The Libra Festival 2023

Topics (linked to paragraphs): Orthodox Libra An Eastern perspective Esoteric Libra Contemplation The full moon Bailey Redacted The main events China’s vision for the future The US-Sino tech war Kassandras beware Losing the tech war A parting word on the US In conclusion

Greetings Everyone!

Autumn has finally arrived here in Rovereto. It is always a welcome relief to see the end of the summer heat, although the rain at the end of summer was most welcome. The daylight hours here have shifted rather dramatically and now it is not possible to gauge what time it is in the morning by the sunlight, whereas before the sun would wake me up as time to feed the dogs. Now if I wait for the sun, it is already past 7 o’clock and the day gets off to a late start. Otherwise, the leaves are all starting to turn, the horse chestnuts are falling off the trees and littering the roads, Japanese maples are all aflame, and the amaranth in the garden is already at chest height and flowering. Soon enough, it will be time to put up the Christmas lights, but that is a couple months away. In the meantime Halloween approaches, coinciding with the next full moon. That letter promises to be rather interesting, just as a little teaser.

We have a couple of friends here in Italy who not long ago decided they were going to take three months off of work and travel around a bit – nice, if you can do it. They spent a month thus far in Australia, starting in my old stomping ground of Adelaide for a few days, and then off to all the tourist spots – the 12 Apostles, the Great Ocean Road, the Blue Mountains, Uluru and the Gold Coast. Then it was off to the US. But before we get to the US, they said they loved Australia, the land and the people. Fortunately, they did not have enough time to experience the government, but that’s another story. And what’s not to love about Australia, except the government? But when they arrived in the United States, they landed in Los Angeles, and it was a complete culture shock. The Italians here know the legends about the United States, but not the current realities. Our friends were shocked at what they saw Los Angeles, and beat a hasty retreat. But afterwards they went to several national parks and their faith the United States was restored. Reports from them are that the place is pretty amazing, and the people are good, helpful and friendly. Americans like Italians, anyway. As far as the land and the national parks I would have to concur with their observations. But like Australia, I can’t say the same for the government. That again is another story.

We will come back for a brief look at the United States a bit later in this letter, but continuing with our autumn theme, my wife has just changed the window decorations, for which she gets a lot of compliments. The house here is all decked out for autumn. But speaking of land, as was just mentioned with the United States, every environment has its own particular charm. Living here in the Italian mountains, the autumn air is clear. Gone is the mist and haze of summer. Yet to come are the overcast heavy skies of winter. At night during the autumn one can walk out and look at the stars, which take on a particular brilliance in the autumn. As an aside, I hope everyone got to see some of the Perseid meteor showers that were in evidence at the end of last month. We weren’t able to see them here because it was raining. But in terms of the sky itself, along about 10 o’clock at night Jupiter rises over the mountains like a jewel in the sky. The clear autumn air brings up an analogy in meditation, particularly Buddhist meditation, wherein the emerging clear light of meditative practice appears like a clear autumn sky. That analogy to the clear autumn sky and the clear light has a particular relation to Libra, which we will address shortly. With that being said, we might as well get straight into the sign that graces us with this interval at present – Libra, the Balance.

Orthodox Libra: In the Orthodox interpretation Libra is associated with marriage, with contracts, with litigation, relationships of all sorts (meaning partnerships), and by extension the law, sex and money. Curiously, or perhaps not, all three of the latter are associated with marriage, because marriage in our common law is a contract, meant to protect legacies, property, bloodlines, children, and social cohesion. The Libra ingress blog post covered the mundane aspects of Libra for this quarter. In terms of the physical nature, Libra governs the kidneys and the lumbar region of lower back. That region of the back is also associated with the sacral center in the etheric body. The endocrine gland associated the Libra are the adrenal glands, connected with fight or flight reflexes – fear, in other words. That would seem out of place regarding a sign that is normally associated with beauty and peaceful relations, but when one gets into the legal matters the fear element comes in a little clearer. However, Libra is also associated with open enemies and warfare. If one has ever watched TV shows where divorce proceedings are taking place, it is easy to see why Libra will be associated with open warfare.

An Eastern perspective: Our approach to Libra in this letter will be more along the lines of planetary associations and energetics, though. In that regard the orthodox ruler of Libra is Venus. In esoteric astrology Venus is cited as a sacred planet,^[1] the so-called alter-ego of the earth^[2], representing the higher self of our planet. As such, it would seem odd that Libra is associated with the kidneys. But, there is little secret related to Oriental medicine. The kidneys in Oriental medicine are the foundational influence in terms of the chi (prana) of the body:

