“I was born in Naples on July 18, 1935, to an Irish and Occitan mother, and a Swiss French father.” Born under the sign of Cancer, with the Sun conjunct to Pluto, Benjamin Vautier followed the studies of Marcel Duchamp in an attempt to eliminate the boundaries between life and art declared in the motto “everything is art.” His performative words, his signatures on anonymous objects, his provocations, and his attack on the artistic conventions of the 1950s are partially the result of those generations with Pluto in Cancer — more interested in the truths of dreams than the apparent certainties of reality — and partially an expression of his birth chart. Among the patterns of his sky we see the restlessness of the quadrature between Sun in Cancer and Mars in Libra, which raises doubts about the ego — “I have to see clearly; I have to fight my anxieties (anguish of being surpassed, anguish of failing, […] anguish of being put aside, anguish of having nothing left to say).” This is joined by an irreverent and avant-garde Moon in Aquarius, which all blends together without ever blowing out of proportion, according to the careful and discerning guidance of Venus in Virgo, consistent up to the culmination of its own rule in the extreme reflection provided by Ion Guiyot: “Death is Art, provided one dies.” With this, we present your July horoscope, sign by sign.
Mercury gives you a wink, Venus is ready to kiss you, and Jupiter has been encircling you in a pleasant embrace for some time now. There are many reasons to feel fulfilled and fit, but your desire for change, for a drastic turn that would put you once and for all in the most carefree and comfortable condition, doesn’t subside. On closer inspection, what interests you most is a goal for endless peace, for which you wish the heavens would work faster. “I would even say that conceit, aggression, ambition, are by relation to the work, much more alive.” Ben Vautier.
Mercury in quadrature, Mars in conjunction. Behind the placid redundancy of your persuasive and penetrating tone, with a deep and resilient voice like the oak, lurks the howl of the forest, vital and pulsing in body and spirit. You’re in the midst of an awakening that cannot keep itself at bay, somewhere between the defense of emotional or material security and the urge to taste a temptation, which now frightens you less. Saturn keeps the wheel of consciousness steady, so every now and then you can lean over the edge and feel the fresh foam of freedom. Those who arch too far risk a neck injury.
While Saturn and Neptune have short-circuited some in the second and third decades, here comes a host of pleasant planetary helpers. From Mercury to Venus, via Jupiter, July tells of a newfound lightness and unity of thought. Enough of the analytical mechanism that examines you piece by piece, put a stop to the fragmentation of mind, heart and spirit. Returning to an overall view is like stretching a contracted and caged soul. And the oxygen that’s released from your pores immediately unleashes projects, relational leaps, fearless loves and an incredible desire to travel the world.
The important trials, the ones that made you tremble, get angry, and even question their very usefulness — you always overcame them. You’ve taken them sideways, never head-on, sliding over the walls of their iron-clad rules, with one foot in and one foot out of the box. With the rigor of one who studies and the sarcasm of one who waits for no judgment because they have already made their own. You are beyond the social barrier that divides based on performance, with a spectacular Mars that makes you hold your position with your head held high. “Art is not life, unless this life is truth.” Ben Vautier
Words and actions don’t always have the same rhythm. Your word — private and public — is already concrete action, but its implementation may get jammed. Those of you with are seasoned life athletes, programmers who have been training for a long time to undo any consequence of the environment on your outcome, have no problem. Those, on the other hand, who have paid less attention to the muscular state and practical implications of their saying it, may find themselves harried or disappointed — if only for a few days — mulling over what they could have done to avoid it. “Art is a word” Ben Vautier.
The powerful trigon of Mars is a good antidote against the social pressure of Jupiter and the psychic strain caused by Saturn. The resilience you can rely on shouldn’t be spent in for the ease of keeping up with the busy pace of existence. Better to interpret it as a chance to resist habits and to stop playing the little game of social roles that have made you tired, no longer useful like they once were. “It’s as if the game of art accepts all blows, including allowing the players to try to stop the game.” Ben Vautier.
It’s a gradual and relentless recovery after weeks of being slow and thoughtful more than necessary. In a genuine dialogue with your depths, you’ve already smelled the scent of a new wind, steady and warm, much more reassuring than the recent swaying between warm gusts of enthusiasm and icy airs of worry. You already know the road to your wellbeing; you’ve been working on it for a lifetime. It’s just a matter of walking the path without detours between inconclusive promises and deceitfully friendly characters. A host of favorable planets cleanses you of any possible hindering obsessions.
“Brokenness is a key word, we all want to be breakages, not playing the game, not being like others.” Ben Vautier. Whether out of irony or out of a fit of anger, out of weariness or out of increasingly high stakes, your style openly declares that breakages don’t scare you. On the contrary, it’s continually evoked, silently threatened and agitated daily, though never openly declared. Provocatively exorcised. You are the water-filled cloud on the horizon, slowest for those who fear you, fastest for those who don’t expect you. An out-of-control thunder announces you. Advantage goes to the opposing side.
You warm up your muscles, bones and spirit. You warm up the atmosphere around you. You relax the tension due to constrained slowness, you reopen your smile along with a pleasant sociability. The roads to be traveled increase, as wide as the highways of the US, while the view and dreams take flight from the desert to the sky as the enthusiasm of bold desires returns. A new consciousness transforms Saturn-imposed limitations into opportunities. It’s a beautiful new challenge and an exercise in pure creativity, having more rules and fewer resources, to try to do something even greater.
“Life never stops.” Ben Vautier. You are a guarantee of continuity, without losing quality. You enjoy the energy of the Mars trigon, a confirmation — if needed — of your relentless advance. The planetary outline is appetizing: Saturn in sextile is teaching you not to overdo it, Uranus in trigon realizes ambitious projects for some third-decade borns, and Neptune pours new emotions over those who have chosen the meditative path and silence as a reaction to people’s loud clamoring. In this “life that never stops,” there is a clear direction — a turn toward lightness.
On paper, the month of July looks like an obstacle course. It’s easy to find if you go down roads where they’re located. If it’s the Ego that guides your choices, with its immediate desires cast as hope toward the world, then Mercury, Venus, Mars and Uranus will show the objective limits of your obstinacy. If, on the other hand, you find the ultimate meaning in the things of the world, their spirit, their “mana”, you will see all predictable negatives melt away as the door to a new beauty opens. “Beauty is on the other side,” Ben Vautier.
The amazement in the eyes of the beholder is never exhausted. You live by an unpredictable and spontaneous line, of which you often have no awareness, nor do you care to have any. There are those who try to measure you according to the standard parameters of quantity, those who try to fix you in time according to the canons of past-present-future, and those who would even like to define you as an object of love, responding to some sort of set convention. Who knows why they can’t quell the anxiety of having you in some already given form. It would be so nice to meet outside the usual world. “What are you afraid of?” Ben Vautier.