Tag Archives: Pope Benedict XVI

February 25, 2013 · 4:46 pm

The Age of Uranus

Quiz: spot the Crook in this picture.

Fate can be a cruel altar boy sometimes. Not only has it seen fit to depose Pope Benedict XVI, it has now got rid of Cardinal Keith O’Brien, Archbishop of St Andrews & Edinburgh. Unfortunately, given the circumstances of his departure, he only had twenty more days before retirement anyway, so in terms of damage to the Catholic Church the point is almost academic.

Nevertheless: when looking for the stars of the day, I cannot help but notice that the same planet that figured so highly in the chart for the Pope’s departure is also prominent in that of the Cardinal’s, viz. Uranus. However, whereas in the Pope’s case I am willing to believe that His Holiness’ departure is genuinely due to the decrepitude of old age (because he is currently undergoing a Uranus-return), O’Brien’s recession is far more intriguing.

Outer ring: chart for O’Brien’s departure, 25th Feb 2013
Inner ring: O’Brien’s birth chart, 17th March 1938 (times approximated to 12 noon in both cases)

O’Brien (born 17th March 1938, Ballycastle, Northern Ireland), has Uranus, the planet of forced resignation, transitting Venus, the planet of inappropriate touching, Saturn, the planet of bringing things like one’s career to an end, and Mercury, the planet of public scandal. Of these three, Saturn is the slowest moving one, indicating what we already knew, that the end of O’Brien’s career would happen in this general time-period, whilst Venus and Mercury indicate the particular nature of his departure.

Hence, Uranus has seen off two senior figures in the Catholic Church, though for different reasons. This has given the Sumner Family Brain Cell an idea.

There is a saying bandied about by some astrologers that the discovery of each of the new Planets had something to say about the age in which it was discovered. Uranus was discovered in 1781, leading some to associate it with the birth of USA (the American Revolutionary War ended that year), or of the Industrial Revolution, but more generally speaking it came at the end of the Age of Enlightenment – which from a philosophical point of view marked the beginning of the decline of the Christian Church. (NB: from a Postmodernist point of view, the decline in popularity of a thing is not a valid indicator of its worth). Hence I am tempted to speculate that this is the real meaning of the Age of Uranus – that of the decline of Christianity as an organised religion. We may therefore keep a track of this planet’s movements to see how much further it goes down the plughole of history in the future.

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Tagged as astrology, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, Pope Benedict XVI, Uranus

February 11, 2013 · 4:34 pm

Pope Forced To Resign… by Uranus

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI

For someone who famously made remarks criticising Gay Marriage, I find it ironic that Pope Benedict XVI has been forced to resign by comedy planet Uranus. Yes indeed! For that is the interpretation I have come up with by comparing the Pope’s birth-chart with one drawn up for the announcement of his resignation yesterday.

Pope Benedict XVI was born Joseph Aloysius Ratzinger at 0830 on 16th April 1927 at Marktl in Germany. Interestingly he had both Mars and Caput Draconis on his Ascendant, indicating that he was destined to come across as a pugnacious individual. Also, Mars was square to his Mercury, Jupiter and Natal Uranus, showing that his aggressive persona would hold back his ability to express himself clearly, get in the way of his ability to lead as Pope (in mundane astrology Jupiter represents the clergy), and make him react combatively if anything revolutionary came along.

Inner ring: Pope Benedict XVI’s natal chart.
Outer ring: the timing of his resignation statement.

Indeed, Uranus was transitting his Mid-heaven when he first became Pope in 2005! The planet though is a slow-moving one, indicating that the issue which has led to his resignation has been hanging over him for some time. Why has he announced it now? Probably because a whole load of other planets are transitting his mid-heaven, which would affect his relationship to his career and society at large.

This has given me an idea.

I, Alex Sumner, offer my services to the Conclave of the College of Cardinals due to take place on February 28th 2013 – as the in-house astrologer! I shall draw up charts for all the leading Papabile so that I can give everyone an informed opinion of who is likely to make a good Pope or not. This I am willing to do without payment per se, but I will need certain expenses to wit:

Return air fare to Rome, obviously;
Free unfettered access to the Vatican’s repository of ancient occult manuscripts – as well as a decent photocopier;
Most importantly: given that no-one except a Cardinal will be allowed in the Sistine Chapel after the doors are closed, you are going to have to make me a Cardinal. I think you will find that technically there is no rule against someone who is not a bishop or even ordained priest being appointed, it’s just that it’s never been done. Before now.

So there you have it. Obviously some things go without saying, like being allowed to sneak out of the Sistine Chapel to indulge my creature comforts using the secret passageway in the Vatican.

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Tagged as astrology, His Eminence Cardinal Alex Sumner, Pope Benedict XVI, Uranus

November 23, 2010 · 4:03 pm

Prostitutes are welcome in the Catholic Church

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI has said that condoms are permissible in a certain number of cases, e.g. if one is a Prostitute. And just to clarify the point, he means male, female AND transgendered ones.

Presumably then, this also means that Prostitutes’ Clients are also allowed to use them as well, otherwise it would be an empty gesture! Perhaps this means that Catholics are now allowed to employ sex-workers???

I can see where this is going. The Church is probably now going to say that a Priest is not guilty of Paedophilia if it can be proved he took money off the victim!

