The Aries Solar Festival 2024

Topics (linked to paragraphs): Revisiting some thoughts Aries, the ideas sign Decisions, decisions The full moon Eclipse humor Crocus and collisions Topical events The Russians are coming! Russia and the Royals Kabul redux in Kiev? Tears and fears Russian actions Israel update BRICS update Finishing up In conclusion

Happy Easter Everyone!

The Easter holidays here in the West correspond very closely with the full moon of Aries this year. Nature is in full bloom, resurrecting from its winter slumber here in the North. Here at the house we begin our weekly pilgrimages to the local plant nurseries with an eye to paint our garden with the colors that inspire us this year. The weather here in our fair city has been up and down – rainy and cold some days and then breaking through to beautiful sunny spring weather. The snow lingers on the mountains, while the promise of warmer days approaches ever-closer. The idea of resurrection and renewal brings us to our consideration of the sign Aries for this year, and in that vein we depart from the usual consideration of local news and address something that is pending upon us for next year. As readers of Alice Bailey’s material know very well, this year marks the end of the Stage of the Forerunner, explained shortly, with an eye toward a different kind of rebirth – a spiritual rebirth across our planet. Heaven knows we need it, and its time is nigh.

In a very brief synopsis of the meanings of Aries, we have the following points to consider:

The keynotes of the sign Aries are four in number, all conveying the same idea. They can be expressed in the following four injunctions which are given, symbolically, to the incarnating soul:

Creation—Being—Activity—Strife—Synthesis, these are the nature of the Lord of the first constellation and enable Him to influence our planet to these results.

And thus the great cycle of struggle towards expression starts and the foundational words of The Secret Doctrine, with which you are all so familiar, expresses the goal and the purpose of the first sign of the Cardinal Cross:

“Matter is the vehicle for the manifestation of soul on this plane of existence, and soul is the vehicle on a higher plane for the manifestation of spirit, and these three are a trinity synthesised by life which pervades them all.”—S.D. I. 80.^[1]

From our investigations in recent past letters we are perhaps clear now that a major cycle in terms of our society is ending, while another is set to start next year. An even larger cycle is the cycle of the fourth Ray which will persist throughout the Aquarian age for a total of 2500 years. In the last letter we discussed the idea of tidying up old business. We have been in the stage of preparation for what is to commence next year. In the Alice Bailey material this stage of preparation was called the Stage of the Forerunner, with its major work, to be done by people with a more spiritual focus, being that of bringing more light into the public consciousness. That entails cutting through the crap, to use the vernacular – dispelling glamour, which describes a specific action. That action entails the process of removing the emotional hooks and binds that keep society bound in fear, steeped in negativity, distracted from our own spiritual development, and in terms of modern film, remaining trapped in The Matrix. The fact that spiritual light has been increasing on this planet is evidenced in the very strident and strenuous efforts of the materialistic forces of this world to subvert any truth that cuts through the glamor as being false, which they cast upon our world societies at large. In our present language we call this matrix of glamour, ‘The Narrative’, of which there are many.

What exactly does it mean when we talk about bringing more light into the world? Primarily for the public at large, it means to raise people from their emotional confusion and attachments to negative outcomes and getting them through to a state in which they can actually think and allow their common sense to prevail. In reading across social media, which is the domain of the general public opinion, we see these efforts have been largely successful. A growing number of people are questioning everything, especially official statements, while there still remains a pervasive strata of public sentiment that wishes to remain in the narrative matrix. However, from my own perspective, light is increasingly breaking through the clouds of confusion that the materialist forces continue to try to sow. What does this mean, then, going forward into next year? That means that if a sort of critical mass of public thought and critical thinking has emerged, then certain results can be had. Those desired results have been outlined for us in what readers of Alice Bailey’s material expect to come from next year, no doubt beginning at the Aries interval in 2025.

Revisiting some thoughts: In light of what has just been mentioned, let’s revisit some ideas in preparation for next year. And having stated that, this is not to say that the heavens will open next year, that peace will guide the planet and love will steer the stars at that point, but certain initiatives will have been set in motion then on subjective levels, with the outer manifestations of those slowly taking shape over the succeeding decades. We start with this one:

“…in 2025 the date in all probability will be set for the first stage of the externalisation of the Hierarchy. The present cycle (from now until that date) is called technically “The Stage of the Forerunner”. It is preparatory in nature, testing in its methods, and intended to be revelatory in its techniques and results. You can see therefore that Chohans, Masters, initiates, world disciples, disciples and aspirants affiliated with the Hierarchy are all at this time passing through a cycle of great activity”^[2]

We will come back to that thought. Continuing,

“The inner structure of the World Federation of Nations will eventually be equally well organised, with its outer form taking rapid shape by 2025. Do not infer from this that we shall have a perfected world religion and a complete community of nations. Not so rapidly does nature move; but the concept and the idea will be universally recognised, universally desired, and generally worked for, and when these conditions exist nothing can stop the appearance of the ultimate physical form for that cycle.”^[3]

We see this manifesting in large part in the emerging multipolar world order, one based on cooperation rather than imposition. Then there is this quote:

A Treatise on Cosmic Fire. This book was an expansion of the teaching given in The Secret Doctrine on the three fires—electric fire, solar fire and fire by friction—and it was an awaited sequence; it also presented the psychological key to The Secret Doctrine and is intended to offer study to disciples and initiates at the close of this century and the beginning of the next century, up until 2025 A.D.^[4]

