The Aquarius Festival 2023

“Man invents war. Man discovers peace. He invents war from without. He discovers peace from within. War man throws. Peace man sows. The smile of war is the flood of human blood. The smile of peace is the love, below, above.”
Sri Chinmoy, Songs of the Soul (1971)

Topics (linked to paragraphs): Aquarius The elementals The full moon Two Aquarian souls A note on China Jupiter, Saturn and Feng Shui The ray cycles Orcus and constellational astrology A cyclic confluence A new dispensation? The economic war Historical precedent The primordial interest The US/EU connection Europe – federation or unity The West’s slam-dunk (?) Kicking the can Gold and commodities America’s little troubles Party balloons! The other side of the coin A few words on Brazil Other financial initiatives Russia’s future The betrayal of Russia Linking two ways In conclusion

Greetings Everyone!

In reflecting over the past year, I remember a snippet of a song lyric from the days when I had more hair and life was more carefree, when the events of the wider world were not even on my radar. “…Then peace will guide the planets, And love will steer the stars. This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius…” People of my generation know the song well. It came out of the 5^th Dimension, the same year as Woodstock. We’re talking about the vocal group here (they are still performing), not anything esoteric, though there is a 5^th dimension in mathematics and physics, relating gravity to electromagnetic forces. And regarding the song lyric, it is Divine Will that steers the stars, but we won’t quibble. That said, we are at the dawning of the age of Aquarius, and in this letter we will look at what that might mean. Some astrologers posit we are already in the new age, while others, myself included, note we are in a transitional period between the Piscean and Aquarian ages. We are living in a time that literally demonstrates what it means to be ‘on the cusp’. What matters is how we approach the changes taking place around us, not whether we are in the Aquarian age or not. But Aquarius has a particular focus this year, given the events of the last year, a focus we will discuss after a quick look at the full moon, later.

Every generation has its music, its icons and its events which mark and go to shape its collective consciousness. There was some great music to come out from the years of my youth. For my generation (I was born in the last years of the ‘Boomers, 1946 – 1964) events like Woodstock were definitive, because we were old enough to know what it meant – old enough to know better but young enough not to care. Peace and love, man. Vietnam was a happening then, too. I came of age, old enough to care, when the war was at its end. The draft was cancelled a month later. Whew! That was heavy! Time for a road trip in the old reliable Volkswagen bus. Break out the tie-dye, kick back with a Mary Jane and chill. It was a cosmic scene, man. That was my generation. Still is for those of us still hangin’ out in this reality. My generation was also the generation of the anti-war protests, which contributed much to ending the war in Vietnam. Would that we had more of that sort of activism now. More and more of us pass on to the great beyond every year. Bummer. But that’s cosmic, too, as in real cosmic. Well, it is said we all come through in waves and go out the same. Some dear colleagues have already gone. But those of us still here hold a certain tone in preparation for what is to come in the years ahead. Listen for it and you might hear it. It is still there.

Speaking of colleagues and friends (Aquarius is the house of friends in the natural zodiac. Welcome to the house of fun!) I recall an Aquarian happening almost twenty years ago when I was living in Australia. The Sun was in Aquarius. I was there with three good friends, all Aquarian ladies, all getting ready for their birthdays at the time (Happy belated, mates!) at an event officiated by another lady with Aquarius rising. It was my citizenship ceremony. I didn’t plan it that way. The state decided when I was to be subsumed, as in the date (actually, I was proud to take the oath), the official just happened to be the one on duty that day (funny how ‘things just happen’) and my friends happened to be available at the time. The event precipitated and the deed was done. It was a good day. We went and had a Coopers pale after all the excitement. It seems like another lifetime now, but I hope to get back to see them all soon. Well, as its stands peace isn’t guiding this planet and the Aquarian interval this year shows the need for friendship and shared values now more than it has in a while. But we give pause here and consider what an Aquarian future might look like once the dust settles on our current conflicts. This year will be one of bitten nails and white knuckles for a while, but toward the close of this year we will be seeing some light at the end of our tunnel, all being well. Aquarius is about groups, shared values and aspirations and coming together in service to a greater need. What is it about Aquarius that brings us together?

Aquarius: Aquarius has been called the sign of the world server. Service is in fact the main note of this sign. It is said to be of supreme importance at the present time, largely because our Sun is rapidly entering the sign due to the precession of the equinoxes. Aquarius:

“…is, therefore, largely responsible for the changes now being effected in our planetary life in all the kingdoms of nature, and, because it is an air sign, its influence is all pervasive and inter-penetrating. To many types of mind, this influence is intangible and must, therefore, be unable to produce the desired results; yet the fact is that these intangible pervasive results are of far greater potency and are far more extensive in their effects than the more concrete and spectacular happenings…”^[1]

The last part of that quote is worth remembering as we go along here, because the subjective world – the world of the ‘intangible pervasive results’ – are the realms which give rise to the events we see unfolding around us. Aquarius is thus one of the more occult signs and therefore of great potency. In the orthodox rulership of Aquarius we have Uranus^[2] (the ‘occult planet’^[3]), giving us the ‘urge to better conditions’, as in release from personal constraints and attachments in order to enable a better spiritual/soul expression – “to provide better forms for the occult and esoteric life and to blend more adequately the inner and the outer person.”^[4] It is why transits and directions of Uranus can be so unsettling in one’s personal life if one is overly attached to situations and people. It is the planet that gives us another view, a new way of seeing events and connections. Its influence is revolutionary and always tends to shake things up. Uranus transmits the 7^th ray (order and magic). Thus we get the idea with the Uranian rulership of Aquarius a new order is being introduced onto our globe as the Aquarian influence slowly waxes in strength. We see it in this interim period of the change between the two ages (Pisces to Aquarius) in the mass extinctions, the changes in weather patterns, unsettled geopolitics and the attempt of the order that is passing to resist the new order that is incoming. Old forms must give way to new and better forms of expression. Resistance is futile.

Uranus is aided in its work on the spiritual path by the esoteric ruler of the sign, Jupiter. Jupiter gives the irresistible urge to union.^[5] Jupiter represents the fusion of heart and mind. Again, resistance is futile. But the fact people do resist what is called in Buddhism ‘the suffering of change’, shows that the actions of these two planets in the life of one beginning to sense them can appear to be quite destructive of one’s personal life. This is to be particularly noted in the horoscopes of people with Aquarius rising, since the Ascendant represents the path of spiritual opportunity and the future, whereas the Sun-sign represents the ‘present problem’ or the inherent challenges in one’s life. The rising sign represents the path to the fulfillment of the purpose of one’s life.^[6] Too often we would rather just be ‘relaxed and comfortable’. But that is not the way of Aquarius. Instead Aquarius arrives at its gifts through the process of struggle, represented in the ultimate ruler of the sign, the Moon.

The elementals: The Moon brings in a rather interesting dimension to this sign, in that it represents a class of lives known as the elementals, or the ‘blinded lives’. They are also called the ‘baskets of nourishment’.^[7] What are these elemental lives?

“…all dense physical forms, whether of a tree, an animal, a mineral, a drop of water, or a precious stone, are in themselves elemental lives constructed of living substance by the aid of living manipulators, acting under the direction of intelligent architects.”^[8]

The action of the elementals is to ‘pull downward’ into form and to resist the spiritual urge to liberation from form. This is why they are called ‘the blinded lives’, because they do not sense the spiritual urge. Their very function is to produce and maintain forms. That maintenance function is why they are called the ‘baskets of nourishment’, because part of their function is to nourish every form (our bodies are a specific type of form) while it fulfills its purpose. Hence with Aquarius we always have the ‘battle’ if we could call it that, between form and spiritual purpose, and why Aquarius is so involved with the introduction of new and better forms of expression. By analogy, we as human beings can been seen in one sense as the elemental lives on the planet and in nations, because without our input and ‘nourishment’ neither planets nor nations would exist. But perhaps the best example of Aquarian form-building and the purpose of elementals is our own body. A human body is composed of countless tiny elementals via the cells. They form groups of organs, each independent, yet each of them interdependent. They all aid and nourish themselves and each other.

