For me, Astrid FALLON (now honoured member of the FDAF) can be compared with several other illustrious women: Germaine TILLION, who rests in the Panthéon, and Marguerite YOURCENAR, member of the Académie française.

These women are founders of extraordinary schools of thought; Astrid is in no way an exception.

Marguerite YOURCENAR, pseudonym of Marguerite Cleenewerck de Crayencour, born on 8 June 1903 in Brussels (Belgium) and deceased on 17 December 1987 in Bar Harbor, Maine (United States), was the first woman elected to the Académie française in 1980, and the first woman whose work was published during her lifetime in the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, in 1982. She was supported by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in her admission to the Académie, although she did not correspond to the image of a feminist woman, while she was widely known to be bisexual.

A fine illustration of her way of seeing the world is expressed in her statement:

"Conformism is a miserable disease; deeply conformist people have not truly lived."

She studies and experiences the human condition in all its aspects, life as well as death.

Germaine TILLION, born on 30 May 1907 in Allègre (Haute-Loire) (source for her birth time: Didier Geslain) and deceased on 19 April 2008 in Saint-Mandé (Val-de-Marne), was a member of the French Resistance and a renowned ethnologist.

Germaine Tillion studied ethnology under Marcel Mauss and Louis Massignon. She obtained a degree in Letters and graduated from the École pratique des hautes études, the École du Louvre, and INALCO.

Between 1934 and 1940, she carried out four research stays in Algeria to study the Chaoui Berber people as part of her doctoral research.

Upon returning to France at the time of the 1940 Armistice, after the arrests and executions of Boris Vildé, Anatole Lewitsky, and Paul Hauet (whose deputy she had been since 1940), she became head of the Musée de l'Homme Resistance network, with the rank of commander from 1941 to 1942.

She distinguished herself by perceiving the threat of Nazism at a very early stage.

When she was imprisoned and deported to Ravensbrück, she brought hope into the lives of the women there through her capacity for observation. Every evening, she gathered the group around her and recounted what she had observed during the day. She commented on the structure, but also on the human beings within that structure (she related, for example, the case of a guard who maintained a relationship with a prisoner). Through her observations, she enabled the women to distance themselves from their emotions and even to laugh about them.

Her capacity for observation was life-saving because it gave voice to what remained unspoken and allowed the human being behind the machinery to be seen.

Fundamentally, she did not remain silent. She expressed her observations with lucid acuity, without taking sides, except regarding what she perceived as dysfunctional.

It was in this same spirit that she later intervened during the Algerian War, conducting a courageous and profoundly humanistic struggle. There again, she refused to remain silent. She took responsibility for relations with the FLN, conducting several meetings. She denounced torture and abuses committed by the French while at the same time confronting the Algerian side over its guerrilla methods, which she also condemned.

Astrid FALLON, born on 12 May 1957 at 18:11 in Charleroi, is an astrologer who has lived in Belgium, England, and today in France.

She was President of the FAB (1988–1994), the Fédération des Astrologues Francophones in Belgium, during a period when interest in astrology was declining drastically.

Her work provided a counterbalance to a movement that reduced astrology to obscurantism and fortune telling, during a difficult period marked by the scientific questioning of Michel Gauquelin's research and the transition to the digital era. During the same period, sales of astrological books and publications declined sharply. Interest in astrology was decreasing dramatically.

She continued her research on planetary cycles in the tradition of André Barbault, research that remains accessible through her website. In her work, she builds bridges between French-speaking astrology and the English-speaking astrological world.

Within the Fédération des Astrologues Francophones, she enjoys international recognition. She is regarded as an outstanding teacher and as an eminent technician. She embodies mathematical and astronomical rigour while connecting it with the symbolic world of astrology. In this respect, she stands alongside Lynn Bell and Liz Greene.

Her particularity lies in her three-dimensional vision, which she expressed during a conversation with Victor Olivier, editor of the English Journal Astrologique:

"My dyslexia enables me to cut through the noise and reach the essential."

She has specialised in making complex celestial mechanisms accessible, published in Cycles et calculs astrologiques. She has been a member of the FDAF since its foundation.

1. The Three Women

The three women each follow their own path, in a manner entirely their own.

Their originality lies in several different aspects, yet they also converge—not so much in their objective as in their approach.

All three observe the human being, each from a different perspective.

For Tillion, it is the observation of social structure, its dysfunctions, but also of humanity itself. The individual within the structure.

For Yourcenar, that humanity remains central, but within its personal and intimate structure.

For Astrid Fallon, the human being is expressed within the volumetric dimension of the universe through symbolism.

Yet all three interpret human relationships in relation to a structure.

Does this lead us towards Mercury = analysis, Saturn = structure, Venus = relationship, House VII, House XI?

2. In Germaine Tillion's Natal Chart

First observation: Pluto–Mercury–Pallas–Sun in the Ninth House in Gemini, with Pluto conjunct the Midheaven.

The power of the manifested being.

