ANDRÉ BRETON AND ASTROLOGY

par Fabrice Pascaud

April 4, 2020

In addition, see Alain Roussel's text "Journey in the Starry Field" which appeared in the journal Signe ascendant (Fabrice Pascaud) number 1, autumn 2010

It is with infinite emotion that I address you today. Indeed, the theme of my conference invites me to speak to you about a man, André Breton, whose passage here below gave life, thought, and sensitivity a new dimension. He has, as Ionesco pointed out, brought to poetry a third dimension of the mind.

The theme of my intervention: "André Breton and astrology" requires me to clarify beforehand what surrealism means since it is impossible to evoke André Breton without speaking of surrealism. I will therefore recall the objective that André Breton had assigned to surrealism and which he had baptized the quest for the supreme point in the Second Manifesto of Surrealism published in 1930: "Everything leads us to believe that there exists a certain point of the mind from which life and death, the real and the imaginary, the past and the future, the communicable and the incommunicable, the high and the low cease to be perceived contradictorily. Now it would be in vain to seek the surrealist activity another motive than the hope of determination of this point." The high and the low, in other words the macrocosm and the microcosm. Now, what is the purpose of astrology if not to restore this link, to repair this divorce between man and the cosmos? Astrology reminds us that we are children of the universe.

André Breton attempted to create a line of force between the esoteric tradition and Hegel's thought: "(...) For me, his method has struck all others with indigence. Where the Hegelian dialectic does not function, there is for me no thought, no hope of truth. (...) it is only all the sluices of this dialectic opened in me that I believed to observe that there was not so far from the place where Hegelian thought emerged to the place where so-called traditional thought surfaced. Both tended for me to become one and the same place." Interviews with André Parinaud in 1952.

We can also relate this hope of determination to what the esoteric tradition teaches. How can we not think of what René Guénon says in his book "The Symbolism of the Cross": "The center of the cross is therefore the point where all oppositions are reconciled and resolved: at this point is established the synthesis of all contrary terms, which, in truth, are only contrary according to the external and particular points of view of knowledge in distinctive mode." We are indeed at the intersection of two same currents of thought with however this fundamental difference: surrealism rejects any idea of transcendence and any attachment to "a superior principle" as René Guénon understood it. André Breton was however a great reader of René Guénon. If we refer to the inventory of his library consultable on the internet[1], we see that he possessed: "The Spiritist Error – Dante's Esotericism – The Symbolism of the Cross – The King of the World – Insights on Initiation – The Principles of Infinitesimal Calculus – The Reign of Quantity – Initiation and Spiritual Realization — The Multiple States of Being." Moreover, in the 1920s, Breton had launched an appeal to René Guénon to invite him to join the collective surrealist activity. Surrealism advocating psychoanalysis, Marxism, automatic writing, as many points on which René Guénon could not adhere, it suffices to refer to his book: "Insight on Initiation" to know what he thought of psychoanalysis which for him was part of counter-initiation. The lines of force and consequently of opposition were clearly defined. Regarding his position vis-à-vis René Guénon, here is what André Breton says in a text dated May 31, 1956 dealing with the relations between surrealism and Tradition: "(...) If it happened to me and if it will probably happen to me again to quote René Guénon, it is because I hold in high esteem the rigor of the unfolding of his thought, without however being disposed to take upon myself the act of faith on which his approach is based, at the outset." If I insist on this point, it is to well highlight a point of resistance that never failed in Breton and which could be summarized by the absolute defense of free freedom as Rimbaud understood it. Breton never accepted to subject surrealism to a philosophical current of thought, to a spiritualist dogma and no matter the quality of these. To well understand his relations with astrology, it is essential to always have this present in mind.

PHILOSOPHER'S STONE: SURREALISM

Surrealism was for André Breton the philosopher's stone, this crucible from which it is possible to transform the world (Marx) and change life (Rimbaud). His genius was to have borrowed the experimental tools from domains as singular as mediumship, telepathy, divinatory arts to apply them to the poetic experience in order to achieve surreality. All emptied of spiritualist values, no exogeneity as spiritualism understands it, no life after death any more than communication between the living and the dead: (...) Needless to say that at no moment, from the day we consented to lend ourselves to these experiments, did we adopt the spiritualist point of view. As far as I am concerned, I formally refuse to admit that any communication exists between the living and the dead, he specifies in his text entitled "Entrance of the Mediums."