The human body is a wonderful expression of cooperation in united, yet diverse efforts. The body can survive without certain parts, yet if essential organs are removed then death to the body comes quickly. And every human body represents a specific culture – organs from one cannot be introduced or swapped with another, not without intervention. The body into which a new organ is introduced will always tend to reject the newcomer. The analogy between the human body and nations will thus become clear enough: Transplanting cultures and open borders only works to a point. Yet all nations go to form the international corpus, all are independent and all are interdependent. Hence our international struggles today as we move into the Aquarian age – and hence the promise of the resolution of our troubles – through cooperation and mutual international support. With these points in mind we move on to the full moon and our international outlook.

The full moon takes place on 5 Feb 2023 at 18:28 UT (5:28 am AEDT) The Moon is conjunct the projected longitude of the star Dubhe in the Great Bear (α Ursae Majoris). Dubhe “…is credited with the destructiveness of Mars, working itself out particularly in mundane maps, in a nasty way if conjunct Saturn. It was conjunct Hitler’s Saturn and Mao Tse Tung’s Moon.”^[9] Dubhe is one of the Seven Rishis and as such is a royal star, each of them credited with transmitting their corresponding one of seven rays to our solar system.^[10] Uranus is at the 15^th degree of Taurus – at one of the “The Gates of the Avatars”, as the 15^th degree of fixed signs is sometimes known. When an eclipse falls on one of those degrees (not the case here) the events signaled by such an eclipse can quite disruptive. Already we see this full moon is going to yield up some surprises. This is a full moon that indicates a particular emphasis on political matters, from the preceding points. From the planetary indications for this year we read Pluto has just come out of orb of the Jupiter/Saturn midpoint, having ended on January 19^th, around the time the Russian offensive picked up on the 2^nd front in Ukraine. We will have a brief update on that in a bit. The vaunted Russian ‘winter offensive’ has started, though one would not know it to listen to the Western news.

Other indications in the chart include the almost exact opposition between Ceres and Jupiter, which will bring further awareness of the directions that need to be taken in matters across the globe, and which in general shows a more expansive outlook, or the realization that goals will either be fulfilled or not. If not, a more fulfilling path will be shown. Mars is out-of-bounds still and continues moving toward its maximum declination, which it will reach at 25N36 at the Aries ingress this year, after which it will begin its descent towards normal bounds. What this means is tensions will continue to rise, reaching a peak at the ingress, with Mars affecting all the Gemini nations and provoking instability therein, meddling in other countries by them and warlike rhetoric, after which such talk and activities will subside. The implication here is we are about to reach a peak moment in any hostilities over the next couple of months. Since we are talking about a mundane chart here, violence and intractability are also shown in the chart by the Saturn=Mars/Uranus midpoint, which was just demonstrated in the terrible earthquake in Gaziantep, Turkiye, which also badly affected Syria. It is a midpoint that indicates violent destruction. And we note this midpoint in the inability of NATO to veer from its ‘Russia must be defeated’ sound loop, for example. Overall, though, with the Sun/Moon/Uranus t-square we see the peoples of various nations demanding more freedom – from austerity, from conflict, from poor government policies and so on – a most hopeful sign. To that urge for freedom and better conditions, the Mars indicators in the chart contribute a much-needed force and impetus.

One last thing to add is rather of interest: There is a green comet conjunct the star Capella in Auriga at the time of this full moon. This is comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF). Capella is currently at 22Ge10. Capella is said to have the characteristics of Mercury and Mars, with the Mercury component more pronounced. It tends to produce a love of learning, studiousness and interest in research, as well as odd and irritating people when prominent in a horoscope, giving “a persistent, annoying and inquisitive curiosity.”^[11] The rising of Capella for the Greeks represented the onset of stormy weather. More important is the constellation, though. Auriga was the invento of the four-horse chariot in mythology, which he drove into battle against the usurper Amphictyon. Ad a result of his victory, Auriga (as Erichthonius of Athens) became king of Athens. A comet there will tend to indicate a battle against a usurper. Comets in ancient china were heralds of great battles. And in general, visible comets tend to portend disasters and the ousting of kings, figuratively speaking. However, catastrophes and fierce battles aside, we are moving toward a place of rest and reconstruction in the near future, much as it might seem otherwise, coming through the conditioning ray of humanity, that of ‘Harmony Through Conflict’. With these points in mind we move on to a most Aquarian topic in our look at world affairs for this Aquarius interval.

Two Aquarian souls: There are two great nations currently seeking to express more of their Aquarian soul qualities, while at the same time their personalities are locked in what we might call a final large conflict. For one of those nations, they personally feel they are in a battle for their very survival. For the other, they feel they are in a battle to preserve their hold on power and way of life, to which they had held since the end of WWII and largely on to the present decade and to which they feel entitled. We speak here of course of Russia (existential) and The United States (power). The conflict between the personalities of these nations was brought to a climaxing stage on 24 February last year, almost a year ago. There has been copious comment on this conflict since that time and quite a lot of myth-making on it. Some of the myths we hear are as follows:

• It is a battle between the forces of Light and Darkness, in other words between good and evil. The problem is to know which side is ‘good’ and which one is ‘evil’, if such was indeed the case. It is a poor descriptor, because no nation has clean hands. The Western powers see themselves as the ‘good guys’, or try to get us to buy into it, while Russia is held up to be the dark, evil empire with Putin as Sauron posing at its head.
• It is a religious conflict between the Eastern Orthodox and Protestant/Catholic West religious divide (a most unfortunate way of seeing it), a continuance of the Great Schism seeking resolution. We also see this in the terrible suppression of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine at the moment, yet another version of ‘cancel-culture’ (translate from Russian) and an attempt to purge anything resembling Russian control from Ukraine.
• It is a battle between the Western ‘democracies’ and the ‘autocratic’ nations of the East, although calling one or the other ‘autocratic’ since the COVID episode has revealed our democracies in the West to be a little less ‘democratic’ than we had supposed. Then there is the whole argument about whether or not we really live in democracies in the West. But that is another story.
• It is a battle between capitalism and communism, with the liberal capitalist culture (now ‘neoliberal’) of the West fighting a valiant battle to save the world from the communist scourge. Just to whom is communism a threat? Well, no one really. The ‘threatening’ countries – primarily Iran, Russia and China – are all operating on mixed economies anyway, neither free market nor communist (see topic ‘Reading the Riot Act’). For more on mixed economies, see here.

What is the truth, though? Various groups hold fast, stubbornly and passionately to their chosen mythologies, and we can see elements of all four in the present war, of which the conflict in Ukraine has become the symbol and the precipitating agent. But when all the chaff is cleared away, this is a battle for economic dominance and thus control over the world’s resources, between two ‘schools’ if we can call it that – that of the financial capitalism of the West and the industrial capitalism of the nations leaning further toward state control of finance and essential infrastructure. And it is a world war, because it involves every nation in one way or another. All world economies are interconnected, regardless of their leanings. The main ‘battle lines’, if we can call it that, are first and foremost between the Russian Federation and Iran against the Western bloc, with China being the ultimate ‘prize’ for the West if it can be brought into the fold.

A note on China: Of note here, too, is the national chart of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), showing Aquarius rising with the Moon in Aquarius just over the Ascendant in the 1^st house. Even though the Sun is in Libra in the chart, it is square Uranus in Cancer (revolutionary and independent) and trine the Sun, marking the nation as being able to weather a great amount of difficulty and still come out on top. The latter is supported by a Mars/Pluto conjunction in Leo in the 7^th house, which Americans would understand as a ‘Dont tread on me!’ aspect. It is a conjunction that contributes defiance and resistance to any chart. All of this points to China’s resistance toward any other nation who tries to interfere in its affairs, and why it resists all Western efforts to have any more than even a small say in China’s domestic or foreign policy. The Taurus soul of China (esoterically) ties it with the Taurus soul of Moscow, too, as well as the tie between the Aquarius rising of the PRC chart and the Aquarius personality of Moscow and Russia’s Aquarius soul. Notable, too, is the connection between the Aquarius rising in the PRC chart and the Aquarian soul of the US, with the US having relied heavily on Chinese manufacturing in the past few decades. The denizens of America’s think-tanks obviously know nothing of such energetic relations. In the relations just mentioned we see the enduring and powerful, as well as natural relationship that has developed between those two nations, Russia and China. Then, we add Russia’s 7^th ray soul resonance with China’s 1^st ray soul, along with the slowly waxing 7^th ray influence via Aquarius and we see the China-Russia pairing being the dominant sphere and driver of activity for the world outside the West for probably the remainder of this century. We won’t be discussing China in great detail here except for a few points later on, but it gives an energetic picture of what is taking place subjectively.

