The Libra Festival 2020

The Libra Festival 2020
1/2 Oct 2020
© Malvin Artley

Greetings Everyone!

Autumn has finally arrived here in Rovereto. The first two weeks of September brought some of the hottest weather we have had all summer. Then, like flicking a switch, the autumn winds brought in the cool, dry air characteristic of this region for the fall. Our Japanese maples bear the signs, too, with their beautiful deepening shades of red. Leaves and horse chestnuts litter the ground and the edible chestnuts are now in the stores. Apples will follow next. Strudel season is fast approaching and the chestnut festival is around the corner. And now, this morning, there was the first faint dusting of snow on the mountains in the near-distance. My favorite season has arrived.

The clear light of autumn: The atmosphere in autumn has a character that is unlike any other season – cool, dry, clear – one can see for miles. It reminds me of an old song by The Who, speaking of seeing for miles. We’ll speak more about the meaning of some of those song lyrics later on in this installment. In recent letters we have looked at the nature of the various stages approaching clear light as one advances in meditative practice, and one of those stages is called ‘white appearance’, a preliminary stage in advancing meditative clarity. It has been likened to a very clear autumn sky at or about dawn, or to the light of the moon. There is a special quality of the air in autumn when the first cold begins to sweep in, clearing out the humidity, and I am always reminded of the clarity of the primordial human mind when autumn arrives, and the approaching stages of the clear light. One begins to see this mind of white appearance, with practice, in the deepening stages of meditation. The yearly cycle also has correspondences to the stages of life and to meditation. The autumn period marks a stage of withdrawal, the beginnings of it, and the white appearance announces the coming of real clarity and openness in contemplation.

The stages of withdrawal we are speaking of here, in terms of meditative practice, happen quickly – so quickly as to be imperceptible initially. When the process is begun, we slip out of everyday consciousness into other realms, advancing to the stage of example clear light, mentioned in the Virgo letter if we are able to hold our focus and hold the lights. Once the example clear light is attained – the ‘mother and child reunion’ – then steady reflection (contemplation) on the true open/empty nature of all phenomena can be pursued. That stage in meditation is where we come to the idea expressed in Alice Bailey’s Esoteric Astrology called ‘reversing the wheel’. And these points bring us to this year’s consideration of the Libran interval, with a special emphasis this year on clarity of thought and rising above the tumult of everyday life, otherwise known as the ‘play of the opposites’.

 Reversing the wheel: Libra is said to mark the stage of reversing the wheel – as in the soul’s progress around the astrological wheel of the signs of the zodiac – because it represents a point of equipoise and reassessment of one’s direction, as in soul path, putting one’s life more into line with the soul’s intent. At least, that is the soul’s intent for a person born with Libra prominent in their horoscope. Hence, we have the Uranian rulership of Libra at the esoteric level of the sign,[1] in that Uranus represents imposing (a self-imposition) of a new rhythm in one’s living. Libra represents the stage,

“…wherein the point of balance is eventually reached between spiritual man and personal man and the stage is laid for the final fivefold process which is, in reality, the subjective correspondence to the outer externalisation upon the Path of Outgoing and which is carried forward upon the Path of Ingoing, or the Path of Return. Then takes place the reversal of the wheel and the beginning of the new orientation and of discipleship in Scorpio, the directed, controlled life of the disciple in Sagittarius, initiation in Capricorn, followed by service in Aquarius and the work of a world saviour in Pisces and final liberation.”[2]

This is only part of the story, though, and the outer view of the process, because ‘reversal of the wheel’ has another, wider meaning. The wheel of which that wider meaning speaks is the actual wheel of life and death, or samsara. Once steadiness of contemplation is realized in the Libran phase, then it is actually possible to begin to step off the requirement for reincarnation – our seemingly endless wheel of birth, death and rebirth. That requirement is related to the karma of a person, represented for us in Libra by the sign’s hierarchical ruler, Saturn. Saturn has a specific relationship with our choices in life. As we choose to act, so our karma is set. Thus, we have the lower orthodox motto for Libra: “Let choice be made.”[3]

Libra – decisions, decisions: Librans are more famously (perhaps more in the vein of ‘infamously’) known for not being able to make decisions, for ‘sitting on the fence’ when it comes to major points of crisis. But that is only an appearance, a chimera. In Libra, it is imperative that one makes the correct choices in life, such that one’s soul path can be fulfilled. And that takes time in the early stages of Libran experience. It also takes clarity of thought. So, when faced with one of life’s little crises, such as what to wear/eat/watch on the tellie and so forth, choice is not a big deal. Sometimes it is better to let someone else decide. Of course, not deciding is deciding. But when it comes to the big ones, as in deciding a career path and the nature of one’s service, sitting with all the facts, calmly, and working out the details is the Libran way and Librans thus preoccupied can be maddening to more impulsive types. Try to rush them at that point, though, and you get probably the best example of ‘passive resistance’, or even mule-like resistance if matters are pressed. Venus is the orthodox ruler of the sign and Venus does not like to be rushed, figuratively speaking. Librans will do things in their own time, in their own way.