We find Chiron (retrograde) in the Fifth House in Aquarius, forming a double biquintile with, on the one hand, the close conjunction Neptune–Ceres–Jupiter, and on the other hand, the Ascendant.

The extremely close biquintile speaks of a path of research that seeks to manifest itself in matter.

This double biquintile, also known as the Golden Yod, is the opposite of a quincunx Yod, which speaks instead of frustration.

The Golden Yod represents a richness seeking expression.

Every quintile or biquintile refers to the dimension of Venus, which naturally forms quintiles throughout her eight-year cycle by means of her five retrograde phases.

Thus, through this triple resonance of the Golden Yod, of which it forms the apex and being situated in Aquarius and in the Fifth House, Chiron becomes a lever for creativity outside the beaten path.

In Tillion's chart, Uranus is located in the Fourth House, in Capricorn and retrograde, therefore under the rulership of Saturn placed on the Descendant.

This resonates as a home continually called into question, a daily life that is neither stable nor reassuring, yet coherent (Saturn).

Saturn is conjunct the Descendant.

This conjunction directs the gaze towards everything that is structured and structural outside oneself.

But Saturn is in Pisces, trine the Lunar Nodes and square the Midheaven.

What colouring does this Saturn in Pisces bring?

It seems to point towards a universal openness rather than one limited to human relationships.

The person maintains a certain distance from others in order to protect herself.

The square to the Midheaven brings the typical Saturnian frustration, the feeling of not being entirely legitimate, while at the same time knowing precisely why she came and being entirely certain of what she came to accomplish (trine the North Node and sextile the South Node).

A Saturn strongly connected to the Lunar Nodes speaks of an unavoidable social commitment.

The position of Mercury (Ninth House) conveys vision and a philosophical, educational, and outward-looking approach towards foreign cultures, supported by strategy (Pallas), in conjunction with the deepest Self (the Sun).

The Mercury–Pluto conjunction brings with it the necessity of analysing the depths.

Mercury, descending into the social depths (Pluto) in order to understand their mechanisms, is ruled by the close triple conjunction Jupiter–Ceres–Neptune in the Tenth House in Cancer.

This triple conjunction appears to be the key to her chart because nourishment (Ceres) becomes "social", linked with Neptune, which cherishes the human family in its broadest sense, amplified by Jupiter exalted in Cancer.

This leads us towards the chart markers Jupiter (Cancer) and Saturn (Pisces)—together with Plutonian power—both in Water signs.

I seek the objectivity that is her gift.

The close conjunction between Mars and the Moon in Capricorn may provide this signature.

These two personal planets, closely conjunct in Capricorn (Saturn), stand opposite Jupiter and the North Node (Mars forming the exact midpoint between the two).

The social mechanism thereby acquires an even greater personal dimension.

Yet the supreme instrument through which all of this can be expressed remains Mercury, ruler of the Virgo Ascendant.

3. In Marguerite Yourcenar's Natal Chart

Here we find the quadruple conjunction Sun–Pluto–Mercury–Hygeia in the Eleventh House.

The Pluto–Sun conjunction (less than 3°) in the Eleventh House gives this power to the expression of the Self, directed towards the community. Through this conjunction, she imposes her own voice rather than adopting that of others, while at the same time respecting the structural foundations of her environment in her writing—an approach inspired by André Gide in her first novel.

Mercury retrograde is positioned at 0°21', trine Saturn. This Mercury turns direct at the age of seven. There is a rhythm of ten years—ten days, and so forth—throughout her chart. Mercury reaches the extreme point of its retrogradation at 7° Gemini, approximately 9° from the Sun.

The transition from retrograde Mercury to direct Mercury becomes clearly apparent with her move to Paris (at the age of nine). She leaves the austere environment of her paternal grandmother and enters an entirely new world, with new connections.

Saturn is—once again—conjunct the Descendant, in the Sixth House, in Aquarius, together with Chiron (Sixth House) in Capricorn.

Chiron in the Sixth House forms a square to the Midheaven (0°24') and a Golden Yod with the Sun (Eleventh House) on one side and Ceres (Second House) on the other.

Here we perceive a search for resilience within this Golden Yod. Nourishment is linked to the expression of the Self and to the transformation of suffering into wisdom in the service of others—the Sixth House: to serve.

This articulation between Chiron and Saturn, connected with the MC/DC axis, together with the double biquintile(Chiron–Sun–Ceres) and the position of Uranus in the Fifth House and Mercury in Gemini, all powerfully supported by Pluto, illuminates this search for human depth in order to understand wounds, structure, and limitations, while at the same time creating an original and creative dynamic beyond the beaten path: a new and creative perspective in her analysis.

4. In Astrid Fallon's Natal Chart

Here again we encounter Mercury retrograde, this time in Taurus. The point at which Mercury resumes direct motion lies at 9°22' Taurus, approximately 10° from the South Node. Mercury turns direct at the age of six.

