Ben Nicky is searching for stability. He wants to find a firm, unchanging structure for his life. But his efforts to achieve this ideal are often vain, because unconsciously, he is also inhabited by the opposite desire. Every time he reaches what he believes to be a good balance, he realizes he wants something entirely different. He should become aware that the concepts of stability and balance are difficult to apply to life. By definition, life is movement, change, and perpetual instability.

Ben Nicky:

You have a paternal complex, which makes it difficult for you to find your identity. You may have lacked a father figure who could provide you with patterns and models for structuring your personality, or you may have lacked a sense of security which could be provided by a paternal presence. Because you were forced to protect yourself against negative influences, you developed a system to grow and feel secure. Although this system was helpful to you as a child, it has now settled into a degree of interference which impedes your evolution. Psychological defense mechanisms and crutches which were once useful to you now encumber your mind or inhibit your developmental efforts. As a result, in certain situations, it is difficult for you to assert yourself and you tend to remain an awkward or passive observer. Because your authoritarian urges are mainly directed at yourself, you sometimes feel guilty about your behavior. You judge yourself severely and sometimes punish yourself by setting difficult tasks for yourself. Gradually, you should build up a strong inner discipline and acquire the strength to face the problems of existence in a detached and mature way.

Ben Nicky was born under a new moon, when the moon and sun were in the same part of the sky. Ben enjoys a positive balance between the conscious and unconscious aspects of his psyche, which works together harmoniously. His determination and sensitivity balance one another and contribute to the relationships with other people which make up his outer life. His parents or teachers probably gave him the type of education which was adapted to his personality, which results in Ben’s personality being basically balanced. This does not mean that Ben’s life is devoid of little asperities, as generally the goals he sets for himself correspond to his skills. Ben tends to follow prevailing trends and behave in a conventional enough way, seeing the world according to his own perceptions instead of the way it really is.

Ben Nicky has a taste for luxury and magnificence, for a dazzling social life and a distinguished career. When things are going well for him, he tends to think of himself as the center of the universe, an attitude that those close to him do not always appreciate. Although he is quite likely to succeed in his ambition to become wealthy and popular and lead a remarkable life in the outer world, his lack of moderation and overweening self-confidence expose him to some danger. His exaggerated optimism could create difficulties for him by causing him to make errors in judgment.

Ben Nicky is a free thinker who is convinced that his most precious basic values are freedom and independence. He has thrown off what he perceives as the burden of the convention and customs of his social class and adopted an innovative lifestyle. His passionate convictions, bordering on proselytism, sometimes trouble his relationships, as he may be an uncompromising partner. He would do well to learn to recognize his own limitations and accept the responsibilities he has to other people, or he is liable to find himself continually embroiled in conflicting relationships. The roots of his somewhat extreme behavior probably lie in his relationship with his father or his teachers in childhood and adolescence. For one reason or another, Ben Nicky may have rejected the paternal image or refused to identify with his father, in the same way as he now refuses to adopt any values related to convention, tradition, or widespread usage. In every important life decision Ben Nicky makes as an adult, he is forced to rely on himself to elaborate the appropriate behavior, and the limits he must impose on his desires in relation to reality and the law.

Ben Nicky, because of your personality being ruled by your mind, needs intellectual stimulation in order to feel fulfilled. You are always on the move, in search of new contacts. Curious about all sorts of different subjects, you take care to inform yourself about many things. You enjoy conversation and communication and hope to be admired for your talent and wit. Due to your having such a wide variety of interests, however, you can be something of a dilettante, and your thinking may sometimes lack discipline.

Ben Nicky is an expansive, affable, and communicative associate. Indeed, some people find him generous almost to a fault! He gives of himself and his resources unstintingly. Paradoxically, there are times when he is self-focused. He reacts instinctively, without taking the trouble to analyze a given situation, and is prone to misjudge. As a result, his everyday life may be riddled with a whole variety of practical problems. Indeed, he senses a conflict between his social life and his family and will sometimes find it hard to fulfill himself in both spheres at the same time. His attitude toward his private life may inhibit his ambitions for social or career expansion; at worst, society (the law) may impinge on his private life. He should be careful not to project his personal problems onto his partner. If, instead, he analyzes the problem together, he could find opportunities to resolve it together.

Ben Nicky is emotional and tends to react suddenly and excessively as soon as his sensitivity is touched. Although he feels that his independence, freedom, and self-sufficiency are fundamental values, he is sometimes frustrated by his need to rely on his family or friends. Moreover, he does not always grant the freedom of other people the same respect as his own. Likewise, he is sometimes angered by expressions of maternal tenderness, as if he feared that it would doom him to eternal dependency. Ben Nicky’s ambivalent behavior, full of jagged edges, may be traced back to the relationship he had with his mother or a mother figure. Although he was dependent on her, she may have rejected him. Now this attitude is extended to any situation in which his sensitivity comes into play and emotional bonds are liable to form. To ward off his feelings of dependency, Ben Nicky sometimes tends to become destructive. Based on denial, his reactions might be fierce, impulsive, excessive, erratic, or contradictory.

Ben Nicky has a romantic nature and is seeking a soulmate. The world of his emotions is warm and inviting, the expression of true kindness. Tenderness, grace, and mildness rule his sensitivity, which is aroused by contact with nature and thrills to the idea of a secure, stable home.

