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Current Moon Phase
THE WESAK FESTIVAL 2020
7 MAY 2020
© Malvin Artley
The Normal…whatever that is, or was
A question of values
Taurus, mundane and esoteric
The removal of glamour
The sign of major life incentive
The full moon
The US and Pax Americana
The poorly pland-emic
OK. So, who is to blame?
Lockdowns
In an ideal world…
A difference of cultures
Manufacturing consent against China
A case for a bioweapon?
The likely origin of the virus
The WTO and Big Agri-Business
The great coronavirus heist
Plutocracy’s last chance
Other factors related to the lockdowns
The full, conscious inception of the path
Greetings Everyone!
Here in Rovereto we have passed full lockdown that was in effect at the Aries full moon. We are now gradually going into Phase II since after May 4th, the steady, graded lifting of restrictions. Food markets are returning after a month of being shut down, as in street markets. Free movement within the city limits is now permitted, and after a few weeks that will extend to the region. In other words, life is slowly returning to its old rhythms. But the big question on everyone’s mind is what the ‘new normal’ will be, because our lives and societies will not be returning to what we knew as normality any time soon. Social distancing will be in effect here for months, for example. Economies will in some cases severely contract. People have been cast out of work. Many businesses will close for good. It will be a different world after the virus has passed, with people far more aware that what we thought was ‘normal’ was anything but that. We will explore some of those things in this letter. But the most important question to be asked for all of us is what will we take away from this? Will our experiences give us cause to feel embittered, angry, disappointed, suspicious of every motivation, or instead grateful for our loved ones and what we have, with the realization that perhaps we do not really need all the things and conveniences we thought made life so pleasant, but instead kept us locked into routines that in hindsight were not all that constructive?
The Normal…whatever that is, or was: As mentioned, what we are perhaps beginning to see is that our lives were actually anything but ‘normal’, that what we thought was normal was actually quite illusory. A glamour has been at least partially lifted by this virus, stating it esoterically, a virus which is a precipitation from our own collective thinking, right or wrong. In other words, we have had a wakeup call, and now see clearly that ‘business as usual’ as we had in the immediate past cannot return to the way it was, much as many people would like for it to. A ‘new normal’ will emerge over the next months, probably more like a few years. It will be what we choose to make of it. What we see in the midst of our current situation are various factions vying for control, seeking
to steer public opinions (‘the narrative’), seeking to manufacture consent or dissent for their pet causes, and even trying desperately to keep what was the status quo in place. Fingers of blame are pointing everywhere. The media keeps us distracted and in many cases fails, deliberately, to report news that is more important and which we actually need to make informed decisions. And there are ‘experts’ popping up everywhere, viral on social media – an interesting turn of phrase now. For most of us, myself included, the best we can do is to read widely and use our common sense to sort through the mountain of information that comes to our notice every day. And we all have our opinions, some of them quite strong and entrenched.
A question of values: Given everything that is happening so quickly, here are some questions worth answering, and with which we have all been faced through this period: What do we really value? What is truly important in our daily lives and in the long term? Who can we trust, and should we be placing our trust where we are told we should place it? And perhaps most importantly, how can we make our lives more meaningful instead of having to live day by day? Do we have a type of life that enables us to live in a fashion that is more suitable to our higher sense of values? And if not, how do we make that so? Is it a matter of changing outer conditions or is it a matter of changing our point of view? Perhaps it amounts to both. In past letters the year 2025 has been mentioned often, as a year where the major decision about the planet’s immediate spiritual unfolding, or not, will take place. Given our social trajectory in the years leading up to this pandemic, what do we suppose would have happened had we simply continued on that course up to 2025, given the great disparities that widened every day within our societies and the attendant hardening of attitudes? Would it have laid the groundwork for a greater spiritual expression for humanity? Most of us would probably say not, and with good reason.
We needed something to shake us up, to awaken us to realities, to show us where we have gotten off track and what is hindering such a freedom of spiritual expression. The virus has been such a vehicle for that, and it is serving that purpose well – better than a major war, I would say, which is where we may have been heading and where the powers that be were trying to steer us. In fact, one might say this has actually been quite a fit vehicle for preparing and setting us in motion for the changes most of us acknowledge are needed for our societies. All of these preceding questions go back to one’s sense of values and sense of self-esteem, which brings us to the consideration of Taurus for this year. And indeed, this is a year where the time for decisions has come, in a way we have not seen since the last time Uranus was in Taurus, from 1934 to the start of WWII. That produced a new world order then. This time will be no different, except for one thing – there will probably not be a large war this time, the reasons for which we will not entertain here. Having said that, our opportunity now is great.