“It is said the kidneys store the Jing and rule birth development and maturation. Jing is the substance most closely associated with life itself; it is the source of life and of individual development. Although it is undifferentiated material, it is the substance that gives organic life its specific character. It contains the possibility of birth, maturation, decay, and death…The entire body and all the organs of the body need Jing in order to thrive. The kidneys, because they store Jing, bestow this potential for life activity. They have therefore a special relationship with the other organs in that they hold the underlying material of each organ’s existence and are the foundation of each organs Yin and Yang. Thus, the kidneys are the “root of life.””^[3]

Jing is one of the five manifestations of chi and it underlies all organic life. In other words, from the quoted material, at a very basic physical level the kidneys, ruled by Venus, serve as an integrating factor for the etheric body, keeping it in health. It also is the polar opposite to the pituitary body, the latter associated with the ajna center.^[4] This association with the kidneys is the ‘lunar aspect’ of Venus, meaning the physical expression of Venus, associated with reproduction, the will-to-live, with hearing (sound precedes creation) and the movement of water in the body. There is a close association between the lungs (ruled by Venus via the Metal Element (note the spelling of ‘metal’) in Oriental medicine)) and the kidneys, in that through the proper use of the breath, Jing chi is restored and aging can be offset to a degree. This idea also points to the efficacy of breathing practices in meditation, for with proper breath control the body is brought into proper alignment (over time) with the soul, enabling deeper meditative states. As such, Jing chi is a physical force, though it can be directed by the mind. Such practices as chi gong, which use the breath as an integral part of those practices, restore the Jing and thereby enable the extension of life and at the very least, better health and a calmer, clearer mind. This brings us to the more esoteric considerations of Libra, if what has just been described is not esoteric enough.

Esoteric Libra: The ultimate goal for Libra is to commence the Probationary Path (Skt. prayogamārga), known in Buddhism as the Path of Joining, also known as the Path of Engagement or of Junction. In the Bailey books it is called the Path of Probation. Here again we have the higher reflection of the idea of ‘partnership’ and ‘marriage’ associated with Libra in its orthodox interpretation. It marks the stage wherein, meditative equilibrium having been achieved, the practitioner (meditator) experiences the first real engagement with the soul and pauses, linking the two (personality and soul). This interval marks the stage of the narrow razor-edged path, where there is acknowledgement of both the soul and the personality, but no full engagement with either one. Neither one is allowed to dominate, and a gentle rhythm is established where first one then the other is brought into focus. It is a point of reflection, prior to a more concerted meditative activity. Hence, we have the esoteric motto for Libra: “I choose the way that lies between the two great lines of force.”^[5] From this, we have the following:

“Libra can also be spoken of in terms of the meditation process as taught both in East and West. It can, therefore, be regarded as the “interlude between two activities,” which is the explanation given to that stage in meditation which we call contemplation. In the five stages of meditation (as usually taught) you have the following: Concentration, meditation, contemplation, illumination and inspiration. These five stages are paralleled in the five strictly human signs of the zodiac:

So, what are we contemplating here during this Libra interval? Let us take a breath and a deeper dive into this matter, from an energetic perspective.

Contemplation: What exactly is contemplation?:

Def: “…contemplation, or that profound condition which succeeds that called meditation.

In contemplation, the inner eye is fixed upon the object of contemplation, and this produces (unconsciously in most cases) a steady stream of energy which is focussed upon the objective, producing vitalisation and activity. It is the basis of the “work of transmutation,” for instance, when the human substance is transmuted into solar substance. The Ego contemplates his lunar bodies, and gradually the work is accomplished. When his reflection, man, has reached a point in evolution where he can meditate and contemplate, the work is more rapidly accelerated, and transmutation proceeds with rapidity, particularly on the physical plane. In the work of thought-form building, the man, in contemplation, pursues the work of energising and vitalising. It might here be said that the eye is the great directing agency. When the third eye is used, which is the case in contemplation, it is the synthesiser and director of triple energy; hence the powerful work performed by those in whom it is functioning. The third eye only begins to function when the third circle of egoic petals is beginning slowly to unfold. If students will study the effect of the human eye on the physical plane, and then extend the concept to the work of the interior Thinker, as he utilises the third eye, they will get an interesting light upon the subject of thought control.”^[7]

The ‘inner eye’ mentioned above is the functioning ‘third eye’. This is not the center between the eyebrows, the ajna center. Instead, it is the combined functioning of the three major centers in the head – crown, ajna and alta major, the latter at the base of the skull. In a planetary sense it is the combined action of Uranus, Venus and Saturn, resp., with the third eye itself corresponding to Neptune. Those are the planets associated with the aforementioned centers in the head. The third eye is represented for us in the Egyptian symbol of the serpent arising out of the forehead of the initiate. The third eye itself is not per se an organ of vision, but is instead the organ of spiritual perception. Its remnant in physical matter is the pineal gland, but students are cautioned against conflating the third eye with that gland.^[8] With the third eye one, “…ascertains the will and purpose of the Ego, and from thence…draws the necessary energy from the higher levels, via the head centre and the sutratma.”^[9] The Ego, of course, is the spiritual Triad or ‘atma-buddhi-manas’, correspondingly finding its reflection in the three centers in the head.

