The Aries/Easter Festival 2023

Topics (linked to paragraphs): Aries Esoteric Aries The Aries challenge The full moon World update Exorbitant privilege The end of sanctions? The Trump card The Royal pain The larger context Israel’s growing troubles Where are the Americans? Pluto and the 250-year cycle Pretty pictures In closing

Greetings Everyone!

This year the Aries letter comes to you primarily from the United States, where I have been to visit family. So, we start this letter with a little review of my trip. Little did I know when I booked the ticket months ago the banking sector in the US would be roiled in instability and scandal, but here we are. And then, just before I left for the US the workers at Heathrow went on strike the day after I passed through there on the way back to Italy. Sto fortunato. We will have a little look at the banking crisis later, in the next letter. As to the trip, you may know the saying, “The more things change, the more they remain the same.” Well, boy was I in for a surprise when I arrived in the US! I hardly recognized the place, and it took me about a week to find my way around again. It had changed that much in just six years. The Burlington, NC area is a high growth one, and there are row after row of new apartment buildings now that were not there six years ago, reminiscent of the row houses in New York and the UK. And there are new roads to go along with them, which added to my confusion. A lot of those apartments are rentals, with high rental prices. The purchase prices are high, too. Someone is making a pile of money off those rentals and speculation in the housing market is still strong, regardless of what one might hear in the media. The implied wealth in the States is deceptive, though, which is also apparent once one gets out of the suburbs. Trailer parks are still very much a thing in the South, especially, along with food deserts, with around 13% of the American population living in such areas.

Southern hospitality is still quite in evidence. Be prepared to be called ‘sweetie’, ‘dear’ or other terms of endearment by the wait staff in restaurants when you go to the South. We in the family roll our eyes at the practice and it does tend to get annoying after a while, but such is life. Also annoying (I am not a religious person) are the parting words by many a wait staff, such as, “Y’all have a blessed day, now!” as in ‘Go with God’. Evangelical Christianity is alive and well in North Carolina. The TV is hardly worth watching any longer. The first thing I saw when I turned on the set upon arrival was a commercial for a pharmaceutical. One gets about 10 seconds of how some wondrous potion or unguent is going to cure your most pressing health issue (never mind people overeat and don’t exercise), followed by a further 20 seconds telling you of all the side effects – anything from indigestion to liver disease to death – all the while happy family scenes are played in the background. Truth in advertising, we might suppose. I would rather watch reruns of The Addams Family or The Andy Griffith Show (a North Carolina favorite). The black and white ones were the best. Pfizer rules when it comes to TV commercials in the US. But the TV executives believe in equality in broadcasting – one gets five minutes of programming interrupted by a further five minutes of advertising, usually for food, insurance or pharmaceuticals.

Speaking of food, the portions are large in the US, full of fat and there is sugar in virtually everything (or artificial sweetener). You see it in the people as soon as you land. Fast food joints are everywhere, like the ubiquitous Scottish restaurant chain, identified by their golden arches. As a result of the large portions and the sugar, the people tend to be large, too. It is a real problem, so one needs to know about all the pharmaceuticals one needs to battle (America loves to go to war. Just pick an enemy, human or otherwise) the resultant high blood pressure and heart disease, diabetes, acid stomach and other dietary-induced reasons for Big Pharma to rake in more profit. And then there is coffee.

Americans love Starbucks, or at least many do. The drive-thrus at those places are always full of cars. So, the people go to the drive-thru, order their coffee or other sugary concoctions they would be better off without, and then eventually walk into the store to pick up their preferred nectar, the reason being the staff at those places are not the fastest off the mark. I always found it easier just to walk in to have my morning ‘cal-cappuccino’ senza zucchero (Where do they get these names?), otherwise known as brodo, rather than waiting in the drive-through. ‘Brodo’ is not an Italian term Starbucks would use to describe their product. Incidentally, Italian Starbucks (there are actually a few, as in very few) has just introduced coffee with olive oil in it – ‘Starbucks Oleato’. They advertise it as, “an experience like no other.” I can imagine. Apparently it is a dimension that must be tasted to be believed. I wonder if that approaches anything like a direct experience of enlightenment? The drink sort of makes me think of Tibetan salted black tea with yak butter. It’s an acquired taste, you know? Apparently Starbucks is finding it rather difficult to break into the Italian market, hence ‘Oleato’ (‘oiled’ or oily coffee). I await confirmation by other Italians. Overall, with my experience at Starbucks, I looked forward to returning to proper coffee in Italia after spending a couple of weeks in the US. Italians tend to be rather snobby about their coffee, which is perhaps how Australians acquired the trait, too, seeing there is a large Italian diaspora there. We are a Lavazza household here, but Illy’s will do the trick, too.

