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Edward Snowden
Post Posted Tue Jun 25, 2013 3:00 pm by StarAgeWiz
Edward Snowden
6/21/1983
4:42 AM - AA Rodden Rating
Elizabeth City, NC
L.S.T: 21h 33m 07s
Mercury: 21h 32m 47s
Mercury opp. Uranus... An inquisitive, inventive mind and a sharp wit. With Sun Gemini conj Mars opp.Neptune energetic math skill for solving complicated formulas. Aspects ideally suited for a so called "Computer Nerd" Of course Sun opp. Neptune (Angular Houses) gives the native a highly idealistic approach on his "heroic" role in helping to save America (World) from NSA ...Prism
conspiracies, etc. Sun/Neptune aspects native is prone to illusion/delusion. Fantasy here played out on the world stage!
Moon/Libra sq. Venus quite the charmer, makes friends easily can mask ruthless ambition of Sun conj. Mars. Jupiter conj. Uranus someone willing to take high stake risks & with Mercury genius potential.
Snowden's LOC charts for Honolulu and Hong Kong are quite intriguing as well. His SSR occurs two days before splitting HK for Moscow. Solar Jupiter exactly conj. Natal Sun. Natal Jupiter sq HK LOC MC. Makes all the right contacts to leave HK safely
and an excellent support group.
There's a lot more (Interpts) here I'm sure you fellow Siderealists will contribute to this most fascinating nativity !
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Re: Edward Snowden
Post Posted Tue Jun 25, 2013 3:20 pm by Jim Eshelman
Thanks for this.
The guy's an idiot: He permanently wrecked his life to disclose a "great secret" that anyone paying attention already knew. He could have done it several ways to immunize himself, and he didn't. He's certainly no Daniel Ellsberg.
Here's the chart:
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Re: Edward Snowden
Post Posted Tue Jun 25, 2013 3:31 pm by Jim Eshelman
Mercury indeed dominates the chart: Besides having a Gemini Sun, he has Mercury 0°03' from the Ascendant in mundo. Secondly, Uranus is 4°24' below the Descendant, and in moderate opposition to Mercury. Jupiter is 5°55' below the Descendant.
I'm sure he sees himself as a crusader. I just can't get over the idiocy.
And, in fact, Neptune has been transiting in square to his Uranus: an ideal prompts one to take a leap toward an insubstantial goal, to make a significant change In one's life. (Usually it's the right leap, even when taken for the wrong reasons.) Jupiter is conjoining his Sun: He's getting his 15 minutes of fame, and probably is safe and protected for a while.
But he also has progressed Sun within 1' of the exact square to Saturn. He's screwed himself. He's getting crucified eventually (within the year - while the Sun is still in orb.)
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Re: Edward Snowden
Post Posted Tue Jun 25, 2013 5:11 pm by SteveS
Jim wrote:
I just can't get over the idiocy.
Exactly my thoughts.
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Re: Edward Snowden
Post Posted Sat Jun 29, 2013 1:05 pm by StarAgeWiz
Was hoping this forum could stick to chart interpretation and not turn it into your opinionated political viewpoints!
Save it for facebook or some other blog!
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Re: Edward Snowden
Post Posted Sat Jun 29, 2013 1:26 pm by Jim Eshelman
StarAgeWiz wrote:
Was hoping this forum could stick to chart interpretation and not turn it into your opinionated political viewpoints!
Save it for facebook or some other blog!
Apologies. My remarks, though, were meant as an addressing of the chart. I can see from the chart that he likely thinks he's working from a place of high value. But I think it disingenuous not to comment - in an examination of his personal horoscope - on the complete idiocy, impracticality, ineffectiveness. Those are the traits I was citing.
Aside from any consideration of whether the information should have been disclosed, the point I'm making is that this is primarily the horoscope of an individual who uprooted and wrecked the remainder of his personal life in order to disclose information that almost everybody knew (or should have known) already. There was no significant disclosure, yet his actions, as a young man, have effectively disabled the rest of his life. That's not a political statement, but a life-assessment statement; and I think that's enormously important to consider in order to honestly examine the horoscope.
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Re: Edward Snowden
Post Posted Sat Jun 29, 2013 2:32 pm by Jim Eshelman
I think my error here was in not explicitly linking some things back to the chart. They were all comments on the chart, but not e4xplicitly linked. Given the way the thread has developed, I'll go back and rebuild this in a different style.