On the Path the situation for Librans is different. Uranus takes over and decisions can be made in an instant, and often are. It is usually not difficult to tell if a Libran type (Sun or rising) is ‘on the Path’. Life-altering crises will present themselves at opportune (Saturnian) moments, and the correct choice is made in an instant of inner clarity, which then takes one into the Scorpio phase. These points of crisis are meant to draw out the soul, and if chosen correctly, the path taken as a result of the crisis is often disruptive, both for the Libran and for the people around them. Life changes. In this phase we have the esoteric motto of the sign: “I choose the way that lies between the two great lines of force”.[4] This phase of the Libran experience also brings us back to ‘reversing the wheel’, samsara in this case.

Occult reversal of the wheel: In meditative practice, as in occult meditation, the stage of   contemplation represents an opportunity, a juxtaposition wherein a conscious choice can be made, outside the realm of the personality. In the early stages of the Libran experience, choice is made via the reasoning (lower) mind. This is a choice made based in available data. It is the Venusian phase of Libra, wherein data is integrated into one’s world view and decisions are made based on past experiences. Venus rules the integrative factor in the human subtle energy system, via the ajna center. In occult meditation, with the example clear light achieved, there is no reasoned choice. The way forward is seen whole, in an instant.

That instantaneous choice is called ‘conscious choice’ because it is made in the mind of clear light, beyond the pull of the opposites (personal factors). You would know it if you have ever experienced it, in that one knows what has to be done in crisis moments in an instant of absolute clarity. One occultly stands in the calm center amidst the swirling and often warring energies in any situation and sees the path clearly. It is a point of absolute peace, but it passes as quickly as it comes. It is also an interlude, which Libra represents before renewed action in Scorpio, speaking in astrological archetypes. The experience can be seen figuratively as the passing of a hurricane. When the eye of the storm passes over, there is only clear sky above and an overwhelming sense of calm until the other half of the storm passes over. We could call the initial crisis ‘the storm before the calm’. The ‘eye’ experience (a correspondence also to the 3^rd eye, the organ of spiritual perception) is ‘the calm before the storm’. And then amidst the renewed storm in Scorpio (the ‘burning ground’) the path forward is engaged. We like to call that engagement a battle, but it is more in the nature of a concentrated effort – a practice that leads to perfection. Musicians and artists will know the analogy well. They don’t do battle with their instruments. It is more a matter of training. We might call it ‘en-joyed effort’, though it can be frustrating at times.

In closing this section, without this Libran-esque interlude of clear light recognition, one goes constantly from one experience of struggle to the next, under the impulse of karma and creating yet more of the same. The wheel continues to turn. The aim in Libra is to find the calm center within oneself in which conscious choices can be made. It takes practice to be able to access that whenever the need arises. It takes training the lower vehicles to respond and to be silent, if only for an instant, when strident experiences arise. It has been said that the most outstanding characteristic of Libra is the fact that it is not outstanding. A person sitting in contemplation is not ‘outstanding’ in our vernacular sense of that word.  The person is not out, standing in experience. Yet, the potential power of that instant of calm knowing is beyond our immediate comprehension. It is in the interludes of our activity that our wisdom is realized. In that sense, the Libran experience is outstanding, and very necessary if we are to advance as souls. With these points in mind, we move on to the world and the full moon, and back into the storm, but with the wisdom of what needs to be done in the days ahead. The full moon takes place on 1 Oct 2020 at 21:05 UT (2 Oct 7:05 am AEST). This is the harvest moon in the northern hemisphere, which normally is the full moon of Virgo. On the surface it us a rather nondescript figure – quite fitting for Libra, actually. The Moon is conjunct Chiron, which can represent healing or also the opening of wounds. The Sun is quincunx Uranus, representing forward-looking people, but also diverse paths at attaining more progressive goals. Progressives are represented by Uranus, the planet that gives us the ‘urge to better conditions’. We note that Jupiter and Saturn are both direct now, meaning events will begin to move forward at a quickening and more determined pace than they have over the preceding months. This last month before the US election will thus be full of activity and restlessness. In fact, though, the only major aspect to the full moon axis is the quincunx to Uranus, which many astrologers would not count as a major aspect. There are hidden factors in the chart, though.

The period from this full moon to the next, a few days before the election, is influenced by the Mars/Saturn square, which can be read as, ‘the greater the effort, the greater the difficulties encountered’. That aspect can be quite frustrating when it comes to moving ahead with one’s desires. In turn, it forms a midpoint axis with the Sun/Uranus quincunx, which reveals quite an interesting dynamic. That Sun/Uranus combination can indicate revolutionary ideas, or it can reveal excitement and upsets – sudden events that challenge our established orders. These four planets form a setup for a possible ‘October surprise’. At the least, it shows volatility, which we can only realistically expect in the month just prior to a US presidential election. I did a forecast for the election, more in the way of an analysis of the astrology present, in the blog site. Mars is also square both Saturn and Pluto, which shows more restiveness to come for this month. With these points in mind, we move on to the main topics for consideration this month, and they largely revolve arounf two areas, both interrelated – money and China. We start with China.

Why consider China?: Since this is the Libra letter, and we know that China is ruled in her personality expression by Libra, as well as having Libra Sun in her national chart, some words about this nation and most ancient culture are in order. It is a nation very much in the news these days, and for the major part not in a very good light. There are reasons for that, but those reasons are not what we are led to believe. And there is a definite reason to believe that the US is preparing for war against either Russia or China, most likely the latter. If so, it will be a very foolish and destructive course to pursue for the US. I have my reasons for saying so, but will not list them here.

