The Most Wanted Man in the World
Dear Planet Waves Reader:

When I was teaching English 101 at SUNY New Paltz, I assigned my classes a book called Reading the News. In its clear-headed approach to understanding how journalism works, its first chapter was titled, "Who Makes the News." That's a statement, not a question: who makes the news -- before what, where, when and why. We want to know about people. We want to know what they do, and we crave a window into their psyches, perhaps in search of ourselves.

Julian Assange, the most wanted man in the world. He evokes the archetype of the hero-outlaw, or a character from a graphic novel -- but he's a real person, doing real work. Photo: Agence France-Presse.

Currently, that 'who' would be a man named Julian Assange. In 2007, the native of Australia created an organization called WikiLeaks, an online clearinghouse for people who want to reveal injustice. Whistleblowers can upload classified or confidential documents into the WikiLeaks system from anywhere. WikiLeaks authenticates the documents, then working with news organizations, selectively makes them public. You may recall reading about WikiLeaks in this space a few months ago, when the organization published the Afghan War Diary, a collection of internal memos and field reports from the U.S. military's database [see Clearing the Smog of War].

At the time, I described this as a manifestation of Chiron conjunct Neptune in Aquarius -- a moment of clarity and revelation for a country that has been huffing the shoe polish of denial for many decades, particularly when it comes to the conduct of the military. That conjunction, which gradually started gathering steam in 2005, is now working at full strength, and it seems to be getting results.

Assange is back in the news, along with dozens of stories the media has been ignoring forever and seven Sundays. WikiLeaks this week made public 250,000 pages of memos from the United States diplomatic community. The latest revelation is that the United States is propping up a government in Afghanistan where most of the money goes to graft. To date, we have spent $371 billion in Afghanistan only to learn that Hamid Karzai, the president, is personally facilitating the drug trade. "Mr. Karzai pardoned five border police officers caught with 124 kilograms (about 273 pounds) of heroin and intervened in a drug case involving the son of a wealthy supporter," one cable revealed, according to Friday's New York Times. U.S. diplomats said they believe that every cabinet minister except the minister of agriculture is involved in graft and bribery. The war has now been going on for nine years and two months. We're reading about this today?

Earlier in the week we learned from the leaked cables that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ordered her diplomatic corps to serve as a spy ring on the United Nations (including the secretary general) and foreign diplomats, telling them to collect everything from credit card numbers to computer passwords to DNA samples from saliva left on teacups.

"She [Clinton] should resign, if it can be shown that she was responsible for ordering U.S. diplomatic figures to engage in espionage in the United Nations, in violation of the international covenants to which the U.S. has signed up," Assange said to Time magazine this week.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reads up on Iraq. As a senator, she gave an impassioned speech supporting the invasion.

The cables also reveal that the Obama administration worked to protect Cheney-Bush administration officials from their conduct interrogating detained terrorist suspects. One cable details how "the Obama administration, working with Republicans, leaned on Spain to derail this potential prosecution," AlterNet reported Thursday. And on his program Thursday night, Dylan Ratigan discussed cables involving Saudi Arabia that reveal how the country both funds terrorism based in Iran, and was or is trying to manipulate the United States government to bomb Iran at the same time.

How does a computer hacker get himself into the position of being able to call for the secretary of state to resign -- and all the major media are writing about it? How is he getting his way with those who so recently believed they had total power, secrecy and impunity? Well, with courage, conscience and talent. And timing; all year I've been writing about the high-impact astrology (such as the Aries Point alignment of Saturn, Uranus and Pluto) that looked, long in advance, like it would rearrange world politics. Plus we are currently under a potent alignment in Sagittarius (the sign of international relationships) focused specifically on that theme [see And What Are We Attracting?]. This alignment peaks Sunday with the Sagittarius New Moon [related article below].

It's a plain fact that the United States has gotten away with murder for decades, manipulating governments around the world, staging coups, starting wars and lying about all of it. Now one man comes along and opens up a floodgate of evidence of what has happened, and what is happening, and he cannot be ignored. So far as I know, Assange is the first person in two generations to openly take an actual stand against the United States in actions rather than words. Nothing against Code Pink protesting the war outside George W. Bush's ranch, but Assange is personally rearranging the chess board with nonviolent direct action.

Who makes the news. Because we have a name and a face, the mainstream media propaganda machine has to actually report on many of the international issues it loves to pretend does not exist. Anything Assange does is news -- and then they mention that he happens to have proof of conspiracies and war crimes. And the more public officials such as Clinton point to Assange as the problem, the more it begs the question what his documents say.

Top-Secret Chart Reveals a Real-Life Revolutionary

Assange till now had been concealing his birthdate, and thus any information about his chart. In my last article, I used the data for WikiLeaks itself, which is available through the website's registration information. We now have Assange's personal data because INTERPOL posted his birthday earlier this week, listing him as one of its most wanted international criminals.

