The Sagittarius Festival 2022

Topics (linked to paragraphs): Sagittarius Esoteric Sagittarius The archer on fire The antahkarana Elephants and horses Sagittarian engagement The full moon Technocracy Once upon a time Experience or rote learning? The many Rubicons Other Rubicons In conclusion

Greetings Everyone!

My wife and I crossed the Rubicon a few weeks ago. It’s a picturesque little river, about 50 miles long, just above where we went on a short visit to Rimini. Oh, but perhaps you thought with the ‘Rubicon’ remark I may have meant some sort of momentous decision or event. Well, there is that, which will come later in this letter, but it has nothing to do with us. Regarding the ‘family’ here in Italy, I am talking about the actual river. Yes, there really is a river called the Rubicon – Rubicone in Italian. It is small, more on the order of a large tributary than a river, tinged red from iron deposits, hence its name. But to this day no one is really certain the river now called ‘Rubicon’ is the actual river of Caesar’s fame. Mussolini had the current river Rubicon named as such in 1933, changing its name from Fumicino, now the name of Rome’s international airport. The die was cast – Iacta alea est. Verb tenses aside for lovers of Latin language, the Rubicone is an interesting piece of history. There was even a mock trial about whether the ex-Fumicino was the actual Rubicone. Rubicone lost, but the name of the river remains. That said, in terms of world affairs, 2022 marks the year during which Iacta alea est – meaning there is no going back to the way things were before this decade. As it turns out, that is a good thing. The remainder of this century will see us all moving definitively into Aquarian dynamics, leaving the Piscean idealism and imperialism behind.

Closer to home and current news, the Christmas season has finally arrived in Rovereto. The 25^th of November officially started the Christmas season here, with the lighting of the Christmas tree in the main square the day after. The markets are packed on the weekends and the atmosphere is decidedly more festive than in the past few years. Gone is the hated green pass. That went the way of Draghi – ousted. One of the first measures the Meloni government instituted was to put all the health care workers back to work who had previously been suspended due to refusal of vaccinations. There is no talk of vaccinations unless people want them. Masks still have to be worn in health care facilities, but that is a small inconvenience. Overall people here take the virus in their stride. We are looking at a Christmas season approaching pre-2020 levels. I even managed to add a few Christmas lights here at the house this year in addition to what we already had. The children love them. Speaking of children, two houses down from us they have set up a children’s Christmas playground, complete with all the annoying poppy Christmas music. It’s a musician’s nightmare. Thankfully we can’t hear it in the house.

Back to the Rubicon, our trip to Rimini took place over Halloween. We didn’t especially want to be at the house at Halloween. We had looked at Rimini for some months before the trip. It is quite a historic city. It was the birthplace of Federico Fellini, who was one of the most influential filmmakers of all time – think: La Strada (1954), Nights of Cabiria (1957), La Dolce Vita (1960), among many others. We visited a park there named after him. Fellini was a Capricorn with Venus in Sagittarius. He hated politics and believed in the nobility of the individual, very characteristic of the combination. Fellini’s films, “…are a unique combination of memory, dreams, fantasy and desire. The adjectives “Fellinian” and “Felliniesque” are “synonymous with any kind of extravagant, fanciful, even baroque image in the cinema and in art in general”. It is also very Italian. His film La Dolce Vita (The Sweet Life) gave us the term ‘paparazzi’, from a character in the film. The gossip rags do love their paparazzi, like The Sun in the UK. In reality, the fantasy of seeing Fellini’s birthplace gave way to shrugs once we got there. It was like, “OK. Is that all? What’s next?” Life can kind of be like that when one has expectations. That rang true for much of Rimini, which in fact is a large metro area full of Bangladeshi small markets, surrounding a small ancient area.

The ancient area of Rimini, in contrast to the metro area, is quite pleasant and full of history, starting with the Tiberius Bridge (Ponte di Tiberio). The bridge was built during Jesus’ time on this Earth – you know, that Jewish preacher and religious leader of whom we are constantly reminded. Lest one is offended with the way he is presented here, he is central to our themes in this posting along with other considerations. There is a religion founded upon him, in case you didn’t know, not that he wanted that. But that religion and many people’s beliefs around it play a role in what we see unfolding in our world at present, as in believing the dead letter of any philosophy or law. That aside, to finish the news from home, the Tiberius Bridge is still open to pedestrians. We walked across it into the historic center and had a cappuccino in the main square during our sightseeing visit. By the way, the bridge spans the Marecchia River, in case one is wondering about the Rubicon. We crossed the former river, too, obviously. So with all that said, here are some rhetorical questions: Is the water under the bridge important, or the crossing and destination? Or is it the journey itself that matters? Unless we live under a rock, we cross many figurative and real bridges in life to achieve various destinations. Another rhetorical: Do we achieve a destination or does the destination change us? Having done so, do we rest there or seek out another? That brings us to our theme for this letter – Sagittarius – and its esoteric motto: I see the goal, I reach that goal and then I see another. We’ll have a bit more on Rimini later on in this letter.

Sagittarius: Every sign can be interpreted in at least three modes – personal (orthodox), aspirational (esoteric) and spiritual (hierarchical). There are many gradations in between those three and they all interblend in a human being. Every sign can also be interpreted through the lens of many traditions and cultures, and all are valid according to one’s experience. For the vast number of Western astrological readings the orthodox rulers for any sign suffice for interpretation. When an astrologer encounters someone definitely devoted to a greater service and toward spiritual development, then the esoteric rulers must be incorporated to get a wider and clearer picture of the person and also the reason they have come for a consult. The orthodox ruler of Sagittarius is Jupiter,^[1] representing the Sagittarian sense of expansiveness and wide, open spaces. Regarding the rulers of any sign there are also three modes of symbolism for each of the signs. For example, the symbol commonly used for Sagittarius is the archer mounted on a white horse, signifying the person with a definite orientation toward a goal.^[2] This is the Jupiterian phase of the sign and represents the search for higher meaning, attributed to the natural 9^th house of the zodiac, which Sagittarius rules. The horse is the symbol for humanity still reliant on the animal nature (brain consciousness and vital body) to achieve goals. The horse (animal nature) is the vehicle, the means of which goals are reached. The bow and arrow may or may not be used in this phase of experience, but the archer is definitely self-aware and travels toward a desired goal.

