Julian Assange – The whistle-blower who has become the scourge of governments worldwide.

 

Since 2006 when Julian Assange set up the WikiLeaks website, Australian Julian Assange has more than ruffled a few feathers around the world. This complex man is also subject to a European arrest warrant for an alleged sexual assaults in Sweden. What makes him tick and motivates him? I delve into his horoscope to find out.

Julian was born on 3rd July 1971 in Townsville, Australia at 14.05 hrs (according to The Mountain Astrologer website). He is a Sun sign Cancerian with a deep intense Scorpio Moon and Ascendant. There is a watery, emotional backbone to this particular man. Notice how majority of the planets sit in the upper hemisphere of the chart counterbalanced only by Mars in Aquarius down in the fourth house. This Mars has a big part to play in this chart. There are 4 planets each in water and air and so Julian will be a communicator & a networker who uses his instincts to get through life. Emotions are intense with Julian, and he will experience highs and lows in equal strength. He will be prone to jealousy and excessive pride and how he deals with other people and is accepted or rejected by them will affect his moods immensely. The Scorpio influence here requires Julian to be someone of importance, yet someone who protects his own space and security. He needs to be known but remain private at the same time, a difficult balancing act to achieve.

With the Sun in Cancer, Julian will be quite sunny & friendly man (Cancerians I find often are) however in a very reserved way & he will protect himself and his loved ones if threatened. This is very private man at heart. The Sun sits just into the 9th house of knowledge and international affairs, so he will be very much an eternal student and wanderer. The instinct with him will be to travel extensively and to acquire knowledge. The Sun is square to Uranus and rules the Midheaven, which is often a point on the chart which represents the father. So often when I see a Sun/Uranus square, the father has gone missing or been away for long periods of time or leaves the family household completely. Julian was born into a single parent family and his mother looked after him until she married when he one year old. He will be very independent and will identify with the little man on the street, the oppressed, those with no power. There is a strong revolutionary edge to Julian, someone who will take on and try to defy international laws. Uranus the planet of the rebel in the sign of justice Libra affecting the international 9th house Sun. The Uranus Sun square will bring him a real talent and interest in technology, something that he has now become infamous for.

The Sun is trine to the Moon in the hidden 12th house. Julian would have had a good relationship with his mother, however his home-life with her would have hugely disrupted with Aquarius (ruled by Uranus) on the cusp of the 4th house representing her and the home and I suspect that arguments and discord would have been commonplace with Mars sitting in this house. It is reported that Julian and his mother who married twice lived in around 50 different places in Julian’s first 14 years of life. All this chopping and changing must have severely affected him in his growing up.

The Moon in Scorpio in the 12th house shows a guy who likes to live and work in the shadows. The 12th house Moon shows somebody who is uncomfortable in the spotlight & the Scorpio influence here brings a need to know everything, not knowing is akin to personal hell. Those with Scorpio Moons are very self sufficient, have great inner strength, they have a harsh edge to them and are strong on seeing justice being carried out. Because the feelings are always on tap, trying to hold back these intense emotions can prove impossible. The Moon in in conjunction with the Scorpio ascendant which is very controlling and has an intense need to create a big impression. The Moon is square to Assange’s Midheaven so this need to know, the controlling qualities, the need for truth is brought into his career.

Assange’s Saturn in Gemini in the 7th house makes an opposition to a Jupiter/Neptune conjunction in the 1st house. Jupiter in the first shows a generosity of spirit and an optimistic nature, even if things around you are not going well. This Jupiter shows someone who thinks big and believes that they can get away with murder. Neptune in the same house softens the personality and brings a gentle compassionate quality as well as a wide expansive outlook. Mercury connected to these two planets by trine sits in Cancer in the 9th house of learning bringing an unquenchable need for knowledge. There is a interest in anything secret and the motivation to dig beneath the surface to find out the truth is paramount with Mercury sextile to Pluto. This sextile is made into a mini grand trine by the aspects to Jupiter and Neptune bringing the notion of finding the ideal; the Neptune Jupiter Mercury trine is the sign of the journalist, the blogger, the person who wants free information. Assange is motivated to bring truth and openness, and is prepared to publish no matter the consequences because he thinks he can get away with it. Jupiter is in Scorpio after all and the convictions to go to the extreme and to unafraid of taking a chance are very strong.