Julian Assange has until now concealed his birthdate. This chart is based on the data published Monday night by INTERPOL. The blue planet on the left -- shaped like an H -- is Uranus, which is square the Sun -- the yellow circle planet at the very top of the chart. Two features in this chart that I haven't mentioned in the article are a complex square between Venus and Ceres (in Gemini) and Pluto in Virgo. Another interesting feature is that he has an exact conjunction between Mercury and the asteroid Psyche in the sign Cancer. This suggests that while he obviously has a powerful intellect, he does as much feeling with his mind as he does thinking; and that his thought process is guided by what may to him feel like a flaw or sense of weakness. That sensation draws in the soul quality of Psyche.

Is he being hunted for espionage, cyber-terrorism or revealing state secrets? No, they say he's wanted for rape, in Sweden, and European authorities have launched a sweeping manhunt across the continent and into the UK to find him. In case you're wondering whether he actually committed sex crimes, when was the last time you heard of an international dragnet for an alleged rapist? Notably, Sweden's laws don't require physical evidence of rape, only testimony. The case actually seems to involve whether condoms were used during consensual sex with two different women he met at a political conference. Note, he has not been charged with any crime, and a new warrant had to be issued Thursday because the old one was defective.

Since Assange had succeeded at keeping even his birthdate secret, this is something of an astrological coup, apparently first published Monday night to the astrological community by Lynn Hayes. Our chart for Assange is set for noon, because we don't know the birth time. However, it's a noon chart that goes straight to the point.

The first thing that catapults out of this chart is Sun square Uranus. Uranus disrupts, transforms, up-ends and blazes forward. This combination (through the influence of Uranus) brings in the revolutionary, rebellious and moreover inventive principle, expressed at full strength by the Sun. This aspect is in the DNA of Uranus -- the Sun was square Uranus on the day that the planet was discovered. Many inventors and scientists have this or a similar aspect, and it contains Assange's gift for technology. When you think of the Sun square Uranus, remember Nathan Hale: "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." Sun-Uranus is the full embodiment of the forward-thinking Uranian principle, which is associated with Prometheus; that's the guy who 'stole the fire of the gods' -- a fitting image of what Assange is doing.

These are the planets and points conjunct, square or opposite Assange's Sun in Cancer. Isis is closely conjunct Uranus; this is a gift for assembling many small parts. Minerva is opposite Chiron/Eris, which brings in the theme of politics and serves like a guardian angel. Persephone opposite the Sun is a nice image of his affinity for the underworld, and Borasisi says, 'Something is true if we believe it's true'. It's how belief activates perception. Sauer, an asteroid, is named for a river in central Europe; I've never used it in a chart, but it's exactly conjunct his Sun.

(Others with this aspect include Joseph Campbell, Bono, Galileo, Bill Gates, Marconi, and those visionary birds of a feather, Barbara and George Bush.)

Casting his chart for noon, Uranus is exactly rising, as if to emphasize the point, giving the aspect emphasis and an extra means of expression. Notably, this square is hanging out at about 10 degrees of the cardinal signs -- close enough to the Aries Point to count, and currently aspected by the approach of transiting Pluto. (Pluto is opposing Assange's Sun, and square his Uranus.) And it's in line with the Uranus-Pluto square of 2012, an aspect that will last for years and is gradually turning the revolutionary power of Uranus and the evolutionary mojo of Pluto loose on the world. This will come with Assange's Uranian opposition -- which represents attaining a new intellectual peak. Let's say he's just getting warmed up.

So, his chart is right in line with whatever 2012 is about -- and make no mistake, what he's doing is part of the story. When we think of the kinds of social progress we might associate with 2012, and the 'paradigm shift' and 'people waking up', how exactly might that look? Part of what is keeping the world situation so intractable, and so resistant to change, is that so few people know the deeper truth about many of the things that affect them, or even have access to it.

Many who do insist on denial as a means of persisting in their ways. This is an opening. It's like the press is playing catch-up on what we missed during decades of fixation on Madonna, Michael Jackson and Paris Hilton. When the truth is revealed, there's a release of energy -- and the effect is unpredictable. But when we wonder just how it is that one would begin to dismantle the out-of-control military and espionage machine referred to in cables as USG, it could easily begin with an event like this, that pierces the deception that it is 100% necessary to maintain a condition of nonstop war.

Eruption of Self-Awareness: Chiron and Eris

In a similar vein, we see an exact conjunction of Chiron and Eris, two relatively new planets. Chiron (the maverick, healer, bringer of awareness) was discovered in 1977 and Eris (associated with identity crisis, disruptions and the castaway feminine aspect of both men and women) was anointed in 2006 (revamping the system of planetary categorization in the process -- including the 'demotion' of Pluto). Chiron and Eris were conjunct through the late 1960s and early 1970s, and the conjunction is exact to the degree in Assange's chart. In past articles I've associated this aspect with the revolutionary nature of the 'second wave' feminist movement that was thriving at the time.