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Re: Edward Snowden
Post Posted Sat Jun 29, 2013 2:54 pm by Jim Eshelman
As mentioned before, Mercury dominates the chart: He has a Gemini Sun, and Mercury 0°03' from the Ascendant in mundo. Uranus (in moderate-orbed opposition to Mercury) is 4° below the Descendant. Jupiter is 6° below the Descendant.
So, based on luminary signs and angularity, the chart is dominated by Mercury, with a strong Uranus-Jupiter flavor (and especially Mercury opposite Uranus).
There is also the separate double-Venus influence of a middleground Libra Moon square a peripherally foreground Venus; and the Moon and Venus are in mutual reception. I agree with the OP's assessment of charm etc., and (especially with the Mercury influence) think he's very good at getting what he wants from people.
Mostly, this is a tremendously superficial chart. (The lack of a hub luminary doesn't help that any.) It shows a mind that doesn't "land" anywhere solidly, that flits and dances around things. Socially, I suspect the same level of superficiality, someone motivated by curiosity and living off of his charm.
As mentioned before, I'm sure he sees himself as a crusader. The close Mars-Neptune opposition has a missionary spirit (among other similar traits), a hurling himself (usually imprudently) into whatever is the focus of his attention. The aspect is given nearly angular strength by the Sun's intimate involvement (and Mars is technically foreground; the others are middleground). Mars-Neptune is seriously dopamine-driven, and is a also another aspect that enhances his intelligence enormously. (I think that's a consequence of living at high dopamine levels: impulse driven toward a desire, needing immediate gratification and doing more or less whatever is necessary to get it. This behavior pattern gives much higher permanent dopamine levels, and, among other things, that boosts mental power.)
The Mars-Neptune also gives the power to concentrate fiercely - to wear blinders that shut down any facts other than those that one needs at the moment. Yet, while giving greater powers of concentration, it doesn't have strengths of perseverance. Mostly, life is spent in short-term bursts of driven concentrations of attention.
Therefore, though there is more to the chart than this, the two factors that most define his character are the emphasis on Mercury (especially through Mercury-Uranus) and the Mars-Neptune opposition (boosted by the Sun). To this we could add the (mostly offtopic) Venus component and the absence of a Hub luminary. Let's concentrate on these two most important aspects.
The two, together, boil down (at best and most affectionately) to the "absent minded professor." They portray someone who lives inside of concepts or ideas, and has very little connection to the real world. "Brilliant, and without a clue." (This is not alleviated in the least by his 0°36' Moon-Neptune semisquare.)
I agree with all of the factors the OP listed on Mercury-Uranus. Additionally, approaching the aspect from scratch, by standard paragraph reads: "...a mind unfettered by formality and standard practice. He evinces a lack of rigidity in scholastic matters, and leans toward investigative, futuristic fields such as science. There is originality and sparkle in his speech. He is hardly ever at a loss for words, daring to speak up on any occasion with disregard of the consequences... witty and clever... A variety of interests grab his attention which could lead to dissipation if he does not have self-discipline..." Etc. I think this is a good description of what we know of him.
But what my 40-years-ago standard paragraph does not adequately include is what Garth Allen called the "Alabi Ike" character - someone who "has an explanation for everything," who so effectively and rapidly mobilizes facts that he is effectively oblivious to the facts. Garth Allen wrote in part: "Enjoying every challenge to his ingenuity... Naturally free of a sense of loyalty to teacher and despising scholasticism as such... danger, though, of superficiality and of too easily getting sidetracked through lack of sustaining faith. He takes pleasure in startling with lurid words and unusual presentations. Mercury-Uranus is the Alibi Ike complex personified: it can invent excuses and clever reasons for anything on the spur of the moment - and get believed instantly."
Mercury-Uranus, in effect, is not too different in visible effect from a powerful Neptune, except that it's much like a powerful Neptune at a Star Trek convention
And Mars-Neptune has been discussed above. I think I've said everything there that I think is relevant.
The result is an impulsive genius, disconnected from practical realities of his life, who takes mental and physical impulse-driven leaps that always walk the edge of being self-destructive. Many people consider his whole life self-destructive or at least too risky (whereas those of us with comparably strong Mars-Neptune hard aspects have to stop and think a minute to see why anyone else would approach life any less dynamically). Normally, he's bright enough to stay within survival bounds.
