Originally written when Pope Benedict XVI announced his abdication as Pontiff in February of 2013.
“My great idea is that we must forgive the Pope. First of all, he needs it more than anyone else. Besides, it is the only way of placing oneself above him.” – Albert Camus
“He thought he saw an Argument, That proved he was Pope. He looked again, and found it was a bar of mottled soap.” – Lewis Carroll
719 years.
That’s quite a chunk of time, no matter how you look at it. That’s also how much time has passed since a Pope last resigned from his post as the anointed leader of the Catholic Church.
Times have changed a bit since Celestine V willingly stepped down as Pontiff in 1294, but the news was just as shocking, none the less, when Benedict XVI announced to the world he was resigning as Pope on February 11th.
The reign of the 265th Vicar of Christ was one of high significance, from both a historical, as well as mystical perspective. For sheer historical magnitude, a full millenium has passed since the Throne of St. Peter was last occupied by a German Pope, that being Gregory V, whose Papacy was from 996 – 999.
When viewed from a spectrum that is the juxtaposed foil of historical fact, this particular Papal resignation mystically has raised many an eyebrow, and not merely for the generalized assumption that the only acceptable excuse a person who accepted the job of Pontiff could make for not showing up to work, was being dead.
From an esoteric level, Pope Benedict’s resignation may represent the beginning of the end of the succession of Popes. A succession, which unlike most religions, can be unbrokenly traced back to the Papacy’s divine source, when Christ gave earthly leadership over his flock of followers to St. Peter nearly 2,000 years ago. This supposed end of Papal succession was foretold by one of Catholicism’s own fervent mystics, St. Malachy of Armagh, who back in the 1100’s foretold that after Benedict’s reign, only one more Pope shall ascend the throne of St. Peter.
Astrology isn’t being nearly as Rapture-like regarding the fate of one of the world’s foundational religions as St. Malachy’s Armageddon-hinting words, but Pope Benedict’s upcoming resignation does appear to be steeped in astrological significance that cosmically, can be interpreted as an event that was written in the Heavens and destined to take place.
A Cosmic Window of Opportunity for The Vatican
April 2nd, 2005 was a turning point for the Catholic Church. The 2nd longest reign in Papal history, lasting 26 years, 5 months, and 18 days had come to a close with the death of Pope John Paul II.
During this pivotal period, the influences from the planets Uranus and Neptune were temporarily affecting each other during that crucial time by being placed in the sky in each other’s ruling signs, an astrological condition otherwise known as “mutual reception”.
In my article entitled, “The Vatican’s Impending Disintegration Foretold By The Mutual Reception of Uranus and Neptune”, I had this to say regarding the cosmic window of opportunity that had opened for the Catholic Church at that time:
“….one of the best examples of this current mutual reception occurred on April 2, 2005 when Pope John Paul II died. The Catholic Church now had a window of opportunity to achieve SO many things at the same time as to be in synch with the modern world. If the College of Cardinals had elected an open minded, ethnically diverse man with a non conservative world view as the new Pope, the Catholic Church could have not only broken free of its stubborn clinging to out of date dogma but it could have found its place in this post-modern society by finally coming to terms and resolving so many of its most painful secrets like child abuse and corruption as well as extending it’s sense of oneness to every culture, race, and social status. Instead, they reverted to their darkest form of patriarchy by electing a belligerent ultra conservative who was a former Hitler Youth. We have yet to see how dearly the Vatican will pay for ignoring their chance to truly transform and to still influence the world through its reaction to the chain of events caused by this mutual reception between Uranus and Neptune.”
The piece was written in 2009, a time when the Vatican was being besieged by numerous reports of child abuse from Catholic dioceses all over the world. The dynamics created by Uranus and Neptune back then not only demanded change, but their mutual reception also represented a temporary window of resolution for the Vatican’s woes, both past and present, all of which were based in an unrelenting stance to remain cemented in outdated dogma, as well as resist any/all evolutionary change for the Catholic Church in the 21st century.
In the article’s conclusion, my words, themselves, admittedly took an Armageddon-like tone regarding the questionable future which awaited both The Vatican and The Catholic Church should the forces of cosmic change which were taking place back then continued to be ignored or denied:
“If Pope Benedict and the Catholic Church remain in their ivory tower and do not address any of the issues that have been so painfully at hand for so long, Uranus and Neptune will confirm with their final reunion in November and December of 2010 that the extinction of one of the world’s great religions will be imminent and complete.”
To be fair, the massive burden of being the visual and vocal figurehead of the Catholic Church was anything but alluring to Benedict XVI, who admitted the following at the time of John Paul’s death, when he was being seriously considered to be the next Pontiff,
“At a certain point, I prayed to God ‘please don’t do this to me’…Evidently, this time He didn’t listen to me.”
Despite being one of the closest in command during the reign of his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, in 1997, at the age of 70, Cardinal Ratzinger (Benedict’s pre-Papal name) made an official request to the Polish Pontiff, asking if he could take leave as the head of The Vatican’s Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith in order to become an archiving librarian in The Vatican’s Secret Library of Archives.
Needless to say, John Paul denied his request.
Returning once again to historic fact, when Benedict XVI was named Pope in 2005, he was the 7th oldest in Papal history to be elected at the age of 78, with there being only one year’s difference between himself and the record holder, Pope Clement X, who was elected at age 79. It must also be noted that Pope Benedict’s current age of 85 already outlives his predecessor by one year, since John Paul II died at the age of 84.
Like the death of his predecessor, Pope Benedict’s resignation occurs during a crucially important time within The Catholic Church’s evolutionary progression, and this recent news making event represents much more than just the Pontiff’s advanced years of age. As we shall see in Part II, a venerated saint, Malachy of Armagh, prophecized not just the reign of Pope Benedict, but of every Pope for the last 900 years.
….including the Catholic Church’s last and final Pontiff, whose reign, according to the Irish mystic, begins in just a few weeks time.
Brad Kronen has written a large variety of astrological books ranging from its role in historical events to astrological dating guides for each sign of the Zodiac. He also has written books about an aspect associated with the Catholic faith that is not so well known – Mysticism. Click on the image below to purchase Brad Kronen’s book “The Astrology of Easter & Other Holy- days”:
bradkronen.com 