Taurus, mundane and esoteric: In the natural zodiac Taurus rules the banking sector, one’s self esteem, money, bonds (as in financial), possessions of all kinds, savings, the throat and the voice. With Uranus transiting through Taurus, all of those things are being called up for review and possible change. It is certainly calling for better conditions for humanity in all of those areas. It is also calling for us to collectively speak up. And it has been possible all along that some sort of financial shock would manifest during that transit. Economists have been forecasting such a scenario for years. Such a shock could have come in many ways, as in a wide war, a manipulated financial panic, a collapse of a key government, or even a pandemic. Consider that this pandemic represents for us the easy way out, that it is a gift, that it will give us a soft landing should we take advantage of the opportunity to bring about the changes most people see that we need, but which are being fought against by the interests with money and power.
The orthodox ruler of Taurus is Venus, giving the emphasis on beauty, material comforts and desire. Taurus, “…is called “the sign of the major life incentive,” because Taurus is the symbol of desire in all its phases.”[1] That desire can manifest as stubbornness, for which Taureans are known, in their quest for their satisfaction of material aims. That points to the nature of the cross in which the sign is placed, the fixed cross, expressing in this case the fixity of desire. It is a sign that can express the strongest sense of momentum along the lines of its choosing. And in pursuit of their objectives, Taureans can take a wrecking ball to anything that gets in the way of the prize. Like Aries, it is one of the catalytic signs, along with Capricorn, in that it produces transformation in others. This is not how one would normally interpret the actions of Venus through this sign, but so it is. Lying behind that, though, is the action of another planet, Vulcan, which transmits the 1st ray of will or power. Vulcan is the esoteric ruler of Taurus.
“Taurus forges the instruments of constructive living or of destruction; it forges the chains which bind or creates the key which unlocks the mystery of life; it is this forging process, with its consequent clamour, which is going on at this time in a most potent manner. Vulcan controls the anvil-like processes of time and strikes the blow which shapes the metal into that which is desired, and this is true today as never before.”[2]
The anvil-like processes of time…There is quite a lot packed into that little phrase. What we have seen with our present financial order in the West is the Taurean drive toward the satisfaction of every sundry desire, for wealth, for the latest gadget, the shiny car, the house with wide open space, and on it goes. That desire has been given free reign by those who know how to work the system, and along with that we have the constant advertisements in all sorts of media seeking to induce us to buy, buy, BUY! And now, the hammer has fallen toward the anvil and the process of time has given us a pause to instead reflect on where all that desire has led. Are we happier with the possessions or are they now like an anvil hung from the neck, lumbering us with debt? As a humorous post asked recently, how many weeks to the gallon are we now getting in our cars? Is that open-space house now a home or a sentence? And so it goes. At some point along the path of Taurus, that sort of pause always comes, when the satisfaction of desire becomes known as the prison it actually is and the dead end of a path. Then, after due time and consideration, desire instead becomes aspiration toward nobler goals, wherein the material becomes immaterial, and a truer sense of values becomes the burning aspiration that determines the life path. So now we find ourselves between the anvil and the hammer. A better way forward must be forged.
The glamour of material success loses its lustre in times like these. And if we have taken fuller advantage of our having been removed from our ‘normal’ daily routines, we have entered into a deeper questioning of our lives and societies, rather than simply hanging out for the time when the lockdowns will be lifted. I would submit that these lockdowns have been used to great effect by the spiritual Guides of humanity in order, firstly, to awaken the masses of humanity to the reality of what has actually been guiding their societies by the vested interests, and secondly, to deglamourize more spiritually inclined people about a great many things on the one hand, and on the other, to strengthen one’s momentum along one’s soul path. Therein lies a spiritual purpose behind being locked down, in that the experience throws us back on ourselves, rather than their being fostered by some sinister, covert agenda.
In terms of my own experience during these lockdowns, it has been a very clarifying experience in many ways, in terms of the way the world works, seeing my own strengths and weaknesses, the steps needed for the remainder of this life to live more aligned with my higher Self, and so forth. People have flooded me with videos and articles, asking me what I thought. Some of it was useful, much of it not. In parsing all of it, the glamours and illusions of the world stand out in bold relief. And in that respect, there is a wider and major point to be made later in this letter which has emerged clearly as to where we are headed in these few years remaining until 2025, where after we are said to be entering a calmer rhythm. And there is a clear statement about what is most needed in these times until then: We only need more light to offset the more materialistic interests.[3] Because it is those more materialistic interests who are seeking, we might say desperately, to hang on to what they have made for themselves since WWII, at the expense of much of the rest of the world. There again, we find Taurean themes, which the transit of Uranus is highlighting for us.
