Month: June, 2013

Aquarius Sun, Capricorn Moon: The Revolution Will Not be Leaderless

The Aquarius Sun, Capricorn Moon combination is a great one for anybody involved in large scale social movements as it combines the humanitarian identity of an Aquarius Sun with the strategic instincts of a Capricorn Moon. Astrologer Bil Tierney writes of this combination’s social leanings:

Those of us with these energies highlighted in our charts are very much activists at heart . . . We’re willing to become involved in community affairs by supporting groups and organizations that bravely advocate fresh ideals that challenge mainstream thinking and social conformity. Our sense of civic duty is usually strong . . . (Source)

Abraham Lincoln and Rosa Parks are both Aquarius/Capricorns natives who exhibited very well developed “senses of civic duty” coupled with the “brave advocacy of fresh ideals” regarding community affairs.

The problem for people who advocate new ideals as effectively as some Aquarius/Capricorns do is that they often end up getting attacked by those who seek to preserve the status-quo. Of the 144 Sun/Moon pairings this might be the one most likely to get raided by the SWAT team or hauled off to prison for their efforts at challenging oppression. To illustrate: internet mogul Kim Schmitz, aka “Kim Dotcom”, is an Aquarius/Capricorn. (Chart) He’s best known for creating the site Mega Upload, which for a long time was the world’s most popular file hosting site. More importantly, he had apparently developed an entirely legal way for artists to get their music out to the world while getting paid but all without the need for large record companies to be involved. He was just about to deploy this new project in January 2012 when (“coincidentally”) he was raided by 70 members of the SWAT team and hauled off to prison:

If the raid seems a bit out of proportion that’s because it was. In fact it was so heavy handed that 18 months later a New Zealand court ruled it illegal and Mr. Dotcom to be released from prison. (Source)

Investigative reporter Mike Ruppert is another Aquarius/Capricornwho knows more than a few things about what the “Powers That Be” will do silence individuals who advocate new ideals. (Chart) Mike was working as an LAPD narcotics investigator during the 1970s when was recruited by the CIA to be involved in the drug trade. He refused the agency’s advances and attempted to go public with what he had been exposed to. For this he was at shot at and forced out of the police force despite possessing a service record of the highest order. (Link to Full Bio) Mike recounted these experiences, including his 1996 televised confrontation with CIA director John Deutsch, for the documentary American Drug War. If you want your mind blown make sure to watch at least the first 30 seconds:

Mike’s never been raided by the SWAT team like Mr. Dotcom but in 2006 his office was broken into and his computers destroyed beyond all repair after he published an in-depth expose of the Pentagon’s cover-up of Pat Tillman’s murder.

The character traits of an actor’s signature role(s) will usually match the characteristics of their Sun/Moon pairing, often to an uncanny degree. To illustrate: actor Michael Ironside is an Aquarius Sun, Capricorn Moon. (Source) His breakthrough role came in 1983 when he portrayed CIA contractor turned worldwide resistance organizer Ham Tyler in NBC’s “V”, the groundbreaking miniseries originally intended as a fascist allegory. In this scene he repels a squadron of fascist space alien storm troopers who’ve come to carry a group of human resisters off to an internment camp:

Obviously few, if any, Aquarius/Capricorns will ever face off against an army of invading space Nazis like Ham Tyler but his line, “Without proper leadership, you’re gonna get hung out to dry. Now we’re organized and we have a plan” is an excellent approximation of what the Aquarius/Capricorn pairing is fundamentally all about. Aquarians are inherently oriented to making plans based on the “30,000 foot” view of events while Capricorn Moons have an instinctual understanding of how to organize & lead large scale enterprises. (Note: In the time since I originally posted this article, the bulk of Ironside’s dialogue has been edited from the above clip.) Ironside so effectively projected the Ham Tyler character into the imaginal world as a highly-organized strategist with little patience for lightweights because that’s the highest expression of the Aquarius/Capricorn combination in the real world.

Were Ironside younger and of a different ethnic background he would be a natural at portraying his fellow Aquarius/Capricorn Fred Korematsu, the Japanese American citizen who was forced to become a fugitive when he refused to be placed in an internment camp by the United States government during World War II. (Chart)

This pairing will often express interest in how new technologies and social networks (Aquarius) can be utilized (Capricorn) to liberate people from oppression. At the time of his arrest Mr. Dotcom’s new project was set to leverage the decentralized nature of the internet to liberate both artists and fans from the clutches of the record companies. For a number of years Mike Ruppert ran a social networking website which connected people looking to break free from the mindless fascism that is modern consumer culture. Even Michael Ironside’s fictional alter-ego Ham Tyler brings with him new, high-tech tools which were to be utilized in the liberation of humanity from fascist space Nazis.

