POPE BENEDICT XVI
by John Timperman
English Translation edited by P. James Clark
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Nativity of Pope Benedict XVI., nee Joseph Ratzinger: April 16, 1927, at 4:15 am CET, Marktl, Germany (Source: From official records, Rodden rating AA)
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Since
we have a new Pope, it might be interesting for we astrologers to see if there
are astrological indications that point in the direction of a religious man who
will, eventually, prove to be very successful in his career. We will interpret
the horoscope traditionally and first of all try to assess the temperament and character. We
continue by looking at his profession and “rank of fame “ and end up trying
to see if there are indications that during this particular period of his life he would
be chosen as the new pope.
Temperament
: In spite of the fact that there
is a water-sign on the Ascendant the hot quality prevails over cold.
This derives from the fact that Jupiter is on the Ascendant together
with Mercury, received by a strong Jupiter.
Further, Venus (hot and moist) both exaltation ruler and Almutem of the
Ascendant is placed in a cold and dry sign.
The
temperament will be Sanguine with a touch of melancholy.
So we have a man whose faculty to react is very strong and active. This enables him to quickly and effectively digest several impressions.
The
Almutem ( most dominant planet ) is Saturn
which may indicate an ascetic life style and cultural pessimism. Because Saturn is placed in the ninth house which is the house of religion and
spirituality (the house of God, according to the Greek) this man is not
supposed to make compromises with what he considers to be “the will of God.
“
Character
: To analyze character the Mediaeval
astrologer looked primarily to the Ascendant, Moon and Mercury. The Ascendant describes the temperament and the
physical appearance just as well as the primary motivation whereas the Moon
represent our appetites. The Moon as the appetites is the summation of all that
we are because that which we like and for which we have an appetite, we tend to do. Mercury is
the analytic or rational mind.
The
Ascendant is in a water sign : So what motivates this man will be a need for
emotional security which he tries to find through his own actions ( first
house). Planets in the first house,
just as planets aspecting the ruler of the Ascendant, will help him to fulfill
his primary motivation.
So
Mercury (placed in the first house) and Saturn
in the ninth (placed in a sign ruled by Jupiter) will contribute strongly
to what keeps this man going.
Religion,
thinking and writing (Mercury) about religion (in a stubborn way) sticking to
his principles with a sense of justice will satisfy his primary motivation.
As
mentioned, Mercury is also placed in the first house in Pisces, a sign of
its exile. However the affliction
is mitigated insofar as Mercury is received by Jupiter. Stronger : Bonatti tells us in his “considerations before judgment"
that a planet making a conjunction with a planet that is placed in its own
sign is strongly upgraded. This
means that Mercury holds a dominant position in this horoscope.
His
own opinion and vision (Mercury in
the first) becomes extremely important when we see that there is translation of
light of Mercury giving Jupiter's influence with a sextile to Venus (translating the light to Venus). This tells us that he has no problem whatsoever
in fullfilling his social and
spiritual attitude, holding to his views.
Venus is in a fixed sign (Taurus). This is also very important as she is dispositor of the Moon and at the same time exaltation ruler of Pisces, receiving both the Moon and Mercury. The Moon and Mercury are in different crosses but the fixed cross where Venus is situated is the most important and we get ,once again, the same message : Firmness ( stubbornness?) and stability in his convictions. It becomes clear that we have a man who will be led by his principles and what he considers to be his “truth.” He wants to be remembered as someone who is faithful to his principles. (“As far as I am concerned, women can become priests but I don’t think this is the will of God, and who am I to discuss with the Almighty “??).
The square of the Moon with Pluto tells us the same
story and points out that he is willing to enter into conflict to defend his ideas,
whereas the wide sextile of the Moon with Saturn
(exaltation ruler of the Moon) shows us a serious man with a sharp
intellect. The image of a man holding on
to his values is confirmed by the fixed stars : The heliacal rising star is
Rukbat and Brady says that when this star is heliacally rising the person will
not waver from what he or she holds to be the “true” path.
PROFESSION
: It
is obvious that this man is driven in the direction of a religious profession :
The
professional indicator ( planets in the first house) is Jupiter and placed in
Pisces indicates Religion ( Pisces = Christianity) and when we see that
Jupiter is ruler of the ninth we understand why this man became a priest.
Jupiter
is not only strong by being in Pisces, but his visibility during this period is
extremely strong. In ancient
astrology everything had to do with visibility in the sky; so an Egyptian or a
Babylonian astrologer would certainly have noticed this “detail." Such a Jupiter, especially when rising, was considered to be extremely important just as much as the
planet that made a conjunction with the great Benefic :
Jupiter with Mercury could indicate a great lecturer or writer.