The sign of major life incentive: This topic is the main feature of the sign Taurus.[4] What is the major incentive that drives us forward through life? This is always the question before us at the Wesak period, and the Taurus interval. It is true both individually and internationally. Is it desire or aspiration for ‘the higher Way’ that drives us on in life? Is it desire, or pure, joyful will?[5] Symbolically, what is started in Aries, as a seed thought, is seized upon and given momentum in Taurus. The incentive toward a goal is made clear and manifest. It is given voice and applied practically toward every aspect of life in Gemini. In this is encapsulated the importance of the three major spiritual festivals of the year – Aries (Easter), Taurus (Wesak) and Gemini (Goodwill). This year we have had many revelations about the workings of the world, precipitated by this virus and our collective responses and reactions to it. Those started in earnest in Aries, when the lockdowns worldwide were in full effect. Everything was called into question. The amount of questioning in people’s minds is illustrative of how far we have come, and yet of how much work remains to be done. And now, we see a growing incentive, across the board, to either effect the needed changes for the betterment of humanity or to harden the status quo. That is what we will address in the latter part of this letter. We have an idea where we need to focus our energies (Aries), and now it is time to create momentum for the needed changes (Taurus). With the preceding in mind, we move on to the full moon and the wider picture.
The full moon takes place on 7 May 2020 at 10:47 UT (8:47 PM AEST). The Sun and Mercury are sextile Neptune and in a wide trine to the Jupiter/Pluto conjunction. The general tone is one of a more optimistic outlook, with strong intuitive insights possible, whether or not we avail ourselves of the opportunity. However, the physical/material energies will still be weak, shown by the Mars=Saturn/Neptune midpoint. Mercury is in a wide, approaching square to Mars, showing the restive communications we are seeing now being intensified into the immediate future. That will manifest internationally in more belligerent rhetoric toward nations such as China, Iran, Venezuela and Russia. We will also see wider protests and dissemination of disinformation around many areas, with various agendas being pushed. Mercury and Venus are in mutual reception in the chart, aiding more meaningful communications and partnerships. The weakness of material resources will be a large catalyst for emerging partnerships and communications, and the mutual reception will help those, but the overall tone will be one pushing us toward imaginative solutions rather than the status quo, and in response to the financial theft we are seeing, discussed shortly.
Much of what follows will no doubt sound quite negative, even anti-American. However, once we peel back behind the mainstream narratives, the Washington exceptionalism and jingoism, all the talk about ‘democracy’ and ‘high-minded values’ that Washington purports to represent, we arrive at a more realistic picture of what is taking place, and it is not a comforting picture. But it does need to be seen for what it is and addressed, something which candidates like Bernie Sanders and other progressives have been seeking to influence for years. And before we go on, it is possible and correct that the United States will hold a better future for its citizens and a more balanced constructive influence in world affairs within a relatively short time. But it will come at a price. The reason for speaking at length about the US here relates to economics and the undue influence the US has over the world’s finances, speaking of Taurean themes. To state the matter succinctly, whatever happens economically in the US has large carry-on effects the world over, as most nations’ financial transactions are now tied to the US dollar. There are alternatives emerging, and those go to why there is such belligerence out of the Beltway toward those nations seeking another financial path. Those nations are well known to us, because we hear about them endlessly in our news cycles, most often in a very negative light. With the preceding in mind, we launch our investigations.
The US and Pax Americana: At the end of WWII, the US controlled half of the world’s wealth, and it has done so since to varying degrees through financial mechanisms backed by its military. The World Bank (chart and chart), the WTO (chart), the IMF (chart) are all heavily influenced by the US, who typically requires veto power over any organization it joins. A quick look at the linked charts shows the astrological interconnections between the US and those organizations and how those fit with and are influenced by the US. There is no space to explain it here, but the main bodies of finance in the world are currently controlled to a big degree by the US.
The neoliberal financial capitalist system must be broken, along with American control over the world’s finances and the basis of money returned to a material value (as in a gold standard or something similar) if we are to see an end to endless warfare, with sovereignty returned to the nations as a whole. And that must begin in the United States. It must be undergone in Europe, too, including the UK.
The coronavirus is the vehicle and catalyst that is pushing all this to a head, and it is of more than a little interest that the lockdowns by and large have occurred in the period of two of the ‘catalytic signs’, Aries and Taurus, producing change in others. The changes to come will no doubt be painful. They will take time, several years at least. The public will suffer for it, as we are seeing even now. It is not something I would wish on anyone. But until the financial order changes, the situation will only go from bad to worse. In some ways the change will be easier in Europe because most of those nations have some form of social democratic government. In their case it will mean getting back to basics and returning more financial control to the individual states, rather than having it dictated by Brussels. But in the US there is no such system. There is no mixed economy. There is precious little social safety net. Infrastructure gets worse by the year. And people have little if any savings. What happens if/when a second wave of this virus comes through and there is another lockdown? Given the protests we are seeing now, what do we really think will happen if/when that second wave comes through? The only ‘leadership’ we see now in the US revolves around the November election, if there is to be one.
