The Leo/Sirius Festival 2022

THE SIRIUS FESTIVAL 2022
11/12 AUG 2022
© Malvin Artley

“I hope we shall… crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”

Thomas Jefferson in a letter to George Logan, 1816

Topics (linked to paragraphs): Leo Acting ‘as if’ The joy of living The full moon A Western European cycle Saturn/Pluto conjunctions Four Horsemen, Eight Families The Lion’s den Prime Minister Truss? The hope of the UK The French connection Berlin’s lump of coal The Italian job The Great wealth robbery Like unto mushrooms Brief Ukraine sitrep The Pelosi gambit Taiwan and the long game Crossing the Chinese Rubicon Catharsis as healing Fear of losing face Notes on a disciple In conclusion Related posts

Greetings Everyone!

August 5^th was a public holiday here in Rovereto. It was the Festival of the Madonna della Neve (Lady of the Snow), otherwise known as Maria Ausiliatrice, or Mary, Help of Christians. It has been celebrated here since 1703, the year in which Rovereto was miraculously saved from sack and burning by an advancing French invasion force. In fact, people at the time could see the villages across the Adige River (the main river that runs through Rovereto) in flames as the French army advanced. Now, legend has it that it snowed that day in 1703, stopping the advance of the army and causing their retreat. I can tell you August 5^th here this year was more like a hot Hell than a cold, snowy day. But it is said that inclement weather served to stop the French advance. The Adige here is wide and all that was needed to stop the French was a heavy rain and a flooded river. There were no bridges across the river in those days. One crossed by ferry. But here on the 5^th we had the procession through the city, complete with a band and the statue of the Madonna. It was a celebratory mood. And the next day we had the obligatory monthly flea market in the city, followed by some much-needed rain.

With the celebratory mood on the 5^th aside, this year on August 5^th people were praying for relief from drought and heat. It has been over 35° (95°F) for most days this summer. We were just in the mountains to escape the heat and to buy our yearly supply of butter from the malga (shepherd’s cottage) at our favorite spot. Even there, the ponds are half-dried up. There is no water running in the mountains that we could see. The artificial lake used for the artificial snow on the ski slopes was a pitiful sight at our mountain watering hole. The obligatory pastrami sandwich went down a treat, though. All that said, it looks to be a pretty poor season for skiing this winter. And if the forecast for precipitation in the winter is anything like this summer we won’t see any snow at all in Rovereto this winter. I hope I am wrong about that. By northern Italian standards, this summer has been brutal. The sun has baked everything.

There are dead plants everywhere. In a yard a few houses down from us the Japanese maples are toast, the lawn is dead and the hedges are a pitiful sight, with half of the bushes being brown and crispy. Normally they would survive, but the water tables are the lowest they have been in 20 years, while we are in the midst of the worst drought in 70 years. It is the same through much of Europe. It’s the height of summer here, approaching the end of the dog days of summer, and we have just had another heat dome from the Sahara settle over the southern Mediterranean. The sunspot cycle has reached the same height it was in 2014, which has nothing to do with heat, but it does reflect the restiveness of the planet, now on the rise. The peak of the present cycle will reach a peak in July of 2025. And we see that increase in restiveness in the news every day. With all this talk of the Sun and the heat, that brings us to our topic for the month – Leo – and we have a full plate to consider for this cycle of Leo.

Leo is ruled in all three of its levels – orthodox, esoteric and hierarchical – by the Sun.^[1] It is the only sign that exhibits this arrangement, unless one counts Cancer, where the orthodox ruler (the Moon) veils the planet (Neptune) ruling the other two levels. But the solar rulership of Leo has many meanings. At a physical level the Sun represents vitality. Without the Sun nothing grows in terms of beneficial plants. The Sun transmits prana – energy – to us and vitalizes the etheric body, the subtle physical body, also called the vital body. We see this vitality in any Leo type (people with their Sun or Ascendant in Leo). When expressing normally, Leos exude vitality and magnetism, showing as confidence, a willingness to tackle any challenge and as leadership. Like its opposite sign, Aquarius, Leos tend to attract groups of people around them. But above all, the Leo type will be intensely self-aware. This can be the awareness of the little ego, which thinks itself to be all-important and the centerpiece of every conversation and activity, or it can be Self-awareness – awareness that one is a soul working through the sign Leo in the present incarnation. In that regard, absent is the sense of self-importance that is very often attributed to Leo, that of the narcissist or egomaniac. The sense of soul, or Self-awareness is shown in the sign’s esoteric motto: “I am That and That am I.”^[2] This brings us to perhaps the most important consideration for this month going forward, which is the ability to ‘act as if’.

Acting ‘as if’: In Highest Yoga Tantra, or Vajrayana Buddhism, there is a stage in one’s practice where one arises as the deity which is the centerpiece of one’s practice – be it Tara, Medicine Buddha, Yamantaka, Avalokiteshvara, or a host of other deities. One arises as that deity as a fully enlightened being, in the center of a mandala with its retinue of other deities and lesser beneficent beings, all with a singular purpose: To bring all beings within that Buddha field (which is what a mandala is) to a state of perfect happiness and full enlightenment. One acts as if one is divine, because in fact we are. One does so supposedly within a state of Great Bliss and Great Compassion, having compassion for all beings, first within the mandala as well as when one leaves the mandala. Great Bliss is a term we have not discussed before, but it is the state of being of the monad, whereas lesser bliss is the domain of the soul. The lesser bliss is called ‘joy’ in Alice Bailey’s books, and it is encountered for the first time on the 3^rd Buddhist Path – ‘the Very Joyful’. It is all a bit much to go into here, but the differences in the levels are described thus in DK’s instructions to a disciple:

“I would remind you here that happiness is the result of achieved personality desire; joy is the expression of the soul’s surety, whilst bliss is the consummation which the monad bestows upon the initiate.”^[3]

We are talking about semantics here, but the message is the same: to express what DK has called ‘joy’ in one’s daily life, to act as if one is the soul working through a body. The Buddhist terms mentioned above have specific meanings – ‘perfect happiness’=release from samasara (the suffering of reincarnation); ‘Great Compassion’=the perfection of love, known in Buddhism as the perfection of wisdom, as would be expressed by a fully enlightened Teacher, or Master of the Wisdom if one likes; ‘Great Bliss’=to exist fully in the Buddha nature, or as the monad if one likes, depending on one’s background. This is put forward as general information for those readers who are interested.

The joy of living: Returning to our subject, one of the things one notices about Leos who are on the spiritual path is their ability to express joy in whatever they do. It is an infectious quality and it is inspirational. That joy – the ability to act as if one is a divine being – is the greatest gift of Leo. It is not a quality that is lorded over people, for which the lower manifestation of Leo types are often faulted, and rightly so. It is the ability to inspire the same in others, as one would do in Buddhist practice, by arising as the deity within the mandala. One must act as if the goal (full enlightenment) is already achieved, even though one still has a long way on the path to go. But that is why we call it ‘practice’. And eventually if we practise long enough and one-pointedly enough, we really do become divine in our everyday expression. In so doing, in a sense we ‘reinvent ourselves’, which is something for which Leo types are also known. It is shown in the planets the Sun veils (for which it substitutes) – Vulcan and Uranus – forging a new mode of expression (Vulcan) and imposing a more spiritual order (Uranus), i.e., becoming spiritually inventive in the positive sense. When Leo influences people and nations, these things are always possible. Given the current state of world affairs, we see an urgent need to reevaluate our circumstances, to ‘reinvent ourselves’ if necessary, to act in a positive manner to whatever confronts us, to act in the best interests of those people who struggle, to raise the lot of everyone and most of all, to act as if the divine part of us is real (which it is), present and vital. Our divine Self is there to help lift all of us from our present situation. With these thoughts in mind, we move on to consider the full moon and world affairs. And there is much to consider since Leo is strongly expressed across the West, especially in Europe.

The full moon takes place on 12 Aug 2022 at 1:36 UT (11:36 AEDT/11 Aug 2022 at 9:36 PM EDT). This full moon is a moon wobble and a supermoon, adding to its effects, with Uranus at the north node square the full moon axis and with the Moon in an applying conjunction with retrograde Saturn. Mars is in a wide conjunction with Uranus and is also square Saturn, showing hubris and poor decision-making. The Sun and Moon are both applying to the square with Mars, showing an increase in tensions. On the whole this is a very volatile figure, indicating sudden and sometimes explosive changes in relationships. The Sun is conjunct the projected longitude of Merak (β Ursae Majoris), the only star of the Great Bear that gets transited by a planet at its actual place in the constellation, that planet being Eris. Eris accompanied Mars on the battlefield in mythology. Eris is currently in Aries and the Sun in the full moon figure is trine Eris. Merak has a Martian quality and increases willfulness when conjunct the Sun.^[4] How that willfulness is expressed will depend on the other indications in the chart and the proclivities of the person or nation. This particular figure shows great instability and thus enhanced opportunity, depending on how one approaches the latter. It is a cathartic figure, reinforced by the Saturn=Mars/Uranus midpoint: “Violence, a lack of adaptability. – Energy concentrated on separation, a heavy injury, an operation, violent destruction.”^[5] The quoted material is not necessarily a ‘bad’ thing, but instead represents the breakdown of outworn orders and ‘the fall of kingdoms’. All of this will become apparent as we go along with the rest of our investigations. With the preceding in mind, this figure represents a decisive change in geopolitical/military realities. We will address what those changes are a little later in this piece.

Before we get into the world current events, we will have a very brief recounting of the major events thus far this Year of the Black Tiger. We recall that the expressions of this particular round of the 60-year social cycle are as follows:

“There are many hidden perils in leaving the present situation. Circumspection is the order of the day. This can be a perilous time. The ability to divine the future and distant worlds. All things cast off their obscuring wrappings. Recovering from small mistakes, the wise one always learns. Don’t break the rules today.”

