Mother Teresa
 

A sage once said, quite rightly, that great figures are like holidays on the calendar of the history of humanity. As simple mortals, it is natural for us to enjoy having something in common with great figures, to warm ourselves in the sun of their charisma. This is why Macedonians say that she was born in the capital of their country. The Albanians affirm that she was Albanian through her mother. The Vlachs remind us that she was Vlach through her father. The sick, the poor, and the homeless saw their Guardian angel in her, while the Catholic Church beatified her. If one could ask her what she thought herself, Mother Teresa would certainly have responded that she belonged to God and that she worked for Him. In fact, great figures do not have a nationality, or a faith, or even a family. They belong to everyone and to no one. They are citizens of the world, and their family is the whole of humanity. This is a fact confirmed by her horoscope.

Mother Teresa was born under the name of Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu on August 26 1910 in Skopje, a town that then belonged to the Ottoman Empire and today is the capital of Macedonia. Agnes Bojaxhiu, much like Mary mother of Jesus, was born under the sign of Virgo. Those born under this sign feel accomplished only when they serve others. While Mary was the mother of the savior of humanity, Agnes Bojaxhiu, after taking the name of Mother Teresa, became a source of support for the poor, the sick, and the people who were forgotten by the rest of the world. Her Ascendant is found in the sign of cosmopolitan and spiritually-inclined Sagittarius. Her Moon is located in the sign of stable and compassionate Taurus.

At the moment of her birth, Jupiter, planet of religion and education and master of her horoscope, was located high in the sky, next to the Zenith. This indicates that Agnes Bojaxhiu would find accomplishment far from her home, in foreign lands, through activities linked to religion and teaching. Next to Jupiter, in the house of philosophy and religion (9^th) of her natal chart, lies Mercury, planet of reason, and Mars, planet of action. The Sun, symbol of the ego, and Venus, planet of love and master of the house of career (10^th), are located in the house of death and transformation (8^th). This reveals that her mission would be to show her love towards people and to help them die in a dignified manner. On the other hand, the Sun is also the symbol of the father. Located in the house of death, it indicates that she would lose her father early. Charismatic Neptune and powerful Pluto located in the house of the public (7^th) indicate that she possessed a true charisma and strongly influenced others. The unharmonious relationships between Mercury, planet of language, and Pluto show that Mother Teresa would be a person persistent in her ideas, a person who was not afraid to call things by their name. This is why the devotion she put into her work and belief in God would irritate many people. Her devotion and her love of God can be understood in one of her late interviews. She then said:

“I’m like a little pencil in His hand. That’s all. He does the thinking. He does the writing. The pencil has nothing to do with it. The pencil has only to be allowed to be used.”

– Does her natal chart reveal the real reasons behind her choice to become a missionary at such an early age? Was it the desire to escape poverty? Was it perhaps because of a failed love affair?

Neither one nor the other, as shown by the predominance of the 9^th house and Jupiter at the Zenith in her chart. From the beginning of her childhood, without a single detour, her life – although difficult – took the direction of following in the footsteps of Christ. Nevertheless, if she had chosen another path, she would have had an unhappy and unaccomplished love life. Pluto and Neptune located in her house of marriage (7^th) indicate karmic ties to things left unresolved in her previous life. She came to her present life to learn to not make her soul dependent on those whom she loved. She learned this most easily through experiencing love for all of humanity and not for a single individual. Also, Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu was born in a wealthy family, that of Nikola and Dranafile. As a child, she was enchanted by stories of the lives of missionaries and their service. In 1919, when Saturn, the enforcer of destiny, went through her house of death and touched the Sun, her father died. Her mother then took care of her and her sisters. She raised them in the spirit of the catholic faith. This is why no one was surprised when Agnes left home at 18 years old to join the order of the Sisters of Loreto. She first learned English in Ireland. She arrived in India in 1929 and began to work as a teacher in Darjeeling, at the foot of the Himalayas.

In May 1931, Jupiter, planet of spirituality, and Pluto, planet of transformation, met in their transit, above her natal Neptune, planet of illusions, while Neptune in transit touched her natal Sun in the house of death and transformation. Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu symbolically died. She pronounced her first vows as a nun and took on a new identity. She chose the name Teresa after Teresa of Lisieux, protector of missionaries. Thus, Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu disappeared forever and was replaced by Mother Teresa, who would become known throughout the entire world.

The year 1946 was a crucial year in her life. Jupiter then transited her house of career. Saturn in transit, the enforcer of destiny, crossed her natal Venus, mistress of the house of career and located in the house of death and transformation. Pluto in transit, planet of the higher spiritual consciousness, was also located there. Thus it is not by accident that in the month of September 1946, on the road to the Loreto convent, Mother Teresa felt the Divine calling within herself that pushed her to leave the convent to help the poor. She began her work as a missionary two years later, in 1948, when Jupiter crossed her Ascendant, thus marking the beginning of a new life cycle. Mother Teresa traded the habit of the Loreto Sisters for a simple white cotton sari trimmed in blue, and left for the slums of Calcutta to help the hungry and needy. In the beginning, her work was particularly difficult. She didn’t have any resources and received food through begging. She doubted her decision and felt alone. She sometimes thought about returning to the comfort of the convent. However, this was perhaps the Divine will. Living in poverty, she had the same experiences that the poor and excluded lived. At that time, she wrote in her journal: “Today I learned a good lesson. Poverty must be very difficult for the poor...”