What dominated in André Breton was a generalization of the poetic experience. To broaden the poetic experience to activities that do not exclusively belong to literature. Not to keep in mind the presence of this emotion called poetry to paraphrase Pierre Reverdy and this infinite hope that he placed in the omnipotence of love and poetry is to irremediably devote oneself to misunderstanding regarding the manifest interest he showed in hermeticism, alchemy, clairvoyance, astrology and divinatory arts.

Breton never put anything above poetry and love; The act of love and the poetic act are incompatible with reading the newspaper aloud, he writes in his poem "On the Road to San Romano" then, he concludes this poem with: The embrace of flesh and the embrace of love, as long as it lasts defends any escape on the misery of the world.

THE RESOLUTION OF ANTINOMIES

In the tract entitled High Frequency of 1951, we read: "The will of surrealism to restore to man the powers of which he has been robbed has not failed to lead it to question all aspects of intuitive knowledge, in particular those embraced by esoteric doctrines, whose interest is to reveal in space and time certain uninterrupted circuits."

"(...) To question all aspects of intuitive knowledge (...) whose interest is to reveal in space and time certain uninterrupted circuits." This desire for revelation in space and time is at the heart of astrology. Through the spring of the analogical link, it precisely highlights these uninterrupted circuits. As for intuitive knowledge, implicitly present in astrological practice, one only needs to leaf through the journal "Minotaur," whose first issue appeared in 1933, to see this knowledge in action. A multidisciplinary approach unfolds there, interrelations between sciences that do not have the same investigation and analysis procedures. We find there: anthropology, ethnology, psychoanalysis, astrology, poetry, etc. For example, in issue 6 of 1935, we find an article by Dr. Lotte Wolff entitled: "The Psychic Revelations of the Hand" which is a psychoanalytic study of the lines of the hand based on chiromancy (divination practiced by Gypsies which translates as reading the lines of the hand — the fortune teller) or we see reproduced the hands of Breton, Gide, Ravel, Derain, Huxley, St Exupéry, Eluard and Duchamp. Then in issues 3/4 of this same journal appears the astrological study of Rimbaud made by Paul Cheridon. Finally, in issue 12/13, Dr. Pierre Mabille draws up the astrological chart of Lautréamont. As many disciplines that will lead André Breton to declare in one of his poems "Vigilance": "I no longer touch but the heart of things, I hold the thread." What can this thread be other than surrealism? Thus, how could he have missed the correspondence with astrology? In an interview he gave in April 1954 to Jean Carteret and Robert Knabe for issue 12 of the journal of the International Center of Astrology directed by André Barbault, he declared: "(...) To unravel a destiny from the situation of the planets and their mutual aspects in the different signs and houses supposes such finesse that it should suffice to strike with derision, to convince of childishness the usual modes of synthetic reasoning. What I have always appreciated to the highest degree in astrology is not the lyrical game to which it lends itself, but rather the multi-dialectical game that it requires and on which it is based. That astrology is the golden language of analogy, the one that tends to allow the greatest exchanges between man and nature, I cannot contradict."

ASTROLOGY

In April 2003, the sale at Drouot of what the media had wrongly called "The André Breton Collection" was held in Paris. Among the numerous documents was a file containing astrological charts drawn by hand by André Breton. We found the astral chart of Philippe Soupault, Robert Desnos, René Char, Yves Tanguy, Aragon, Rimbaud, Lautréamont, Huysmans, Benjamin Péret, Georges Sadoul... the list is long. Some of these sky charts were accompanied by an astrological interpretation made by Breton. Others were corrected by his hand which testifies to the seriousness he accorded to astrological study. I specify by hand, because at that time, that is to say in the 1920s, the computer had not yet seen the light of day, so it was necessary to calculate the chart by hand and this technique requires serious learning. The works explaining how to draw up a sky chart were few in number or more precisely they were not among those that we count nowadays. Drawing up a sky chart is, I would say, the thankless part of astrology, but we cannot dispense with this learning. Nowadays where the computer supplements the calculations, it suffices to enter the birth data of the subject to have the sky chart in the seconds that follow. If this indeed greatly facilitates things and avoids calculation errors, it is regrettable to note that a large number of astrologers nowadays do not know how to draw up a sky chart by hand. If I insist on this point, it is to well show the importance of Breton's involvement in astrological practice. On certain charts, we see modifications that he had made following an error of planetary positioning having as origin an inaccurate birth time or a bad calculation.