In the esoteric phase of Sagittarius the horse disappears. The archer has dismounted and stands on the earth with the animal nature abandoned, the bow and arrow at the ready, searching for the desired outcome. This incorporates the esoteric ruler of the sign – the Earth itself. This is a phase of intensive concentration, for the archer searches for movement in the desired direction. It is the ‘hunting’ or ‘searching phase’, the goal yet to be achieved. But the goal is sensed and the general direction forward is known. This is also a phase of active experience. Dismounted from the horse the archer no longer has the safety or the vantage point of the mount, is not subject to the whims of the animal, nor has the means of rapid escape should dangers arise. The archer is armed only with heightened senses and awareness, with the bow and arrow at the ready. It is worth noting in this phase the horse is dismounted when the desired goal is sensed to be within reach. In other words, our mount (in reality our personality) brings us to a certain point, but at that certain point of attainment, the personality must be abandoned to approach the goal alone, implying a retreat from the outer world. Sagittarius is a sign that has retreat from worldly concerns implied. This brings us to the third and final phase.

Esoteric Sagittarius: In the third phase the archer becomes the archetype of the Zen archer, wherein the archer, the goal and the arrow become one. This is meditative one-pointedness, but it is also an interlude. The target is in clear view. The aim of the arrow is carefully measured (the interlude), and then – when the moment coalesces – the arrow is released toward its destination, which is also the destination of the archer. The ‘moment coalesced’ carries the concept of connection with the goal. It occurs when the target beckons the arrow, figuratively speaking. When the connection is felt or realized, the arrow is released. This highest phase of this sign is the Mars phase – the ‘firing phase’ – which ultimately produces conflict in the personality once the destination/goal is achieved. It produces conflict because a veil is broken and a new reality is revealed. ‘Firing’ has several meanings.

The archer on fire: In the orthodox or worldly sense the Mars phase applies to firing the arrow. But in terms of spiritual practice the Martian rulership of Sagittarius points to the ‘kindling phase’ – the start of the conscious use of kundalinishakti in one’s meditative practice. This is also known as gtum-mo or caṇḍālī in Buddhism and tantric practice. It is ‘the fierce woman’ and is represented in thangkas and tantric texts as the female consort (yogini) of the yogi in highest yoga tantra. The Mother Tantras in Buddhism make conscious use of this force, which is normally latent in the body at the base of the spine. It is a legacy of the lunar lords, with which Mars is associated. Mars demonstrates as kundalini latent.^[3] But in meditative practice kundalini begins its awakening in Sagittarius, symbolically speaking. Mars is aroused to the battle and lights the arrow of directed intent. In this mode the ‘arrow’ is flaming and represents the awareness of the archer, the arrow flying along the path of the completed antahkarana’, the ‘rainbow bridge of light’ which links the personality with the higher Self, the latter being the soul on its own plane. The soul in this phase can be seen as ‘the playground of goals’ from the personality perspective, or the ‘the beckoning of the arrow’ from the soul’s perspective.

Not to put too fine a point on it (pun intended), the goal of every ‘arrow’ is to pierce ever-finer layers of illusion and delusion. Once a veil has been pierced and a new reality has been revealed, more light pours into the personality. We thus become more ‘lighted’ spiritually. But more than that, more bliss (or joy) comes into one’s life. Sagittarius is one of the signs associated with joyful discovery, perhaps the best description of this sign. Eventually the light that trickles in from initial successful ‘hunting’ becomes a flood of ‘light supernal’ and we enter the Capricorn phase of the zodiac. What has been a steady river of karma over our spiritual evolution from eons past – the water under the bridge – flows now under a solid bridge of light and we become inseparable from the higher Self. The goal, the journey, the archer, the bow and arrow – all at that point become one, an unshakable link to the infinite ocean of consciousness, or full enlightenment.

The antahkarana can be seen as one’s ‘personal Rubicon’. Every time that bridge of light is crossed one’s personal life is changed irrevocably. Illusions have been shattered. The brain and lower mind will need time to assimilate the experience and adjust. The arrow must be retrieved once the target is reached, to then be launched once again toward another target, or the same one if need be. This retrieval by the archer is analogous to bringing the experiences of meditation back into the brain consciousness, which is not so easy as it sounds. But, this bringing back into brain consciousness is also analogous to the archer re-mounting the white horse and then going off in search of the next target, or goal.

Elephants and horses: There is a parallel in Buddhism with the symbolism of the archer and the white horse. We see it in the shamatha diagram (see previous link to antahkarana) with the monk sitting at the base of the mountain, rainbows emanating from his head, with the elephant (representing his purified and thoroughly pacified mind) asleep or reposing beside him. The elephant is white, signifying that purified mind imbued with will, which elephants represent. But in this case the elephant is the lower mind transformed into intellect, which is abandoned in the ‘experiences of the higher Way’, initially. Later it is used in the practice of vipassana, insight meditation, represented in the monk riding the elephant across the rainbow bridges, eventually floating free of his own volition. The symbolism there is one of ‘anchoring the dharma on the earth’, bringing experience of the higher realms to the earthly realms as a teaching aid, or an aspect of service. The elephant also represents the steady, willful application of intellectual analysis.

Sagittarian engagement: In all, Sagittarius represents a stage on the spiritual path known as the ‘path of joining’, ‘engagement’ or ‘junction’. In other words it is a path that firmly connects the personality with the higher Self by means of the bridge of light, the antahkarana. In Buddhist practice this path is called the Path of Probation. One of its prime characteristics is that of warmth (Mars/kundalini), leading to the summit (Capricorn/perfected concentration) wherein one cultivates the five powers (faith, diligence, mindfulness, concentration and wisdom), thereafter becoming acceptance of reality. This leads ultimately to the supreme attribute, wherein the five powers are consolidated into the five strengths. The thing to remember is Sagittarius represents a bridging phase in development, leading to ‘the light supernal’ – spiritual enlightenment.

As one of the uniquely human signs, representing a relative completion of human experience, Sagittarius is subjective in nature, utilizing the vital forces of the body, which is yet another symbol for the white horse of the archer. Sagittarian experience is not focussed in consciousness upon the physical plane. It is focussed upon the immortal brother,^[4] the higher Self, or the soul on its own plane. We will have a little more on this most important astrological sign in human evolution in the paragraphs to follow. But to summarize, Sagittarius represents experience over knowledge, or knowledge gained through actual experience. Enlightenment must be experienced directly. It cannot be had from a book or a teaching. Sagittarius represents the phase wherein we begin to directly experience enlightenment. There is more we could investigate, but the preceding will suffice for what follows. From here we have a look at this full moon. Sagittarius is also a sign representing great tension leading to release through passionate exertion, which we see represented in this year’s full moon figure.

