Editor’s Note: The following is excerpted and adapted from a magazine length article “Watching the Watchers: Inside the Astrology of the National Security Agency” that originally appeared in the August 2013 issue of the The Mountain Astrologer. -Matt
Uranus is the planet of radical change and rapid progress, advanced machinery and experimental methodologies, liberation from the status quo and sudden breaks with reality, Einstein like advancements and Frankenstein like horrors. The NSA’s Uranus is placed in the 12th House of the unconscious and the super-conscious, of mysticism and meditation, of spirits and séances. Astrologer Bill Tierney associates Uranus in the 12th House with “holographic realms” created by technology as well as “ghosts found wandering dark chambers.” (Source) In true Uranus/12th House fashion there are even rumors the NSA’s advanced super-computer networks have spawned holographic, ghost like avatars imbued with artificial intelligence that are the cyber-world’s version of sentient apparitions. (Source) These apparitions are alleged to live inside an array of Cray X1 or X1E supercomputers that are more advanced versions of “The Thinking Machine”, an early 1990s supercomputer that can be seen in this clip from a Discovery Channel documentary on the agency:
The idea of high-tech, holographic ghosts wandering the catacombs of National Security Agency headquarters sounds absolutely crazy — and it probably is. Yet access to highly intelligent, apparition-like phenomenon is the sort of experience found disproportionately among people with Uranus (radical advancements) in the 12th House (psychic phenomenon, ghost realms). If nothing else this placement indicates the agency likely has access to technology that the general population would perceive to be magic – some off the shelves of the Starship Enterprise, some off the pages of a Stephen King novel.
The NSA’s Uranus is in Cancer, the sign of the homebody, so if these “ghosts” do exist hopefully they aren’t allowed to leave the confines of the agency’s headquarters.
NSA Headquarters (Photo Credit: Trevor Paglen)
Astrologer Howard Sasportas associates Uranus in the 12th with access to the “mind’s storehouse of ancestral wisdom – experiences accrued in the past and inherited through previous generations” as well as interest in parapsychological enterprises like mind-reading. (Source) The NSA may not be interested in actual parapsychology but its capacity to store massive amounts of data does, in a manner of speaking, give it access to the collective experiences accrued by several generations of hundreds of millions if not billions of people around the world. According to James Bamford, the agency has plugged a good deal of this stored data into a computer system called “Aquaint” (Advanced Question Answering for Intelligence), an artificial intelligence powered black box agents can query to find out what person X thinks about subject Y. (Source) The system is, in effect, a mind reading machine — exactly the sort of thing we astrologers associate with Uranus (technology) in the 12th House (psychic matters).
Over the next few weeks I’ll be posting high resolution images from the prototype for Hexagon, the first new print astrology magazine in almost three decades. First, from “Watching the Watchers: The Astrology of the National Security Agency”, which is the first part in a three part series on the surveillance state.
Pages 36-37:
Pages 38-39:
Pages 40-41:
Pages 44-45:
Our cover, which many of you have probably seen:
According to astrologer Willow of Willow’s Web, “If you appreciate smart, courageous, cutting edge astrological writing, you won’t want to miss Hexagon. Something this good only comes around once in a lifetime (or maybe every two or three).”
Editor’s Note: this is excerpt #1 from a magazine length article entitled “Deep Cover, Deep Space: The Astrology of America’s Black Budget Space Program”. -Matt
By now you’ve no doubt heard of the National Security Agency (NSA), the massive intelligence agency whose astrological chart was the subject of the October/November 2013 issue of The Mountain Astrologer. Unless you make it a point to follow the world of covert operations you probably haven’t heard of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the NSA’s partner-in-surveillance that’s “in charge of designing, building, launching, and maintaining America’s intelligence satellites” according to its website. As far as the capabilities of these satellites, Gene Hackman’s character in the 1998 film Enemy of the State might have been on to something when he explains to the Will Smith character that they can the “read the time off your f—king wristwatch”. Forty years ago the NRO built a class of satellites capable of producing imagery with a maximum resolution of six inches or better, accurate enough to tell if somebody was carrying a lunchbox or not. (Source) The capabilities of today’s satellites are classified.
