Marc Edmund Jones in his book, How to Learn Astrology, his foundation course, mentions the nativity of Vatican City ¹ as a footnote to the Pope who founded it; nothing more.   

According to the Vatican website, it founded following the signing of the Lateran Pacts between the Holy See and Italy on February 11th 1929, and ratified on June 7, 1929, and thus universally recognized as a sovereign State distinct from the Holy See under international law. Our header image is one of its many gardens.

The site though does not give an actual time of when the accord occurred and reading through old newspapers, the editors Celestiology, have decided like the formation of the City of New York, the idea had already been ratified and the place came into existence at the stroke of midnight, almost like a Caesarean birth — planned for a certain place and date.  There are no public documents to state otherwise.

download-the-vc-chart

                                                                Why was Vatican City created?

Vatican City has a Fixed Grand Cross i.e. a Grand Cross made of the houses of Taurus, Scorpio, Leo and Aquarius (see the purple lines). Jones calls this the Square of Gain, because it highlights the natal, or event in this case, desire to display its will and power. Thus the great square is an astrological tour de force most akin to a lightning rod, where it manifests itself as a symbol for the higher good.

Because of that great square, the Vatican mundane chart is a Splash temperament type, highlighting its drive towards universality, and its desire to transcend the petty personal and varied idiosyncrasies of humankind, towards a more spiritual desire by uniting the supreme efforts of physical toil with personal devotion– the two parts of the square– into something greater and nobler than each: the creation of devout faith through the tireless prostration of faith.

The aspects contained within the Chart

The fixed Cosmic Cross and the ascendant together create the image that Pope Pius wanted: a safe harbor for all the magnificent artwork that had been created, donated and commissioned by the Holy See.

Its ascendant 07 Scorpio 29, the Sabian symbol of ‘a beautiful lake set high and apart reveals the silvery light of the moon,”  reinforces this with its image of the night luminary casting its light upon the world, and suggesting the spirituality found when something (someone) is in touch with the greater cosmic strength by which it can expand its consciousness into a deeper metaphysical experience.

The ascendant gets the Sabian keyword of Watchfulness, for the City silently awaits its illumination to unfold for those who have ventured far from Rome to partake in its glory. Indeed, its ascendant’s symbol is a beautiful image of what a pilgrimage is: the devotional practice of a prolonged journey. 

For  like that of the Moon’s light to us here on earth, historically taken on foot or on horseback, but now either train, automobile or airplane. The most famous pilgrimage is Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. You can read that one here from Harvard University.

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Jupiter, the Sky God & King of Roman Pantheon

Opposite it is the Jupiter, Roman Lord of wealth and bounty, in luxuriant and sedate Taurus in the sixth house of service and duty. Here the symbol of the “Rainbow’s pot of Gold” with the keyword of Faith, appears highlighting not only all the beautiful artwork the Vatican holds — it is the world’s largest art collection with 1400 rooms, chapels, 54 museums and galleries — but also that these artworks are handmade, crafted by people not digitally rendered and faked. The Sistine Chapel is the pinnacle of this long walk with its ceiling decorated by Michelangelo and the Stanze della Segnatura decorated by Raphael. 

The opposite of Saturn at 27 Sagittarius 54 in the second house opposite Mars at 22 Gemini 18 in the eighth, and Mars’s essential home we get the resulting T-Square of Ceres at 29 Pisces 13 in the fifth. Ceres, the goddess of agriculture and the living earth, but also the grieving mother, who much like Rachel of the Old Testament, weeping for her lost children, is now on zealous guard protecting the collection from any such act of vandalism or acts of War.

Standing as she does at the last degree of the zodiac, she is the “Great Stoneface” not only the fortress of all that has come before, but the vanguard against Uranus’s envy, 04 Aries 56, and Venus’s rapacity, 08 Aries 30, creating the prism of Vatican City, its permanent sentry.

Footnotes

1. How to Learn Astrology is dual copyrighted. The hardcover is owned by Mrs. Del Norwood, Gittings Avenue, Chicago, Illinois and is out of print though she is working with a publisher now to bring that out in electronic form. The other is owned by Doubleday Publishing, and more easily found via a search. There are no CDs, DVDs or other paraphernalia attached or enclosed, so ignore those messages.
2. Jones, Marc Edmund, How and Why Astrology Works, Dell paperback. This book was first published by the Sabian Publishing, Dr. Jones’s publishing arm, in 1945 and is in hardcover. Good luck finding that one. Better results are found with the Dell paperback version published about 12 years later, but since republished in 1993 so it is relatively inexpensive.