Seventies-styled feminism may look kitsch today, and in many ways it sent a mixed signal. But it also brought a breakthrough in awareness and social progress, messy and incomplete though it was.

Chiron and Eris together in Aries (the sign of self and initiative) sparks an evolutionary impulse for self-actualization. It is about healing the fragmented sense of self that afflicts so many. There were many innovative therapy movements thriving at the time, which are all but forgotten today -- gestalt, transactional analysis, primal, EST and others. The '70s were said to be the 'me generation', and though this had many selfish and destructive results, there was overall a breakthrough in self-awareness and consciousness. The anti-Vietnam movement was thriving and Nixon was about to be busted for Watergate. Be Here Now was published, along with Rules for Radicals and The Anarchist Cookbook.

For those curious about the degree symbol of the conjunction, the degree is 14 Aries, and the image is, "A serpent coiling near a man and a woman." Dane Rudhyar explains: "Identification in bipolar relationship with the impersonal rhythm of natural energy," or in a short phrase, "ritualization of relationship." Assange likens what he does to playing chess -- a ritualized game with very few rules.

In his chart, the Sun, Chiron, Uranus and Eris are all in aspect -- they are all working together, though the tension is rather incredible. It's nothing less than you would expect in the chart of someone who would dare to take on such a massive issue, and succeed at getting noticed.

Saturn Opposite Neptune: The Shapeshifter

Assange also has Saturn opposite Neptune. Saturn contains and solidifies; Neptune dissolves. This is an illustration of tension, but it's subtle, and it's a picture of his quality of invisibility and ubiquitous presence. This aspect is one of his power sources as a hacker and his best camouflage as kind of hero-outlaw.

Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat. He has Saturn opposite Neptune in his natal chart, and is a kind of shapeshifter.

Assange started his career as a prodigy teenage hacker. He was arrested, but the prosecutor in the case said, "There is just no evidence that there was anything other than sort of intelligent inquisitiveness and the pleasure of being able to -- what's the expression -- surf through these various computers." The charges were dropped. His hacker name was 'Mendax', derived from a phrase of Horace: splendide mendax, or 'nobly untruthful' -- a fine description of Saturn-Neptune in one of its more evolved manifestations.

Let's consider how this works. Saturn and Neptune mirror one another in his chart. Looked at one way, Assange plays the role of Neptune the dissolver, and the power structure plays the role of Saturn, whose barriers are being melted away. Or as Tracy Delaney suggested while we were brainstorming this aspect Thursday, Saturn (in Gemini) is like a cold wind blowing on the cloud of Neptune, freezing and crystallizing the pattern of deception, so we can see what it is.

Saturn-Neptune is an illustration of his shape-shifting power -- Sasha Baron Cohen, the actor who created the Borat character and Ali G, has this one as well. His mind has penetrating power: he's a mindf*cker, and we love him for it. Just as Cohen's characters penetrate the minds of the people he's pranking, Assange soaks through the previously impermeable walls of power. Both work with a combination of discipline and illusion. Both, in Tracy's words, "have a kind of congenital inability to be intimidated. No point throwing rocks at a cloud."

Notably, Assange has a centaur planet conjunct Saturn -- it's called Amycus. In some earlier research, Tracy and I deduced that this planet is prominent in people who have a knack for getting the word out -- including the Yes Men.

Logos and Atlantis: The Word Abused, and Revealed

Let's check in with one last telling detail -- an aspect between two minor planets. The first is Atlantis (an asteroid discovered in 1931). Atlantis is associated with the abuse of technology and its power, and the sense of 'imminent demise' of civilization due to the unbridled use of that power. Then there's Logos (a small planet right beyond Neptune's orbit, discovered in 1997). Logos is actually a binary, with a co-planet of comparable size, called Zoe. (Technically the pair is now referred to as Logos | Zoe.) Research by Kirsti Melto indicates that Logos | Zoe is prominent in the charts of breakthroughs in computers and programming. Zoe means 'life'. I think of Logos as the framework of technology (it means 'the word') and Zoe as being the spiritual content, when present -- the life inside the machine.

In Julian's chart these two are in a perfect square aspect. This is happening late in the cardinal signs, from Atlantis in Libra to Logos | Zoe in Cancer. He takes this personally; technology for Assange is a relationship, and he is personally embodying the ethical struggle suggested by Atlantis. We have all long suspected that our addiction to, and abuse of, technology has the power to take down our civilization.

Assange is aware of this, and he is a kind of personal intervention in the process of a society that is committing suicide. And I do mean personal. With that Scorpio Moon and Cancer Sun, he feels what he is doing. He is acting on a combination of instinct, intuition and intellect -- but make no mistake, he is not detached from his work. This is personal; it's a matter of heart and soul, and he is aware the influence that he can have by using technology to reveal the truth.