The bolded bits have particular relevance for what follows. That letter was posted on 1 Feb 22. Just over three weeks later the world was thrown into turmoil over the Russian intervention in Ukraine. Thereby, we have the following events that set the scene for what will follow in this letter, not listed in any particular order:

• The Russian intervention in Ukraine, their ‘Special Military Operation’ (SMO)
• Concurrent with the SMO, we see the levying of the heaviest sanctions in history by the Western powers against Russia, indeed against any nation
• Russian hydrocarbons are banned in most of Europe (‘most’ being an important caveat)
• Imran Khan is removed from power in a US-backed soft coup. That story remains unfinished.
• An outbreak of monkeypox.
• The discovery of numerous clandestine US-funded bio-labs in Ukraine (this is a developing story that will become important later)
• The first images from the James Webb Space Telescope are made public
• The Western world plunging further and further into recession due to a combination of factors
• The rapid development and consolidation of alternative financial and economic systems outside of Western control, in line with the Pluto=Jupiter/Uranus midpoint from mid-June. Russia and Turkiye (yes, they changed the spelling) just struck a financial and economic pact that is certain to rankle the Western powers, for instance. European companies will be bypassing sanctions against Russia via Turkiye. The wily Sultan strikes again.
• The rapid consolidation and implementation of transport corridors outside of Western control (i.e. the Suez Canal). This and the previous bullet point are of particular importance going forward over the next few years.
• An emerging grand Afro-Asiatic project emerging, side-lining the West
• The especially important strategic partnership just launched between Russia and Iran
• The Taiwan Strait emergency, provoked by Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan
• Operation Sword of Jerusalem II, only in its beginning stages, though the fighting has stopped for the moment. The recent battle showed Israel’s weaknesses and that it could not confront a powerful enemy, like Hezbollah, any time in the future.
• Rising protests, strikes, unionization, political crises and uprisings, the result of financial hardship and poor leadership policies worldwide

From the Chinese New Year letter quote, ‘the rules’ in this case are those of the UN Charter instead of the ‘rules-based order’ of the West. With these bullet points as a basis we go forward into our look at the Leo nations and cities, which on the whole leads to a look at Europe. Europe is where we find the greatest concentration of Leo in the nations, as outlined in The Destiny of the Nations.^[6] It is also where we find the roots and continuance of the West’s sense of exceptionalism and arrogance in its lower Leo expression. When expressing positively, that Leo becomes magnanimous and an example of leadership. Europe ruled much of the world off and on over the past 500 years with mixed results, but its time in the driver’s seat has come and gone, for reasons outlined presently. American exceptionalism evolved out of European roots, the US having been colonized primarily by European settlers, and its destiny is closely tied to that of Europe. In fact, Leo and Gemini along with their polar opposites underpin the Western mindset. Austerity and conflict lead Leo types to reinvent themselves, first through study and then through action. Europe is in sore need of such reinvention and re-evaluation of its priorities, just not along the lines of the reactionary factions, like the WEF for instance. Neither Leo nor Gemini are exclusive to the West, but there is definitely a preponderance of the two signs there, which leads into an interesting cycle.

A Western European cycle: In a recent article mention was made of a recurring cycle of about 500 years that brought great changes to Europe. Those 500-year changes took place in 476, 1054 and 1517, corresponding to the collapse of Western Roman empire (the Fall of Rome), the start of Roman Catholicism and the start of Protestantism, resp. The fall of the Roman Empire in 476 gave rise to what resembles the individual European states we see today. This coincided with a Saturn/Pluto conjunction in Leo, which tallies with the Leo rulership of Italy and Rome. The next event of 1054 was also known as the Great Schism of 1054 on 16 July of that year. That was preceded 4 years prior by a Saturn/Pluto conjunction in Aquarius, the sign opposite Leo. As a point of interest, Macbeth (the Red King) made a pilgrimage to Rome that year (1050), though it had no bearing on the Great Schism. And the drama of Shakespearian Macbeth was a fabrication, to suit King James I after the unification of Scotland and England, thus founding Great Britain. The Shakespearian ‘history’ of Macbeth appealed to James I, to his obsession with the supernatural and witchcraft. Macbeth was a piece of pro-Stuart fiction. It’s an interesting story, though unrelated to this topic. Continuing, in 1518 there was the Saturn/Pluto conjunction in Capricorn, signaling the start of the Protestant Reformation, the beginning of the end of the dominance of the Catholic Church, also beginning a period of the persecution of women in Europe (witch trials) and the ‘wars of religion’, both in continental Europe, Britain and Ireland. Martin Luther’s theses were posted at the end of 1517. Reaction to the theses began in February of 1518 by Church authorities.

Saturn/Pluto conjunctions: There are a few points to consider with these Saturn/Pluto conjunctions, and indeed with any hard aspect (conjunction, square and opposition) between the two planets. Perhaps one of the simplest interpretations of the conjunction is, ‘the end of a karmic situation and release into a new initiative’. Saturn is the lord of karma, and Pluto works along the lines of ‘destroyer as healer’. Pluto represents major separations via its rulership of Scorpio. It, “governs…the death or cessation of old ideas and emotions, and its influence is therefore largely cerebral…”^[7]As well, “Pluto drags to the surface and destroys all that hinders in these lower regions…”^[8] those ‘lower regions’ being the personal subconscious. Overall, Pluto governs the psychological and spiritual process of detachment, which leads to freedom of thought and action. Pluto governs, “the dissolution of old group structures of thought, embodying worn-out ideas and ideals…crystallised old forms must dissolve and disappear, but in their place the undying spirit – impressed by revelation and sensitive to the emerging new concepts of truth – will create the needed new forms of appropriate expression.”^[9] In that regard, Pluto is seen as a healer.

Saturn governs the crystallizing process, via Capricorn. There is a particular quote from Blavatsky regarding Saturn and Europe: “Occultism must win the day before the present era reaches…Saturn’s triple septenary of the western cycle of Europe – before the end of the 21st century A.D.” (S.D. III. 23.)” This is part of what we see working out in Europe at present. We are not yet at the full first quarter of the 21^st century yet, but we see a general acceleration of processes all around as the old order crumbles. That brings us to a final point regarding the Saturn/Pluto conjunction: It is said that the influence of Saturn (representing karma) exhausts itself in Capricorn.^[10] Thus, with the Saturn/Pluto conjunction in Capricorn we have the representation of the ending of and liberation from old, crystallized materialistic structures, meaning a release from karma, and those apply in particular to financial-geopolitical structures that have outlived their usefulness and prove to be a hindrance to humanity’s spiritual progress. The Saturn/Pluto conjunction signifies the exhaustion of possibilities and the need to move on to other more spiritual alternatives. We saw this in 1518 with the Catholic Church in Europe, which was the political and financial power base in the West at the time. It was old, corrupted, overbearing in its control and kept the common people in a state of perpetual poverty, and especially in ignorance. What we see with the latest such conjunction is the exhaustion of the possibilities of capitalism and Western imperialism. With the addition of Pluto, we see that our group-think, from one of the bolded points above, is undergoing a re-think.

We see that same sort of Capricornian control, corruption and crystallization today in the West, with new initiatives emerging in the East, the latter which we will get to. The corruption and crystallization relates to economics and finances, largely controlled up until now by certain Western powers, those powers in turn being influenced behind the scenes by powerful groups of materialists based in the United States and Western Europe. Those groups see their power base as being under threat from the emerging possibilities, hence the psychological projection against the ‘threatening nations’ we see in the press and the military projection of power towards those states. This latest conjunction of Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn is seeing the Western reign coming to a close, with more equitable and cooperative interchange between nations taking their place. On a final note on this topic, on the one hand we see the destruction of the old Western-led order. But on the other hand, that same but developing order 500 years ago was promising, bright, and new, and gave development to humanity, leading to the creation of our modern Western society, with its wealth, innovation and so forth. As with anything of that nature, human selfishness tends to creep in over the years and corrupts the new order, thus repeating the cycle. What was once new and innovative then becomes old, materialistic and reactionary, seeking to maintain their status quo. Just who these materialistic groups were, then, we cover next as we go into the lion’s den.

Four Horsemen, Eight Families: A consideration of this cycle in relation to Western Europe is important because of where Europe stands today as a result of the past two years since the Saturn/Pluto conjunction, starting with the disastrous effect the lockdowns from the pandemic on our Western economies – capitalistic economies – culminating in the sanctions fiasco against Russia. Lying behind these lockdowns and sanctions is a power structure that has existed in Europe, having developed over the past 500 years, which was extended into the United States after its founding, specifically from the year 1853, preceding the American Civil War, and culminating in the founding of the Federal Reserve in 1913 – the year before the start of the World War. Those two events were not coincidental. But returning to Europe, modern European banking had its start with the Medici, Bardi and Peruzzi families in Florence and spread north through the Holy Roman Empire – what is now much of Western Europe. Modern banking, meaning in the West, took off between the 17^th and 19^th centuries, beginning its more insidious form with goldsmiths in the City of London, which used a new kind of ‘money’ – debt. Our capitalist system is based in debt and the starting place for it in terms of modern practice was the City of London in the 17^th century. This is where we begin to see what is really under threat and why the West has been the most-affected region as a result of the pandemic and then the Russian intervention in Ukraine.

The Lion’s den: There are eight families who control the banking and financial system of the West. There is a book that describes these families and their machinations, as well as the so-called ‘Four Horsement’, relating to The Apocalypse. There are four in the US and four in Europe, many of whom we know well by name – the Rockefellers and Goldman Sachs, the Lehmans and Kuhn Loebs in New York; and the Rothschilds in London and Paris, the Warburgs of Hamburg, the Lazards of Paris and the Israel Moses Seifs of Rome. In Europe, then, all the financial capitals – London, Paris, Berlin and Rome – have Leo ruling directly or by their national synthesis. And we note that the Big Three of the EU – France, Germany and Italy – are home to three of these powerful banking families. These eight families control the financial systems of the West and by extension our politics, have exerted control over the US since the 19^th century via the US Trust Corporation and then the Federal Reserve, and the two most powerful of centers – London and New York – are now the most vociferous in their pursuit of their attempt to dominate world trade and finance. They are also the most Russo-phobic. In other words, the battle for them now is to retain their hegemony over the world financial system via the IMF, World Bank, WEF, the Fed and the WTO. These eight families are also closely interconnected via inter-marriage, finance and cross-ownership.