Jupiter, Saturn and Feng Shui: Before moving on and since we are talking of matters Aquarian in this letter, there is a note of clarification and interest regarding an event causing excitement in the world of Feng Shui for next year. February 4^th (the li chun) 2024 marks the start of the 9^th section of a great cycle of Feng Shui, the 9^th cycle of 20 years. In Western astrology we recognize that 20 year cycle. The synodic conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn takes place every 20 years. These are called Great Conjunctions because they involve the two largest planets in our solar system. We won’t go over it here, as I have done three posts on it already (here, here and here). But in Feng Shui, their 9-Star system has a 180 year cycle – 9 cycles of 20 years – that supposedly changes next year. In fact, this is a discrepancy between the actual orbital cycles of the two planets and the yearly cycles used in Oriental astrologies – or is it? The synodic conjunction is 40 days shy of 20 years, which gradually translates to the Feng Shui date being out by a few years from the synodic conjunction, with the nominal date for the change in the Feng Shui cycle advancing slightly over the synodic cycle. But does that mean the cycle used by Feng Shui practitioners is wrong, or is there another mechanism at work? In esoteric astrology we know the ray cycles are based in whole yearly cycles instead of planetary orbital cycles. Is there a connection between the yearly cycles of the Orient and the ray cycles, or some sort of interface? It would appear that there is indeed a connection.

The information we have been given thus far regarding the rays, in the large via the books of Alice Bailey, is introductory in nature. We have been given good descriptions about how those rays express through human behavior, the races and the other kingdoms in nature, but very little information regarding their cycles, and only in relation to our own solar system. Notable is those ray cycles are given to us in whole years, whereas orbital cycles are in years and fractions of years. Why there is not a ray cycle of 131.67 years, for instance, (there is not one, to my knowledge) is unknown at this point, expect to say the yearly cycle of the Sun is our eternal reference, so to speak. The equinox and solstice points give the basis of our astrology as we know it now. Perhaps that will change. And in fact, it does change when our consciousness evolves past mundane/worldly affairs into the world of the meaning behind events. The latter is the basis of our current knowledge of esoteric astrology, wherein the rays and their cycles become increasingly important in consideration of a person’s horoscope.

The ray cycles are the occult cycles of the planets, whereby each planet predominantly expresses one or other of the rays, the rays being more expressive of quality than of form. With esoteric astrology we move from the objective (events, form and orbital cycles) to the subjective – the world of meaning as closely as we can ascertain according to our own reason, experience and evolving consciousness. Of course the two astrologies interblend, but the more we express as souls rather than little egos, the more the ray cycles take hold. This brings in some interesting considerations and – at the moment and until we know more – speculation regarding Eastern and Western astrology and the planets and their various cycles, and indeed, even the type of zodiac we use, given the discoveries of astronomers as the years advance. Astrology based in constellations along with that of signs will eventually be incorporated into our understanding of the heavens and what the heavens impart to us. ‘Constellational astrology’ will apply more to the planets outside the orbit of Neptune and thus to our collective consciousness. We have a recent example from one of the recently discovered plutinos – Orcus.

Orcus and constellational astrology: Orcus is a dwarf planet, smaller than Pluto, but significant nonetheless: “Judge me by my size, do you? Hmmpf…and well you should not!” In its orbit it traverses 12 non-zodiacal constellations. It is currently in Hydra, having entered its 2^nd of three sojourns there (Hydra is a long constellation) at the start of the pandemic. It will leave Hydra later this decade. In mythology Orcus was a god of the underworld, dealing out retribution for broken oaths and lying. It carries a disciplinary action and is corrective in its effects, especially good for anyone who has taken on a discipline, as in keeping one on the straight and narrow. What are we seeing today? The conflict in Ukraine is the result of a broken oath – not to move NATO one inch to the East – as well as the never-instituted Minsk agreements, which were a lie anyway. But as we know the Hydra had many heads and they kept growing back when cut off. In terms of war and politics it is another way of saying war has unintended consequences. We are also seeing many other broken oaths being addressed – the JCPOA, the partitioning of Palestine and the persecution of the Palestinians along with theft of their land, the lack of truthful reporting by the OPCW regarding the Douma incident, the long strings of broken promises by politicians across the world (the result of bad policy and various internal pressures), and on and on. Addressing one head of the Hydra brings up others, like what happens in Ukraine once the fighting stops? And lies can push people toward other lies in an effort to save themselves from the primary lie. Orcus is currently in the sign Virgo, the latter also being about truth and accuracy. On this one example we see how adding constellations to signs in interpretation adds depth to any reading of a chart. But we digress.

As to the yearly cycle in Chinese astrology, we know from the Chinese New Year letters on this site there is a 60-year cycle and a Great Year of 12 years used in Chinese astrology, and that those cycles are based in the orbital cycle and lesser ray cycle (5 years) of Jupiter combined. There are three 60-year and 15 Great Year cycles in the 180 year cycle. 180=9 numerologically. Nine years is also associated with Saturn, being called that planet’s lesser cycle.^[12] It is also a lesser ray cycle of Saturn. This is not stated in Alice Bailey’s material on the rays, but the connection with Saturn is clear from what is called in the Chinese Feng Shui practice, their ‘planetary terms’. The 2^nd ray is transmitted via Jupiter and the Sun, while the 3^rd ray is transmitted via Saturn in esoteric astrology.^[13] The actual ray cycles are divided or multiplied by orders of magnitudes. There are ray cycles of 50, 500 and 5,000 years for Jupiter and 90, 900 and 9,000 years for Saturn, for example. All of the planets express/transmit such occult/ray cycles of expression. Why bring these matters up at this time, then?

A cyclic confluence: Since the start of this decade we are seeing the working out of several cycles that have begun or completed within the space of a few years. We began with the Saturn/Pluto conjunction in Capricorn at the start of 2020 and the pandemic, signifying the end of the old order and the emergence of a new order. That was followed at the end of that year by the Jupiter/Saturn conjunction in Aquarius, instituting a new and more Aquarian order. That will evolve until the next such conjunction in 2040. We have the more occult transition based in the lesser ray cycles of Jupiter and Saturn next year, the transition into the Feng Shui 9^th period. The meaning attached to that in the Orient has been described as follows:

“Period 9 belongs to the Li Trigram in Bagua, which is represented by South (representing Fire, Fame and Recognition), the middle aged women and the Fire element. There will be a major shift in thinking from profit/wealth to purpose; controlling to empowering/motivation as well as [from] hierarchies to networks. There’s also the need to build more than 1 stream of income as the Fire element is not as stable as the Earth element, represented by the Mountain in Period 8.”

Bagua/Feng Shui is based in the cycles of Saturn, lesser and greater. Saturn is the ‘Earth Planet’ in Chinese astrology, the planet which governs placement and the growth of wisdom.^[14] The Tibetan in The Destiny of the Nations calls Saturn the ‘planet of opportunity’^[15] which is actually an equivalent statement to the Chinese description of Saturn. Saturn presents opportunities for us to grow in wisdom. In the thumbnail description in the quote above, basic as it is, we see the very changes taking place that will be accelerated into the remainder of this decade and beyond – more of what we would call Aquarian dynamics – shifts away from prosperity thinking to instead focusing on one’s life purpose; shifts away from the geopolitical dimension of control to that of sovereignty and motivation toward empowering the people; and a move away from vertical control to networks of sovereign states and empowered individuals and groups. The latter is represented for us in the likes of the BRICS nations, the SCO, the EAEU and do forth, based in shared effort instead of control by any one state. Then, there is the financial dimension, where we will see the ongoing development of alternative currencies and trade mechanisms.

The reasons for bringing up the preceding considerations – Chinese astrology, ray cycles, constellations, outer planets, Feng Shui and so on – are many-fold. The cycles just mentioned give us keys to what is unfolding in our world and why. Those cyclic connections with the Orient and otherwise, point to the unfolding multipolar order, which will incorporate Eastern and Western cultures, eventually. There is also a growing effort by Western elites to cancel Chinese culture as well as Russian culture, now calling the Year of the Rabbit the ‘lunar new year’ instead of Chinese New Year, even though we have called the lunar new year Chinese New Year for ages. The lunar New Year evolved out of China anyway. It is a quibble, but noted nonetheless.

