Chinese New Year 2023 — the Black Rabbit

Topics (Linked to paragraphs): A brief analysis of the chart Previous Black Rabbit years The main event for this year The year that just passed Ukraine update The Ukraine that existed Ukraine and the grift The danger of panic When will it finish? Reasoned or irrational? Patriotism and Russia JFK and Biden To Europe The need for destruction A few opened eyes A look ahead No time for monsters

Gong Hey Fat Choy Everyone!

Welcome to the Year of the Black Rabbit, also known as the Water Rabbit, or the “Rabbit Leaving the Forest”. Welcome as well to the emerging new world, struggling to be born, as the old order struggles with its demise. If the quote at the start appears unnerving, it is only to point out the old order lashes out as its power ebbs, and many morbid manifestations appear. It is all part of the process of the emerging world and nothing fearful is to be seen in it. There are no monsters under the bed. They are all in our heads. We start this letter with the chart info, a quick analysis and then we will get to the forecast for 2023. The Four Pillars chart is below:

A brief analysis of the chart shows this to be a double-bright year, meaning the lunar year begins before and ends after February 4^th, the li chun. Li chun is the first solar term in the Chinese solar calendar, of which there are 24. BaZi practitioners do their forecasts from the li chun each year, BaZi being based in the solar calendar. Why use the lunar date and calendar for forecasts then? We do so here because we are looking at the lunar cycle, especially more esoterically, given that the usual letters sent from this site are based on the full moon of each month. We also do so because the New Year celebrations in the East are based in the lunar cycle. It is a small matter, but it is worth noting. The Animal Sign for the year will be the same, but for people born ‘in the crack of the year’ – from the start of the lunar year if it starts before the li chun, their animal sign in BaZi (Four Pillars) will be the sign for the year just passing. For BaZi practitioners, the animal sign for the year changes at the li chun instead of the new moon of Aquarius. What does this have to do with double-bright years, though?

Chinese years are of four types regarding ‘brightness’ – double-blind, blind, bright and double-bright. Double-blind years start after the li chun and end before the successive li chun, and so on. Last year was a ‘bright’ year because the lunar New Year started before the li chun but ended before the next li chun. Double-bright years are said to be very auspicious, and vice-versa for double-blind years. And for the Far East – East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East – this Year of the Rabbit does indeed look promising, for reasons we will outline as we go along here. This auspiciousness is variable, though, according to what is found in the Four Pillars, dependent largely upon the Hour and Day Pillars. For the Far East, we see a double Tiger emphasis. Four famous people were born with two Tiger Pillars^[2] – Germaine Greer, Recep Erdoğan, Jimmy Hoffa and Richard Branson. All four of those people are/were powerful personalities, each of them resolute in the pursuit of their goals and for the most part good strategists, as one would expect from Tigers. That said, one might argue Jimmy Hoffa had a strategy that eventually brought him undone. The reasons for the latter are to be seen in his Four Pillars and so forth, which we will not go into here. The main point here is that this year will be one of major strategic moves by the nations of the Far East. Japan, the Koreas, China and Indonesia are of particular interest in that regard, which will be touched upon later here.

The next item of note is the relation between the Rabbit (year) and Tiger (month), which form a natural pair – that of Expansion, with the Tiger representing authority and the Rabbit that of diplomacy. Put another way, the strategy of the Tiger results in the need for diplomacy later. We can readily see where such a description fits today, with increasing calls by nations of the world for a negotiated end to the conflict in Ukraine. We will be discussing that later here.

The Day Pillar in any BaZi chart is important and in this case is the Metal Dragon, one of the five Day Master Virtue Stars, contributing a more compassionate tone to the year, with increasing fortunes (again, especially for the Far East), steady progress and blessings in disguise. The Day Pillar in mundane charts represents leaders and leadership. The Metal Dragon is also known by the poetic name the ‘Dragon of Patience’, showing fortitude and the ability to resist. The situation is quite different for the US and Europe, for whom the Day Pillar is the Earth Rabbit and the Year Pillar remains the Water Tiger. The Tiger year with the Rabbit Day forms a ‘Deceased God’ combination, indicating frivolous legal matters and losses in general. The Yin Earth of the West’s Day Master set against the Dragon of the East’s Day Branch is a combination known as ‘Red Envy’, where passions will be running high in the West, along with the tendency to be frivolous in relationships, affairs and many relations, all of them short-term. This describes how the leadership of the West behaves toward the East for this year.

The term ‘Red Envy’ is quite descriptive with regard to the preceding. Even though the Earth Rabbit is one of the ‘Noble Stars’, it is beset by problematic relations with the other three pillars for the Western lunar New Year. This is particularly so for the United States, which has the Monkey in the Hour Pillar – a combination known as ‘Tragic Robbery’ – giving a strong tendency to intrigue and scheming, along with losses, noting we are talking about Western leadership here instead of the people. There is much we could say here, but this brief analysis sets a general theme: The East will be moving forward with patient resolve via its leadership, while the West will be facing increasing difficulties, missteps and mishaps. With the West we include the western vassals of the Far East – Japan, Taiwan and South Korea – although the combined futures of those three should be rather self-evident, given their proximity to Russia and China. Australia and New Zealand, also tied to the US hip, will go the way of the combined West for the immediate future. Possibilities exist there, though, again through geographic proximity and close interaction with neighboring states over the years. Both of those nations, being part of the Anglo-Saxon ancestry, find it difficult to distance themselves from the US/UK axis, or influence if you want to call it that.

