Marianne Faithfull, singer and actress, icon of the Sixties pop counterculture, one time girlfriend of Mick Jagger, has died aged 78. When that affair split, she descended into a drug addiction and homelessness, before reinventing herself with a shattered voice as a great musical interpreter, issuing 13 adventurous albums and became a magnet for film-makers, like Jean Luc Godard and Coppola.
She was born 29 December 1946 12.30 pm London (memory), the daughter of a high-ranking WW11 British army spy and an Austro-Hungarian baroness involved in resistance activities. She left school at 16 to sing folk songs and dabble in acting and was talent spotted by the Rolling Stones manager.
She had a go-ahead, impulsive Sun Mars in Capricorn on the focal point of a yod inconjunct Pluto Saturn in Leo in the performing 5th sextile North Node – full of initiative and courage but lacking common sense and caution. She also notably had a musical and emotionally disorganized Pisces Moon on the focal point of another yod to Saturn Pluto sextile a 6th house Neptune. An 8th house intense Mercury in Sagittarius was in an outspoken, rebellious opposition to Uranus.
She was a curious mix of hard and soft, headstrong and fearful, all capped off by an ultra-charming and seductive Venus Jupiter in Scorpio in her 7th house of relationships.
In 1970 after she ended up on the streets, addicted to heroin, tr Uranus in Libra was square her yod focal point Sun Mars and conjunct her 6th house Neptune – for a catastrophic change in her life. A delicate Neptune in the 6th is the absolutely wrong placing for someone who played fast and loose with her health. She had hepatitis C presumably from heroin injections and anorexia also in the 1970s, breast cancer, arthritis, a back injury, broken hip, pneumonia, COVID-19 which ended up with her in hospital for three weeks.
She wrote three books about her life and in 2011 was awarded the Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, one of France’s highest cultural honours.
Her relationship chart with Mick Jagger, 26 July 1943 2.30 am Dartford, England, had an affectionate Sun, Venus opposition Moon though that also squared Saturn – so it would blow hot and cold as career ambitions took precedence. It would also be volatile and one sided with a composite Mars square Uranus and trine Saturn.
Her frivolous, sociable and light-hearted Venus Jupiter in Scorpio opposed his Taurus Moon for good feelings and her Pisces Moon opposed his Venus. His Leo Sun, Jupiter, Pluto conjunct fell in her 4th and would provide for a while a sense of stability and uplift for her can-be-depressive Saturn Pluto.
Funny I always thought she was older than Mick Jagger. I remember seeing a documentary about The Rolling Stones and there was a small portion of him, Marianne and her young son in the back of a car. The thing that surprised me the most, was how caring MJ was to her son.
Oh and there was a song that I think was recorded by The Hollies, Sweet Carrieanne, if anybody remembers. Evidently the composer had an enormous crush on her.
‘Sweet Carrieanne
What’s your game girl
And can anyone play…’
The fondest memory of her for younger Gen Xers like me must have been her playing God in “Absolutely Fabulous”. This was genuinely fresh approach to things in 2001.
I’d forgotten about that, Solaia. I saw her playing the Devil in the surreal Black Rider, a Tom Waits/William Burroughs musical play in the early 2000’s on stage. She was very charismatic, and funny.
Also noticed that tr Jupiter in Gemini was conjunct her Gemini North Node as news of her death was released. The gates of the Moon opened for her new direction. A fascinating woman.
I love her very soulfull rendition of “Oh Danny Boy”.
In the 60s and ’70s when I attended, her father was a much-respected professor of languages (French and Italian, as I recall) at Bedford College, London, now merged into Royal Holloway. Most students were bemused by that fact.
I admired her for being a trooper–her chart is a hard one, and she could very well have died. She said it was great to be a muse for Mick and The Rolling Stones, but not always easy.
(I’m always fascinated by Mick’s lack of water in his chart, and his having used women so prodigiously. I once figured out that his Sun or other personal planet, (not the faster-moving Moon), finally clicked into a water sign when his gf L’Wren Scott took her life in 2014. Maybe his Venus into Scorpio? Looks like that could have been it.
I read something she wrote a long time ago — men who approached her because they thought were getting a delicate little flower felt cheated/surprised/intimidated by how strong she was underneath. She felt sorry for them and I always liked her for that. Seeing her chart, maybe they thought they were getting only those sweet planets in water signs, but uh oh, say hello to the rest of her chart.
May she rest in peace.
I saw her live in small jazz club on her first performance in trying to reinvent herself. She was clearly nervous, but the a-A-list backup musicians were so demonstratively caring towards her and she was a great hit. I must admit, I’m always so shocked how people can abuse themselves and then go on to live a long life. Perhaps a testament to wealthy friends and the British health system of old. She would have died on the streets here in the US.