A new dispensation?: To the wider view, though, in a few years supposedly new information is to be given out about astrology, probably with expanded knowledge of the rays and so forth. Our astronomical knowledge is expanding at a remarkable pace. These discoveries must be incorporated into our astrological lexicon at some point. And we must expand our view in preparation. For instance, when Esoteric Astrology was first published it was meant primarily for a Western audience and there was little knowledge of Oriental astrology or philosophy among the general public or even the astrological community, except among Orientalists, a clear minority in the West. Instead, nearly everyone in the West was and still is acquainted with Greek and Roman mythology and the Labours of Hercules. It provided a useful medium for explaining esoteric astrology. But there are other systems and mythologies used and known by large numbers of people in the world’s population. That Chinese astrology or other Oriental astrology as they are currently presented is simplistic is true. Some years ago when I was presented with the task and opportunity to study Chinese astrology it quickly became apparent to me there was much more there than met the eye. Perhaps we will see more of it presented in the new dispensations in astrology. So, people can take these ideas on board or not, as is their inclination. One could take a deep dive into these matters and not come up for air for years. But we will leave it here for now and move on to more pressing matters, picking up on themes presented in the last letter and the main conflicts taking place at the moment, military and economic. In the last letter we looked at the military aspects of the current conflicts. In this letter we focus upon the financial side.

The economic war: There are two main political and economic poles acting against each other in our current conflicts – the London-New York-Washington axis with their various followers and hangers-on, then the emerging BRICS+ pole, along with ASEAN, the EAEU and the SCO, which seeks to get out from under the reliance on the US dollar as the standard of payment in cross-border settlements, locking in participating nations (the world at large) to the use of the international SWIFT and FOREX systems of payments. Therein lies the main problem, because those systems are the primary tool used by the Western Troika just mentioned to enforce its sanctions against states the West cannot control. Ultimately, aside from being an economic war, this is a war to overthrow the ‘dictatorship of organized corporate interests’ in the United States and the legacy of Empire in the UK, both mentioned in the last letter. The nations leading this fight for the sovereignty of all states and international law are the states seeking to organize under the new organizations in Asia and BRICS, just mentioned. The three primary pillars underlying causes of the US-led economic war are the extraterritoriality of US law, US treasury bonds, and the petrodollar. Those three pillars in turn are one of three primary pillars behind the current conflict in Ukraine, quoted from the linked article:

• “Maintaining the global dominance of the U.S. financial system,
• weakening the economy of the European Union through the maximum destruction of relations between Russia and the EU
• and a significant weakening of Russia’s position in the framework of the future conflict with China.”

Why do we call the present conflict an economic war instead of one of the ideological bullet points listed in the topic ‘Two Aquarian souls’? Historical precedent points to why.

Historical precedent: The following nations, to list a few and as an example, have come under sanctions and often military interventions by Washington/London/New York as they failed to toe the line of the Western rules-based order:

• Iran: for nationalizing its oil infrastructure and ousting Western controlling interests
• Yugoslavia: for committing the unpardonable sin of existing as a socialist state in the heart of Europe
• Syria: For refusing to allow Western controlling interests in the transport of oil through its territory. Syrian resistance successfully ended Washington’s ‘New Middle East’ gambit
• Venezuela: For reasons similar to those of Iran
• Iraq: For seeking to abandon sales of its oil in dollars (euros instead) and not bending to oil quotas demanded by the US.
• Libya: Introduction of a gold-backed dinar and calls for an Africa united under such a gold-backed currency, which would do away with SWIFT payments and the US dollar (video)
• Brazil: Lula calling for commodity-based currency, as one of the founding members of BRICS (Brazil as the ‘B’ in BRICS), and inviting Russian and Chinese investment in Brazil. It was probably one of the main reasons he was ousted and jailed on trumped up charges before. There will be more on Brazil later here.
• Japan: The Plaza Accords stopped Japan in its tracks of overtaking the United States as the world’s leading economy. The linked video gives unique insight into why the US is now so anti-China, and why the Western world is being told to follow suit.
• Cuba: Cuba, prior to the communist revolution there, was a corrupt American outpost in the Caribbean. The mafia had large stakes in hotels and casinos, the government was a military dictatorship propped up by the US, US corporations basically owned the Cuban economy. The Cuban Revolution under Castro tossed them all out. Cuba has been under American embargo since then, shades of Iran.
• Panama: America invaded and arrested Noriega (a CIA asset). This was about control of the canal and drug trafficking. It was also because Noriega advocated for the end of US influence in Latin America. Panama was to be used as an American base to control Latin America.
• The Gulf War: Iraq continued. An invasion galvanized by a lie. The war was also based in other lies and ‘mispprehensions’. Saddam had deemed in necessary to oppose Washington. It was about oil, the ‘lifeblood of the West’.

We pause here and go back to one of the myths about this conflict – that it is a fight between autocracies and democracies. The common theme in all those interventions just mentioned and support of autocratic regimes is economic. The only reason Russia has come under the American ‘fight for democracy’ is because the Russians refuse to bend to ‘the Washington consensus’ and allow US corporate interests to have a say in Russian industry, banking and even government. Russia has regained its sovereignty and it seeks to do away with dependence on the US dollar. If we look at some of the nations listed above and others, it becomes obvious Washington has double standards when it comes to autocracies.

In the name of ‘defending democracy’ and ‘protecting civilian lives’, the US and UK have funded, armed, installed and/or called ‘allies’ some of the most brutal dictatorships in history – Iran (overthrowing democratically elected Mossadeq and replacing him with the brutal regime of the Shah), Iraq ( supporting Saddam during the Iran-Iraq War and supplying him with intelligence and chemical weapons), Panama with Noriega until he turned the tables on Washington, Cuba with the Battista regime, the Saudis and other Gulf monarchies (whom can hardly be called ‘democratic’), Chile under Pinochet (‘the other 9/11, which overthrew the democratically elected government of Allende in a military coup), and many others. That last link is to Blum’s famous book in PDF format, which gives a comprehensive listing of America’s ‘fight for freedom and democracy’. Those fights included Operation Gladio in Italy and many similar operations throughout Western Europe and Turkey. Those groups were funded, backed and trained by NATO. There is nothing to say those groups do not still exist. From the late ‘60s to the mid-80s they committed many terrorist acts across Europe – false flag attacks blamed on leftist factions. This is in the public record.

The primordial interest: The preceding brings us to another purpose of the financial war, one that would be dismissed as pure conspiracy and which has been unstated but which is clearly stated in NATO doctrine by General Ismay, which is to keep the Russians out of Europe and the Germans down. This was again stated clearly as late as 2015, publicly by George Friedman, founder of Stratfor, when asked if the United States could ‘dispense with Russia as a European power’. The following is a transcript of a video making the rounds on social media, cobbled from various parts of the long video, worth seeing in full to get an idea of Washington think-tank reasoning. The major time stamp in the full video is linked in the transcript, other links and bolding are added:

“The primordial interest of the United States over which we have fought wars – the 1^st, 2^nd and the Cold War – has been the relationship between Germany and Russia, because united they are the only force that could threaten us, and to make sure that doesn’t happen…For the Russians the status of Ukraine is an existential threat…Therefore it is not an accident that General Hodges, who has been appointed to be blamed for all of this, is talking about pre-positioning troops in Romania, Bulgaria, Poland and the Baltics. This is the Intermarium – from the Black Sea to the Baltic, that Piłsudski dreamt of. This is the solution for the United States. The issue, to which we don’t have the answer, is what would Germany do? So the real wild card in Europe, is that as the United States builds its ‘cordon sanitaire’ – not in Ukraine but to the west – when the Russians try to figure out how to leverage the Ukrainians out, we don’t know the German position.

Germany is in a very peculiar position. Its former Chancellor Gerhard Schroder is on the board of Gazprom. They have a very complex relationship to the Russians. The Germans themselves don’t know what to do. They must export. The Russians can’t take up the exports. On the other hand if they lose the free trade zone they need to build something different. For the United States the primordial fear is Russian natural resources and Russian manpower, German technology and German capital, as the only combination that has for centuries scared the hell out of the United States. So how does this play out? The US has already put its cards on the table: It is the line from the Baltics to the Black Sea. For the Russians, their cards have always been on the table. They must have at least a neutral Ukraine, not a pro-Western Ukraine.”