 I have been asked many times why I have a more favourable view of China than what we hear in the press and in social media, ‘favorable’ being the perception. What follows is not about political systems of governments, about human rights, etc. We all have our opinions on those, and most of them quite entrenched. Many readers may not want to hear what follows, but given the looming election in the US, the terrible rhetoric coming from Washington about China and the public mood regarding China, certain points are well worth considering. If the China hatred campaign continues as it is, the result could be a conflict that no one wants, that would likely result in large numbers of deaths on both sides and which would disrupt the world economy for years.

So to start, China is here to stay and it is growing in influence. It is a fact with which we have to accept and deal. In the West, largely as a result of our conditioning and lack of accurate and informed knowledge about China, its culture and the East in general, most of what we receive as ‘information’ or ‘news’ about China is propaganda creating a great separative orientation toward that land and the Chinese in general, especially the CCP. That in itself should raise a red flag to anyone who seeks to be impartial and practice what we preach about right human relations. And right now, with the US seeking to push China back in its progress, we are told we need seriously to consider China to be our main adversary and that we should be very happy if the CCP were to disappear from the face of the Earth. China would thereby be ‘liberated’ and happiness would return from the Himalayas to the Pacific. Sure. We are told the same types of stories about Russia and Iran, for many of the same reasons we are about to outline.

What follows is not about human rights, economic policies, styles of government and so forth. Instead, it is about the right of every nation under international law as outlined by Roosevelt’s vision of the UN charter to pursue their own destiny without being interfered with or interfering in any other nation’s business. Roosevelt’s vision of the UN was based in the Four Freedoms:

“In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.
The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world.
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way—everywhere in the world.
The third is freedom from want—which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants—everywhere in the world.
The fourth is freedom from fear—which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor—anywhere in the world.
That is no vision of a distant millennium.
It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation.
That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt, excerpted from the State of the Union Address to the Congress, January 6, 1941

The speech itself was a yearly speech (later to become the State of the Union speech) in 1941, but he went on to see the incorporation of those freedoms in his vision for the UN. Since his death in 1945, the world and the UN have not quite worked out in the way he envisioned. However the one body in the UN that has prevented many wars and conflicts otherwise is the UN Security Council. Until recently, it was composed of only the five representatives of the major nations as its permanent members – the US, the UK, the USSR, France and China – who prevailed against the Axis Powers. Each of those nations has at one time or another exercised its veto power to avoid conflicts between nations. They have also used their veto powers to promote their own selfish interests at times, each without exception. Nobody I know of has ever stated the UN is perfect or the best it could be. The Tibetan, via Alice Bailey mentioned at one point that the USSR should never have been admitted to the UN because it was a totalitarian state under Stalin.[5] Times and nations do change and have changed. But then, he also went on to say the following:

The major ideas in the world today fall into five categories which it would be well for you to bear in mind:

1. The ancient and inherited ideas which have controlled the racial life for centuries…
2. Those ideas which are relatively new such as Nazism, Fascism, and Communism, though they are not really as new as people are apt to think…
3. The idea, neither old nor particularly new, of democracy in which (supposedly but as yet never factually) the people govern and the government represents the will of the people.
4. The idea of a world state, divided into various great sections
5. The idea of a spiritual Hierarchy which will govern the people throughout the world and will embody in itself the best elements of the monarchial, the democratic, the totalitarian and the communistic regimes.  Most of these groups of ideologies have latent in them much beauty, strength and wisdom, and also a profound and valuable contribution to make to the whole.[6]

Bolded points are emphasized. Given these points, yes, China is governed by the CCP. But world governments are guided by the rays those nations express. China’s brand of communism is fluid (3^rd ray), yet constant and persistent (1^st ray), and above all, it is resistant to any other nation telling it how to govern. But early in Deng Xiaoping’s administration, the CCP recognized that unless they could bring a measure of prosperity to their people, the communist project was doomed. They set about giving their people one of the four freedoms – freedom from want. It is one of the bases of a free and stable society, and it is arguably one of the main reasons there is rising instability in Western societies, in that freedom from want is being removed, most notably in the US and Western Europe. Poverty is also being forced om other nations by means of sanctions, largely by Western powers, as is the case with several nations with whom the Western powers disagree.

Surprising as it may sound, the Chinese also have their version of freedom of expression, so long as it is not aimed at threatening the state. There are protests within China all the time, usually at the local level, and the government does hear people out and make changes in line with the local needs. It is their 3^rd ray in action and one of the reasons for China’s rapid rise, actually, when coupled with their 1^st ray determination. There is also now freedom of religion, within limits, now that Mao is gone. And since the Chinese military has seen rapid development in concert with Russia, there is now freedom from fear, at least from outside militarism. The CCP enjoys a very high approval rating from the people. One might scoff at these statements and dismiss them as propaganda outright, but study of China over time reveals the truth of them. If you don’t know much about China and care to lift the cover a little, there is a good series of articles to start.