Previous Black Rabbit years: The following were the main events of past Black Rabbit years of which we see echoes today:

• 1963: De Gaul vetoes the UK’s entry into the European Common Market, Yugoslavia declares itself to be a socialist state, Kennedy is assassinated (and the resulting cover-up), the Organisation of African Unity is established, Kennedy’s  Executive Order 11110 authorizing the issue of silver certificates (an alternative currency), establishment of the Moscow–Washington hotline, MLK’s “I have a dream” speech, ratification of the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, naval patrols of the South China Sea began, France and West Germany sign the Élysée Treaty.
• 1903:  Cuba leases Guantánamo Bay to the United States “in perpetuity”, Germany and Italy reach a settlement with Venezuela resulting in the Washington Protocols, The Ford Motor Company is founded, state militia called in to break up the Cripple Creek miners’ strike, the Wright brothers’ first powered flight
• 1843: Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement in the United States, receives a revelation recommending polygamy, The Economist newspaper is first published in London, The city of Shanghai opens for trade with foreigners for the first time, the Kingdom of Hawaii is occupied in the name of Great Britain
• 1783: Great Britain acknowledges the independence of the United States, The Crimean Khanate is annexed by the Russian Empire, The Montgolfier brothers publicly demonstrate their montgolfière hot air balloon at Annonay, France; “the greatest environmental catastrophe in European history“, Georgia (nation in the Caucasus) became a protectorate of Russia, Peace of Paris (ending the American Revolutionary War), the American Continental Army is disbanded, the city of Sevastopol is founded on the Crimean Peninsula
• 1723: Russo-Persian War: Baku surrenders to the Russians

There are common themes with today in the events just listed, as we note: Russian victories involving eastern Ukraine, Latin American relations with the West, alternative currency, trade with China, environmental disasters, Western leadership called into question, European unity and the ‘nuclear problem’, which will probably receive attention later this year. In addition we see with the above consolidation of African nations in common interests, tensions in the South China Sea, troublous race relations in the US, the question of sexual mores, and experiments in flight. In fact with the latter, it was in a Black Rabbit year when humanity was first able to float above the earth in one of our own inventions. It was also a scientific achievement because it used the newly discovered principle of the specific gravity of air at different temperatures and altitudes to affect their balloon flights.

The main event for this year involves a cyclic return of issues regarding far-western Russian peoples, as in Crimea and the four oblasts recently returned to Russia. This isn’t to argue legality but simply to point to the events. Baku may be ‘surrendering’ to the Russians again, too, (actually, joining in a consortium in trade with its neighbors, with strong Russian involvement) regarding developments in trade corridors in the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea, especially related to energy. Azerbaijan was one of the birthplaces of the oil industry.

We see troubles with the US presidency again, described later, fractures in European relations, ongoing between France and the UK, the rapid development of an alternative currency and financial exchange mechanism to the US dollar in the BRICS+ organization (we will be talking about Brazil in the next letter as well as all the economic developments), and so on, all of which we will summarize at the end of this letter as a look ahead. But to get to that place, we need a look at last year to give us a basis for what is ongoing and evolving. These 60-year cycles are the combined result of the orbital and subjective (ray) cycles of Jupiter. The orbital cycle is related to the 12 ‘Animal signs’ of the Chinese zodiac – actually, the 12 phases of the cycle subdivided into 12. That 12-year cycle is the Chinese ‘Great Year’. The subjective cycle of five years is a minor subset of a much longer 500 or 5000 year ray cycle of Jupiter, which transmits the 2^nd ray. The five years correspond to the Oriental system of Five Elements – Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. These represent specific types of transformation. Every Animal Sign thus has five modes of transformation: 12 animals times Five Elements = 60 pairs. Thus, every 60 years a cycle repeats. The events do not exactly correspond due to human evolution, but they do ‘rhyme’. Thereby, with this system we have represented for us the expansion of human consciousness (Jupiter, the ‘Wood Planet’) with the corresponding events. With that in mind, we take a brief look back.

The year that just passed – the Year of the Black Tiger, the ‘Tiger Crossing the Forest’ – fully lived up to its reputation, and then some. We do not need to go back over the specific events, though we will have a look at the conflict in Ukraine later here and the economic World War in the next letter. Those events have been in our faces from the end of February. Instead we look back at the motto for that particular Tiger, followed by some reflections:

• “There are many hidden perils in leaving the present situation. Circumspection is the order of the day. This can be a perilous time. The ability to divine the future and distant worlds.”
• Then for the day: “All things cast off their obscuring wrappings…Recovering from small mistakes, the wise one always learns.”

It should be clear, if it is not already, 2022 was a year that marked a decisive turning point in the geopolitical chessboard. Consider the following:

“It is a constant of History: changes are rare, but sudden. Those who bear the brunt of them are generally the last to see them coming. They perceive them only too late. Contrary to the static image that prevails in the West, international relations have been turned upside down in 2022, mainly to the detriment of the United States, the United Kingdom and France, often to the benefit of China and Russia. With their eyes riveted on Ukraine, Westerners do not perceive the redistribution of the cards.”