Some of those statements were just made by Jimmy Dore on Fox News, which is amazing in and of itself. You won’t hear them on liberal news channels. He also stated the enemy for the American people is not another nation, but is in fact the American war machine, which is true enough. Returning to the quote, Stratfor is an American corporate think tank. When Friedman talks about ‘primordial interest’, he isn’t talking about military matters. He means US corporate and financial interests who seek to maintain control over the world’s economics and natural resources, or at east to be the dominant player. The US is not under any military threat. Nor is the EU for that matter unless the conflict in Ukraine gets pushed too far. But since it is corporate interests in the US who are pushing for the extension of the war, it is worth hearing how they view the situation. Another American think tank, the RAND Corporation, now says the US should end the war and avoid a drawn-out conflict, because it will drain American resources form being able to focus on the next big conflict (with China). It is tacit admission the war in Ukraine is lost and is no longer of benefit to the US. The US is not the sole arbiter of peace in Ukraine.

The US/EU connection: The preceding video from Friedman also gives some very clear insights into the founding of the EU, its structure, its true state of unity (which is largely imaginary) and how the US is actually a significant controlling factor in EU politics. What does this mean, then? We have a complex economic war being fought on multiple fronts:

• The US seeking to gain control over Russia’s finances and resources, while the Russians seek to maintain their sovereignty,
• The US destroying Europe as a peer economic competitor via disabling Germany as the primary industrial driver of Europe. This aspect is partly what is behind the Green Movement (representing low energy density), the bombing of Nordstream and the push to wean Europe off of much cheaper Russian natural resources,
• In the media sphere by the US and UK, to be certain Europe divorces itself from Russia by means of painting Russia and anything Russian in the worst possible light. The Gemini nature of both the the US and UK is utilized to sow division instead ‘the brotherhood of nations’. The same is becoming increasingly true toward China, because the US and UK also want the EU to divorce China as well, in hopes of stalling China’s rise, which would also further weaken Europe,
• Via sanctions, which prevent any nation tied to the US dollar from trading with any sanctioned individual, group or nation.
• By the BRICS nations, who are quickly developing new currencies based in commodities (which have real value) rather than printed money

Europe – federation or unity: At this point it is worth noting European federalism had been an ongoing project of American foreign policy since the late 1940s, in cooperation with the various European factions who desired the same. European unity in the Cold War and after was actually partially funded by and pushed for out of Washington, often facing resistance by some European states. The Marshall Plan was instrumental in ensuring an ongoing push toward European federalism as well, and championed in Europe by Churchill. NATO was the ‘insurance policy’ for unity within Western Europe, including the UK. These facts point to why the EU has shown such fealty to Washington regarding Ukraine. The EU is not a federation, though it is desired by European elites, but popular resistance to the idea, especially with the Labour post-war governments in the UK and later De Gaul in France, has prevented a full federation of Europe.

De Gaulle was instrumental in preventing a completed European federation, his being seen as “a “dramatic political actor” who personified nationalist opposition to the technocratic focus on economics espoused by Monnet.” The ‘United States of Europe’, so desired by Churchill and the European elites under Washington’s tutelage has always seen nationalist sentiments in Europe as anathema to the EU, one reason why Orbán of Hungary is held in such contempt in Brussels. However, the Ukrainian gambit by the Western powers is stirring nationalist sentiments within the EU member states as the European populace struggles under escalating prices and the growing realization the whole affair is not in Europe’s best interests. Our gas bill for December here at the house, for example, was as much as people pay for a month’s rent for a modest flat. Thankfully we live in the old family home, long paid for. We Europeans can expect protests to rise in the EU from such price gouging, which it is, and opinions about the US to quickly sour once enough people know the truth about the real purpose of the sanctions against Russia, which was to cut Europe off from Russian gas and force it to pay much higher prices for American and third-party supplies of Russian gas and oil. That is too much to go into here, but such it is.

The West’s slam-dunk (?): The Big Heads in the West thought the economic war was a slam-dunk win for the West, that Russia would collapse in the face of the West’s economic dominance. But there is a problem. It is obvious to anyone who follows events from around the world, from media outside the West – The Asians will win this economic war. Consider the following regarding the onset of this war and its reason, and do read the whole article:

“The U.S. government is hostage to its financial hegemony in a way that is rarely fully understood. It is the miscalculation of this era – one that may begin the collapse of dollar primacy, and therefore, global compliance with U.S. political demands, too. But its most grievous content is that it corners the U.S. into promoting dangerous Ukrainian escalation against Russia directly (i.e. Crimea).

Washington dares not – indeed cannot – yield on dollar primacy, the ultimate signifier for ‘American decline’. And so the U.S. government is hostage to its financial hegemony in a way that is rarely fully understood. The Biden Team cannot withdraw its fantastical narrative of Russia’s imminent humiliation; they have bet the House on it. Yet it has become an existential issue for the U.S. precisely because of this egregious initial miscalculation that has been subsequently levered-up into a preposterous narrative of a floundering, at any moment ‘collapsing’ Russia.

What then is this ‘Great Surprise’ – the almost completely unforeseen event of recent geo-politics that has so shaken U.S. expectations, and which takes the world to the precipice? It is, in a word, Resilience. The Resilience displayed by the Russian economy after the West had committed the entire weight of its financial resources to crushing Russia. The West bore down on Russia in every conceivable way – via financial, cultural and psychological war – and with real military war as the follow-through. Yet, Russia has survived, and survived relatively handsomely. It is doing ‘okay’ – maybe better, even, than many Russia insiders were expecting…”

Kicking the can: The preceding outlines what has been called the most spectacular strategic blunder by the West in a century. What we are witnessing, yet never hear about in the mainstream, is the end of American hegemony and thereby a significant lessening of American influence in Europe. That loss of influence will open doors for a return of some sovereignty for European states. The key events that have established and continued the Western financial hegemony over the rest of the world can be listed as follows:

• 1944, Bretton Woods: The US dollar pegged to gold and the other world currencies to the US dollar
• 1971: The Nixon Shock – The USD peg to gold was abandoned (because Washington could not finance its war debt), with the introduction of flexible exchange rates. It was a return to fiat currencies. But it also led to the petrodollar, with dollars based in oil instead of gold.
• 1979: Reestablishment of Fed credibility through massive policy tightening
• 2008: The introduction of swap fees from the Fed to other central banks and the introduction of Quantitative Easing (QE) as a primary policy tool of the Fed and other banks
• 2022: Sharp Fed rate hikes to curb post-COVID inflationary surge

As it stands currently, close to 85% of FX transaction volumes are in US dollars. Over 40% of SWIFT transactions are in US dollars. About 50% of trade transactions are in US dollars. No other nation wields that measure of financial clout and control. The Bretton Woods system established the USD as the world’s reserve currency. The World Bank and the IMF soon followed, both of those under the control of Washington. They were also both a part of the Bretton Woods system. In France Bretton Woods was called ‘America’s exorbitant privilege’, because it allowed the US to print dollars for a few cents, but nations outside the US had to front up with the value denominated on the currency in actual goods. However, due to debt from the Vietnam War, rising inflation and negative balance of payments, the dollar became overvalued by the time of Nixon’s term in office and the gold peg was abandoned in favor of fiat currencies after that. Every domestic effort to save the dominance of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency since then has been to the effect of kicking the proverbial can down the road, leaving someone else to pay for the mess later – us, in other words. That brings us to our present situation.

Gold and commodities: The Eastern powers have watched the problems caused by exorbitant privilege unfold in the US and the West as a whole for the past decades. As a result, the Russians first and then the Chinese began to reduce their holdings of US debt and started buying gold. This started in the previous decade of the current century as tensions between the US and those nations increased. They saw the writing on the wall, as it were. As it stands, holdings of US debt by Russia is now inconsequential. This means one element of control over Russia has been removed by the Russian Central Bank. The threat of the US cancelling on its debt or being able to pay it off is no longer an issue for Russia. Russia can also name its price in terms of many of its resources.