All this said, we are looking at the evolution of the consciousness of a people and not whether or not we agree with their approach. China has never been freer, in many ways. And it is building to a place of significant changes in the coming years and in respect to the evolution of their freedoms. It is worth keeping the following statement in mind as we go on about China:

“Media manipulation’s greatest triumph, most evident in the United States, is to have taken advantage of the special historical circumstances of Western development to perpetrate as truth a definition of freedom cast in individualistic terms, enabling the concept to serve a double function: It protects the ownership of [social] private property [factories, land, etc.], more or less absolutely, while simultaneously offering itself as the guardian of the individual’s well-being, suggesting, if not insisting, that the latter is unattainable without the former. Upon this central premise an entire scaffolding of manipulation has been erected.

It’s bullshit, as we are in the process of discovering. Everything we’ve been told about China–everything–is wrong.”

The changing world: China has now risen to a place of real prominence and in world affairs since WWII and has a large influence, for good or ill. International relations have changed significantly since WWII, with the materialists and reactionary elements in the US, and at times with the help of the UK and France, having subverted the vision of world unity outlined in the UN charter, all the while using the rhetoric of freedom and human rights to justify wars abroad. This is well documented. We read the following in Esoteric Astrology about the nations that are meant to lead the world according to Plan:

“Under the plan and contingent upon the energies pouring through the five planetary centres according to plan, there are three great fusing energies or vital centres present upon our planet:
a. Russia, fusing and blending eastern Europe and western and northern Asia.
b. The United States (and later South America) fusing and blending central and western Europe and the entire western hemisphere.
c. The British Empire, fusing and blending races and men throughout the entire world.
In the hands of these nations lies the destiny of the planet. These are the three major world blocs from the consciousness angle and from the angle of world synthesis.” (Esoteric Astrology, p. 531)

That paragraph was published in 1951, just after WWII, and just after the creation of the CIA. The three nations listed were the Allied Powers, who were victorious in the war, led by Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill, respectively. But since then, there is no longer a British Empire, or even a viable Commonwealth, it might be argued. The last vestige of it disappeared with the handover of Hong Kong in 1997. The largest part of that empire was dismantled just after WWII and continued through the 1980s. The British now retain only 14 territories outside the British Isles, many of those becoming their financial secrecy locations (a.k.a. tax havens). However, there is still a strong culture of ‘Britishness’ in many of the old imperial outposts, such as Australia and New Zealand, for instance.

 The collapse of the British Empire was in part engineered by the United States during WWII, which is too much to go into here, but such was the case. It was debt that crippled and destroyed the British Empire, owed in large part to the United States after WWII, along with quite a bit of poor policy in the lead-up to the World Wars. The empire was unsustainable due to overextension, the fate of most empires, and eventually caused its implosion. It is a very simplistic explanation, but goes to the point, and the theme of what will follow here.

The United States and the USSR became the two superpowers after the War, with the US finding itself in control of at least 50% of the world’s wealth. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was the lone superpower, and it quickly began to gobble up the old Soviet satellite states under the umbrella of the EU and the NATO. The US, too, now finds itself in a somewhat similar situation to the UK prior to the World Wars – over-extended, heavily in debt driven in large part by military spending, and riven by internal problems, most of them caused by poor domestic and foreign policy and presently the neoliberal financial capitalist economic system, which has produced the ever-widening wealth chasm we see in the US now. Russia, since Putin, has reinvented herself and is at present largely self-sufficient, with her public in a much better state than they have found themselves in probably centuries. This brings up an important point I almost never see mentioned: The general populace in both Russia and China in recent centuries have known neither any real freedom nor prosperity until very recently.

Russians under the Tsars and Chinese under the dynasties were largely feudal and poor. The societies were autocratic and monarchic. The revolutions in those nations in the 20^th century ended those monarchic lines (and there were more than a couple revolutions in each) and progressively put more prosperity and power in the hands of their people. If you don’t believe it, do a little research, outside of mainstream publications. There are two figures who just passed on who wrote extensively about both nations – Stephen F. Cohen and Andre Vltchek – that would make a good place to start. They were both Americans and spoke out fearlessly against the propaganda we are constantly fed about those two nations. The two men will be sorely missed by people who really want to understand Russia and China. And that brings us to China, finally.

China’s rise: After WWII, China was a poor backwater, devastated and ruined by the war and the civil war that followed after. And then, Mao’s purges and policies crippled the nation even further. It was unable at that time to be much of an influence in world affairs, too preoccupied with its internal problems. It remained a poor country until after Mao’s death in 1976. Nixon went to China shortly before Mao’s death, in 1972, and spoke with Deng Xiaoping about opening to China. Deng took over the leadership of China after Mao and initiated the Open Door Policy in 1978, after which China’s economy took off. Its rise was meteoric, called the ‘Chinese Miracle’, with double-digit growth for much of that time post-1978. It surpassed the US in export volume by 2013 and in PPP by 2017. And the thing most worthy of note is that it raised the great majority – hundreds of millions – of its people out of poverty. Even at that, it still considers itself a developing country.

