On Friday, May 17th, 2024, the Vatican published a new document regarding alleged encounters with supernatural phenomena. The document, titled, “Norms for Proceeding in the Discernment of Alleged Supernatural Phenomena,”presents new rules concerning how the Church should respond to visions of the Virgin Mary, bleeding statues, stigmata, and other such religious experiences. Its purpose is to create a deliberation process in which the authenticity of purported visions can be quickly assessed before spreading on social media. These new guidelines also seek to limit the ability of Bishops to unilaterally declare the legitimacy of such phenomena and instead gives final approval to a centralized authority known as the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Following the Church’s press release, unverified reports circulated online, speculating that the Pope would also make a formal declaration on the existence of aliens. These reports remain unverified and the Pope has made no such statement.
On the surface, this story appears rather prosaic, but it is important because it evokes some of the astrological themes of this moment, mainly, the planets Saturn and Neptune transiting through the sign of Pisces. What follows is an attempt to uncover what appears to be a sympathy, between the celestial movements of the stars and the mundane events of this earthly sphere.
Saturn joined Neptune in the mutable, feminine, water sign of Pisces in March of 2023 and the two have been getting closer ever since.
Saturn represents cold hard reality, restraint, limitation, figures of authority, and the weight of mighty burdens.
Neptune represents dreams, visions, delusions, mysticism, symbols, and transcendent experiences. In the Jupiter-ruled sign of Pisces, both planets must express themselves in a manner that is more ephemeral, poetic, spiritual, and in a sign where there is an ever present danger of getting lost in mystical reverie.
Since the time of Saturn’s ingress, we have seen an increasing tension, between what is fact and what is fiction and what is fantasy and what is reality. These themes can be seen in news stories about AI generative art, government psyops, the surreality of election politics, and the nebulous feeling that we have all encountered, that life feels increasingly unreal in some undefinable way. Although these stories appear unrelated on the surface, each story has embedded within them the astrological symbolism of Saturn and Neptune in Pisces.
The Church’s decision to update its guidelines on official recognition of supernatural events, as well as the subsequent viral speculation on alien encounters, also appear to align quite well with the astrological themes of the planets.
Saturn, like the Church, not only represents figures of authority, organizations, and elders, but is also concerned with rules, restrictions, and exclusion. In this story, we see the Church insisting on a more cautious, conservative approach to rules regarding what is and what isn’t supernaturally occurring phenomena. The decision to wrest these powers from the Bishops and place them solely in the hands of a centralized governing body, would appear to align with these Saturnian themes as well. Saturn, as the ruler of boundaries, material reality, and the threshold of death, appears to filter down through this story in its concern for with placing limits on what is real and what is beyond the veil of death.
Neptune, whose significations in many ways parallel that of the sign of Pisces, is concerned with the melting of boundaries and subsumption into mystical states of ecstasy. It is these same states, where what is religious fantasy and what is reality become blurred, and it is here that Saturn, through the Church, attempts to exert some structure and authority.
There is a concern within the Church, that due to the speed with which information travels, that there is a danger that unverified reports of numinous experiences may lead to mass acceptance and even worship. If an unscrupulous con artist, or perhaps someone simply seeking fame, made claims to have seen the Virgin Mary at the foot of their bed, and this event was informally acknowledged by a local bishop, then there is a chance that this act would indirectly bring credibility to a claim the Church does not officially endorse. In this way, the guidelines seek to slow down, limit, and control the message before the more independent minded Bishops can cast judgement. Once again, Saturn’s significations of restriction, limitation, judgement, and top-down governance, in tension with the Neptune/Pisces significations of religious visions, as well as delusion and deception, make their presence felt.
Finally, viral online posts appeared on Twitter, claiming that the Pope, in conjunction with the new guidelines, would hold a press conference regarding the existence of aliens. These posts were ultimately determined to be fake (by another modern arbiter of truth, that nebulous group of unelected heroes known only as…“the fact-checkers”). The Pope indeed held no such press conference.
This addendum to our main story would also appear to align with our themes regarding fact vs fiction, fantasy vs reality, and who ultimately decides what is true and what is false. Interestingly, the alien story, as well as the explosion of AI technology, is part of an ongoing set of themes related to Pluto in Aquarius, a sign which is ruled by Saturn.
Although this story would appear to be somewhat trivial, below the surface we find a rich symbolism echoing the movements of the stars. The tension between Saturn and Neptune in Pisces will only increase over the course of the next year and will peak this summer, when Saturn gets within 10 degrees of Neptune. Expect the boundaries between truth/fiction to become more and more porous over the next year. As above, so below.