So, we have the eight families. Who are the Four Horsemen? They are all New York banks – Chase Manhattan, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Bank of America. They are among the top ten stockholders of virtually all the Fortune 500 companies. Who those individual stockholders are is a very closely guarded secret. Requests for that information were denied to the author of the aforementioned book on the grounds of ‘national security’. The Four Horsemen of banking in New York also control the Four Horsemen of Oil in tandem with Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Banque Paribas, Barclays and other European old money behemoths. The Four Horsemen of Oil are Exxon Mobil, Chevron Texaco, BP Amoco and Royal Dutch/Shell. ‘Four Horsemen’ is a term coined in the book. I would simply term these groups as cartels, each of competing interests.

Now we ask: What is the biggest need of the day in Europe as we approach winter? Well, it is oil and gas, of course. And those four oil companies have made over $40 billion in profits since the start of the Russian SMO. In the 2^nd quarter of this year, the profits of the Big Four oil companies soared to over $50 billion. Where is the windfall profits tax? Right – there is none. In all likelihood those profits will go into stock buy-backs and acquisitions rather than helping Main Street. Just watch their stock prices to see. The energy crisis is affecting Americans and Europeans alike. And the Big Four want to knock Russia out of the competition and/or take over their facilities, along with those of Iran and Venezuela. The dealings of these families and so-called ‘horsemen’ are shrouded in secrecy and their control over the media crushes any attempt at exposing them. This is why we see such extreme censorship over information concerning the pandemic and the Russian SMO. Call it conspiracy if you like, but keep these points in mind as we go along, because these cartels have controlled the bulk of the world’s resources for the past two centuries at least, and now they see their control being taken away from them. From here we take a brief look at the Leo influence in Europe and what is at stake there, starting with the UK

Prime Minister Truss?: We began to take a look at possible regime change taking place across the West in the last letter (“Regime change?”). To be clear, regime change is not happening in Europe at this point. What we see is a sort of political reshuffling of the deck chairs on the EU Titanic as it sinks. Changing leaders is not regime change. Regime change requires a change of the system of government, usually requiring a change of the leadership from the top down. We are not at that point yet in Europe. Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak as replacements for Boris Johnson are a case in point: They will change nothing and will instead only continue the sinking of the UK, reciting their promises to the Conservative Party membership until the economic ship goes under – to a point. I have covered the reasons why in several blog posts. Truss was recently described as being so dense that light bends around her, if that gives you an idea of the state of British politics today and public opinion of it. But she is very likely to be the next British PM. Even if Sunak does happen to pull a victory out of his Top Hat, both he and Truss are on the same page. So, as it goes in Western politics currently – leaders may change, but policy stays the same. We may instead see some semblance of regime change at the next general election, whenever that will be.

The Tory leadership cares nothing for the welfare of the UK. They would just as soon it collapses and disintegrates so long as they can get their hard Brexit and be shed of all the regulations they can toss in the bin. This is discussed in the “Surfing the zeitgeist” post. The Conservative Party (Tories) in the UK are a group of hard-right neoliberals who comprise around 0.2% of the British population, yet they supposedly represent their electorate. Their membership ballooned after the Brexit referendum. If the British public knew the truth about them, the Tories would be history. As it stands it is possible they could stay in power until 2025. Of course, real regime change can happen before then. There is hope for the UK. It is time for the British public to channel anger into action. Jeremy Corbyn was ousted in what was a coup in the Labour Party. Perhaps now we see the start of the unions in the UK beginning to bring the Labour Party back to its roots. The UK is one of the main battlegrounds between capital (represented by the Conservatives) and labor,^[11] currently represented by the unions.

The hope of the UK: We aren’t talking about Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak here. In fact, their stated goals and policies run counter to ‘the hope for the future of the UK’. What is that hope? Consider the following quote: “…the hope of Great Britain lies in her socialistic tendencies which enable her to take the “middle path” between the communism of Russia and the capitalism of the United States.”^[12] Well, we know Russia is no longer a communist state, but the capitalism of the US is out there strongly for everyone to see, and the elites in the UK have enshrined it as UK policy since the end of WWII. We have looked at this in past letters. As it stands, though, the UK is in deep trouble as the band plays for the new deck chair arrangement. Between Brexit, the pandemic lockdowns and now their enmity with Russia, the leadership of the UK has managed to shoot itself in both feet. The UK’s big elephant in the room which no Western media will touch with a barge pole is the City of London and its tax havens, a.k.a. secrecy locations. Here is the point: The British Empire still exists, but it has morphed into a financial empire, run out of the City. We covered this in the 2018 Gemini letter. It is killing the hope of the UK. It is also criminal in the toll it exacts on struggling peoples and nations because of unpaid taxes and laundered money. Those tax havens are also used to fund all sorts of covert activities, like funding insurgencies in ‘unfriendly countries’ and the drug trade. Of course the havens themselves are all quite legal, don’t you know?

What we have with the UK in the immediate few years ahead is one of the primary battles between capital and labor. It may be that it eventuates in a showdown between the Tories and Labour, but a better result would be for the people to force the changes they desire. That will require a real catharsis for Britain in general and a general shakedown of the two major parties. As it stands, the British people are still too passive to effect such changes. The tide of public opinion is growing against the Tories, though, as is the anger toward them. The UK is a test case: If the British people can force through the changes they want to see – more socialism – it will send shock waves through the whole of the West’s leadership, and most especially the banking and corporate cartels. The Gemini in the UK must become ‘unity in diversity’ instead of divisive factions in the social strata pitted against each other.

But be aware the fight will be hard and dirty. For the people to be successful it will mean quite a bit of public disobedience against draconian laws being introduced in the UK, such as those forbidding criticism of the government and protests in general. We are also seeing thought police appearing in the UK, where comments about certain groups are now punishable by arrest and imprisonment, like the 51 y/o who shared a meme on Facebook deemed offensive to transgender people. In reality, it has nothing to do with offending someone. Such authoritarian behavior is meant to stifle discourse and cow the public. Julian Assange and Graham Phillips (sanctioned by his own nation) should stand as examples to journalists everywhere, yet they are hounded and worse. Phillips reports from the Russian side of the Donbas. A victory for the people would mean overturning such laws, eventually closing down the secrecy locations/tax havens and making them transparent. It will mean windfall profits taxes and graduated taxes, meaning higher taxes for the wealthy instead of tax cuts. The issue of tax havens was one of the reasons behind Brexit, because the wealthy in the UK saw the possibility that the EU was going to start investigating those secrecy locations. Whistleblowers will have to step forward. It will take resolute public courage for the British people to prevail, but they can do it – stiff upper lip, and all that. Keep in mind, London is one of the world’s synthesizing centers, governed by Leo, and as such should lead by example instead of decree and force. The British people can stand as examples to the wider West as we seek a balance between wealth and labor. France is another example of where the fight between labor and capital is ongoing.

The French connection: There is a connection between the British and the French, as in the people, united as they are in their struggle to overcome the austerity measures that have been forced upon them via neoliberal policy. We are all hearing now, well, “We have to tighten our belts and bear the pain as we fight for victory…” It isn’t true. There is plenty of money to go around, but it is being hoarded and stashed away in accounts who-knows-where and being poured into corporate interests, while we are told there isn’t enough money to go around, most especially to pay for social programs. “We must support Ukraine!” for example, and increase our defense spending to counter Russian aggression. And on the story goes. Macron is representative, as are Truss and Sunak in the UK, of the banking cartels. Macron himself used to work for the Rothschilds. He is a neoliberal, as are Truss and Sunak. He calls himself ‘a man on the left’ and a liberal. If he means ‘liberal’ in the sense of free trade (laissez faire) and woke-ism, he would be correct. But a true leftist, he is not. Nor is he ‘liberal’ when it comes to freedom of expression and the right to protest, as we saw with the police crackdowns on the Yellow Vest protests.

France used to have one of the lowest poverty levels in the developed world, until the 2008 financial crisis. Since then poverty has more than doubled in France, now at about 15% below the poverty line, reaching its highest level just before he assumed office as the economics minister. He was preceded by François Baroin, who was chosen for his ability to sell austerity to the French public. He was also chosen to begin dismantling the policies of the socialist opposition party. Apparently he was very good at his job because it was under his tenure that poverty rose sharply in France. When Macron took over as Finance Minister he held poverty at that level. Baroin now works for Barclays bank, and he succeeded Christine Lagarde, who went on to head the IMF. She was economics minister in France during the 2008 collapse. Perhaps a picture begins to emerge.

Macron isn’t polling well. His approval rating is worse than Joe Biden’s, but on par with that of Olaf Scholz of Germany. Macron had a scare with the second round of voting in the recent presidential election, where right wing parties made significant gains. In fact, of all the Western leaders, the leaders in the Leo nations all have low approval ratings. Poling is usually reflective of the public’s sense of economic security. Since 2008 that polling has shown a decided shift as all Western societies have been told austerity measures are ‘necessary’ for the national budgets. Macron and his like in France are apparently keeping a low profile now, since we hear nothing about the gilets jaunes or other protests in France these days. And that is not because of a media blackout. France at present is fairly quietly simmering. But protests could flare up at any moment, especially if the government tries to sell another package of austerity to the French public. France and Berlin are related astrologically. Both Berlin and France are expressing Leo through their personalities, with both centers laying claim to leadership in Europe. Both France and Germany also have strong Piscean influence – France through the soul and Germany through the personality. Of the Big Three in the EU, France and Germany are more closely related astrologically, which brings us to Germany and their current crisis.

