Topics (linked to paragraphs): Isaiah and prophecy Big Brother is listening A change of scenery Worldly Scorpio Esoteric Scorpio The path to victory Pluto and Scorpio Mercury and buddhi The full moon Current events Pop! Goes the hubris. The Saudis Between two systems Means of extraction China The midterms The European spring? Spreading protests The Italian job The West’s conundrum Three days’ worth Life in Ukraine War with Iran The Israeli elections In conclusion

Greetings Everyone!

And Happy Halloween, if you celebrate it. Halloween is the last day of October, in case you don’t know. This year I had a chance to experience the Halloween spirit in the United States. It is always good to get back to see family. I am just back from the United States after seeing my family. I was most interested to see the general public climate in the US as we are just about at the start of the midterm elections. I was originally going to do a mail-in ballot since I live overseas. As it turned out, I was able to do early voting while I was in the US. How I voted is between God, the electoral commission and myself, but for most of you having read my letters over the years you can probably guess the direction I chose. The electoral commission had voting stations in five locations in my old home city. But the city has changed so much in just a short time – very much like I experienced in Australia recently – that the location closest to where I was staying was elusive. We had to stop at the local university and ask for directions, which were duly and kindly given. As we got back in the car to go to the voting station the person who gave directions equipped, “Vote right, now!”, meaning choose the proper candidate, using the local slang. I told this person I surely would, and went off and did my patriotic duty.

With that said, I am not into party politics – team sports, as I call it – but in this particular case the country is facing some rather serious choices, and this time, voting matters. There are plans afoot by people who wield power in the US that need to be stopped if possible, and failing that, since Americans do not seem to be interested in a serious change in government, at least voting will show a trend in some direction or another. In general with the United States, whoever one votes for in terms of foreign policy actually makes very little difference. And in terms of domestic politics, whether one votes Democrat or Republican the financial situation for the average US citizen has become steadily worse over recent decades. We will be covering the reasons why in this letter, which also pertains to Europe, since we are looking at the entire Western world in fact. The storm clouds across the West are very much in evidence these days. If you are American reading this take some time and go read the news from Europe if you want to see what will eventually be in store for the United States. No matter our nationality, we are in fact all one big family, happy or not, and what may seem to be small changes or the machinations of Empire may instead be the sprouting of the seeds of change that will see in a new worldview. I have disdain for calling it a new world order.

Isaiah and prophecy: Coming back to my trip to the US, there were other storm clouds brewing when I arrived. Here we are at the start of autumn, and when I stepped out of the airport it was like I was back in the summer. And it was becoming quite cloudy as well. Then I started hearing about some hurricane that was bearing down on the Florida coast. This was Hurricane Isaias, the name being the Spanish equivalent of Isaiah. Now, for those who know their Bible, Isaiah was a prophet, whose prophecies have a rather interesting ring with our current events at the moment. We won’t go into chapter and verse here, but to give you the gist of his prophecies there was the destruction of Israel by the Assyrians, the exile of Judea’s inhabitants to Babylonia (today’s Iraq), the rise of the Persian King Cyrus that would end the Jewish exile, the birth of Jesus and his persecution, new heavens and a new earth, the coming of the Messiah, the salvation of the Gentiles (which more hateful modern Jews like to call ‘goyim’) so on and so forth. Don’t quote me on any of this, since I am not a Bible scholar, but I did familiarize myself with the Bible as a teenager. Isaiah lived in a time of political turbulence, much like we see today. Israel is in trouble, also politically very volatile and in self-destruct mode, with the Persians (Iran) about to set the record straight in the region. We will have more on all of that as this letter unfolds. Perhaps Isaias was a sign of things to come.