In speaking and corresponding with colleagues in recent years there is the prevailing sense that groups that have been formed around the study of works like A Treatise on Cosmic Fire had begun to lose their steam, as it were. The people who founded such groups – I know of 3 in particular – have all passed on to greater work, while the groups they founded lie pretty much in stasis, though they still persist. There is a growing sense among the spiritual seekers that they are ready for something new. Returning to our comment on the intensification of light in the Stage of the Forerunner, we have the following quote:

This intensification of the light will continue until A.D. 2025, when there will come a cycle of relative stability and of steady shining without much augmentation.^[5]

In light of that quote, we recall the old saying, “It is always darkest before the dawn.” To the view of many people, the world does appear to be in a very dark place. To those of us who have watched the unfolding of events in relation to cycles and the world of meaning, perhaps it is clear that the clouds are about to break to and greater light will soon be shining through. The discussion of such events will follow in the body of this letter. And finally, at least for this letter,

“I can, however, attempt to give you certain concepts, relationships and parallels which may serve to close this section on astrology and lay a foundation for future teaching around the year 2025. That is the mode whereby all revelation comes. A thought is given; a symbol described; an idea portrayed. Then, as the minds of men ponder upon it and the intuitives of the world pick up the thought, it serves as a seed thought which eventually comes to fruition with the presentation and the unfolding of a revelation which serves to lead the race of men nearer to their goal.”^[6]

The last lines of this quote basically give us the description of the operation of Aries in an energetic sense. The esoteric motto for Aries is, “I come forth and from the plane of mind, I rule.”^[7] So with all these points in mind certain possibilities – I would say probabilities – present themselves. The bolded text gives clues as to what we might expect from next year onward, as follows:

• The commencement of a cycle of relative stability from 2025 onward
• The rapidly evolving structure of a sort of world federation of nations
• Expectations of future teachings around 2025, with Bailey’s magnum opus having served its purpose.

To the second point preceding, there has been some silly commentary scattered throughout the net about how Bailey’s mention of the ‘World Federation of Nations’ is some sort of satanic plan for world domination and subjugation of the world’s populace in a type of dystopian fantasy contrived in said commentators’ minds. I will not cite them here. Such speculation is not worth the trouble. That said, there are forces in the world – being quickly sidelined now – who would wish to see such a world evolve, with them at to the top of the heap, they would hope. They are trying in their desperation now to steer the emotions of humnity toward such ideas, stoking fears, misrepresenting facts and casting aspersions on anyone who wishes to see the type of ‘world federation’ which Bailey mentions becoming a reality. The world federation of nations, contrary to what the naysayers and fearmongers promote, will be one based in voluntary cooperation, with the aim toward promoting development among nations and in sharing resources. Without a doubt, this will take many years, if not decades or centuries, to fully unfold. But the seeds of such a federation are already in evidence in the BRICS partnerships for example, imperfect as that emerging bloc of nations stands.

To the third point listed above, there has been much in the way of speculation among esoteric groups as to how the new teaching might manifest. Will it be through an amanuensis, through group effort, even through scientific discoveries, and so forth? Will we see another Alice Bailey, Helena Roerich, or Helena Blavatsky? We don’t know. What we do know is that whatever appears will have within it the ring of truth, moreover of universal truth and that it will serve to expand upon and confirm what has previously been given. The danger to all who await said teachings is that of crystallization in the minds of students as to what has been given thus far, and if the new teaching sounds a somewhat different note – for instance if it is not in English, or the same type of culture, if it is not Western – then it is likely to be rejected by Western students. Further, if there is an amanuensis, if they emerge from already existing groups, the factor of ego enters in, not so much with the person transmitting the teaching, but instead among the esteemed old guard, as it were. That happened with Alice Bailey and the Theosophical Society. DK’s transmissions were deemed to be ‘false Theosophy’. Again, I won’t bother to cite the sources. The point here is that we have to keep an open mind, use our common sense, and begin casting our net wide in order to perceive what is being presented, even now. We say even now, because the statement was made regarding the new teachings that they would emerge ‘around the year 2025’. Such teachings could be emerging now or they may emerge sometime after 2025. Again we just don’t know.

Aries, the ideas sign: Aries is first and foremost the sign associated with ideas. Aries seeks to introduce a new rhythm, a new outlook. This is the result of its Uranian rulership in its most universal expression. The sign’s esoteric ruler, Mercury, governs the endless discussion and dialogue that will ensue from the new dispensation, the new organizations, the new ‘what have you’ regardless of the sphere of human endeavor. So, for Aries this year we might say that we are pregnant with anticipation for what is to come, while at the same time we seek to build upon what is good and true from the past and work toward the future that we might be able to garner through our intuition. From here we move on to the full moon and current events. But before we do there is one more thing to mention, concerning decisions.