Berlin’s lump of coal: Greta Thunberg must be beside herself at the moment. Germany has turned to coal in an effort to replace the Russian gas that has stopped flowing. Normally that might work, except the Rhine, which is a major transport artery for the transport of coal and other resources, is all but impassable to to Europe’s drought. The situation is the same for the Danube and the Po rivers. The ‘traffic light’ coalition government in Germany had set out as its major policies “climate protection, making the industry climate neutral, modernisation and digitalization.” And if they had been on friendly terms with Russia, those would have been possibilities, because most of those policies depend, firstly, on cheap and plentiful gas to run the power plants and industry while the policies are being implemented, and secondly on many of the raw resources Russia has in abundance, which will now be harder to come by. The so-called ‘Green New Deal’ is not a solution to Germany’s or the world’s problems, but we will have to address that another time. But Germany is a split society, remnants of the East/West divide post-WWII, and its populace as a whole still has yet to learn to be more discriminating in what their leaders tell them. It has been a challenge for Germany to develop its full spiritual potential since the start of modern Germany, from the 19^th century. Germany as a nation and in its present form is quite young, as is that of present-day Italy, though the latter has learned its lessons more fully over the centuries of suffering and tumult of its various peoples and regions. Italy is not a monolithic culture. And in the north there is a stronger rapport with Germanic peoples than in the south of Italy. But the Piscean personality of Germany is mediumistic, sensitive to impression and at present heavily burdened with American and British concerns over Russia. Like the UK, Germany has shot itself in both feet over Russia, and it was unnecessary and self-defeating – a lower manifestation of Pisces as well, ruling as it does the natural astrological house of self-undoing. Warsaw is susceptible to this as well.

With Germany, France, the UK and Russia we have yet another manifestation of the ancient Atlantean struggle between materialism and spirituality,^[13] notably regarding the first three nations. All four of those nations have their materialistic bases as well as having expressed some high moments of spirituality in the past, especially through their cultures and, when they cooperate, through their interactions. But in strong evidence at the moment is the materialistic component of those first three nations – the UK, France and Germany – meaning their leadership, who have sought to use another nation and their own material might in an effort bring about the changes in another nation they thought would benefit them. A study of the history of the present conflict shows this clearly, but we have covered that elsewhere. It is not just Russia they have done this with. There are many – Syria, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, the carving up of Africa in their colonization of that continent and the control of the Middle East (now called West Asia) by France and the UK. And we are leaving out the Americas here. Those three Western European nations have sought to carve up Russia and – here is the big point – to bury communism and socialism there ever since the founding of the Soviet Union and before. Here again, we find the battle between labor and capital taking place, in what is an economic war between the Western and Eurasian nations, the latter being more collective and socialist. And it is also worth remembering that France, the UK and the US were border areas in ancient Atlantis. This is not so much present in Italy, though ancient Rome in its decadent period was a reflection of the depravity of Atlantis^[14] in its final period, where every desire was pursued to the fullest and theft ruled the land^[15].

The primary and best thing the German people can do for themselves is to rally their will-power via the Plutonian side of Pisces, as well as their 4^th ray from their Aries soul and cut ties with the Machiavellian projects of the US and UK. Freezing through a cold winter and having to pay astronomical heating and electric bills may be the catalyst to arouse those ray qualities to fuller measure. Germany was once a pioneer is social programs. If it can set aside its antagonism toward Russia, of which the Green Party is most guilty, it will set itself on a course to once again being a leader in Europe instead of an American vassal. Then, there is Rome and Italy.

The Italian job: Rome, through its Leo personality is related to Berlin, France and Russia with their Leo personalities. Before the Russian SMO Italy had relatively good relations with Russia, especially through art and business connections. Italian businesses still operate in Russia, but the Italian government, like the rest of Western Europe is too tied to the United States, in that Italy toed the line with the sanctions against Russia. Draghi was PM then, with ties to Wall Street, but he fell afoul of the Italian people with the green pass policies and then with the sanctions. Italy is still importing Russian oil, too, as fast as it can get it, seeking to stock up for the winter or before the EU decides on a complete ban. Italians are creative people and will find ways to sidestep the sanctions. Draghi saw the writing on the wall with all that was happening and pulled the plug on his coalition. Now the liberal-leaning factions in Italian politics are blaming Putin – who else? – for the political crisis in Italy. Forget the fact of our own government policies, leveraged by Washington and Brussels, and far worsened by the Ukraine crisis have brought hardship on Italian workers and families. It must be Putin who is behind the instability here, right? Well, think again. Business concerns are always a large factor in politics in any government and there are many Italians who still see Russia in a favorable light. That brings us to the upcoming snap election next month, where a right-wing coalition is favored to win the election. The ‘left’ in Italy, such as it is now, is strongly Atlanticist and is doing all it can in an effort to offset such a result. Most Italians I have spoken with would rather see the right wing coalition win power.

Since we are speaking of Italy and Leo, that brings us to Giorgia Meloni (‘Giorgia’ is pronounced like ‘Georgia’, for Americans. I just heard an American commentator mangle her name.) Meloni is the leader of the Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) Party, one of the hardest-leaning right wing parties in Italy. The party evolved out of neo-fascist elements in Italy. Meloni is a Capricorn, Sagittarius Moon, with Leo rising. Her star is on the rise, outshining Matteo Salvini. Remember him? Hearing Meloni speak and to look at her, she is definitely a Leo type. In terms of the EU, the Fratelli d’Italia propose a federation of European states, as opposed to the rigid EU federal republican model currently pushed by EU leaders like Macron. To quote Meloni (translated):

“On the day of Europe Day, the European conservatives reaffirm their commitment to building the Europe of Nations, founded on the principle of subsidiarity and on a confederal model in which the sovereignty and identities of national states are values ​​to be defended. If the Conference on the Future of Europe which opens today in Strasbourg has this objective, our contribution will not be lacking. But if on the contrary it will be the umpteenth opportunity for the European federalists and the left to strengthen the super bureaucratic state of Brussels and attack the freedoms of the peoples, our opposition will be strong and determined.”

With that you have the battle lines drawn in Italy and within the EU, with guaranteed resistance from Brussels and within the Italian Atlanticist factions seeking to scuttle Meloni’s ambitions. Seeing the direction Italy has taken in recent years, increasing numbers of Italians agree with Meloni’s sentiments and policy, though. If Meloni manages to pull off a victory next month, one probably should not have great concerns about the return of fascism to Italy as a form of government. Italian politics in its present form guarantees that any party must rule within a coalition and those coalitions are frequently fragile. Italians also have strong memories of what fascism did to Italy and will oppose moves toward its emergence again. However, Meloni strikes a note of common sense for Italians – return sovereignty to the states, support businesses and jobs (which have been devastated with EU austerity and the pandemic, also now with sanctions) and return to more traditional values, as in a rejection of ‘woke’ politics. If so, such movements in other EU states might present an opportunity for Europe and Europeans to reinvent itself. Citing a recent article in that regard, who would have thought that fascist-leaning parties in Italy would save the EU from itself? If that sounds alarming and offensive to some readers, consider where the EU is headed in its present direction and then ask if Brussels is likely to change its tune and grant more sovereignty to the individual states, or is it more likely to double down? And then look at what happened to the Greeks with their economic crisis. They were crushed by Brussels. At this point we come to the nuts and bolts of what is taking place.

The great wealth robbery: Beginning with the pandemic lockdowns in the West, just in the first year an estimated $3.9 trillion made its way to the top billionaires in the West, seen as one of the biggest thefts from the public purse in history. Correspondingly, in the first nine months alone of 2020, workers lost $3.5 trillion in working hour income. Those figures are considerably higher now. And the worst-affected areas for workers were in the Americas, where there is little of a social safety net. What we are seeing across the West is a controlled economic crash, probably the largest in Western history. This is being pushed and fomented by the banking and corporate interests with the aim of being able to consolidate – meaning monopolize – weaker concerns for pennies on the dollar when asset prices crash. Watch the stock markets. It is the old game of ‘buy when low, sell when high’ as applied to the stock markets. Ground zero for this ‘financial Armageddon’ is the UK, and by extension, Europe. The US will follow suit. A depression is coming. We are already in a recession across the West. Russia was supposed to have collapsed with the sanctions regime (which was a fatal miscalculation on the part of Western planners), which would have paved the way for the takeover of China, thus ensuring the domination of the world’s finances and economics by the Western financial concerns. Those plans lie in tatters, catalyzed by the Russian SMO. Instead, we see a rapid consolidation of the new model of the Asians and Africans (addressed in a future letter), which will also rapidly be taken up by South American nations – the entirety of the Global South, or roughly 85% of the world’s population. This is a positive, Aquarian effort on the part of Asian nations, in line with the UN charter. Instead, we are told it is an initiative of ‘autocratic’ nations. Looking at the US and UK now, who is more autocratic – the East or the West?

Mention was made of ‘cartels of competing interests’ previously. The groups and families mentioned previously do not form a grand ‘Cabal’ who sits in secret and plans our domination. Instead, they each pursue their own interests, though they cooperate when it suits them. The tendency for them is to monopolize, and they will circle like vultures over weaker competitors. That is how they got to their present status and through hereditary wealth. Therein lies perhaps their greatest weakness. But so long as they can keep us divided, enthralled by our ideals and personal comforts and glamoured by our supposed lifestyles, they retain their power and wealth. It is all a smokescreen. Their wealth and power relies on our compliance and belief in the fairy tale of the greatness of financial capitalism:

Today, the West is caught up in the ‘image-ideas’ of mechanistic causality and financialism. Wall Street economists pore over the entrails of monetary variables, and have come to see the world through mechanistic-financial spectacles. This artifice, however, was always illusory, giving its analysis a false sense of empiricism and of data-led certitude: The idea that real wealth would emerge out from inflated fiat debt; that such debt expansion had no boundaries; that all debt must be honoured; and its overhang was only to be solved by more debt was never credible. It was a ‘fairy tale’. Nevertheless, we imagine ourselves to be objective, longing for simple, rational answers from ‘science’. And because the economy involves ‘money’, which is somewhat more readily measured, we assume it had a solidity, a realness that leaned to the notion that true (instead of ‘virtual’) prosperity could be conjured out of an ever-increasing mountain of debt.