The poorly pland-emic: Whenever an event like this happens it is almost a knee-jerk reaction that all the various conspiracies get rolled out. It is natural to question, and right to do so. There is a particular theory we may have seen that COVID-19 is a ‘Plandemic’ – that this has been planned in advance. What we have here instead, really, is the result of a perfect storm of events. If there is a ‘Cabal’ seeking a one-world government, they keep shooting themselves in the feet, witness the rise of the East and the ‘Cabal’s’ failure to overturn other nations they don’t like. The surveillance state is already here. Just be aware. We can be tracked and categorised through virtually every piece of electronics we own that connects to the internet. (Your TV is watching you, and your smart phone transmits a record of your every movement. Pretty smart, huh? Paranoid?) Accountability for our poor state of affairs in the West lies at the feet of our own governments, and us for not standing up. Forget blaming China or anyone else. It would never fly anyway. Russia didn’t throw our elections. Our own establishment did that for us. That’s just another agenda of control and blaming someone else for our own leaders’ incompetence. Frankly, forget cabals and one-world government. That sort of thing is fracturing before our eyes anyway, and that relates largely to the competing self-interests of vested parties and increasing resistance to them.
OK. So, who is to blame?: Now, there is a loaded question. And why do we need to blame someone? It is human nature to want to blame someone else for our own misfortunes. Much of the Western world has been adversely affected by this virus, while the East has shown surprising resilience. And then the questions arise as to why that would be the case. We will look at that. There are several points we will examine as we go along here, and some of what follows will be quite confronting to what we thought we knew about the way the world works. Speaking of Neptune with the full moon, Neptune can represent deception as well as intuition – opposites, to be sure. There is now a concerted effort at misinformation and distraction coming from many directions and until we see these for what they are there will be little hope for a positive change in the near future. Here are the main areas to examine:
We’ll start with the lockdowns.
Continuing, I recently read a tweet linked to an article that gave what many people call convincing arguments against the lockdowns. There are many such articles and videos that have gone viral, such as the two doctors in California who were keen to reopen their urgent care clinics, and one Dr. Buttar from my home state of North Carolina who is busy pushing his own expensive therapies (and also keen to get his practice reopened). And some valid points are made, such as keeping one’s immune system up to snuff and empowering oneself through investigating widely and asking a lot of questions once informed. But most of the anti-lockdown and COVID deniers miss the main points. Most arguments against the lockdowns focus upon deaths-per-million and the damage they cause to economies and hold up Sweden as an example against lockdowns for the West. The CFR (case fatality rate) tells a very different story. Sweden is not exactly a shining example of success. But the lockdowns will be blamed for the inadequacies in our societies for years to come, and have led many people to claim that it is all some sort of hoax and a grand conspiracy. Panic might come closer to explaining the lockdowns in the West. The following goes more to the truth of what is taking place:
“Where one stands on the closedown depends on where one stands on other issues. [For example, and generalizing,] If you are a libertarian, you oppose the closedown because it interferes with your freedom and keeps useless old people alive who cost you payroll tax dollars. If you are a Trump-hater like the New York Times you blame Trump for understating the threat and not closing down soon enough. If you are a Trump supporter you blame China and expect China to pay for it by forfeiting their trillion dollar holding of US government bonds…Those decrying the closedown are unaware of the mischief they are making. They have set it up for the elites, who have taken us for another “bailout the one percent ride,” to blame the resulting economic depression on the closedown. The US economy has been in a long-term recession. Growth in income and wealth has accrued to the top few percent who own the majority of stocks and bonds driven up in price by the Fed’s money printing. The rest of the population has been hurt by the offshoring of their jobs and by the financialization of the economy that leaves them little or no discretionary income after they pay their rent or mortgage, car payment, credit card payment and student debt…The danger in the shouting and finger-pointing is that a sick economy will be blamed on the closedown, not on the debt burden. Reopening the economy does not make the debt burden disappear…“
In an ideal world…: In our rich nations there should have materially been no need for nationwide lockdowns. That’s the plain truth. Our national leaders knew what was taking place in China, knew the dangers of the virus, had run all the simulations sometimes years prior and then sat on their hands under pressure from business leaders and other experts whose opinions varied from the evidence shown in the East. There are several things to parse here. We will begin with why we were caught unprepared, and the simple reason is twofold: Our healthcare systems were in a poor state of preparedness due to repeated cuts to health care services over the past 40 years, and there is a primary difference in cultures between the East and the West. So to begin, in one version of our ideal world, the following would have been in place in order to cope with this virus:
Yes, this describes an ideal. Some may even call it a communist ideal, but from another point of view, it also describes common sense in a world where governments actually represent their people and have care of them. In our rich nations, the preceding is entirely possible, with no lasting ill effects. Such actions would have produced solidarity and cooperation in most of the citizenry, bolstered confidence in government, community and agencies, and allowed the nations to move forward in confidence after the pandemic/epidemic had passed. We are seeing that solidarity to a large extent here in Italy, at least in the north of the nation. We also see it in Asian nations. It would also foster international cooperation. I don’t really need to tell you what we see instead, but we need to look at it anyway. Instead of cooperation in the West, we have seen every nation for itself, with a few exceptions, and token gestures of aid.