The full moon: The full moon takes place on 8 December 2022 at 4:08 UT (2:08 pm AEDT). The full moon axis makes a t-square with the dwarf planet Orcus. There are four planets out-of-bounds: the Moon, Venus, Mercury and Mars. The Moon and Mars are in partile conjunction. The Sun and Pluto are in parallel. The upshot of the preceding is this full moon period represents an extreme and precipitating period, for reasons that will be outlined in the following pages. The Moon and Mars are conjunct the star Rigel, which bears a mention. With the Moon, Rigel gives the following:

“Much worry and disappointment, injuries to life and fortune, sickness, ill-health or death to wife or mother.”

With Mars, Rigel gives the following:

“Unruly, ingenious, occupied with mechanical matters, great military preferment.”^[5]

The Sun is conjunct Ras Algethi, the latter having the nature of Saturn. These two stars – Rigel and Ras Algethi – speak of boldness and the drive to attain power. Square to Orcus, the meaning is clear: Those who shirk the law in pursuit of power are bound to face its consequences. Given the great changes we are seeing politically, militarily and economically, we see this full moon period in the mundane as one which will see justice being done, or wrongs being committed that will bring just desserts with expediency. The emphasis will be upon ‘restitution’. The effect will be one of ‘positive disillusionment’ – perhaps seeing the truth for the first time. The influence of Orcus gives a particular note of justice. It could be called ‘the planet of instant karma’. In mythology Orcus was the keeper of oaths. When it is found in a prominent position in any chart it gives the blessing of keeping people on track, by means of letting one know when and how mistakes have been made. The experience of that is generally unpleasant unless one likes discipline. It is a disciplining influence, and gives a quality of the combined 1^st and 6^th rays – meaning a stern and unwavering adherence to ethics and/or destiny. It is a very fortunate planet to have exalted in a chart if one is undertaking any new discipline. Finally, regarding the more important factors in the chart, we see Uranus at the north node and in quincunx to the Sun. For Western readers of these letters, expect the unexpected. The reason Western readers are singled out is because of our technocratic leadership across the West, for which we can thank the French in terms of its creation. This is central to what is taking place and also a very Sagittarian subject. From here we move on to world events.

Technocracy: perhaps it would come as no surprise to readers familiar with Alice Bailey’s books that technocracy was born in France (Topic: “The origin of ideology”) from the French Revolution. With its 3^rd and 5^th ray expressions the French outlook tends along mental and scientific lines. But we recall from the Bailey books the 5^th ray was withdrawn prematurely because it had done its work.^[6] The 3^rd ray, on the other hand, is essentially ever-present as far as this current point of history goes.^[7] Technocracy was born of ideology in France – the idea that a technocratic class knows best how to run society efficiently. At the start it was a good idea, getting rid of feudalism and monarchies, separating church from state (at least outwardly) and giving rise to the modern city and technology. But the idea of the technocrats forming a government is one that has passed. Technocracy has become static and corrupted, and we see a backlash against technocrats now, being replaced outside the West by culture starting to hold sway over ideology. Technocracy is based in academia. Culture is based in experience. Technocracy is an offshoot of ideology. The corruption of our technocratic societies is at the root of why the West is failing against the emerging multipolar culture-led world outside the West, because our educational systems in the West have become disconnected from experience, and in fact try to ignore it:

“…In Europe and America, a technocratic élite system built on mythology and complacency is crumbling. Its founding fable – which prophesied the nation states’ glorious enmeshment in world government and supply chains – has metastasised into a parable of the perils of globalisation. This time, élites cannot shirk responsibility for the consequences of their fatal errors … Put simply, the emperor has no clothes: The Establishment simply has no message for voters in the face of hardship. The only vision for the future it can conjure up is Net Zero – a dystopian agenda that takes the sacrificial politics of austerity and financialisation of the world economy to new heights. But it is a perfectly logical programme for an élite that has become unhinged from the real world”.

What we have in the West now are elite classes in every Western nation who, though often having fabulous education credentials, are basically ignorant of their national cultures. More especially, they are most often ignorant of foreign cultures. For Americans, Canadians, Australians and Kiwis this is more troublesome. Aside from not even trying to understand the cultures against whom we are supposed to be opposed, civilization states like Iran, China and India oppose Western attempts to mold those states to Western standards and change their native cultures. There is a culture in those Western nations, but those nations themselves are quite young and have been cobbled together from various other cultures, largely European. Therein hides a clue. The European influence and heritage has brought with it the technocratic ideology of ‘enlightenment Europe’ into the younger nations. The indigenous populations of the aforementioned Western nations carried the wisdom of their experience on their millennia of living on their respective lands, but they have essentially been sidelined and/or wiped out. They were ‘savages’ to the European transplants and beneath consideration, to be brought ‘up to date’ with civilized standards or pushed aside.

Technocracy is a central feature of the West, with the Occident’s insistence on the individual and all our grand ideas about individual rights, democracy and freedoms. They are grand ideas, but they can and have been misappropriated, with scant regard for other cultures. We recall the 6^th ray influence on Western cultures from the Virgo letter this year, linked previously. We also see how the grand ideas about our Western cultures have been thrown under the bus, gradually over the last few decades, culminating in the lockdowns and politicized vaccines and mandates, now with the Ukrainian war (it is no longer a ‘special military operation’) and the attempts of the West to cancel Russian culture and increasingly those of China and Iran. The technocratic handling of the pandemic led to great suffering in the West. The mRNA vaccines themselves are a sort of apex of technocratic achievement, with scientism (It’s a great word. Look it up.) winning out over real science. Well, the real science coming out now is revealing the economic, human and health disaster which has been COVID policy in the West. The cultures of other nations have had better results, especially more naturally collective societies, largely Asian. China has had terrible experiences with devastating epidemics in the past, has yet to have a medical system that can handle such a large population and it greatly honors its elders, the most vulnerable regarding COVID. The protests we have heard about there are purposely misreported in the West and are being aided by Western interference, with Washington intent on disrupting China’s rise. Our leaders would be better off minding their own business.