But the realities of our situation are becoming clearer by the day. Unless we have reliable, affordable energy to run our societies – and now – our social order will collapse, and it will start in Europe, moving then to the United States.

Like unto mushrooms: For all the readers in the West (which is the great majority), there is something to keep in mind as we have examined our topics here: All of us have had a steady stream of disinformation foisted on us by our media regarding politics, economics and other states from an early age. We have been treated like ‘mushroom people’ – kept in the informational dark and fed a constant diet of informational excrement. We think (‘we’ meaning the general public) we are free-thinking and well-informed. That is not the case. Our conditioning – unless one grew up in a very well-informed household – has been to distrust anything outside our Western narrative and to see nations who take a different path to ours as dark, backwards places full of ignorant and brutish people with autocratic, even totalitarian leadership. Is it not so? Russia is but one example of many. Instead, the Pentagon dictates Hollywood story lines when it comes to foreign affairs. Any information that paints the Russian Federation in a different, more tolerant or positive light these days is denounced as disinformation and censored, especially since 24 February. This is particularly true of Vladimir Putin. It has been much the same with any leader who does not follow the Western rules-based order – Assad, Gadhafi, Saddam, etc. Even Hitler and Mussolini were feted by the press until they began to conquer Europe. The Nazis were backed by US corporations and pleased with Hitler’s successes after the war started, echoed in Ukraine today. Well, our views about another darling of the press and arms manufacturers these days – Zelenskyy – are about to be strenuously challenged and largely as a result of the Russian SMO. Consider the following:

“What were the policy cliques, “the intelligence community” and the press that serves both going to do when the kind of war in Ukraine they talked incessantly about turned out to be imaginary, a Marvel Comics of a conflict with little grounding in reality? I have wondered about this since the Russian intervention began on Feb. 24. I knew the answer would be interesting when finally we had one. Now we have one. Taking the government-supervised New York Times as a guide, the result is a variant of what we saw as the Russiagate fiasco came unglued: Those who manufacture orthodoxies as well as consent are slithering out the side door. I could tell you I don’t intend to single out the Times in this wild chicanery, except that I do. The once-but-no-longer newspaper of record continues to be singularly wicked in its deceits and deceptions as it imposes the official but imaginary version of the war on unsuspecting readers.”

Much of the Western press follows the ledes of the Gray Lady. When the Gray Lady winks, history is rewritten. That reporting isn’t history. It is narrative – story-telling, in other words. What we get is hearsay and fabrication from ‘unnamed sources’. This type of ‘news’ is put out by stenographers instead of real journalists. The Guardian in the UK is likewise malfeasant, especially with its warmonger-in-chief Simon Tisdall. Virtually all of the US and UK press is strongly Russo-phobic and increasingly Sino-phobic. Censorship and shaping public opinion through narrative-steering and story-telling is not new. We have looked at this in several topics in past letters (“Our imaginary threats”, “A slow awakening”, “Our not-so-free press”, for example).

The news that Americans and Western Europeans get about the conflict in Ukraine comes largely from neocon and Ukrainian sources. And the stenographers at the Washington Post and The Gray Lady do likewise with their favored ‘sources’ regarding any conflict where Western powers or our favored enemies are directly involved. It is completely one-sided and biased, gives no history or context and is full of the most amazing fantasies. There are no Western journalists from mainstream sources on the Russian side of the conflict in Ukraine, for example. The few Western citizen journalists in the Donbas on the Russian side of the conflict are being threatened, sanctioned, blacklisted and de-platformed in the West. They are completely dismissed as Russian trolls and Putin assets. The thing is, though, that the longer the conflict is perpetuated, the more money flows into the coffers of the Big Money cartels, just described. But it is not just the media which concerns us. Many of our politicians follow these story lines, too.

Josep Borrell recently blogged on his attendance at the G20 meeting, speaking of the G20 members and their attitudes:

“…when it comes to naming the aggressor and stating who is responsible for the consequences, many are reticent for different reasons. Some are more concerned about the consequences of the war for themselves, rather than about who is responsible for these difficulties and how to end this war; others complain about “double standards” or simply want to preserve their good bilateral relationship with Russia. And many remain vague and not wanting to take sides, because this would jeopardise their geopolitical interests. The global battle of narratives is in full swing and, for now, we are not winning.”

That’s right, and most of the world sees the truth and is in disbelief of the Western narrative. A recent commenter added,

“To give an example of just how deluded, out of touch and completely tone deaf, politically, the EU is, consider this comment and how it is framed. The EU chief is miffed that member state governments of the 26 nation bloc are actually concerned about runaway inflation, spiralling poverty and social unrest due to the West’s policies targeting Moscow.”

Do tell. Interesting, and who would have thought? But in terms of keeping the narrative going, the Daily Mail just put out this piece of scaremongering, for example:

“Europe is facing a huge migration wave from the Middle East and Africa because of the food crisis aggravated by the war in Ukraine, the EU has warned. Ukraine is one of the biggest grain exporters in the world but production and dispatch have been severely affected by Putin’s barbaric invasion.”

More likely will be a migration wave from Ukraine and Israel. The last sentence in the quote is a dead giveaway of the propaganda nature of the piece with the italicized bit. But it is the Daily Mail, after all. Of course, the narrative dictates that it must be ‘Putin’s barbaric/unprovoked invasion’, as if Putin decides everything for Russia. Another recent example revolved around Ukraine’s grain, as if Ukraine was a sole supplier or even a main supplier of grain to the world. There are myths around Ukraine’s grain, too. Actually, if Ukraine’s exports are affected it is because they have mined their coast of the Black Sea and made transport too dangerous. Some of those mines have broken loose and are floating around the Black Sea somewhere. Insurers are finding great difficulty in insuring vessels for merchant transport in the Black Sea because of the mines. To counter the scaremongering, the Ukraine and Russia have closed a deal, moderated by Turkey through the UN, to ship their respective grain through the Bosporus to the nations in need. The mass migration bit in the preceding quote is probably a storm in a teacup, yet another example of The Narrative about the fantasy war in Ukraine.

Brief Ukraine sitrep: We have been looking at Ukraine since 2015 in these letters, following on the Crimea crisis of 2014. For myself, I would rather dispense with writing about the conflict there and hope it ends soon, for everyone involved. It is a tragic situation, with the heartbreaking reports of Ukrainian casualties increasing by the day. Ukraine is yet another example of the results of Western meddling in other nations’ affairs. To repeat the obvious truth, the present stage of the conflict there could have been avoided had European powers properly intervened and not been in bed with Washington and London. But it was not to be. At the time, in 2015, mention was made in the Capricorn letter for that year of the point of view which regarded the situation in Ukraine then as a family matter between Ukraine and Russia, whose peoples have a long history together. Soon it will likely come to that again, ultimately, with the Western powers being forced to quit the current borders of Ukraine. As this conflict has evolved, it has morphed from what the Russians had hoped to be a quick victory (which was their miscalculation), involving only the two regions of the Donbas, to what has become the necessity (to the Russians) of having to clear the whole of Ukraine of fascist and Nazi influence, the latter funded and supported by the Western powers. The latter is changing, thankfully.

As unpalatable it may be for some readers, the part of Ukraine that remains under Russian influence after the fighting stops will once again become an economic powerhouse in Europe, should Europeans come to their senses and embrace it. It will either be of significant benefit to Russia, being once again a part of Russia, or it will benefit what is left of Ukraine and the whole of Europe, including Russia. Such a state of affairs would add greatly to the economies and security of Europe. But the Western powers would have to let go of their antagonisms toward Russia, address Russian security concerns and admit defeat. That may take decades.

Consider that the Russian intervention in Ukraine (SMO) is a greatly confined and relatively small military operation comparative to others, unlike the NATO invasion of Iraq. The Russian intervention is unlikely to extend much past eastern and southern Ukraine, despite the hyperbole from some sources claiming Russia wants to take all of Ukraine and then move on to the Baltics and Moldova – more scaremongering. The thing that puts the lie to the idea of a conquering Russian army – barbarian hordes ready to wash over Europe – is that Russia is employing a remarkably small military contingent for this type of operation. A conquering army needs a 3:1 ratio of troops according to military doctrine in order to take and hold territory. In fact, the ratio was reversed at the start of the SMO, with 200K Russian troops facing a potential 600K-strong Ukrainian force. This was not a miscalculation on the part of the Russians. It was carefully planned, with very specific objectives – to clear the Donbas of nationalist Ukrainian troops, to destroy Ukraine’s ability to wage war on Russia and restore Russia’s security on its borders. And the Russians have been methodically pursuing those goals, now within reach. All else is secondary. After that, the various Ukrainian oblasts and the Donbas republics can decide themselves if they want to join the Russian Federation, as happened with Crimea.