In China that US debt is more problematic because the less debt it holds the higher the rate of exchange for the yuan, meaning China’s export market would suffer because of the resulting sharp rise in value of the yuan. The export market has been the main driver of China’s economic rise over the past decades. However, a rise in the yuan would also mean more expensive goods shipped to the United States and other states. The US has locked itself into a Gordian knot with China. The three largest holders of US debt, which may be surprising, are in order, Japan, China and the UK. But it might surprise or even horrify Americans to learn the biggest holder of US debt is Social Security and US pension funds. The US lives on debt, and it is about to become the biggest issue in American politics as nation after nation divests themselves of their holdings of US debt. And just for information, the reason the UK debt to the US is so high is because of Brexit. Brexit has greatly weakened the UK economy. Where is this leading, then?

America’s little troubles: The US House of Representatives, in its latest domestic bid to save capitalism American-style, just overwhelmingly passed a non-binding resolution denouncing the ‘horrors of socialism’. It was tabled by a Republican. Apparently these august members of the House who voted in favor know very little about socialism and what moderate forms of it have done for other nations, like free education, raising the mass of people out of poverty, medical care for all and so on. Or perhaps they do and are trying to stop it in its tracks. Not to worry, Ponzi capitalism appears to be safe in the US for the moment. The resolution has been called a trap for Democrats (and probably is) because it will lead to calls by Republicans for reductions to Social Security and Medicare, long-held dreams of far-right Republicans. It was a ridiculous display, followed by the apoplexy in the media over a Chinese weather balloon that drifted off-course and made its way across the continental US, much to the bemusement of other nations. We could say something about windbags being sent to Taiwan by the US, and tit-for-tat by the Chinese with the balloon, but perhaps the foolishness of all this is clear enough. The balloon was probably old tech engineered by the Russians anyway and gifted to the Chinese, seeing they are such backwards nations. That’s sarcasm, by the way. It’s not like the Russians and Chinese don’t have spy satellites in space, having taken very clear pictures of installations across the US for years. But the media just had to take its shot at ‘bad China’, even though they made themselves the butt of jokes across the world for doing so.

The American body-politic can be extremely paranoid, one of the worst manifestations of Washington’s misused Cancerian soul force. Just so you know, the US has many spy balloons floating over the US as we speak. There is a very good Twitter thread on the Chinese balloon, as well as an equally revealing thread on the absurdity of the House vote in the US. The latter is revealing because of the comments under the tweet: the knee-jerk responses about socialism, conditioning, party divides, ignorance of socialist policies and of other nations, attitudes endemic in the United States. Never mind the neoliberal financial capitalist order in the United States has handsomely enriched most politicians in Washington and has been at the root of the huge transfer of wealth from the poorest to the very rich in the US, along with the privatization of health care and most other services in the US, which are the leading causes of homelessness in the US. We never saw homelessness on this scale in the US when my generation was coming along, back when we had a few socialist policies in the US, like subsidized education, for instance. Homelessness and open borders have ballooned as problems from the ‘90s onward, the result of bipartisan legislation. The border to the south is open, too, because the vested interests want the cheap labor the ‘illegals’ represent.

Party balloons!: But there is more to this as well. The hysteria whipped up about the Chinese balloon served another purpose, which was to prepare public opinion in America for a future war with China. That is the thinking anyway, such as it is. The conflict in Ukraine is part of it, because the intention there was to so weaken Russia it would prove to be no impediment to a war with China, keeping in mind yet again this is all about saving the American hegemony. Sadly – sad because of the lack of thought among the populace – the media storm about the balloon (a balloon. Think about it.) had the desired affect with some people, stoking strong emotional reactions on social media about the ‘evil intentions of the CCP’ and how they have to be stopped. But the real tell was Blinken’s cancellation of his trip to China to discuss security concerns, only reinforcing the media narrative. Whatever happened to diplomacy in the US? Then, we hear about US requests to Japan to deploy hypersonic and cruise missiles to the islands in the South China Sea as part of Japan’s rearmament, the day after the death star balloon was shot down. This has moved up part of Japan’s plans to buy 500 of those cruise missiles as part of it military buildup. Apparently Japan and Australia are to be the next ‘Ukrainian proxy force’, this time against China. Do not be surprised to hear there will be a sudden halt to hostilities in Ukraine similar to Afghanistan so the US can ‘focus on other matters’, like China. As it turns out, the withdrawal from Afghanistan was the prelude and preparation for the hostilities in Ukraine.

On the other hand, Anthony Blinken via the Washington Post has outlined an offer to Russia to cease the hostilities. The plan is also an admission (without saying so) that Ukraine has lost the war. The current line of thought is the US wants to avoid a Russian winter offensive. The plan is a stall for time, like the Minsk agreements were. The Russians will never accept it. They know Washington is not to be trusted. But the fact this is even being put forward now is a sign there has been a definitive shift in the conflict there, toward a Russian victory. As a preview (the whole article is worth reading), there is admission from Washington Crimea will never be returned to Ukraine and the four regions who voted to return to Russia are off the table now for Washington. Absent from the plan is Ukrainian leadership. This is direct from Washington, which shows they have been running to whole show all along. And to top it off, Annalena Baerbock, Germany’s Foreign Minister, just admitted Europe was at war with Russia, “We are fighting a war against Russia and not against each other…”

The other side of the coin: In the preceding paragraphs we have the outline of the thinking and forces arrayed against the emergence of the multipolar world. What do we know about the other side of the coin? Well, we know very little about it unless we go to foreign and independent media. What we can say is the Asian consensus is forming along the lines of several blocs, all increasingly cooperating. One of the Asian blocs also incorporates two nations in other continents – Brazil and South Africa. We refer here to the BRICS organization – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. This bloc will be one of the first to adopt cross-border payments in new currencies, based in commodities and/or gold, or perhaps a ‘basket of currencies. But the first bloc to firmly establish their cross-border and common currency will be the EAEU under the direction of Sergei Glazyev, which is then forecast to be quickly taken up by the SCO, BRICS and ASEAN, thereby solidifying the Asian economic union. We are likely to see this evolve over the next 12 – 18 months. Brazil is toying with the idea of a common South American currency. All this would be closely integrated with the new OPEC+, the ‘+’ in OPEC+ being Russia.

These developments are not reported in the Western media for several reasons – because the elites in the West either do not care or do not know about them, because they are not seen as being consequential as of yet and because the editors in the news rooms are too focused on the ‘big picture politics’ of Russia and China. However, the nations of the Global South are quietly going on about their affairs and developments and see the need for overcoming the dominance of the dollar. These evolving systems are also not on the West’s radar because those systems are not exploitative, non-coercive, not based on unilateral rules and will be less unequal. Of course these developments will take time. And if the elites in the West are really unaware of what is happening under their noses, it will be like the proverbial boiling of the frog – they will not realize what has happened until it is too late to stop it. And the time to stop it may have already passed. The new developments will on the whole greatly benefit the poorest nations of the world, will be based in win-win trade instead of extractive trade (colonialism) and the fact it is a growing group effort instead of being unilaterally ruled (‘vertical rulership’), it is more reflective of the incoming Aquarian energies. These are the efforts being developed primarily in Asia. But if a leader like Lula tries to introduce a pan-South American currency, for instance, Washington will notice. On that note we need to take a little bit of a look at the ‘B’ nation in BRICS.

A few words on Brazil are in order. There was a recent interview of Pepe Escobar, Brazilian journalist, geopolitical analyst and author, on the Iranian Press TV channel in which he outlined many of the difficulties facing Brazil. The channel itself broadcasts in English and French and is Iranian state-owned. For background and before addressing the points made in the video, the 4^th ray soul of Brazil will slowly come to the fore after 2025, as the 4^th ray slowly begins to come into manifestation. At the moment that soul ray manifests as a highly divided society, torn between various factions – its colonial past, its Washington-backed military, the poor regions of that nation to the north and northeast and the rich regions to the south and southeast, and lastly the Christian evangelicals, who have become a powerful political faction. The 2^nd ray personality of that nation brings all those groups together in what is at present a very volatile mix of those factions. Added to this is the political structure of the nation, which has mandated that the vice-president must be a member of the opposition party to that of the sitting president – talk about 4^th ray! That in itself guarantees the Brazilian government will remain unstable into the future and makes the nation ripe for all sorts of political mischief, including coups. But the esoteric motto of the Brazilian nation is, “I hide the seed.” Perhaps the preceding points give an idea of what might eventuate in Brazil as time goes on.