The little sleepy college town I grew up in is no longer. It has become a university town, with all the growth attendant with it. The campus there where I went to college is many times the size it used to be and I felt like a stranger walking through it. The uni is largely populated by Yankees these days, too, flush with money. Sigh…well, all good things, and all things in general, eventually change and come to an end. The same thing was witnessed in the shopping centers and the local mall, an old institution for our fair city, one which needs to be put out to pasture. It was a sad sight, with half the stores closed, no retail business except for a sporting goods store and servers sitting in cookie bars twiddling their thumbs. In the strip malls the scene there was similar, too, with half of the shops shuttered. Apparently the shops cannot find help, something about people not wanting to work dead-end gig jobs with no bennies and below-subsistence wages. One can hardly blame them. Then, also, on-line shopping has spelled the death knell for retail chains. Gone are the Sears, K-Marts and Radio Shacks of bygone years. Wal-Mart rules in the US, so long as our government keeps ties with China.

Now, while I may seem to be complaining about the land and people of my birth, I actually had a good trip. I always look forward to going back, the suffering of change notwithstanding (from Buddhism you know?), and it is always a joy to see family and friends. I went on a surprise visit for my youngest brother’s birthday. He was suitably chuffed with the visit, as was my other brother, who also didn’t know I was coming. The American people are good folks, being one myself. They make you feel at home and look after their guests. I cannot say the same regarding the government and the trans-national corporations, which are causing the American and other peoples of the world significant ‘challenges’. Therein lies one of the main troubles with the States. That is in process of being addressed, though we are in the very early stages of it. But a new world is emerging and America will continue to be one of the main participants in that order once it throws off its reliance on the MICIMATT, the latter mentioned in past letters here. The halls of power in the US and Europe, too, could use a good housecleaning and a reboot. Since we are on the subject of a new emerging world, that brings us to our present topic Aries, the sign which ushers in the start of the spiritual and astrological year.

Aries: In popular astrology Aries is known as the “Me first!” sign – impulsive, headstrong, fiery of temperament, careless of consequence – the Martian side of the sign, which is its orthodox ruler. It is one of the ‘catalytic’ signs of the zodiac, the other two being Taurus and Capricorn.^[1] Being a catalytic influence, it marks a point of change. Aries is begun at the spring equinox of the northern hemisphere, marking the start of the growth season, the birthing of animals, the fast growth of plant life and the rise of heat and light in the northern hemisphere. Contrary to popular belief, plant life begins to stir in February after the 4^th (the Chinese li chun), but that life literally explodes at the equinox. I was in the US at the equinox. When I left Italy there was little in evidence of flowers, though the plants were ready for it. When I returned at the end of March the land was awash in flowers. In Aries, then, we see the full and expanding manifestation of that which was latent and pressing for birth in the preceding months, an idea worth keeping in mind as we go forward here.

Esoteric Aries: Esoterically, Aries is ruled by Mercury,^[2] which expresses the 4^th ray^[3] (harmony through conflict). Mercury is also the expression of buddhi (the plane of intuition), which brings in the realm of challenge to existing ideas. The mental plane tends to fixity of thought, being governed by the law of fixation, whereas mercury and intuitive insight demand fluidity and adaptation of existing norms to incoming insights. With Aries we have an interface of the astral, mental and buddhic planes. Mars gives the fiery emotional nature, itself expressing the 6^th ray (devotion and fanaticism), that ray being the ray ruling the astral plane. Mercury is normally associated with mind and the mental plane, but esoterically it is more than that – the transcendence of mundane thought via the introduction of intuitive insight.

