Welcome to the Wild West 

Edward Snowden and the Internet

If you have been reading my newsletters, you might remember that in mid September of 2013 Saturn and Rahu came into an exact conjunction. Since then, these two planets have been pulling away from each other slowly, but they are still in the same sign, so we are still feeling the effects of that conjunction. The overall influence lasts from January of 2013 to July of 2014. One of the effects that I talked about in last year's World Predictions lecture was a significant change and transformation for the internet.  

What I had noticed was the chart of the internet is going through a Saturn major period and a Rahu sub period. Since Rahu and Saturn, the two period planets, were transiting and conjuncting in the sign of Libra, and since this conjunction fell exactly on the Sun in the Internet chart, I said "this should be a significant year for the Internet". Rahu, the sub period planet, is placed in the Internet's 8th house, so I predicted some sort of transformational period. Rahu is placed in the end of Aquarius in Purvabhadra Nakshatra. Purvabhadra's shakti is the power to elevate consciousness, so I predicted that this transformation would elevate mass awareness in some way.

 

As with many predictions, I said the words, but did not really know the exact way in which these astrological symbols would take place in real life. However,  it was clear that something was up for the internet. So when Edward Snowden came on the scene in June of 2013, just three months before the exact Rahu Saturn conjunction, I was fascinated to witness the unique way in which this metamorphosis was beginning to unfold.              

As with many public figures, it wasn't long before Edward Snowden's exact birth time became available, ironically, on the internet.   When I glanced and his chart, it was immediately apparent why he was playing such an important role in ushering in such an important change.              

First, Snowden's chart is running the same major period (Saturn) and the same sub period (Rahu) as the chart of the internet. One of the things I have been saying about the Saturn/Rahu conjunction, is that those people with horoscopes running periods of Saturn and/or Rahu would be more affected by the conjunction than other people. Both the Internet and Snowden are running the Saturn/Rahu period.   

Secondly, just as the Saturn/Rahu conjunction landed directly on top of the natal Sun in the internet's chart, it landed directly on top of the natal Moon in Snowden's chart. Part of the reason that he is now experiencing a period of banishment and limitation with regards to his homeland is this transiting Saturn/natal Moon conjunction, and that he is in the middle of the 7 year Sade Sati period, which is well known for suppressing a person's personal needs.   

 

Even Siva, the Hindu god of destruction, supposedly could not avoid the effects of this period. In one story from Hindu mythology he proclaimed to Shani (the personified form of Saturn in Hindu mythology) that Sade-Sati's 7 ½ year period, which was about to start on the next day in Siva's chart, would not affect him. When Saturn disagreed with him, saying that not even the great Siva could avoid the karmic effects of this cycle, he jumped into the Ganges and stayed there, meditating underwater for the entire period. At the end of the 7 1/2 years, he emerged from the river, went directly to Shani, and told him that he had indeed avoided the effects of the period. "I beg to differ", Shani said, "you did not avoid my influence." "What do you mean?" Siva Said, "I was meditating under the Ganges the whole time!"  Shani smiled and said, "My point exactly!"

 

Anyway, it is apparent that Snowden and the Internet were made for each, other astrologically. In the Internet chart, Saturn is in the tenth house, debilitated. This shows the internet's resistance to structure, censorship, and government oversight. If the internet were a person, it would be the sort of person that does not want anyone telling him what to do.

On the other hand, Mars rules the house of the government in the Internet chart. Mars is placed in the seventh house in a combination called Ruchaka Yoga, which they say, "makes the person a military general." This shows the inevitable and powerful influence of the military and the government in ultimately controlling cyberspace. 

The sub period ruler is Rahu, placed in the house of change, and in a nakshatra related to elevating consciousness. So the discussion has begun and a great debate about privacy versus government intrusiveness is now raging.

 

Once again, in mythology, Rahu was a demon who wanted the nectar of the gods. He broke into the banquet of the gods and stole the nectar. So Rahu periods are periods of breaking rules. Neither the debilitated Saturn, nor Rahu, in the chart for the Internet, like rules. In other words, if we could liken the Saturn/Rahu period, in the chart for the internet, to a period of US history, it would probably be like the Wild West; not too many laws and lots of gunslingers.

It is interesting to look ahead as well. In both the chart of the internet, and the chart of Snowden, the Mercury period starts in 2018. This begins a seventeen year period that will be radically different. The current period, of wild and wooly upheaval and change, will last until June of 2015, when the Jupiter Sub period begins. In 2018 a much more reserved Mercury period begins. During this period, the infrastructure of the internet may change to accommodate a much faster transfer of information. Mercury is placed in the first drekkena of Libra symbolized by a man in a shop, by the side of the road, who is measuring the value of the items in his shop. This probably means there will be a steady increase of business done in cyberspace, so by the end of the 17 year period, a much larger percentage of transactions will be done online.    

 

Interestingly, in Snowden's chart, Mercury's period suggests that he will not be experiencing such and intense and conflicted life.   Could this mean that the debate over privacy might have subsided by that time? Who knows? It is hard to imagine that government intrusion into the private information of citizens will ever really abate, but it does look as if the media attention on this particular issue is at its peak right now, so the public drama will probably subside after 2015, and more after 2018. As for the future of Snowden in the seventeen years that follow 2018, besides having a more pleasant and enjoyable life, his chart shows he will probably settle down, get married, change his residence to a distant place,  and make a lot of money writing.