Pope Francis Dead at 88

By Alex Miller

At 7:35 AM CEST on Monday, 21 April 2025, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis had passed away.  The Pontiff had spent weeks in a local hospital struggling with double pneumonia and other respiratory complaints, but had recently returned to the Vatican, and had given the Easter blessing to crowds of the faithful in St. Peter’s Square just the afternoon before his death.

Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio on 17 December 1936 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Bergoglio was the first Jesuit and first native Latin American to be elected Pope.  He rose steadily through the Catholic hierarchy, becoming a Bishop, Archbishop and Cardinal before his election to the Holy See, when he chose the name Francis, in honor of St Francis of Assisi. 

Eclipses often herald major changes or events, and Pope Francis was caught up in two which occurred within weeks of his death.  The Lunar Eclipse of March 14, 2025 (23 Virgo) squared (90 degrees) his Sun (25 Sagittarius), representing his life force and vital essence, while the Solar Eclipse of 29 March (9 Aries) squared his Ascendant (10 Cancer), which governs our public image and how others perceive us.  Both events are commonly viewed as potentially hazardous celestially, and often evoke a passing or other major life event.  At the time of his death, a remarkable precise conjunction of the Moon (general health, the physical body) and Pluto (modern lord of death) appeared exactly atop the Midheaven (all at 3 Aquarius), which is the point of highest elevation in the chart, the focus of all eyes.  And indeed, this death drew global attention, with Pope Francis the spiritual head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

The Midheaven is also the beginning of the Tenth House, ruling career, and representing our status or place in the world.  Natally Pope Francis sported a conjunction of his Midheaven (0 Taurus) with asteroid Francis (1 Taurus), which appears embedded at station (appearing to stand still in the sky, from our perspective on Earth), making it a vital factor in his biography, and a logical choice for a regnal name as he ascended to the apotheosis of his career.  Amazingly, the Sun on the day of his death falls exactly on natal Francis, and is joined by asteroid Francis in the sky (29 Aries), all squared by the Moon/Pluto conjunction, doubling down on the passing (Pluto) of Pope Francis (Francis), both natally and in real time.

As Pope, Francis was also Bishop of Rome, and this lifepath is clearly signaled in his birth chart by an exact triple conjunction of asteroids Bishop, Roma (Italian for Rome) and Pappos (cognate to Papa, Italian for Pope), all at the same degree (18 Scorpio).  This astounding combination is currently resting on the fulcrum of a T-Square pattern (two or more points opposed (180 degrees) each other, and squared to a third) created by squares from natal Saturn, ancient lord of death (16 Aquarius) and transit asteroid Atropos, named for the mythic Greek Fate who severs the thread of life at death (16 Leo), another cosmic rendering of the death (Saturn, Atropos) of the Pope, Bishop of Rome (Pappos, Bishop, Roma).

Title Image Credit:  from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Francis#/media/File:Portrait_of_Pope_Francis_(2021)_FXD.jpg