“Through the fiery processes of war and strife, brought to the individual through the influence of the planetary [Page 96] ruler, Mars, the God of War, a needed purification takes place. The same purification, but this time through vision, comes to the developed man through the activity of the subjective ruler of the planet, Mercury, who is the illuminating principle which releases the mind, directs the way of man through life and enables him to become aware of the divine Plan which underlies all his fiery experience.”^[4]

Mercury is the ‘winged messenger’ governing the discourse between the little ego and the higher Self via the antahkarana. Mercury brings together the diverse mental factors, first inducing conflict between them and eventually a synthesis of those factors. Thus, Aries is first and foremost a mental sign, which is where its primary work lies for the great majority of Aries types (Sun or Ascendant in Aries). Aries types are ‘ideas people’, always ready with a fresh insight, always starting something new – great at starting and rarely finishing – always having some project on the boil and never afraid to interject their insights into any conversation. Aries are the brain-stormers of the zodiac, as they constantly have to deal with the storm of ideas filtering down into their own brains, challenging what they see and experience in their physical reality.

The Aries challenge: At the Aries interval every year, then, we take on the challenge of looking at what has been and what is challenging that right in front of us, with the idea of finding a new or novel solution to those challenges. And there is quite a bit that is challenging the old order that has existed in the world since the end of the last great war, which was WWII. It is undeniable now a new world is emerging. It is unstoppable and in fact to be welcomed. The old order has had the rug pulled from under it for a variety of reasons, but primarily because the ideas that formed its foundation have run their course. They no longer suit a humanity prepared for a more cooperative rapport between nations than the adversarial nature of international relations that has existed up until now, as in the Piscean age. We are all challenged to look outside the old mental and emotional norms under which we have all lived for decades and to look instead at practical solutions and obvious modes of collaboration instead of living in a world of ideals and sentiments, many of which are more harmful than helpful. But in true Aries fashion, we rise to the challenge, going forward with the confidence in ultimate success in our spheres of influence, however large or small, as any true Aries would. With these thoughts in mind, we look at what the full moon augurs for us and what we see emerging in the worlds of ideas and realities.

The full moon takes place on 6 April 2023 at 4:34 UT (2:34 pm AEST). Pluto has just peeked over into Aquarius, having entered that sign on the 24^th of March. It will retrograde back into Capricorn in June, where it will remain for the remainder of this year. Mars is still out-of-bounds, keeping tensions and unpredictability high until the next full moon (Wesak), when events will begin to settle a bit. Pluto in Aquarius will affect all nations with that sign prominent in their charts – the US, the Netherlands and Russia as the soul ruler of those nations, China with its Aquarius ascendant, and Switzerland’s Aquarian personality, the latter experiencing significant stress at the moment, wavering on its neutrality and in crisis in its banking sector.

Since the last full moon Saturn has entered Pisces, affecting the nations with Pisces prominent, like France, Germany, Ireland and Poland. Saturn in Pisces highlights inner struggles and thus hidden opportunities for growth. It is not an easy position to have in a natal chart, but it eventually produces profound self-knowledge and the ability to weather outer storms, based upon one’s realized inner strength. Since Saturn has entered Pisces we have seen an sharp uptick in violence and protests in France against Macron’s despotic attempt to force through retirement age reforms with no parliamentary debate, claiming France doesn’t have the money for letting people receive pensions after 62 years of age, all the while sharply increasing the budget for military expenditures, supposedly, “…to ensure “our freedom, our security, our prosperity, our place in the world.” This is regardless of the lack of any military threat to France, or Europe outside of Ukraine for that matter. Such thinking reigns across the Western world, apparently. France may yet see a 6^th Republic as a result of Macron’s neo-liberal tenure. The soul of France is ruled by Pisces and a period of deep introspection is on the cards for France as Saturn transits through that sign. The t-square in the last full moon with Mars at the apex signalled the sharp escalation of tensions in France and everywhere else, that also being the full moon of Pisces/in Virgo.

The Sun is conjunct Jupiter giving a very expansive and cohesive period, as we will see shortly. It is a figure which augurs consolidation and rapprochement. It also augurs expansive thought and outreach. Combined with the entry of Pluto into Aquarius we will be seeing expansion of wisdom coupled with the dispelling of glamour worldwide in the immediate years ahead, in preparation for the prophesied new dispensations of the Wisdom across the fields of human experience. What is forecast, paraphrased is,

“…future teaching around the year 2025. That is the mode whereby all revelation comes. A thought is given; a symbol described; an idea portrayed. Then, as the people ponder upon it and the intuitives of the world pick up the thought, it serves as a seed thought which eventually comes to fruition with the presentation and the unfolding of a revelation which serves to lead humanity nearer to our goal.”^[5]

Pluto in Aquarius is revolutionary in its effects on human consciousness. Pluto in combination with Uranus, the ruler of Aquarius, serves to shake up the old order and introduce the needed impulses for the next steps forward in human evolution. We will have a bit more on Pluto in Aquarius as we go along here, this combined with the shifting of the cycles.

