Guiliano della Rovere was a course, foul mouthed man with a violent temper who was elected pope through bribery. Known for building St. Peter’s Basilica using the sale of indulgences, he also divided the Church by setting off the Protestant Reformation. Naming himself not after the preceding churchman but after Julius Caesar, he became Pope Julius II. His election occurred on November 1, 1503 (Julian) but in the Stanza della Segnatura above Raphael’s famous School of Athens fresco, Urania stands behind the celestial globe showing his coronation on the evening of October 31, 1503 (Julian). She can be seen in the photo on the left.
Julius II consulted an astrologer and had that astrologer elect important events. The astrologer appears to be a lover of Moon ruled horoscopes or may have thought the Moon particularly important to Julius as this most important horoscope opens in Cancer. The Cancer zodiac sign is ruled by the Moon whose natural house is the fourth house. The horoscope of St. Peter’s Basilica similiarly opens in Cancer too. The Pope’s celestial globe highlights the constellation Pegasus and has Urania, the muse and goddess of astronomy, astrology and navigation touching the celestial sphere.
The astrologer elected the time to place the Aries Moon conjunct the north node in the tenth house. The Moon rules the entire chart and, in this arrangement, suggests that Julian wanted to be known as a warrior leading the organization of the church represented by the tenth house. The Scorpio Sun falls into the fifth house associated with the life of pleasure. The Moon rules retrograde Cancer Jupiter, retrograde Saturn and Mars placing Julius II, represented by the Aries Moon, as the person that would influence church men and kings (Jupiter), secular officials (Saturn), and warriors (Mars). Julius II was known as the warrior pope who increased the power of the papacy, centralized the government of the papal states and left behind a legacy of art and architectural treasures for the church. The warrior pope who lived a life of pleasure.
Urania is the great-granddaughter of Uranus and their names are derived from the same word. She is the muse of astronomy and astrology. This allegorical figure was so important to Julius he had her included in the Raphael frescos that he commissioned to decorate his new personal apartments. Unwilling to use the Borgia apartments, Julius commissioned four rooms now known as the Raphael rooms to be his private apartments. There just above the School of Athens painting in what was to be used as the Pope’s library, Urania stands with a celestial sphere the records the date and time of his coronation.
Unknown to the astrologer, the planet Pisces Uranus in the ninth house is conjunct the Midheaven. Julius II wanted to lead and consolidate the church but he was commissioned to complete a much less welcomed work. He was to separate the church and oversee its dissolution. The Catholic church is most likely ruled by the Moon and the date of its formation there was an Aquarius Moon. The United States is a Cancer Sun ruled by its Aquarius Moon. There are 50 states that together make up the country. This demonstrates the archtypical energy of Cancerian motherhood and Aquarian individualism. The USA nurtures fifty different flavors of states. Americans sometimes call the states the laboratories of democracy. The Catholic church is similiarly imbued with the energy to be a mother to various children and several schisms over the years has resulted in a broad range of Christian churches generally refered to collectively as Christendom.
The devil of course was in the details. Julius II was the pope that sparked the Protestant Reformation. This work sits at the pinnacle of the horoscope. Reformation is a word of Virgo. At the Imum Coeli, deep at the heart of this horoscope is the reformation of Virgo. The Capricorn Neptune (also unknown to the astrologer) has a message about the fantasy of authority and the dissolution of authority. The ideal of a disciplined government would give way ultimately to dissolution. It was all there to be seen if only they had known about those planets.
Neptune’s ideals hold sway until you see through the rose colored glasses which causes the dissolution of the fantasy. A Capricorn Neptune was the transit that had me enter a cult. A fantasy of a just father as God turned into a collapse and awakening when the rose colored glasses slipped and I saw that the moral, upright father figures who ran the congregation were actually petty tyrants of no great moral fibre while some were bona fides degenerates. The papacy of Julius II followed this same pattern. In the beginning, he was the man that would establish order but in the end was seen as a tyrant.
Pluto and Ceres are conjunct and this is the glyph of Persephone. Kidnapped by Hades, Persephone comes to rule hell as its Queen. The Pope’s action as the Aries Moon are trine the Persephone glyph in the sixth house, Virgo’s natural house. The sixth house is the workshop, it is the house of reform. Mutable earth. This trinal energy is so steady and sure, the Pope’s actions are followed by the kidnapping of the church in the house of reformation. There was nothing he could do that would prevent the manifestation of the reformation.
The separation of a young church was the result seen in the asteroid Juno in the tenth. Juno is the goddess of rejuvenation. This young, rejevenated church sits in the tenth house of the public square conjunct the Midheaven. The new church was supported by the kings who wanted to counter Rome’s growing power. After centuries of the church gaining ascendancy over Rome and the road to Canossa, secular rulers had borne the yoke of the Pope. Now, four hundred and twenty-six years later many kings took their chance to break free and supported the church’s division.