This is connected into Assange’s work and ambitions. There are serious ambitions here shown by the opposition from Jupiter and Neptune to Saturn. He will have a disciplined attitude to his work with Saturn also sextile to the Midheaven, however with Saturn quindecile to the Ascendant, the attitude to those in authority will be quite dismissive, often bringing him into conflict with those who openly oppose his views. Saturn is in Gemini, the sign of communication, and this being a Sagittarius Gemini air based opposition, the need to show ones ambitions in the international arena is very strong backing up the nature of the Jupiter/Neptune conjunction it opposes. That Saturn opposed to Jupiter/Neptune linked into Pluto via sextiles and trines shows potential naivety when it comes to dealing with those who administrate and those with power and there is the possibility that in the quest to seek out the truth, he himself can fall victim to those who manipulate using him as a willing mouthpiece. on a separate note, Saturn in the 7th does cause problems with permanent relationships and often delays marriage. Assange is still single and has had custody problems with his girlfriend over a son they parented.

Now problems with women do seem to be a theme that does afflict Assange. One’s attitude to women can be shown through Venus on the chart. Venus lies in the 8th house in Gemini. This is not the greatest combination to have if truth be told. The 8th house is the house of intimacy and of sexual relations and Gemini is probably the least emotional of all the signs in the zodiac. Despite all the water and emotion that pervades around the chart in other areas, here we see a rather unemotional point of view. This Venus is affected by a square to Pluto, which brings a dark intensity and extremely possessive view of women and Venus also receives a trine from excitable Mars which sits in erratic Aquarius, a fixed sign. Coloured by seeing his mother as someone who could not hold down a relationship for whatever reason, I am sure that this would have affected his view of own relationships with women. As we know Assange was charged with sexual assaults in Sweden, allegations which Assange claims were consensual encounters with both women accusers. The astrology through the fixed Mars trine and Pluto square coming out of the 11th house of love received showed that the potential for unusual, intense and forceful behaviour did exist on this chart.

I finish looking at that rebellious, unpredictable Mars in Aquarius in the 4th house which squares his Jupiter and ascendant, makes a close quindecile to the Midheaven as well as the previously mentioned trine to Venus. Assange through his career (Midheaven) uses aggressive (Mars) shock tactics(in Aquarius) publishing (Mars square Jupiter) socially important secrets and information (Mars trine Venus in Gemini in 8th house) that governments do not want exposed on a global scale via the web, and through WikiLeaks to get his point of view across. This forceful attitude I believe comes from his relationship that he had with his mother. With Mars conjunct the Nodal (maternal Axis) she would have taught him to fight his corner, and from behind the scenes he exposes the secrets, the shocking truths in as I see it a two pronged assault. Firstly to bring freedom of information of what is really going on at government level on a global scale. Pluto in Virgo is hugely ethical and is repulsed by the evils of the world. The second prong of his attack on global government is a reformist one. Pluto sits in the 11th house of groups, associations and ruling parties, and it shows the need to transform and to change. This is his aim by exposing the dirty secrets that the ruling classes of the world want to hide. This aim is backed up at a deeper level by one exact midpoint. Saturn sits exactly square (to the second) to the midpoint of Pluto and his Midheaven. His public role and work is to expose the dirty side of power in the world. This he does through his journalistic tendencies and his expertise with technology. As Noel Tyl puts it about this midpoint position “potential scandal, other worldliness, peculiarities, disappointments, away from the middle of the road, power run amuck”. Ebertin saw this picture differently. He said that this connection showed “attainment of one’s objectives through self-sacrifice”. He also mentioned that this midpoint when badly aspected shows a foolhardy and daring attitude, linked to the abuse of power and antisocial conduct. I have a third meaning; the authorities potentially destroying a public reputation because of illicit sexual behaviour.

Assange walks the tightrope of life. In his quest to get the greatness he craves in exposing the ills of the world, he risks the wrath of those in charge and courts potential ruin in the process. He nearly undid all his work and sullied his name because of a troubled attitude in relationships with women. His North Node sits in the 4th house of attitudes to the mother and women and to a settled home life, lessons that his soul needed to take on board and to work out how to deal with. Once he works out this conundrum, then his path to contentment and recognition for his work will be all the much easier for him.