THE BEGINNINGS IN ASTROLOGY. WITH WHOM? WHICH BOOKS?

Contrary to the widespread idea, it is not Pierre Mabille, doctor of medicine, who initiated André Breton to astrology. In fact, it was during the 1920s that André Breton began to be interested in astrology. Valentine Penrose[2], also keen on astrology, opened some paths for him, gave him certain advice and it was only around the 1930s that Pierre Mabille would benefit him from his knowledge in the matter.

What were the works that André Breton consulted? Everything leads us to believe that he was a regular at the Chacornac bookstore located at 11 quai Saint-Michel in Paris. I recall that this bookstore was born in October 1884 and was then called "General Bookstore of Occult Sciences." In 1920 it will be called "Chacornac brothers" then in 1950 "Les éditions traditionnelles" directed by Nicole and André Braire.

In this regard, when consulting the Charcornac library catalog of 1912, in the section devoted to astrology, we find a large number of works, for example: the books of Paul Choisnard (1867 – 1930), polytechnician, who will take the pseudonym of Paul Flambart. André Breton possessed one of his books entitled "Astral Influence" (essay on experimental astrology). In this book, Paul Choisnard lays the foundations of a scientific astrology and responds scientifically to the questions: Do the stars influence us? And to what extent can we determine their laws of correspondences? Breton had also drawn from the book "The Mirror of Astrology" by the poet Max Jacob and Conrad Moricand (the latter answering to the pseudonym of Claude Valence). This book is clearly less sharp and of more modest scope. What must have seduced Breton are the poetic analogies that Max Jacob establishes with the zodiac signs.

Other books consulted and held in high esteem by André Breton are those of André Barbault (1921 – 2019). For example: "Defense and Illustrations of Astrology" published in 1955 by Grasset editions. The copy in his possession was accompanied by a dedication from André Barbault: "To André Breton in memory of his beautiful response to the questionnaire of 'Modern Astrology' with my high esteem."

In issue 5 of the journal "Le surréalisme, même" of spring 1959, in an introductory text of a game entitled "Whose is it?" This game, which calls on intuitive knowledge, consisted in simply looking at the writing of an envelope without knowing its author to attempt to draw up a sensitive portrait of the latter. In this text, André Breton speaks of André Barbault: "(...) the characterological views that are expressed in André Barbault's twelve small works The Transcendent Zodiac in all respects transcend the psychology that is taught in the Faculties." André Barbault had been among the people invited to respond to a survey launched by the surrealist group in 1962 for the journal La Brèche. The theme of this survey was: "The World Upside Down?"

To conclude on the astrological works consulted by André Breton, he drew much from the two "New Treatises on Classical Astrology" by Julevno (Jules Evenot, 1845 – 1915). During the 2003 sale, I had the opportunity to browse through them and they were annotated in the margins by André Breton's hand. We read the name of such and such of his friends which corresponded to one of the given astrological interpretations.

ASTROLOGICAL PRACTICE

When we carefully read the astrological notes he made on the different charts of his friends, it is clear that he had not acquired what is called a global reading of the chart, he proceeded in a fragmented manner, there was no overall vision of the chart. That said, I put reservations on my remarks, because it is in view of notes on charts situated between the 1920s and 1930s. Perhaps he had acquired a better mastery of chart reading subsequently? Thus, if his interest in astrology is undeniable, what place did it occupy both in his life and his work and I hasten to specify that the work is inseparable from his life.