People with the same Sun/Moon pairing often bear a resemblance to each other even if they don’t look related by blood per se. In the latest installment of the Terminator franchise Ironside portrays General Hugh Ashdown, the leader of the human resistance against tyrannical cyborgs:

Now compare the above photo of Ironside as Ashdown delivering a message from his base of operations with this photo of Mike Ruppert delivering a message from his base of operations and try not seeing the basic thematic similarities:

Mike Ruppert at his office circa 2010
Mike Ruppert at his office circa 2010

Astrologer Jefferson Anderson tell us that Aquarius/Capricorn natives, “often have a gleam in their eyes that hints at either genius or madness.” (Source) Whether taking on the multinational record companies like Kim Dotcom, refusing to sit in the back of the bus like Rosa Parks, resisting internment like Fred Korematsu or blowing the whistle on CIA narcotics trafficking like Mike Ruppert, you’d have to be a bit “mad” to speak truth to power the way this pairing often does.

Cancer Sun, Aquarius Moon: The Time Traveler

(Image: Back to the Future, available via Amazon)

Pair the waxing and waning of a Cancer Sun’s emotionality with the zappity zap zap of an Aquarius Moon’s instincts for the alchemical and you get a Sun/Moon pairing that is off beat and exciting, more than a bit eccentric but never, ever boring. Few others can match this combination’s determination to explored the innovative and the imaginative, the experimental and the visionary. Cancer Sun loves the past and Aquarius Moon loves the future so this is probably the Sun/Moon pairing most likely to invent a time travel machine. To illustrate: using its release date as its date of birth the film Back to the Future is a Cancer Sun, Aquarius Moon. (Chart) From his good intentions to his oddball eccentricity, the Doc Brown character portrayed by actor Christopher Lloyd is as archetypal a Cancer/Aquarius as you’ll find:

Astrologers Suzi and Charles Harvey tell us that Cancer/Aquarius has a real talent for “reading signs and symbols”, particularly those that come to them in dreams. (Source) In Back to the Future the idea for the “Flux Capacitor”, the device which makes time travel possible, comes to Doc in a dream.

Cancers tend towards being timid but not this one. With its Moon in the sign of mad science and futuristic style this Crab channels its emotional shrewdness into exploring the most far out corners of the human experience. More than a few Cancer/Aquarians live their lives according to the motto of “Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need roads”, to quote Doc Brown’s line from the end of the film.

Sitting 150 degrees away from each other, Cancer and Aquarius form what’s known as a “quincunx”, an inherently discordant aspect that requires two radically different signs to reconcile the irreconcilable. Consider some of their differences between to see just how discordant things can get when they meet up: Cancer is the sign of clannish attachment to family, Aquarius is the sign of cerebral attachment to ideals. Cancer hates change, Aquarius loves shaking things up. Cancer is the sign of social shyness, Aquarius the sign of the social network. Cancer’s idea of a great vacation is spending a week watching old movies at Grandma’s house, Aquarius would rather spend a week doing lord knows what at Burning Man. About the only thing they have in common is concern for the downtrodden as astrologer Bill Tierney explains in his book All Around the Zodiac:

Cancer is sympathetic toward the helpless or whatever is in need of special protection from harm. It’ll go on the defensive to shield the weak and the vulnerable from attack. Aquarius is famous for its humanitarian concern for the plight of the downtrodden, the socially alienated, and all misunderstood rebels and rejects of society. It seeks to socially validate the worth and uphold the freedoms of all such underdogs, protecting them from further abuse. Thus [this pairing] feels the urge to assist and support those in dire need . . . (Source)

There is one other thing they have in common: both moon beams (Cancer) and lightning strikes (Aquarius) have mystical, magical, marvelously enchanting qualities to them. The combination of moonbeams powered by lightning strikes results in a person or project that can be utterly ingenious to the point of seeming magical. When this pairing reaches out to help those in dire need it will deliver assistance of a charged, surprising, or visionary nature. In Back to the Future, for instance, Doc Brown renders assistance to Marty by jiggering up an ingenious way to harness the power of a lightning bolt, which provides the power necessary to send him zooming back (Cancer) to the future (Aquarius). The effect on the emotions of in-theater audiences was so magical that the film was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Back to the Future is, of course, a fictional film but there are more than a few real life instances of Cancer/Aquarians pulling off similar feats of ingenuity when helping people in dire need. To illustrate: using the day of its establishment as its date of birth, the NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) is a Cancer Sun, Aquarius Moon. (Chart) The NESC’s official job is “to ensure the safety and mission success of NASA’s high risk projects” but when the need arises they lend their technological expertise to projects outside of NASA. For instance, it was the NESC that designed the capsule which rescued the 33 Chilean miners who found themselves trapped nearly 2,300 feet beneath the surface of the Earth back in August 2010:

