiosities or gratuitous encounters, to take things lightly, while by Mars, you must hardly tolerate situations of confrontation, conflict, face-to-face harsh?

There are plenty of serious things that cannot be taken lightly. I don’t think I can flutter. I don’t like discussions that lead to nothing, talking to say nothing. I can’t bear to talk about rain and good weather, it doesn’t bring me deep information. I flee conflicts, I refuse to participate in them, I distance myself. In general, I am disarmed in the event of conflict. You really have to push myself to the limit so that I become aggressive, and there, I become very verbally violent, especially when communication is impossible. I stay away from dialogues without content which lead to useless confrontations, because there, I no longer control myself, I freak out, I get angry. It is no longer a dialogue, it is a “geulogue”.

We have only touched on the analysis of your chart. What do you think of this first encounter with astrology?

It’s very interesting. I didn’t think it would be so good. I find that in fact, I have qualities that I was unaware of, that I mistakenly took for faults like my solitary, critical side. I don’t know what words to use… it’s just, it’s nice. It confirmed a lot of my self-analysis, and it taught me a lot. My side “never happy”, now I take it for a quality. This astrological analysis is consistent.