If we carefully refer to his texts, we find numerous references to the art of Urania. If only for example this title "Rising Sign." In astrology, we call rising sign the zodiac sign that rises in the east at the moment of a subject's birth. For Breton, for example, birth under the sign of Pisces with the rising sign of Libra. It is useful to recall that in this magnificent text "Rising Sign," André Breton specifies again that he experiences intellectual pleasure only on the analogical plane. Analogy and the law of correspondences that are attached to it were an operative field in the alchemical sense of the term in André Breton's existence. And from analogy and the law of correspondences to the language of birds, there is barely a wing beat that separates them. We inscribe ourselves in interdependence, in the thought that everything is in everything, that nothing is separate and that precisely it is at this source that the poetic image is nourished and created, because surrealist poetry is not composed on the musical staff, but gives to see hence the formula: The eye exists in a wild state which opens "Surrealism and Painting" (ed. Brentano's 1945).

In other texts, we find clearly explained planetary indications. Depending on the marked, upsetting situations he was experiencing, André Breton consulted what are called ephemerides which mark the positions of the planets in the signs day by day.

For example in his book "Mad Love" in chapter I (page 20 ed. Gallimard 1964), André Breton gives a date April 10, 1934 and speaks of an occultation of Venus by the Moon. That day, he was lunching in a restaurant located near the entrance of a cemetery, which troubled him greatly. On the wall was a clock empty of its dial. And the waitress wore: beginning of quote: "(...) on a white polka dot collar a very fine chain holding three clear drops like moonstone, round drops on which was detached at the base a crescent of the same substance, similarly set. I appreciated, once again, infinitely, the coincidence of this jewel and this eclipse." We touch there the supreme point between the high and the low, if I dare say. We see that this meeting of Venus and the Moon (Venus, beauty, love, the Moon, dream, the feminine) coincides for him with the meeting of this waitress, symbolized by Venus, and the attraction of her jewel, moonstone, symbolized by the Moon. We are indeed at the crossroads of astrological and poetic analogy or of what the psychiatrist and psychologist C.-G. Jung had baptized a phenomenon of synchronicity. Synchronicity is the simultaneous occurrence of at least two events that do not present a causal link, but whose association takes on meaning for the person who perceives them. As the psychoanalyst J.-B. Pontalis so aptly formulated: "If the telepathy sessions in Jersey prefigured our analysis sessions that make the deceased speak? If the child's table was the ancestor of our couches? If it was the shadow that gave light?"

Still in "Mad Love" in chapter VI (page 113 ed. Gallimard 1964) he writes: "(...) Would it be the effect of the conjunction of Venus and Mars at such a place in the sky of my birth, it has been given to me too often to experience the misdeeds of discord within love itself." On an astrological level, this reflection resonates in perfect analogy with the symbolic values present in his birth chart. Which also shows his finesse of analysis and his mastery of the symbolic keyboard.

In a communication dealing with objective chance published in "Document 34. Surrealist Intervention." Then taken up under the title "Crisis of the Object" in the book "I See, I Imagine" (ed. Gallimard 1991), we find the same procedure. André Breton relates an event, still in a restaurant, which directly concerns Benjamin Péret who almost gets injured by, again, a waitress who drops a knife which in falling on the table splits the latter's glass in two. Breton is even more precise, since in addition to giving the date of May 1, 1933, he specifies: "As simple information and without prejudice, a priori, of a rational explanation that would exclude any use of such data, this state of planetary positions, quite remarkable on May 1 at 9 p.m." Follows the list of planetary configurations. I took care to proceed to a verification of the given planetary indications and they are exact. Which demonstrates once again his perfect knowledge of the transit technique. The transit being the movement of the planets applied to a birth chart and which allows to actualize it, to inscribe it in the here and now. It is this technique that allows, among other things, to do predictive astrology.

For André Breton astrology was a domain of investigation and interpretation that he used for poetic purposes. In "The Communicating Vessels," he has a very significant phrase: "Any error in the interpretation of man entails an error in the interpretation of the universe; it is consequently an obstacle to its transformation." Thus marking the interrelation of one to the other. Astrology was for him a means of situating himself in nature, of carving out a poetic path in the world.