The copper mine that “The 33” were trapped in was essentially a relic of extractive industries that go back (Cancer) to the 1800s while the NESC’s capsule was as futuristic (Aquarius) a piece of machinery as anything sent on missions to space. The miners were, in effect, trapped in the past (Cancer) while the NESC’s quick thinking got them back to the future (Aquarius). Doc Brown used the “flux capacitor” to get Marty Mcfly back to his family, the NESC used the “Fenix” capsule to get the Chilean miners back to theirs:

Capsule

While the NESC is a non-political division of NASA, the textbook Cancer/Aquarius will express considerable interest in political causes, particularly those which defend the rights of the helpless and the powerless. Astrologer Jefferson Anderson writes of this pairing:

With your scientific bent of mind and wild imagination, you may pursue a technical or scientific career, although your strong social consciousness could lead you into the political, legal, or humanistic endeavors. (Source)

Given their wild imaginations, some Cancer/Aquarians will manage to create a career for themselves in which they combine their “scientific bent of mind” with a career in the political or legal world. To illustrate: using the date of its establishment as its date of birth, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is a Cancer/Aquarius. (Chart) If you’re not familiar with the EFF, they’re the San Francisco based legal non-profit which has taken on some of the most important technology related civil liberties cases of the last 25 years. (Source) A quick look at some of their promotional posters will bring you up to speed on the organization’s modus operandi:

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The EFF is a Cancer Sun, Aquarius Moon

The EFF has never attempted time travel or to rescue miners trapped in primordial conditions but they have taken on the NSA’s attempts to turn the U.S. into a surveillance state, a dire situation as fraught with peril as taking on the forces of nature themselves.

Cancer/Aquarius men will often be attracted to groups like the EFF which endeavor to save the world while Cancer/Aquarius women will often express a desire to mother the world with every bit as much energy as they mother their own children. Noel Tyl says this is the pairing of “the humane aristocrat” who can be very innovative when it comes to social service. (Source) To illustrate: Princess Diana is a Cancer/Aquarius who is still loved to this day for being the ultimate example of a “humane aristocrat”. (Chart)

One of this pairing’s greatest strengths is its capacity to genuinely feel other people’s pain while remaining enough detachment to actually help them. Princess Diana is best known for her work to ban landmines, an insidious weapon of war that doubles as a deadly curious attraction for young children. Landmines also happen to be a very darkly Cancer/Aquarius weapon as they are often left over from past wars (Cancer) yet kill and maim people indiscriminately deep into the future (Aquarius). It thus makes sense Princess Diana was so aghast at their utilization that she made eliminating them her life’s mission. According to Wikipedia, “It was during this campaign that she was accused of meddling in politics and declared a ‘loose cannon'”. (Source) Cancer/Aquarius does tend towards eccentricity but in a world where ever greater numbers of people find themselves in dire need of assistance we could use a few more emotionally sensitive (Cancer) eccentrics (Aquarius) like Princess Diana.

About the Author: Matt Savinar is a California licensed attorney (State Bar #228957), voluntarily inactive as of June 2013. He can be reached for questions, comments, or consults at his contact page.

Gemini Sun, Scorpio Moon: The Computer Disk Crypto-Magickian and the Special Agent Storyteller, the Hushmail Hashishiyyin and the Ubuntu Nosferatu

(Photo Credit: Citizen Four film, available for purchase at Amazon)

Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who leaked information about the NSA’s “PRISM” surveillance program, has his Sun in Gemini (communication) and his Moon in Scorpio (secrets). (Chart) As explained in a previous article, both Gemini and Scorpio “are associated with spy-craft, smuggling, and special operations albeit in very different ways.” Gemini is the information broker who traffics in flash drives, Scorpio is the power broker who traffics in secrets. Gemini is the system-admin op who knows where the phone lines are buried, Scorpio is the deep cover cop who knows where the bodies are buried. The Gemini/Scorpio pairing thus makes for a great investigative reporter who uses their mental dexterity to unravel high level criminality, a cunning double agent who plays multiple sides of a complex conflict, or a fiction writer whose spell-binding stories leave you mentally (Gemini) horror-struck yet also intrigued (Scorpio) and loving every minute of it. Snowden has mentally horror-struck the NSA and, while the agency is probably not loving him for it, most of us in the 99% sure appreciate what he’s done. He’s expertly played multiple sides of a very complex situation and lived not only to tell his story but even be portrayed by Joseph Levit Gordon in Oliver Stone’s blockbuster film Snowden:

Astrologer Raven Kaldera calls Gemini/Scorpio the Sun/Moon pairing of “The Cloaked One” who “understands brutality and horror . . . who must go down to the darkness and wrestle demons to the ground”. (Source) During his time amid the darkness of the NSA, Snowden came to understand the brutality and horror of the surveillance state. In Citizen Four there is even a scene where he literally cloaks himself so as to avoid any electronic demons that may have infiltrated his hotel room.

