Easter Promenade

by Jane Lewis

Easter Sunday this year fell on the Sun’s ingress to the fixed earth sign Taurus.   White Eagle often speaks about how nature, and trees in particular, invite us to commune with Father-Mother God when walking among them.  He points out how the great cathedrals built of stone emulated the towering trunks of trees and arching branches in their pillars and arches, mimicking the groves where ancient Greeks and Druids once worshipped.  Recent documentaries about the reconstruction of Notre Dame de Paris following the devastating fire of 2019 reveal how over 1,000 oak trees have been used to re-build the roof space known as The Forest.  The Ile de la Cite, the ‘eye’ of land in the River Seine on which it stands, is a very ancient site settled by the Parisii tribe in the third century BCE and was hallowed as an important Celtic sanctuary.  The cathedral re-opened last December and this Easter celebrated its first Holy Week since that fateful night on 15^thApril 2019 when the fire broke out somewhere among the forest of timbers. 

Easter Sunday celebrates the Resurrection that follows the Crucifixion, initiations that all souls must undergo on their recurring stays on planet Earth.  In our increasingly secular society, fewer people choose to attend formal religious services at Easter time but more and more choose to mark this special time of year spending time outdoors in nature. 

On Easter Monday Pope Francis ‘returned to the home of the Father’ and passed into the Light aged 88.  Uranus and Venus are strong in his natal chart through Uranus being elevated close to his Taurus midheaven, and his chart ruler Moon in Aquarius conjunct Venus in the 7^th house.  At the time of his death the Sun was transiting his natal midheaven and transiting Moon was exactly conjunct Pluto (3 Aq) applying to conjunct his natal Moon-Venus.

Image by Gabriella Clare Marino

Born as Jorge Mario Bergoglio on 17^th December 1936 in Buenos Aires he was inspired to become a priest in his teens and joined the Society of Jesus as a novice on 11^th March 1958, later becoming the first Jesuit pope on 13^th March 2013 when he adopted the name Francis after Saint Francis of Assisi.  Over time he aligned himself increasingly with the poor and with marginalised groups, his humility and compassion earning him the reputation of being ‘the People’s Pope’.  In the short time allotted to him as Pope he realised he had much work to do to introduce radical reforms within the papacy and the wider Catholic Church, and although much still remains to be done he nevertheless introduced sweeping new changes in keeping with the strong Uranian influences in his chart.  He saw himself as one of the people, humble and more at home with the poor than with those of ecclesiastical status and power.  Refusing to live in papal splendour he chose instead a three-roomed apartment in the more modest Saint Martha House adjacent to St Peter’s Basilica. His leadership style displayed the second ray of Divine Mother, as shown by Cancer rising, and he is said to have led others more by putting his arm around people than by wagging his finger at them.  When questioned about gay priests he famously replied “If they accept the Lord and have goodwill, who am I to judge them? They shouldn't be marginalized”.   

In the Tree of Life there are ten spheres, sephiroth, like fruit hanging from its branches.  The diagram shows two pillars which form the entrance into Solomon’s Temple via the middle path, leading to the Holy of Holies in the heart centre.  Jupiter and Venus are on the right-hand pillar, under the Sun side, symbolising the Wisdom of Love, the seat of Mercy and Compassion (Jupiter) and the Desires of Love (Venus).  These qualities must be balanced within each human heart by those on the left-hand pillar, under the Moon, which symbolise the Intelligence of Love, with Mars being the seat of Judgment, and Mercury representing the Thoughts of Love.   Pope Francis’s personal life and ecclesiastical career show how he came to balance the right and left-hand pillars by shifting the focus from the severity of dogmatic judgement towards mercy and compassion.  He tried to make the papacy and Catholic Church more democratic and inclusive, inviting more open discussion instead of simply handing out unnegotiable laws in which millions of noncompliant people were effectively turned away from God’s door.  He recognised that the Catholic Church needed to reform in order to survive the scandals that had begun to rock it, especially since 2012 when Neptune moved into Pisces when the extent of child sex abuse scandals and cover-ups within the organisation truly spilled out into the open.

His natal Sun in Sagittarius conjunct the moon’s north node and Jupiter (in Capricorn) show the greater emphasis on Jupiter’s sphere and the Seat of Mercy and Compassion, and by fulfilling his soul purpose of Love through Wisdom he invited everyone to come sit at the Right Hand of God.