Gann, the 266th Pope and numerology (revisited)

On page 82 of “Tunnel Thru the Air” WD Gann speaks of the 266^th Pope in a very curious passage referring to St Malachy's prophecy of future Popes.  Most of what I’ve read regarding that passage concerned the obvious importance of the number ‘266’.

2 * 6 * 6:

• 2 X 6=12 , 12 divisions of the circle
•  2X 6 X 6=72 or the pentagon.  Didn't someone write a book on that?  Bradley Cowan?
• (6X6) / 2=18 and 2X6+6=18
• 6 / 6 / 2 = .5
• 2+6+6=14 reduced to 5 

Can there be any doubt that Mr. Gann intended to emphasize many permutations of 266? Was the 266th Pope just a convenient forum to bring up an important number?  But maybe an important meaning might be the simplest explanation? Occam's razor.  Look at the first sentence of that paragraph, pg 82 TTTA.

"Some evidence of long-range predictions which have been fulfilled that has attracted attention, appeared in the New York American, January 29, 1922." pg 82

Maybe he was also talking about what he said he was talking about; duh, long range predictions.  And the long range predictions are St Malachy's prophecy (which, by some, are thought to have been authored by Nostradamus).  Not 2 or 3 years in the future, decades and centuries in the future.  And yet, Gann extrapolates the long range predictions to an evil period of only 1926 to 1932?  Really?

To be sure, Gann makes mistakes, but what is the likelihood that he accidentally mistook the 266th pope to be elected in the 1926-32 era?  And after having read the New York American article he cited in the first sentence?  Pope Pius XI (1922-39) was the 259th.  Implausible.  Gann knew the 266th Pope would be elected decades thereafter.  Perhaps Gann  knew or extrapolated in which repeating cycle the 266th pope would be elected?

"To those who understand numbers, "266" reveals some remarkable events that are to follow the election of the new Pope. It shows that wars are not yet over and that Europe will have troublesome conditions, and in fact, the entire world must yet pass thru a very evil period between 1926 and 1932. It also confirms both the major and minor cycles which indicate that the years 1928 and 1930 to 1932 are to be years of famine, depressing business conditions and panic, not only in Europe, but in the United States. The maximum evil of the great 1000-year cycle, which will not be completed until 1932 to 1934, will bring serious troubles to the United States. Another bad period for the United States will be 1940 to 1944." pg 82

The maximum evil of the great 1000-year cycle.  

"He had figured out from the Bible that a time of trouble such as the world had never seen would begin in 1927, and would continue until 1932. There would be war, famine and pestilence all over the earth, and that except the time be shortened every human being on the face of the earth would be destroyed according to the Bible.' pg 41

So the greatest evil of the 1000-year cycle would not occur in the 1927-1932 period. The world would not be destroyed because there was not enough time in the 1926-32 cycle.  [Interesting that Bradley Cowan places the end of the 1914-1933 Pentagonal Uranian cycle as 1933.]  When might greater evil occur?

A problem in all this is who is Pope is the 266th.  Some count Pope Francis as the 266th, some count him as the 268th (counting antipopes).  Perhaps Gann saw that interpretation as a problem to his observations about the distant future.

"His prophecy on the future Pope is No. 266. Fides Intrepida, which means -- "Unwavering Faith, unshaken belief in the face of danger; unfaltering devotion." pg 82

"Unfaltering."  When I first researched Pope Francis in  Wikipedia I found "Unfaltering orthodox" as a component of his description.  I cannot find that description in Wikipedia now.  Not a lot of evidence in subjective characterizations.

So how might we identify the real 266th Pope? What is the 'number' of Pope Francis according to the methodology Awodele identified which Gann may have used to compute the 'number' of Woodrow Wilson, '28'?

By that methodology, the number of Pope Francis is 5 and 266 reduced is 2+6+6=14 further reduced to 5. That's interesting.  But try this on for size.

Pope Francis was born on 12/17/1936.  On what solar degree of the circle does 12/17/1936 appear?

His birthdate appears on the 266th degree of the solar year.

If Gann was, in its simplest explanation, talking of the reign of the 266th Pope, if Pope Francis is he, if cycles of history repeat, and if the most evil section of the 1000 year cycle was yet to come after the 1926-32 period, then what might that say about the cycle in which Pope Francis reigns?

Jim

Note: As a side, I've read St Malachy's prophecy implied the 266th Pope would be the last.  I've interpreted that to mean an end to some phase of the Catholic church.