Our present world conflicts can be traced back to the clash between technocracy and culture, as explained in the following, referring to the WWII era and the example of Japan:

“The time to resynthesize the objective and subjective, the extrovert and the introvert civilizations and to achieve a great orchestration of culture is now. Japan was not aggressive until the country learned the trick [of aggressive materialism] from the West. Before her doors were forced, her arts and philosophy were in tune with oriental tradition. When she adopted Western technology [technocracy], she threw overboard her ancient culture. What happened in Japan can happen in the rest of the Orient, but whereas Japan was a relatively small country, China, India and their neighbors are vast and populous. Heaven help us if they re-enact the history of Japan. Our activity in the resynthesizing of the world must include, through our own efforts to understand and appreciate, an appeal to the Orient to preserve and develop the fundamental values in its regional cultures. While the West is seeking the principles upon which peaceful and fruitful living can be founded, the East may provide us with the counter-balance to our aggressive materialism.”^[8]

Emphases added, and Japan still suffers from its ‘adoption’. Our present conflicts have been called a ‘clash of civilizations’. Yes and no, that is partly true. But the conflicts we are seeing are the result of willful disinformation and misunderstanding of cultures outside the West, along with Western meddling in an attempt to pull diverse cultures into the Western orbit and Western ideology (there’s that word again). For instance, how many people would know Chinese society is based in Confucian ethics, or that Buddhism is undergoing a revival in Russia and is a dominant practice in eastern Russia? (Buddhism can be practiced as a religion, or it can be practised within the context of any religion.) Or would the average American or European know Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism overlay the ancient Persian culture, a culture which still endures? Would they even care, more to the point? The fact is the leaders pushing the conflicts couldn’t care less about cultures and their preservation. These ancient civilization-states, India included, are reasserting their cultures these days, rejecting the old globalization drive, the latter being based in technocratic ideology and financial capitalization. There are other aspects to globalization, some of which are good, but the recent iteration of it grew out of the ‘90s at the so-called end of the Cold War (which never really ended) and was largely an Anglo-American project.

It is said that economic blocs based in cultures are actually a desirable evolution of the world order, contrasted with the desire of factions in the West to maintain their hegemony or even dominance they have held in commerce and finance for the past few centuries. But these cultures have diverse views as to how money and finance should be handled and now they see a way out of the Western-controlled SWIFT system as well as the use of fiat currencies.

“Blocs in themselves can be good and proper if they follow lines of natural cleavages, of language differences and of cultural distinctions. They can be essentially right if they are formed for economic, educational, religious and social aims and can therefore provide no true cause for alarm. Such blocs would be cultural and not militaristic, economic and not greedy, and they could provide a normal and progressive movement away from the separative nationalism of the past and towards the distant creation of the One World, and the One Humanity. This will some day be seen…”^[9]

That ‘some day’ is beginning to happen before our eyes and is at the source of much of today’s conflicts, because the folks in control in Washington and London want to prevent it from happening. What does this have to do with technocrats then, one might ask? Simply, technocracy denies culture. Thatcher once described society (culture) as an abstract concept, for example. Only individual responsibility mattered. Macron once quipped there was no such thing as French culture. Here in Italy one of Europe’s most admired technocrats by other technocrats (Draghi) was just ousted and replaced by Meloni, who won the election on cultural issues. Italians and the growing voices of Europeans have had enough of technocrats. Germany’s technocrats are destroying its industry, which has been a big part of its culture. Germany was an industrial powerhouse before Ukraine. The Greens are bringing Germany to rack and ruin. It is a similar situation in the Netherlands under Rutte, whose government apparently thinks there is too much manure in the Netherlands and is seeking to close down 3,000 farms, along with major industries. And Josep Borrell just told a meeting of heads of state for Latin nations, “Like the conquistadors, we must invent a new world…” Borrell is the face-palm king among so-called diplomats. But the apex of technocracy is to be found in the likes of the Davos crowd, echoed throughout the EU Parliament, which Davos has infested and in which it is invested. We also see in in the likes of false prophets like Elon Musk, who is a big advocate of transhumanism. The last sentence is a bit of jest, but he has evangelicals guessing. He has many people guessing these days, about his sanity and about his agenda. We won’t go into Musk here, except to say it remains to be seen whether or not Twitter will become a limited hangout or a true platform for freedom of speech, but all this brings in a Sagittarian theme and one which lies at the heart of our troubles – education vs. experience.

Sagittarius is associated with higher thought, long range travel, philosophy, higher education, the judiciary, religion, exploration, foreign trade – Jupiterian themes. One can be very well educated and still remain entirely ignorant about a wide swath of the world. Academia these days has a tendency to put blinders on people’s perspective. One sees it in masters’ theses and doctoral dissertations, where the amount of quoting of ‘reputable’ and recognized sources often makes the difference as to how widely accepted those works will be in the academic community. Academia in this case becomes an echo chamber divorced from society, as we see today with our educated (and ignorant) elites. Like science, academia these days advances by prestige instead of experience. This happens in the religious sphere, too, where the ‘word of God’ (albeit the letter of the Word) is sacrosanct and deviation from the texts is at least frowned upon if not actively persecuted. There is an example in Buddhism to illustrate the point.

Once upon a time there was this monk (true story, actually) named Gendun Chopel. He has been called “the most famous, and infamous, Tibetan intellectual of the 20th century.” At an early age he was identified as a reincarnation of a lama (a tulku in other words) of the Nyingma order, but was never invested (enthroned) and ended up in Lhasa at a Gelugpa (Yellow Hat) monastery. He quickly gained a reputation as an unusually skilled debater and brilliant student – so brilliant he would argue with his teachers about the texts, to the extent that one of his teachers was so incensed with it he called Chopel “madman” instead of by his name. At the time he was “enrolled in Gomang College of Drepung monastery, one of the “three seats” of the Geluk in the vicinity of Lhasa and, with some twelve hundred monks, the largest Buddhist monastery in the world.” It was also considered the intellectual seat of Tibetan Buddhism. Chopel took little notice of it and instead devoted himself to painting thangkas. There is a rather interesting side story:

“He would, however, frequent the debating courtyard to confound his fellows, often challenging the best students while disguised as one of the dap-dop, the society of monk police who enforced discipline in the monastery; something like a Buddhist version of the Hell’s Angels, these athletic monks prided themselves on their ignorance of Buddhist philosophy. For an aspiring geshe [Tibetan Buddhist scholar/intellectual] to be defeated in debate by a dap-dop was thus an unspeakable disgrace, which Gendun Chopel undoubtedly took great delight in inflicting.”