While it’s the NSA whose supercomputers are capable of knowing whether a person checks a magazine’s website or discusses its articles on the telephone, it’s the NRO whose unblinking “eyes-in-the-sky” are powerful enough to spot them coming back from their mailbox with the latest issue in their hands. The NSA is responsible for listening, the NRO is responsible for watching. Financially, the two agencies are essentially peers. Documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden indicate the NRO’s budget request for fiscal 2013 was $10.3 billion, just behind the NSA’s request for $10.8 billion. (Source) While it’s the NSA that’s been getting all the press lately, it’s the NRO that may be the more secretive of the two outfits. According to Professor William E. Burrows, author of Deep Black: The Startling Truth behind America’s Spy Satellites, the NRO operates “under a cloak of secrecy so tight that it is the blackest of all the nation’s covert intelligence related operations”. (Source) In short, it’s the biggest spy agency the 99% are still completely in the dark about.
The NRO has been referred to as America’s “other” space program, a black budget version of NASA whose Corona, Hexagon, Jumpseat and Vortex missions are to the Gemini and Apollo missions what Mr. Hyde is to Dr. Jekyll. The mission/morale patches featured throughout this article, originally brought to public attention by geographer Trevor Paglen in his 2008 book I Could Tell You but Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me: Emblems from the Pentagon’s Black World, make it clear that, unlike NASA’s space missions, the NRO’s operations are not intended for public consumption.
While the three vipers in this patch are believed to represent the NRO’s Trumpet class of satellites that have orbited the planet since the 1990s, they also offer a good approximation of the reaction you’ll likely elicit should you mess with a Virgo’s filing systems:
Of the 16 intelligence agencies that comprise the American surveillance state it’s the NRO whose work is likely to be of greatest interest to practicing astrologers. Our jobs are not all together different. Astrologers utilize the position of the stars to discern the meaning of events down here on Earth while the NRO utilizes crafts lofted to the stars to accomplish the same goal. The satellites managed by the NRO go through phases just like the heavenly bodies that we astrologers study. (Source) The information we discern by studying the stars on behalf of our clients is often of a highly confidential nature, the same is true for the information the NRO discerns on behalf of its clients. Finally, both astrological reconnaissance and satellite reconnaissance require advanced knowledge of highly technical information that often mystifies the non-initiated.
With the masculine side of the psyche (the Sun) in the most feminine of signs (Cancer) and the feminine side of the psyche (the Moon) in the most masculine of signs (Aries), the Cancer Sun, Aries Moon individual often possesses an instinctive understanding that men and women, while different, can fight just as effectively as one another. To illustrate: British Major-General Colin Gubbins is a Cancer Sun, Aries Moon. (Chart) During World War II he was head of Britain’s “Special Operations Executive” (SOE), also known as “Churchill’s Secret Army”, a clandestine organization which waged unconventional warfare inside Nazi occupied territories. According to historian Sarah Helms, “Gubbins was the first to secure permission, albeit unofficial, for female operatives to be sent behind enemy lines. He saw no reason why women could not do the job of secret agent as well as men.” (Source) Gubbins’ secretary would later recount, “he would not countenance any form of discrimination against women”. (Source)
Major General Colin Gubbins
Cancer is ruled by the Moon while Aries is ruled by Mars so Cancer/Aries people will often express in a manner similar to a Mars/Moon aspect. Astrologer Sue Tompkins says people with these aspects in their charts “are very quick to smell danger and thus cultivate speedy reactions and responses – the kind of reactions that can save lives . . . they may continually behave or believe as if World War III is about to break out.” (Source) This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In Gubbins’ case, he was one of a handful of British officers in Poland during September 1939 when the Nazis rolled in and set off what became World War II. Fortunately he was “quick to smell danger” and, utilizing the “speedy reactions” that are a Cancer/Aries hallmark, managed to procure a false passport which enabled him to escape back to Britain. Doing so probably saved his life.
