Dolores O’Riordan – a haunted Virgo

 

 

Dolores O’Riordan, the Irish singer with a haunting voice, often compared to Sinead O’Connor, has died in a London hotel aged 46. A smash hit in her native Ireland and the USA, at her height she sold 40 million records, duetted with Luciano Pavarotti and toured with REM and Oasis. But she found fame difficult to handle and was ultimately diagnosed with bi-polar disorder.

Born 6 September 1971 near Limerick in Ireland, she was the youngest of nine children, brought up by a devout Catholic mother who imposed a strict religious upbringing, and was beaten at school by nuns. In later years she revealed that she had been sexually abused as a child, leading to anorexia, the overuse of alcohol, manic depression and suicidal thoughts. She married and had three children, but she had left them in Canada to try to get her life together, when she died.

She was a charming Sun Venus in Virgo, though a square to Saturn would induce self-doubt. Hints of her unhappy childhood come through an Air Grand Trine of Saturn in a harsh trine to Mars in a volatile trine to Uranus, with Saturn in a creative/neurotic opposition to Neptune (Jupiter). A surfeit of Mutable signs would make her inclined to nervousness and anxiety; and Saturn opposition Jupiter would bring highs and lows. Her Jupiter sextile Pluto would give her spurts of confidence, but clearly not enough to outweigh her other concerns. Her Moon in late Pisces/Aries was probably opposition Pluto, so she’d store up difficult feelings inside.

This year she had a raft of difficult transits to midpoints approaching; but most significantly her Solar Arc Mars, pulling on all the energy of her Grand Trine/Kite, was about to oppose her Pluto and was maybe around the conjunction to her Moon. Often life crises appear when Solar Arcs of central configurations move to collide with, and put strain, on natal planets.

6 thoughts on “Dolores O’Riordan – a haunted Virgo”

  2. Thank you, Marjorie, for your insightful and honest analysis of Dolores’ chart. I was never a huge Cranberries fan (despite their music being part of my early childhood), but I’ve found myself feeling very sad about the loss of an undoubtedly lovely and talented woman. She leaves behind three kids, which is terribly tragic… I strongly suspect Dolores had a Pisces Moon — this brief, yet in-depth, interview certainly makes that a strong likelihood; https://youtu.be/vAjzuKf4Jdw

    So many Irish people born before 1980 (at least) can sadly attest to having been beaten and otherwise brutalised by sadistic nuns and priests. Just proves how redundant it is to blend religion and the education system. My mother and father endured it. My mother, like Dolores was, is a Virgo with challenging aspects and a preponderance of mutable signs (a Grand Cross/Square featuring such, for one). Sun, Mercury and Neptune in Virgo opposite Moon in Pisces, square Jupiter in Gemini and Saturn in Taurus. As well as apparently having been battered black, blue and bloody regularly at school, she came from an impoverished family and later endured two separate rapes as a young teenager. I see a lot of Dolores O’Riordan’s spirit in my mother (who is still alive, against many odds)… ‘Dreams’ by The Cranberries is a particularly haunting and beautiful song. Personally, I would consider the likes of ‘Zombie’ terribly overrated, musically, in comparison to the wistful beauty of ‘Dreams’… Rest In Peace, Dolores. Gone too soon. X

  3. “Zombie” must be among the songs I’ve danced the most to, ever. Sounds weird, probably, given the subject matter, but my friends I was more of a rock chick, and it was a hit when I turned 18 and became drinking age, thus admitted to clubs (no way I got in where I lived a week before I turned 18, because my Dad had coached all the bounchers and they knew I was underage). The song still played a lot at rock clubs when I was a student, too, I just think it hit a nerve with the last Gen Xers.

  4. “most significantly her Solar Arc Mars, pulling on all the energy of her Grand Trine/Kite, was about to oppose her Pluto and was maybe around the conjunction to her Moon. ”

    Can you please explain what you mean? Pulling on all the energy…?

  5. This is real sad news. She did come across as a magical girl next door, who did not even realise how charming and lovable she was.
    46 seems like a terribly young age to die of natural causes, but unfortunately that was fate’s plan. I hope she is surrounded with immense love and peace wherever she is now.

    She wrote zombie as a protest to the Warrington bomb attacks of 1993 which left a 3 year old boy and 12 year old boy dead. Jonathan Ball and Tim Parry, while of course also subtly reminding of innocent Irish victims of the ‘troubles’ to.

    Colin Parry, the father of Tim Parry only learnt that Zombie was written as a protest to his son’s (and the 3 year old’s) murder, today, after Dolores O’Riordan passed away. May she rest in peace.

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