Decisions, decisions: In the ideas presented about 2025 Bailey’s writings, mention was made of the decision that will be made regarding the reappearance of the World Teacher. This decision is not the initiation of decision, which takes place every 49 years.^[8] That deserves a separate posting. We won’t cover it here. But the decision to be taken next year coincides with the 25^th and 75^th year of every century wherein certain adjustments are made subjectively to the evolution of human consciousness and society. The prior initiation of decision was taken in 2001, and we all saw what happened then. The other most recent ones were in 1952 and 1903. The world was turned on its ear by the efforts of the American hegemon to make of this century the New American Century in line with neocon thinking in 2001. The effects from that year are in evidence now. The wider world wants no part of unipolarity. The dominance of the West over the past 500 years and especially the last 250 years, with its colonialism, capitalism and emphasis on the individual, is coming to an end. That is quickly giving way to collective interests. And in that collectivism there is not the despotism that is forecast or promoted by the Western media. The wider world’s cooperation rejects – rightly so – being controlled by another nation or bloc of nations. With all this in mind we move on to the consideration of the full moon and current events.

The full moon took place at 07:00 UTC on the 25^th of March. This was also an eclipse, with the maximum of the eclipse taking place over the Americas at 07:12 UTC. I have done a report on the eclipse as to how it will indicate events, which you can see on the blog site. That post also gives an accounting of the various aspects and influences within the eclipse figure, so we won’t cover it here. The main thing we wish to take note of regarding this full moon and eclipse is that it will be productive of pioneering ideas, and not so much of events. Eclipses in general have been noted throughout history as they signal events. In that regard and in keeping with our Aries theme from this letter, the appearance of an idea within the minds of people is actually an event, albeit in mental matter. The eclipse itself, being relatively weak and at the end of its series, is more indicative of mental events, as we will call them, rather than signaling the precipitation of physical events. What those mental events might manifest as will be seen in the years to follow. It takes time for thoughts to precipitate through as physical manifestations.

The other point worth noting regarding this full moon, is that any time an eclipse coincides with one of the three major spiritual festivals – when the full moon takes place when the sun is in the signs of sign is in Aries, Taurus or Gemini – that signifies a more pronounced emphasis on the Festival involved, in this case the Easter Festival. What we are looking at here with this eclipse, especially given the Uranian influence as mentioned in the blog post, is the theme of lifting humanity out of its present crisis. The ideas precipitated coincident with this eclipse and its subsequent activations, when filtered into the minds of people with political will, have the capacity to dramatically influence world events in favor of the advancement of human evolution and the preservation of all that is right and good within human culture. But that is not all. Eclipses always occur in pairs and sometimes in trios. With four eclipses this year we will have two pairs of eclipses. The next eclipse falls two weeks after this one and has been dubbed ‘The Great North American Eclipse’ (It is not strictly American, but Americans will claim it.). So, along with this full moon we also have to consider the eclipse in two weeks as well, because both eclipses take place with the Sun in Aries. The eclipse on 8 April is a total solar eclipse and it will trace a path of totality across Mexico, the United States and the far southeast of Canada.

The eclipse on April 8, in terms of its dynamics and the events likely to be signified by it, will be covered in a separate blog post. But there is a particular emphasis upon the United States, the nation which holds the key to the resolution two major conflicts taking place at the moment. Washington could easily end the war in Gaza, and in a matter of days simply by stopping the supply weapons to Israel. But that would require political will, which is apparently greatly lacking in the United States right now. Lawmakers are too beholden to the donor class, meaning the oligarchs, and funding from Israeli and Zionist interests hold a very significant sway over the campaigns of members of Congress and presidents. This is subject we will cover more in the letter for the Cancer Festival, since Cancer is the Sun-sign for the national chart of the US and the soul of Washington. The eclipse on the 8^th takes place opposite the US Saturn and squares the US Sun. In May the Mars activation may well signal its new events. We are already seeing the Biden administration hedging on Israel now with the recent vote in the UN Security Council, covered here in a bit. With these points in mind the Wesak Festival looks to be very precipitous in terms of the will aspect this year, since both of these eclipses will be activated during Wesak.

Eclipse humor: At the same time, brace yourselves on social media for the tinfoil hat crowd, who are already diving into the eclipse on the 8^th with their theories on what it all means. You see, the CERN is firing up their Hadron Collider on the 8^th, where they will be smashing protons together – perhaps to find a way to counter the proton pills for Roger Ramjet. And NASA is launching three sounding rockets into the eclipse, in an effort to kill the Serpent Deity, Ra. OK, the last bit was a joke, but some people take this very seriously. Apparently most ‘esoteric experts’ agree that the whole CERN project is an attempt to open hell portals. Really? I didn’t know. Apparently those ‘experts’ have never driven on roads in New Jersey, speaking of portals to hell. And concerned parents in Texas are particularly concerned, connecting the dots. It is all very insidious, nefarious and meant to get Joe Biden or Trump re-elected. The rockets are being launched to study the upper atmosphere during an eclipse. That last bit is true.

Crocus and collisions: Returning to reality, there is just a quick note on the Crocus event (mentioned below) and the Baltimore bridge collision. Both of those events were signalled by a Jupiter activation (think: ‘large events’) of the November 2022 eclipse, which had Uranus as the lord of that eclipse in a square to Saturn. The combination of Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus can lead to, “A sudden turn (in destiny), the misfortune to get into difficulties. – Losses, damage to buildings, motor damage.”^[9] The latter event led to immediate speculation by ‘experts’ in maritime matters, ships, construction engineers, cyber warfare and so on commenting on their certainty of what caused the container ship Dali to collide with a bridge support, causing the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. One should avoid the rush to judgement on such matters. I will be doing a post on it at some point because the astrology of the event is quite interesting. And no, the collision was not meant to distract from the raid on P. Diddy’s mansion. Of course, everyone knows the event was the result of a cyber-attack on the ship by Russian/Ukrainian/Iranian/Chinese/North Korean actors (take your pick), because the Obamas produced a film that portrayed that exact type of event four months ago (I knew the Obamas were all about narrative steering, but I had no idea they are involved in film production.). Come on, people. For now, we move on to consideration of the more important events that have taken place since the last full moon. Some of those events are as follows.