This pairing often alternates between being intensely reclusive (Cancer Sun) and intensely combative (Aries Moon). Gubbins appears to have been no exception this tendency. Ladislas Farago writes in his book Burn After Reading: The Espionage History of World War II that “Gubbins was the forgotten man of the secret war, the least known chief of the secret service and this by his own choice.” (Source) Ironically, if you’ve ever seen a James Bond film you’re more familiar with Gubbins and his secret organization than you may realize. According to Brian Lett, author of The Top Secret History of 007, the “M” character in the James Bond films — most recently portrayed by actress Judi Dench — is based on Gubbins while the agency Bond works for is based on the SOE. (Source)
Astrologers Suzi and Charles Harvey tells us that a metaphoric image for Cancer/Aries people is “a suffragette takes to the barricades in aid of her cause”. (Source) According to the BBC, agents working under Gubbins were “responsible for storming the heavy water plant at Vemork, ending the Nazi atomic bomb program.” (Source) Gubbins wasn’t literally a “suffragette” but he was way ahead of his time when in regards to women’s roles in the workplace while storming Hitler’s atom bomb plant surely counts as an example of somebody “taking to the barricades in aid of a cause”.
In light of these operations, it’s worth noting that the storming of the Bastille in France occurred when the Sun was in Cancer and the Moon in Aries. (Chart) Cancer/Aries can be a very pugnacious, combustible combination but in times of great oppression some pugnaciousness and combustibility may be just what’s needed.
Sun in Cancer, Moon in Aries: The Storming of the Bastille
Astrologer Jefferson Anderson warns that Cancer Sun, Aries Moon has a tendency to “burn bridges”. (Source) That’s usually a bad thing but not always. The folks who stormed the Bastille certainly burned some bridges, both figuratively and literally, while Gubbins’ men who stormed the Nazi heavy water plant no doubt burned a few also.
In addition to running the SOE, Gubbins was also tapped by Winston Churchill to organize and train Britain’s “Auxiliary Units”. These units were comprised of civilians who would form the final line of resistance should the Nazis succeed in destroying the British military and occupying mainland Britain. (Source) The secrecy surrounding the Auxiliaries went beyond that of even “classified” operations, with their existence remaining unknown to the public until the late 1990s. In 2002 the History Channel produced a documentary about Auxiliaries so harrowing that simply watching it will fire up both the emotions (Cancer) and the adrenalin (Aries):
The Auxiliary Units were also referred to as “The Stay at Home Force”, a fitting name for a network organized by a Cancer/Aries like Gubbins as Cancer is the Hermit who prefers to stay at home fortified against threats while Aries is the Hero who prefers to use force to repel them. The Auxiliary units were provided with hidden, underground cubby holes (Cancer) which were stocked with food and weapons (Aries). About 500 of these underground bases were constructed, some of which are still in existence 70 years after the war ended.
Like all Cancer pairings, this one has strong maternal instincts. According to astrologer Jason Fleming, Cancer/Aries is the Sun/Moon pairing of “the general who leads the troops into battle, but also is acutely aware of and sensitive to their emotional state”. (Source) Along these lines, Gubbins is reported to have put enormous energy into preparing the men and women serving under him for their missions, above and beyond what duty required. (Source) In some ways this made his job even more difficult since SOE agents, because they did not wear uniforms, would be treated by the Nazis as spies. Those who were captured were thus shipped to concentration camps, including the infamous Buchenwald camp. (Source) Running such enormously complicated, emotionally exhausting, yet totally secret aspects of the war took an enormous toll on Gubbins — something that his eyes more than hint at in this photo:
When the Sun is in Cancer and the Moon in Aries, the result is what’s called a “Waning Quarter Moon”, a phase of the Moon that is associated with a “crisis in consciousness” according to astrologer Dane Rudhyar. (Source) Raven Kaldera calls this the “Survivor’s Moon”, one that is associated with emotional shell shock and psychological burnout if not what today we call “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder” (PTSD):
The Waning Quarter Moon in Aries finds the Soldier burned out after many years of battle, and coming home to put back together the pieces of his shattered body and mind. The continual years of war have stressed his courage and nerves to the breaking point, and he can no longer fight. The rest of his life will be spent with the pain of these wounds. He returns home, a shell-shocked creature who has given his entire self to battle, and no one cares. Even if he lives in a place where fallen soldiers are treated well, people do not understand the horror he has seen. They expect him to get over it in due time and not to spend hours cowering in the bushes, reliving his trauma. When he can’t, they see him as weak, which is a deep insult.