Instead, as the conflict has worn on, the truth of what has taken place there has emerged. There is a video that underscores the following points:

• Ukraine has been used as a cog in the plans of the West to rein in Russia and topple the ‘regime’ in Moscow. But, Washington is not in a position to continue to supply the Ukrainians with money and weapons or to back-supply Western allies when they supply weapons to Ukraine.
• This war is a tipping point, one the West is losing and will lose. Not only does the Global South not respect the West any longer, they no longer fear it. The era of Western dominance, starting at the end of WWII especially financially, ended at the start of the Russian SMO.
• The petrodollar recycling mechanism put in place by Nixon is being torpedoed. Financially Russia is holding quite well and in a way that as time goes on will destabilize tightly-held financial connections across the West.
• NATO is nothing more than a propaganda outfit. The Pentagon is a grift outfit. Keeping the war going prolongs the grift. But, the SMO is at a culminating point, with Ukraine having lost around 80% of its heavier armaments and military infrastructure – a ‘Clausewitz scenario’. It cannot go on for much longer.
• Groups of people, in Ukraine and in the West have become filthy rich by extending and keeping alive the narrative that Ukraine can pull a victory out of its hat. There are people surrounding Zelenskyy who want the conflict to continue so they can fill their pockets. The arms manufacturers and revolving-door politicians are likewise complicit, and not just in the US. The Ukrainian government is like a large organized crime outfit.
• Before 24 Feb this year, Ukraine was recognized as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. A good portion of the monetary aid that has gone to Ukraine since the start of the conflict and before has gone into the pockets of corrupt Ukrainian officials. A good portion of the weapons shipped to Ukraine have been sold on the black market. [We don’t know where those weapons are going. (vid, since pulled by CBS) One of the HIMARs rocket launchers was recently sold to the Russians by desperate Ukrainian troops. The remainder are being systematically destroyed.]
• Further sanctions will finally push Russia to firmly link oil to gold and the ruble. Price caps are a fantasy concocted by Washington and Wall Street, who control oil pricing presently, by the way. Instead, Russia sells its oil to friendly nations at a marked discount, which would undercut any price cap by the West. Fully embargoing Russia will bankrupt the Western international derivatives market, causing a mega-squeeze on vital, system-supporting, gold-shorting derivatives in London, the vary basis of our financial capitalism.

The last point will be the biggest worry for the Western oligarchy. Ukraine has been plundered by the Western powers and will be thrown away when it is no longer of use, or when the Russians toss them out. Zelenskyy has sold out Ukraine. Instead of being a servant of the people, Zelenskyy has turned out to be servant of the corrupt. Ukraine’s suffering has been building since its independence and will continue after the military conflict ceases so long as Western powers still have a hold there. Ukraine is an example of the end stage of neoliberal, free-market financial capitalism. If it continues on its present course Ukraine will be a country where the people will own nothing and they will be very unhappy, to paraphrase Klaus Schwab’s Great Rest slogan. I can personally vouch for the direction Ukraine is taking because we have heard about it firsthand from our Ukrainian friends here for years, who have relatives still living there. There is a warning in that for all Europeans, and for Americans, too.

Between the lockdowns for the pandemic and now the sanctions and American pressures to avoid contact with Russia, Europe has been left in the lurch and in danger of collapse if the situation continues as it has been since February. European NATO has effectively disarmed itself, too, having sent its stockpile of weapons into Ukraine, where it has either gone missing, fallen into the hands of the Donbas or been blown up by the Russians, like half of the HIMARS sent there. Europe could not fight the Russian now if they wanted to and some of those weapons replacements are backlogged for several years. Europe needs to reinvent itself and throw off the negative influences of the US and London. We are not talking about the peoples of the US and UK, but instead about the powers behind the scenes – the eight families mentioned previously and their minions, as in politicians in their pockets, corporate control of media and pricing, organizations like the IMF, WTO and WEF and many others. It is a literal grand spider’s web of influence.

To add to all the preceding, we are now hearing the regime in Kiev is fracturing, becoming very unstable. Regime change in Kiev is a distinct and growing probability. And Washington has changed its tune, too, now saying it is no longer their intention to topple Putin (it was up until now, one of the main purposes of the sanctions). Even Amnesty International is finally calling out war crimes on the Ukrainian side, which Ukrainian forces have committed since the start of the Russian SMO. Better late than never to report it, we might suppose. But instead, Zelenskyy is on his own when it comes to making peace with Russia. The Ukrainian front lines are collapsing. The situation for Ukraine’s troops is dire. A few months ago it was all about pressuring Kiev to keep the war going for as long as possible. It cannot go on for much longer. But there is a new wrinkle, too. Since the US has supplied its HIMARS systems to Ukraine, the Russians have had to adapt. They cannot tolerate long-range artillery and missile systems in Ukraine. Originally their operations were to be confined to the Donbas. Now they will extend to Transnistria, cutting off rump Ukraine from the Black Sea (and NATO supplies to Ukraine via that route). They will also go to the north, taking Kharkov as well, already in progress. The HIMARS were a game-changer, alright, but not in the way Kiev and Washington had hoped. And if Washington continues on that course, the whole of Ukraine will fall to the Russians in due time. There is no timeline in war. They last as long as need be. But the West will not be able to stay the course. There are too many problems at home.

Taking a step back to the start of the present stage of the conflict (24 Feb), comment from more informed military sources stated Ukraine had lost the war, and in the first week of fighting. That still stands. It is like this: If, in a battle, one receives a mortal wound and is unable to fight back to any great measure, the battle is lost. It is only a matter of time until the final outcome is assured. Ukrainians lost their ability to fight back effectively in the first week of the conflict. The Ukrainian army and its leadership are on their last leg. This is why the narrative has shifted from Washington and why the focus has suddenly shifted to China. On that note, we need to have a very quick look at Taiwan and Pelosi’s foolish trip. Taiwan would be worse for the West than Ukraine.

The Pelosi gambit: What’s in a name? Well, in this case, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Pelosi means ‘hairy’ in Italian, as in more than one hairy thing or being. We have five four-footed ‘pelosi amici’ here at the house, for example (dogs, in case you are wondering). But more to the point here, ‘peloso’, the singular case colloquially, means slick, artful, two-faced and insincere. The latter case is rare to hear in slang, but the meaning is along the lines of ‘making a big, hairy mess of things’. Nancy Pelosi is the most-recognized and least-liked Congressional leader. In terms of Leo and leadership, she has Leo rising, along with Aries sun and Moon in Scorpio, the hair being a sure indicator of her rising sign, as well as her penchant for overdramatizing situations. Pictures of her when she was younger show the mane pretty clearly. Only hard-core Democrats have any respect for Nancy Pelosi, though. So, why did she go to Taiwan? And why did she take her son, Paul Jr. with her, the latter on the board of five companies currently under probes by federal investigators? Paul, Jr. has no diplomatic credentials, but he does have a big interest in lithium and lithium batteries. He also went to Ukraine with her, which led to a lot of speculation. But the focus here is on Nancy. Perhaps a better question would be, why all the hype and bellicosity about her trip to Taiwan? Is it to try to pull the tail of the Dragon, in a manner similar to how Washington poked the bear, hard enough to provoke the Russian SMO?

There are historical reasons why there is so much focus on Taiwan as well as geopolitical reasons. It is partly distraction (from the SMO and troubles at home in the US), part posturing/testing the waters, part reason to stop funding Ukraine (because there would be a military conflict with China) and partly because ‘The Narrative’ must be made more Sinophobic than usual now that Russia cannot be broken. For the most part, on the surface Pelosi’s trip and the Chinese reaction was all theater. However, there are similarities between this trip and the Munich Security Conference a month before the Russian SMO was started. Kamala Harris was sent to that conference with a message. The Russians took note and knew what it meant. Pelosi has been sent to Taiwan in kind. The end result of this visit is that China will prepare for the invasion of Taiwan if need be, perhaps in the near future. The Chinese don’t normally work that way, though. In fact, the military drills they are doing now gave away their strategy. They don’t have to invade. All they need do is to blockade Taiwan. Taiwan would succumb, probably in a matter of months. There wouldn’t be anything the West could do except stomp their feet and shout loudly. They will not put their troops in harm’s way. Taiwan relies solely on imports to survive. It cannot support itself through a long blockade. All this hyperbole and military posturing by Beijing was more likely intended to send a message rather than to look tough.

The Americans said there was nothing to the visit and that China had no say in the matter. America can do what it wants – exceptionalism on display. The goal will be, when the time ever comes, for Washington to attempt to bring worldwide condemnation on China should an invasion take place, like they tried with Russia. It would be yet another disaster for the West, because the other 85% of the world’s population has generally a positive view of and at least decent relations with China. The larger world will shrug their shoulders, go on about their business with China and leave the belligerent Western powers to swing in the wind. But why does the US have such an interest in Taiwan in particular?

Taiwan and the long game: There is a long article, well worth the read, which goes into the history of the US/UK belligerency with China over Taiwan. And for the record, Taiwan is a part of mainland China, not a separate, independent nation. It is a separatist region. The US still recognizes the One-China Policy, though it is covertly seeking to split off Taiwan from the mainland and claim Taiwan is the rightful government of China. Taiwan is seen as a potential military base by American, Japanese and British interests, as a launching pad for direct intervention against China. This was outlined in State Department memoranda, starting with one sent by the Joint Chiefs to the Secretary of Defense in 1948 in November of that year. China was still in a civil war at the time and the PRC was proclaimed nearly a year later in October. From the November memorandum:

“The Joint Chiefs of Staff are of the opinion that, under the assumption [the Communists take hold of the island] the strategic implications to the security of the United States would be seriously unfavorable…if we have been unable to prevent China itself from becoming largely Communist-controlled…[then] the strategically valuable areas of that country, including air base sites, harbors and coastal railroad terminals, would have little utility to the United States in the event of war. This would enhance, from the strategic viewpoint, the potential value to the United States of Formosa [Taiwan] as a wartime base capable of use for staging of troops, strategic air operations and control of adjacent shipping routes.”

That is the basic purpose for US involvement in Taiwan since the end of WWII. It has evolved since then, with Taiwan being one of the world’s main supplier of the world’s more advanced semiconductor chips, over which the US wants to remain in primary control. China is making great breakthroughs in that area, which has the US especially concerned. Pelosi’s trip was in part to secure Taiwan’s chip factories, even perhaps to move them to the US. Taiwanese should beware. Then from another memorandum in January of 1949 from the Secretary of State to Truman, should it become necessary to defend ‘American interests’ in Taiwan:

“Meanwhile, the United States should…put itself in a position to intervene with force if necessary. Such intervention should be publicly based not on obvious American strategic interests but on principles which are likely to have support in the international community, mainly the principle of self-determination of the Formosan people. This involves the fostering of a Formosan autonomy movement…”

And there you have it: With the bolded bits we have the basis for what the US has done in many countries, fostering autonomy movements and ‘freedom fighters’ in countries over which it seeks to have control. The latter was emphasized by Pelosi herself in a tweet on her landing in Taiwan: “Our visit reiterates that America stands with Taiwan: a robust, vibrant democracy and our important partner in the Indo-Pacific.” Sure, just like America ‘stands with Ukraine’, Hong Kong, Iran and so forth. Taiwan is not a ‘partner’ to the US. It is a tool, a chess piece. This is an old playbook, but the wider world has woken up to it. The US did those very tactics in Tibet (and here), Xinjiang and Hong Kong, all of which failed. The failed color revolution in Hong Kong was the latest example. They tried with Tibet first, starting the ‘50s, then Tiananmen, then Xinjiang, then Hong Kong and now Taiwan. But as a result of Pelosi’s visit on the 2^nd August, Americans especially are crowing that China blinked and lost face as a result of her trip. It would be a mistaken assumption.