Topical events:

• ‘Cookies’ Nuland resigned, or was pushed out. That is the official story anyway, as there appears to be a sort of psy-op going on with that resignation. But with the official resignation the world rejoiced. There is a song about her type. The 2014 coup in Kiev was her project. Prevailing comment on her departure was that she was pressured to leave because her project was a failure and is now coming to pieces. Basically, she was pushed out and now the ambassador to Afghanistan – ex-ambassador – has taken her place.
• There was a leaked conversation between German generals about striking the Crimean bridge. It appears to be a leak rather than an intercepted online chat. The Americans are suspected of the leak, except, it turns out two of the ‘Germans’ are actually – Americans. One has to ask why. The bull in the China shop will not be sent to Ukraine to hit the Kerch Strait bridge, as much as the ‘Germans’ would like to try.
• Macron and Lloyd Austin want NATO troops to fight Russia. Europeans are not amused. Le Petit Roi is grandstanding again. Lloyd Austin apparently still suffers from aftereffects of anaesthesia. Macron, still determined to be or to present himself as a leader of some importance, is sending upwards of 2,000 troops to Ukraine, probably to Odessa. This is a major provocation toward Russia, as these troops are very similar to the ones at the small bases in Iraq and Syria, known as tripwire forces. Such forces are used by their own nations as casus belli for instigating a wider war if said forces are attacked. This has generated fears that such actions could lead to nuclear war, which has prompted a VIP memo to Biden urging restraint around Ukraine. The Russians have flatly stated those forces will be targeted.
• Evidence has emerged of German laboratory and Montana connections to the release of the COVID-19 virus in Wuhan. The German connection was US-funded. There was a German-Dutch research nexus linked to the creation of the virus. So, it appears there actually was a lab leak or some sort of accident, but it looks more and more like this was a Western effort gone wrong. It was the nations of the West who suffered the most from the COVID-19 outbreak, in a bit of irony, both in terms of economy and social disruption.
• The State of the Union (SOTU) address went ahead, such as it was. It was widely panned as a campaign stump and a call to rally the troops for Ukraine money for the military industrial complex.
• Then, we have all of ‘Biden’s’ plans to build a pier to get aid to the Palestinians. It is actually Netanyahu’s idea and Biden doesn’t care about the Palestinians anyway. The idea would also make the Americans responsible for getting aid to the Palestinians and be completely under the eye of the Israelis anyway. This is all theatre. If Biden wanted aid to get to the Palestinians he would cut off the arms and money to Israel and force them to open the border crossings.
• All the goss unfit to print in the UK regarding the Royals and now rumors of Sunak facing regime change in the Tories. Is this really important? In a sense it is, yes – it is yet another indicator of the collapse of the influence of the West in accordance with the changing cycles. It is also indicative of the opacity of the British establishment, as well as being ‘bread and circuses’ while the UK’s plans in Ukraine and Israel come unravelled.
• Putin was re-elected as President of the Russian Federation. This was quite important because it sent a clear message to the Western leadership as well as causing a wave of panic through the halls of power in the West. We will cover that more as we go along with the rest of this letter. No surprises there, especially concerning the legacy media reporting of it. The copium in the Western media is unbearable. Let’s see – Putin is a wartime president and gets handily re-elected but presides over a dictatorship, while Ukraine is just so democratic, where Zelenskyy is also a wartime president but is hated by his people and thus suspends elections in Ukraine. Hmmm…Let’s see how they report on the re-election of Trump or Biden – if by chance either one of them ends up as the final choices of our oligarchs. Folks do know we do not choose our Presidents in the US, right?
• The young global leaders met in…Russia. 20,000 of them. Putin addressed them. Confused? Well, there was not a Davos or Schwabian in sight.
• Over a thousand Jewish ‘Creatives’ signed an open letter denouncing Glazer’s Oscars speech for his film Zone of Interest. We looked at this film briefly in the Pisces letter. The opening paragraphs to the ‘Creatives’ letter displayed even Jewish ignorance of what has happened in Palestine since the Balfour Declaration, along with an unhealthy dose of denial. Hollywood is part of the Holocaust industry anyway and plays a very big role in American indoctrination.
• The Irish prime minister resigns after calling out the West on Israel’s genocide to Joe Biden’s face at the White House. It was his parting shot to Biden, who has Irish background, and he made Biden look like a fool. The Irish PM has pushed globalist policies within Ireland, the most recent of which got crushed in a popular referendum which sought to make the Irish Constitution gender-neutral, even to the extent of removing the word ‘mother’ from the document. That was just too much for the Irish. Just so you know the Catholics revere the Mother Mary. Ireland is deeply Catholic and conservative. He no doubt saw that his days were numbered anyway, so he may as well go out with all guns blazing. Ireland is very definitely pro-Palestinian. In his resignation speech he stated his reasons for leaving were political and personal.
• Jared Kushner – an example of why we have to get rid of Affirmative Action for rich people – is in the news again. Aside from his mercenary comments of ‘cleaning up’ Gaza and building beachfront properties there (from which of course he no doubt hopes to profit), the strange idea has been floated that he is a possible running mate with Trump. Yes, at this point it is a rumor from an insider, but stranger things have happened. Unfortunately, Kushner’s comments reinforce the stereotype of the greedy Jew, combined with that of the heartless Capricorn, Kushner has Capricorn Sun. More on him in a bit…
• Lastly, the Crocus City Hall massacre in the Moscow suburb of Krasnogorsk took place, where masked Tajik gunmen murdered 182+ civilians, including children just before the opening of a rock concert by the band Picnic. It was reminiscent of the Bataclan massacre in Paris some years ago, except there were no Islamic jihadi terrorists involved at the Crocus massacre. This one was organized by Ukraine. Pepe Escobar gives a rundown on all the connections leading back to Ukraine as the instigator of the event. The event will tie into the wider topic on Ukraine to follow here. Scott Ritter gave all the details on why it was Ukraine, and ultimately, the CIA. We will not cover the massacre here. An analysis of domestic (infrastructure) concerns points toward corruption as a cause of many of the deaths. The venue is owned by a Russian oligarch. A good analysis of the event itself and its consequences was given by Black Mountain Analysis. However, this was a major provocation, meant to draw NATO into the war in Ukraine. Scott tells us why. The Russian FSB has fingered the US, UK and Ukraine as the ‘customers’ behind the attack. On that note we begin the wider discussion on events with Russia and Ukraine.