Brazil has a very big challenge facing it, to the north. Of course, we mean the United States, who sees Brazil as ‘their territory’. Any deviation from that line of thinking draws undue attention from Washington. Further adding to the mix is the connection of the 2^nd ray personality of Brazil with the 2^nd ray souls of the US and Russia. The 2^nd ray also finds resonance with the 4^th ray soul of Brazil. Russia has made inroads with Brazil in recent years, reflected in the BRICS association, which Lula shepherded for Brazil. The current president, Lula, is all for cooperation within the BRICS framework, which annoys Washington to no end. Lula faces a hostile Brazilian Congress, the latter with Washington-backed opposition parties in the majority. Any moves toward the East will bring Lula under fire, as well as any moves to limit if not do away with Brazil’s neoliberal Washington consensus, which was greatly accelerated under the Temer administration (which succeeded Lula’s 2^nd term in office) and continued under Bolsonaro, who just lost the election. There was an outcry over the election results that returned Lula to power, which has a very familiar ring to it, as in the last presidential election that ousted Trump. Trump and Bolsonaro got along quite well. Bolsonaro’s son recently flew to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump in a bid to revive the right wing in South America, the latter of which Brazil is the resident head honcho. Trump is facing his own difficulties with backing now he has announced his run for 2024, but that is another story. So now we come to the most interesting and revealing bits of Brazil’s present story. Then, on the 8^th of January the CIA tried to stage another ‘Maidan moment’ in Brazil, which failed.

Bolsonaro was Washington’s man in Brasilia. He launched his presidential campaign a month after Dilma was elected. His success in that election was due in large part to the evangelical Christian vote, much like we saw with Trump. Bolsonaro sold himself as a moralizer and supporter of Israel, which endeared him to the Washington crowd, along with his alliance with agri-business. The Brazilian military pose as sovereigntists for the nation, but they are actually in the pockets of the US security state – the MICIMATT described in the last letter. The Brazilian military ruled Brazil as a dictatorship from 1964 to 1985. In the recent election it was the COVID crisis in Brazil that undid Bolsonaro, along with Lula’s clout in the poorer regions of Brazil. Lula is said to have enormous international goodwill, too, and is known to be a very good negotiator. That goodwill is especially evident in the Global South. The thing that brought Lula undone was his connections and outreach with China and Russia, as well as his domestic policies, which reduced poverty in Brazil during his tenure. The corruption charges against him were proven false.

If Lula tries anything radical to change Brazilian politics he is likely to be ousted again. He faces a very hostile Brazilian Congress, so his agenda will be difficult to push through. That agenda will focus on a modest package – a decent minimum wage, social justice and the elimination of poverty in Brazil. He will have to go lightly with BRICS. However, he has already drawn Washington’s attention again. Lula’s first act was to announce plans to finance a gas pipeline from Argentina, piping in LNG from the 2^nd-largest shale gas field in the world, located in Argentina. No expensive American LNG for Brazil. There are also discussions underway for the two nations to implement a common currency to be used in their cross-border settlements – in other words, no SWIFT. We can already sense trouble for Lula on the horizon. Brazil is set to sign a trade agreement between Mercosur (the Southern Common Market) and the EU in meetings with European leaders. As an aside, Macron asked Lula if Brazil would be sending weapons to Ukraine. Lula replied Brazil is a nation of peace: “…our war is against poverty, not Russia.” But the trade deal gives us an indication for the future: The Leo soul of Brazil is linked with the Leo souls and personalities of many nations – Russia, France, Italy, Romania, Geneva, Berlin and Rome. France, Italy and Romania are of interest going into the future, because those three nations are put forward to be members of a desired Mediterranean economic bloc, which at some point in the next centuries is said to include South America,^[16] probably because of the Romance cultures and languages.

Brazil’s future is uncertain, given the preceding considerations. In this brief insight into that nation we see it will likely be divided within itself for some time, and as a result, unstable at times. The present government treads a fine line. The wealthier parts of Brazil will nearly always tend to side with the likes of Bolsonaro and Temer, the US and financial capital, or capitalism in general. The poorer parts of Brazil will tend to side with the likes of Lula and Dilma and will lean toward socialist policy and away from the US. And so long as Washington is focused outwardly and tries to hang on to its influence abroad it is unlikely much will change for Brazil in the near future. There is as much a financial struggle in Brazil as there is between capital and labor in other Western countries. Then there are other initiatives shaping up in the world of economics and trade.

Other financial initiatives: Saudi Arabia has announced it is open to trading with countries using currencies other than the US dollar. The Gulf States are increasingly turning to China for trade and development and away from the West. Then, the Central Banks of Iran and Russia are studying the adoption of a “stable coin” for foreign trade settlements, replacing the US dollar, the ruble and the rial. It would be impervious to the weaponized US dollar. As well, the BRICS group is exploring setting up its own reserve currency, also bypassing the dollar. They would call this the R5 (real, ruble, rupee, renminbi, rand) basket of currencies. The Singapore dollar and the UAE’s dirham are candidates for a R5+ currency. Russian and Iranian banks just did away with the SWIFT system and linked their banks in cross-border trade. Then lastly, for the next few days at least (as fast as events are unfolding), there is the ‘Golden ruble 3.0’ (translate from Russian) being set up by Sergei Glazyev, one of Putin’s economic advisors. He had the following to say on the matter:

“The tough sanctions blockade created the necessary prerequisites for a 180-degree turn in Russian foreign trade. The main foreign economic partners are the EAEU member countries, China, India, Iran, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, etc. And with each of these countries, the Russian Federation has a trade surplus. According to preliminary estimates of the Bank of Russia, in January-September 2022, it strengthened to $198.4 billion, which is $123.1 billion more than in the same period last year.”

Russia’s future: The bolded points (added) are of great interest, because they point to something that was said of Russia’s future in a forecast, or prophesy, noting the bolded text below:

“Russia is as yet embryonic and her part lies more in the East than in the West, provided she follows the indicated lines. Her two ruling signs are Aquarius and Leo and her real function in the comity of nations lies far ahead when [Page 86] the Aquarian age is flourishing and the Leo control of the Russian personality has been offset. The planets which primarily influence Russia are the Sun (2nd ray), Uranus (7th ray), Jupiter (2nd ray) and the Moon (4th ray). This makes a most interesting, a most humanitarian and — in the long run — a non-destructive combination. At present, the intensely individualistic Leo force in its worst aspects is dominating [written during the Cold War], but this will not last as history will eventually prove [and did, with the collapse of the Soviet Union]…”^[17]

It would appear that timeline has been moved sharply forward, for anyone who knows or who has studied Russia. A word about the Cold War is in order here, because it is part and parcel of what is currently being resolved between Russia and Ukraine on the one hand and between Russia and NATO (the US, for the most part) on the other. A recent op-ed penned by Viktor Medvedchuk (translate from Russian), ex-Ukrainian MP now exiled to Russia, gave his views on the situation between all parties, his piece being worth reading in full. The salient part is his view of the rift between the US and Russia. To the leadership of the US, especially the neocons and sold to the American public is that the US won the Cold War. There is a thus a sense of entitlement among the US elites with regard to Russia and the sense the stronger prevailed – “To the victor belong the spoils.” With the USSR having collapsed from internal pressures, the Russian Federation was seen as weak and ripe for plunder. Russian opinions no longer mattered, to the Western elites. That was a grave error in thinking. There is a prevailing myth among American conservatives Ronald Reagan was instrumental in the collapse of the Soviet Union with the Star Wars initiative and forcing the Russians into an arms race. That is simply fantasy and yet another expression of the American sense of exceptionalism. The Russians have their own view on the end of the Cold War – that it ended because the Soviet Union dissolved of its own initiative. From Medvedchuk:

“Russia looks at this process in a completely different way. In no way does she consider herself the loser. The exit from the Cold War was brought about by democratic reforms in politics and the economy, and military confrontation was replaced by trade and integration with the West. That is, if your former enemy became a friend today, then isn’t this a victory? At the same time, the USSR, and then the Russian Federation, did not aim to win the Cold War, but to get out of the military confrontation between East and West, which could end in a nuclear catastrophe. Moscow, together with Washington, found this way out, having achieved not so much goals for themselves personally, but for the whole world in general.”