Astrologers Suzi and Charles Harvey write of the Gemini/Scorpio pairing, “Your life seems to be a breeze until you start noticing the monsters from the deep coming up for air”. (Source) Snowden’s life certainly seems to have been a breeze until very recently. Back in March 2013, he was living with his acrobatic dancer girlfriend on the breezy island of Hawaii earning six figures working for NSA contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. (Source) Then he decided to take on the NSA, the ultimate “monster from the deep”, and is now a high profile enemy of the state hiding in Hong Kong and attempting to come up for air in Moscow.

According to astrologer Stella Hyde, Gemini is the sign of the “Street Magician” while Scorpio Moons are nourished by highly dangerous jobs such as “Vampire Slayer”. (Source) Snowden’s unprecedented exfiltration of data from the NSA is, in effect, the technological equivalent of a massive street magic trick, one that has served to thoroughly slay the public’s confidence in the vampire that is the surveillance state.

If, as per James Bamford’s books on the history of the NSA, the NSA’s Scorpio/Gemini Sun-Moon pairing can be likened to a “Puzzle Palace” or a “Shadow Factory” then the Gemini/Scorpio pairing can be likened to “a riddle wrapped in mystery inside an enigma” to quote Winston Churchill. Gemini is duality while Scorpio is secrecy so anytime you see these two signs paired together there is a high likelihood that multiple (Gemini) layers of concealment (Scorpio) are afoot. This is because each sign’s ruling planet excels at disguising itself. Gemini is ruled by Mercury, the fast moving planet of mixed messages and multiple personalities. Scorpio is ruled by Pluto, the deep digging Lord of Hades whose cap of invisibility allows him to operate undetected. At its best the combination of duplicity (Gemini Sun) and depth perception (Scorpio Moon) makes for a person who can get to the bottom of mind-dizzying complex situations. It can also indicate somebody who finds themselves living in circumstances that require extremely quick movements (Gemini) within bottomless pits (Scorpio), like something out of one of those old Choose Your Own Adventure children’s books except with decidedly more malevolent plot-lines.

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Image Copyright: ChooseCo

People with the same Sun/Moon pairings often have biographies that share uncannily similar themes. To illustrate: author George Orwell is a Gemini Sun, Scorpio Moon just like Ed Snowden. Orwell is best known for writing 1984, the book which famously envisioned a dystopic future characterized by a ubiquitous surveillance state, a future that Snowden’s leaks have made clear is now a reality.

Mars Conjunct the North Node: Medals for Bravery

Snowden’s Mars (planet of fighting) is conjunct (merged) with his North Node (point of destiny), an aspect that astrologer Celeste Teal associates with “being awarded medals for bravery.” (Source) His Mars/North Node conjunction is in Gemini so the bravery indicated by this aspect was likely to involve Geminian matters such as communication, computer disks, and data-sharing. This Mars receives a trine (supportive contact) from a Saturn–Pluto conjunction in Libra, the sign of justice, in his 5th house of self-expression; this aspect is associated with “battling the powers that be,” according to astrologer Adrian Ross Duncan. Snowden is unlikely to win any medals of bravery from the government for his efforts, but no reasonable person doubts the enormous courage it takes to battle with the powers-that-be running the NSA.

As for what lies ahead for Snowden, with his North Node in Gemini he’ll need to tap into the fast-moving, quick-thinking nature of the Twins to the maximum of his ability if he wants to stay out of the catacombs of the U.S. justice system. As he knows all too well, these days the hills really do have eyes.

About the Author: Matthew David Savinar is a California licensed attorney (State Bar #228957), voluntarily inactive as of June 2013. He can be reached for questions, comments, or astrological consults via Twitter, his first YouTube channel, his second YouTube channel, SoundCloud, LibSyn or this site’s contact page.