World update: From here we move on to what is evolving in the immediate world view. There are three large events upon which we will focus here and which will alter our trajectory sharply going forward over the next few years. Two of the events are shaping the future and the other is bringing closure to the past. The event bringing closure to the past is the banking crisis that precipitated in the US with the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), which we will cover more in the next letter. The others were the normalization between the Saudis and the Iranians brokered by China, and Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow. All of these events are shaking the foundations of the US/UK hegemony. What those events will mean for us will be addressed here after we unpack what the events themselves signal. Several extraordinary events have recently occurred in West Asia, seemingly suddenly, but which in fact have been in development for some time. The war in Ukraine has precipitated them. They are:

• As stated, the normalization between Iran and Saudi Arabia, brokered finally by the Chinese, but with Russian diplomatic involvement behind the scenes having taken place for some time. This will eventually settle the issue of the JCPOA, Iran’s security as well as that of Saudi Arabia’s Aramco. It will also eventually lead to an end of the war in Yemen.
• Assad’s meetings in Moscow, followed by his visit to the UAE, which would have been unheard of 10 years ago, followed also by an invitation for Assad to attend the Arab leaders’ summit in May, thus ending his isolation in the region. Syria is also about to see reconciliation between Cairo and Damascus.
• The invitation by King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia to President Raisi of Iran for a visit, with the Saudis “…expressing a desire “for the strengthening of economic and regional cooperation.” The visit will be reciprocated at some point. Iranian officials met in Norway with IAEA officials in the past few days to discuss the possibility of reviving the JCPOA.
• Saudi Arabia has just joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), thus boosting its security, especially against any reprisals for its recent actions, as in moving away from the West in its politics and trade. Iran is also a member of the SCO. The Saudis are also attempting to join BRICS.
• Concerning BRICS, Brazil and China have just inked a deal to trade in their native currencies, bypassing the US dollar. It is finally dawning on lawmakers in the US that the ability of the US to sanction other nations will be gone in a few years. Some nations are approaching India (a BRICS member) for conducting bilateral trade in rupees. Russia is already doing so, precipitated by the Ukrainian conflict.
• The rupee is emerging as a sought-after currency for conducting trade. There are 10 nations on a list for expansion of BRICS to BRICS+, which would constitute an economic bloc with a GDP 30% larger than that of the US. As it stands, BRICS encompasses 40% of the world’s population. The new BRICS+ would encompass half of the world’s population and be in control of 60% of global gas reserves. The ASEAN bloc is openly talking about dumping the US dollar, Euro, Yen, Visa and Mastercard for trade.

Exorbitant privilege: Regarding these last two bullet points it is helpful to give some perspective here. Up until now the US has enjoyed exorbitant privilege regarding the use of the dollar in world trade. It has chosen to use that privilege as a weapon, which itself is causing blowback on the US establishment, and will also filter out to the American public. It will also contribute to the banking crisis in the US, which in turn will strongly affect Europe in close succession. We have these recent statements from Renaud Girard, French journalist, translated from French:

“In a 1965 press conference, the visionary General de Gaulle castigated the “exorbitant privilege of the dollar”. The American currency had indeed become by far the first reserve and exchange currency in the world, after the United States had, from 1946 to 1971, agreed to exchange it for gold, at the fixed rate of $35 an ounce… De Gaulle understood that they were financing their war in Vietnam and their space conquest on the backs of Europeans. This is why the Banque de France, from 1965, began to systematically exchange its dollars for gold. On August 15, 1971, America decided abruptly, without having informed any of its allies, to put an end to the convertibility of the dollar into gold [see blog post]…

When there is a global financial crisis, investors take refuge in the dollar, even if the crisis is of American origin. This is what happened in 2008-2009, when the dollar revalued against the euro and the yen. Today, it still represents 59% of world foreign exchange reserves (compared to 72% in 1999). But, by transforming their currency into a weapon of political pressure, the Americans have, unwittingly, started a worldwide movement to impeach the dollar king…

In 2014 the BNP had to pay a $9 billion fine to the United States for having, legally under European and French law, financed (in dollars) exports from Cuba, Sudan and Iran. But these three countries were under US embargo. As the compensation was made in New York on the account of the BNP (an electronic writing of a millionth of a second), American justice declared itself territorially competent. This is how the Americans have imposed their rights on the other countries of the planet. And European companies had to comply, as seen when they left Iran in 2018 after Trump unilaterally denounced the 2015 Vienna nuclear deal.

