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 of this year he was living with his pole-dancing girlfriend on the island of Hawaii earning $200,000/year working for NSA contractor Booz Allen Hamilton despite having little formal education beyond a GED. (Source) Then he decides to take on the NSA, the ultimate “monster from the deep”, and is now a high profile enemy of the state.

Snowden is a sympathetic figure and his story a compelling one but given the paradoxical, changeable, and multi-faceted nature of his Sun/Moon combination it may turn out that he is as much a “prism” as the “PRISM” surveillance program the NSA’s been running. As explained in a previous post, 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 thoroughly mind (Gemini) fucked (Scorpio) but loving every minute of it.

If, as per James Bamford’s books on the history of the NSA, the Scorpio/Gemini 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. At its worst it makes for somebody who wanders into traps that are one part never-ending house of mirrors (Gemini) and one part bottomless pit (Scorpio), like something out of one of those old Choose Your Own Adventure children’s books except with decidedly more malevolent plot-lines.

Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who leaked information about the NSA’s PRISM surveillance program to U.K. Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, is a Gemini Sun, Scorpio Moon. (See chart bove) Snowden’s Gemini–Scorpio pairing has a few things in common with the NSA’s Scorpio–Gemini pairing, but there are some key differences. The Sun, symbol of the conscious mind, can be likened to the part of a tree that expresses itself above ground. The Moon, symbol of the unconscious mind, can be likened to the roots of the tree that go much deeper into the ground. While the Sun and the Moon are of equal importance when analyzing a person’s chart, it’s the Moon that tells us what compo- nents of the person’s psyche run the deepest. Snowden, with his Moon, not his Sun, in the most cryptic of signs (Scorpio), is actually more deeply secretive than the agency whose operations he wishes to expose.

If the NSA’s Scorpio–Gemini pairing is the “village gossip” who takes their secrets to the grave, Gemini–Scorpio is the “double agent” who takes their secrets to the cable news network. Scorpio–Gemini likes to tap phone lines (the more salacious the conversations, the better). Gemini–Scorpio likes to tell sto- ries (the more complex the plot lines, the better). 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 a gorgeous, acrobatic dancing girlfriend on the Big Island of Hawaii, earning $200,000 per year working for NSA contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, despite having little formal education beyond a GED. Then he decided to take on the NSA, the ultimate “monster from the deep,” and is now a high-profile enemy of the state.

At its best, this is the Sun–Moon pairing of the investigative reporter who uses mental dexterity to unravel high-level criminality, the high-stakes negotiator who understands multiple layers of a complex conflict, or the writer whose spellbinding tales leave you thoroughly mind-fucked (Gemini–Scorpio) but loving every minute of it.

While the Scorpio–Gemini pairing can be likened to a “Puzzle Palace” or a “Shadow Factory” (per James Bamford’s books on the history of the NSA), the Gemini–Scorpio pairing can be likened to “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma,” to quote Winston Churchill. Gemini is duality, while Scorpio is secrecy, so any time you see these two signs paired togeth- er, 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 person- alities. Scorpio is co-ruled by Pluto, the deep-digging Lord of Hades whose cap of invisibility allows him to operate undetect- ed. 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-dizzyingly complex situations.

People with the same Sun/Moon pairings often have biographies that share uncanni- ly similar themes. George Orwell is a Gemini Sun, Scorpio Moon just like Snowden. He is best known for writing 1984, the book which famously envisioned a dys- topic 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 con- junct his North Node (point of destiny), an aspect that Celeste Teal associates with “being awarded medals for bravery.”39 His Mars/ North Node conjunction is in Gemini so the bravery indicated by this aspect was likely to involve Geminian matters such as commu- nication, 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.40 Snowden is unlikely to win any medals for his efforts, but nobody doubts the enormous bravery 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.