Pope Francis

[Jim Eshelman]

We now have an official copy of the birth certificate showing the birth as December 17, 1936, 9:00 PM ADT, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Here is the chart: [REMOVED]

(Side remarks: Add him to your list [if yo uare keeping a list] of people with Jupiter-Eris aspects [a square to Eris at 8°58' Pisces] and Mars-Sedna aspects [Sedna 24°29' Pisces].)

Fagan often remarked that the horoscopes of popes and great monarchs characteristically showed planets in the constellations of their dignities. In the present case, we have mixed indications. Jupiter and Saturn are goith in their home constellations. Against that, the Moon and Mercury are in their detriment. We can add that the Sun in Sagittarius is in a constellation of aristocracy and spiritual-religious authority.

Broadly, the luminary signs suggest a fairly institutional, conservative, traditional person. I suppose to have risen high in the ranks of the Catholic church, these traits must certainly be present, and he has tended historically to be regarded as a conservative. But we are also being exposed to elements of considerable liberalism in certain areas. He is emerging as a man of deep humility show shuns many airs and is devoted to the truly needy. I expected a more powerful Venus in the chart because of the form his deep compassion (reflected in his choice of papal name), and I don't find as much as I expected: Venus is middleground, and the conjunction to the Moon is of modest orb. But that conjunct IS present, and we also have a foreground Jupiter.

Most interesting, though, is the present of Uranus and Pluto on his angles; and this, at a time when Uranus and Pluto are square in space, forming the dominant paradigm of the world right now.

So let's break it down...

Sun in Sagittarius, Moon in Capricorn, Mars in Virgo. He has the same Sun-Moon pairing as Joseph Smith.

His angularities are as follows (all mundo):
Pluto 2°59' from the EP (in RA)
Mercury 3°15'above the Descendant
Jupiter 5°44' below the Descendant
Uranus 8°22' east of the MC
(The Uranus-Pluto square in RA is within 3°, being the main aspect between foreground planets.)

Aspects are few. The most important ones are the Class 2 Moon-Venus conjunction, the Class 1 Venus-Uranus square, and perhaps the Class 1 Jupiter-Uranus trine. A Sun-Moon semisquare adds more charisma and power-of-presence than might be expected from the rest of the chart.

What I was anticipating as a strong Venus presence seems to be reflected in a nearly absent Mars. Mars is middleground and, other than the 33' Mars-Neptune semi-sextile (which gains more importance in the absence of any other Mars aspects), there is no other connection. Additionally, though Saturn and Neptune are in opposition, the aspect is background. In the face of modest emphasis on the benefics in his horoscope - Venus, Jupiter, and Uranus - this virtual absence of the malefics takes on a special significance.

This is a very good example, therefore, of how things like aspect orbs are relative and sort of "sliding scale." It's not so much a matter of knowing exact cut-off points as of weighing what is stronger against what is weaker. In simple terms, the benefics are modestly strong in this chart, and tend to carry the weight of it (in addition to the mold-breaking Pluto), whereas the malefics are essentially absent. That makes the modestly strong benefics starkly stand out and take the lead.

Relocating his chart to the Vatican (41N54, 12E27) rotates the angles a bit to keep his Mercury comparably emphasized. The MC is 14°17' Gemini, with 13°06' Virgo rising. Of greater interest, though, is that the 24°34' Virgo local Antivertex is about a degree from his 25°39' Virgo Mars. (To put it differently, Mars' azimuth is only 1°50' from due east, so it is less than 2° from being exactly on the Prime Vertical.) I interpret this as involuntary, almost unconscious, coming forth as a Mars expression. Involuntary leadership, for example - being more martial than he realizes he is being. That sort of thing.

For comparison. other people who natally have Mars within 3° of the Antivertex at birth include King Louis XIV, King Edward VI; Jane Fonda, Robert Altman, Marlon Brando, Steve Martin, Tracey Ullman, Stephen Sondheim, Stephen Foster;
George Moscone; and Timothy McVeigh.

[Jim Eshelman]

CNN broke the news that white smoke rose from the chimney to signal the election of a new pope at 11:11 AM PDT (the time zone in which I received the news) on March 13, 2013.

TRANSITS
t. Pl -0- r. Dsc (18' sep.)
t. Ur -0- l. Dsc (24' ap.)
t. Sun -45- r. Ve (21' ap.)
t. Ve -180- r. Ne (28' ap.)
t. Me -135- r. Ma (55' sep.)

The Pluto ecliptical conjunction with his Descendat is astounding! I've commonly seen transits working ecliptically in a way that natal angularity does not. We must remember that this is an even-hour birthtime but, still, it is striking and gives strong confidence in the time. For the latitude of Buenas Aires, that Pluto set mundanely when the Descendant was 13°39' Sagittarius so, unless the birthtime is about a quarter hour earlier, it's the ecliptical transit that is the stand-out.