In the surrealist movement, others were interested in astrology. Apart from Pierre Mabille, there is René Alleau, Elie-Charles Flamand, Bernard Roger, Kurt Seligmann to whom we owe the book "the mirror of magic" and who greatly helped André Breton during the writing of "Arcane 17" by providing him with documentation on the tarot, on the sacred science of numbers, etc., and Guy René Doumayrou to whom we owe the work "Sidereal Geography" which has been reissued by Arma Artis editions. Not forgetting "A Gay Saturn" by André Pieyre de Mandiargues[3] (Ed. Gallimard 1982). This book is a series of interviews with Yvonne Caroutch which takes as its basis the poet's astrological chart. I specify moreover that Yvonne Caroutch is the great specialist of the Unicorn myth.

TO BE BORN OR NOT TO BE BORN... FOLLOW THE SIGN

I will now address a fascinating subject that will place us at the heart of the astrological question. André Breton had modified his date of birth.

This modification clearly occurs during the course of the year 1934. He said he was born on February 18, 1896 at 10:30 p.m., whereas according to his birth certificate, he was born on February 19, 1896 at 10 p.m. in Tinchebray in the Orne. From the sign of Pisces for February 19 he passed to the sign of Aquarius for February 18. Why such a change? Some jumped feet first on this point saying: "You see, Breton didn't believe in astrology, proof, he had changed his date of birth!" These people not realizing that we can turn the argument around by: "Breton believed in astrology, proof, he had changed his date of birth." In short, childish reactions that present no interest. Moreover, I open a parenthesis: astrology is not a matter of belief, but of observation of a celestial movement and its correspondence with the manifestations here below. In other words the law of correspondences. I close the parenthesis.

We could believe Breton, that he would indeed have been born on February 18 and that consequently the birth certificate would be inaccurate, which sometimes happens. However, if we refer to his writings, he clearly indicates being born under the sign of Pisces, therefore February 19. For example, the poem entitled "Age" completed on February 10, 1916 is dated February 19, 1916, this in order to make it coincide with his date of birth, this is what Margueritte Bonnet reports following a conversation with André Breton dating — is it an objective chance or a pure coincidence — dating from February 18, 1962. In another text "Introduction to the Discourse on the Paucity of Reality," André Breton sets a meeting for "eleven years and forty days after January 10, 1925." If we do the calculation, this leads to the date of February 19, 1936, his fortieth birthday. Finally in the "Manifesto of Surrealism" of 1924, he writes: "(...) me the soluble fish, I was born under the sign of Pisces." I stop here this enumeration, because this still does not answer the question of Why?

Jean Richer to whom we owe astrological, symbolic and psychological studies of Nerval, Hugo, Verlaine had advanced the following explanation: at the end of the 3rd adjournment of André Breton's book entitled "Arcane 17" (thus making reference to the arcane of The Star of the Marseille tarot which symbolizes hope and transmission) Breton says to have walked, on the symbolic plane, with Nerval along the golden furrow. Then, he specifies: eternal youth 1808 = 17 Birth of Nerval and publication of "Theory of the Four Movements and General Destinies" by Charles Fourier. Not only does the birth year 1808 by an arithmosophical reduction give a total of 17 (1 +8 +0 +8), but Nerval's complete birth date 22/5/1808 also gives the number 17 (2 +2 +5 +1 +8 +0 +8). Thus, to follow André Breton in his symbolic journey, we must perform the same calculation for the date of 18/2/1896: 1 +8 +2 +2 +4 = 17. Richer therefore advances the hypothesis that Breton had operated this modification in order to be on the same arithmosophical frequency as Gérard de Nerval.

I bring here my version. Arcane 17 of the Marseille tarot is generally associated with the sign of Aquarius, a sign that corresponds, I recall, to the date of February 18. But on this arcane appears a grouping of stars of which the largest is, not the planet Venus as is often claimed, but Fomalhaut of the Southern Fish, located towards the 3rd and 4th degree of the sign of Pisces. This observation thus brings us back to the ambivalence felt by Breton who, in taking arcane 17 as an emblem, synthesizes both the sign of Aquarius and that of Pisces, like a back-and-forth game between these two signs. It remains to be seen whether André Breton orchestrated these astrological movements consciously or not. I say this because Breton was a man endowed with a sensitivity and intuition quite remarkable, not to say extraordinary. He had the art of grasping the subtle manifestation of objects, of creating connections, he possessed this precious gift of giving to see. In the 1924 manifesto, he has this phrase which is oh so enlightening: "I want people to be silent when they cease to feel." In this regard, I allow myself to specify that this declaration falls under a Neptunian value linked to the sign of Pisces, which brings us back to the official date of his birth namely February 19.