The quote refers mainly to our Western governing elites. The Western ‘elites’ (rabble-rousers would be more appropriate) are facing checkmate in their plans. Seeing they cannot admit defeat, which would be the wise thing to do, they must make their moves until ‘the King’ (Western hegemony) is knocked off the board, using the chess analogy. On the 24th of February, just after the start of last year, the Russians ‘crossed the forest’ into Ukraine, marking a perilous time, but at the same time, with all parties’ reactions/responses giving us the ability to get a glimpse a bit ahead as to what is unfolding – to ‘divine the future and distant worlds’. That future world in all likelihood will be multipolar, with increasing sovereignty for every nation. It is taking shape rapidly with the nations outside the Western orbit, is cooperative and involves a restructuring of the financial order, away from US/UK dominance. Since it involves cooperation instead of competition (although that is there, but on friendlier terms), it is for that reason we will look at those developments in the Aquarius letter, out in about a week. With this in mind, we look at the main event that will underpin this year – the conflict in Ukraine.

Ukraine update: Regarding geopolitics for this year, there are two coinciding and interconnected events that underlie all the major geopolitical events that we will see for this Black Rabbit Year – the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and the economic World War that is taking place, which used the former as a precipitating casus belli. The bulk of this letter will focus on the conflict in Ukraine. To have an idea of what is coming for the year, it is essential we understand what has been and is taking place there. There are many and interesting Aquarian-type initiatives taking place outside of the Western media firestorm regarding the rest of the world, initiatives we hear very little about, except in the negative in Western legacy media. From here, though, we move on the main topic of this letter. To start, as stated, the conflict in Ukraine was the vehicle used to precipitate the economic war, both of them instigated by Western powers. And in reality, the current conflict in Ukraine is but one aspect of several wars.

To preface what follows, anyone who thinks the present conflict in Ukraine was ‘an unprovoked, brutal aggression by the Russians against the peace-loving democracy of Ukraine’ is either badly misinformed or is peddling dangerous propaganda. To the Russians, their ‘take’ on this war, deeply embedded in their collective psyche over the past centuries, wherein they have been invaded several times by Western powers, is the present conflict is existential. They must win or there will be no future for Russia. To the Russians they are fighting this war against the collective West, meaning Western elites – NATO specifically. To the collective West, Russia must be defeated or hegemony is lost. For the EU, Russia must be defeated or the bloc will lose political capital and become a backwater. But that is just the side show. The main goal for Washington in particular is to ‘contain’ (i.e. be able to control) China. But to do that, Russia must be weakened and/or broken up, seeing both nations are now joined together in strategic goals, just short of a military alliance. Then there is the economic war for control over the world’s finances and resources. In all of these conflicts, the West is pursuing an ‘Own goal’, which has been covered in previous letters.

The next six months in Ukraine are likely to prove to be crucial, for many reasons. This goes in line with Mars out-of-bounds as described in the planetary indicators for the year, increasing its force and its unpredictability. To the ancient Chinese, Mars was a fearsome presence: “The man who rules men’s destinies surely fears it.”^[3] If you live in the West and do not read foreign news sources or follow independent media, the statements to follow will seem to be from another reality. In fact, what follows is another reality – one closer to the truth of what is happening under our noses. The links that follow will take you to many of those sources. To begin, there has long been a plan by Washington and London, along with a few other Western powers, to carve up Russia. The Western powers want Russia ‘out of the way’, subservient, compliant, available for plunder and with the resulting statelets warring among themselves. Behind all the propaganda and media spin, that plan lies at the core of the war in Ukraine. Ukraine is being used as the cudgel to affect that end, short of the Western powers putting their own people in harm’s way. To put Western leadership in the spotlight regarding this conflict, then, theirs is a cowardly war, because they know if they officially tried to commit their own troops to the fight against the Russians their political careers would be over rather quickly. The Western public has no stomach for going up against Russia. And in fact, NATO has flatly stated there are no plans for NATO troops to be involved in the conflict, at least not publicly. But Ukraine has been a de facto NATO state since the Maidan coup of 2014. Merkel, Hollande and Poroshenko have all recently admitted the Minsk Accords were a ruse in order to buy Ukraine time to build up its military to the point where it could be fielded against Russia. The genesis of the current escalated conflict in Ukraine thus goes way back. Certain statements about Ukraine are in order here.

The Ukraine that existed prior to 2014 has been a divided society, between many factions but primarily between the Russian-speaking eastern oblasts and the nationalist western oblasts, the ones farthest west once having been part of Poland – Galician Ukraine. Once the nationalists factions, backed primarily by the US, UK and Germany, overthrew the Lukashenko government, the nationalists instigated a civil war in that nation, seeking to wipe away any Russian influence. Looking back to our bullet points preceding, we see Crimea has been Russian and Russian-speaking since 1783. That year was one of profound change in the world order, noting the other events for that year. The American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War sent shockwaves through Europe and led to the fall of European monarchies and the emergence of the modern European states. The Russian victory in this war (and it is coming) will likewise send another shock through Europe, leading to the end of the present European order via the EU in Brussels, or at the very least the end of many of the technocratic leaders in most EU nations. But what of Ukraine?

