Gemma Receives the Scourging
Some of the bloodiest experiences of St. Gemma is explained astrologically
“My Jesus, I cannot give Thee blood from all parts of my body, but I give it Thee from my heart.” - St. Gemma Galgani as blood poured from her mouth
THE SCOURGING
Now comes some of the bloodiest, most horrific phenomenon Gemma experienced. It was every Friday of March 1901, with each experience bloodier than the last.
Once she asked her benefactress’ leave to take a bath in the house, because, she added, “I feel my clothes stuck to the flesh and they are troubling me a good deal.” She went to have the bath, and it was found that those sinless members were furrowed all over by deep gashes; the blood in them had dried with that which had saturated her underclothing, so that it was impossible to remove it without reopening the wounds and causing her immense pain. And yet, her way of putting it was that all these torments were only a few little strokes that Jesus let her feel, and in this way gave her “some little thing” to suffer.
The first instance has a time given of “around 14:00.” The others, I time for 15:00 as that is the traditional time given for the scourging.
In the first scourging Mars is cusping Leo at 0 Virgo. It is approaching Gemma’s T-Square.
The torment was horrible: “Friday,” thus she told me of it, “about two o’clock Jesus let me feel some slight blows. Father, I am all scars that cause me a little suffering. Jesus be praised for ever!”
And now let us hear the description of these scars, that no one could call imaginary, from her adopted mother, who examined them several times minutely: “I noticed,” she says, “that on that first Friday evening Gemma was suffering more than usual while in ecstasy. I lifted up her arm and saw great red stripes on it. On applying a handkerchief to them I found it stained with blood. She suffered greatly, and in the ecstasy I heard her say: “But are they Thy Stripes, O Jesus?”
The next week Mars moves into a tighter conjunction with Gemma’s Uranus and thus the T-square. This time, rather than red stripes that reveal blood when tissue is applied, now her flesh is torn open with deep gashes. When Gemma was asked what made the change, she replied: “First they were switchings, now they are scourgings.”
The third scourging: Mars moves into a perfect square with her Mars. The scourging gets worse. Now, her bare bones were visible.
Mars moves to 24 degrees Leo. Now it is in a perfect 0 degree square with Pluto in the bloody T-Square. The scourgings become worse. “Blood came from her wounds in great abundance; when she was standing it flowed to the ground, and when in bed it not only wet the sheets, but saturated the whole mattress. I measured some streams or pools of this blood, and they were from twenty to twenty-five inches long and about two inches wide.”
The square aspect’s nature is of Neptune and Mars. The East Planet and West planet are of Neptune-Mars and Mars-Neptune thus each arm of the aspect holds these two natures but are to be opposed. But, what happens when the square is “Mars-Conjunct Uranus Square Mars/Pluto”? Mars is the violent and bloody planet. It brings wounds and bloods. The square adds a Neptunian nature to this so that the mystical can be brought in to create a celestial scourger for Gemma. Uranus is sudden, unexpected, twisted and the strange. Pluto also has mysticism to it, but it is also a destructive planet. Johndro’s dictionary lists such words as “destroy, eradicate, devastate…” he also lists “mortification.”
The aspect is spelling out “Sudden [Uranus] Mystical [Neptune] Bloody [Mars] Wounds [Mars]” and “Sudden [Uranus] Mystical [Neptune] Destructive/Mortification [Pluto] Bloody [Mars] Vivisection [Mars].” You can spell out your own terms. The interpretation of the aspect is clear. It’s a doubling, if not tripling down of bloody Mars with the dark, devastation and mortification of Pluto and the bizarreness of Uranus with Neptunian paranormal. Do not forget, this aspect is natal to Gemma. The Mars/Pluto conjunct, by itself, spells “Bloody Mortification.”