Another explanation has been advanced by Mark Pollizotti in his biography: André Breton. (Ed. Gallimard 1999). According to him, it is because Breton was in love with a maternal cousin, Manon, born on February 18, 1898. This explanation is doubtful and of little foundation.

More interesting, on the other hand, are the investigations of Georges Sebbag reported in his book entitled: "The Unpronounceable Day of My Birth André Breton." published by Jean-Michel Place editions. From Breton's writings and the indications of time, place and date that appear there, Georges Sebbag retraces an itinerary where the real and the surreal mingle in order to bring light to this point. I will not pursue further concerning this work, but I invite you to refer to it.

ASTROLOGICAL EXPLANATION

For my part, I tried to seek an explanation of an astrological order. To do this, I drew up the two sky charts, that of February 18 and that of February 19. I immediately specify that my observations do not have the value of absolute truth, but are, they too, only pure hypotheses.

The differences are as follows: first of all, the luminaries that is to say the Sun and the Moon. For the chart of February 18, we have a Sun that is at 29° 49 of Aquarius and the Moon at 26° 53 of Aries. For February 19, the Sun is at 0° 48 of Pisces and the Moon at 8° 37 of Taurus. To this is added a modification in the axis of the celestial meridian (Midheaven/Bottom of heaven), because the birth time presents a gap of 30 minutes (18/02 = 10:30 p.m. – 19/02 = 10 p.m.): for February 18, we have a Midheaven at 2° 52 in Leo and a Bottom of heaven at 2° 52 in Aquarius while for February 19, we have an M.C. at 26° 36 in Cancer and an F.C. at 26° 36 in Capricorn. At first glance, it appears that the chart drawn up for February 18 presents many more aspects of tension. For example, in an astrological chart, the Moon symbolizes dream, childhood, imagination, clan, the feminine... in the sign of Taurus for February 19, symbolically this translates succinctly by: in the Venusian sign (love) of Taurus, there is an exaltation of everything that relates to refinement, beauty, voluptuousness and the great importance (in a male nativity) accorded to the feminine (anima). Moreover, by its mastery over the M.C., it engages the being towards dream, the expression of the sensitive, poetry, etc.

I will not push further the astrological analysis as such so as not to complicate the subject for those among you who are not versed in astrological reading. I will therefore deliver to you my vision of things, a vision which, I recall, is only pure hypothesis.

In 1998, I had written for issue 122 of the journal "L'astrologue" then directed by André Barbault, a complete and very detailed study of André Breton's astral chart for the date of February 19, 1896 according to the birth certificate. After having applied the technique of planetary transits on the determining moments of André Breton's life, it clearly appeared that there was a perfect correlation between the nature of the event and the symbolic keyboard of such or such planet in transit at this precise moment of his life. I am therefore inclined to consider February 19 as being indeed the "real" day of his birth. But this affirmation still does not explain the why of the date change.

URANUS AND THE SURREALIST MOVEMENT

In the "Second Manifesto of Surrealism (1930)," in the part where he advocates the deep, true occultation of surrealism, André Breton alludes to the importance of the planet Uranus on the surrealist movement and he asks that an in-depth astrological study be carried out in this sense. Here is what he says: "When we think, on the other hand, of what is expressed astrologically in surrealism of very preponderant 'Uranian' influence, how can we not wish, from the surrealist point of view, that a critical and good faith work devoted to Uranus should appear, which would help in this respect to fill the serious ancient gap? Needless to say that nothing has yet been accomplished in this sense. (...) From the conjunction of Uranus with Saturn which took place from 1896 to 1898 and which only happens every forty-five years, from this conjunction which characterizes the sky of Aragon, that of Eluard and mine — we only know, by Choisnard, that, still little studied in astrology, it 'would mean according to all likelihood: deep love of sciences, search for the mysterious, elevated need to instruct oneself.' (...) 'Who knows, he adds, if the conjunction of Saturn with Uranus will not engender a new school in matters of science? This planetary aspect placed in a good place in a horoscope could correspond to the stuff of a man gifted with reflection, sagacity and independence capable of being an investigator of the first order.' These lines, extracted from 'Astral Influence', are from 1893 and, in 1925, Choisnard noted that his prediction seemed to be in the process of being realized."