But the side story has bearing here. There, in the center of Buddhist highest philosophy and academia, this ‘mad monk’ outdid his peers and challenged the very basis of the Buddhist texts that were held sacrosanct. Jesus could identify. I heard a story recounted about Chopel when I was involved with the Buddhist center in Adelaide. Chopel once won a debate in which he successfully argued the Buddha did not exist. For his victory (heresy) he was taken out behind the debate yard by a group of monks and summarily beaten up for his insights – early deplatforming. Eventually he was forced to leave the monastery. Thereafter he travelled to India, disrobed and travelled with an Indian scholar, who was also a communist. Chopel advocated for the modernization of Tibet, maintaining it should become an autonomous region administered by the Chinese, as it is today. For his activism he was jailed for treason at the infamous Zhol prison at the base of the Potala for years before being given an amnesty by the current Dalai Lama. You can read about Chopel’s story at the preceding link and at this one, explaining how he became an apostle for sexual freedom. His works are still available in English. Recommended reading, if one dares to question orthodoxy.

Experience or rote learning?: The point of the preceding story is as follows: Chopel was a recognized incarnation and as such had directly experienced enlightenment. To what degree, we don’t know, but only Adepts are recognized incarnations in Tibetan Buddhism. A lama in Tibet is equivalent to what Theosophists would call a Master of the Wisdom. And this comes to the crux of our present impasse in the West – experience is not honoured in academia. Chopel had and represented experience. To receive a university degree in a Western University one has to be able to recite the rote letter of the presentations of the academic pedagogy, and to conform to a certain academic demeanor. Firebrands at universities are not generally tolerated these days and tenure is performance-based: “publish or perish”. And to publish at a university level one has to be able to cite numerous other academic sources, who all have to do the same. Otherwise they would not be accredited academics. Reading an academic treatise is like traveling through the desert with no water. One can gain a lot of information, but where is the experience – the ‘soul’ of the text? We see this sort of thing often in religion and even in esoteric circles where the text is the ‘written word’ and from that there shall be no deviation. It also applies to the judiciary, where the letter of the law is often the determining factor in judgements rather that the spirit of the law, being thereby divorced from experience and context. Quibbling is rife in academia, religion and law.

We have often heard the phrase, “Great minds think alike.” That is only true to an extent. The truly great minds often break the mold instead, or stretch the boundaries of the prevailing streams of thought. Nicola Tesla comes to mind in that regard in the scientific realm. It goes to another old saying: Prophets find no honor in their own countries, meaning people attached to prevailing opinions or thought (an opinion is not actually thought) often reject anything outside of everyday discourse as invalid or false. Debate between people should advance knowledge, but is more often used as a platform to prove a specific point or win an argument. In other words, debate in search of a ‘win’ becomes an exercise of ego rather than service. We see this every day. Our news is riddled throughout with disinformation, based in ‘expert’ analyses, but which derives from an accepted narrative, from an academic echo chamber. Debate as expansion of knowledge is not allowed. Academia has become an echo chamber, with academics promoting their narratives, the reason the educated bourgeoisie are easily duped by propaganda. Many of our Western journalists in the US hold law degrees and have worked for intelligence agencies. To deviate from that narrative means the talking head gets the opportunity to find more gainful employment. In other words, they get fired. Few of the presenters these days, although they have university ‘cred’ have ever experienced a war zone, for example, or have lived for sufficient time in the cultures upon which they comment, to the extent that they have actually experienced the humanity of the culture.

Especially in the Western press (led by American multimedia organizations) stories are often planted, too, as told in a recent video that has surfaced, actually from 1983. Often, then, the media is not the purveyor of information, but the promotor of narrative instead. It has been true for the pandemic, for so many conflicts and now for the war in Ukraine. Europe is destroying itself because its leaders refuse to admit the truth, partly because they believe the narrative, partly because of ignorance and partly because of pressures foreign and domestic. The European leaders are also under the delusion that the EU can stand toe-to-toe with the likes of Washington and China economically and that they have influence, not seeing they have failed to rein in Russia and thinking they can do without China. So, we come back to the opening sentences and our consideration of crossing the Rubicon, especially important for Europe, as well as the West at large.

The many Rubicons: ‘Crossing the Rubicon’ is a phrase well known to us. As a figure of speech it means going past a point of no return. Historically it was a challenge to the power of the existing Roman Republic, precipitating Caesar’s civil war, ending in him being made Roman dictator for life. ‘Crossing the Rubicon’ means life will not be the same thereafter. Crossing the Rubicon also eventually cost Caesar his life. It also precipitated the end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of the Roman Empire. The Rubicon phrase refers specifically to risky or revolutionary actions. We have seen two such primary risky and revolutionary actions this year. February marked the major ones, though there have been others, with more to come. Of course, we speak here of the Russian intervention in Ukraine, simultaneous with the sharp escalation of tensions in the Donbas by Kiev, the recognition of the Donbas republics by Russia, the slapping of sanctions on Russia as a result and the subsequent Russian intervention. The sanctions were the 2^nd Rubicon. The other ‘Rubicons’ will be addressed later here.

Starting with the military aspect, both sides – NATO and Russia – thought there would be a quick capitulation by the other side with the escalation of hostilities. The Russians, thinking the regime in Kiev would collapse (video. Watch the whole thing, from a Polish interviewer), seeing a 40 mile long column of Russians on the outskirts of Kiev, were surprised when the Ukrainians fought back. On the other hand the West, led by Washington, thought their sanctions would cause such unrest within the Russian elites that the latter would rise up and oust Putin. Neither side had a clear picture of the other. But the Rubicons had been crossed. The war was on. It will be settled on the battlefield.

