Uranus-Pluto Square V: The NSA Leaks, and Heroism vs. Treason

6.12.13

Right on time, the era-defining square between Uranus and Pluto again discharges its tension into the collective consciousness.

The story: A series of intelligence leaks revealed the US government has been collecting phone records and monitoring online activities of millions of presumably innocent citizens, a revelation that flies in the face of many Americans' land-of-the-free perceptions of their own country.

And who are the real 'criminals' in this case? It sure appears as if the NSA (National Security Agency) has flagrantly violated the terms of the US Constitution, specifically the Fourth Amendment, which ensures the right of the people to be secure against 'unreasonable searches and seizures'. And yet, in the post-9/11 granting of additional intelligence rights (via the Patriot Act, etc.) to the federal government to protect the citizenry against terrorism, the renegade acts of whistleblower Edward Snowden—heroic by some accounts, treasonous by others—could be said to jeopardize these anti-terrorism efforts.

The archetypal clash: courageous/warrior-like actions of individuals on behalf of the people's liberties (Uranus in Aries) vs. an intensification/consolidation of power by institutional structures facing threats to their authority (Pluto in Capricorn). Did Uranus-figure Snowden behave so recklessly and/or self-importantly, with such little regard for the collective welfare, as to threaten national security? Did the Plutonian NSA take its authority to an extreme, demonstrating that too much power indeed corrupts, and needed Snowden's patriotic move to rein it in? This debate will continue, to be sure.

At the time of last week's revelations, both Mercury and Venus were moving into a T-square with Uranus and Pluto from the sign of Cancer, which also happens to be the natal sign of the US's Sun (as well as its Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter), using the Jul 4 1776 birthdate. Mercury, the planet of communications, was exactly opposed Pluto on Fri Jun 7 and exactly square to Uranus by the next day. Venus, the planet of relationships, completes this same opposition and square yesterday and today (Jun 11-12). As I have said before, though the Uranus-Pluto influence remains a constant during this whole era (let's say roughly 2009-2017, peaking in exactitude 2012-2015), its effects become more visibly pronounced whenever other planets veer into aspect with the square, as Mercury and Venus now have.

The third exact hit of the Uranus-Pluto square (out of a total of seven) recently occurred on May 20, though I didn't explicitly mention it at the time since, by the thinking I just described, I did not expect its ongoing effect to be any more noteworthy on that particular day. As it turned out, a massive tornado hit suburban Oklahoma City that day… a poignantly disruptive event we could certainly point to as an outward manifestation of this unstable astrological energy. Except, of course, for the fact that natural disasters such as tornados occur fairly regularly, not just when there's a generation-defining astro-aspect precisely forming in the sky. Trying to interpretively force such an event into serving as exemplifying proof of the Uranus-Pluto square's potency, therefore, feels like somewhat disingenuous astrology.

However, one facet of the Oklahoma tornado story that did resonate with me, insofar as its broader symbolic relevance to the Uranus-Pluto square is concerned, was the odd ideological conundrum the two Republican Senators from Oklahoma (Tom Coburn and James Inhofe) found themselves in: After having voted to reject a federal aid package for victims of Hurricane Sandy (which hit the East Coast in October 2012) and making names for themselves as vocal critics of federal disaster-aid in general, they now had to formulate a case for why their home state should somehow be exempt from their previously stated rationale. As I see it, the Oklahoma senators got caught up in the larger debate about how large the role of government should be in providing services (also known as 'entitlements') to its people—a debate that has been central in the American public discourse throughout this Uranus-Pluto-square (and Neptune-in-Pisces) era so far.

This same debate underscores the question of whether the NSA has the right to carry out the sort of surveillance techniques exposed by these latest leaks, in the name of keeping its citizens safe. It's rather fitting that the leaks occurred while the Uranus-Pluto square was triggered by Mercury's transit through Cancer, the sign of the archetypal nurturer and hearth-protector. When Cancer is at its best, its emotionally sensitive gestures leave the recipients of its attention feeling comfortably at home and well taken care of. At its worst, though, Cancer can be somewhat shadily underhanded in how it 'takes care' of its subjects, managing their emotional condition for them by protecting them from truths which might be upsetting—ultimately self-serving behavior motivated by trying to minimize their own upset, too. Is this not the same logic used in the government's defense of their questionable secretive tactics: that they are doing this to take care of its people?

The US is quite clearly a Cancerian nation, not only with its nostalgic fixations on 'mom and apple pie' and homeland security but also in how it seeks to 'take care' of other nations around the globe through its interventionist (imperialist) maneuvers. The astro-dynamics in play during the past week, in fact, mirror an opposition in the US natal chart between Mercury (retrograde) in Cancer and Pluto in Capricorn… a signal that maybe this secretive caretaking attitude in the government's communication strategies has always been there. This poses an obvious disconnect with the concept of freedom that many Americans hold dear above all other values, which could been seen as represented by the US's natal Moon in Aquarius (per the popular Sibly chart, based on the signing of the Declaration of Independence). After all, how much freedom does, say, a protective parent offer a child who they are charged with taking care of? Cancer and Aquarius are signs inconjunct to one another; they simply do not speak the same language.

Arguably, there is no new news in these latest disclosures; I don't imagine many (astute) Americans are especially surprised to learn that their government is spying on them. Yet, as astrology would contend, this news has risen to the surface now due to the always-perfect celestial timing reflected by the planets' positions. And of course there's more to come, which we know not only because this story's originating journalist Glenn Greenwald has flatly told us so, but because the astrology does, too: In the coming weeks, we can look forward to transits of the Sun (July 1-4), Mars (July 27-31), and Jupiter (through much of August) through this same zone of Cancer, once again setting off the Uranus-Pluto square.

Looking even further into the future, I've got my eye on the second half of April 2014… when Jupiter returns to spar with Uranus and Pluto, right as the two are at another exact peak of their square, at the exact degree of the US's natal Sun (13 Cancer), forming a cardinal grand cross with Mars retrograde in Libra, all during an eclipse period. Jargon aside, that is some serious astrology, folks—and it's got the United States right in its crosshairs. This tale is far from over.


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