In the American reactions, we see one of the reasons for her trip – domestic politics. Republicans rallied behind her. Midterms are coming and key Senate races are shaping up now. Democrats need a ‘win’. Amid all the hysteria around Pelosi’s visit, Americans have been flagellated with a stream of hyperbole, from questioning whether there would be military action and escalation to WWIII, to comments on Pelosi’s pink pantsuit. (It was more than just power dressing, you know?). Instead of examining Chinese history and philosophy to get an idea of how the Chinese might react and why they did not intervene directly, American reactions were projected onto them, as in what the US would do were the situation reversed. But the hyperbole is great for ratings.

Crossing the Chinese Rubicon: Not recognized in the Western press is that the US has just crossed China’s red line, in the same vein as when they crossed Russia’s red line at the last Munich Security Conference. We all saw what happened in February as a result. Pelosi crossed the Chinese Rubicon with her visit, much to the delight of the neocons. Officially, Biden disapproved of her visit, if anyone buys that story. But with the preceding, this is a developing story that bears careful watching. The Chinese plan strategically for the long term, as do the Russians. The Chinese would have walked into a trap set by the neocons if China had responded militarily. The neocons were hoping for something like a ‘Pearl Harbor moment’ (interview, 23:33) with Pelosi’s trip. The Chinese are smarter than that. They are more like: “He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.” (Sun Tzu) The Chinese didn’t bite – not yet. However, there have already been repercussions from Pelosi’s visit and it will not go well for the US in the long term. China is already placing sanctions on Taiwan, including sand (actually, an essential strategic mineral and increasingly in short supply) and foodstuffs. A giant Chinese supplier of electric-vehicle batteries has just put a hold on building a huge plant for manufacture of batteries in North America as a result of Pelosi’s visit. That plant would have created 10,000 jobs.

China has suspended cooperation and communication with the US on a number of issues as a result of Pelosi’s visit. This, along with the preceding actions by China are just the start, and will cause a spike in supply-side inflation in Taiwan, as well as the US, not to mention creating greater tensions and insecurity in the region and the US. And neighboring nations were not exactly happy with Pelosi’s little visit, either. She was snubbed in South Korea. We hear she was miffed. Military drills around Taiwan will be more commonplace and move closer and closer to the island. And with the naval exercises around the island, there is effectively a potential blockade of Taiwan. Those exercises could also disrupt shipping through the Taiwan Strait, though at the moment they aren’t. And the fact that the CPC was seen to have lost face, the Chinese public is hardened all the more for their leadership to take decisive action in the event of further provocations. That was a deliberate public relations move by the CPC to ready the public for any eventuality. People used to say Russia was weak – all talk and no action. Ukraine would beg to differ now. The Russian public rallied behind the Kremlin when the SMO finally started.

The Chinese hysteria was a calculated show. The Chinese have many ways of ratcheting up the ‘pain dial’ on Taiwan and thereby the West. I will do a separate report on all this later, because it is a kind of defining moment for US-China relations. Most of us have heard China is seeking to ‘take over the world’, endlessly repeated in conversations, and that it needs to somehow be ‘restrained’. It is a statement full of conditioning, projection and ignorance. We really do need to talk about China in an informed setting, instead of looking down our noses or buying into the ‘yellow terror’. But to conclude, China made similar bellicose threats against Hong Kong, too, during the latest protests there, and were seen to have backed down. Where is Hong Kong now, though? – firmly back under China’s wing, and without intervening militarily. Pelosi’s visit was very ill-thought, but politicians are often known to do such foolish things. The countdown for Taiwan’s reunification has begun.

Catharsis as healing: For readers of Alice Bailey’s books, in one of his correspondences with one of the seed group disciples, the Tibetan had this to say to the disciple O.-L.R.D (Ethel Prouty): “Be not afraid of emotional devastation, my brother.”^[16] That was in 1937 and WWII was already taking flight in the Pacific – in China, to be exact. And who was Ethel Prouty? She was nobody we know, yet she was a disciple. That is something true of the great majority of the world’s disciples. They live and work among us, largely unknown as such. But Ethel was temporarily excluded from the group of disciples because she failed to learn ‘in tenderness to walk with others’.^[17] Ethel was an American from the Northeast, with quite a bit of hardline ray energy in her nature. She was a Gemini, with Mars conjunct her Cancer Ascendant and semisquare Pluto. What she needed in order to learn to walk in tenderness with others was a good catharsis, hence the nature of the Tibetan’s statement. She gets a mention here because of the Tibetan’s statement and her astrology. Her Gemini fits in with the US, and Europe, too. A good catharsis is exactly what many of our Western leaders and elites need right now, because they are stuck, unable to move and trapped by their ‘imaginary war’, their own rhetoric, their hubris and their ignorance:

“The point here is that the West is comprehensively stuck: It cannot move forward, nor back. Its structures of politics and of the economy prevent it. Biden is stuck on Ukraine; Europe is stuck on Ukraine and on its belligerence towards Putin; ditto for the UK; and the West is stuck on its relations with Russia and China. More importantly, none of them can address the insistent demands from Russia and China for a restructuring of the global security architecture.

If they cannot move on this security plane – for fear of losing face – they will be unable to assimilate (or hear – given the ingrained cynicism that attends any words spoken by President Putin) that Russia’s agenda goes far beyond security architecture.”

Fear of losing face can be a challenge for any Leo type, returning to the Leo dominance in Europe. Western Europe is particularly sickened with this emotional malady – France, Italy, London, Berlin, Geneva – old Lions used to having it their way and roaring incessantly at the younger Lion of the Urals (Russia). Of the four old ones just mentioned, Italy is probably the least-affected by it. The Russian state instead is indeed young, though the Russian people are ancient and imbued with more of the collective nature of the East than is Western Europe. With all the Leo in Europe we also see the roots of something else – a sense of entitlement, exceptionalism and an imperious nature – all lower Leo attributes. ‘People of color’ were seen as ‘the white man’s burden’, as inferior people and races who needed to be taken care of (exploited), like beasts of burden, and shown a ‘better way’ to govern themselves. And those attitudes were transplanted into areas Western Europeans colonized and where the descendants of white Europeans still hold power, especially prominent in the US. It is deeply built into the subconscious of Western European leaders and we see it fully on display regarding Russia and China. This is in process of being broken up, one of the benefits heralded by the Saturn/Pluto conjunction.

Those old lions are used to having it their own way and have become fat and lazy, thinking they had the upper hand in everything. The EU also has a pronounced issue with the age of its leadership, like Macron, Rutte, Baerbock, etc., which is causing huge problems:

“…it is obvious that there is a certain dynamic in the EU related to the generation of the current political leadership. European leaders are very young, have no real experience, but are ideologically fixed. That is the reason why European leadership tends not to have a mature assessment of the situation…In Europe, our understanding of the problem lags behind that of the USA. We are not able to discuss the situation calmly. In the French-language media, it is impossible to take an alternative view of the problems without being called “Putin’s agent.” This is not only an intellectual issue, but first and foremost a problem for Ukraine. By confirming the view proposed by Ukrainian propaganda, our media have pushed Ukraine towards a strategy that costs a huge number of [Ukrainian] lives and leads to the destruction of the country.”

So, given all the preceding with Europe and what it needs in order to break the stasis of ideology and inexperience, it becomes apparent that we must say, “Let experience lead to wisdom,” referring back to the quote at the start of the Cancer letter. We might add to the lack of experience mentioned in the preceding quote that the present leaders of Europe have never experienced real warfare, especially of the type we are seeing in Ukraine. This also leads European leaders to make disastrous decisions about support for Ukraine, when in reality they could have stopped the war before it started by demanding Ukraine implement Minsk, for example, and sitting calmly with Russia and working out a comprehensive trans-European security. But then, there is the elephant in the room of the banking cartels and think-tank heads in Washington and New York. The EU had the leverage to make the necessary arrangements with Ukraine and Russia, but lacking experience and backbone (against the US), failed in their task. That said, it was already a moot point because plans were already in place for the ‘sanctions from Hell’ against Russia well before the SMO ever started.

The fixed ideology of the European and many American leaders – particularly evident in the ideologues of the US State Department – brings us back to the Pisces letter for this year (“The West and the 6^th ray” topic). Since the start of the SMO this fixed idealism has been strongly evident across the US and Europe. It gets expressed through the jingoism in the press and every time an administration official in the US or EU leader opens their mouths. But American and European peoples alike are beginning to connect the dots as to what is actually going on, and they are asking why we need to support Ukraine now. As to the leaders, it is the Democrats, infested with neocons, who wanted war with Russia, whereas the Republicans want to have a go at China. That, too, is coming. European leaders are more antagonistic toward Russia than they are at China, as much for historical reasons as for astrological connections. But we again refer to the Pisces letter and at the fact the 6^th ray is passing out. Hence, the underlying push for upholding ideals is giving way to a more realistic assessment of people’s needs, however slowly. Pragmatism (7^th ray) is starting to overcome idealism (6^th ray).