Uranus is similarly transiting in partile conjunction with his local Descendant, but in the opposite direction - applying instead of separating. If the birth time is approximately right, that it is probably exactly right, because the +18' Pluto orb and -24' Uranus orb average to only 3' from exact!

PROGRESSIONS
p. Ju - 90- r. Ma (31' sep.)
p. Ma -120- p. Pl (14' sep.)
p. Su -135- r. Pl (2' ap.)
p. Ve -90- p. Pl (10' ap.)
p. Ve -150- p. Ma (24' ap.)
p. Ve -60- r. Sun (41' sep.)
p. Me -150- p. Pl (36' ap.)
p. Me -90- p. Ma (50' ap.)
p. Me -60- p. Ve (26' ap.)
p. Me -60- r. Su (16' sep.)
p. As -90- p. Ju (4' sep.)
p. As -0- r. Ma (35' sep.)
p. MC -180- r. Me (14' sep.) [2' mundo]

The Sun-Pluto trioctile is the closest, at 2', and is clearly life-transforming. Next comes the Venus-Pluto square. The nature of this event for him is likely shown by the symbolism of these two aspects. It is likely, also (since the even-hour birthtime appears to be quite accurate) that p. Asc is square p. Jupiter, a stark sign of ascendancy; but we can't be sure of the exact orb if we distrust the exact time. (The precision of this 4' (!!!) contact again appears to confirm the birthtime quite precisely.)

Notice how the two quincunxes form an interlockingh midpoint structure. The Me-Pl and Ve-Ma quincunxes (intersecting with the Ve-Pl and Me-Ma squares) mean that Me/Ve = Ve/Ma = Me-Pl = Ma-Pl. (This always happens with "equal distances" pairs, and is one of the best way to sort through mounds of midpoints in a chart to find highly relevant ones.)

Me/Ve 2°31' Vir-Pis
Ve/Ma 17°56' Can-Cap
Me/Pl 17°36' Ari-Lib
Ma/Pl 3°01' Vir-Pis
(These two sets are at 45° intervals from each other.)

The raw convergence of this many progressed aspects is stunning.

Relocating the progressions to the Vatican, we get the counterintuitive connection of p. Saturn only 17' from p. IC. I'm guessing this expresses elements of how he felt about taking on this office at his age - feelings that haven't beed disclosed to the public.

SOLAR RETURN
His SSR for the Vatican has 10° Sagittarius at the MC, 15° Pisces rising, so the Uranus-Pluto square is foremost. More imediately important, though, is that his natal Jupiter (at home in Sagittarius) was in partile conjunction with the MC. This would be (in that place) a year of staggering life-change, circumstances out of the norm, centered around the career and other status elevation of his dignity.

Transits to his SSR included:
t. Ne -90- s. Ve (44' sep.; cf. the Ve transit to his r. Ne)
t. Ju -0- s. Ju (6' ap.)
t. Me -0- s. Mo (21' sep.)

LUNAR RETURN
His March 9 SLR had Pluto rising (partile in mundo), minutes from his natal Descendant and conjunct natal Mercury. Transiting Uranus was in partile (15') square to the Ascendant (on the Nadir). Natal Uranus was 3° off the IC. Natal Pluto was on the SLR Westpoint. Other things were broadly present, such as natal Jupiter and Sun just above the Ascendant, but the reallyclose things boiled down to two Plutos and two Uranuyses with a focus on his Mercury.

KINTIC LUNAR RETURN
His KLR of March 4 wasn't the best descriptive chart. Although it did have Jupiter broadly in the setting foregrund, the focus was quite different - his progressed Moon and Mars rising, p. Neptune on the MC, Mars in almost partile conjunction wth p. Saturn near the IC, and mixed smattering of Mercury and Sun to Sun etc. It seems a rather contentious chart and may have to do with his feelings (his Gethsemene moment) or with political battles.

It does alert me, however, to the fact that Pope Francis has just experienced his Kinetic Solar Return. We don't get a lot of opportunity to look at these in close proximity to life-altering events, and they haven't historically been so keen on their own. Let's take a look.

