Lourdes is a mystery. Whether we think in the apparitions of 1858 or in the thousands of documented healing miracles, whether we believe in the Virgin or not, or whether we believe in the healings or not, there is no easy explanation for it. It's "shrouded".

Months ago, there was mentioning of the symbolism of the cave related to the centaurs. Lourdes is not really a cave, but similar, a "grotto", like a cave's entrance...

Bernardette Soubirous was born January 7, 1844, in Lourdes (43n06/00w02), at 2 p.m. (according to Paul Choisnard. This time is generally accepted and is the one used by Melanie Reinhardt in her Chiron book, but I have no documentary biographical source).

the closest aspects of the luminaries are:

Moon = 8,43 Leo
Pholus 8,01 Cap

Sun = 16,27 Cap
DW2 = 17,19 Gem

The quincunx seems to be important here, and has a correspondence with her early death of tuberculosis at 35. It may also be related to the fact that she had her visions when she was 14, at her entrance to puberty, and the bad health and poverty of her childhood. (The family lived in a one-bedroom house which before that was the official jail).

The first apparition happened in the early morning of Feb. 11, 1858, under an exact Moon-Saturn opposition (precession=12')

Moon (taken as 9 a.m.) = 22,39 Cap
Saturn = 22,38 Cancer Rx.

this Moon is applying to an exact conjunction:

Pholus = 26,02 Cap
Mercury = 26,36 Cap
natal Saturn = 26,49 Cap

Her visits to the grotto and the apparitions went on for 5 months until July 16 1858 at sunset, when the last of the 18 apparitions happened after the activity had subsided, and Bernardette said farewell to her visitation:

tr. Sun = 23,42 Cancer
tr. Pholus = 25,51 Cap. Rx.
natal Saturn = 26,49 Cap.

-the Nessus transit is also telling:

tr. Nessus = 17,41 Cancer
natal Sun = 16,27 Capricorn

So the apparitions started with Moon conjunct Pholus and ended with Sun opposition Pholus, around her Saturn axis. We have seen this same approaching Sun/Pholus opposition when the "Heaven's Gate" bodies were found, and also when Anne Franck and her family started their life in hiding. I see it as the wings of death, or of mystery, "astral wings", which is one of the symbolisms of the vulture. Death is with us all the time...

In 1866, 8 years later, she and her family visited the grotto again. Bernardette was leaving Lourdes forever to live in the Convent of Saint Giluard as a nun. She was sick with hemoptisis since she was 17, and for 3 days after she arrived at the convent she kept vomiting blood. Her mother died that year December 8:

tr Sun = 15,55 Sag (12h GMT)
tr 1995GO = 16,48 Gem Rx.
tr Chiron = 17,56 Pisces

Her father's death in 1871 (age 27) is half-way between her mother's and her own death. She was completely paralyzed by the tuberculosis which had taken the bones, and died at 35 in Nevers the 16th of April, 1879, at 3 p.m.:

tr. Moon = 1,17 Pisces (precession=29.5')
natal Chiron = 0,45 Pisces

tr. Sun = 25,45 Aries
Pholus 1st apparition = 26,02 Cap
Pholus last apparition = 25,51 Cap
natal Saturn = 26,49 Cap

But the Lourdes shrine was established and destined to bear the fruit of healing and miraculous faith to millions of people for many generations:

Pluto 1st apparition = 7,18 Taurus
Chiron at death = 7,03 Taurus

natal Moon = 8,43 Leo
Neptune at death = 8,30 Taurus
Jupiter 1st apparition = 8,40 Taurus

Pholus at birth = 8,01 Cap
QM107 last apparition = 8,38 Cancer
1994TA at death = 8,44 Cancer
1995GO at death = 8,47 Cancer

/Juan

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Message: 1
   Date: Fri, 16 Jul 1999 06:39:59 -0600
   From: jar@xxxxxxx.xx.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)
Subject: Re: Re: Joan of Arc Data? Calendars?

I see a resemblance, Pholus-wise, with William Blake and the Lourdes apparitions. Of course "the Son of Sam" is another extreme.

Lourdes (1st apparition)
Moon = 22,11 Cap / Pholus = 26,14 Cap
Lourdes (last apparition)
Sun = 23,54 Can / Pholus = 26,03 Cap

There is also a relationship with Dostoievsky's movement between torment and "illumination". Jonathan's reference to the word "lunatic" is what I was thinking of with "drunkenness", "crazy blind man", etc.

Hearing voices can be compared to the clapping of smaller wings, and the "vulture" wings are a very ancient symbol for the astral body, so that maybe the smallness or lack of mass and the "flight" of Pholus orbit has to do with one's subtler bodies, with "astrality", both hell-bound and celestial. This strengthens my perception of Pholus as a neptunian projectile.

/Juan