The next step in the “weaponization” of the dollar was, in 2022, after Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, the freezing of the foreign exchange reserves of the Russian central bank denominated in dollars. Non-Western leaders then said to themselves: “If I am at war with a neighbor and this conflict does not please Washington, I can suddenly lose a large part of my foreign exchange reserves. I will therefore drastically reduce my trade in dollars.” This is what Russia is now doing, but also Saudi Arabia. Its last oil bill to China was denominated in renminbi (whose offshore market already reaches the equivalent of 200 billion.”

The end of sanctions?: So, little Marco Rubio stated the truth out loud when he said the US economic weapon would be gone in a few years. Russia and Iran started the ball rolling in earnest by totally dumping the dollar in their cross-border trade. Peace appears to be breaking out all over West Asia. Neither the Israelis nor the folks in Washington are amused. The old Abraham Accords are now all but a distant memory. And as a pertinent aside, it was the 2016 Trump campaign’s collusion with Israel instead of Russia that influenced that election in favour of Trump, much to the amusement of the Russians at the time. They were ultimately to be disappointed by Trump. Trump’s chief advisor and son-in-law was fast friends with the Netanyahus. But that collusion showed after the fact with the Trump administration’s fawning support of Israel, demonization of Iran, abandonment of the JCPOA, Trump’s assassination of Soleimani, moving the US embassy to Jerusalem and the final act, the Abraham Accords. In hindsight, with these acts, it is clear to whom Trump owed his loyalties. And Bibi has just come back into the hot seat in Israel.

The Trump card: Since I started this letter with a review of my visit to the US, a short tangent is in order regarding the indictment of Trump. Yes folks, election season has arrived in the US, believe it or else. He was indicted the day I left the US. I hate I missed it (not). Actually I am happy not to be there having to listen to the endless media coverage, which no doubt will boost his ratings among Trump supporters and independents as it did in 2016. (I am neither a fan of Trump nor Biden.) The media will focus ad nauseum on this because it generates ratings and viewership, while not thinking on the other side of the coin – that by focusing on Trump, they are also giving him a platform upon which to attack the establishment, which sits well with a large portion of the American public. That will swing votes toward Trump if he is nominated as the Republican candidate. There is little trust in government these days. So, while liberals may be gleeful the Teflon Donald has been indicted, that glee may soon turn to despair once the case is dropped. The indictment is weak and it is partisan, exposing the fraudulence of an apolitical judiciary in the US. For liberals it is a case of being careful for what one wishes.

The Royal pain: In parallel with Trump there is now an exposé in The Guardian about how the royal family hides its wealth from the public. In turn, a recent exposé on The Guardian has exposed it as being a mouthpiece for British intelligence as well as an establishment mouthpiece, rather than being an independent gold standard for liberal readers. There is an old saying by Ralph Waldo Emerson which applies in both of these cases, the Royals and Trump: “When you strike at a king, you must kill him.” The quote was in reference to an opinion piece penned by Oliver Wendell Holmes regarding Plato. There is something very strange aside from the obvious about the timing of why this exposé on the Royals is coming out now, with the approach of the coronation of Charles and Britain’s new queen. Queen Camilla is widely disliked among the British public, which is perhaps one reason The Guardian is going after the Royals. When the press goes for sensationalism over truth the results bear rotten fruit for the public. Another way of stating this is this press coverage distracts the public from the real issues at hand. And the UK has some very pressing issues for its public, witnessed by the mass strikes taking place there. In these cases, the efforts of the media toward character assassination of these people are likely to backfire. But there is another side to this as well.