The Russians quickly realized they were fighting NATO instead of Ukraine and the Ukrainians were being used as the cudgel. The Western powers were very surprised to learn Putin’s approval shot up with the intervention. It still hovers around the 80% approval mark. The Russian public saw the SMO as Russia supporting their Russian relatives in eastern Ukraine. The Russian economy proved to be very resilient and bounced back quickly, and the Russians quickly controlled a territory in Ukraine the size of Great Britain. The conflict thereafter became an economic war of attrition, with the West sliding into recession and running out of weapons to send to Ukraine, while the Russian coffers grew from the sale of hydrocarbons and other raw materials. We don’t hear these things so much in the West. But even worse for the West, meaning Western Europe and the US, the majority of the world outside the West either would not condemn the intervention or they actually supported the Russians. Then, to cap it all off, the multipolar world quickly began to coalesce. What we have seen with this conflict is a catalytic event of historic moment, as well as a great occult event, because it has precipitated a fundamental change in the world order, is expanding our knowledge of the world, has caused a mass migration and intermixing and is bringing an end to empire.

Perhaps the rest of the world outside the West understands Russia better than do we in the West. Especially in the Anglo-American sphere we hear only the negative about Russia, and even more so and worse tend to reduce the conflict to a fight between ‘good’ and ‘evil’, as well as one of ‘democracy’ against ‘autocracy’:

“The reality of this war, in contrast, is that there isn’t a “good” side and a “bad” side, there are just the Ukrainian and Russian sides, each with their own strengths, weaknesses, flaws, and attributes. By refusing to study and understand the Russians in an open and honest way, we fail to arm ourselves with the information and knowledge necessary to create policies that have a solid chance of attaining outcomes beneficial to the United States. One does not need to love Russia or condone anything they’ve done. But by clinging to the arrogant view that Russia is a weak state, with a garbage military, led by evil men, we stumble into policies that may, through sheer ignorance, inadvertently produce outcomes antithetical to our interests.”

You don’t say. To the preceding we might add studying and understanding Ukrainians (the good, the bad and the ugly), and any other state currently undergoing demonization in the media and by government mouthpieces. And when it comes to outcomes beneficial to the United States, we can add Western Europe and Canada into the mix, too. Really, one could expand the latter to the entirety of nations. All that being said, Americans and Europeans need to be told the truth about Russia and Ukraine.

Why do we keep hearing Ukraine must win the war, the Russians are weak and will collapse, that we must keep up the military and financial support to Ukraine as long as it takes? To explain, there is a video of an interview with Alastair Crooke, one of the most distinguished and experienced British diplomats which everyone in the West is advised to watch. It is a big dose of truth. In it he states the reason why European leadership seems intent on destroying Europe, on committing suicide. His thoughts were recently echoed by Ryszard Legutko, who had the courage to stand up in the EU Parliament and give the sitting members a dose of truth (vid). There was applause from some members during his comments and smug smiles from others. So, the EU Parliament is not completely brain dead. Still, it conforms to narrative when push comes to shove. It comes down to what can only be described as a mass delusion – the narrative must be maintained at all costs. It was the same with the pandemic. And they stubbornly and blindingly hope against hope the Russians can be defeated. So strong is that belief, that anyone who speaks out against it is prosecuted, or at the very least, side-lined or fired from their positions.

Protests in Europe against the war are now sometimes violently suppressed, so strong is the need for the European elites to maintain their story line. To admit anything else amounts to defeat, to them – political and financial oblivion. Their belief betrays the fact they have no accurate intelligence about Russia, much less an understanding of Russia, that they believe their own propaganda. They are trapped in their own technocratic echo chamber. Because of this type of leadership the next couple of years in Europe will be very difficult. The Davos crowd and the EU leaders only guarantee it. To point to how ‘interesting’ Europe will be over the next few years, German security forces just arrested dozens of people who were plotting an armed coup against the German government. Expect the EU leadership to double down and for Europe to become very restive going into 2023, with violent crackdowns on protests which will grow as to the latter and draconian measures against the right to protest as we are seeing now in the UK, Australia, and the Czech Republic. You can face prison in the latter nation if you voice any support of Russia’s intervention in Ukraine.

Meanwhile we hear our hypocritical Western leaders (Jimmy Dore, vid) calling on China to honor human rights amidst protests against current lockdowns in China, and in Iran amidst protests about women’s rights. It is worth noting, in case you hadn’t heard, the Iranians just released 1.200 people who had been detained during the riots, have suspended the ‘morality police’ and are targeting terrorist cells in the nation backed by the Israelis, the British and the Saudis. There was foreign interference with the recent protests in China, too. China is easing its lockdowns, but maintains a zero-COVID policy for reasons not understood in the West. Those loosening measure were announced two weeks before the protests, yet the NY Times claims the easing as a victory for the protesters. As many myths with which we are presented about Russia, we see the same thing regarding China.

Returning to our technocrats and their narrative, we saw the same ‘necessity’ of the need to adhere to narrative during the COVID episode – the rush to get everyone in the public jabbed, the mask mandates, the use of high tech mRNA against the virus instead of time-tested and time-honored vaccines, the ‘green passes’ and so on. The rush on the COVID vaccines (whether or not one calls them vaccines) was based on three vectors – corporate interests, technology being pushed (rushed) for purposes of patent protections and corporate profits, and political expediency. Increasingly, it is becoming clear the Western nations especially botched the pandemic and rushed through tech that should have been more thoroughly tested. That is not my lone opinion. More and more doctors are coming forward saying the same thing. The public by and large senses it, too. And because this particular virus was handled the way it was, if a truly deadly virus did take hold the public cynicism about health matters could prove to be disastrous. Trust in our governments has come under public scrutiny and approval ratings for governments and media across the West has plummeted. But there was something more behind the pandemic response, too, because the multipolar order was already starting to coalesce before the pandemic even entered the scene. We have covered that emergence bit by bit over the last few years of these letters, along with the fragility of the financial capitalism that Washington and London (primarily) promote and wish to keep secured. Fiat currencies and the derivative markets are also technocratic developments, instead of basing financial exchanges in natural commodoties.

And this plays into American plans. American oligarchs have seen what is coming, and have been looking at what is emerging in the ‘non-West’ and are circling the wagons, from the old metaphor from Hollywood westerns. The pandemic responses were part of that. Europe had to be weakened, its industry transferred to the US (they hoped), all the while the sanctions regime on Russia was kept front and center. Cheap Russian energy had to be replaced with expensive American or other more expensive hydrocarbons. That cheap Russian energy is what enabled the EU to compete in manufacturing. That is now gone. The national personalities influenced by Sagittarius are Washington, Italy and South Africa. The nations having Sagittarius as an emerging soul expression are Spain and Belgium. And because of the Sagittarian connection between Brussels (via Gemini, the opposite sign, and Belgium with Sagittarius) and Washington, the EU narrative is constantly reinforced, to the detriment of Europe. The influence also extends through the Sagittarian personality of Italy, where Giorgia Meloni toes the Washington/NATO line (basically most of the Italian elites do so) and the soul of Spain. The opposite sign of any astrological sign under consideration (in this case Gemini) must be considered as well, and with Gemini, virtually all the key players in the anti-Russian game fall into line – Brussels, the UK and Poland. The entire personality of the US falls into this line as well. There is also the Sagittarius rising of the American national chart, with its insistence on ideals as a tool of foreign policy.