The Survivor’s Moon is a time of anguish and healing of deep wounds. Up until now, the Aries mystique has been about finding bravery in the face of great odds, an untouchable confidence that allows the Aries Moon to succeed at all kinds of frightening things.
On the Survivor’s Moons, we confront . . . . anguish over betrayal inflicted on us by Fate, or God, or the Universe, or Society. We confront our helplessness in the face of that pain — perhaps we fantasize that we might have been able to stop [it from occurring], however irrational that might be, but even our fantasy fails at the onslaught of reality’s pain.
This is the most difficult Aries Moon of all to bear. People born on the Survivor’s Moon often endure some kind of serious trauma in childhood . . . . (Source)
We don’t know much about Gubbins’ childhood but we do know that he experienced some serious trauma in regards to his own children — the sort of trauma that a parent may fantasize about having been able to stop, however irrational that might be. His oldest son, Michael, was killed in 1944 while serving as an officer in the SOE’s Italian division. Historian Gary Kamiya recalls how Gubbins found out about his son’s death:
The duty officer at Baker Street that weekend, who did not know Gubbins very well, saw the telegram announcing Michael Gubbins’ death. He marked it “Deepest Sympathy” and placed it at the top of Gubbins’ intray. Gubbins came in early that Monday morning to prepare for an important meeting with the Chiefs of Staff, so neither his assistant or secretary was there to soften the blow. Gubbins picked up the telegram himself. (Source)
The death of his son made it nearly impossible for Gubbins to carry on, no doubt in part because the men and women serving under him were the same age as his own children. Grief-stricken, he would later visit grave sites in Italy, “fruitlessly hoping to find a trace of his son”. (Source) When the war ended in 1945 he collected a series of medals for his exemplary service and retired in seclusion to the Island of Harris. Surrounded by nature, he sought to recover from what he called “the long years of dreadful night”. (Source)
Gubbins in retirement
Kaldera tells us that of all the Aries Moons, the Waning Quarter Moon associated with the Cancer/Aries pairing is the one most likely to exhibit a sense of empathy, the type of empathy that can be learned only from scars — ones that are emotional (Cancer) as much as martial (Aries).
In a person’s chart, the South Node is the primary indicator of past life karma. It indicates what skills a person is bringing into this life but also how they screwed things up in their past lives, be those actual past lives or simply useful metaphoric narratives for the early parts of this life. When the South Node is in Aries, the person has spent many lifetimes as a Warrior. They’re naturally good at all things Aries: kicking ass, breaking free, and fighting back. They’re also prone to falling prey to Aries’ dark side: recklessness, rage, being ruled by inflamed passions and refusing to ever back down. These are also ways they’re most likely to self-destruct in this life should they stay stuck in their South Node. Their karmic mission is to embrace their North Node in Libra, the sign of romance, relationships, and relating to “the other”.
Films are an excellent tool to understand one’s Nodal Axis. Just run a chart for the film the way you would for yourself or another person. The villain and/or crisis will line up with the film’s South Node while the resolution and/or hero will line up with the North Node.
If you want to understand the Aries South Node/Libra North Node axis there is probably no better film to watch than Star Trek: First Contact. Released (born) on 11/22/1996, the film’s South Node is at 6 degrees Aries. (Chart) The film picks up six years after an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in which Captain Picard was kidnapped, assimilated, and severely traumatized by the Borg, a species of space faring techno-fascists. In First Contact, he chases the Borg back in time 300 years to get his revenge, the exact thing somebody with their South Node in Aries is supposed to be getting away from:
With the film’s South Node in Aries (war) and South Node ruler Mars in Virgo (slavery/shame), the first objective of Captain Picard’s karmic mission is to release his need to go to war against those who enslaved, shamed, and traumatized him. He can’t do that, however, without assistance from “the other” (Libra). In this case “the other” is Lilly, a woman from earth’s past who confronts Picard on how selfishly destructive (Aries) his actions are. Libra loves to get dressed up and go out partner dancing so maybe it’s fitting that the rage-fueled incident Lilly refers to in the above scene takes place inside a high class night club earlier in the film:
The film has Saturn (repression) conjunct the South Node, indicative of particularly heavy burdens being brought over from past incarnations. According to astrologer Celeste Teal, “This is potentially the hardest past life influence from which to escape. It is easy for these individuals to become stuck in the past . . .” (Source) The first 20 seconds of the film’s trailer will give you a sense for just how difficult Saturn/South Node experiences can be to escape from.