In Buddhist practice the stages of meditation leading to calm abiding (Tib. zhi gnas) are represented for us in the shamatha diagram, which we have examined before in these letters. On the 7^th stage of that winding path in the diagram the mind (represented by the elephant) is perfectly pacified. The factor of ‘sinking’ (imperfect visualization) is almost wholly gone (represented by the black stripe on the back of the elephant), meaning it can be easily overcome, while the monkey (representing the factor of scattering, or distraction) is not a factor and does not disturb the mind. The eye becomes more operative and clear vision is somewhat finally attained. ‘Vision’ in this case means the ability to visualize, employing the imagination. The object of meditation takes on a clarity not known before (like a clear autumn sky), analogous to being able to maintain the mind in the state of ‘clear light’. The mind at this stage takes on a more directed and steady focus, represented by the elephant walking in front of the monk. This marks the Uranian phase in meditation, whereas up to this point Saturn (discipline) had been the preeminent factor in meditative practice. A new rhythm is established (Uranus), enabling the more advanced stages of practice, wherein the personality becomes the vehicle of the meditator. The more advanced stages of the Path and meditation are commenced in the next sign, Scorpio, archetypally considered, but the practice at Libra is the necessary prerequisite to the later stages.

The archetypal sequence of the astrological signs from Aries trough Taurus to Capricorn describes the steady and graded process of inner unfolding and meditative mastery. Libra is commonly associated with the marriage contract. But what has just been described is the marriage of soul and personality, the bond of which is thereafter tested in Scorpio, and if found worthy, opens the door to the first major initiation, the Ground of the Very Joyful, on the Path of Seeing, beginning at the latter stage of Sagittarius. The Path of Seeing is experienced fully in Capricorn. One is thus ‘transfigured’ by the ‘blinding light of the monad’. Students of Buddhism will have familiarity with the Grounds and the Paths (Tib. sa lam). In terms of Western esotericism, the five Buddhist Paths correspond to the five human initiations.^[10] In Christian terms these are Birth, Baptism, Transfiguration, Crucifixion and Revelation. Libra begins the internal process on the path of joining (probation) that takes one to the experience of transfiguration, experienced at the end of the Sagittarian experience, leading to the mountaintop in Capricorn.

In summary, then, Venus acts through Libra to integrate the various factors in meditative practice, via the ajna center, which is the directive center in the human body. Uranus acts via the head center to embrace a new rhythm in one’s practice. Joy and enthusiasm begin to dawn in the Libran phase because the bliss of the soul is brought into proximity with the personality via the crown center. One begins to sense the ‘bliss of relation’ when the soul and personality are thus engaged. The personality and soul are joined in a ‘contract’ or ‘marriage’ for further development along meditative lines. This is where the practices of the Buddhist tantras come into one’s experience. We are not speaking of sexual tantra here, but rather a practice involving the development of meditative bliss. A new passion is born from the marriage of soul and personality. Excitement to engage in practice takes hold and the old drudgery and necessity (Saturn) of ‘practice’ is left behind. From this point the enthusiastic pursuit of wisdom – i.e. the unfolding of siddhis (powers) – becomes possible once the inner (third) eye is more fully consolidated (‘opened’), through the power of imagination. But such imagination at that point is not colored by emotional content or the concepts of the lower mind. It is, in effect, ‘beyond conception’. The imagination at this point is an instrument of the soul rather than the servant of desires.

The full moon takes place on the 29^th of September at 9:57 UT (5:57 pm AEST). There is some interesting dwarf planet activity with this full moon. Mars is opposite Eris, the latter said to have accompanied Mars on the battlefield. There is thus a warlike quality to this full moon. The little dwarf planet Quaoar (kwa-o-ar, pronunciation) is square the full moon axis. There is also a quintile yod, with Jupiter and Saturn in quintile as the base and the full moon axis involved, with the Sun as the apex planet. What the latter points to is the patient realization of goals over time, in particular using ones imaginative faculties. Negatively expressed, that combination can point to nervous difficulties, inconstancy and moodiness. What Quaoar represents is the ability to act as a channel or conductor (as in electrical) of information and insight. Quaoar was a creator god of the Tongva people from the area of what is now Los Angeles. Engagement in ritual and dance would be most helpful to release the energies represented in this full moon.