The larger context here is the decline of the West with its resultant crystallization and partisanship, which rejects any discussion of real issues and only hardens opinions across the board. This decline and the reasons for it were part of the discussion in my recent presentations at the Aquarian Wisdom Center Conference from the 1^st to the 4^th of April (many thanks to Phillip Lindsay and the group for all their hard work). The event was recorded and I will have more info on it as everything becomes available. With the closing of the present 250-year cycle, which began in 1775, and the coinciding transit of Pluto through Aquarius for the next 20 years, we may yet see the fall of the last European monarchies in Europe, as well as those in the Arab states, eventually. We will also likely see the fall of the Western liberal democracies, to be overwritten by a saner view of what constitutes ‘democracy’ and a return to the values the majority of the public actually desires rather than the culture that has been, in many ways, forced upon the West by vocal and sometimes militant minorities. We will definitely see an overhaul of the economic and financial structure of the world in favour of cooperation (in line with Aquarian principles) away from competition. We may not want to admit it, but most societies are traditionally conservative, meaning belief in home and family, man and woman instead of a multitude of manufactured genders, sane approaches to economics based in commodities, a decent living wage and pension, the ability to own one’s home, etc., etc. Religion will also receive a fresh injection of beliefs as well as a rejection of the hindering culture that accompanies the fundamentalist factions of any religion.

Israel’s growing troubles: Returning to what is evolving in West Asia, we see turmoil in Israel as the two main factions there battle it out for control. This is resulting as much from internal pressures as it is from developments in Washington and West Asia. Bibi needs a war with Iran to stay in power. Given the developments in West Asia, the rug has been pulled out from under him. What the US has tried to maintain in terms of controlling interests in West Asia for decades is suddenly falling apart under Washington’s and London’s noses. Perhaps Ned Price may need a rethink on his statement, “No country on Earth has done more to build a more stable, more integrated [Middle East],” referring to the United States. Instead, these apparent sudden and dramatic changes have been years in the making, especially since 2020 with the Saturn/Pluto conjunction and eclipse in Capricorn, mentioned on numerous occasions in these letters, wherein the point of precipitation has been reached.

Suddenly, Israel finds itself without allies, surrounded by states who would rather see the Zionist entity gone from the region. So, the Israelis have gone on a bombing spree in Syria, seeking to provoke some kind of reaction that would draw the Western powers into the fray. At the same time the American bases in eastern Syria are coming under attack from Resistance forces, while Assad is in consultation with Putin, Iran and Erdogan to remove Turkish forces from Syria. The other provocations taking place inside Israel are the storming of the al-Aqsa mosque by militant Jews and the partisan infighting between Ashkenazi and Mizrahi Jews. Syria is a bellwether in the political restructuring of West Asia. But the West is otherwise preoccupied with Russia and China and the states surrounding Israel are on to the Israeli game. All they need to do is practise patience and watch Israel implode from internal pressures. Israel and Zionism has been a very disruptive factor in international relations. It would appear the time has come for the problem to be finally resolved.

Where are the Americans?: The Americans and Europeans are nowhere to be seen in the events listed in the bullet points above. The old narrative of, “You are either with us or you are against us” is gone. A new consciousness has arisen in West Asia, sort of a ‘new Arab Spring’, but this time coming from within the West Asian nations themselves, reflective of Aquarian principles of win-win, expressive of Russia’s Aquarian soul, which has been the arbiter of behind the scenes negotiations – because the Russians have been working diplomatically with those nations on these initiatives for the past decade at least – and as a signal of Pluto’s approach and final entry into Aquarius, clearing out the cobwebs of Aquarian consciousness. History gives us precedents and context in this case.

Pluto and the 250-year cycle: It is worth noting the 250-year ray cycle (discussed in the last letter) is almost tracked by the 247-year orbital cycle of Pluto. The last time Pluto entered Aquarius was in 1778, during the American Revolutionary War and marking the start of the incarnation of America’s Aquarian soul. That revolution – because the time was ripe – incited a wave of revolutions across Europe and Latin America, sweeping away most of the old monarchies. Pluto stayed in that sign for 20 years due to the elliptical nature of its orbit, but its influence beyond that period lived on. What Pluto did in that period was to clear away certain glamours of the past, such as the divine right of kings for instance and thus allow the mental sphere of the thinkers and intuitives of the era to stand out more clearly. Pluto’s action is primarily kama-manasic, meaning among other things it breaks up idée fixe (obsessive thinking and closed-mindedness), which are nothing more than ideas so strongly desired that any other desire or idea that challenges that fixity is immediately shunned and shut out. We see idée fixe all around us these days and across societies, leading us to entrenched positions on matters, most often to ours and others’ detriment. Pluto in Aquarius gives us another chance at open-mindedness and for new ideas to filter through. For the West this is a particular challenge, because ‘The Narrative’ regarding Russia, China, gender, democracy and so forth are examples of idée fixe. This sort of thing will be washed away under the influence of Pluto in Aquarius, along with our ideas and ideals of how the world should be and be governed.