Then came his progressed Sun-Saturn square. I'll stick with my prior summary of it as self-screwing, and my projection that it will lead to his crucifixion before the year is out.
And, as Marion reminded me this morning, he's just past his Saturn return. There is more than a little "back of the head" awareness of this self-destruction. If life has been way out of balance, the Saturn return (in extreme cases) is an opportunity to blow it all up in order to rebalance oneself and one's life. This is surely a big part of what's going on here.
And he also has had Neptune transiting square to his natal Uranus. My standard published interpretation for this includes the following: "Before you lies a dream, a temptation, a lure – and you have the power, creativity, and daring to pursue it! Whatever this desire, you are willing to make substantial changes in your life to achieve it." I am used to seeing people make huge leaps for mistaken reasons, but without it necessarily being a mistake. I summarized this above for Snowden as:
...Neptune has been transiting in square to his Uranus: an ideal prompts one to take a leap toward an insubstantial goal, to make a significant change In one's life. (Usually it's the right leap, even when taken for the wrong reasons.)
I think these are the most important factors in understanding the man and what he is doing with his life at this point in time. Against these potentials, we find that he has taken steps that accomplished nothing at all, were not necessary to take, and, if he felt he had to take them anyway, could have been taken by going through channels that would have given him protection (e.g., approaching Congress and requesting to testify under national whistleblower laws). He did none of that. Instead, he imprudently broke very serious laws in a way that, at the very least, uprooted him, and bears substantial risk of having ended any chance to actually live his life as a free human being. The potential for doing this is spread all over the natal chart, and that is, to me, what makes this chart such a fascinating study.
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Re: Edward Snowden
Post Posted Sat Jun 29, 2013 3:03 pm by Debbie
Mars is conjunct NN, partile. What would this add to the interpretation. I've seen so many descriptions of the nodes meaning, from relating to the masses to a person's so-called mission in life. How do you see them in Snowdon's chart?
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Re: Edward Snowden
Post Posted Sat Jun 29, 2013 3:24 pm by Jim Eshelman
Debbie wrote:
Mars is conjunct NN, partile. What would this add to the interpretation. I've seen so many descriptions of the nodes meaning, from relating to the masses to a person's so-called mission in life. How do you see them in Snowdon's chart?
I wouldn't add much if anything. (I've had an often-shifting relationship to the lunar nodes. "Something is there," but it is rarely enough for me to warrant adding another point to a chart.) But, since you asked, here are some notes (mostly verbatim from Ebertin) from viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1442
Mars-Node. Collaboration and cooperation, union based on physical attraction alone. (C) Lack of adaptability, desire to quarrel. (+) Desire to cooperate with others, comradeship and team spirit, a social conscience, desire for progeny. (-) Disharmonious collaboration, desire to quarrel, lack of good fellowship.
Sun-Node. Intellectual or physical assocations, the public. (Family ties.) (C) Seeking contact with others, the desire to associate. (+) Adaptation, preference for associations and teamwork, the search for intellectual contacts. (-) A disharmonious attitude toward living or working with others.
Neptune-Node. Lack of community sense or team spirit. (C) Antisocial behavior. (+) Peculiar or strange conduct in communal life, occasional unreliability. (-) Lack of social or communal sense and feeling, inclination to exploit, deceive, and cheat other people.
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Re: Edward Snowden
Post Posted Sat Jun 29, 2013 4:10 pm by SteveS
Jim wrote:
…the chart is dominated by Mercury… the two factors that most define his character are the emphasis on Mercury (especially through Mercury-Uranus)…
Yes, here are a couple of negative (-) delineations from Ebertin’s COSI pertaining to Snowden’s dominating angular Mercury 180 Uranus aspect, which IMO speaks loudly with his recent actions:
…over estimation of self… …eccentric actions…
Debbie wrote:
Mars is conjunct NN, partile. What would this add to the interpretation.
Ebertin from COSI on negative (-) manifestations of Mars-Nodes:
Disharmonious collaboration, the desire to quarrel, a lack of fellowship, a lack of adaptability. Quarrels and disputes within communities, organizations and associations, an interruption of associations.
Jim wrote:
Then came his progressed Sun-Saturn square. I'll stick with my prior summary of it as self-screwing, and my projection that it will lead to his crucifixion before the year is out.
Indeed!