The plain, inconvenient fact is that we in the West do not in general understand communism as it exists in China, nor do we understand Chinese culture. The CCP is not totalitarian, as we understand it. As much as it is hoped in the West that the CCP will fall, the chances of that in the near future are unlikely. The reason for saying that is the CCP is investing heavily now in its domestic consumption, building its domestic strength, whereas in the past the focus was on foreign investment, building industry and foreign trade. The latter will continue, but since the COVID crisis, the CCP has decided to invest in the people. The result will be greater national pride, which is already causing the CCP’s approval rating to run at over 90% approval. That is by a Western estimate and poll. So, we might dismiss such a figure out of hand, waving it off as pure propaganda, but is it? If it isn’t, then there is a real problem with factions in the US establishment who think we can win a war against China. And the trade war is not even working. Americans are paying for it.

The Eastern cultures are more collective in their consciousness than those in the West, and in times of national emergencies the response from the public in China is to band together for the good of the state, as we saw with their COVID epidemic. It would be the same if they were to face an enemy. And their sense of nationalism now is high, aside from approval for the central government. Given the propaganda we hear about China these days (and the Chinese public hears it too), their national pride is very high. And now that Russia and China have formed a de facto alliance – the very thing Henry Kissinger tried to stop, reflected in US policy over decades – any war with one would mean war with both. What do we do, then? We pronounce them to be enemy #1, with Russia #2 and Iran probably #3. It is madness to keep poking at the Dragon, or the Bear either for that matter. War with China? – It would be one of the most catastrophic blunders the Western powers could make, but it would also be the end of Pax Americana. The chicken hawks in the Western establishment might think it is better to burn out than to waste away, but better sense says it is more sensible and profitable to find common ground than to burn one’s bridges. There are a couple more points to make and then we will get to a little about the US election.

 The choices we are facing: Due to the way the world has changed since WWII and the new dynamics of power internationally, along with the economic and health crises we are facing (and it is not just about COVID), we are being presented with fundamental choices about how we are to live our lives into the future. It is trending toward less consumption and more meaningful attention to environment. There are catches in the latter, too, which we will examine in the next letter. But first, these next few years will set our paths for the remainder of this century, depending on how we choose to deal with the issues at hand. There have been some recent developments that are quite telling and yet for which we have little space here to discuss. We might briefly list them as follows, with the intent to discuss them either in future letters or on the blog site in between:

• The situation in Belarus, which is a US/EU attempt at a color revolution. This goes along with the Navalny false flag, which is an attempt to scuttle the Nord Stream II gas pipeline, and as well the anti-government protests in Bulgaria. There is an effort afoot to split Russia off from Europe and thus set Russian progress back for some years in these efforts, starting with energy supply. If successful it would disadvantage Europe (significantly higher prices for natural gas), be bad for the US (fracking is killing the environment in the US) and would only serve to strengthen the greater Asian union of states under the Sino-Russian leadership. Needless to say, such an effort is destructive, and from what I have seen, it will have unintended consequences for the perpetrators. A further less-known part of this plan is to open the Eastern Mediterranean gas fields to Israeli interests and supply Europe with Israeli gas. That brings us to:
• The building conflict in the Eastern Mediterranean between Greece and Turkey. This is also about gas supplies to Europe, North Africa and Western Asia. The Turkish economy is collapsing rapidly and Erdogan is growing in desperation for his political survival. European banks are also involved. He has designs on a new version of Ottoman rule, which involves energy supply. This is part of the reason for the recent conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan is a Muslim nation, backed by the Turks, who have sent some 2,000 jihadi fighters from Syria to Azerbaijan. Perhaps the Baku oil and gas fields ring a bell to some readers. Azerbaijan also has a coastline on the Caspian Sea. A Turkish win in the conflict may bring Turkish and NATO influence to the Caspian Sea once again. The conflict goes to further destabilize the Caucasus region, which is the aim. This paragraph brings us to:
• Arab states coming out of the closet, or the much-hyped ‘peace treaties’/normalization between the Arab States and Israel. This is all posturing and stepping out of the shadows. It just puts the lipstick on the hog that has been there all along, in that the Arab states and Israel have long had relations and cooperation. Otherwise, the two state solution for the Palestinians would have been enacted long ago. No one is being fooled here. These ‘peace deals’ are nothing more than optics for the presidential race and for Netanyahu, who possibly faces prison for fraud. The treaties are the result of pressure from Washington on said states, more than likely. The last holdout will probably be Saudi Arabia. As far as any sort of military alliance against Iran goes, which is the real intent, the militaries of those Gulf States are so incompetent as to present little threat to Iran, unless maybe the Saudis get the bomb, in which case Iran will have no reason to abide by any nuclear accords. The normalization will likely go nowhere. What it would do, though, is to bunch all the repressive regimes in the region into one basket, Israel included. The mask would be off, if it is not already. These deals are also part of an effort by Trump to lessen US involvement in the region. The Iranians and resistance forces in the region are putting increasing pressure on the US to withdraw anyway.