"To radically shift regime behavior we must think clearly and boldly, for if we have learned anything, it is that regimes do not want to be changed. We must think beyond those who have gone before us and discover technological changes that embolden us with ways to act in which our forebears could not," he once posted to his blog, explaining the WikiLeaks philosophy.

The regimes' resistance to change is their worst weakness. They become utterly brittle, and creative activity ceases. That makes them vulnerable -- as we can plainly see.

Yours & truly,

Additional research: Tracy Delaney, Amanda Painter, Carol van Strum.


And for our next act...the Sagittarius New Moon

When you look at a conventional astrology chart, you're only seeing a small part of the picture. This is little comfort to those who stare at the page (of a normal chart) wondering what the holy heck it all means -- and if you're trying to learn, give it time and pay attention to your experience of existence. Let's have a go at the Sagittarius New Moon.

Sagittarius New Moon set for Washington, DC. Appropriately, Pallas -- the planet of politics -- is the highest point in the chart.

Here is a conventional chart, okay, a little more than conventional -- it has a few extra points. It's set for Washington, DC, since that is where the action seems to be these days. And I do mean action -- with the WikiLeaks revelations erupting on five different fronts, 42 members of the Senate (I won't name their political party affiliation) signed a letter saying they won't let anything happen till we charge the national credit card and give $700 billion more to the wealthiest Americans while the government supports a heroin trader in Afghanistan to the tune of a million dollars per soldier, per year. A new banking crisis is looming -- that would be Subprime Part Two. And though nobody has mentioned it this week, despite the chilly weather in most of North America, the ice caps are still melting.

The Sagittarius New Moon is conjunct Pholus, a centaur (a little Chiron-like planet) that opens the jar and lets stuff out that's not coming back in. My favorite key phrase is "small cause, big effect," which I learned from my old friend and teacher in Munich, astrologer and classical guitarist Robert von Heeren. The Sun-Moon-Pholus conjunction is sitting on the Great Attractor, the biggest thing known in the universe. So it's fitting that, this very week, every issue that has been suppressed for a decade is coming out all at once.

Meanwhile, Jupiter, the ruler of Sagittarius, is conjunct Uranus -- that's big news all by itself; and Chiron and Neptune are in a near-perfect conjunction in Aquarius. All of this amplifies and features into the dynamic of this rather potent and unpredictable New Moon.

Yet there is much more going on behind the scenes. I present this information at a slight risk of overwhelm, but I want to show you what it's possible to see and work with. I'll give a couple of examples and leave you to your weekly horoscope.  This little table tells us what, from about 100 points that Tracy Delaney (the programmer) and I have tossed into the box, shows up in mid-Sagittarius. Amycus speaks of getting the word out. Icarus is about peak experiences.

Points in mid-Sagittarius, at the Sagittarius New Moon.

Sun and Moon are precisely, to the degree, conjunct one of the earlier centaurs -- Hylonome. This is about the cry of the poor (key phrase from Juan Revilla) and it addresses collective grief and 'senseless' loss. Note, of the points I routinely use, this is the only one occupying the degree of the New Moon, and it's a potent one. Hylonome made a stunning appearance conjunct the Scorpio New Moon precisely during the funeral of Yasser Arafat in late 2004 -- a jaw-dropping astrological synchronicity.

Switching methods for a moment, the degree symbol (also called Sabian Symbol) for 14 Sagittarius (anything numbered higher than 13 is occupying the 14th degree) is: The Great Pyramid and the Sphinx. Dane Rudhyar interprets this as, "The enduring power of occult knowledge and of its quasi-divine Custodians, 'seed men' of a previous cycle of existence." Well doesn't that just illustrate WikiLeaks and its editor magnificently.

We see that Pholus is exactly conjunct the Great Attractor. This is a long and slow aspect and it's precise right now; what comes out now is not going back, and it's going to get bigger. Good Morning America -- the truth is out.

This is conjunct Narcissus, who sees his own reflection in the pond. You could say he 'falls in love' or you could say that this is about self-awareness; and it's about the effect of narcissism on the global political process. Close by is Ixion (anyone is capable of anything; amorality; what we do with our second chance) -- we're seeing plenty of that. Next is a really interesting pair of very different points: the first is Cupido (a hypothetical; it doesn't exist, but it's there to work with) which Martha Wescott delineates as: "issues in the family history; group unity or dynamics" followed by Quaoar, an actual planet beyond Pluto that says exactly the same thing. Quaoar adds the theme of our creation myth. Who are we and how did we get here? That is the mystery of The Pyramid and the Sphinx.

This New Moon is about the family of humanity. Welcome to it. The rest of the minor planets are listed here, at Serennu.com.