With the 6^th ray passing out, so we see the militancy and fanaticism of that ray (which is yet another manifestation of fixity) passing out as well. The feared WWIII is not likely to materialize in a military sense as a result. The Western powers simply cannot prosecute it, and the world outside the West has no stomach for such an event. They are busy making deals. Pluto’s transit through Aquarius will usher in a more reasoned approach to matters, coinciding with the waxing 7^th ray, and idealism along with its technocratic offshoot will slowly fade from view as nation after nation abandons the Piscean idealism. Pragmatism and a new order will replace the last vestiges of Western dominance. In the future this period, too, will likely be seen as a revolutionary moment in world affairs, as each such period in the past has come to be seen. There will be many revolutions before us as Pluto completes its transit through Aquarius, mostly in the realm of ideas and intuitions. Aquarius is an air sign, after all, and Pluto’s transit there clears away the blocks to intuitive insight and clears the mental field of the planet. Its transit will have immediate effects in art and in public opinion. It will also strongly affect geopolitics. The sooner we can come to terms with it and embrace opportunities presented by it, instead of fearing some sort of cataclysmic collapse or world war, the quicker we can move into the emerging Aquarian order with grace and prosperity. The war has precipitated the changes we are seeing, though it is not the cause, and as such is a great occult event, causing a re-evaluation of all our international relations and what matters to us in our home nations.

Pretty pictures: The war is changing the face of world trade, too. Russia’s support is growing in the Global South, as is that of China. American media is beginning to shift its reporting on Russia:

“This is not a pretty picture”: support for Russia is growing in developing countries. The American television channel CNBC is openly saddened by the data from the report of the Economist Intelligence Unit. “Analysts suggest that Russia’s sphere of influence has expanded over the past year as propaganda and diplomatic efforts gather momentum and Western powers fail to counter the Kremlin’s narratives.”

If one questions why that would be regarding the failure to counter the Kremlin’s narrative, it is because the Global South has come to dismiss the Western narrative. The ‘Economist Intelligence Unit’ is little more than a neoliberal think tank based in London. The Western ‘rules-based order’ is being rejected by an increasing and large number of states in the world. In Washington and Europe there is a growing fear,

“…the fear of the ‘Rules-Order’ and dollar hegemony fragmentation to the thrall of the Russian and Chinese vision of sovereign societies structured around legacy moral precepts. To be very plain, the western liberal cultural revolution’s shift from being merely adversarial to a project not aimed just at rejecting previous cultural forms, but in erasing them altogether is what is being globally rejected and collapsing. A new moral-cultural sensibility is rising, even as formal institutions of religion have ebbed. It is that which is articulated by Presidents Xi and Putin.

Again simply put, Russia’s quiet, background revival of Orthodoxy and China’s of Taoist and Confucian values as the possible framework against which the regulation of modern technological society can be set – in no small part – has opened the path to metamorphosis and the inflection gripping much of the world.”

At the close of their two days of talks in Moscow the parting words of Xi Jinping and Putin echoed true as to what is happening today:

“Right now there are changes – the likes of which we haven’t seen for 100 years – and we are the ones driving these changes together,” Xi told Putin as he stood at the door of the Kremlin to bid him farewell. The Russian president responded: “I agree.”

Western readers may balk at such a statement, seeing it as being as exceptionalist as that of the United States and the EU, but in fact what they said is true. The Russians and Chinese have been quietly and patiently cultivating the relations they now have with other states for the past decade at least, and in many cases longer. And they have done so on the basis of mutual respect and win-win between states. A look at the various international organizations they belong to and have been instrumental in forming attest to the fact they have been key in the development of those relations and thus the changes we are seeing. The statements of the two leaders are spoken for their nations, too, not as individuals. Regarding the Sino-Russian collaboration, we have the following from a retired experienced Indian diplomat:

“It is the common concern of Russia and China that the world order must return to an international system with the UN at its core and a world order based on international law. There is no question that the two countries’ strategy is to overturn the “rules-based order” dominated by the US and return to an international order centred on the UN.

