Like whistle-blowers Assange and Manning before him, Edward Snowden by proxy wielded a pen against the sword of the current US Administration on June 6, 2013.

That day his leaked story, as scooped by Glenn Greenwald, appeared in both The Guardian and The Washington Post. In it, Snowden revealed the breadth and depth of systemic surveillance by the National Security Agency (NSA) through programs such as PRISM that routinely spied on  Google, Microsoft and Yahoo user activity – world-wide.

The following week, US federal prosecutors charged Edward Snowden with two counts under the Espionage Act: disclosing national defence information and sharing classified intelligence. We show and tell in grade school, Edward, but when we work for the NSA we operate under the cone of silence. Snowden would have signed an agreement to that effect, but obviously he had a change of conscience.

Edward Snowden was born June 21, 1983, at 4:42 am in Elizabeth City, NC. This data was first made public by Eric Francis of PlanetWaves, courtesy of North Carolina’s birth registry.

When we look at Snowden’s chart, three distinct planetary complexes are immediately evident:

First, the kendras are occupied only by two benefics – a strong Mercury with dig bala in the 1st, and retrograde Jupiter in the 7th. They mutually aspect each other, and are not disturbed by the aspect of any other planet, let alone a malefic.

This joins combines intelligence and judgment, Mercury being logical and clever, Jupiter possessing knowledge and wanting to share. There’s no doubt that Snowden is a very bright 30-year-old.

Secondly, the two kshatriya planets – Sun and Mars – sit on the nodal axis that runs through the 2nd and 8th houses. It’s an all-malefic party in these two houses, with no benefics invited. Sun and Mars are warriors. Rahu amplifies the fire and the drumbeat.

Since the 2nd rules knowledge and speech, this malefic cluster reflects Snowden’s understanding of science and technology, but also his willingness to be the bearer of bad news. Malefics in the 2nd can mean “bad speech”. Like someone who swears, lies, or tells inconvenient truths.

Thirdly, there is a Parivartana (exchange) yoga between the 3rd and 6th houses. It involves lagnesh Venus and the Moon, the two planets that represent Snowden himself. Both planets are influenced by an exalted Saturn, which casts it in a Spartan light.

The exchange between the 3rd and 6th lords invokes themes around their upachaya nature, for struggle and success. The 3rd is a kama house, expressing a desire to do something, to summon courage and demonstrate prowess. The 6th is associated with service and employment but also the competitive spirit that is necessary to succeed in whatever kshetra is required – athletic field, courtroom or battlefield.

Snowden is running Saturn dasa, Rahu bhukti. When the period of a planet runs, it of course plays out its own significations, but primarily it does work for its star lord, the planet in whose nakshatra it is found.

Saturn sits in Chitra, a Mars nakshatra, so it will serve the purposes of a warrior-like Mars in the 2nd house, speaking harsh truths. Because Mars rules both the 7th and the 12th, Snowden was willing to step out of his comfort zone and cross to the other side (7th), apparently even to accept the consequences of imprisonment or exile (12th).

Saturn plays out its own interests by invoking legal action and debate (occupying the 6th) while simultaneously following his own dharma (ruling the 9th) even at the cost of subverting the existing social order as epitomized by the US administration (ruling the 10th).

A node acts in a different way. Rather than look to its nakshatra dispositor for direction as a visible planet does, the node will first act as a proxy for any planet with which it is associated by sign, then for any planet that aspects it, and finally for its rasi dispositor. Thus, the action of the nodes can be multi-faceted, complex and potentially contradictory.

Rahu is associated with both Mars and Sun. So in its period it will serve the purpose of Mars, as outlined a few paragraphs above, and that of the Sun. In the case of the latter, where the Sun occupies the 2nd and rules the 4th, we can construe that Snowden speaks (2nd) for the people (4th).

Rahu is aspected by no planet, but is disposited by its sign-lord Mercury. Mercury occupies the 1st while ruling the 2nd and the 5th. The notion of authorship comes to mind, so it would be no stretch of the imagination to expect something more than a newspaper article from all of this.

This very idea of “speaking out against the government” almost certainly started a year ago, during Snowden’s Mars bhukti, which ran from April 1, 2012, to May 11, 2013. Because Mars sits within its own nakshatra Mrigashirsha, when its period ran it would have acted doubly on its own account, the only planet in his chart with the authority to do so.

The current transits are also very provocative. Snowden experiences his Saturn return and sadhe sati at the same time, which in turn echoes the influence of natal Saturn on lagnesh Venus and his Moon. Saturn is transiting Swati, a Rahu nakshatra, which invokes the Sun/Mars combo with which natal Rahu is associated.

Jupiter transits Mrigashirsha, a Mars nakshatra, again arousing the warrior’s battle-cry. Just two days after the story broke in The Guardian and The Washington Post, both transiting Sun and the new Moon entered Mrigashirsha as well, and Snowden’s whistle-blowing reverberated around the world via editorial comment and public outrage.

With three primary transit triggers (Jupiter = yearly, Sun = monthly, Moon = daily) all in a Mars nakshatra, the full import of Snowden’s Mars placement came out in spades – his diatribe to arouse public discourse (2nd), his association with foreign powers (7th) and his flight into exile (12th).

What’s next on Snowden’s agenda? For the duration of Rahu bhukti (May 2013 – March 2016), we can probably expect continued exile. Rahu delivers the goods for 12th lord Mars, but their conjunction in mutable Gemini implies a man on the move rather than one in prison. Mrigashirsha itself is associated with the flight of a hunted deer, its moves and journeys along roads and paths in search of safety, always looking over its shoulder.

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