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 the mother 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 justice 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. 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 intensely 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. Now I have to be a little careful here with a court case still open with regard to sexual assaults, 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 shows that the potential for unusual, intense and forceful behavior does exist on this chart.
I finish looking at that rebellious, unpredictable Mars 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 shock tactics publishing secrets 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 comes from his home-life. 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, of associations and of governments and ruling parties and 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”. As I see it, that midpoint may have a second meaning. The authorities potentially destroying his public reputation because of illicit sexual behavior.
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 may undo all his work and 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 this the key to his life. Once he works out this conundrum, then his path to contentment and recognition for his work will be all the much easier for him.
On the current transits chart, transiting Pluto is rapidly approaching a conjunction with Assange’s 9th house Sun square Uranus and trine to his ascendant, and transiting Saturn will be conjunct his natal Moon in the 12th house of prisons and institutions which is emotionally depressing and could showing justice being served in the form of a custodial sentence. Pluto can bring transformation and sometimes confinement and restriction. When it connects in January 2013, Assange could find himself in a Swedish jail for a period of time as Pluto cuts off that Sun square Uranus need for freedom. It looks quite depressing for him as 2013 arrives.