With the above points in mind, certain nations are going to have to make some important decisions in the next couple of years, if not months ahead. Europeans must decide if they are to oppose US bullying and look after their own best interests when it comes to foreign policy and energy supplies. The emerging conflicts between the patriotic factions, industrialists and Atlanticists in each European state are coming to a boil. These conflicts will reach a breaking point over the next couple of years. Oceanic states like Australia and New Zealand will have to do as the Europeans when it comes to pressures from the US. It is also important to maintain a measure of infrastructure sovereignty from China and other nations. Forming alliances to ‘counter China’, such as the Quad, a few of these states are soon to encounter realities when it comes to financing, trade and the like. Geography will play a significant role in what is emerging, as well as the way in which finances are conducted. The growing aim as the decades advance is toward national and cultural sovereignty. Globalization, as practiced in the neoliberal model, has been quite destructive to sovereignty and culture. The East has decided its way forward, championed by Russia and China. What we see emerging is an attempt by factions in the Western powers to split the West off from the Global South, now that they see their efforts to control the latter have largely failed. And this last point brings us to perhaps the most important consideration at our current crisis.

The COVID crisis has been a bigger crisis for the Western powers, and projected into states that are still under Western influence, like Brazil and India. Step outside of the news and look at the situation. The response/reaction to the COVID pandemic has been very problematic for the West. That is not the case for the Far East. In the West it has resulted in crashing economies, thus exposing all manner of ills that have gone unaddressed in Western nations as a result of economic and foreign policy. It is not difficult to see why so many people believe this pandemic was engineered by some sort of cabal.

In all, the scene that has unfolded this year has been quite revealing. The East is moving on. The West is floundering. Now there is talk of a Great Reset by the G7 powers (the West, basically), which would reorganize our finances and economies. We in the West are being presented with some existential challenges. Though that may sound hyperbolic, once we dig into the issues the truth emerges, because it is a way of life that is being changed and challenged as a result of policies over decades, catalysed by the COVID crisis and our responses to it. We cannot cover all the choices being presented here, but there are a few that we can list, with links for consideration in the next letter. And in fact, what follows is better discussed in the Scorpio letter because these points involve international banking, which Scorpio rules in mundane astrology:

• The touted Green New Deal, which is neither green nor a new deal. The answer, my friends, is not blowin’ in the wind. The key is in the sun, as in the way it produces energy. We have looked at this in past letters.
• The ‘Great Reset’ proposed by the Davos crowd (the Western bankers and financiers). This would lead to the cashless society. It also involves the so-called 4^th industrial revolution.
• The collapse of the world’s fiat monetary system, in large part because most of those currencies are pegged to the US dollar. This is part of the Great Reset. However, it will affect the West by and large and other nations who have not moved toward a system based on something of tangible value, such as a precious metal or some other commodity. It is worth noting, though, that the fiat system emerged because of debt caused mostly by armed conflict. That gives us something to ponder.
• What to do about tech, because it is becoming known, if not already, that it is very distracting, addictive to many people and can be used toward not-so-virtuous ends, as we saw with the 2016 election and the Brexit vote. And now it has become very infectious and divisive with the COVID crisis. There is a film, The Social Dilemma, that explains it, if you have Netflix.

The storm before the calm: The latter bullet point, above, brings us to our last consideration for this letter, and it is about a choice we Americans are about to make – the 2020 Presidential election. This is going to be a choice between tribes, because the issues that most interest Americans and which would really turn the nation around are not even being discussed. It has become a contest between personalities. What we have instead, given the 1^st Presidential debate, is about nonsense, by and large. We won’t go into the debate here. Nearly every comment I have seen was pretty damning of it, basically saying it was an embarrassment to the nation in the eyes of the world. And it was. It may sound depressing or cynical, but the billionaires have already won this Presidential race. In these next years we are going to witness a storm in the US, based in the tribalism of the two parties – hence the order of the wording in this topic heading. Joe Biden is not a choice ‘for the Light’. Our esoteric community is as divided in some respects on this election as any other part of the community. Joe Biden is not a choice for the ‘soul of the US’. Neither is Trump, as his followers would like to think. Both men represent a bankrupt system than needs to be overhauled. That time is coming, but the pressure from the public is as yet not enough to force the changes needed. So, we choose the personality we want to represent our views. But just be aware that neither man and their resulting administration is going to represent the people to any great extent.

‘Hot Fall’ or ‘Icy Crusade’?: In relation to the aftermath of the election, there were recently some perceptive observations by an Iranian journalist, based in the West, echoing what we have examined in recent letters. He talks about two possible scenarios in the US after the election that have also been bandied about by many commentaries we have seen by American pundits – mainly, what happens if Trump refuses to leave if defeated, and what happens if Biden loses? If Trump is defeated and refuses to leave office, then the forecast is for a ‘Hot Fall’, meaning an insurrection in the fall quarter to try to keep Trump in office. Trump alluded to this in the debate with his reference to the ‘Proud Boys’. If Trump wins, on the other hand, the forecast is for a possible ‘Icy Crusade’ which would last for the whole of his second term and probably be a continuation, but doubled down, of what we have seen from Democrats over the last four years. The journalist makes these last concluding remarks:

“It should be remembered that America’s 1% appears to have ensured that no matter what happens the country will be divided in order to oust the outsider Trump: unchecked coronavirus hysteria which gutted the economy, the refusal to get a second stimulus bill passed to provide some economic stability, the refusal to provide physical security amid legitimate rebellions and illegitimate looting, undermining trust in the election process by hysterically blaming Russia, and this list can go on and on. Both sides have been divided, and any modern leftist analysis explains this by the fact that under modern Western neoliberalism the 1% divides and conquers at home as well as abroad.”