Ukraine and the grift: There is no nice way to put this: The Ukrainian people have been duped by the West, seduced by their desire for and the lure of neoliberal capitalism, of riches, of membership in the EU and NATO. Then too, especially the western part of Ukraine wanted to put the Soviet era behind them, which is understandable. But NATO expansion was a red line for Moscow and eventually sealed Ukraine’s fate. The Western powers, especially the US, UK and Germany have used and are using Ukraine in a shameful, shocking and criminal manner in order to weaken and hopefully dismantle the ‘Putin regime’, to either carve up (Balkanize) the Russian Federation or install another Yeltsin-like puppet in Moscow, the West would hope. The latter is pure fantasy on the part of Western leaders. Russians will never accept another Yeltsin. As a result of the conflict and the resulting propaganda blitz against Russia, the Russian public has become hardened against the Western governments and largely united under the current leadership. What the West would get if Putin were to step down now would be a hardliner and nationalist leader – someone even less to Europeans’ liking than Putin’ (see the topic at the link, Coda: A Note about Coups.)

What we see with the West and Ukraine is analogous to a bully sending one of his minions to do his dirty work, hoping his target will be weakened to the point the bully can step in and have his way with his victim. The minion is inconsequential, one who may suffer grievously at the hands of the intended victim. The end goal is the important factor to the bully. But what if the intended victim is of equal or greater ability and strength to the bully? Well, this is what we are seeing now in Ukraine. The West, especially the US and UK are calling for the fight to be ‘down to the last Ukrainian’ in order to weaken Russia. The Ukrainian nationalists on the other hand tell the world’s and their own publics they are fighting for their homeland, initially inspiring Ukrainian patriotic spirit. Now the troops sent to the front lines are starting to see the grift and that they have been lied to. Some of them are vowing vengeance against Kiev. We have discussed the ignorance and hubris of the leaders in the West pushing this war in past letters (here and here), so we will leave that for this letter. Instead, it is useful to know just what the objectives are for each of the actors in this drama, which we can tabulate, below, keeping in mind these points are regarding the leaders of these groups:

Notice there is no mention on the Russian side of taking territory. The Russians have no desire to occupy Ukrainian territory. Russia is the size of South America. Any Ukrainian territory that votes to return to Russia will be allowed to do so, but as far as ‘conquering’ territory and holding it, that is not the aim of the Russian forces. As to pushing back NATO (if NATO survives this conflict), that would be an essential part of a comprehensive European security agreement. Those NATO states would agree to the pullback. The necessity to do so would be so clear as to be unavoidable. As to what is to happen in the immediate months ahead, the media sphere is full of speculation. A little thought may prove revealing, looking at events thus far. So, we can add our own speculation here.

Poland has expressed its desire to reclaim Galician Ukraine as Polish territory, which would mean a NATO state officially entering Ukrainian territory. They are calling up 200,000 troops for training and exercises this year. That reclamation is unacceptable to the Russians, at least now, as it would mean a further push eastward by NATO, the very thing they are fighting against. As a result, we see a massive build-up of Russian forces on Ukraine’s northwest border and on the Polish border. This looks like and could be an invasion force. But it could also be serving other purposes, as in a deterrent to Polish plans, as in consolidating the Russo-Belorussian Union State, or it could even be in the nature of a feint, like we saw early in the conflict with the 40-mile long Russian column north of Kiev. The most important consideration in this regard is the factor of panic in the halls of the Western powers.

The danger of panic: If a large Russian force suddenly crosses into west Ukraine, cutting off Kiev from Lvov in the west, then the threat of some drastic move by NATO dramatically increases. Such an invasion force would panic Europe. One of the biggest reasons Russia has moved so slowly in this conflict is because they are instituting ‘escalation management’, that is to say, not panicking the Europeans, pursuing their objectives while at the same time attriting Ukraine and NATO, and also at the same time giving themselves time to bring their own forces to full potential and modernization. If there is to be a major offensive it will be to finally clear the four restored Russian regions (which is how the Russians see those four oblasts) and secure them. Even now Ukrainian forces are able to bomb the city of Donetsk, and civilian areas at that. Stopping that is priority-one for the Russians. All the while, the Russo-Belorussian combined forces stand as a deterrent while they consolidate the armed forces of the Union State. There are many factors in play here and war is an unpredictable animal. If there are to be negotiations, the conflict has to be carefully managed. Russia controls the conflict, a thing no Western media pundit or desktop general will dare to admit. The Western powers must be given an ‘out’ they can sell to the public as a ‘win’. It would be something along the lines of “the brave Ukrainian army stopped Russian aggression in Ukraine. Europe is saved!” It would be lie, but one the pundits could sell to much of the public. But it would not solve Europe’s problems, and perhaps even make them worse, because they would still be chained to the US, via NATO. NATO would be seen as even more necessary to a panicked European elite.