A difference of cultures: The response to this virus in various cultures, or lack thereof, has been fascinating to watch. In much of the West we have an attachment to personal liberties, at times amounting to almost a fetish. Other cultures have other ideas. But as a result, social media is awash with posts about covert agendas about social control since we have had the lockdowns, the ‘need’ for our societies to quickly reopen and the great desire for our lives to ‘return to normal’, whatever that is. We won’t address those here. Usually, ‘return to normal’ means being able to do as we want as before the virus took hold. We might want to question the latter point.
Asian nations had a different attitude, approach and response to their epidemics. Their societies generally have long histories of collectivist inclinations, and hence are more readily rallied to a response to communal threats. They also tend to trust their governments to a greater extent than do we in the West, with the exception of Sweden, which is an interesting case study in itself. By inference, one the greater measures of effectiveness in response to the virus has been the level of trust and collectivist traditions within nations and toward their governments. The nations of Asia that most quickly mobilized were China, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore and Iran. This goes across economic and social models. Their numbers over time tell the story of the effectiveness of their approaches. (See here and here). New Zealand also moved very aggressively and had only a few deaths. The response of the US has not been ideal, though, and has led to a dangerous turn of events. That brings us to China.
More alarming, scapegoating China will badly affect the most vulnerable populations the world over, especially in the West. The following paragraphs will explain why, and we’ll begin by listing the likely agendas behind it, which will lead to a larger, more important point, later on:
No stone is being left unturned in the current renewed propaganda war. We hear rehashed stories about Uighurs, tales of nefarious supposed bioweapons research in Wuhan, that China was covering up the outbreak in Wuhan, social media posts about the wild animal trade being restarted, the evil and repressive Chinese ‘regime’, and these are just a few examples. To start, we have been hearing about a sensational report, supposedly from the NCMI, about the alleged coronavirus outbreak from November in China, and this is being used to claim that the Chinese knew about the virus back then and covered it up until the last day of 2019. The only news outlet that reported it was coronavirus was the American network ABC.
Well, there was an outbreak of an infection in China in mid-November, but it was something along the lines of a form of bubonic plague (pneumonic plague), not coronavirus. The Chinese did cover that up to avoid panicking their public, given the deadly nature of the plague (Black Death) plus the fact that they had the outbreak already under control, which was actually very small. It was traced to a source in Inner Mongolia. The NCMI has denied there was any such report from mid-November about the coronavirus. The Chinese had not isolated the coronavirus until 7 Jan 2020. It was not until the middle of December they even knew they were treating a new disease, characterized at the time as ‘cases of pneumonia of unknown origin’. And there was a cover-up by Chinese officials at the time – at the local level in Wuhan, and at the end of December. Once the CCP was notified, those officials were fired and the WHO was notified about the infection. Americans were imbedded in the WHO offices in Geneva at the time. There was no cover-up by the CCP. There was, however, a cover-up on the part of the Americans.
“And then, validating the ABC News report [linked above], Israel steps in. Israeli intel confirms U.S. intel did in fact warn them in November about a potentially catastrophic pandemic in Wuhan (once again: how could they possibly know that on the second week of November, so early in the game?) And NATO allies were warned – in November – as well.
The bottom line is explosive: the Trump administration as well as the CDC had an advance warning of no less than four months – from November to March – to be properly prepared for Covid-19 hitting the U.S. And they did nothing. The whole “China is a witch!” case is debunked.
Moreover, the Israeli disclosure supports what’s nothing less than extraordinary: U.S. intel already knew about Sars-Cov-2 roughly one month before the first confirmed cases detected by doctors in a Wuhan hospital. Talk about divine intervention.”
Divine intervention, indeed. Emphases added. And we note as well that all the NATO countries had warning back in November, also with a four month lead time. Now, there is quite a bit of circumstantial evidence along with a similar timeline that points to the virus possibly being some sort of bioweapon. The science says no. Speculation about this has been rife. Here’s the only thing we know for sure regarding that: We don’t know anything for sure. We begin to see why blaming anyone for something like this is a slippery slope, that it is full of disinformation and that there are other agendas, like those listed above, behind such accusations. It also hooks into long prejudices and conditioning about China and the Far East in general, especially when it comes to manufacturing consent.
To clarify what was going on at the purported Level 4 bio-lab in Wuhan, they were indeed studying coronaviruses there. And we might well wonder why. Firstly, bats are said to carry it, especially the type of bats that live in southwest China. So, they would want to know everything they could about it, given that cross-species transfers do occur. There is another point that is conveniently left out of Western reporting, though. The US was funding that research, in Wuhan, and it was a type of research that had been banned in the US, because it was bioweapons research. Why would the US be funding bioweapons research in China? And there may be another reason why the Chinese would want to make such studies: It is alleged that the US has secret bioweapons facilities, one in Georgia (the nation) and several in post-Maidan Ukraine. If so, the Chinese would want to know with what they were dealing, should anything come to pass. Who knows what to believe, then?