Two years later, in 1950, Mother Teresa received the Vatican’s authorization to form an order of the Missionaries of Charity, under the direct control of the Pope. The Sisters of the congregation took vows to live in chastity, poverty, and obedience to Christ. These rules are very close to the rules of the Franciscan order. Mother Teresa was in fact a fervent admirer of Saint Francis of Assisi. The duty of the missionaries was to help the starving, the poor, the homeless, the handicapped, the blind, the lepers, the orphans, and all those who were not cared for and forgotten by society. Despite beginning with only thirteen missionaries in Calcutta, the order today counts over 4,500 sisters and 100,000 volunteers in 133 countries worldwide.

In 1952, Jupiter in transit triggered her natal Moon, symbol of the soul, located in the house of love (5^th). This is when Mother Teresa opened her first house for the dying, called the Home of the Pure Heart. Here, the most underprivileged, sick people could receive medical care and were provided the opportunity to die with dignity in accordance with the particular rituals of their faith. The Koran was read to Muslims, Hindus received the water of Ganges, Catholics were given their last rites. Mother Teresa then opened hospitals for lepers and homes for orphans. By these actions, in 1960, she had spread her congregation throughout all of India. During the same year, Jupiter crossed her Ascendant again and announced a new cycle in her life. The order of the Missionaries of Charity spread throughout the entire world. Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her altruistic work. At the same time, the North Node and Jupiter crossed her natal Sun. For its part, powerful Pluto crossed the Zenith and strongly influenced her house of reputation and career. She asked that the 192,000 dollars of her Noble Prize be used towards the poor of India. When reporters asked her the question: “What can we do to promote world peace?” she responded, in the style characteristic of analytical and practical Virgo: “Go home and love your family.”

The disharmonious relationships between eccentric Uranus, located in the house of self (1^st), and charismatic Neptune, located in the house of the public (7^th), the Zenith as well as the house of career, reveals that although people saw her as an extraordinary person, opinions on her were also divided. While some people saw her as a saint, others saw her as a cruel woman and clever manipulator. All the more so, because of the strained relations between Mercury, planet of communication, and Pluto, she was not the type of saint who kept quiet, prayed, and turned the other cheek. She was a person who fearlessly entered into conflict when she felt that her objectives had been compromised. She therefore made lots of enemies.

David Scott wrote that she merely kept people alive, instead of battling against poverty. She was criticized by British and American medical publications for using the same needle several times in her hospitals, and for their miserable living conditions, including the practice of giving cold baths to all of her patients. Her presence bothered certain political parties in India especially because she frequently opposed the Hindu right-wing. Giri Raj Kishore, secretary of Vishva Hindu Parishad states that “her first duties were to the Church, so that her social service was secondary”. He accused Mother Teresa of favoring Christianity and secretly baptizing the dying. The actress Parvathi Menon criticized her campaign against abortion by stating that it was politically founded. One year after her death, the German magazine Stern published a hostile article regarding Mother Teresa’s finances and the manner in which she spent money received as donations.

What was Mother Teresa really? Was she a saint or a clever manipulator?

Astrology has the answer to these questions. More precisely, the predominance in the house of religion (9^th) and Jupiter, protector of religion, located in the Zenith, indicate a profoundly religious person, truly devoted to God and to what the Church considered to be the truth. All the more reason that Jupiter is the master of the horoscope. This shows that the principal motivation behind all of Mother Teresa’s acts, in fact the principal reason behind her existence, was to work for Jesus in the name of Jesus. If she made mistakes, they were surely neither conscious nor voluntary. In her mind, the Church always had first priority. Social work was nothing but a by-product of her desire to serve God. One must not nevertheless forget nor denigrate all that she did for the hungry and the sick. In fact, Jesus said: “Look at what they do, and not at what they say.” Even though she respected all religions, Mother Teresa did not hide that for her, the one true savior was Jesus. Thus in an interview by Edward Desmond in 1989 for TIME Magazine she said: “I love all religions, but I am in love with my own. No discussion.”

In the same interview, with regard to the criticism on the severe lifestyle under which she and her sisters lived, she said:

“We chose that. That is the difference between us and the poor. Because what will bring us closer to our poor people? How can we be truthful to them if we lead a different life? If we have everything possible that money can give, that the world can give, then what is our connection to the poor? What language will I speak to them? Now if the people tell me it is so hot, I can say you come and see my room.”

Accused of not giving anything but food to people and not helping to combat poverty, she responded clearly:

“Like a man says to me that you are spoiling the people by giving them fish to eat. You have to give them a rod to catch the fish. And I said my people cannot even stand, still less hold a rod. But I will give them the fish to eat, and when they are strong enough, I will hand them over to you. And you give them the rod to catch the fish. That is a beautiful combination, no?”

Though she was strong in appearance, though love was her shield, the body of Mother Teresa began to break down, after years passed living in poverty, mixing with the misfortunes of the sickest and poorest people. She was the victim of a heart attack in 1983, while she was visiting Pope John-Paul II in Rome. After a second attack in 1989, she received a pacemaker. All this was not by chance. During the same era, austere Saturn passed through her house of self and probably wanted to show her that she must slow down and treat herself lovingly. However, it was probably already too late and her hard life finally took its toll. In 1996, Mother Teresa fell and broke her collarbone. She then contracted malaria. On September 5, 1997, God called her to Him.

In 2003, Jupiter, planet of expansion, crossed her Sun, symbol of the ego, in the house of death, and the North Node in transit touched her natal Moon, symbol of the soul. Mother Teresa was beatified by Pope John-Paul II. He gave her the title of “blessed”. All her work, her motivations and her philosophy are best summed up by these words written on the walls of her home for children in Calcutta:

• People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
   
• If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
   
• If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.
   
• If you are honest and sincere, people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.
   
• What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.
   
• If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
   
• The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.
   
• Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.
   
• In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.
   

 

 
 

 
Would you like to reproduce this text in your own publication?
Please read the Copyright Conditions.