At some point in this conflict will come an ‘Odessa moment’, recently described by Scott Ritter, who also outlined the scenario just preceding. It is the moment when the Western powers realize all is lost in their plans for Ukraine, and will probably revolve around the Russians completing a land bridge to Transnistria in Moldova, likely to happen this year. That means Odessa would fall to the Russians. It would cut off rump Ukraine from the Black Sea, which would be a terrible result for all concerned, really. How would Ukraine ship its grain, for instance? Then, the role of the Black Rabbit as diplomat will kick in. At that point we will see – or not – if the West is serious about addressing Russian concerns. But to get to that point the conflict has to drag on to the point of Western exhaustion. If not, then the conflict will continue until the Russians are satisfied they have destroyed enough of Ukraine’s armed forces, military infrastructure and NATO equipment and when there is enough of a buffer between what is left of Ukraine and the new Russian regions. These are hard statements, but military analyses from people who actually have a clue dismiss the notion those ‘new’ regions ever being vacated by Russia. We say ‘new’ because those regions have been Russian for two centuries at least. But we are not close to the ‘Odessa moment’ yet. Western illusions, hubris and ignorance continue.

Meanwhile internal splits are occurring among the higher-ups in Kiev. The recent Russian missile that destroyed a building in Dniepro that was paraded across Western TV screens as a Russian war crime turned out to be the result of Ukrainian air defences which shot the Russian missile down, whereupon it landed on the building, destroying it. The building was not the target. The reason we know this is because the Ukrainian propaganda minister Arestovych told us. He was forced to resign for his truthfulness (there was video of the aftermath of the incident) and he was duly placed on the Myrotvorits ‘kill list’ site. He now lives with a target on his back. Then, there was a helicopter crash where the Ukrainian Interior Minister, his deputy and several other senior officials was allegedly shot down with a MANPAD, meaning he would have been targeted by his own forces. Seems he had accumulated a trove of evidence showing the huge graft and grift that is taking place among the higher-ups in the Zelenskyy regime. The crash was not usual, nor the personnel on the flight. Where was the group headed, and so on? Such splits as these betray people are planning their exit strategies and events go from bad to worse for the regime. There are rumors that a ‘redistribution’ and purges are taking place in the Interior Ministry as a result of the crash of the deaths of those officials, which would only go to confirm that not all is roses in Kiev.

When will it finish?: To finish this piece, recent comment by the Finnish PM at the Davos WEF was “We don’t know when the war will end, but we have to make sure that the Ukrainians will win. I don’t think there’s any other choice.” Also at Davos this year, Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Canadian PM and WEF board member stated “Ukraine’s victory in the war against Russia this year will be a huge boost to the global economy…” Then, there was Stoltenberg at the WEF: “Weapons are the way to peace,” he said, “what happens around the negotiating table is totally dependent on the strength on the battlefield. And if we want Ukraine to prevail, then they need the military strength.” Weapons are the way to peace? These people are delusional. They live in their own reality, divorced from ours. There is another choice – to sit down with the Russians and address their security concerns, working out a comprehensive European security agreement inclusive of Russia as an active participant and guarantor, and probably absent the United States. Therein lies the problem. The Straussian (neocon) factions populating the Biden administration will try their hardest to prevent any such agreement. Therefore, there will be no armistice, no ‘Korean solution’ (as in a DMZ in Ukraine) no half-measures by the Russians. What they demand now is Ukrainian capitulation.

Reasoned or irrational?: In a recent conversation with Iranian scholar Mohammad Marandi, who was on the Iranian negotiating team for the JCPOA, he recalled a conversation with Alastair Crooke, bemoaning the intransigence and unreasonable stance the Western negotiators were taking, wherein Crooke told him the leadership in the US and Europe was irrational (video. The whole thing is excellent), with their foreign policy driven solely by their emotions. It is self-evident in the various factional dealings with Russia, China, Iran and so forth. Mention Iran or China to a Republican and the hatred is immediately called forth. It is the same regarding Democrats and Russia. There is no rhyme and especially no reason to it. But such is the case. So, these people feel that Ukraine must win the war, while at the same time they can see the Russians are moving forward, but it is impossible for our elites to accept. Their emotional investment in the outcome leaves no room for any other conversation to enter, hence the level of censorship we see in Western media. Where does that leave Russia, in such a case? If Russia must lose, to what lengths will the Western leadership push is?

Patriotism and Russia: The Russian public will accept nothing short of a Russian victory and the capitulation of Ukraine. Alas, at some point this conflict will end, probably this year as events are unfolding. The alleged Russian winter offensive is already ramping up. But once the fighting in Ukraine ceases, the economic war will continue, and probably for the next few years. There is a growing chorus of voices who want to see the war come to a close, but also to see an end to the American-led war machine, echoed on a recent blog post:

“A lot of the people who comment on this blog seem to me to be patriotic Americans. And, it’s clear, if you read the comments, that many of them – probably the majority – want Russia to win the war. This is not because they like Putin or Russia particularly, and certainly not because they’re on the “Putin payroll”. Not at all. These people understand what is really at stake.

These are people who know that the American war party (one of many names – deep state, borg, neocons, one percent, MICIMAC) is responsible for pushing Russia to the decision that it made last February. That it is the war party that expanded NATO despite the promises, that arms Ukraine, that encourages the fanatics driving that country, that blocks all routes to a peaceful settlement, that encourages Kiev to squander the lives of its people. But what really concerns these patriotic Americans is the damage the war party has done to their country.”