The Russians are coming!: If you watch TV news you will no doubt have heard the warnings that if Putin – meaning the Russians – prevail in Ukraine then other NATO countries are at risk of being overrun by the Red Horde. Don’t believe a word of it. It is nothing but scaremongering, but it has certain other motives behind it. Putin’s victory in the Russian presidential election has become geopolitical reality, whether we believe it or not. And in the West he has gained grudging legitimacy. The Global South certainly believes it and we see delegation after delegation going to Russia to make business deals, to talk about BRICS membership, to talk about security matters, and so on. For some reason, unbeknownst to us as the media would tell us, the wider world seems to rather like the Russians. We should probably rightly question why there is such a visceral hatred of Russia in the West. This is been ongoing since the 1917 Russian Revolution. That is another revolution that sent shockwaves through Europe and at that time through the US too.

Here’s the reality: Barring any sort of major event that affects Russia negatively, Putin will be in power until the start of the next decade. At that point he will have been in power for 30 years. His re-election sent a clear message to the US to Western Europe – their efforts to unseat him and to weaken Russia have utterly failed. The Russian public is steadfastly behind their president, who was re-elected with 88% of the vote. As much as attacks by Ukrainian units across the Russian border and the terrorist attack Krasnogorsk happened, it has only solidified the support of the Russian public behind his administration. It is worth noting too, no liberal candidate got so much as 1% of the vote in the Russian elections. The Russian people generally overall approve of what Putin has done with the country under his leadership for the past 20 years and his handling of th SMO. No Western politician can make such a claim. And that has the Western leadership quite worried. The war in Ukraine is lost to the West, sanctions have failed, Russia has emerged even stronger from the conflict as well as expanding its influence globally in the process.

At the same time Europe is in a real crisis, due in no small part we might add by the actions of the United States. One of the objectives of the US in the war against Russia in Ukraine was to eliminate Europe as an economic competitor, and in that Washington has achieved its objective. In 2008 prior to the financial crisis the EU was a larger economy and more competitive than that of the United States. Now Europe is basically de-industrialized and has hollowed out its military, the EU is fracturing, meaning NATO as well, with constant sniping between Western European leadership along with a lot of finger-pointing. So now, in order to shore up their flagging influence, the European leadership is trying to sell us the notion that the Russians are coming and we need to spend big on defense. It’s all just a huge scam, much like the green economy and the need to go off hydrocarbons – also a scam. So now, the EU finds itself in the very unenviable position of being weak militarily, weak financially, with a strong Russia on its far eastern borders, with its current leadership greatly at risk in the upcoming elections scheduled over the next few months, with the populace struggling more each passing year just to make ends meet: Is the picture becoming clear? Apparently elections are a threat to democracy (!?).

Russia and the Royals: In watching the early afternoon TV the other day (a real exercise in banality, and something I seldom do) there was a show where they were discussing the goings-on with the British Royal family, as if the British royals were really important to Italian families. But the thing that stuck out in watching this particular show were the comments to the effect that the Russians, the Chinese and the Iranians were sowing disinformation about the Royal family, as if the commentators were adhering to a script. Heaven only knows why said nations would want to spread such disinformation. The British establishment seems to be doing quite a good job of that themselves. As if these countries even actually really cared one little bit about what happens with the British Royal family. The point here is the narrative presented was to reinforce the idea to the Italian public that the aforementioned nations were supposedly up to their old tricks trying to destabilize the West. My wife and I just looked at each other and shook our heads in disbelief.

Kabul redux in Kiev?: Returning to matters Russo-Ukrainian, we begin our review of the situation in Ukraine here. At this point it is important to note that the Russians do not see the war as being against Ukraine. Actually, if we take the time to sit down and analyse the situation, the US was using the war to strip Ukraine of its resources and land in the process of seeking to weaken Russia (video). The US was also using Europeans to finance the little endeavour, too. The EU elites happily complied.

