Meeting Benches World art in all forms
Françoise Hardy, the fascinating and multifaceted singer-songwriter dedicated to astrology
Sit with us where the ephemeral and creativity meet, accept the invitation to share visions and inspire each other, discover a virtual meeting place that celebrates art in all its forms. With the aim of stimulating creativity and imagination, the thematic benches of Meeting Benches will offer you a variety of narratives. So, if you are also passionate about music, we invite you to discover the world of inspiration and beauty of Françoise Hardy. The intellectual property of the images in this blog belongs to the digital artist Dastilige Nevante. Click on music if you want to meet other multifaceted musicians.
Her musical career and her dedication to astrology have made Françoise Hardy a multifaceted figure. Her passion for sky and the stars has emerged over the years. Around the age of 20, her general doctor convinced her to consult an astrologer. That meeting had a significant impact on her life; in fact, she decided to temporarily abandon the music scene, she immersed herself in astrological studies and discovered that knowing people’s astral charts allowed her to understand them better. After meeting Jean-Pierre Nicola, her mentor, Françoise calculated more than a thousand astral charts, including those of celebrities. Radio Monte-Carlo offered her a weekly column on astrology which remained on the air for over twenty years. At the age of 24, she reached the top of the French and British charts with “It Hurts to Say Goodbye“, written by Serge Gainsbourg. The woman adept at singing about departures and beginnings, Françoise Hardy, had learned she had lymphatic cancer; she had been placed by the doctors in a coma without awakening, yet, contrary to their prediction, she had recovered both the pleasure of writing and her sensual adolescent voice. The woman known for her candid intelligence and wit, as well as her elegance and melancholic songs, left behind her book of memoirs, “The Despair of Monkeys and Other Trifles,” recently published in English in the United States.
Her dressing style influenced the creations of Nicolas Ghesquière, former head designer of Balenciaga. Wearing creations by Paco Rabanne and Yves Saint Laurent, Françoise Hardy had become a fashion icon in the 1960s. Françoise Hardy rose to fame through her mix of music and evocative lyrics. In 1964 she began recording music in London, then, in the early seventies, she collaborated with Serge Gainsbourg and Michel Berger. The icon of the sweet existentialism of the 60s, the woman who had enchanted even Bob Dylan, who had been ill for some time and died at the age of 80. Her death on June 11, 2024, left a void in pop culture and the romantic aesthetic of the 1960s. We want to offer you one of her nostalgic French songs, “Tous les garçons et les filles“, which expresses loneliness and the search for love. This song by Françoise Hardy, who made her debut in the music world at 18, achieving immediate success, focuses on the questions, doubts and anxieties related to romantic relationships and nostalgia in general. Singer-songwriter, writer and actress, in addition to music, Françoise Hardy has been interested in and has written several books on astrology, exploring the theme from different perspectives.
ALL THE BOYS AND GIRLS – All the boys and girls my age walk down the street in pairs. All the boys and girls of my age know that you have to be happy, and eyes in eyes and hands in hands, they walk in love without fear of tomorrow. But I, I walk alone down the street, my soul in pain, because no one loves me. My days resemble my nights without joy and full of boredom, no one to whisper I love you in my ear. All boys and girls my age make plans for the future together. All the boys and girls of my age know well what it means to love and eyes in eyes and hands in hands, they walk in love without fear of the future. But I, I walk alone down the street, my soul in pain. My days are like my nights, without joy and full of boredom! When will the sun shine for me? How do boys and girls my age know what love is? Like boys and girls my age, I wonder when the day will come when my eyes in someone’s eyes and my hands in someone’s hands, when I will have a happy heart without fear of tomorrow, the day when I will no longer have a heart in pain, the day someone will love me too.
Among her best-known books is “Les rythmes du zodiaque“, a book in which Françoise Hardy adopts the conditionalist astrology approach of Jean-Pierre Nicola. She explains that the zodiac signs are not simply abstract concepts, but represent rhythms determined by the relative length of day and night for each sign. The author uses examples taken from real-life situations or famous personalities to illustrate astrological concepts. “L’astrologie universelle“, on the other hand, offers her new vision of the zodiac where she explores how astrology can help us know ourselves better and understand relationships with ourselves, others and the world. Françoise Hardy’s conditionalist astrology is an astrological perspective that differs from other schools of thought. In this view of her, the astrological houses do not exist as astronomical reality, but are symbolic. Intercepted signs occur when a zodiac sign does not appear on any house cusp, creating a secret room within a home. This can influence the interpretation of the birth chart. Aspects are the angular relationships between the planets in the birth chart. Conditionalist astrology, which studies these aspects considering them as dynamic influences that shape personality and life experiences, is based on psychological principles and seeks to understand the individual’s internal dynamics. This approach was influenced by the theories of Carl Gustav Jung, who introduced astrology into psychoanalysis.