It was a rare expression of the souls of both nations working in concert. Sadly, the neocons in the US had other ideas, which we have covered in some depth in other articles on this site. Essentially, Russia tried to integrate with the West, while the West saw a Russia ripe for exploitation. The rest, as we say, is history. On a last note from Medvedchuk:

“This exit did not at all imply the absorption of the East by the West, the economic, legal and cultural subjugation of the post-Soviet space. It was about equal cooperation and joint construction of a new political and economic reality. So we clearly see two approaches to the end of the Cold War: the triumph of the victors, on the one hand, and the construction of a new world, civilization, on the other. It is on the basis of these approaches that events will develop in the future.”

The betrayal of Russia: Do take the time to read Medvedchuk’s piece in full. Perhaps in these brief excerpts we begin to see the sense of betrayal the Russians feel at the hands of their ‘Western partners’, as Putin used to call the leadership of the West. That betrayal was made abundantly clear to the Russians by Merkel, Hollande and Poroshenko regarding the Minsk agreements. Then there was the blocking of the negotiations to end the fighting, in March of last year by the intervention of the US and UK, when already a workable agreement between Russia and Ukraine had been negotiated. As was recently recounted to me by a person with a number of years of experience in Russia, “The pain felt in Russia is such that it will be a long time before they forgive the Western elite for their malice.” Once the fighting stops and the fog of war clears, we can probably expect much the same from the Ukrainian public, as well as from a good number of people in the European public from what they have experienced at the hands of the Western elites.

Linking two ways: Russia’s esoteric motto is, “I link two ways”.^[18] We could speculate on what that phrase means, but the obvious conclusion is geographical, in that Russia stretches across Europe and Asia. Because of its geography it also links and blends Asian and European peoples. As well, it links the 4^th and the 5^th root races, while seeds of the 6^th root race characteristics (in distinction to the race itself) are evolving across all lands and in all peoples.^[19] The stated meaning of Russia’s soul motto is as follows, again written years ago:

“Their task, which will develop as they come to truer understanding, is the linking of the East and of the West, and also of the worlds of desire and of spiritual aspiration, of the fanaticism which produces cruelty and the understanding which produces love, of a developed materialism and a perfected holiness, of the selfishness of a materialistic regime and the unselfishness of a mystically and spiritually minded people, and all this in a most pronounced and peculiar manner.”^[20]

Apart from linking East and West, the rest of the quote could equally apply to the elites and public in the United States at the moment. But the most important bit here about the preceding discussion is about Russia’s part in the world’s destiny lying mostly in the East (Asia). That destiny is no longer in the future. It is happening here and now, especially now that the Western elites have seen fit to try and isolate Russia from Europe. It would be like trying to isolate Middle America from the coasts. Russia is European, as well as Asian, and comprises close to 40% of the European land mass. This talk of isolating Russia by Western leadership is madness. The Russians are like, “OK. You want to close the door on us, there are other doors. We’ll open those for anyone who wants to deal honestly and fairly with us.” That is just human nature. We note the countries rattled off in Glazyev’s quote, preceding, are all in Asia. And while it is true the modern Russian state is embryonic, compared in age to a nation like India or China, the Russian people are at least a millennium old, having a traditional ‘start date’ for their history in 862 CE in Novgorod and Staraya Ladoga in current Russian territory. We won’t argue history, geography or ethnicity here as it is currently a very prickly issue with certain groups, who would be rather obvious.

The point is the Russian people carry a wisdom born of hard experience well beyond the years of the current Russian state, as well as a rich cultural history. Their work in the East has been forced upon them – or perhaps we should say accelerated – as a result of the current conflict, though it was somewhat in development already with the EAEU framework and tentative (at the time) cooperation with China and other Asian states in trade and between organizations. And a further point is that trade is based in shared commodities rather than any one state seeking to control the process. It probably goes without saying Russia’s trade relations with Asian states has only grown and solidified as a result of the military conflict in Ukraine and the economic war against Russia by the West. Of particular note is the solidifying of what Pepe Escobar calls ‘the Quad that really matters’ – Russia, India, Iran and China – which is set to become the most powerful economic, technological, military and resource-rich bloc in the world, according to its current trajectory.

In conclusion, the Aquarian age is rapidly upon us. Going forward, the direction the world takes into the immediate future depends much on how the current tensions between the US and Russia, as well as the US, EU and Russia are resolved. While it is true meditating for an end to the war may be helpful, from another side the event has been precipitated and must now run its course, much as we saw with the World Wars. The major fighting in Ukraine looks to be ending this year. The economic war will continue for the immediate years ahead. If indeed a meditation is needed, it is for more light to flood the world’s peoples, to evoke a greater understanding of the world’s events and their causes. More than that, we need an understanding of cultures across the world. To that end, our media fails us, controlled by corporate forces, whose main aim is the furtherance of their own status quo and ability to control this planet’s resources and finances – our resources and finances. The materialists have been very active and somewhat successful in the past few years, but light is beginning to appear in the cracks of their edifice. My generation remembers what active resistance to war and corporate interests mean, as well as the effects that can come from that resistance, while we watch in wonder why there is so little such resistance and even questioning today. For that reason, we need more light. Our leadership sees no reason to change course, so long as they get return on their investment in our present conflicts. We must give them a reason to change, either by voting them out or by showing such resolve to change their plans that they have no choice but to change course in a direction more to our choosing.

Aquarius has been associated with revolutions, via the action of Uranus. We need a revolution in finance in the West, which will serve to cancel the war machine. We are in our present impasse because the materialists found a way to finance their military adventurism in pursuit of gain. We call it financial capitalism, neoliberalism and various other names, based in fiat currencies and financial derivatives. Such a revolution is taking place, in the East. It would be gainful for us to study what is actually taking place in those nations and cultures to get an idea of what is better suited to our needs as citizens and for a more just distribution of resources and economies, at home and abroad. This is best achieved through friendship and cooperation – hallmarks of Aquarius – rather than control and extortion, of imperialism. The soul motto of America, “I light the Way” has been temporarily dimmed. We, the American people must draw on our wisdom and light the way for our leadership, rather than accepting they might know what they are doing. It is the same for Europeans. It is obvious these leaders err in their direction. This sentiment is expressed daily in the public discourse.

These two great souls – Russia and America – hold the destiny of the world in their hands, by virtue of their peoples. That destiny can either be mutual destruction or determined through dialog and cooperation. Our leaders must realize there is no ‘one, indispensable nation’ or one of higher moral standing, before that can take place. Emotion must give way to reason, and reason to intuition. The wars will do their work. Let us see to it they lead to understanding rather than continued hatred, healing instead of frozen conflict, reconstruction instead of plunder, the investigative spirit instead of numbed acceptance, enthusiasm for change rather than apathy. Perhaps we need a good scare to bring us to our senses, or perhaps greater suffering within our borders. Personally I would rather hope not. But we appear to be headed in that direction in the West. If experience is any guide, we all fare much better in cooperation than we do in constant competition. This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius. Let love guide the planet as we navigate our way to the fullness of that age. “Not the power to conquer others but the power to become one with others is the ultimate power.”^[21] Can you dig it?

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1. Bailey, Alice A., Esoteric Astrology, (1951) New York, Lucis Publishing, p. 134 ↑
2. Ibid, Table VI, p. 69 for all the rulers ↑
3. Ibid, p. 149 ↑
4. Ibid, p. 446 ↑
5. Ibid, p.139 ↑
6. Bailey, A Treatise on White Magic, p.449 It is the same page for the Sun-sign and Ascendant. ↑
7. Bailey, Esoteric Astrology, Table, p.35 ↑
8. Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, p. 892 ↑
9. Ebertin, Elsbeth, Fixed Stars and Their Interpretation, (1928), p.49 ↑
10. Bailey, Esoteric Astrology, p. 86 ↑
11. Ebertin, Elsbeth, Fixed Stars and Their Interpretation, (1928), p. 26 ↑
12. Walters, Derek, The Complete Guide to Chinese Astrology, (2005) London, Watkins Publishing, p. 265 ↑
13. Bailey, The Destiny of the Nations, p. 87 ↑
14. Walters, p. 265 ↑
15. Bailey, Destiny of the Nations, p. 138 ↑
16. Bailey, Externalisation of the Hierarchy, p. 200 ↑
17. Bailey, The Destiny of the Nations, p.86 ↑
18. Ibid, table, p. 50 ↑
19. Bailey, The Rays and the Initiations, p. 594 ↑
20. Bailey, The Destiny of the Nations, p. 61 ↑
21. Sri Chinmoy, Ten Thousand Flower Flames Part 1-100 (1979) ↑