Gemma Chooses the Crown of Thorns
This is around the same time Gemma was instructed by Fr. Germanus to ask Jesus to remove the “external signs” of suffering from her body (the profuse bleeding of stigmata). During this time, Gemma underwent the stigmata and scourging, but without bleeding. However, Fr. Germanus never said Gemma couldn’t bleed from her eyeballs, mouth, or pores, so she still deluged blood frequently. We will look at these instances elsewhere. For now, we will speak of one of her more famous and beautiful visions.
She had a vision this night where Jesus appeared to her and offered her “two very beautiful crowns.” A crown of thorns and a crown of lilies. Gemma describes them, expressing some surprise in her letter, that the “crown of thorns” looked more like a cap. This is consistent with the wounds of the figure on the Shroud of Turin. The lily crown she describes as shaped like a garland. She felt disturbed at the sight at of the crowns, at first, but later felt “consolation.” At this time, Gemma was still under instruction to not speak with her visions. So, when Jesus appeared asking her for the crown, she did not reply at first. Jesus persisted by shouting “Viva Gesu!” at which Gemma then replied “I want the crown of Jesus” and reached over to pick up the crown of thorns Jesus was holding and kiss it. She begins laughing and crying at having received Jesus’ crown. She then begins to feel suffering and pain, “but a sweet suffering” as well as strong affections toward Jesus. The sufferings intensified until (as she describes it) Jesus had to make it stop as her body could not withstand anymore (she admonishes herself for this). The sufferings stopped at 02:00, she writes.
The Crown of Thorns is one of the famous sufferings of Jesus during his crucifixion. The torturers of Jesus made a crown of thorns during their mock coronation of Jesus and placed it on his head to stab his scalp with large thorns. The crown of lilies represents virginal purity. So, it might be a question as to why Gemma, who values virginal purity so much, would not choose the garland of lilies. Many icons of St. Gemma, today, show her with lilies to represent her virginity. Gemma chose the crown of thorns because she is devotee of Jesus suffering, a passionist. It’s clear that the route of Jesus’ passion includes celibacy. So, the garland of lilies was representing a choice away from the suffering of Jesus. If Gemma chose the lilies it would have been her opting out of being a victim soul and choosing instead to be a simple virgin saint. Gemma chose mindblowing pain, blood, and suffering, and to be accosted by the violent demons of hell, instead of a quiet life of being a pretty virgin.
This vision event is one of the first major visions Gemma has as Neptune transits into a tighter and tighter conjunct with her Moon intensifying her supernatural visions and experiences. The first point of note are the transit angles and nodes hitting Gemma’s t-square. This t-square repeatedly shows up in every instance of her supernatural sufferings (a full analysis is in the chapter on her natal chart, with more information on the chapters of special astrological objects, phenomena, and techniques that all appear on her t-square). Here, it’s the transit medium caeli on her Pluto, the nodal axis on her Mars, and the Ascendant on her Uranus squaring the Mars/Pluto conjunction. These angles show the t-square being activated. Angles show up in transits to mark important events and what parts of the chart are activating.
Transit Venus is conjunct her Jupiter. Jupiter represents crowns (it is the “King Planet”). Venus is love and adoration. “Loving crowns.”
Transit Mars is parallel Gemma’s Uranus and Neptune and trines her Neptune. This transit and aspect is similar to the stigmata transits. “Sudden pain, and visions.”
Transit Sun is on her nodal axis. The Sun represents God and Jesus. It also represents kingship (crowns and Jesus and God).
The two Chirons on this chart are at a perfect 1’00” trine to each other. The Chiron-Chiron trine is a life cycle event (like Saturn Returns and Squares) that shows a time when a person evolves in their spirtuality and healing. It is a time where people will often meet their life mentors to help them grow in life. But, this is Gemma. Her Taurus 9 Chiron is about bodily suffering for spiritual attainment. So, she gets the tortured Jesus as her mentor. In this vision she feels guilt for her sins. She writes in this letter of this event that she feels everytime she sins she puts Jesus back on the cross to be tortured and killed. She feels immense guilt for this and that Jesus is silently admonishing her for this. (Gemma does not feel her supernatural suffering is a punishment in any sense. To her, it is all an undeserving gift to help her get to Heaven. Rather, she feels Jesus should be punishing her, and wants to, but is choosing not to do so and rather bless her with these stigmatic gifts.)
Here is the chart at 02:00, the next morning, when the supernatural pain and suffering ended:
The Ascendant has moved to axis her Mars. Venus moves a degree closer to her Jupiter. The medium caeli also moves close to transit Mars, showing important suffering. The angles in this chart are important to show this t-square was still being activated at this time.