The likely origin of the virus: Here is where common sense and a little digging come into play. Have a look at this list of epidemics and see if you notice a pattern. One thing epidemics are unrelated to, which is something I have been questioned about, is the electrification of the Earth. If you know the history of science, it is plain to see epidemics have nothing to do with electricity or radio waves. Instead, something else emerges. All of those diseases are related to animals. We also note that by and large the epidemics are related to urban settings, and then something else emerges: there was a sharp uptick in epidemics, their severity and their death rates from the 1950s. Noting these points, there is a video worth watching about Big Agriculture and epidemics. (full video here, but poorer quality) Our farming practices and trade in wild animals have contributed greatly to the dire state of animal/human relations that we now have, which lends itself readily to cross-species infections, especially regarding our consumption of meat. We eat too much of it. That has resulted in overcrowding of livestock and poultry, different species being placed in close proximity in unsanitary conditions, and so forth. Bacon double cheeseburger or meat-lover’s pizza, anyone?
The human body is an animal, and it is subject to the same laws of health as is the animal kingdom. This is not to advocate vegetarianism, but to make a point. Not everyone can live a vegetarian lifestyle. But our farming practices, especially since WWII, have been taken over by big business, with small farms being sucked up by large conglomerates and with animals being handled like merchandise and often in appalling, severely overcrowded conditions. That agri-business along with ‘urban spread’ has also resulted on close contact between humans and animal species with which we would not ordinarily come into contact. It is the perfect scenario for cross-species transfer of microorganisms of all sorts, especially viruses, with mutations accelerating and with us and other animals being left defenceless because we have no time to develop immunity. That cross-species transfer takes place rapidly in the bird kingdom, and that line of mutation is what has arisen in the form of influenza pandemics. Consider the following:
“…nor will the true connection between the birds and the devas be accurately realised by the occult student unless one applies oneself to the consideration of the “bird or swan out of time and space,” and the place that birds play in the mysteries. Herein lies for him the clue. One must remember likewise the fact that every life of every degree, from a god to the most insignificant of the lesser devas, or builders, must at some time or another pass through the human family. As H. P. B. has pointed out, birds and serpents are closely connected with wisdom, and therefore with the psychic nature of God, of humans, and of devas. The study of mythology should reveal certain stages and relationships which will make this matter clearer.”
It would appear that God is trying to tell us something through these epidemics. To add to the above, this pandemic has been labelled a ‘black swan event’ by some commentators, speaking of symbolism. But in reality, it is a white swan event. It could have been avoided and the causes were known. The worst epidemics within a single yearly period in recent memory have largely been from varieties of flu. As an aside, it is of interest also that comet Yi-SWAN appeared in March of this year as the lockdowns in the West were starting. It was discovered by a Korean, the SWAN appellation referring to the instrument of the spacecraft used to confirm Yi’s initial observation, well after the Korean coronavirus crisis had abated.
The World Bank was set up toward the end of WWII with an eye to the post-WWII future. It was set up initially as a development bank, giving loans to the developing world and toward reconstruction. From 1968, its focus changed under the direction of McNamara, tying the loans to agriculture. From that point onward, the World Bank was:
“…used as a way of transferring the productive wealth of the third world back to the first world. The larger capital that was raised during his tenure was used to expand the bank’s lending activities, and those expanded loans kicked off the era of the third world debt crisis, including a period from 1976 to 1980 where developing world debt rose on average 20% per year.”
Further, regarding the World Bank and the US, it has been stated that:
“…the United States, through the World Bank, has become…the most dangerous, right-wing, evil organization in modern history — more evil than the IMF. That’s why it’s almost always been run by a Secretary of Defense. It has always been explicitly military. It’s the hard fist of American imperialism…Its idea is to make Latin American, and African, and Asian countries export plantation crops, especially plantations that are U.S. or foreign-owned. The primary directive of the World Bank to countries is: “You must not feed yourself; you must not grow your own grain or your own food; you must depend on the United States for that. And you can pay for that by exporting plantation crops.”
The statement that it has always been run by a secretary of Defense is not literally true. Only three of its executives have been But the appointees are always American and always nominated by the President. So, from 1968, the World Bank became more and more an arm of American influence enforced by the US military, hence the ‘need’ for some 800 military bases scattered across the globe. Its influence was further cemented and enhanced when the US unilaterally went off the gold standard with the ‘Nixon Shock’ in 1971. It was McNamara who escalated the Vietnam War when he served as Secretary of Defense under Johnson. He later expressed regret for decisions he made during that war, but we wonder about his views on the World Bank. Aside from that, the gold standard put severe restraints on the ability of Washington to wage war. Something had to be done. Debt had soared from the Korean and Vietnam wars and it was hampering American adventurism abroad. The answer was floating the American dollar as a fiat currency. The US could then print all the money it wanted. Problem solved. Endless wars. No country tied to a gold standard can afford to wage war, not for very long, anyway. That is why we see nations buying reserves of gold, such as Russia, China and so forth, because they can then trade in gold instead of dollars and bypass the US dollar stranglehold on the world economy.