Squares to the full moon axis represent challenges for us to release the potential of the energies of the full moon period. And although Quaoar is a small planet, it acts as an ‘irritant to action’ – in this case to release the imagination toward resolution of our personal and the world’s challenges. The full moon axis itself at this full moon carries a message of protection and nurturing (Sun) while yet ‘functioning in two worlds at once’ (the Moon) – a very Libran theme, is it not? Always with the Aries-Libra axis there is the call to pioneering action (Aries) in concert with others (Libra), to state the matter simply. With these points in mind we move on to the topical items related to Libra that have taken place since the last full moon. But first we have something of note for readers familiar with the writings of Alice A. Bailey:

Bailey Redacted: What follows in this topic is my own sense of the matter, possibly not shared by the administrators of the Lucis Trust. But the book is still available in the 1^st edition, if one can find it. I refer here to the 1^st edition (from 1947) of Bailey’s Problems of Humanity. There were significant redacted portions from the first edition. The reason it is brought up here is because of the tremendous changes we are seeing in the international order, along with the conflict in Eastern Europe, which the Western powers – especially Washington – continuously seem to want to escalate. Many of the conditions and actors in the last World War are active once again. You can see the redacted portions on my site at this link, if you care to, along with links on that web page where you can download the material. The original text has not been altered in any way. The words of the Tibetan throughout via Bailey are all intact. You can choose to read it or not, but if you do keep the points in mind as we go along here, because probably you will see parallels from what was written all those years ago to what is taking place today. With that, we move on to our main events.

The main events: We have the following events of relative of major importance that have taken place since the end of August, not in any particular order:

• Italy, and then by extension the EU, is experiencing a refugee crisis. In the past month 11,000 people have arrived by boat at Lampedusa, 61 nautical miles off the coast of Tunisia and in the economic zone of Sicily. 7,000 arrived in one day which is more than the population of the island, arriving in slap-dash welded boats. Lampedusa is Italian territory. Meloni appeared on TV the other day telling the refugees not to come, citing the expense of the trip, the fact the boats were unsafe, and then the clincher: If you come we will put you on a plane and send you straight back. It was desperate talk, as Meloni is on the ropes about the matter. But she is being forced to crack down on the arrivals. The total arriving just in Italy thus far this year is over 139,000 people. We see some of them pass through our fair city on a regular basis, on their way to other parts of Europe. The migration has multiple causes, but there is a growing row between Italy and Germany on the matter, with Italy accusing the Germans of funding the mass migration. Von der Leyen went to the island to see for herself at Meloni’s ‘invitation’ (“Do so, or we will act alone,” was the not-so-subtle message). Meloni issued a statement after the visit. Apparently Germany needs the cheap labor.
• ‘Dictator’ Dan Andrews resigned after nine years as Victorian Premier. He wasn’t exactly loved by the electorate. There was dancing in the streets^[11] as thousands turned out to celebrate. Word from a colleague is the bottle shops sold out of champagne and strangers were hugging each other in the streets. If you are on Telegram, Aussie Cossack did a good job of covering the proceedings (he posted quite a lot about it). This one serves as a shot across the bow for any politician who fancies reintroducing COVID restrictions, or for any other pandemic the powers-that-be may have planned for us. From Pepe Escobar, “DARPA, the Department of Justice, a bunch of Federal Judges and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation gathered 10 days ago at Pfizer’s ‘National Vaccine Law Conference’ in D. C. to… you know the drill.” Regime change will gradually claim many administrations across the West, first from COVID and then from self-destructing their own nations over Ukraine.
• The Man finally burned after being threatened by Hilary. But that story is covered in another blog post.
• Tropical Storm Daniel swept through the Mediterranean, killing 11 people total in Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria. We didn’t notice it here in our part of Italy, but the devastation shown in those places on the nightly news was difficult to watch.
• The 2023 Marrakesh quake (blog post) and the awful Derna flooding in Libya (pending blog post). The Western press tried to whitewash the causes for the Derna flood. It is disingenuous to say, for instance, the fault for the massive death toll lies with everyone.
• US imports of Russian fertilizer hit almost $1 billion this year, 2^nd behind Canada. You kids be sure to eat all your veggies now. There are starving children in Africa. Yes, folks, sanctions certainly are weakening Russia (not).
• News of a military coup on the DRC (Congo) was circulating in social media, but promptly denied by the government.
• Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger signed a charter to create a defense alliance. This is yet another sign of increasing independence from France for the nations of the Sahel.
• Not reported previously, but Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan inked a deal in late May this year for a railway link between the three countries that would give an uninterrupted rail link along the INSTC route. This will be yet another way Russia and Iran would be able to bypass sanctions, as well as decreasing transit costs. It would greatly ease the need for the Caspian Sea link of the INSTC.
• The UAW (United Auto Workers) union went on strike. They want a 40% pay rise and a 32-hr work week. That’s the asking price for returning to work. One can bet the managing class will fight tooth and nail to avoid paying it.
• Kolomoisky has been put under the microscope again, speaking of law-fare. Now, if you want to go down some rabbit holes connecting Biden, Trump, Kushner, Zelenskyy, Ukraine and the present conflict and why the neocons want this war to go on and on, there is an article (in Russian) that gives some background. Kolomoisky was Zelenskyy’s backer, which led to the latter becoming president of Ukraine. The former has dirt on everyone and knows where all the skeletons and their closets are hidden in Ukraine. At this stage of the conflict it is unsurprising Kolomoisky has come under the spotlight.
• Ozymandias was revisited.
• North Korea launches its first nuclear submarine
• Kim Jong Un paid a visit to Russia for the 2023 North Korea-Russia summit. Western media is alarmed, painting the visit as largely military in nature. The question is, why, really? It is a question worth answering. Kim met Putin at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, which was symbolic. The summit was also historic for a variety of reasons, covered in the next letter.
• Clashes are ongoing between Arab tribes and the SDF in northeastern Syria, putting in doubt the American occupation there.
• The G20 happened in New Delhi. It did not go the way the Western powers had hoped, because the statement at the conclusion did not denounce the Russian intervention in Ukraine. The organization looks increasingly shaky, too. Thoughts and times are changing. To other news there, allegedly Trudeau (Canadian PM) and his staff who were present were a little snow-blind at the time. Of course, there is also the little matter of the Canadian allegations of the Indian assassination of a Sikh independence activist on Canadian soil – tit-for-tat potentially embarrassing allegations, maybe. Are either of these allegations important? Maybe they are, because they point to a growing rift between the West and India (maybe soon to rename itself Bharat).
• The anniversary of 9/11 (the NY 9/11. There was also one in Chile). The whole thing was covered up by Cheney and Co., with many things the American public was never told. Mossad knew about it beforehand.
• The 8th Eastern Economic Forum took place. There were about 7,000 attendees from across the Asia-Pacific region. Pepe Escobar gave a good rundown on the results of the forum. But the increasing activity of Russia in its far east goes to the following forecast for Russia’s future: “…her part lies more in the East than in the West, provided she follows the indicated lines.”^[12] What those ‘indicated lines’ are, we aren’t told.
• Huawei just produced an indigenous Chinese chip for its newest phone, the Mate 60 pro, sinking the Western tech sanctions against Chinese chip manufacturing, causing Apple to lose $200 billion in market share if the Chinese switch wholesale away from iPhones. This is also historic, for a variety of reasons. We will examine this further in a bit.
• There was fire in Nagorno-Karabakh again. The little region has since been returned to Azerbaijan. Russian peacekeepers in the region are evacuating the citizens there who want to leave. Pashilin, the Armenian PM, has sold out to the Western powers. He is a Soros fan. This was a covert effort by Washington in particular to disrupt the INSTC and weaken Russian influence in the Trans-Caucasus region. It has already failed in that respect. Georgia (the country) will be next. The concert of rapper Snoop Dogg will take place despite the surrender of Nagorno-Karabakh and mass rallies in Yerevan. (translate from Russian)
• The UN General Assembly met. Biden and Zelenskyy both spoke. Zelenskyy is being thrown under the bus, first by the NYT, then by the Polish PM and then by Lavrov and the Sep 20^th meeting of the UN Security Council. The latter gave a damning (and factual) assessment of American involvement and malfeasance in Ukraine (translate from Russian). Zelenskyy, Blinken and Kerry sat stone-faced during Biden’s speech at the meeting of the UN General Assembly. Zelenskyy is having a ‘bad moment’.
• Then, alas, Canada, meaning the government. No doubt you heard. But in case you haven’t, the Canadian Parliament recently gave loud applause and a standing ovation to a 98-yr-old ex-SS officer (a Galician Nazi) and war criminal, who fought against the Russians in Ukraine. Apparently the Canadian foreign office had not heard Canada and the USSR were allies at the time and tens-of-thousands of Canadians died fighting, well, Nazis. An academic uncovered the full story of this guy. The Poles may want this 98-yr-old extradited to Poland to face charges of war crimes. Canada, like the US, has a problem with the Nazi past. The man’s age may be a factor in terms of the Poles’ success with the extradition. It was a sort of ‘Ron Obvious’ moment for Trudeau, who tried to blame the incident on Russia. They knew who the guy was. Really, they did.
• Shoigu (Russian Defense Minister) has assessed he expects the war in Ukraine to last through next year (in Russian) and possibly into 2025. Don’t expect ‘shock-and-awe’ from the Russians. Nor can a cease-fire be expected. This war will be won by the steady attrition of Ukraine and NATO (in Russian) on the battlefield (Read the whole thing to get an idea of what the Russians have been doing all along, from a Russian perspective.) or a coup in Kiev that removes the nationalists and declares neutrality.
• A new guideline paper was released by China’s State Council, which outlines their vision for the future growth and development of China. The title of the paper is, “A Global Community of Shared Future: China’s Proposals and Actions”. We may as well start our expanded examination of events with this one, seeing as China has a Libran personality.