In this extract, we see André Breton's great precision and his acute knowledge of the astrological process. Moreover, we can also note the relevance of Paul Choisnard's prospective analyses. Indeed, how can we not see emerging in filigree surrealism (new school in matters of science) and the personality of André Breton (a man gifted with reflection, sagacity and independence capable of being an investigator of the first order.) Certainly the term "school" to designate surrealism is a clumsiness, but Choisnard had no precise defined vision when he wrote these lines in 1893, Breton was not born!

A small precision to stay in the same register. The journal S.A.S.D.L.R.[4] presents on the cover a coat of arms with on a green background the representation of the glyphs Uranus and Saturn, embedded one in the other, thus reproducing the famous Uranus Saturn conjunction of which Paul Choisnard spoke.

To respond to André Breton's expectation, I proceeded to this study[5] and I must recognize that André Breton was not mistaken — which demonstrates once again his fine knowledge of astrology —, because Uranus is indeed the dominant planet of surrealism with Neptune as co-dominant. Uranus is the planet of Aquarius and Neptune that of Pisces. Once again, we are indeed at the Aquarius Pisces intersection. Uranus symbolizes the insurrectional, revolutionary, innovative side of surrealism, it is the Promethean energy in action and Neptune symbolizes the forces of the unconscious, automatic writing, utopia, poetry and magical thinking. I therefore think that André Breton had moved back his date of birth by one day to correspond totally, to become one with the sign of Aquarius ruled by the planet Uranus, the dominant of surrealism. But he had always secretly kept the signature of Pisces, the title of one of his poetry collections published in 1934: "The Air of Water" is significant when we know that Aquarius is an air sign and Pisces a water sign. I moreover specify that the planet Mercury, which in astrology symbolizes movement, thought, communication is found in the sign of Aquarius both in the chart of February 18 and February 19, which signs Breton's intellectual dynamism. Moreover, the astrologer André Barbault had a formulation in which intuition borrows from paradox. In the Zodiac collection which consists of 12 fascicles dealing with each of the astrological signs, in the one devoted to the sign of Aquarius, he declares in conclusion of the astrological portrait of André Breton established for February 18: "An objective chance wanted this man, in appeal of intoxication of life, at the limit of the audacities and illusions of the spirit, to be precisely of this sign (meaning Aquarius)." Breton will therefore have effectively "forced" not chance, but destiny by deciding his own birth.

But there is another "sublime" point that brings a striking light to this astrological displacement. If we draw up the astrological chart of Lautréamont, the surrealists' beacon poet, what do we see? Born on 4/04/1846 in Montevideo. Aries rising Taurus. When we observe the celestial meridian, we see a Midheaven in Aquarius in which the planet Neptune reigns! Now, as already specified: Aquarius = Uranus and Pisces = Neptune. We find there again the Aquarius Pisces alternation through the dialectical play of the mastery of one over the other. Which leads me to think: Did Breton operate this solar movement to correspond analogically and dialectically with Monsieur le Comte? The hypothesis deserves to be retained and its poetic dimension has value of insistence.

ASTROLOGY HOW FAR?

In "Prolegomena to a Third Manifesto of Surrealism or Not," André Breton writes in opening: "There is doubtless too much North in me for me ever to be the man of full adherence." This phrase is very significant. Thus, it went from his will to change his date of birth to a visceral desire not to let himself be counted by the stars, to bend them to the power of his desire, the only one capable of transforming the real. In this regard, here is an anecdote that André Barbault reported to me very revealing of André Breton's resistance. It was during the 1950s, André Breton for the journal "Medium" had André Barbault asked to write a text on astrology. André Barbault was the great specialist of world astrology. He was then working on the great planetary cycles and he notes that surrealism falls under the Saturn-Pluto cycle. (I want to specify in passing that we must not confuse the cycle with the dominant, the first marks the emergence and end of a thing while the dominant marks the tint of a thing.) André Barbault therefore writes his text on this point and addresses it to André Breton. After having taken knowledge of the article, André Breton refused to publish it, because he could not accept the idea that surrealism could be inscribed in a planetary cycle, it was in his eyes determinism, a nonsense vis-à-vis what surrealism advocates and defends. We can thus observe the contradictions and also understand the reasons that pushed him to modify his date of birth.