KINETIC SOLAR RETURN
This occurred March 4, 9 days before he was elected as pope. It couldn't be clearer! This is actually an astounding, mind-blowing chart. Here we go:

Asc 19°28' Leo
p./t. Sun 19°21' Aquarius
t. Mecury 19°01' Aquarius

MC 16°41' Taurus
t. Jupiter 13°21' Taurus
t. Venus 13°21' Aquarius
t. Moon 16°41' Scorpio

QUOTIDIANS
SNQ2:
EP 23°57' Aquarius
p. Neptune 23°51' Leo

MC 25°58' Scorpio
r. Neptune 25°06' Leo


SNQ1:
Asc 18°36' Scorpio
p. Sun 19°10' Aquarius

MC 8°57' Virgo
r. Jupiter 9°40' Sagittarius


SQ:
SQ Moon 14°20' Aquarius
SQ Jupiter 14°20' Taurus
(!!!!!!!!!!!)

[Jim Eshelman]

Jim, did you also relocate the chart to St.Peter's where he was elected? Thanks for posting this info. It may be of interest to know that Pope Francis has only one lung (he had it removed when he was young due to an infection) and in his chart I see only Saturn in an air sign (Saturn, out of all planets!) there is a distinct lack of air...I don't believe it is coincidental.

[Jim Eshelman]

Jim, did you also relocate the chart to St.Peter's where he was elected?

I wrote:

Relocating his chart to the Vatican (41N54, 12E27) rotates the angles a bit to keep his Mercury comparably emphasized. The MC is 14°17' Geminio, with 13°06' Virgo rising. Of greater interest, though, is that the 24°34' Virgo local Antivertex is about a degree from his 25°39' Virgo Mars. (To put it differently, Mars' azimuth is only 1°50' from due east, so it is less than 2° from being exactly on the Prime Vertical.) I interpret this as involuntary, almost unconscious, coming forth as a Mars expression. Involuntary leadership, for example - being more martial than he realizes he is being. That sort of thing.

[Jim Eshelman]

It may be of interest to know that Pope Francis has only one lung (he had it removed when he was young due to an infection) and in his chart I see only Saturn in an air sign (Saturn, out of all planets!) there is a distinct lack of air...I don't believe it is coincidental.

If you were to gather the hundreds of thousands (or millions) of people born under similar conditions, I seriously doubt you would find a significant showing of people with this result.

I'd wager it was more likely a consequence of afflictions to his Mercury in Sagittarius and his horizon at the time of the infection and surgery. (Mars, of course, is the most likely.)

The attribution of the elements to the zodiacal triplicities is a Tropical assignment that never had anything to do with the Sidereal zodiac. If we use those terms, it's just for identification purposes, not a symbolic attribution.

[Jim Eshelman]

I'm nowhere near an astrology program, so I decided to dust off a few brain synapses and 'run' this event the old fashioned way. (I'm sitting through a Hollywood Master Chorale concert of Mozart music. A friend is singing.)

First, I learned that the lung problem was at age 21. It wasn't exactly an infection, but began as cysts which triggered pneumonia. I'm not as sure Mars was the culprit.

Many breathing difficulties are Neptunian. Asthma follows this pattern, and a lot of suffocation-related illnesses.

From mental calculations (need to confirm later), age 21 would have Solar Arc Neptune square his ascendant and Mercury. Transiting Saturn would be one square behind her natal place, meaning square to natal Saturn-Neptune. Pluto would have been transiting about 10 Leo, semi-square natal Mars. And, though I don't know the relevance, transiting Neptune would probably have been opposite his Uranus and square his Venus.

I'll check all this later. If anyone has the date of the surgery, it would help.

[Jim Eshelman]

Yes, at his 21st birthday, he had Solar Arc Neptuner at 16°30' Virgo, still within orb of square his Gemini Ascendant for another six months, and soon to move within orb of square his angular Sagittarius Mercury.

But of particular interest is his 21st SSR. Observe:

MC 21°41' Leo
r. Saturn 22°08' Aquarius
s. Saturn 23°42' Scorpio
EP 23°51' Scorpio
r. Neptune 25°06' Leo

But also:

Asc 9°49' Sagittarius
r. Jupiter 9°40' Sagittarius

SSR Mercury is only 3° in mundo below the Ascendant, and in partile conjunction with natal Mercury (at 17°02' and 17°57' Sagittarius, respectively). These are semi-squared by s. Mars at 2°37' Scorpio.

It's all here as suspected, except that (at his birthday) Plutowas not yet in orb of sesqui-square his Mars. I' don't know the date of the surgery, but his SSR Moon progressed to conjoin that Mars on June 13 (SSR) and 22 (SQ).

[Jim Eshelman]

Thanks Jim. The article I read stated that he was a teenager and that he had an infection, but I trust your source more. It is not the frst time that the media reports things incorrectly

Well, the clearest report I found was from Wikipedia, and it wouldn't be the first time that was wrong, either

[Jim Eshelman]

The Wikipedia page for the pope was hacked right after his election, and all sorts of profanities were written about him instead of his bio