Bolding added. We can count European nations and peoples among those voices, contrary to their own belligerent governments. MICIMAC (sic) is the acronym for the Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-Media-Academic-Think-Tank (MICIMATT) complex in the US, an acronym coined by Ray McGovern, retired CIA analyst-turned-dissident. There is a podcast where he explains it all. What Americans really want to see, and I include myself here, is the MICIMATT broken up and scattered to the four winds, like JFK allegedly threatened to do in the last Black Rabbit year. That would have been a factor contributing to his assassination, no doubt, along with the fact he made a lot of powerful enemies through his policies. We cannot go into that here, as it is off-topic. But it does bring another cyclic turn, discussed next. When the MICIMATT goes, we will probably see peace breaking out everywhere. Yes, many of us have that dream, echoing MLK’s famous speech, also from 1963.

JFK and Biden: There are different types of assassination – actual, and character assassination, to name the two most common forms. Biden faces the latter type this year. Why, we might ask? Recently there were two tranches of top secret documents found in two separate locations in Biden’s offices. Why they weren’t destroyed when he left office is a mystery. He also cannot declassify them, or at least while he was still VP, when they were taken. It is embarrassing for the White House, putting it mildly. They were discovered by aides over two months ago (midterms, you see?) and were made public while the Republicans were busy trying to find a Speaker of the House. Why now, though, and what does it mean? The obvious answer for more conspiratorial people would be the documents are to be used as blackmail, or to keep Biden with the program – that is, defeating Russia and ‘countering China’. Now we see the White House is ‘warming to the idea’ of sending loner-range munitions to Ukraine so Ukraine can strike Crimea, whereas a week ago they were balking at the idea. Of course speculation is rife about the documents and their intended effects. At the very least it would appear there is a faction in Washington who does not want to see another term of the presidency for Biden. And as it turns out, these documents – Biden-gate, anyone? – fit with Biden’s astrology, outlined in a blog post a couple of years ago. If it is true the powers behind the throne want Biden out of office, then watch to see which Democrats throw their hats in the ring for the next Presidential election in 2024.

To Europe: In the last letter we had a couple of quotes from Alastair Crooke, retired British ambassador. All of his writings are worth the time to seek out. Referencing back to the comments about Marandi, Iran and the JCPOA, above, what is about to happen in Ukraine is going to severely test the elite commentariat in the EU and UK. The populace of the various European states are increasingly coming to the conclusion they are being lied to about Ukraine, there being increasing mistrust of the narrative they have been handed over the past few years, starting with COVID and now with Ukraine. Thus we see the work that austerity induces in people’s thinking. Recalling the Western elites are irrational and that they live in their own private echo chamber, Crooke has the following comments about their actions regarding Ukraine, emphases added:

“The EU wraps the Ukraine into a fantasy of a like-minded democratic state struggling for its independence against an overweening ‘big brother’. This is nonsense. Ukraine is ethnically, linguistically, culturally and affiliationally divided. It is in midst civil war. It has been in civil war for decades. Tens of thousands dead. Simply to pretend that this fundamental fact does not impinge on any ceasefire framework is ridiculous. The armed nationalist siege lines are arrayed within rocket range of those northern (culturally Russian) civilian cities (such as Donetsk) the radical nationalists wish to conquer and subdue.”

Firstly, there will be no ceasefire, only the terms for Ukraine’s surrender dictated by the Russians. That Ukraine must surrender and there will be no negotiations has been made abundantly clear in the past few weeks. This is because President Biden…aims to fight it until Russia’s destruction, as do Olaf Scholz, Andrzej Duda, Vladimir Zelensky, Giorgia Meloni and Emmanuel Macron. Like the European princelings and principates who fought each other to standstill and penury the last time around [the 30 Years’ War], none of them has long to look forward to, and certainly no victory-in-Europe parade.”

We can add Rishi Sunak to that list, too. Giorgia Meloni’s approach to this conflict has been particularly disappointing, from an Italian perspective. She should focus instead on domestic policy, where much work is needed. But we are told by our Western leaders we are fighting for freedom, democracy and so forth, all nice words. What is left unsaid and which is increasingly coming into the consciousness of the public is that we in the West have been living under the influence of our own home-grown dictatorships for many years – the dictatorship of organised business in the US, and in the UK, the dictatorship of empire, the sentiment still extant among British elites^[4] – these two being the main drivers of the current conflict. In that regard, we have the following thought for the US and UK, then the EU by extension:

“There has been, and there still is, much to destroy before the nations are reduced to the point where they will become sensitive to the new vision, and able to recognise their need of each other.” ^[5]

The need for destruction: This conflict is part of that process of destruction. We would think the horrors and destruction of the World Wars would have awakened Europe to its interdependence with Russia and other nations, but that was nipped in the bud by the institution of NATO across Europe, old colonial attitudes, the influence of Big Money coming from the US and European elitist fears of communism. Illustrative of this destruction has been the current meeting of the WEF crowd at Davos: It has suddenly and quickly (in the past few years) lost its influence and significance. An indication of that loss of influence is there are no real leaders at Davos this year (video). And the Chinese and Russians are absent. Modi is not there. Not even Bill Gates is present. Of course there was the obligatory online speech by Zelenskyy barracking for more weapons, but even that is falling flat, with no agreement between NATO allies about sending even a few tanks to Ukraine, which would only delay the inevitable outcome anyway.