For example, regarding the US, most Americans don’t even realize why they hate Putin. If Americans and Europeans could see how Putin treated his oligarchs, for instance, (video clip) their opinion of him might be a little more positive. That would seem well-nigh impossible now, so complete has been the conditioning to hate anything Russian. But, regarding the US and its ‘EU colleagues’, we have the following legislation which has been enacted in the US, ostensibly to weaken Russia, but which instead is weakening Europe:

• The China chip ban and the CHIPS and Science Act. This is part of US efforts to distance the EU from China. It prohibits Chinese companies from investing in Western chip manufacturing. It also subsidizes US firms to $56 billion in development of American chip manufacturing. Its ultimate aim is to center high-end chip manufacturing in the US. With the EU being deindustrialized EU chip development will be a hard sell.
• The oil price cap at $60 USD/barrel, which will destabilize the oil market and drive prices higher. Some Western industrialists say this is a terrible idea. Oil prices are set to be much higher next year. Oil smuggling will be big business. The cap will never work. It will only harm the European and eventually American consumer.
• The sanctions in general (because it means EU nations are forbidden to trade with Russia).
• The Inflation Reduction Act, which subsidizes American industry and especially any European industry that relocates to the US. This targets European automakers to the tune of $370 billion in subsidies for electric cars as well as clean energy. The US is picking up non-competitive European industries for a song, effectively accelerating the further de-industrialization of Europe. The Carlyle Group is expanding investment in European companies. The privatization of Europe continues under Carlyle.

Looking at the top 5 trading partners with the EU, we see Russia, China, the UK and the US, along with Switzerland. Switzerland is there primarily for financial services. But the other four are industrial powers. China is the single largest exporter to the EU by a large margin, double that of the US, and Washington wants to see that reversed. The US has deindustrialized to a great extent since the 1980s. What the West is finding and the East is demonstrating is that industrial capitalism builds wealth, while financial capitalism like we see in the West builds wealth inequality and hollows out the middle classes. Reading between the lines, the US is seeking to reindustrialize to an extent, in doing so to eliminate Europe as a competitor, to weaken China and Russia by forcing their trading partners away and back into the Western fold and seeking to keep the dollar as the world reserve currency. None of it is working. Even John “Moustache” Bolton sees the writing on the wall, yet now calls for “…a civilian-led “Economic Command,” paralleling the existing Cyber Command, European Command and the like.” The US economy is not weaponized enough, according to Bolton. When in doubt, double down. However, his statements in the article do speak to the lack of intelligence in the US intelligence community and the failure of the US think tanks to actually gather information and think. America does need a ‘sanctions policy revolution’ as he calls it. The real revolution would be to get rid of them. Well, returning to themes of flowing water, the sanctions Rubicon has been crossed and it has done too much damage to the West to rethink things now. The Western elites have decided – it’s bust Russia, or go bust.

Other Rubicons: There have been other, lesser Rubicons crossed since February. Although lesser, they are no less earth-shaking in their future effects:

• Saudi Arabia, once a staunch American ally, turned toward Russia and China and gave the US the cold shoulder. The Saudis and China just signed a massive strategic energy partnership. Goodbye petro-dollar. Other Arab Gulf states are doing likewise, like Qatar. Xi Jinping is visiting Saudi Arabia in what is set to be a major geopolitical development.
• The ‘lesser G13’ of the G20 snubbing Washington in the latter’s ‘request’ to come on board and denounce Russia. Xi Jinping politely declined, as did the other G20 members on the lower rungs of the economic ladder. Such a snub would have been unheard of even a year ago:

“The serious fracture between Global North and Global South, so evident in Bali, had already been suggested in Phnom Penh, as Cambodia hosted the East Asia Summit this past weekend. The 10 members of ASEAN had made it very clear they remain unwilling to follow the US and the G7 in their collective demonization of Russia and in many aspects China. The Southeast Asians are also not exactly excited by the US-concocted IPEF (Indo-Pacific Economic Framework), which will be irrelevant in terms of slowing down China’s extensive trade and connectivity across Southeast Asia. And it gets worse. The self-described “leader of the free world” is shunning the extremely important APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit in Bangkok at the end of this week. For very sensitive and sophisticated Asian cultures, this is seen as an affront.”

Continuing:

• The next wave of BRICS countries – “Iran, Argentina, and Algeria have formally applied [to join BRICS]: Iran, alongside Russia, India, and China, is already part of the Eurasian Quad that really matters. Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Afghanistan are extremely interested in becoming members. Indonesia just applied, in Bali. And then there’s the next wave: Kazakhstan, UAE, Thailand…Nigeria, Senegal, and Nicaragua.” This is quoted from the previous link. It would be a massive Afro-Asian economic bloc, completely independent of the West. It is already in process.

Russia is strengthening its cooperation with its allies in the East. They, along with key members of the Global South, are busily implementing a new game-changing cross-border payment system. Once implemented, the SWIFT system, controlled by American and European bankers, will become obsolete in the ‘developing world’. That is perhaps the biggest reason we see so much hatred in the West toward Iran, China and Russia. It threatens the very existence of the financial capitalist system centered in Washington, the City of London and New York. As an aside and useful thing to know, the City of London is a study of criminal enterprise in itself, beholden to no Sovereign, a statelet within a state. King Charles has to have permission – an invitation – to even enter The City. It is a big reason why we see so little change in the UK and why Corbyn was ousted from the Labour Party leadership, probably never to return.