“The EU élites’ commitment to Ukraine represents the unspoken disaster that is quashing any lingering aspirations for Europe achieving its genuine strategic autonomy; it is vassalizing Europe to the United States, and leaving the Continent at its weakest since the end of World War II. Europe has lost badly.”

There is no turning back now. The Crocus attack and the other recent attacks within Russia have sealed the fate of the conflict. The Russians will move rather more forcefully now, probably bring the conflict to a close by the autumn of this year, if not sooner. This has Washington, London and the EU elites very worried. And if Russia does reconstitute Novorossiya, as has been speculated, Washington will lose badly on its gambit to strip Ukraine’s resources. The riches part of Ukraine is in the region of Novorossiya – ‘Ukraine’ east of the Dnieper River. The Russians see the war as a proxy war against NATO. That said, the military situation for Kiev is dire. As it would appear now the Russian attitude toward the conflict in Ukraine is changed, especially since the Crocus incident. It is no longer a special military operation. It has not been publicly declared, but for all intents and purposes, Russia. Is. At. War. Now, we may think that this has been a major war all along. We won’t quibble over details here. But the reason the Russians now see themselves at war has been the series of sharp escalations by Ukraine and certain NATO countries.

  Tears and fears: Firstly, we have the pronouncements by Macron in Paris of his intention to send French troops into Ukraine, with the idea of securing the port at Odessa against the Russian takeover there as one option. These would be in the nature of advisory personnel, but by extension we know these troops would be manning the more advanced French and NATO weaponry that have been sent to Ukraine. We know this because French missiles were just used in an attack on the port of Sevastopol in Crimea. Then, we have the attacks across the Russian border into the oblast of Belgorod by Ukrainian troops. The battles there have been fierce, with very high losses among the Ukrainian troops. And then lastly, but by no means complete, was the atrocity committed at Crocus City Hall. Why bring all this up? These events are cited because they point to an attempt at provoking Russia into an overreaction in response, which would be used as propaganda fodder to pull NATO into Ukraine. But these events and the Russian response also point to the war being more rapidly wrapped up. The aim of the City Hall massacre was to provoke a decapitation strike on Kiev. An overreaction or decapitation strike would serve a dual purpose:

The first purpose would be propaganda, in that it would reinforce the narrative that Washington is trying to spread across Europe that the Russians are on the march and will soon be marching to European capitals. This is an attempt to spread fear among the European populace. It is a scam meant to pour money into large projects and to somehow make the EU great again. But there is no wherewithal to do so. And thus far it is not having the effect of overly frightening the European public. Instead the population of Europe is dead set against sending troops in Ukraine, much less sending even more weaponry and money there. At the same time Washington still rolls out the old trope that Russia is weak and losing, has made terrible strategic blunders and that the only tool the Russians have left in ‘disinformation’ – the pot calling the kettle black on the part of Washington. “If only we could just get Ukraine that extra $60 billion…” of our tax dollars they could valiantly continue to hold out and ‘protect democracy’, and so on. That $60 billion would go a ways toward getting Biden re-elected because it would go to the defence industries (i.e. American jobs). What little Ukraine would see of it would go to fill Ukrainian pockets.

A secondary purpose, or perhaps a primary one depending on one’s outlook, is to stir fear and outrage in the Russian populace, hoping to incite opposition against the Russian government especially or provoke an overreaction. That too is failing. What these events are doing instead is to cement the ire and outrage of the Russian people against the West, because the Russians know full well who is inciting these events. If anything, the Russian people are growing in their desire to see a more forceful action against Ukraine and NATO. What we are seeing with the people of Russia is similar to what we saw in the United States after 9/11, with calls for revenge. The Russian response instead, will be asymmetric, measured, and will produce the strongest strategic outcome. That desired outcome is the surrender of the nationalist regime in Kiev. To that end the Russians are pounding the electrical infrastructure for Kharkov, which from all indications will soon be besieged and brought back into the Russian fold.

Russian actions: As of the full moon there have been major missile strikes on buildings in Kiev, targeting the security services of Ukraine. Russia has stepped up its bombing of the electrical infrastructure not just at Kharkov but across Ukraine, which will take months to rebuild. Capacity has been reduced across Ukraine by 20% as a result of these strikes This is the sort of thing we see before a major offensive is launched. Missile barrages over the past couple weeks have been targeting military supply, underground fuel storage, troop concentrations, and so on. Kharkov is only a short drive from Belgorod. In accordance to what is been forecast by military experts and the activations of the eclipse to come in May, we can only guess what it will look like when the Russians will be moving to push the Ukrainians back across the Dnieper River. Ukraine has no prepared defences since the fall of Avdeevka. Needless to say, events in Ukraine look to be accelerating significantly over the next couple months. Odessa is also on the table to come under Russian control once again. The Russian MoD is currently preparing river crossing divisions and patrol boats for the Dnieper River (in Russian). Odessa is in their sights. Once Ukraine surrenders the Western leadership will be in a real pickle, having spent all that blood and treasure on a plan that was ill-thought, evil in its intent, but also the last grasp at keeping the dominance of the Western powers in place. In this world financial war, Europe and the US are both facing financial defeat, with an angry public demanding some very uncomfortable answers of their leaders.