In fact, Article 5 [of the UN Charter] is the very soul of the joint statement issued in Moscow: “The two sides reaffirm their commitment to firmly upholding the international system with the United Nations at its core, the international order based on international law and the basic norms governing international relations based on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, and oppose all forms of hegemonism, unilateralism and power politics, the Cold War mentality, confrontation between camps and the establishment of cliques targeting specific countries.”

Make no mistake that this is not about removing the US as the boss and replacing it with China, but about effectively checking the US from bullying smaller, weaker states, and thereby ushering in a new international order with primacy on peaceful development and political correctness that overrides all ideological differences.”

If you want to get an idea of Russia’s approach to foreign relations, look no further than the document, “The Concept of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation.”

In closing: As I was on the plane flying back from the US and thereafter with an 8-hour layover at Heathrow I had time to round out my talks at the conference on European Unity. It was helpful to be back in the United States for a short time and to be reminded of the goodness of the people. Yes, one can see the culpability of the media in fearmongering, demonization of people and nations, the excessive consumption, the anxiety over inflation and a host of societal concerns. But underlying that is the spirit of the people, which is essentially kind, wants no part of war and wants the government to care for the people instead of adventurism abroad and panicking over balloons. If left to their devices, the old ‘Yankee ingenuity’ would soon be in evidence in Americans, with a very lively debate and consequent quick resolution of challenges. We Americans have it in us. Once we throw off our oligarch problem, much will be clarified. It is coming. Most Americans know they are being lied to, but elections will not solve the problem. We need some large events to bring us to our senses. Those are coming too, and should be welcomed. A large banking crisis would be one such, which we will address in the next letter, Taurus representing money and finance in mundane astrology. The solutions to the banking and finance crisis that precipitated the Great Depression brought about the solutions that led to the American ‘Golden Years’ of the ‘50s and ‘60s. We already see events precipitating the needed changes in Europe, especially in the UK, France and Germany. We need to stay the course.

These times can be fraught as the old guard tries to retain control while the new mental impulses anchor themselves in society – and the old guard will try every trick in the book to remain relevant and in power. Europe will be looking at reorganization and abandoning the US-imposed order. That will take a few years, and a few states in northern Europe are likely to stay tied to the US. We may see divisions in the United States, too – or perhaps not. Americans like the idea of united states. Imagine having to have a passport for traveling between North Carolina and Virginia or South Carolina, for instance. I would rather not. What is it that unites us, though? That is the question instead of always looking for differences and divisions. The horrors of the Civil War are not that far from American memory. What unites us is a question no one seems to be bringing forward, however. Perhaps that is where we should focus. What Pluto in Aquarius and the incoming new cycle will present to us is a crucial ideological transformation. Every Aries interval each year brings a new impulse to it. Starting this year, for the first time in 247 years, Pluto in Aquarius will intensify our search for meaning and clarification.

We should be ready for the clarifying influence that is dawning before us, across the West. The rest of the world already sees it and is embracing it. Be open, be ready, get inventive. No idea is too silly, too small or too large to be left out of consideration. A single missing bolt or pin can bring a $2 million machine to a screeching halt. A drop of oil can bring one back to life. I have witnessed such in my work and travels as a technician. The smallest things can make all the difference in the world. To believe we have all wisdom or answers is to close our minds to solutions. To make things too complex cripples solutions. Let is put everything out on the table in these years before us – the good, the bad and the ugly, to quote a movie title, as well as the smallest and the largest. The obvious approach is often the best one, too. It would appear to be rather obvious today that cooperation wins the day over adversarial jousting. A new day dawns, and a good coffee in a beautiful garden sets us on a fruitful path for the day. May our minds and emotions seek the good, the beautiful and the true. Easter is the season of resurrection. It is time for us to rise and shine!

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1. Bailey, Alice A., Esoteric Astrology, (1951), NY, NY, Lucis Publishing, p. 158 ↑
2. Ibid, p. 68 ↑
3. Op cit, Table VII ↑
4. Ibid, p. 96 ↑
5. Ibid, p. 549 ↑