China created its own World Bank in 2015. The US soon began its harsher rhetoric toward China, adding to Obama’s ‘Pivot to Asia’. The reason for doing so is simple, from the linked article:
But the administration suffered a humiliating diplomatic defeat last spring [2015] when most of its closest allies signed up for the bank, including Britain, Germany, Australia and South Korea. Altogether 57 countries have joined, leaving the United States and Japan on the outside.
The calculation for joining is simple. China, with its vast wealth and resources, now rivals the United States at the global economic table. That was confirmed this week when the International Monetary Fund blessed the Chinese renminbi as one of the world’s elite currencies, alongside the dollar, euro, pound and yen…
“And it gives the existing institutions a kick in the pants.”
The corporate interests in the US and across the West were quite happy to send their manufacturing to China prior to 2015 at the start of globalization, and the banking interests were happy indeed to use Hong Kong as the clearing house for all the transactions with China, especially after the Soviet Union fell. But when China began to implement its own systems and assert its financial sovereignty, its real troubles with the US began. And then the protests in Hong Kong were fomented, mostly by Western interests, and underpinned by the plutocrats in Hong Kong. What about the US, then, and what are we seeing there now that might lend itself to the preceding?
Already we are seeing articles coming out, largely in mainstream publications, but also conservative ones, who are bemoaning the loss of American exceptionalism we are seeing, supposedly as a result of the botched response of Washington to the pandemic. Those writers might want to do a little more research, because that exceptionalism has been disappearing since the Reagan administration at an ever-accelerating rate. It may also pay them to look into the mirror of history at what happened to the Russian Federation in the ‘90s in comparison to what is about to take place in the US once the pandemic has passed. What we are seeing with the lockdowns is not the worst of it. The economic and financial shockwave that will come when the bills come due will be more worrisome than the virus. This has been one of the main arguments against the lockdowns.
While people have been focused on the likes of Bill Gates and the WHO (not the band) – and they do need to be investigated, with the WHO reformed – the American public is being ripped off by the plutocrats to the tune of trillions of taxpayer dollars. The Fed can print 1.2 trillion dollars to give away to Wall Street, a small fraction of the giveaway, but Congress cannot find funding for universal health care. It is a ludicrous argument. The giveaway is to prop up the investor (FIRE, or Financial, Investment and Real Estate) economy, not the real one, the latter of which we are a part. It is that sort of helicopter money and the policies which go along with it that has so corrupted the American political system. Starting in about three months, when rents start to come due and debts are defaulted, we will see one of the biggest yard sales and monopolization of assets in American history unless the government steps in immediately and calls for a debt jubilee and restructuring of the US financial system. And boats can fly.
Plutocracy’s last chance: The giveaways and buyouts we are seeing will be the plutocracy’s last chance to monopolize power, though. Whether in the US, UK or EU, the neoliberal system we have in place now will only increase poverty under the cover of the pandemic, except of course for the richest people. The pharmaceutical industry, as well as the agribusiness sector (book), the insurance industry (which goes hand-in-hand with the American health care industry and Big Pharma), the banks and the media in their current form are largely all creations of the plutocrat class, and they are now poised to sweep up all the companies and businesses in danger of closing their doors once the debts come due. And now we can add to that the 20-30+% of people who are unemployed in the US now because of the virus lockdowns. All of that is bad enough, but then to put the icing on the cake, as it were, we see moves at further strengthening the already pervasive surveillance state in the US. It sounds quite Orwellian when it is all put together, and suspiciously like a grand conspiracy.
If we want a better society, then we must hold our own politicians’ feet to the fire, and we must create it for ourselves. No leader is going to do it for us, and they often work against our interests. We sink or swim together. What we will see after this, especially if the stock market fails to crash, is more of the same, with steadily worsening conditions for the majority, with greater monopolization. What we will not see, however, is the demise of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency, as so many people hope, the immediate end of US hegemony or an end to the endless wars. That may take years. If the past is any indication, it took a good four years after the ‘29 crash to produce the reforms that were needed then for the US economy and it will probably take at least that long again. What we will see instead, more than likely, is a steady accelerated transfer of wealth to the wealthiest after our current bout of lockdowns has settled, with a long struggle to re-establish economies. And the real economies will not return to what they were before the virus hit.