The premier issue of Hexagon, now shipping:

Matt Savinar, Novalee Truesdell, and Carrie Davoli on the premier issue of Hexagon

Virgo Sun, Cancer Moon: The Lifeguard, the Altruist, and the Person of Interest (Astrological Analysis of Charles Ramsey)

Combine the conscientious nature of a Virgo Sun with the protective instincts of a Cancer Moon and you get a Sun/Moon pairing that is deeply concerned about the well being of others, always willing to lend a helping hand and (quite possibly) one of the most altruistic of Sun/Moon pairings. Charles Ramsey, one of the neighbors who assisted Amanda Berry escape 10 years of captivity, is a Virgo Sun, Cancer Moon. (Chart)

Ramsey, unfortunately, is not the only Virgo/Cancer to come across circumstances so horrific they shock the conscious. Muckraking author Upton Sinclair is a Virgo Sun, Cancer Moon whose 1906 book The Jungle exposed the horrors of America’s meatpacking industry. (Chart)

The ethics of whether a movie should be made about the rescue are highly questionable but, given the nature of modern media, a treatment by Hollywood is probably inevitable. So who should portray Ramsey? Actors do best in roles that line up (or even match) their own Sun/Moon pairings so comedian Dave Chappelle, also a Virgo/Cancer, is probably the best choice. (Chart) It’s not too difficult to imagine Chapelle delivering the line, “I knew something was wrong when a little pretty white girl ran into a black man’s arms” with the same lucid frankness that Ramsey did.

Something to think about: Using its premier date as its date of birth, the CBS show Person of Interest is a Virgo Sun, Cancer Moon. (Chart) The show revolves around a software billionaire who uses access to a predictive supercomputer to intervene in horrific crimes. The computer, in effect, gives the billionaire and his former CIA operative colleague the capacity to miraculously be in just the right place at just the right time.*

Charles Ramsey is a dishwasher with a penchant for McDonalds, not a software billionaire or former CIA agent. But on May 6th his ability to be in just the right place at just the right time was more miraculously spot on than any supercomputer could ever be.

Scorpio Sun, Gemini Moon: The Coffin-Makers and the Code-Breakers, the Black Widows and the Men in Black (Astrological Analysis of the National Security Agency)

Photo: Trevor Paglen

Editor’s Note: The following is an 1,500 word excerpt from “Watching the Watchers: Astrology of the National Security Agency (NSA)”, a 7,500 word article that is one of four features in our premier issue. Elements of it were originally published on this site in 2013. -Matt

The Coffin Makers and the Code-Breakers, the Black Widows and the Men-In-Black

The Sun symbolizes the conscious identity, and the Moon symbolizes deeper, more unconscious emotional needs. These are the two sources of light (energy) in a chart, and together they comprise the basic architecture of a person, project, or agency’s psychology. Both signs are associated with spy-craft, smuggling, and special operations, albeit in very different ways. Scorpio is the covert operative who slips through the shadows, Gemini is the double agent who plays both sides. Scorpio is the power broker, Gemini is the information broker. Scorpio probes beneath the surface, Gemini reads between the lines. Scorpio knows where the bodies are buried, Gemini knows where the phone lines are buried. Combine the secretive nature of a Scorpio Sun with a Gemini Moon’s need to constantly communicate, and you get a Sun–Moon pairing that will insist on knowing everybody’s secrets while giving up none of their own. To illustrate: using its date of establishment as its date of birth, the National Security Agency (NSA) has its Sun in Scorpio (sign of secrets) and its Moon in Gemini (sign of communication). (Chart) If recent revelations regarding the surveillance state are any indicator, the NSA knows everybody’s secrets yet has given up few of its own. It also appears to know where all the bodies are buried and where all the phone lines are located.

NSA headquarters (Photo Credit: Trevor Paglen)

Scorpio likes to wear black, and Gemini always comes in pairs, so if there was ever a combination of the real-life “Men in Black,” it’s Scorpio–Gemini. Interestingly enough, the forerunner to the NSA was a 1920s government agency known as “The Black Chamber,” whose agents once persuaded Western Union officials to illegally provide them with copies of Americans’ telegrams. (Source)

Intense Scorpio and flippant Gemini are so antithetical that they may as well be from two different planets, if not different dimensions altogether. They do, however, have one thing in common: Both signs possess excellent situational awareness. Scorpio’s situational awareness comes from its prowess at navigating the hidden undercurrents of any interaction. Gemini’s situational awareness comes from its ultra flexible, ultra high-speed mental pathways. When combined together, the result is a Sun–Moon pairing that excels at “quickly sizing up a person or situation,” to quote astrologer Bil Tierney. (Source) A Scorpio–Gemini human being might have to rely on things like body language or voice tonality to quickly size up a person or situation. The NSA need not resort to such primitive methods, though, since vastly more advanced ones are at their fingertips. For instance, as of March 2013, Barack Obama plans to give the agency full access to the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) database, a massive repository of information on Americans’ financial transactions akin to the surveillance world’s version of the Rosetta Stone. (Source)

Astrologers Suzi and Charles Harvey refer to the Scorpio–Gemini pairing as “the village gossip” who “takes their secrets to the grave.” (Source) Linda Goodman warns her readers: “It’s impossible to retain one’s personal privacy around either sign.” (Source) If there’s anything recent events have made clear, it is that the NSA is now the equivalent of a multibillion-dollar “village gossip,” with graveyards full of secrets and the capacity to make personal privacy impossible to retain.