We didn’t have to batten down the hatches from the hurricane. Instead North Carolina got some much-needed rain after a longer period of drought. After that the weather was quite pleasant until the day I left, when autumn temperatures finally arrived. As far as the social and political climate in the US goes, I actually heard very little in terms of the midterm elections. The little bit of news that I saw was more about local races, which is where democracy really matters, along with the obligatory advertisements for pharmaceuticals with the attendant list of their side effects. We see nothing of that sort in Italy, thank goodness.

Big Brother is listening: There was another rather interesting and amusing phenomenon, speaking of pharmaceuticals, when I arrived in the US. I have a Twitter/X account. Upon landing in the US and consequently scrolling through the feed there were immediately ads for a certain men’s issue, touting pharmaceuticals for the ‘cure’ of course. Every 10^th post in that feed contained such an ad, offering their special brand of snake oil or appliance. Now, I have no interest in such ads but probably because of my age the algorithms in the US figure I must need some sort of treatment for it. Those ads ceased as soon as I returned to Italy. Now I get ads for things like clothing, which I occasionally do need, and tech. Apparently my alleged men’s issue has self-corrected upon returning to our refreshing mountain air (Amazing!), air which I can highly recommend.

That said, our telephones and computers do listen in on our conversations and they push ads toward us in response to our searches and conversations. I have heard many people report such things. However, I have never mentioned any such male issue or done searches on it. The only thing I can figure was that I had to enter a birth date at some point for some platform and the AI has picked this up – and made assumptions. My own assumption would be that American men are particularly vexed with said issue, given the nature of the ads. But you know what they say about making assumptions. Here television ads run along the lines of feminine hygiene products, bottled water, stitichezza, telethons for birth defects, poor starving children and food in general. In the US the prevailing TV ads are for pharmaceuticals, beer, cars and fast food. But mention of said advertizing ties in with the theme of this letter, covered presently.

A change of scenery: Another point of interest driving around my old stomping grounds was a distinct change in scenery. In days past at this time of year people would put out autumnal displays, often quite tasteful, full of fall colors, harvest scenes and the obligatory pumpkins. Upon my return this year, the change was dramatic. There were a few autumn scenes, but instead the more common displays were for Halloween – skeletons everywhere, which is common, orange lighting, pumpkins of course, graveyard scenes, large spiders and bats – you know, the kinds of things that always welcome a person to a house. Even cars were decorated. I have the pictures to prove it. There is a local megastore that has a section displaying such products on the one side, and across the aisle one finds all the ornamentation for Christmas. There was virtually nothing for Thanksgiving. But apparently, the Christmas season in the US now starts in October.

Some of the Halloween decorations were quite expensive, with one 12 foot tall skeleton going for $350. There are a lot of inflatable characters as well – Halloween figures, that is. Boo! Some of the yards we passed had obviously spent well over a thousand dollars on their decorations, at a time when prices are definitely rising and a growing percentage of people in the US are having a hard time making ends meet. In one sense putting up such decorations is all in good fun, but in another sense it is all about being the biggest and the best. Welcome to America!

As to the elections and making assumptions, many pundits in the US expect a ‘blue tsunami’ on November 3^rd, with the Democrats sweeping away the Republican majority in House and Senate. But again, we have to be careful about making assumptions. And voter apathy is a big concern in our modern day democracies. Astrologically, I see many comments and social media to the effect that with Jupiter transiting near Trump’s ascendant he should be happy with the election results. But this election is not about Trump, although he is the de facto leader of the Republicans. Instead, what I see is a possibility for Trump to make some colossal blunder which will cost him into the future.

As for the election itself, the American public and Democrats in particular may be shocked to find that the blue tsunami they expected turns out to be purple ripples in the political fabric of the US. In effect, there is very little difference between the two major parties. More important will be what happens in the lead-up to January 3^rd when the successful candidates are to be sworn in. If the election turns out badly for the Republicans and Trump is facing becoming a lame-duck president then there may be efforts along the lines of a January 6 uprising in an effort to overturn the election results. We can probably expect that there will be quite a bit of turmoil in the US about the election results, with at least some of those results being hotly contested.