Seriously though, I do not particularly fancy having to become a Gigolo just so that I can be in communion with the Catholic Church and use a condom at the same time. The fact of the matter is that Pope Benedict XVI has made a major blunder by not allowing the use of condoms to a category of people who are far and away more deserving of them than prostitutes – with all due respect.

I refer, of course, to ordinary married people – or even just ordinary people who were hoping to get married one day – who have become infected with HIV through no fault of their own. When you consider that in parts of Africa this amounts to 30% of the local population, this is actually a very large number indeed.

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Tagged as Aids, catholic church, Condoms, HIV, Pope Benedict XVI, Prostitutes

September 20, 2010 · 9:49 am

The Astrology of the Pope’s Visit To Britain – Follow-up

Judging from the press coverage, most of the trip appears to have gone smoothly. I was predicting a major incident of controversy: the most controversial incident reported was that on the first day, Il Papa rather unkindly pointed out that it was atheist extremism which caused the atrocities of World War II, which apparently upset a lot of people like Richard Dawkins (probably because they realised they can’t keep going on about the wars fought in the name of religion anymore!). I’m surprised these militant atheists didn’t try to complain that the Pope had Godwinized the debate, as that’s the level of incisive rhetoric to which they usually ascend.

Accidents: none which were reported in the press. The nearest we got to one was prevented when the police arrested a gang of street cleaners who were allegedly plotting to assassinate the Pope.

Because my analysis was mainly based on the slow-moving planets, I calculate that the margin for error is approximately three months. That is to say: if the events predicted happen within the next three months, it is just about possible to say they were astrologically indicated, even though they did not occur within the time of the visit itself. If however nothing such happens between now and Christmas, we can reasonably say that Astrology failed to work on this occasion. Either that or the Holy Father read my blog and took steps to avert the omens.

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The Astrology of the Pope’s Visit To Britain

Courtesy of AstroDienst.com

Following on from my successes at predicting the outcome of the UK general election, and England’s chances in the world cup, I now present what I predict will occur when His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI arrives tomorrow for his state visit to the United Kingdom. This I have done by comparing the Pope’s birth-chart with the transits which are occurring at this time.

Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Alois Ratzinger) was born on 16th April 1927 at Marktl-Am-Inn in Bavaria, Germany, at 0830 local time. He is due to touch down in the UK at 1030 am (British Summer Time) tomorrow – 16th September 2010 – at Edinburgh International Airport. Inputting this data into AstroDienst.com I have come up with a chart with which one can compare the Pope’s birth chart (inner ring) with the transits occurring during the visit (outer ring) – see diagram.

Generally speaking in astrological terms, there is a currently Square aspect between three planets. Jupiter and Uranus are conjunct in Pisces: whilst Pluto squares both of them in Capricorn. What makes this interesting is that these three form a “T” with Pope Benedict’s ascendant – which itself is conjunct his natal Mars and Caput Draconis.

Uranus and Jupiter squaring his natal ascendant (etc) presages that Pope Benedict will manage to stir up a major incident of controversy or a crisis during this trip – relating to the nature of the his job as Pope. The Mars influence suggests that the Pope, blinded by overconfidence, will have an outburst of anger which will alienate a lot of people. The Caput Draconis influence indicates that this major incident will coincide with one of his public speeches which happens to be about a popular religious, philosophic, educational, or cultural trend.

We should not be surprised if Pope Benedict suffers some sort of accident involving physical injury during this visit.

As it happens, retrograde Neptune is conjunct his natal MC, and square to his natal Venus. The Pope may feel that he is in the middle of a career-crisis! The influence of his natal Venus is a strange one: were it not for the fact that the Pope is (supposedly) celibate, his chart would indicate now would be a good time for him to embark on a new love-affair!!

(This is what happens when you try to learn astrology from books intended for members of the general public, not the heads of major religions).

Pope Benedict’s apparent woes are reinfoced by Saturn transitting his 5th natal house. This indicates that he has issues over how deserving he is of attention from others, and he may feel unloved. (Compare this with the criticism that the Pope’s visit has been receiving from people such as Richard Dawkins, Peter Tatchell and Iain Paisley) However, the Pope also has a long-term opportunity to improve his standing and that of the church (nb: by long-term I mean it probably won’t occur during the duration of the visit itself, but only make itself apparent afterwards).

On the plus side, Pluto’s influence means that the Pope’s ambition and drive to succeed are incredibly strong now. He feels a compulsive need to achieve. The Pope may also find that some of the people he meets will turn out to be very important to him, and become hugely influential – even to the extent of presenting a new opportunity of mutual benefit to themselves and the Pontiff.

The conjunction of transitting Uranus & Jupiter with natal Mercury indicates that this is an auspicious time for the Pope to use his state visit as a public relations exercise. Specifically, he will find it easy to come up with new ideas, make decisions, deliver speeches, and generally put himself across. Also: his natal Venus, which is in his twelfth house (ruled by Mercury), will also be affected, so he will feel the need to promote and improve his relationships with others and to establish new ones as well. The internet and electronic-media will greatly help in this regard. I note that one of his plans is to visit a school assembly which will be broadcast live over the web.

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Tagged as astrology, catholic church, Iain Paisley, Peter Tatchell, Pope Benedict XVI, richard dawkins, State Visit to the United Kingdom