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“Watching the Watchers” article in the Hexagon prototype issue

Like graveyards in the physical world, the NSA’s digital graveyards are patrolled by various creatures of the night. The latest one is known as “the Black Widow”, the agency’s codename for its state of the art, parallel processing super-computer that can perform trillions of calculations per second across multiple languages. (Source) Perhaps it was “the Black Widow,” or one of her cohorts, who reached out through the catacombs (Scorpio) of the internet (Gemini) to interfere with UK Guardian journalist Luke Harding’s efforts at reporting on information leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. According to Harding, he began experiencing mysterious technological glitches shortly after being assigned to cover the story:

I wrote that Snowden’s revelations had damaged U.S. tech companies and their bottom line. Something odd happened. The paragraph I had just written began to self-delete. The cursor moved rapidly from the left, gobbling text. I watched my words vanish. When I tried to close my OpenOffice file the keyboard began flashing and bleeping. Over the next few weeks these incidents of remote deletion happened several times. (Source)

Even if there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for the technical glitches experienced by Mr. Harding, there seems to be little doubt that the agency extensively spies (Scorpio) on writers (Gemini). In 2002 the agency began a journalist surveillance program codenamed “First Fruits” which monitored “whole groups of reporters.” (Source)

Scorpio/Gemini is probably the Sun/Moon pairing most likely to demonstrate intense (Scorpio) levels of curiosity (Gemini Moon) about the lives of others, be it for ends noble or nefarious. For instance, one Silicon Valley computer programmer who applied to the agency shortly after 9/11 was asked during his interview if he and his wife ever engaged in “spouse swinging.” (Source) It’s unclear if the Agency was actually curious about his marriage, probing his susceptibility to blackmail, or simply seeing how he reacts under pressure. Similarly, the internal culture at NSA is so intensely (Scorpio) curious (Gemini) that a number of NSA employees used “the agency’s phone-listening and e-mail-reading capabilities to spy on their significant others.” (Source) One NSA employee got so intensely (Scorpio) curious (Gemini) that he or she couldn’t resist sifting through the personal email account of former President Bill Clinton. (Source)

Scorpio is the sign of death while Gemini Moons often excel at work involving their hands, the body-part ruled by Gemini in medical astrology. A few centuries ago, this wouldn’t have been a bad Sun/Moon combination for an artisan coffin maker. Nobody at the NSA is likely in the literal business of handcrafting coffins but, according to a recent article by investigative reporters Jeremy Scahill and Glenn Greenwald, information in the NSA’s classified (Scorpio) databases (Gemini) is used “as the primary method to locate targets for lethal drone strikes—an unreliable tactic that results in the deaths of innocent or unidentified people.” (Source)

"Watching the Watchers" article in the Hexagon prototype issue
“Watching the Watchers” article in the Hexagon prototype issue

The NSA is legally prohibited from spying (Scorpio) on the communications (Gemini) of U.S. citizens, but according to a former NSA intelligence analyst turned whistleblower by the name of Russ Tice, that is exactly what they have been doing. In an interview on June 19, 2013 with Sibel Edmonds’ “Boiling Frogs” podcast, Tice explained that the Edward Snowden leaks are just the tip of the iceberg. Tice then specified which prominent residents of the U.S. “village” had been targets of NSA surveillance during his time at the agency:

. . . they went after high-ranking military officers, members of Congress, heaps of lawyers and law firms, State Department officials, judges [including] one now sitting on the Supreme Court, two former FISA court judges, antiwar groups, U.S. companies that do international business around the world, U.S. banking firms and financial firms that do international business. (Source)

Tice also said the NSA even spied on current village chief Barack Obama and his staff in 2004, when Obama was an Illinois Senator, and that his sources inside NSA tell him the agency has spied on all the judges on the Supreme Court, which opens up the possibility of blackmail. In an interview with the Russia Times a month later, Tice said the NSA also spied on Colin Powell, Hillary Clinton, and General David Petraeus. (Source) The agency will not be taking the secrets of these Beltway villagers or anybody else “to the grave,” but as of fall 2013, they will be storing them at a massive new data center in Bluffdale, Utah, equipped with “near bottomless databases,” according to a Wired Magazine cover article entitled “Watch What You Say.”

This all seems pretty scary, but the good news is “if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.”

The bad news is everybody has something to hide.