China’s vision for the future: If you want a title for government paper that extols Libran values, look no further than China’s new guideline paper just mentioned. For some time now most of us have heard the oft repeated phrase, “China is out to conquer the world.” History says otherwise. From an esoteric perspective China’s 1^st ray soul does not necessarily mean ‘go forth and conquer’. The rays and their placements for China, meaning the soul of the personality, are the first and the third rays. These are the same rays as those of the Jews^[13], with the same placement. In fact I’ve heard many times the Chinese being called ‘the Jews of the Orient’. It is a pejorative statement. Like the Jews however, the Chinese are very inclined to business. But, their astrology is different from that of the Jews. For China, the soul ruler is Taurus, which is about ‘the penetrating light of the path’,^[14] whereas for the Jews Virgo is their rising sign (see last month’s letter), indicating thie ancient origins, but also their Mercurial quality. Misused, that Mercurial quality lends toward people seeing the Jew as a trickster and thus as being untrustworthy, untrue as that often is. The personality sign for the Jews is Capricorn, leading them to be more interested in law and dominance, whereas for China the personality sign is Libra, with the emphasis being upon balance, cooperation, partnership and international law. Hence, we see the constant emphasis in Chinese diplomacy upon adhering to international law, which often runs counter to the rules-based order of the West. As an aside, the astrology for Paris, Australia and the Jews is the same – Virgo soul and Capricorn personality, which gives pause for thought regarding the materialism represented in those places and cultures. Africans in the Sahel have had enough of Parisian machinations, for instance.

If we know little about Russia, for instance, we know even less about China. That lack of knowledge is been by design, because if we were to actually study China and travel to China we would see a very different nation than what is described to us in the Western media. What would happen if we were to know the truth about China and its rise over the past 30 years, is that our demands would grow for our own governments in the West to cease their militarism and pay attention to the problems at home. In the Chinese guideline paper, the following paragraph stands out:

“There is no iron law that dictates that a rising power will inevitably seek hegemony. This assumption represents typical hegemonic thinking and is grounded in memories of catastrophic wars between hegemonic powers in the past. China has never accepted that once a country becomes strong enough, it will invariably seek hegemony. China understands the lesson of history – that hegemony preludes decline. We pursue development and revitalization through our own efforts, rather than invasion or expansion. And everything we do is for the purpose of providing a better life for our people, all the while creating more development opportunities for the entire world, not in order to supersede or subjugate others.”

What we actually hear about China in the Western press is more in the nature of the psychological projection of the Western elites, who would wish to control, or at least have a controlling interest in China’s finance and industrial sectors. This was the original hope for the Americans when they opened the door to normalization of relations with China under the Nixon administration. When the Americans discovered the Chinese had their own ideas about how to run their own country, China became the enemy. Now that the American elites and financiers have figured out that China has surpassed the US in the PPP measure and far surpasses the United States in industrial capacity, China has become enemy number one and must be curtailed, in Washington’s eyes. That has presented its own set of problems for the United States, because every time the US seeks to rein in China’s development somehow, they get the opposite result. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the current tech war. A topical example has been the release of the new Huawei phone, a clear competitor to the Apple iPhone, and every bit it’s equal, if not surpassing it in quality and capability, not to mention cost.

The US-Sino tech war: In what appears to be a tit-for-tat action, Beijing has banned state employees from using iPhones at work. Lawmakers and the Biden administration want to ban the use of TikTok on American phones. Apple lost between 3 – 5% of its stock value as a result with the release of a new phone. The reason? – Huawei presented its new cell phone, the Mate 60 Pro. The company’s Mate 60 Pro is powered by SMIC’s 7nm chips, according to analysis that TechInsights conducted for Bloomberg News. That’s a Chinese-made chip, domestically developed and produced, on a Chinese-made lithography machine. Now 7nm chips may not mean anything to most readers, but it represents a breakthrough in Chinese semiconductor manufacturing, as well as a blow to the sanctions the US and placed on semiconductor chips to China. What it means over the long-term, probably no more than a couple of years actually, is that China will be self-sufficient in every aspect of semiconductor manufacture. This is what sanctions actually do – they cause the sanctioned nation to become independent, provided the nation has the know-how.

China’s population is now over 1.4 billion people. These are highly educated, highly motivated (think first Ray) and very intelligent (think third ray) people, and China places a high value on technical education. What do we think is really going to happen regarding the competition between China and the entire Western world? China will no doubt and naturally surpass the United States in industry, technology, research and development, and so on. It would seem the better part of common sense to form cooperative efforts and exchanges with China than it would to try to control and conquer what is a very ancient civilizational state, one that has persisted uninterrupted for over 5000 years. There again is another manifestation of its first Ray, Taurean soul. India, too, is another such civilizational state with a first Ray soul. Neither one is out to conquer the world. One conclusion we can draw from the attitude presented by our Western leaders toward China is that they are clueless and stuck in their own exceptionalist bubble. Hopefully, that bubble will soon burst and we can approach international relations more sensibly, with common sense. Then there is economy.