The Germans want the US to ‘man-up’ and send American Abrams tanks, while the Americans give the excuse that their tanks are too complicated and expensive to maintain. The message Davos sends this year is the leadership outside of Europe and the US is moving on. Davos was instrumental in seeking to set up a federation of Europe, which the EU represents. Now Davos and the people there this year are openly mocked in commentary, even in the West. The Great Reset is dead in the water. The Great Narrative as well, and the talk there this year was all about Ukraine – desperation. We should probably keep a wary eye on those people, but for the most part they can be increasingly ignored as the major movers and shakers in the world, and even in the West. Macron was there, for instance and now we see massive protests across France. Macron wants to raise the retirement age a couple of years, citing lack of funds, yet he also wants to pour money into France’s ‘defense’ budget. The French people are not happy, naturally.

Regarding the destruction in nations, the closest the US came to such destruction was during the period of its own civil war in the 19^th century. The ‘recognition of the need of each other’ (from the preceding quote), instead, we see in the rapidly growing cooperation among the nations of the Global South – the ‘non-West’. Many of those nations have already undergone the suffering and destruction of their societies and often as a result of the interference of the old colonial powers of the West, then the activities of the US and UK post-WWII. But why must there be destruction before we wake up to our interdependence as nations and people’s? Can we not simply choose to cooperate with each other? Such is the dream of the peoples of the world. But then we recognize the overarching dictatorships under which we live, how they control the media, the information, we receive, the supply of goods, etc., etc. It is these aforementioned dictatorships which must be destroyed, or splintered into so many factions they can no longer organize. And then, once done, great vigilance must be brought to bear in order that new ones do not take their place. Power vacuums are the breeding ground of dictatorships. Given all this, what has been revealed to us in 2022?

A few opened eyes: Going back to the aphorisms associated with last year, we recall: “The ability to divine the future and distant worlds.” and “All things cast off their obscuring wrappings.” Here are just a few things revealed to us last year. There were many more:

• Twitter censorship, and across social media, and the mechanism (The Twitter files)
• Western support for fascism and Nazis
• The truth about Ukraine
• Truths about COVID and vaccines
• Truth about Germany’s intentions
• Truth about American intentions
• Many truths about our leadership in the West
• The hypocrisy of our leadership when they speak of our need to uphold our ideals
• The fragility of our Western economies
• The fact that Russia is respected in the wider world and is hardly the basket case or evil empire it is portrayed as being
• Our level of interdependence, especially regarding nations our elites dislike
• The level of hatred and fear that drives Western foreign policy, in distinction to common sense and goodwill

Any one of the points just listed would fill a separate paper. We will leave them here as seed for thought. Given all the preceding, daunting or crazy as it might sound, what are we looking at going forward for this year?

A look ahead: Firstly, as outlined above, the conflict in Ukraine must be brought to a close. The ‘Stalingrad moment’ (turning point of the conflict) is happening right now in Bakhmut, where Ukraine is suffering horrendous losses. Lloyd Austin has echoed the point in the NATO meeting at Ramstein, saying, “This is a decisive moment for Ukraine, in a decisive decade for the world.” He was right about that. Now NATO wants the Ukrainians to withdraw and rebuild for a ‘spring offensive’. It is wishful thinking and the major fighting will probably be finished by then anyway. The rest of his speech was more repeated narrative. However, once the fighting is finished then negotiations can take place to reopen supply chains and make peace between the West and Russia. This latter idea is the role of the Black Rabbit. The last such year (1963) resulted in détente after the Cuban Missile Crisis shook the world. The first half of this year will likely be devoted to finishing the conflict in Ukraine. The second half will be devoted to negotiations.

Aside from Ukraine, give their present trajectories we will see firming of relations between the Chinese and Russian diplomatic initiatives relative to Africa and South America. BRICS will be expanded to become BRICS+. From the US side, the MICIMATT will try its hardest to keep us all afraid of any of a number of things by creating imaginary monsters (referring to the lead quote of this letter) – climate, ‘autocratic states’, ‘Russian aggression’, diseases, economy and so forth – all the usual talking points. Regarding the supposed Russian aggression against Europe (there isn’t any, quite the reverse) if the elites in Europe and the US can pull it off, Europeans will be convinced of the need for more NATO. It would be a terrible result for Europe, because it would mean increases in military spending, about which the French and Germans have stated, at the expense of states, loss of sovereignty and unsustainable costs for the average consumer. If there was a comprehensive security agreement with Russia there would be no need for rearmament and Europe could then focus on its various societies. In that regard then, we can expect more sudden trips from US State Department officials to the various European capitals who begin to question the need for rearming and even for NATO. This may seem like a dream at the moment, but the public wants to see less NATO. I hear this from clients all the time here in Italy, and we see it in anti-NATO protests in Europe, rarely if ever reported in the mainstream media.