Since people often identify with their Sun/Moon combinations, it is important to emphasize that few Scorpio/Geminis will express in a manner as problematic as the NSA has. To illustrate: Levi Coffin, a nineteenth-century businessman whose Ohio home was considered the “Grand Central Station” of the Underground Railroad, is also a Scorpio Sun, Gemini Moon. Like the NSA, Coffin ran a covert (Scorpio) communications network (Gemini) and was willing to take his secrets to the grave. Unlike the NSA, there were no questions as to the nobility of his intentions. It is estimated that he and his wife Catherine assisted 2,000 fugitive slaves over the course of 30 years, often employing incredibly innovative messaging systems that were to the nineteenth century what the NSA’s intercept technologies are to the twenty-first century. Given Coffin’s fashion sense (dark suits) and modus operandi (in the shadows), you could say he and his associates were the original “Men in Black”.

Scorpio Sun, Gemini Moon: Levi Coffin
Scorpio Sun, Gemini Moon: Levi Coffin

In an interview he gave near the end of his life, Coffin explained that taking a secretive (Scorpio) approach to communication (Gemini) was crucial when smuggling slaves to freedom: “I would invite them to come in and they would follow me into the darkened house without a word, for we knew not who might be watching and listening.” Were Coffin and his wife plying their trade in the modern day we now know exactly who would be watching and listening.

About the Author: Matt Savinar is a California licensed attorney (State Bar #228957), voluntarily inactive as of June 2013. He can be reached for questions, comments, or consults at his contact page.

The premier issue of Hexagon, now shipping:

Matthew Savinar, Novalee Truesdell, and Carrie Davoli on the premier issue of Hexagon

Libra Sun, Sagittarius Moon: The Lucha Libre!

Libra is the sign most likely to make contact with “the other” while Sagittarius Moons need to explore far and wide in order to feel emotionally nourished. Of the 144 Sun/Moon pairings Libra/Sagittarius is arguably the most likely to make meaningful contact (Libra) with far-off peoples and far-off places (Sagittarius). Astrologer Jefferson Anderson says this the Sun/Moon pairing of the “wildly free-spirited libertarian” who is at their best when leading an African Safari, an Alaskan expedition, or other adventure off to exotic locations where they can experience the joys and wonders of distant geographies. (Source) So dear reader, since we’re discussing a Sun/Moon pairing as wildly free-spirited as Libra/Sagittarius what do you say we take a brief astrological cyber-Safari off to the wildly free-spirited world of Mexican Lucha Libre films! Oh, you’ve never seen a Mexican Lucha Libre film you say? Well then you’re in for one heck of a lovely (Libra) adventure (Sagittarius). Beloved Mexican professional wrestler turned movie star turned folk icon Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta, aka “El Santo”, is about as textbook an example of a Libra Sun, Sagittarius Moon as you’ll find. (Chart)

Libra/Sagittarius makes for a great geography or literature professor. This pairing loves to compare cultures so here is a brief primer on the differences between American and Mexican wrestling: in the United States professional wrestling occupies a place in the cultural ethos somewhere in between the NFL and the Cartoon Network. In Mexico things are much different. South of the border, professional wrestling is experienced more as folk tradition than steroid-fed uber-circus. The Mexican wrestlers, known as “Luchadors”, are loosely akin to a combination of Brazilian Capoeira performers, Indian Bollywood stars, and Harlem Globetrotters basketball players who ply their trade with liberal amounts of shameless Elvira style camp.

Like many Libra/Sagittarians, Santo was known for being vivacious, gregarious, and going on thrilling adventures in which he always had loads of fun while relating (Libra) to his public with great joie-de-vivre (Sagittarius). Astrologer Bill Tierney says this pairing’s “sincerity and honesty shine through, which only adds to its public appeal”. (Source) This is true even when the Libra/Sagittarius in question is a Lucha Libre star like Santo whose “sincerity, honesty and public appeal” must shine through a mask.

A good number of Libra/Sagittarians will find their way into education where their lively spirit, charm, and concern for others can be put to use broadening the intellectual horizons of young minds. Santo was not an educator per-se but several generations of children did grow up watching his films and acting them out on schoolyards which, if nothing else, certainly served to broaden their imaginative faculties.