That threat against financial capitalism is the very reason why we constantly hear Russia must be defeated, why the conflict in Ukraine has dragged on and why the West exhausts itself and its resources on keeping the Ukrainians afloat. The Ukrainians are seen as untermensch by the Western elites and matter only insofar as Ukraine can ‘stick it to Russia’. If Russia’s military might was taken away – unlikely to ever be so – the Western powers would be able to threaten retaliation for states who refuse to toe the fanancialist line. The threat to financial capitalism is why we see the sudden explosion of national protests in nations that oppose the West’s line – China, Iran, the recent coup in Pakistan, Brazil with the election of Lula (who sides with Russia and China), a soft pro-Western coup in Thailand, and now Mongolia, Peru and Argentina. The US is desperate to keep South America under the American boot. (Pilger, vid)

And just a final word for this piece about Russia: legislation for the care and nurturing of children. Putin just signed a decree ratified by the Duma ensconcing the traditional family as the norm within Russia. But the decree goes much further. It is worth a read at the link. Of the salient points, three stand out:

• Internationally, the Russian Federation will form the image of a country that preserves and protects universal spiritual and moral values;
• Russia regards the actions of the United States and other unfriendly states as a threat to traditional values;
• The destruction of the traditional family through gay propaganda is attributed to a system of values that is destructive to society.

In other words, ‘wokeness’ and the militant side of the alphabet gender agenda and their propaganda (as the decree words it) are rejected in Russia, while the nuclear family – a man, woman and children – is to be protected and promoted. Russia is experiencing population decline along with much of the West, hence the desire to promote and protect families. These woke and LGBT+ issues are all hot button issues in Western society, and they are divisive, to say the least. The decree is seen as decidedly right wing in the West and against individual freedoms. But if we stand back and look, the wokeness and LGBT+ in the US are largely Democrat political talking points. They were not widely known prior to this century, and came to the fore more specifically after the 2008 financial crash. There is a financial/political basis behind a lot of it. Basically, the Russian decree rejects the notion of interfering in childhood development, like raising gender issues in schools or in dividing people by race and culture. Russia encompasses 193 ethnic groups and links the East and West demographically in a way no other nation does. As far as the government is concerned, there is no division in Russia based on race, religion or culture. But we recall that legislation was to come from Russia regarding the care and raising of children and that such legislation would be eventually endorsed by the United States and become universal by 2035.^[10] The Russian decree can be seen as at least a step in that direction.

In concluding our look at technocrats and its effect on leadership, we cannot go past Europe without a quick overview. A recent rundown of the leadership situation of the main PMs in Europe – the UK, France, Germany and Italy – shows Macron on the outs with Meloni and Scholz, while Sunak has a weak government. Meloni and Macron are particularly at odds, especially since 2019 when she called him out over immigration policy, particularly focused on the state of affairs in Burkina Faso. Gold is one of its main exports, being the 4^th-largest such exporter in Africa. People can think what they want about Meloni, but she correctly called out the profiteering and still-extant colonialism of France. Macron was not appreciative of her comments. Burkina Faso has one of the worst problems of child labor in the world, where children are routinely exploited. With Scholz and his stoplight coalition we see they are doing so poorly for the German public that coups against the government are a real possibility. So, what is to become of Europe? Alastair Crooke, as we read above, had more to say on that matter:

“Simply put, the EU narrative is that it has meaningful political agency. But Washington has just demonstrated it has none. It has trashed that narrative. So, Europe is destined to become an economic backwater. It has ‘lost’ Russia — and soon China. And is finding it has lost its standing in the world, too. Again, the actual situation on the geo-political ‘battlefield’ is almost completely at odds with the EU narrative of itself as a geo-strategic player.

Its ‘friend’, the Biden Administration, is gone — whilst powerful enemies elsewhere accumulate. The EU political class never had a good grasp of its limitations — it was ‘heresy’ even to suggest there were limitations to EU power. Consequently, the EU has hugely overinvested in this narrative of its agency too. Hanging EU flags from every official building will not cast a fig leaf over the nakedness, nor hide the disconnect between the Brussels ‘bubble’ and its deprecated European proletariat. French politicians now openly ask what can save Europe from complete vassalage. Good question. What does one do when a hyper-inflated power narrative bursts, at the same time as a financialised one?”

The probable answer is eventually the G7 rules-based order will have to join the multipolar order:

“In order to survive, that is to join the multipolar New World Order of the seven billion, the Great Rest, the tiny west, the one billion remaining, will have to eat humble pie. It has already started. The New World Order will be global, but not globalist, imperial, but not imperialist, just, but not woke, based on values that are traditional and universal and human.”

In the words of Oscar Wilde, “There is nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come.”

In conclusion, in a few years of time, as in before the end of this decade, we look forward to seeing this unsettled and upsetting period simply as water under the bridge, bringing with it a new understanding of how the world works and with major military conflicts fast becoming a thing of the past. We see enforced demilitarization happening even now, little as we are informed of it. But that is another story. The US, with its strong Sagittarius/Gemini leaning, will be in the process of soul-searching and pursuing new goals, other than the rules-based order – its rules – that it is currently seeks to preserve. Europe, too, will be in a process of transition, which is already starting. Gone will be the technocratic G7 consensus. Instead, culture will be reasserted across Europe. Eastern Europe will need time to rebuild. The Eastern powers will be there to help, as it is a natural and geographic leaning. The major Asian economic bloc will be largely solidified. Is this a prophesy? Maybe, but the present trajectory of events points toward these conclusions. You would scarcely know it from any Western media source, legacy or social. Few are the sources who dare to speak truth to power.

The joy of discovery is the hallmark of Sagittarius. It is the sign that shoots for the stars as its highest expression, yet has its feet firmly planted on Earth. Those ‘stars’ can be literal or subjective, as in the higher realms, but the end result is a more positive and joyful outlook on life. We will be crossing many bridges in these years immediately ahead, as well as many ‘Rubicons’. Our world is already on a new path, with the past being steadily revealed and left behind. For many people unaware and misinformed, the ‘suffering of change’ (as Buddhists call it) will seem frightening, uncertain. But it is for all of us to stand steady in the midst of these changes and seek the opportunity of understanding and service thereby. Read widely, especially from foreign sources. The internet now has many wonderful translation features. Sagittarius defies limitation, abhors the dead letter, breaks new ground and rises toward enlightenment. These are the sign’s greatest gifts. The spirit of adventure and discovery must be nurtured, encouraged and renewed. Intellect is not a goal or an end in itself. It is a tool to be used to further understanding, the arrow that bridges limitation and pokes holes in the veils that hang over our understanding. Knowing this, let our aim be true – enlightenment for all of humanity.

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