Israel update: Events in Israel are also looking to be accelerating, and not in favor of the Israelis. The real story of October 7 has not been told in Western media. There is a more balanced and investigative reporting of events of that day. The Israeli reaction to it has brought us to this point six months later, almost. On the day of the full moon there was a vote for an immediate cease-fire in the UN Security Council, which quite to everyone’s surprise passed, with one abstention – the United States. The UNSC American ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, immediately watered down the resolution, or tried to, claiming it was contingent on the release of all hostages (the meaning largely Hamas) and that it was nonbinding. In fact it is a binding resolution. In seeking to downplay the resolution the US is facing isolation and opposition internationally. The resolution demanded an immediate cease-fire, which the US and Israle both summarily dismissed. This has been a very significant shift in the stance of the US regarding Israel, though. There was an Israeli delegation that was set to fly to the United States to discuss the invasion of Rafah. Just before the vote, Netanyahu threatened to recall the delegation if the United States failed to veto the resolution. The delegation had to unpack their bags in Tel Aviv. While the US did not approve the resolution, the abstention did signify a significant shift with the US. Biden’s polling, pre-election, is falling steadily because of the continuance of the war in Gaza. And now, it would appear domestic politics is having more of a sway on the Biden administration regarding Israel than any sort of international pressure.

The pier that Biden said he proposed to get aid into Gaza has turned out to be a plan by Netanyahu for the expulsion of the entirety of the Palestinian population by sea. The question is, to where would all these people be shipped? The pier is being built with the rubble of the destroyed buildings and the remains of the Palestinians under that rubble in an effort to finally ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip. There are already Israelis, including some Jews from America, who are lining up for the beachfront property that Jared Kushner was mentioning at the previous bullet point, above. It is a pipe dream. But here’s the thing: Rafah is the final stand for the Palestinians in Gaza. Over half the population is concentrated there. All the hospitals have been destroyed, with reports of horrible atrocities taking place by the Israelis. Apparently every accusation against Hamas by the Israelis is actually an admission of guilt by acts committed by the Israelis themselves. And Netanyahu has the temerity to call the IOF ‘the most moral army’. We won’t go into it here. But Netanyahu needs a victory, and clearing out Rafah would give him such a victory. If the Israelis invade though, which they say they will do with or without support, then people who know the situation there are saying that will light the fuse to ignite the larger regional confrontation.

The Houthis in Yemen have now taken to targeting all shipping to Israel in the Indian Ocean and not just in the Red Sea. Hezbollah has stepped up its attacks within Israel in response to Israeli bombings within Lebanon. The Iraqi resistance groups have stepped up their bombings of the port of Haifa. The Israeli economy is collapsing. Now with the United States abstaining instead of supporting Israel with the UN Security Council, it sends a clear message – hands off Rafah. So, will the Israelis eventually comply with the UNSC resolution? Probably not, in fact they have already started bombing Rafah. But now the situation within Israel is set to become quite interesting, and not in favour of the IOF. This is the other major conflict that is accelerating quickly toward a resolution. ‘Never again’ means now that Israel and the US have lost their control of the region, not to be regained. From here we move on to happier news.

BRICS update: The BRICS bloc is one that will need to be watched over the next few years. It is a more Aquarian type of organization, with a rotating leadership – South Africa was last year, Russia is this year – with a cooperation-based structure rather than a top-down type of command structure. The current membership stands at 10, with Argentina’s new president, such as it is, having pulled Argentina out of the bloc upon his election, much to the delight of Washington. Argentina is facing serious economic troubles as a result of its new president’s policies, and has been for years. No doubt at some point Argentina will be invited back into the bloc, albeit very cautiously by the bloc members, as soon as Argentinians figure out that neoliberalism is a dead end and has caused much of their economic woes, along with the corrupt elitists structure there.

BRICS will be expanding this year, with new members being admitted at the next BRICS meeting toward the end of this year. There are currently 36 nations, all developing economies, who have applied to join the bloc. And now given Yemen’s performance against the genocide in Gaza, China, Russia and Iran have guaranteed Yemen’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, having reached deals for shipping through the Red Sea – yet another wrench thrown into the cogs of the Empire’s plans. Yemen sits at one of the world’s major transit points, especially for the Western powers. Yemen has also guaranteed the passage of BRICS members states’ ships through the Strait of Bab al Mandeb.

Western commentary tends to portray the BRICS bloc as being against American interests. However, that is not the case. The main reasons states wish to join the bloc are twofold: to avoid the onerous austerity measures imposed by IMF loans, and to be free of the threat of sanctions from the US and other Western states when the debtor states try to defy the rules-based order. Otherwise, the bloc is open to everyone, provided aspiring states do not try to impose restrictions on other member states. Western commentary also portrays the bloc as being actively involved in killing off the dominance of the US dollar and trade. But that is not the case either. The US dollar is welcomed within the bloc. It is yet one of the major trading currencies. However the trade in said currency must be on terms agreeable to the other member states. The BRICS members are currently working on their own BRICS currency, but that looks to be years in the making. In the meantime the main push is to be able to trade amongst the member states in their own currencies. In effect, this latter point bypasses US sanctions, a fact that draws the ire of Washington as well as Wall Street.