Ben Nicky’s birth chart indicates an emotional function which is usually expressed carefully and reasonably. Distrustful of his emotional urges and somewhat wary of his feelings, he tries to rid himself of all partiality and try to get some perspective and distance before making an emotional commitment.

Ben Nicky is bubbly, breezy, and attractive. He will not settle down readily. Although to protect himself from his own unconscious he needs the support and structure a stable, solid mate would provide, he is likely to prefer someone just as unstructured as he is – perhaps a younger person… Unless his need to live an original lifestyle drives him to meet an extraordinary individual with whom he develops a relationship characterized more by friendship than love. Together, Ben Nicky and this extraordinary individual may develop a fulfilling and exciting intellectual life.

Ben Nicky has had more than his fair share of heartache in his relationships. Gentle and tender, he is particularly attracted to cold and austere people who neglect him and don’t understand his sensitive nature. To protect himself from this emotional blindness, he should delay settling down until later in life and, above all, refuse to give in to family pressure. Maturity should help him to break the unhealthy pattern of failure, misunderstanding, and masochism that characterized his early romantic relationships.

Ben Nicky has the ardent, importunate nature of a fervent lover. Indeed, affairs of the heart are one of his main purposes in life. His personal charm and magnetism are compellingly seductive; unfortunately, his attempts at conquest do not always lead to the fulfillment and satisfaction of his desires. Due to his impulsiveness and impatience to initiate new encounters, his approach to those he is attracted to may sometimes lack tact and delicacy. As a result of the foregoing, it may be somewhat difficult for him to maintain stable and harmonious relationships. Indeed, his emotional behavior is subject to a conflict between his quest for love and his need to satisfy his lust. His outpourings of affection and his need to be loved in return sometimes create complicated situations in which lust may be confused with love, or love may exist without lust, and he may feel unrequited or unfulfilled. This inner contradiction is a sign of his tendency to derive pleasure from suffering – either his own or that of his partner. The relationship thus becomes the setting for a sort of power struggle, weakening it as a source of psychological equilibrium. Nevertheless, he could sublimate this difficulty through artistic expression.

Ben Nicky may be characterized by strong sensual and affectionate urges which drive him to seek pleasure. His need for romantic fulfillment may compel him to marry, because he also seeks the legal and social legitimacy the institution of marriage confers on an emotional bond. Indeed, the household is liable to be prosperous and even opulent, as if this offered further evidence that he had indeed achieved success. However, privately, he might be less committed to certain obligations and duties.

Ben Nicky has an ardent and amorous character, and his relationships are enlivened by intensity and passion. A charmer perpetually engaged in a quest for the ideal love, you are often more in love with the idea of love than with a partner. As a result, your love life may be subject to some instability. You are generally attracted to original people who defy norms, standards, and classifications, and expect them to amaze and fascinate you. Your greatest contradictions surface when an intimate relationship is established. Although you merge your ego entirely into the couple, you are likely to demand a total autonomy and liberty which are inimical to intimacy. If your partner charms and captivates you long enough, there is some possibility that they will form a more solid bond with you; otherwise, you are likely to yield to your need for novelty and fall under the spell of an entirely different person who exerts a new kind of charm for you.

Midlife may be a turning point for you from this point of view. Your contradictory attitude may in some ways hide a compulsion to reject and deny the bonds of dependency inherent to a love relationship. Your behavior enables you to remain aloof, to commit yourself only halfway without consciously admitting it to yourself, and to avoid feeling guilty if and when you lose interest. An insatiable appetite for novelty and exaltation sometimes keeps you from forming stable relationships. Indeed, you are tormented by the struggle between your undeniable need for affection and an equally imperious desire for personal progress and emancipation. As a result of this inner turmoil, your romantic aspirations are usually sabotaged sooner or later by your conviction that your partner has become an obstacle to your individual progress. Because you think of love as a restraint, you may even eventually consciously refuse any emotional approach to love interests. As an ascetic, you will try to deflect the love function from its natural target and use the energy and bliss it generates for other purposes, the process psychologists call sublimation. However, you are also likely to meet “the one” who inspires you to initiate a change in your behavior.

Ben Nicky’s intellect is subjective and sensitive, acute and intuitive, always practical and deeply rooted in human experience. His memory and imagination combined with his shrewdness would make him a gifted project manager, businesswoman, or scholar of history or literature.

Ben Nicky tries to shun subjectivity and be as objective as possible. His thoughts are usually structured, and his reasoning, based on objective facts or experience, usually relates to practical goals.

Ben Nicky has a great deal of intuition but sometimes has problems organizing his thought processes and making an intellectual commitment. The concepts of boundary and structure are inimical to his mind, which is open and all-encompassing, premonitory, and web-like. His thoughts may be verbally indeterminate, vague, and ill defined. He tends to understand or sense things globally, without always noticing their component parts. Usually, he can’t see the trees for the forest. In daily life, although his perceptions are lively and subtle, he may display a kind of absent-mindedness out of a fear of annoying people with his shrewdness or of fighting to assert himself. His imagination sometimes escapes from the confines of logic, cringing from a confrontation with reality. This unwillingness to face the real world may cause relationship or career challenges.