Kassandras beware: Did you know the Chinese economy has been about to collapse for many years? It’s true – if you believe the Kassandras predicting China’s immanent failure. But Kassandra was the Trojan priestess gifted with truthful prophesies no one ever believed, right? True, except the people who fancy China’s economic collapse are only truthful in their own little world. Now, if China played by the West’s economic rules and based its economy in financial assets instead of manufacturing, then those prophets of doom might be on to something. All their prophecies about China’s demise are only wishful thinking, if not outright psychological projection, and probably a combination of both.

Losing the tech war: Here is something to consider, regarding Western decline. In the early 1960s the US was spending just under 12% of its GDP on research and development. Today that figure is not even 0.4%. The early ‘60s were America’s heyday as the world power in innovation and technology. We maintained that lead until the 1980s, thinking we were somehow always going to be the leader, and then outsourcing and downsizing took over. I remember it. By the end of the ‘80s just-in-time logistics trains and maximizing profits took the place of innovation. Since then we in the US have lost our mojo, as the saying goes and we have seen the steady decline in American standards of living. We have also begun to see other nations take our place as leaders in R&D and infrastructure, as well as living standards. As mentioned previously China has surpassed the US in the measure of PPP (how much ‘bang for the buck’ a nation’s wages exhibit). There is no longer any hope for the foreign policy people in the West to ‘rein in’ China. From the previous link:

“To maintain a technological edge over China, we will have to spend an additional several hundred billions of dollars, train a highly-skilled workforce, educate or import more scientists and engineers, and provide broader incentives to manufacturing. It is simply too late to try to suppress China. That is no longer within our power. What remains within our power is to restore American pre-eminence.”

That will take years. It will also mean cutting military spending. Oh, they will tell us we must cut social programs to afford such a thing. We have to protect our (corporate) interests abroad, you see? We can become a nation of elderly WalMart greeters and McDonalds employees with no bennies in order to catch up to and surpass China, working until we die, or just can’t any longer. Social Security? – well, we all have to make sacrifices. All for (the few) one and one for all (the 1%). You know the drill.

A parting word on the US: I mentioned our two friends from Italy at the start of this letter and the trip they were making to Australia in the US, noting also the culture shock they experienced when they landed in Los Angeles. The reason for bringing this up is because of the increasing difficulties the United States is facing. And in going into next year’s election circus, there will be copious efforts to paint a rosy picture for the Biden administration on what is happening across America, and in fact has been going on for at least the past 30 years. Mention was made in one of the bullet points about the migrant crisis in Europe, but the US is facing its own migrant crisis, across the Mexican border. Those migrants are going largely into the Democrat-controlled cities like Los Angeles and New York because those cities have programs set up to support and supposedly integrate the migrants into society. These people come to the United States because they have heard of the American dream, plus the fact that Washington has destabilized many of the countries of their birth over the years and the economic impact on them has been dire.

Especially for Mexicans, the growth and influence of the drug cartels in Mexico poses a clear and present danger, both to the Mexican government and to the US. Those drug cartels supply the drugs that an increasing number of Americans either depend upon or are dependent upon for their daily lives – drugs like fentanyl, opiate pain relief and so forth. I’m not exaggerating this. Anyone who lives in a major American city like Philadelphia, San Francisco, Los Angeles or New York, can more than likely attest of these facts. A recent post with videos illustrates the matter. That there is a migrant crisis in the US is beyond repute. Our American politicians have no business lecturing other countries. Yet, the heartland of America outside of the major cities is still very much alive, though struggling increasingly, calling on the soul of America to live up to its motto, “I light the way.”

The United States faces no external military threats. It is only the elites in the US who see the rise of China, Russia and other countries as threats – threats to their control of the world’s economy. We like to call that hegemony, but that’s what it amounts to. And the great truth has been spoken in the past: The love of money is the root of all evil. Well, that love of money is bringing the United States, and much of the Western world undone. I am not expecting dystopia by any means, but we will struggle increasingly in these next years while international relations balance themselves. Some Western nations will survive better than others, those with abundant natural resources, more willing to cooperate with non-Western nations. But so long as the financial capitalists rule the political orders in the West, things will go from bad to worse. The world outside the West is moving toward commodity-based economies with value-added. That means establishing manufacturing to add value to their resources, prior to those commodities being shipped abroad. This is what China has done, and what Russia is doing, which is growing their economies even in the midst of the current conflict. They raise the lot of their people in the process. Russia has surpassed Germany in terms of its PPP rating, for instance, making it the fifth largest economy in the world. So much for the G7. And neither Russia nor China attended the recent G20 summit, which speaks volumes. The G7 (Western and allied) nations are increasingly isolating themselves.