A retrograde Mercury in Taurus reinforces the Taurean quality of perseverance. It gives precisely this colouring to her nature: direct, without pretence or artifice. This Mercury is ruled by Venus, likewise in Taurus and in her own sign, thereby reinforcing the importance of Venus. Mercury is continually weighed in the scales of Venusian ethical values (four planets together with the South Node in Taurus: Mercury – South Node – Sun – Ceres – Venus).

This Mercury stands in opposition to the Ascendant–Neptune–Moon conjunction in Scorpio, themselves ruled by Pluto in the Tenth House.

The orb of the opposition to the Moon is somewhat wide (5°), yet the transmission between the Neptunian–Lunar vision of the universe in Scorpio remains fully operative. It is a world filled with symbols, where the celestial bodies are explored in their immensity and depth, in a multidimensional perspective.

This Mercury forms a T-square with Chiron and the Midheaven.

It appears to be a Mercury that is not entirely at ease in the Seventh House. It speaks of the frustration of experiencing difficulty in expressing both one's voice and one's path in complete freedom. It is a painful journey that gradually leads towards the wisdom of Chiron, through solitude and isolation.

The conjunction Neptune–Moon on the Ascendant is a strong indication of curiosity for the invisible and for the universe. This is reinforced by the fact that Neptune is connected to Pluto (sextile), Uranus (square), Mars (trine), Vesta (biquintile), and by a Yod formed through quincunxes involving Venus and Hygeia.

Just as the voice of the universe is audible through Astrid, the Venus–Hygeia Yod speaks of a tension between her private life and her place in society, a dissonance that is difficult to resolve. Likewise, the Uranian square expresses the necessity of yielding to a creative force that imposes itself.

Harmony between these two worlds (Venus and Uranus) is achieved through the Grand Trine linking Saturn in the Second House, the Midheaven, and Juno in the Sixth House.

This Grand Trine expresses that service to others makes it possible to acquire substance. Saturn structures her entire perception, while Juno emphasises commitment in the service of others. Saturn and Juno complement one another within this dynamic.

In her astrological and astronomical research, Saturn provides an essential structural support.

Chiron forms a T-square with the Lunar Nodes, giving the chart a very specific dynamic.

Whereas a Saturn in T-square with the Nodes questions existing structures, Chiron—the great traveller between Saturn and Uranus—colours this dynamic in an entirely different manner.

Here, Chiron in the Fourth House in Aquarius speaks of an acute perception of exclusion, of the wound experienced both within oneself and in others. This Chiron directs the vision towards the world and towards existing inequality.

It is possible that Chiron opened the door to astrology, together with the need to seek answers, because:

"Fate is acceptable only when it is understood."

The path of the unprecedented, this highly personal journey, also bears the imprint of an original creativity outside the beaten path, with Uranus in Leo in the Ninth House, in quintile to the Sun and the South Node.

This dynamic is more subtle because it is deepened through the interaction between Chiron–the Lunar Nodes and Neptune–Moon in the First House and on the Ascendant.

This atypical and creative way of thinking stands in direct tension with the Ascendant and the planets in the First House—Neptune, the Moon, and the North Node.

Pluto in the Tenth House gives her the power to manifest her work in the world, and the Grand Trine linking Saturn–Juno–Midheaven, this original creativity outside the beaten path would have found much greater difficulty in manifesting itself.

It is a chart containing greater tensions, whose fulfilment is therefore less self-evident.

The T-square, incorporating the Midheaven and a Mercury hindered in its expression, bears witness to a life path that is consciously chosen because the invisible reality must be understood, while at the same time being strewn with difficulties.

Support also comes from Jupiter in the Eleventh House, sextile the North Node, trine the South Node, and in Virgo.

This Jupiter is aware of its social contribution, of the necessity of taking its place within the community and working in the service of humanity, particularly through its position in Virgo.

It constitutes the gateway to Chiron's liberation through the biquintile.

Here, the life journey is expressed through the symbolism of astrology and astronomy, bringing humanity and the universe into relationship with one another.

This is a chart characterized by significant tension, where the path to fulfillment is not immediately obvious. A T-Square involving the Midheaven and a challenged Mercury points to a journey that—while consciously chosen to understand invisible realities—is nonetheless strewn with difficulties.

Support also comes from Jupiter in the 11th House (in Virgo), forming a sextile to the North Node and a trine to the South Node. Positioned in Virgo, this Jupiter is keenly aware of its social contribution, the need to take a place in the community, and the imperative to work for the benefit of humanity. It acts as a gateway to liberation for Chiron (via a biquintile aspect).

The journey here is expressed through the symbolism of astrology and astronomy, linking humanity with the universe.

In summary the hypothesis equating Mercury with analysis, Saturn with structure, and Venus with relationships (specifically the 7th and 11th houses) proves to be imprecise. 

Rather, the focus lies on the correlation between Pluto, Uranus, and Chiron and the quintile and biquintile aspects; in this regard, Astrid aligns herself with Yourcenar—in the quest involving Chiron and liberation from suffering—and with Tillion, within the context of reflection and social engagement. She distinguishes herself through the tools she has chosen to comprehend the invisible and the symbolic: namely astrology, astronomy, and the music of the universe.