It’s hard to imagine someone not loving the roles that British actor Charlotte Rampling plays in films and television. I was pleased today to find out that she’s a double Aquarius, like me, with the Sun and rising both in the Water Bearer. Rampling is known for playing steely, powerful women who cut to the chase and show no mercy — but you always know there is a glimmer of kindness buried deep in her famously cold stare. And from early on in her career, she has specialized in roles that transgress societal norms around gender roles and relationship dynamics, even embodying these transcgressions in her private life.
Rampling was born on February 5, 1946, in Haverhill, England, at 7:45AM (her birth time has an A-rating on Astrodienst).
Her first house Aquarius stellium describes her public image very well, but it was her Pisces Moon that first caught my attention. This moon in wise, watery Pisces is fitting given her famous eyes, stony and hooded, that look like they’ve seen everything, like they see right through whomever she’s looking at. Pisces can be very remote when it wants to be. Elusive is another good adjective. The self-preservation strategy of Pisces’ symbol, the fish, is above all evasive. It moves quickly, camoflages well, and is very hard to grasp. Just when you think you have it, it slips from your fingers. Rampling’s screen roles often exude this evasive quality — and, unsurprisingly, her characters often present extremely hard exteriors (Saturn ruling the rising sign) in order to hide or protect a core of compassion and understanding (Pisces moon). She says of herself, “I’m not only prickly, I’m distant. I only keep a distance so I can get as much understanding of the situation without being on top of it. And it works.”
In Rampling’s chart, the traditional ruler of her Aquarius rising/Sun, Saturn, is in Cancer, a sign that is in aversion to Aquarius (that is, Cancer makes no traditional aspect to Aquarius). Moreover, her Pisces Moon is also in aversion to her Aquarius planets, as well as to its own ruler, Jupiter, which is in Libra. These planets that are averse but linked by rulership make me think of Rampling’s complexity as a performer. She seems able to compartmentalize facets of her characters to an extraordinary extent.
Rampling’s rising sign is Aquarius. For people with Aquarius rising, relationships are especially important and formative because the Sun is the ruler Aquarius’ 7th house of partnerships and marriage. Sometimes they become known for their relationships. Rampling’s Sun is also in Aquarius in the first house. It also conjuncts a direct-motion Venus within a degree, meaning that she was born with Venus cazimi — a special condition of power and protection regarding the things Venus signifies.
Aquarius is a famously rebellious sign, and was considered so even before the planet of iconoclasts, Uranus, was assigned to Aquarius as its modern ruler. One traditional explanation for Aquarius’s rebelliousness is its opposition to Leo, the sign of kings and rulers. Rulers, of course, set the norms within society (or that’s the idea), and Aquarian individuals have always gone against the grain and have stood in opposition to the social strictures passed down from on high. They understand that the people, not the rulers, are the true and ultimate leaders, and they stand with the people. Another indication of Aquarian rebelliousness is that it follows after straight-laced Capricorn in zodiacal order. Aquarius coming after Capricorn represents a corrective to overly-strict Capricornian rules.
This is all to say that Rampling has long been an iconoclast when it comes to relationships — and this fits well with her Sun/Venus cazimi in Aquarius: Her Sun rules the house of relationships and Venus rules relationships in general.
In the late ‘60’s and early ‘70s Rampling became the focus of a minor scandal involving a rumor (that she started) that she was in a three-way affair with her future husband and a man they were living with. She denied it at the time, but then just two years ago, in 2022, she admitted that the rumors were true.
Aside from her sometimes-unorthodox relationship life, Rampling has enjoyed pushing up against gender norms in her artistic career. She started out as a sex symbol — a model turned actress — who eventually became known for European arthouse films. Her more mature roles from the 1970s and beyond embody emotional and social complexity. She seems to be exploring the connections between gender and power dynamics in many of her roles. This is fitting considering that Pluto, the planet of power struggles, opposes her Aquarius planets from Leo and her 7th house.
Reading through an aptly-titled article in the Guardian, “Charlotte Rampling: ‘I am prickly. People who are prickly can’t be hurt any more,” I learned of the actor’s early awkwardness and the experience that led her into acting. The awkwardness she describes fits with what I mentioned above about having so many personal planets in aversion to each other. Her awakening to life on the stage fits with something else in her chart: her 5th house Uranus. She describes herself as a “shy and withdrawn” 14-year-old self, saying of that first time on stage, “I knew I was good, because I was absolutely in tune with myself at that moment.” Uranus represents absolute freedom as well as an electrifying charisma. In the guardian profile she repeatedly uses the term “pinging” to describe how it feels to perform — “Pinging is when you’re at the right place at the right time, and you know you can just make magic happen everywhere.” This seems like a very apt expression for someone with Uranus, the planet of freedom, in the 5th house, the place of creative self expression.
At 14 years old Rampling was in a 3rd house/Aries profection year, which activated her Mars. The third house signifies siblings. That first performance was with her older sister, Sarah. Her natal Mars is conjunct her chart ruler, Saturn, in Cancer, and the activation of that conjunction apparently activated an instinctual sense of rightness in her. Also, Mars is the ruler of Rampling’s Scorpio 10th house of career, and at 14 she discovered what that career would be. She was such a natural on stage that her big sister would brag about her, saying, “Charlotte is going to be known worldwide.”
Seven years later, when Rampling was 21 years old and in a 10th house/Scorpio profection year (also Mars-ruled in her case), an event happened that would stamp both her emotional and professional lives: her sister, Sarah, died of suicide. At first, her father lied and told Rampling that her sister had died of a brain tumor. It was three years later, Rampling says, that her father told her the truth about her sister’s suicide. He also told her to keep it a secret from her mother. If her memory about three years is correct, she became burdened with this awful secret during her 12 house profection year (the 12th house is the “house of secrets”).
In the Guarian profile of Rampling (which is the source of most of most of my dates and quotes here), the reporter interviewing her, Simon Hattenstone, writes, that Sarah’s death pushed Rampling to turn away from fun and frivolity and to take a more serious, darker turn in her acting work. Rampling: “What I said to myself is, ‘Now I have to go underground. If I’m going to be in the film industry, it’s not about making 60s-type fun films, it’s about going inside.’” What an apt and powerful expression of an artist with Scorpio in the tenth whole-sign house.
Another tragic death would affect Rampling during her most recent 10th house/Scorpio profection year in 2015: her lover and partner of nearly 20 years would die of cancer. This experience sent Rampling into depression for about two years, but she has emerged to begin one of the most productive and successful phases of her career.
These are just a few highlights from Rampling’s chart and life, and there is a lot more connections to make. For now, given how well her annual profections seem to work, I’m convinced that her birth time is reasonably correct (you can never be too sure, even with A ratings). If anyone wants to go deeper into Rampling’s early life, she has written a memoir about her formative years titled Who Am I.
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Chadwalk's Astrology 