By leftist, he means the true left, as in Marxist. The Democrats are hardly Marxist or radical. That aside, and aside from his nationality, his remarks ring true. It is helpful to keep in mind that American media is owned and controlled by that 1%. It is true that not all American media is monolithic. There are local papers and outlets that do good reporting. What is meant by ‘American media’ refers to the major news outlets, which are largely anti-Trump and biased toward establishment causes and policies. The same political polarities we see in the political castes in the US can be seen in the media, as in Fox News and MSNBC, for instance. These are the same outlets that Trump labels as ‘fake news’ even though he doesn’t attach the same label to Fox. But Fox is just the ‘conservative’ alternative to the ‘liberal’ media, neither side being very objective, especially when it comes to foreign affairs and reporting.

From my own experience and being American myself, no matter what happens in this election the nation will be as divided, if not more so, as it has been for the past few decades. This has been to purpose, because a divided populace is easy to control. The media conglomerates came along at the same time the Clinton White House enabled and promoted neoliberalism and started pushing the NATO up to Russia’s borders, along with destroying Yugoslavia. The latter is where we get the term, ‘Balkanized’, meaning divided and conquered, echoing what we see now in the US in ideological matters. We should be aware, too, that no matter what comes out about Trump or Biden in these next few weeks will do nothing to sway their supporters. This is very reflective of the 6^th ray personality of the nation, which in the present moment is more fanatic than idealistic when it comes to politics. A recent article puts the case for this very clearly. According to a recent Gallup poll:

“69% of Americans say they are more concerned about bias in the news other people consume than its presence in their own news (29%).” In other words: 69/29, or 2.38 times, as many Americans are closed-minded (prejudiced) regarding information-sources which don’t fit their ideology, than are not.”

From the penultimate link:

“This plays into the political polarization in the U.S. national discourse.” The more prejudiced a population are, the more polarized it will be. Of course, one would expect this to be the case, but Gallup has now found striking new empirical evidence for it — that the public’s closed-mindedness is greatly increasing America’s political polarization. Each side is craving propaganda instead of truth, but each side’s voters want only the type of propaganda that is funded by the billionaires who also fund that side’s politicians and control that side’s ‘news’ media… As a consequence of Americans’ strong tendency to be closed-minded, America’s politics are, to a very large extent, driven more by prejudices than by the realities that the public are actually facing. Individuals are seeking for sources that will likeliest confirm what they already believe, and are seeking to avoid sources that are the likeliest to disconfirm their beliefs. This is consequently a population that’s highly vulnerable to being manipulated…”

However, as to there being a possible major insurrection or civil war after the election either way, there is just neither the will for it, nor the critical mass, not as of now at least. To say there may be is simply more scaremongering and wishful thinking to some people. We are not at the stage of bending or breaking yet in the US, though we are fast headed toward it. But all this brings in some interesting considerations, especially relevant to social media. (Watch the Netflix film linked above if you can. Highly recommended.)

 QAnon and other conspiracies: Quite a lot is being written about the phenomenon of QAnon these days, with the election coming in a little over a month. This goes along with other conspiracies, like Russian interference in our elections, or China seeking world domination and interring Xuighurs in concentration camps, and so forth. In fact, ‘Q’ is the ‘right-wing’ equivalent of the ‘left’s’ Russia-gate. What this sort of thing actually represents is part of the large glamour that is clouding the US, spreading like a virus to other nations. There are strong emotional hooks in these memes, pointing to various glamours, with one camp saying ‘black’ to another’s ‘white’. Trump is like the Chosen One to ‘Q’ believers, whereas the Russia-gate faith sees Tump as the great Deceiver, in bed with Putin, the latter being the Great Satan to the West. Then there is Xi Jinping, the ‘Sauron of the East’.

These lines of misapprehension in our polarized nation flow along the following or similar lines, from a recent social media post:

“Meta-analysis of conspiracy theories: Covid-19 doesn’t exist, and it was made in a lab, and it’s harmless and just an excuse to limit our freedom. Also, it’s deadly and being used for population control, and it’s being released so that we need to be given a vaccine to survive. So, the vaccine can be used to give us a microchip that will allow us to be tracked but the vaccine will also kill us to reduce population to stop global warming, which isn’t actually a real thing. This all so the left can spread communism so they can control the people – the people that will all be dead and already controllable due to the microchips. And all of that is actually just a hoax to distract us from the 5G rollout, which is designed to kill us for one of the reasons already noted above.”

Then, there is the main story-line with ‘Q’:

“There is a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles running a global child sex-trafficking ring that is plotting against President Donald Trump, who is battling them, leading to a ‘day of reckoning’ involving the mass arrest of journalists and politicians.”

“WWG1WGA (Where we go one, we go all).” Oh, and Fauci and Bill Gates are a part of this evil Cabal, along with the Clintons. It’s all brilliant marketing, and the AI algorithms in social media push it to rake in revenue for the tech companies. And the two story lines tend to merge and blend. The thing that makes them believable and marketable is the emotional hooks and that there is just enough of a grain of truth in them or the more significant parts of them to push one to believe the story lines. The ‘Q’ story has strong religious overtones – the battle between good and evil, with a hint of Revelation thrown in for good measure, when the journalists and politicians on the ‘day of reckoning’ will be ‘cast into the pit’ (prison, or worse). And there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth, while the chosen ones (Q’s believers) will attain the Great Awakening and be lifted from tyranny. Well, we will be lifted from tyrant, but it will be by our own efforts, and not by any leader.