Notes on a disciple: Before we leave this topic, there are few more words regarding Ethel Prouty. We don’t know what her catharsis actually entailed. We do know she was going through difficulties a couple of years before, shown in her chart, involving her 2^nd Saturn return and a few difficult directions (solar arcs). She had the 1^st ray strong in her nature,^[18] which often renders people unlovable^[19] who are expressing that ray strongly. We find this in nations as well, such as China, the UK, Germany and India. Of the four, Germany and the UK express this ray through their personalities. Nations expressing this ray can be especially brutal when it suits them. Nations on the 5^th ray, which Ethel expressed via her personality, tend more toward cruelty in their lowest expression. For Ethel, the path to soul expression, shown by the Ascendant in any chart, was found through Cancer and Neptune, hence the need for greater sensitivity and sympathy toward other people – the need ‘to walk in tenderness’, and the admonition not to be afraid of emotional devastation. Fear is a large stumbling block for any Cancerian type, and the sign is closely associated with the astral plane via Neptune. The same lesson Ethel needed are the same as those of Washington, Tokyo and New York, all with Cancerian souls. There are similarities between this disciple and what she needed and the nations and cities ruled by the same rays and signs. Ethel reverted to her ‘default’ secure place – the mind – instead of taking on her learning. Catharsis was seen by her as an obstacle and punishment instead of an opportunity. Thus she failed in that lesson for that life. But there is always time to change the road one is on.

So, who among the nations is walking in cooperation with other nations and seeking greater communion, and who instead is seeking division and control? It would appear to be pointless to list them, given all we have examined in previous letters, but to give a wide overview we have the BRICS nations, the SCO, ASEAN and BRI nations, for the moment largely centered in Asia, who are seeking greater solidarity and cooperation. African nations are quickly coming on board with the aforementioned Asian groups. Russia is gravitating quickly toward the greater part of its work, which lies in the East.^[20]

Four years ago I wrote a two-part letter about why we need to be talking to the Russians. Life in Russia and Russia itself is not at all as it is portrayed in Western media. The Russia letter is listed at the end of this letter with a link. A small part of the post is dated, but on the whole it is still valid and applies as much today as it did then. It also goes to the point as to how we could have avoided the escalation of the fighting in Ukraine and the Russian SMO. There is also a two-part letter on Iran, too, listed at the end, that nation also being quite important in the greater Eurasian sphere. Unfortunately our leaders appear to show no inclination to understand Russia and Russians or any non-Western nation and instead choose to double down on the same failed policies that have brought us to this point. In fact, they still believe their own propaganda and think somehow they can pull out a military victory in Ukraine or regime change in Russia out of what they are pushing. All the time our leaders double down on their policies, ours and Ukraine’s suffering increases. In the Easter letter from last year we looked at the Saturnian influence in the national chart for the US (topic: “Saturn and the US”) and its Machiavellian manifestations. Many of our Western leaders seem to have a habit of worshipping dead horses, or at least riding a willing one to death. The willing horse seems to be the EU these days. Incidentally, the chart for the EU shows Leo rising. So, speaking of Lions, we have the EU roaring at Russia, with Russia going its own way as a consequence. And as Russia is going, so are the majority of the world’s nations. But we hear no mention of it. If you want to look at a true Aquarian initiative international, set aside past conditioning, look outside the Western press and examine what is really happening as nation after nation decides to cooperate in mutual interests instead of forming alliances for and against. A fascinating and much more positive trend in world affairs emerges. Western nations will have to choose, either to suffer along their present course, or to take on board the possibilities being presented by these other nations. These will be these trends over the next few decades.

In conclusion: “Be not afraid of emotional devastation, my brother.” Those words are timeless, and they resound throughout Western Europe and America today. Europe today faces a ‘perfect storm’ of circumstances and events – of planned austerity, of climate emergencies (fires, floods, drought, heat and cold), of polarization, of ‘enforced freedoms’, of entrenched and stagnant idealism commandeered for political gain, of old unnecessary hatreds, of security in many domains, of inexperience and of incompetence. We see this across the West in varying degrees. But in Europe, these factors are especially pronounced. There are sane voices, to be sure, but they are routinely sidelined and drowned out. Catharsis is coming to Europe, except for Russia, and it will be most noticeable this winter. Let catharsis bring its healing work. We recall the following lines of verse from the Mantram of Unification^[21]:

“Let pain bring due reward of light and love.
Let the soul control the outer form, and life, and all events,
And bring to light the Love that underlies the happenings of the time.
Let vision come and insight. Let the future stand revealed.
Let inner union demonstrate and outer cleavages be gone…”

This Year of the Black Tiger has as one of its mottos, “the ability to divine the future and distant worlds”. All things are casting off their obscuring wrappings. With all of its Leo emphasis, Europe and Europeans have the capacity to reinvent themselves. This we must do, and it applies to all of us in these days. We have only to invoke our common sense, which is of the soul. But in the midst of crises, let us not lose sight of our own divine nature. Let us become exemplary instead of statistical examples. And for Europe, common sense leads to an inescapable conclusion – Europe needs Russia far more than we need Washington – for energy, for security, for resources and indeed, for friendship. In fact, it is Washington who needs Europe instead of the reverse. Russia is European in terms of the bulk of its people, and almost half of Europe’s land mass is Russian. Our security lies not in the force of arms, but in seeing our antagonisms for what they are – fabrications, illusions, tools used by others, the sin of separation. Instead of roaring at each other like old lions, it is time we in Europe all sat down and talked, especially with the Lion of the Urals. Our needs are not so different. Our enemies lie within. Going forward, let our hearts radiate courage, confidence, joy in living and most especially our own unique wisdom. These are qualities of Leo, as well as qualities of the soul. Let the whirlwind of catharsis sweep around us as we stand steadfast in the center, with the certainty that all storms eventually pass, leaving the land cleansed and refreshed. A brighter world is emerging if we could see it. Let us act as if it it were so.

Leo blessings,
Malvin
11 Aug 2022
malvin@malvinartley.com

These letters are sent as a service. Feel free to pass them along, but do so without charge or alteration. If you wish to be added to or deleted from the mailing list, let me know.

Related posts:
We really need to talk about Russia
What we hear in the Western MSM about Russia, and what the truth is
We need to talk about Iran, too
Why the US is going after Iran: War on the horizon?
Surfing the zeitgeist in the UK
Boris resigns (?)
Who is Zelenskyy – hero or tragic actor?

Picture credits:
Leo: https://www.artmajeur.com/en/gabriel-cotelle/artworks/11163412/leo-lion
European drought: https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/italy-widespread-state-of-emergency-imminent-as-drought-continues/358313
Vajrayogini conferring enlightenment: https://www.pinterest.it/pin/543035667565867027/
Black Tiger: https://www.quora.com/Where-can-you-see-a-black-tiger
Europe after fall of Rome: Wikimedia Commons
Book cover: self-explanatory
Oil prices soar: https://www.statista.com/chart/27887/big-oil-sees-profits-increase/
Surfer Liz: https://twitter.com/trussliz/status/1017809710580490240
Mick Lynch and picket line: https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2022/07/02/mick-lynch-the-trade-unionist-stealing-the-show-on-british-tv_5988783_4.html
Greta on coal: https://makeameme.org/meme/coalreally-dont-you
Giorgia Meloni: https://etrurianews.it/2021/10/03/giorgia-meloni-tutto-studiato-contro-fratelli-ditalia-video/
Soup kitchen: https://www.britannica.com/list/5-of-the-worlds-most-devastating-financial-crises
Theaters of War: https://www.pressenza.com/2022/01/the-pentagon-and-cia-have-shaped-thousands-of-hollywood-movies-into-super-effective-propaganda/
Go war: https://www.tikkun.org/ukraine-is-the-latest-neocon-disaster/
Joined at roots: https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/peace-treaty-handshake.html
Russian Ukraine: https://www.kas.de/en/web/auslandsinformationen/artikel/detail/-/content/wo-putins-russland-endet1
Zelenskyy on money horse: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FX5I-irWAAAkByl?format=jpg&name=medium
ATACMS range: https://twitter.com/ukraine_map/status/1548954942613889024
Pelosi and panda: https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3186724/if-nancy-pelosi-visits-taiwan-there-almost-nothing-gain-everything
America exceptionalism: http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3tywjz
Chinese military drills: https://www.msn.com/en-ph/news/world/china-to-stage-major-drills-around-taiwan-after-pelosi-visit/ar-AA10hefR?li=BBr8RiR
Losing face: https://www.sinologyinstitute.com/blog/negotiating-china
Caged birds freed: https://stock.adobe.com/search?k=catharsis
Non-aligned movement and observer members: Wikimedia Commons
Russian and EU flags: https://www.eyes-on-europe.eu/russia-eu-eu-logos/

1. Bailey, Alice A., Esoteric Astrology (1951) New York, NY, Lucis Publishing, p. 68 ↑
2. Ibid, p. 311 ↑
3. Bailey, Discipleship in the New Age I, p. 181 ↑
4. Ebertin, Elsbeth, Fixed Stars and Their Interpretation, (1928), pubs. The American Federation of Astrologers, Tempe, AZ, p.49. ↑
5. Ebertin, Reinhard, The Combination of Stellar Influences, (1972), pubs. The American Federation of Astrologers, Tempe, AZ, p. 159 ↑
6. Bailey, The Destiny of the Nations, published 1949 ↑
7. Bailey, A Treatise on White Magic, p. 439 ↑
8. Bailey, Esoteric Astrology, p. 70 ↑
9. Ibid, p. 547 ↑
10. Ibid, p. 138 ↑
11. Bailey, Problems of Humanity, p. 26 ↑
12. Ibid, p. 172 ↑
13. Bailey, The Destiny of the Nations, p. 79 ↑
14. Bailey, Esoteric Healing, p. 232 ↑
15. Ibid, p. 239 ↑
16. Bailey, Discipleship in the New Age I, p. 556 ↑
17. Ibid, p. 559 ↑
18. Bailey, Discipleship in the New Age I, p. 559 ↑
19. Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, p. 579 ↑
20. Bailey, The Destiny of the Nations, p. 85 ↑
21. Bailey, Discipleship in the New Age II, p. 146 ↑