ARIES NEW MOON STORY / The Subversive

Todays Aries New Moon rolls with counter culture, the souls of subversive warriors and the generous hearts of charitable supporters. We want freedom, independence, riches, love, excitement and honour; and not necessarily by following the rules of convention.

Claude Cahun, born Lucy Schwob, was a French surrealist photographer who explored gender identity, the deep diving search for the self, and the subconscious mind. "Under this mask, another mask, I will never be finished removing all these faces.” she once said.

In the early 1920s, she changed her name to the gender neutral Claude Cahun, moved to Paris, connected with the surrealist art scene, collaborated with Man Ray, and co-founded the short-lived revolutionary movement Contre-Attaque (counter attack).

In the late 1930s, she was imprisoned and sentenced to death for creating and distributing anti-Nazi propaganda while living on the island of Jersey, but escaped when the island was liberated by the Allies in 1945.

Today, Cahun, who died in 1954, is considered to be a ground-breaking artist who embraced her gender fluidity way before the term came into being and a transgender way of life was (mostly) accepted. Not that she would have cared about anyones approval.

Claude Cahun (Lucy Schwob) Autoportrait, circa 1939