Why bring all this up, given we are talking about Libra? – simply this: The views in these conspiracies are extreme, they pull at people emotionally and distract from more important issues, and more to the point, they contribute greatly to separation and division in society. The message of Libra is to take one out of emotional tumult and to stand in the middle of warring extremes in calm mental equipoise, there to tread the narrow path to enlightenment, in calm, in contemplation – and in partnership. And in a typical Libra statement on such matters, the truth with matters such as those just listed usually falls somewhere in between (the two extremes). There is a video that goes into the ‘Q’ phenomenon’, which is worth a watch, put out just after the phenomenon started.

With the preceding about social and mainstream media in mind, if one gets their ‘news’ from social  media, then it is very likely there is manipulation involved. The algorithms give us the sort of content we like, instead of it being necessarily factual. It is geared toward the advertisers who fund the social media platforms, not our best interests and certainly not to issues that would tend to defund the platforms and disadvantage the advertisers. It is beholden on anyone who wants to be clear and open-minded to gain all the facts possible from many sources about any issue, from all sides, and then to sit quietly with the data and use one’s common sense to arrive at a conclusion. This would be the Libra method of working toward enthusiastic wisdom.[7] The process can be very challenging, though, to any preconceived notions, strongly held beliefs and especially to the opinions of our peers.

“I can see for miles”: Since the start of the COVID crisis, many people have begun to actively question the government and authoritative guidelines for what has happened in their nation. Many people are now saying, quoting The Who, “I know you’ve deceived me. Now here’s a surprise. I know that you have ‘cause there’s magic in my eyes.” Actually, the magic applies to the single, or ‘3^rd eye’, the organ of spiritual perception. That is where we perceive clearly, moreover in the clear light, wherein we can contemplate cause and effect and bring a better path for ourselves as souls. But if this crisis has brought anything to us, it should be a better understanding of ourselves and the powers that be, who are seeking to set a new course for us. In a way, the ‘lockdowns’ have brought an interlude that, if having been seen as an opportunity, have been very much a kind of mundane equivalent of the very Libran processes described in the first of this letter.

 The song lyric goes on: “If you think that I don’t know about the little tricks you play, and never see you when deliberately you put things in my way, well here’s a poke at you. You’re gonna choke on it, too. You’re gonna lose that smile because all the while, I can see for miles and miles.” The song lines can be applied equally to lovers and to governments. Well, perhaps now we are all a little clearer about all the little tricks being played on us as a result of this year, as well as all the people who have genuinely helped us. In true Saturn/Libran fashion, this crisis has presented us with a tremendous opportunity and has opened new pathways before us. We’ll talk about some of those more in the next letter.

In the months ahead some people have some very serious decisions to make, produced by financial hardship, and that is particularly the case in our societies if we live in the West. If we have gained any wisdom from the past months, it should go toward making us more far-sighted instead of more confused. Whether or not that plays out in the US election remains to be seen. We have no doubt heard that life will not return to ‘normal’ after the pandemic passes. That is not a sentiment or statement that really rings true, though. We got through SARS and Ebola. We barely hear anything about AIDS these days and the flu comes and goes every year. Life goes on. Why will this pandemic be any different, seeing as it has not killed hundreds of millions of people? Because we are told so? Being told things will not return to normal sounds more like a setup, rather than a sober look forward. Governments, however, are going to see some shake-ups over what we are seeing now. And that will probably end up being a good thing.

Let choice be made: Next month on the 3^rd, America will choose. From what I have seen, the most important choices are going to be at local levels and in Congress. Policy out of the White House will remain essentially the same. One administration will just be a little crazier and unpredictable than the other, but if we take a good look at the past years, the basic trajectory with each successive administration has never strayed far from the establishment playbook. Defense spending keeps going up, we have the same old enemies, the wealth gap increases, and so on. Biden would do nothing to reverse that trend. He has been VP while it has gone on. Wait and see, unless there is some sudden turn of events, which is always possible. But as I said in the election blog, Americans need to give up hope, and instead embrace activism – positive activism – and act in the faith that the American soul will prevail. I have no hope for the US, but I do have the utmost faith in the American people. We have been in similar situations before and prevailed. There is every reason to believe we will prevail once again and restore compassion and higher values in America political and economic life.

So, wherever you live in these months ahead, where so much seems uncertain, let choice be made. At the same time, let that choice be made in the quiet center of oneself, what we might call the noble middle path, or if need be, the razor’s edge. Yes, these times seem crazy, with a bleak future if we focus on the turmoil. But we have survived much worse that what is ahead of us and gone on to prosper and to build a better world. Though the months ahead seem ominous, in unity we will rise. Our choices have brought us to this point. Our choices now are most important, because these next few years will be decisive as to our future. But upon seeing that, there is no cause for worry or alarm. Just as a storm can play havoc in an instant, it also clears the air and brings needed rain. Let us have faith, first in ourselves and then in or fellow travellers. We are here for a purpose, and that purpose is to bring in the changes we seek, for the betterment of all. Choose well. Stay well.

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