There is a certain indicator that forecasts the looming recession, and that is the bond market. Governments outside the United States are selling off their US treasury notes (bonds) and an increasing rate, which means the United States is going to be stuck with this debt. Fiat money, that is to say printed money based solely on trust instead of a commodity, will only take the US so far. As it stands now, permanent job losses are on the increase and rising sharply. Every time this happens, like it did in 2001, 2007 and 2020, these precede recessions in the United States. And as we know, whenever the US sneezes, the world catches cold. That has been the experience in the past. But now, with the rest of the world moving away from the US financial control, perhaps the next US sneeze will signal at the very least a nasty flu or even pneumonia for the United States, but not so much for the rest of the world. So, we see a battle between the US Federal Reserve, the treasury, though the politicians, the Biden administration in their efforts to maintain the economy, or at least the façade of a healthy economy, going into November of next year with the presidential election. There are increasing doubts now about Biden’s ability to even campaign through next year. But that too was another story. So many stories, so little time to write about them.

In conclusion: Our world for the past few years has been pretty stressful. Starting with lockdowns and COVID restrictions, with their ensuing financial impacts, those have caused many ruptures in relationships and hardships on families. Now we have inflation added to the mix, while the stimulus checks that people received during the pandemic are long gone. Financial speculation is risky now, home values are falling while mortgage payments are climbing, and the list goes on and on. And in Europe especially, the economic situation is going to be dark for the next few years. With all that stress in the world how are we to keep a calm outlook? Well, we go back to the description of the more esoteric side of Libra at the start of this letter, where the value of breath control was mentioned. There are breathing techniques that can reduce stress. More than that, they add to our energy, which we all need at the moment. There is the ‘box breath’ technique, for instance, as well as the 6-3-9 Meditation breathing for relaxation and digestion (parasympathetic nervous system). The 4-7-8 box breath is for anxiety release, whereas the 6-3-9 breath is more for pranayama and meditation. There are many breath control exercises, but if one is going to apply breathing to meditation the best advice is to receive guidance from an experienced meditation practitioner. Neither of the two methods mentioned are harmful if they are not overdone. Once the effect of calmness returning to the body and mind is achieved, then that is probably enough.

But perhaps the best breathing for strengthening and stress relief is done via practices such as chi gong and taiji, which are designed, through many centuries of practice and development, to do just that – add strength and reduce stress. Stress is literally a killer, as medical science has proven. It is a prime reason for drug abuse, too. On the other side, if your stress levels are too high, if anxiety keeps you up at night, then if you are able, aerobic exercise for 30 minutes a day for three or four days a week will serve to burn off the excess adrenaline, remembering the adrenal glands are connected with the kidneys. Of course one needs to have decent cardiovascular health to engage such exercise, but it works a charm. I can attest to its effectiveness. Then, after adrenaline levels have been reduced one can engage in the breathing exercises, if one is so inclined. The purpose of describing these techniques is to restore physical and emotional balance and to clear the mind. We all need clear heads and calm hearts going forward.

Libra, as the sign suggests, is the great balancer of the zodiac. When Libra is prominent in one’s chart, whether by Sun sign or rising sign, there is something of balance and repose to be sought during one’s lifetime. Libra is or could be called ‘the pause that refreshes’ of the zodiac. And sometimes by doing nothing, much is achieved. We all need that point of rest within our busy lives, and we’re not talking about sleep here. What we mean here is the presence of mind that comes from being able to sit in the midst – in the eye of the storm, or ‘eyeing’ the storm – of the warring forces around us, constantly seeking our attention or seeking to throw us off balance. Let us set aside time each day to realize such clarity and release our desires and the mind that constantly grasps after them. The Libra interval each year reminds us of that need, of that necessity in life. In our daily contemplation, let our way along the razor’s edge stand revealed.

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

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1. Bailey, Alice A., Esoteric Astrology, (1951) NY, NY, Lucis Publishing, p. 383 ↑
2. Bailey, The Rays and the Initiations, p. 405 ↑
3. Kaptchuk, Ted, The Web That Has No Weaver, (1983) New York, NY, Congdon and Weed, p. 62 ↑
4. Bailey, Esoteric Astrology, p. 517 ↑
5. Ibid, p. 251 ↑
6. Ibid, p. 228 ↑
7. Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, p. 1007 ↑
8. Ibid, p. 965 That page contains all the information about what the third eye is and its functions. ↑
9. Op cit, p. 966 ↑
10. For further information, see Appendix 7, in The Full Moons: Topical Letters in Esoteric Astrology, p. 604 ↑
11. Sorry. Couldn’t find a decent Van Halen version, but Joan Jett and the Struts do a good job with it. ↑
12. Bailey, The Destiny of the Nations, p. 85 ↑
13. Bailey, Esoteric Psychology I, p. 394 ↑
14. Bailey, Esoteric Astrology, p. 329 ↑