Finishing up: We will leave our topics for here this time, considering the ideas taken to mind about 2025 at the start of this letter. This year we can expect the two major wars to be ending somehow, while the BRICS bloc will be expanding, thus weakening the dominance of the Western financial system and thereby gradually ending the Western bloc’s ability to wage economic war. As Uranus finishes its transit through Taurus, ending next year, we will see the new economic paradigm emerging ever-stronger, to be set more or less firmly in place. There will be another major development along that line in 2026 with the Saturn/Neptune conjunction at 0° Aries. The world is quickly moving away from the onerous conditions set by IMF loans, which in effect enslave a nation’s economy to usury in an effort to pay off the interest on the loans. We will be covering this in greater detail in the next letter. All of these changes will take time, of course, and will develop steadily over the remainder of this decade. The two main methods whereby the Western powers over the past 500 years have exerted their influence has been through economic leverage and military enforcement or coercion. Both of those means are being rapidly scaled back rapidly in terms of our perceptions of social change – through the West’s own policies backfiring on them. Some painful lessons are coming home: A nation needs its industries and resources (or to be able to source them economically enough) if it is to survive and prosper. A nation’s government also has to look after its citizens in the same vein.

In conclusion: With all we have covered in this letter perhaps we can see the great clearing away of obstacles toward the reappearance of the World Teacher which is taking place before our eyes. Once the wars in Ukraine and Israel have finished, once the new security architecture is been decided, once diplomacy again takes precedence over militarism and we enter into a cycle next year relative stability, what can we expect? We can speculate all day. But we don’t know what sort of decisions are going to be made at subjective levels regarding our spiritual pathway forward. However, I will offer my own insights, take them as you will.

Once a decision has been made about the timing of the reappearance it is probably not realistic to expect a new Jesus, Buddha or World Teacher to appear in our lifetimes. What we will probably see instead is the steadily increasing appearance of very wise souls of humanity incarnating across all walks of life and across nations. These people are coming into incarnation now. And when they achieve matriculation and go out in the world we can only guess at what they will uncover for us, what they will present to us in terms of the new world.

The West will be going through a period of reassessment, its leadership changing dramatically probably, and there will be immediate periods of some difficulty, probably more so in the US and UK, as well as Europe. As to new teachings, we can expect they will be expansions on what has already been given to the West. But across all spiritual disciplines we will see probably initiatives at renewal, consolidation, increased cooperation and cultural exchange as well as an abandonment of sectarianism. The Christian and Muslim faiths are liable to undergo some radical transformation, abandoning their more militant sectarianism as the sixth Ray finally peters out.

In terms of new teaching also, we can expect some new revelations in astrology for instance, more information on cycles and revelations about interstellar influences, given the amazing discoveries we have seen in astronomy over the past few decades. We have a whole growing and large list of new planetary bodies to consider in their various grades. We can expect further advances in science and technology as well, like we saw a century ago with the birth of quantum mechanics. There is some fascinating work being done with quantum entanglement, with new modeling that shows the wave entanglement of two particles closely resembling the yin-yang symbol in Oriental literature. We might wonder how much the Ancients actually knew and were able to perceive. But such work will greatly advance technologies like quantum computing, advances in automation, artificial intelligence – the possibilities there are vast. By 2050 we may not even recognize the world that will be in comparison to what we see now, so far we will have advanced and progressed. Advances in robotics and computing for instance will enable people eventually to cease having to mine for mineral wealth underground. Humanity figuratively speaking will be raised from the depths, as one small example. We can go on and on about science, but perhaps you get the idea.

Probably more important to our own spiritual development, we are likely to see a streamlining and distilling to essentials of meditative practices to more readily enable contact and interplay with the higher Self – the Spiritual Triad. The preliminaries to this were given in the teachings on the development of the antahkarana. Perhaps we will see another turning of the wheel of the Dharma. The Buddhists, too, await the return of Maitreya. These are just a few thoughts, a few insights I have had, as have many others. To speculate on such matters can be fun, but when it comes to our present reality we can only wait and see.

The time has come for certain ideas to begin to manifest. But like seeds in the ground, conditions have to be favorable for the seed to sprout and for the plant to grow to maturity. Once the air has cleared of our present major conflicts and we can have the time to reevaluate our situation, then perhaps the ground will be ready for the new impulses to sprout and take root. This is our hope, indeed our expectation, for the coming year. But we need to be open to things now. As the decisions are made next year about the reappearance, we will all be called upon to step up and take our place, because the demands for the enabling of such reappearance, of such teachings, would be strenuous. New groups will emerge. Old groups will dissolve. A new social discourse across many nations will emerge. For these things we must be ready, especially to be ready to embrace the changes taking place now and well into the future. The Aries type is always the instigator. A new idea always shines in the face of the old and crystallized, demanding a new approach. This is what we face today. May our minds be open, our emotions calm and our work stand steady as we end this Stage of the Forerunner and endeavor to get a sense of what lies ahead. The new realities are dawning.

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1. Bailey, Alice A., Esoteric Astrology (1951) NY, NY, Lucis Publishing, p. 94 ↑
2. Bailey, The Externalisation of the Hierarchy, p. 530 ↑
3. Bailey, Esoteric Psychology I, p. 178 ↑
4. Bailey, Discipleship In the New Age I, p. 779 ↑
5. Bailey, Esoteric Psychology I, p. 104 ↑
6. Bailey, Esoteric Astrology, p. 590 ↑
7. Ibid, p. 108 ↑
8. Bailey, The Rays and the Initiations, p. 722 ↑
9. Ebertin, Reinhold, The Combination of Stellar Influences (1940) Tempe, AZ, The American Federation of Astrologers pubs., p. 185 ↑