The timeline for Assange, the Swedish sexual assault charges and his subsequent occupation of the Ecuadorian embassy is truly fascinating from a astrological standpoint. Assange was in Sweden in August 2010 when the “encounter” with a couple of Swedish women occurred and at that time transiting Mars and Venus were in a conjunction on Assange’s natal Uranus. That connection sounds pretty kinky to me, and it was square to his Cancerian Sun which at that time has the detrimental South Node sitting right on top of it. Obviously the transiting nodal axis being square to Uranus was going to trigger some disruptive occurrences in his life, with negative or scandalous repercussions, and for his reputation to be affected (South Node on Sun). At that point, Assange was interviewed about the incident however the case was closed at the time and Assange left Sweden. These allegations around Assange were reopened as transiting Saturn had moved on to square his natal Sun, however he denied them saying that he was content to answer any allegations in Britain. He was arrested in Britain where he was detained for 10 days before being released on bail under the threat of an international arrest warrant. The shadow of extradition to Sweden remained and he fought a case in the British courts to try and prevent it. When his appeal to the British Supreme Court failed in June 2012, he immediately applied to the Ecuadorian embassy in London on 19th June for asylum. The Swedish case continued to bubble and eventually on the 29th June a British Court issued a British arrest warrant on him for him failing to surrender himself to the British authorities.

His initial appearance at the embassy was on the day of a new Moon conjunct to his natal Venus and square to natal Pluto. On his chart, Venus rules his 7th house of relationships and of people who oppose him as well as his 12th house of confinement, seclusion and suffering. The square to Pluto, his ruling planet as a Scorpio rising soul indicated a major transformation occurring and a new beginning. Transiting Pluto at this point was square to his 4th house ruling Uranus, thus a shock (Uranus) change (Pluto) of residence (4th house). The arrest warrant came as transiting Mars made a conjunction with his natal Pluto at the same time as transiting Mercury, the planet of communications and directives was in conjunction from the 9th house of the law with his Midheaven.

After spending a 2 months at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, the Ecuador government granted political asylum to Assange. This happened as the nodal axis hit his natal Neptune/Saturn axis while being squared by transiting Neptune. This is a classic astrological lesson of the strength of the planets. Normally Saturn being contacted by the South Node is restricting and heavy demands are put one – authority wants to law down the law. This connection was made in Assange’s 7th house, the house of open known enemies – the British and Swedish governments. At the same time however, the North Node was contacting Neptune which is lucky, fortunate and my view dissolved any restrictions put on him. We had a battle and in Astrology, the outermost planet (slower moving) planet always wins, thus the Nodal connection to Neptune’s influence was stronger than to Saturn’s. Now transiting Neptune square to these planets was still putting him in “limbo”. Transiting Uranus inconjunct to his Moon in the 12th showing a shift in the conditions of his confinement and his legal position (Moon ruling 9th) and the square to his Sun gave him an unusual freedom and independence that he couldn’t enjoy because of the threat of extradition against him. Uranus is a fixed sign and thus he personally was technically free to go to Ecuador, but trapped as if he left the embassy he could be arrested by the British. this was confirmed by Pluto’s opposition to his Sun, changing his position and status.

There he has remained confined at the embassy and today’s dropping of charges by the Swedes makes little difference to his predicament, as since 2012, WikiLeaks has published many American secrets obtained by Chelsea Manning, and it also helped Edward Snowden to disclose classified information. This annoyed the American authorities and Assange has become a hot target for them. it is not known if the Americans have applied to the British for Assange’s extradition, however under US law if he was convicted of the kind of crimes alleged against him he might get 30 to 50 years behind bars.

The planetary positions today see transiting Saturn close but not quite to a quarter turn around the wheel from the start of this drama, thus we are coming to a critical moment, but we aren’t there quite yet, that comes around the start of next year. Saturn however is now square to Assange’s chart ruling Pluto and opposing natal Venus, the two planets highlighted by the New Moon at the start of his occupation of the Ecuadorian embassy, thus we have a clear link between how all this began, and the events today.

The other movements that I am noticing are the transiting Nodes square to the Jupiter/Neptune opposition to Saturn. The South Node is moving in his 4th house of his home (currently the embassy) and North Node in the 10th (his pubic persona). Square to these is Saturn in his house of open enemies, currently represented by the British courts and American Government, both powers of administration, and Jupiter/Neptune in his first house indicating his ability to expand his life (he is certainly in the public eye). The square to Neptune indicates the sacrifices that he is having to make. Please note that Jupiter rules his 2nd house of personal values that he his holding dear to him as he hides out in full public view and Neptune rules his 5th house of individuality which is severely constrained due to his current circumstances. Remember the Nodes represent past actions and karma that he has to settle, and thus this is at odds with him and causing him problems at this moment.

Transiting Jupiter opposite Venus are both square to his Sun, and this bring a victory of sorts, but it may be a hollow one as Assange will have to remain where he is not to be caught up in an even nastier situation. With transiting Chiron opposing his Pluto and square to his natal Venus, those two critical planets connected to his stay behind the four walls of the London Embassy, there is more pain and wounding to come before all this is sorted out…