The United States has desperately needed the changes that are in the background and have been building for years, which people know are needed, but which the vested interests fight at every turn. The other nations of the world, especially developing nations, need for the US and the West in general to change its tune and start giving them a fair shake. None of the preceding is meant to sound pessimistic, but is instead based on long observation. It actually carries a message of a positive change in the not-too-distant future, when the US elites and establishment throw off the jingoism and sense of entitlement and exceptionalism and start behaving like a normal country. These next four years at least will be hard. But, the world stands waiting. People have asked me often who I see winning the election at the end of this year. It is apparent for anyone who follows it: The plutocrats will win this election. They already have since ousting Sanders, regardless if it is Biden, Trump or their replacements. It is written in the US horoscope – a subversion of the government by the plutocrat class. It has already taken place. We will cover that more in the Cancer letter this year. Regarding Sanders, though, his message is far more important than the man himself, and the movement he started, though set back at the moment, will grow in strength in these few years ahead.
The full, conscious inception of the path: In closing, Taurus is said to rule the full, conscious inception of the Path. Regarding that, it will be helpful to remember a few things in these days. What we as individuals take away from this experience in terms of increased wisdom is the most important thing. All else is external and distracts us from our own inner guidance. If we don’t take this time to look back over our lives and realize what is actually important, we will have lost an opportunity. What is important will vary from person to person, but everyone’s destiny is interconnected, yet individual at the same time. If we can stay connected to our inner guidance – call it a soul, higher Self, God or what have you – then all the rest falls into place. The meaning of our lives takes on force and we can then enter into a sense of pure, joyful will, overcoming the obstacles in our way and giving life a renewed momentum forward along our life path. Our current crisis is only a flash in time and will soon pass. What will we make of it?
There is a lot to chew on here. If the situation keeps going the way it has – and it is very likely to – the elites in every nation will set themselves up so they can carry on to their advantage. But after this first wave and experience has passed, we will have a new awareness of our world. It won’t be so easy for the elites in the future. A second wave of the virus could be worse than the first. What would we do then? The Uranian transit through Taurus is calling for change in our value systems. For myself, I do not see a grand conspiracy. I do see various factions gaming the crisis for their own advantage. Instead, what we are really seeing is a grand rising of awareness. What we as individuals have as a result of the lockdowns is a vision of a clear path forward now, if we can realize it. Nonessentials are dropping away, and we are headed for a needs-based rather than a desire-based system over the years ahead, with community now a central focus in everyone’s life, and whether or not we wish to be a part of that. When the virus first struck here in Italy the government first hesitated, then chose the public welfare over the economy. The choice was made: Family and the vulnerable have to be cared for. As your lockdowns end, as many are now doing, may we all step forward with a new sense of awareness, that what we thought was normal was not, that people matter more than possessions and that what we value is of far more importance than what other people tell us we should value. We are the only ones who can live our lives. Let us all live ours well, with an eye to a better path ahead. Stay well. Stay happy. Stay safe.
Wesak blessings,
Malvin
3 May 2020
malvin@malvinartley.com
These letters are sent as a service. If you wish to be added to or deleted from the list, let me know. Feel free to send these on, but do so without charge or alteration.
Picture credits:
Bull on mountain: stock photo
Narratives: https://www.vox.com/2020/4/13/21205833/coronavirus-pandemic-conspiracy-theories
Vulcan: Alessandro Gherardini (Italian,1655 – 1723), The Forge of Vulcan
Blame Game: Stock photo
American exceptionalism: https://www.e-ir.info/2014/03/23/american-exceptionalism-the-gender-factor/
Roosevelt: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/09/what-does-teddy-roosevelts-big-stick-line-really-mean-anyway/262579/
Prehistoric: https://www.politico.eu/interactive/worlds-cartoonists-on-coronavirus-cartoons/
Financialization: https://dailyreckoning.com/peak-bull-fake-economy-fake-news/
Michigan protests: https://www.newsweek.com/michigan-protesters-gather-outside-governor-gretchen-whitmers-house-maga-signs-demand-reopening-1499933
Anti-China: https://it.reuters.com/article/china/idUKKBN1ZT1CI
Patient Zero: https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/doctor-who-patient-zero-290
Bioweapon: https://www.islamtimes.org/en/article/845219/creator-of-bioweapons-act-says-coronavirus-is-biological-warfare-weapon
Agribusiness: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/328622104059387146/
Pax Americana: https://www.globalresearch.ca/rome-before-it-became-empire-pire-a-pax-americana-or-a-republic-if-you-can-keep-it/5702371
Corporate greed: https://www.thenewantifederalist.com/tag/corporate-greed/
Big Pharma: https://www.greanvillepost.com/2019/07/26/sellling-side-effects-big-pharmas-marketing-machine/
Air pollution: https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/figures/pm10-concentrations-in-europe-2004-showing-the-36th-highest-daily-value/figure-3-14-air-pollution-1990-2004.eps
Fracking: https://collapseofindustrialcivilization.com/tag/toxic-groundwater/
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