Saturn is associated with leadership capabilities and getting down to brass tack reality so there is some upside to this placement. In First Contact, for instance, Captain Picard displays plenty of realism (Saturn) in regards to fighting (Aries) the Borg, his foes from a symbolic past life (South Node).
People with their South Node (past lives) in Aries (courage, confrontation) are often fixated on defeating their adversaries, who are usually more powerful than themselves. No matter how noble and just their cause(s) may be, Aries South Node people will fail to win their battles until they learn to cooperate with others. In First Contact Captain Picard’s fixation on defeating the Borg is certainly a noble one, comparable to taking on an entity that is one part Monsanto, one part Microsoft, and one part the National Security Agency. Yet he is unable to prevail until he takes Lilly’s advice to release his fixation on winning. Once he does the humans of the past are able to launch the first warp capable vessel which gets the attention of the Vulcans, their nearest neighbors. The Vulcans then come to visit the humans in a fabulous cinematic example of Libra’s desire to make contact with “the other”:
In Star Trek lore the meeting of the humans and Vulcans depicted above ushers in 200 plus years of peace and partnership, the ultimate objective of Libra.
A film’s chart not only describes the plot of the film but also the production process and casting decisions. Part of what made Star Trek: First Contact great was the performance of actress Alfred Woodard, a black woman, who was cast as an equally powerful counterbalance to Patrick Stewart, a white man.
This is no coincidence. At its highest expression Libra is the sign that understands not only the need for balance between aggression and reconciliation but also balance between the genders and races.
This week’s guest on the North Bay Astrology Show was Willow of Willow’s Web Astrology who discussed the astrology of Big Pharma and her experience with the antibiotic Cipro. The show is in four parts:
This week’s guest on the North Bay Astrology Show was Willow of Willow’s Web Astrology who discussed the astrology of 2014 and time/energy management for self-employed astrologers:
Part II of the show can be watched on here, Part III can be watched here, and Part IV on the forecast for 2014 can be watched here.
The North Bay Astrology Show with Matt Savinar is heard on KOWS 107.3 FM in Occidental, California on Thursdays from 10 am to 12 Noon.
As some of you may know, my article on the astrological charts of the National Security and Edward Snowden was the cover article for the October/November 2013 issue of The Mountain Astrologer, which is widely considered the world’s premier astrological publication. The article is now available online in its entirety (7,000 words), for free, in PDF format. You can access it by either clicking here or by clicking on the cover below:
Over the next few weeks I’ll get parts of the article uploaded to this site in text format.
One thing that I thought very interesting but that had to be edited out of the article for length purposes was a reference to the chart of Levi Coffin, the man whose farm was considered the headquarters of the Underground Railroad during the days of slavery. (Harriet Tubman and about 2,000 other escaped slaves utilized his residence as a hiding place.) Like the NSA, Coffin was a Scorpio Sun, Gemini Moon who ran a secretive (Scorpio) communications (Gemini) network. (Chart) Scorpio likes to wear black and Gemini always comes in pairs so you could say Coffin and his wife Catherine were the original “men in black”. Unlike the “men in black” at the NSA, there were never any doubts about the nobility of their intentions.
Disclosure as per FTC rules for bloggers: If you purchase anything through the links to Amazon or other third party vendors on this page I stand to earn a commission in the range of 5-10%.
Last Thursday I gave a two-hour talk at the San Francisco chapter of the National Council for Geocosmic Research entitled the The Astrology of Covert Operations. I’m slowly making my way through editing the recording of the talk. I’ve posted part one of the talk, on the background of my recent article for The Mountain Astrologer, to YouTube:
Matt Savinar DBA Hexagon Astrology is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com
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