April 2014 Profile: Pope Francis I

April 2014 Profile: Pope Francis I

Pope Francis I

Born: Jorge Mario Bergoglio on December 17, 1936 at 9pm in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Became Pope: March 13, 2013 in Vatican City, Rome, Italy

Energy Type: Emotional Manifestor

This month, we’re taking a look at Pope Francis I, who in a little over a year since his selection and ordination, has become one of the most beloved and closely followed popes in history. He walks his talk and his talk is refreshingly humble. He’s not European, he’s from Argentina – one of the first popes from outside Europe in over a thousand years. And it’s been quite a year of changes for the new Pope and for the world as well! Since he’s been in the news again recently – taking full responsibility for the things that priests have been accused of over the past decades – it seemed like a good time to take a look at his chart.

It turns out that Pope Francis has the perfect chart for the leader of a church in crisis! He is a Manifestor who can get things done and who attracts people to his causes and points of view. Being a Manifestor makes him a leader by design! And he actually has the Gate of Crisis, which makes him good in sticky situations. He also has the 4/6 profile, the Opportunistic/Role Model, which makes him an outgoing presence, always happy to meet people, and a role model for everyone that he comes into contact with. His Incarnation Cross, or the mythology of his life, is called the Right Angle Cross of Eden. This makes him a person who is always seeking to help the underdog – the undernourished, the impoverished, those discriminated against. No wonder he’s starting to talk about his role and the role of the church as servants to its members.

The Channels that he has defined – which indicate the themes of his life – make an interesting montage: two are Collective – Curiosity and Abstraction are all about other people – and two are Individual – Openness and Perfected Form, which teach him the lessons he needs for others. The Channel of Abstraction from the Head to the Ajna helps him to get a big idea like a download of information and then to process it so that he has an epiphany about it. Continuing through the thought process, with the Channel of Curiosity, he is always seeking to find the truth of a situation. He has lots of ideas with the Gate 11 and can be a wonderful storyteller (Gate 56) when he wants to be, especially when he’s teaching or ministering in some way.

The Pope’s Channel of Openness is the channel that gives him an emotional wave. This can be a rather dramatic emotional wave at times, but at 77 years old, he seems to have a wisdom about his emotions. This channel is a combination of being Cautious about one’s words, as well as Charm and Grace. When the Pope is up on his wave, he will be the most charming and gracious person in the room; but when he’s down on his wave, he will more likely be found in prayer and meditation. Just knowing the patterns helps him to be wise about the right timing for various activities. Over the past year, for example, when he does say something that draws attention, he’s usually in a cheerful mood as he says it. He delivers his message carefully but also with joy, so that it’s hard to question his desire to educate without harshness or judgment.

The Channel of Perfected Form is not seen very often in charts. It’s the kind of energy that appears in a survival situation – for example, following a plane crash. The person with this channel is the one to follow to safety. I see this channel in Navy Seals, for example. This channel is a potent combination of Intuition (Gate 57) and Love of the Self as well as Empowerment for others (Gate 10). Together, this energy allows for “perfected form”: knowing exactly what to do and how to do it to make sure that you (and everyone around you) are safe and well cared for in any crisis situation.

That seems an apt analogy for the current state of the Catholic Church. Pope Francis walked into a minefield of moral issues and has been deftly and rather quickly making changes within the Vatican and in dioceses all over the world. As portrayed on Sixty Minutes last week, he is uncomfortable with all the trappings of the Papacy, but is happy to make the changes that suit him. He calls his old friends when he likes, including a rabbi with whom he has written a book, On Heaven and Earth, and does not sleep in the traditional Papal apartment in the Vatican (he thought it was too fancy!). As the leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis has a long road ahead of him to right the wrongs over many years, but his Human Design chart certainly gives him a very good chance of making some headway in his goals!