You can often spot a Libra/Sagittarius by their fashion sense, which is best described as one part suave (Libra) and one part outrageous (Sagittarius). Only a Libra/Sagittarius like Santo could rock a smoking jacket with his Luchador mask and pull the whole ensemble off like a total boss as he did in the film Operacion ’67, considered one of the Lucha genre’s all time classics:

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Santo in Operacion ’67

Most Libra/Sagittarians have a philanthropist or political activist of some sort inside them. Libra is interested in defending the rights of the downtrodden while Sagittarius is interested in “taking up sweeping, global causes where they do battle with the biased policies of the powers that be” astrologer Bill Tierney tells us. (Source) Linda Goodman suggests this pairing take up some type of “Great Cause” such as Greenpeace where they can combine the fair-mindedness of Libra with the idealism of Sagittarius in order to “spread light into darkness”. (Source) Singer Bob Geldof is a Libra/Sagittarius who organized Live Aid, a massive rock musical festival that raised money for African countries being forced into poverty by Western banks. (Chart) Santo was not involved in social or environmental causes per se but he did became a symbol of justice for the common man as result of taking on vampires, thieves, killers and other forces of darkness throughout his films.

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Speaking of Libra/Sagittarians who shine light on the forces of darkness, author Jeremy Scahill is also a Libra Sun, Sagittarius Moon. (Chart) A former correspondent for Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now program, Scahill is best known for his investigations into Blackwater, the infamous private mercenary company. His 2013 documentary Dirty Wars documents the horrifying injustices (Libra) being committed against people of other cultures (Sagittarius) via “targeted killings, drone strikes, and U.S. government–condoned torture”. (Source)

Scahill has never taken on practitioners of “black magic” or a giant “diabolical brain” as Santo did in the 1962 film Santo Contra El Cerebro Diabolic but he has investigated the dark art that is Barack Obama’s “kill list”, the existence of which is truly diabolical in a supposed democracy. According to Scahill, Obama’s assassination ring is of such scope that for all intents and purposes he’s “out Cheneying Dick Cheney”:

There is, of course, one major difference between Santo and Scahill. The diabolical brains that Santo took on existed solely within the imaginary world of Lucha Libre films while those that Scahill takes on occupy the White House.

Scorpio Sun, Virgo Moon: The the Hitwoman of Health Consciousness

Some Scorpio/Virgos will apply their intense (Scorpio) astuteness (Virgo) to cracking the code of physical wholeness. Fitness guru Vince Gironda is a Scorpio Sun, Virgo Moon. (Chart) If Jack Lalanne was the movie star celebrity of the 20th century health & fitness industry Gironda was its maverick technician. Astrologer Carolyn Reynolds says of the Scorpio/Virgo male, “He will tell you when your dieting has gone to far, and puts his foot down that you have forgotten your vitamins again”. (Source) That’s definitely a good description of Gironda. He was advocating organic foods, raw vegetables, digestive enzymes, and his own line of natural supplements at a time when people were still decades away from questioning the chemical based theocracy of industrial food conglomerates. His philosophy of functional “Stone Age Fitness” predated the current “Paleo” and “Cross Fit” crazes by a good 60 years.

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Pictured Above: Legendary Fitness Guru Vince Gironda (Source: IronGuru.com)

Scorpio/Virgos are passionate helping others but they have next to no patience for overgrown egotistical bullshit from those who seek their help. For instance, when a young Arnold Schwarzenegger walked into Gironda’s gym around around 1979 Gironda asked him who he was. Schwarzenegger announced that he was “Mr. Universe”. Gironda replied “Well you look like a fat f*** to me” and then booted him out of his gym. Arnold was at the peak of his bodybuilding career and possessed no shortage of ego so Gironda’s frank evaluation of his status likely came as quite a shock. Fortunately for the future “governator”, he was later allowed back where he flourished under Gironda’s tutelage.

Strange coincidence #1: actress Jenny McCarthy is a Scorpio Sun, Virgo Moon. (Chart) She’s best known for hosting MTV’s mid-1990s dating show “Singled Out” but more recently has made a radical break with what’s “socially sanctioned” by the pharmacological-financial complex. McCarthy, whose son was diagnosed with autism in 2005, has been very vocal about her belief that mercury in vaccines is the true cause of the condition. According to McCarthy, holistic modalities such as chelation therapy have helped her son recover from the condition far more so than protocols put forth by the corporate medical establishment. Whether one agrees with her beliefs or not, she is certainly taking a Gironda-like approach to health-and-wellness that fits the intensely (Scorpio) health conscious (Virgo Moon) nature of her astrological pedigree:

wiss herbalist Alfred Vogel, sometimes referred to as the “Father of Natural Healing”, is also a Scorpio Sun, Virgo Moon. (Chart) You may not have heard of Vogel but you quite likely have ingested a herbal remedy he helped bring to the western masses. The plant Echinacea was brought to his attention by a medicine man while traveling among the Sioux Indians. He took some seeds with him and begun cultivating the planet upon his return to Switzerland. The herb can now be found on the shelves of pretty much every health food store on the planet. So next time you feel a cold coming on and you pop some store bought Echinacea just remember that you have a Scorpio/Virgo to thank for that.

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