In Ukraine we can probably expect more regions (oblasts) to begin to question their allegiance to Kiev as the conflict begins to wind down. The fighting is picking up pace now, again unreported, and soon that will take place in flat, open ground, not easily defended. Expect a great many changes in the immediate future out of Ukraine, and not to Western elites’ liking.

New currencies are emerging, reported on in the Aquarius letter (next), currencies based in commodities. This will send big shocks through Wall Street, Washington and the City of London, the home bases of financial capitalism. Temporarily, Europe will become more divided as the blowback from EU and US sanctions has become ineffective and cost prohibitive. Russia has actually strengthened as a result of the conflict in Ukraine, and its attention has turned to the East where the major part of its immediate future destiny lies, seeing now the West as an enemy, or at least ‘unfriendly’.

The Turks are being forced by Washington to choose between the East and the US. It probably goes without saying Turkiye will probably soon be leaving NATO. That will signal one of the biggest reorganization of politics in West Asia in a century. We already see the Turks, the Russians and Syrians sitting down to discuss the resolution (finally) of the Syrian conflict. We also hear Kurdish delegations are making overtures to Damascus. The writing is on the wall for American influence in Syria, as in they will be gradually forced out. That brings us to Israel. With Bibi Netanyahu back in power Israel is primed for a showdown with the Palestinians and the Axis of Resistance. The situation in Israel looks to be very restive especially this year. With American influence waning in West Asia, Israel sees itself in a most unenviable position. We can expect more moves for reconciliation between the Saudis and Iran this year, too. Both nations have applied for BRICS membership, and Iran has now been made a full member of the SCO security grouping.

China will be in the spotlight this year, with Taiwan as the focus. The Americans are trying the same gambit with Taiwan they have done with Ukraine. Expect spikes in tensions there as the US sees its power lessening further. Recent elections in Taiwan favor reunification with China, which has upset Washington. Washington will try hard to provoke a reaction from China, whereupon sanctions would be slapped on China. It would be the height of ‘the most varied morbid phenomena’ (See footnote 1).

South America will also be under extreme pressure and interference by the US, seeking to ply the Monroe Doctrine in a bid to oust Russian and Chinese influence. B Brazil is likely to be unsettled for the immediate years ahead, discussed in the next letter.razil will be the battleground for the US if they can reinstall a Bolsonaro or his like.

No time for monsters: Yes, this is the time for monsters, we are told, as the old order refuses to let go of its hold on power. Those monsters are largely under the bed (imaginary), thrust at us in the attempt at keeping the status quo in place. In that regard and as discussed in the Capricorn letter this year, read widely and question everything. There is nothing to fear going forward. If you hear about events in another country, like recent events in Iran for instance, it is better to wait a week or so as facts begin to emerge than it is to jump on the propaganda bandwagon and virtue signal for the poor supposed suppressed unfortunates paraded across our media. Most of the time, what we are shown is only the narrowest part of what is actually taking place. Such stories are meant to evoke a reaction rather than stimulate thought. Instead, it is often better to get out in the countryside – a la the Black Rabbit – and contemplate our good fortune rather than focus on matters that do not even really concern us.

The people who poke at cracks in foundations, like Washington and London are fond of doing (the old ‘divide and conquer’ routine) risk bringing down the entire structure on their own heads. Again, the countryside is conducive to healing. The Rabbits (all five of them) tend toward contemplation and alchemy. We are seeing alchemical changes in the world order taking place. In this year, as the world’s leaders contemplate their own fates and the destinies of their nations – our nations – let us tend to healing divisions and restoring the foundations of compassion, humility, kindness and generosity. Those are the ingredients for the mortar that restores the cracked foundations of our societies. Share common values with your neighbors this year. We are witnessing the birth of a better and renewed world. Enjoy your yum cha!

Happy New Year!
Malvin
21 Jan 2023
malvin@malvinartly.com

Picture credits:
Black Rabbit: DeviantArt
4 Pillars graphic: Esoteric Technologies
Li Chun: Dao World
Red Envy: Kevin Chan BaZi
Montgolfier balloon: Barcelona Balloon Flights
Rabbit and Tiger: People’s Daily
Balkanized Russia: TFI Global
Calvin and Hobbes: Go Comics
Red Menace: Institute for Advanced Study
Western societies: GIS Reports Online
Little Green Corvette: AOL.com
Error 404: Democracy International
Civil War: AA Registry
Stalingrad monument: WWII History
Monster under the couch: Comics Kingdom

1. Gramsci was an Italian philosopher (1891 – 1937). The original quote is from his prison notebooks, translated: “The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old dies and the new cannot be born: in this interregnum the most varied morbid phenomena occur.” The bolded (adding) text was liberally translated as ‘now is the time of monsters’. But it fits with today’s events. The quote was popularized by Slavoj Žižek (2010). ↑
2. Double-pillars refer to two pillars that are the same and adjacent to each other, whereas with the case here (two Tiger pillars), the situation is different. The first case (double-pillars) is called ‘Deja-vu’ and is a difficult placement, indicating a fundamental struggle for the individual. The two-pillar arrangement can add strength or take it away, depending on other relations in the chart. ↑
3. Walters, Derek, The Complete Guide to Chinese Astrology, p. 203 ↑
4. Bailey, Esoteric Psychology I, p. 173, 174 ↑
5. Op Cit ↑