Does this mean that Breton refuted predictive astrology for all that? No. In a letter dated September 20, 1961 addressed to Jean-Pierre Lassalle (whom I want to thank here for having authorized me to reproduce an extract), here is what André Breton says: "(...) I am anxious to observe what will correspond to the extraordinary planetary mass in Aquarius and under the dragon's tail that will occur in February 1962. War? Revolution? Epidemics? Exceptional cosmonautic achievements? Nothing? We will see, but, in the meantime, if I were in Kennedy's or Kroutchev's place, I would propose a six-month truce and a conference on Berlin in March 1962."

Now, if we go back in History, what happened that was remarkable precisely in February 1962? Here:

February 5, de Gaulle calls for Algeria's independence. February 8, these are the demonstrations against the OAS at the call of trade union organizations, the PSU, the PCF which were banned by the government. This will result in violent police repression particularly at the Charonne metro where 8 people were killed. March 18, 1962, The Évian agreements which will put an end to the Algerian war. In this dedication, André Breton launches into a prognosis that falls under the great astrological tradition, very little practiced, which is that of world astrology which rests on the observation of the great planetary cycles of which André Barbault was the great specialist.

Another very significant dedication. The one intended for Edmond Bomsel of "Farouche à quatre feuilles. Ed. 1964," here is what André Breton writes:

"Kennedy's sky, with a problematic Saturn close to its culmination — this 'Saturn in the 10th house is the worst of positions for a politician: it is the one that we encounter most often among dethroned sovereigns and statesmen who ended badly, from Napoleon III to Hitler, passing through Charles X, Louis-Philippe and Laval..." This is what I was reading on the morning of November 22 in André Barbault's work: 1964 and the world crisis of 1965 which had just reached me. The evening of the same day, it was the Dallas assassination.

To Edmond Bomsel for a global revision of the signs to trust. André Breton

This dedication deserves to be stopped at, because it is extremely disturbing and rich in teaching. Already, it testifies to the relevance of André Barbault's studies who had very well highlighted the problematic nature of this planetary position in the charts of heads of state. Confirmation was given by Kennedy's assassination who presented such a position. But moreover, we have there, again, the manifestation not of an objective chance, but of a synchronicity (C.-G. Jung) which puts in parallel in the same space-time two events which at first glance have no causal link (Breton's reading and, later in the same day, the assassination that confirms the read remarks), but which take on all their meaning for André Breton.

CONCLUSION

The purpose of my intervention was not to demonstrate that André Breton was an astrologer in the strong and classical sense of the term. What I wanted to highlight is the fact that he had learned scrupulously the rudiments of astrology and that he had put them into practice in his life, his work. His interest never wavered from 1920 until his disappearance in 1966. This to refute the remarks that tend to say that his interest was minor just a passing fancy. Like psychoanalysis, alchemy, etc. astrology was for him one of the many beacons that brought another vision of man. Through its attachment to the celestial vault, astrology allows us to reach this resolution of antinomies that is to reunite the high and the low in a sublime point. And for Breton, this sublime point has never ceased to be poetry and love fused one in the other in the surrealist crucible.

Thus, André Breton was surrealist in his practice of astrology and elsewhere.

I will end with this extract from "Soluble Fish": "I once laughed at fortune telling and I carry on my left shoulder a five-leaf clover. It may happen to me on the way to fall into a precipice or to be pursued by stones, but it is each time, I beg you to believe, only a reality."

[1] https://www.andrebreton.fr/

[2] See on this subject, a letter from Valentine Penrose addressed to André Breton and dealing with astrology reproduced on the André Breton site: Astrological Letter Penrose Breton

[3] André Pieyre de Mandiargues wrote an article entitled "Speaking of Astrology" for the journal L'astrologue (directed by André Barbault) published in issue 2 – second quarter 1968.

[4] Surrealism At The Service Of The Revolution

[5] Issue 122 of the journal L'astrologue – 2nd quarter 1998