Bonatti
teaches us in his Liber Astronomiae that, when interpreting the ninth house, we
must first judge whether the ninth house points in the direction of travel
or in the direction of Religion. Bonatti tells us the following :
if the ruler of the Ascendant is the Moon, Sun or Jupiter and is in good
“ esse” (not in fall, exile, or badly afflicted ) the ninth house will
indicate religion. He also tells us that we may expect religion if the ruler of
the ninth is in the first house in good “ esse “.
In
the horoscope of the new Pope, the ninth house definitely points in the
direction of religion.
The
Pars of Spirit, which is concerned with with spiritual wealth and indicates what the person holds to be of the highest
possible value, is in Virgo in the sixth house. Service is the most important thing for this man.
When we see that the dispositor of the Pars - Mercury in Pisces,
disposited by Jupiter - we understand that it will be a service to God.
The
Pars of Faith, which has to say something about religion is in Libra and the
Almutem is Saturn.
Bonatti
tells us that if Saturn is ruling or connected with the Pars of faith, the
person joins a sect that wears black and considers itself holier than God.
This is an obvious dig at the mendicant orders, clearly showing
what Bonatti thought of these monks : sanctimonious, self righteous, probably
avaricious and fraudulent.
Let
us not follow Bonatti here but say that people who have Saturn associated with
the Pars of faith do tend to associate with sects that have very profound and
very religious ideas and often do (did) wear black.
RANK
OF FAME
The
fact that this man will climb very high on the social ladder becomes clear when
we consider the triplicity rulers of the sect light.
As
this person was born during the night, we must look at the Moon.
The
Moon is in Libra ,an air sign and the triplicity rulers of Air are : Mercury, Saturn
and Jupiter.
As
already mentioned, Mercury is very strong in the first house received
by a strong Jupiter, his sect friend.
Saturn
is weak in a cadent house but this affliction is mitigated since Saturn is
received by Jupiter, strong and also friend of the same sect.
The
third
triplicity ruler is Jupiter and we already know that Jupiter is the
strongest planet in the horoscope.
In
all likelihood, any Mediaeval astrologer would have predicted that,
professionally, this man
would go very, very far.
Now
that we know the “what “ in the horoscope, we want to know the “when
." To do that we have several prediction techniques which can help us.
Profections:
This
technique is extremely simple as it does not require complicated calculations, nor
difficult formulas or time-stealing procedures : everybody who can count on his
fingers can work with this system and astrologers accustomed to working with derived
houses will have no problems with it.
Profections
is nothing more than counting the houses ( or signs) by which you take into
account that each house means one year of life. So the first year of life is symbolized by the first house.
The second year by house two ,the third year by the third house etc…
At
the age of 12, we are back at the Ascendant
and also at the age of 24, 36 etc… So what we are doing is shifting the
Ascendant or any other house we want to interpret per year of life.
The conditions of the house in question in the natal horoscope, just as
well as sign on the cusp, planets in it colour the year in question. So if, for
instance, we want to know something about the financial situation (second house
in the natal horoscope) for somebody who is 26 years old we have to analyze the
fourth house of the natal horoscope: At the age of 24 we just look at the second
house as the profection brings it back to its natal position but at the age of
25 we have to look at the third house and consequently analyze the fourth house
for the age of 26.
When
we apply this system on the horoscope of Pope Benedict and want to know
something about his career we have to profect the 10th house.
He just became 78 so we take the MC + 6 houses ( 72 brings us back to the
natal MC +6 =78 ) which means we have to analyze the 4th house and
its rulers to see whether this is going to be a good year or not.
The
fourth house is in Gemini and we want to see if the ruler is essentially and
accidentally strong to produce what it promises.
The
ruler is Mercury and we already know that Mercury is one of the strongest
planets in this horoscope and in an angular house: we may expect promotion in
his career as Mercury is received by Jupiter ,ruler of the 10th
house.
Further
,when we profect Jupiter in the same way as we did with the MC we see that
Jupiter hands over to the Moon. The
combination of Jupiter and the Moon has traditionally been seen as success,
popularity, fortune etc. For
that matter, it is interesting to see that transiting Jupiter was conjunct the
Moon during the period he was elected .
When
we look at the primary directions, we again see that primary directed Jupiter
made an exact Trigon with the Moon.
It
is also interesting to note that the important fixed star Formalhaut (of a
Mercury and Venus quality- both very strong in the chart) and one of the
four royal stars. Jerome Cardan said of this star that it will make the name of
the native immortal, will culminate at 9:32 which is 317 minutes after birth. When we convert this time into actual years of life ( 317 : 4) we see
that around the age of 79 this man will realize great success and immortality will
be given to his name. The age of 79 is
very close to his election as Pope and
we must assume that the given time of birth is fairly accurate.
Nobody knows the future, but it becomes clear that when the exact techniques are being applied as they should, we get a lot of information which makes it possible to make exact predictions, forward and backward .
[This article copyright John Timperman]