Worldly Scorpio: There is a sign of the zodiac that is particularly associated with intrigue, struggle and turmoil, with testing, with sexuality, with transformation and with finance – the sign Scorpio. Scorpio is the natural eighth house of the zodiac. The eighth house is associated with death, as is Scorpio, income derived from partnerships, losses through foreign persons, purification, spiritual and mental regeneration, obsession and occultism in general. All of these associations with the eighth house are in play today, particularly the financial aspect, which in the West has become an all-consuming concern. Most of the cited items in this paragraph will be touched upon at one point or another in this letter.

In the human system Scorpio rules over the lower abdomen and the sexual organs in particular. It also rules over the red corpuscles in the blood, the organs of elimination and the nose, along with associated nasal conditions. In terms of human activities, Scorpio is associated with research and researchers, sarcasm and satire, taxation and tax collectors, occult and covert activities, and Washington DC, just to name a few activities. What concerns us here, though, is our journey in awakening to higher possibilities in this world that has apparently fallen into smoke and chaos. There are increasing numbers of people as the years pass, however who are choosing a more spiritual life, who are questioning the structures of power across the world and who want a meaningful existence instead of one always chasing after necessities or the latest and greatest bauble or fad. It is at that point where the more esoteric considerations of Scorpio become important in our collective path toward the Light.

Esoteric Scorpio: Scorpio is intimately connected with the evolution of humanity.^[2] It is one of four signs – Aries, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius – which go to constitute the personality of our solar Lord.^[3] Each of those four signs is associated with a respective star, with each of those stars lying outside the signs of the zodiac. Scorpio is associated with the Dog Star, Sirius.^[4] That star is the one to which the bulk of our humanity will eventually pass.^[5] These statements will mean little to us at the moment, but will be summarized at the end of this section. Scorpio is also associated with a hierarchy of lives known as the human monads,^[6] our collective spiritual group, in distinction to our various soul groupings. Scorpio represents humanity as a whole, and our spiritual essence.^[7]

Scorpio becomes especially important when one steps upon the path of discipleship (‘The Path’), leading up to the 3^rd initiation, that of the Transfiguration. It is that initiation that gives us our first full contact with our eternal spirit, called the monad. That initiation also puts us en rapport with the great star Sirius. This process encompasses a long series of lifetimes. Scorpio thereby has a:

“…peculiar and specialised potency upon the Path of Discipleship and preparing, with its tests and trials:
a. The process of re-orientation, whereby a man mounts the Fixed Cross and leaves the Mutable Cross.
b. The disciple for the first, second and third initiations. After the third initiation, its peculiar testing potency is no longer felt.”^[8]

Scorpio rules the 4^th Creative Hierarchy, mentioned above as that of the human monads. There is a mystery involved there, though, and it has to do with the failure of humanity’s evolutionary path on a previous world, which was brought to a premature end in our Earth’s previous incarnation:

“The fourth Creative Hierarchy, that of the human Monads, has to learn to vibrate positively…Only the human Monads, and only in the three worlds, follow the positive line, and by resistance, struggle, battle and strife learn the lesson of divine acquiescence. Yet, owing to the increase of friction through that very struggle, they progress with a relatively greater rapidity than the devas. They have need to do this, for they have lost ground to make up.”^[9]

The remnant of the Earth’s previous physical body is the Earth’s moon, the one we see in the sky at night, and which has such an influence over nature, including our own body. Our story with the moon is a long and complicated one, which we cannot cover here. To do so would require a book by itself. The important thing to note from the quote above is twofold: In our local universe we as humanity are on a fast track to liberation and full enlightenment due to mistakes that were made in long eons past on that previous globe. Secondly, because our spiritual essence is inclusive of this fourth hierarchy we are also closely bound to the fourth ray, that of harmony through conflict, eventually resulting in the beauty born of divine acquiescence. The 4^th ray acts as follows:

“The fourth ray is essentially the refiner, the producer of perfection within the form, and the prime manipulator of the energies of God in such a way that the Temple of the Lord is indeed known in its true nature as that which “houses” the Light…its true purpose cannot emerge until the soul is awakened and consciousness is adequately recording the known.”^[10]

The path to victory: Essentially, through our struggles we advance rapidly. Our spiritual advancement is shown in our victory over the pull (control) of the earthly passions, for which Scorpio is renowned. From the last letter we saw that choice was made between the pull of matter and the pull of spirit. If our choice has resulted in an increase in wisdom then we are tested as to our resolve in Scorpio. Scorpio represents the supreme and overall testing ground of discipleship. It leads ‘from darkness unto Light’, from personality to the wisdom of buddhi, the plane of intuition. That plane is the 4^th plane, wherein resolution of opposites and conflicts is truly found.

It has been said that the pain of struggle brings one to the feet of the master, when in reality our eternal spirit is our one and only Master. We can look upon Scorpio as the training ground for initiation, which in reality and eventually takes us ‘to the feet’ of our one and only Master. In Buddhism this training ground is known as the graduated stages of the Path. In Theosophical writings this experience is called the burning ground. It covers the paths of Probation and Accumulation. In the early stages of experience in Scorpio one can become overcome by the earthly passions and seemingly drowned in struggle. Scorpio is a water sign, representing the stormy ocean of the passions. These passions blind one to the realities of spirit. In this phase we see the orthodox motto of Scorpio, “And the Word said: Let Maya flourish and let deception rule.”^[11] This is the Mars phase of Scorpio, the true orthodox ruler of the sign from an esoteric perspective. Mars represents warfare among other matters, the mad dash toward the satisfaction of passions, and in the Scorpio experience life can appear to be a continuous stream of struggles to be overcome. Lesser Scorpio types can appear to be at war with the world and within themselves.

Pluto and Scorpio: When instead one begins to turn one’s mind toward matters of Spirit then the modern Pluto association with Scorpio takes over and begins the long process of clearing the solar plexus, the great clearinghouse for the personality and the eye upon the astral plane. Of particular note in relation to Pluto it is said esoterically to have an affinity with Scorpio, whereas Pluto does not actually rule the sign, or any sign for that matter.^[12] Pluto’s association with Scorpio represents a transitional phase in the journey of the Scorpio type toward the soul. Mars has dual rulership over Scorpio, at the orthodox and the esoteric levels, though.^[13] It rules over the passions in Scorpio and the Scorpio’s worldly evolution in the early phase. Mars rules the burning ground up through the 3^rd (Transfiguration) initiation – in other words, in the later phase. Mars rules throughout the path of discipleship until the completion of the antahkarana (giving the first fully conscious contact with our Spirit) and thereby recognition of the force flowing to our planet from the star Sirius. Mars and Pluto function in unison when one enters upon The Path:

“Two of the other non-sacred planets—Mars and Pluto—function in connection with the sacral centre (Mars) and the solar plexus (Pluto). This latter planet becomes active in the life of the man who is ‘becoming alive’ in the higher sense, his lower nature passes into the smoke and darkness of Pluto, who governs the lesser burning ground, in order that the man may live in truth in the higher land of light.”^[14]

Mars is the alter ego of Pluto^[15] and thereby holds sway over the entire process of the struggle unto Light. Mars is the dominant factor in the tests and trials upon the path of discipleship.^[16] Pluto works to end our glamours and to ‘still the waters’ of our emotional attachments. The severing of attachments is to be especially noted in relation to Pluto. This marks our ‘death’ to worldly concerns and our subsequent emergence into greater wisdom. The sacral center, aside from being the center that expresses one’s sexuality – and curiously over our sense of duality^[17] – is also the seat of the mental elemental, conditioning the quality of the lower mind.^[18] So, we see that Mars and Pluto in tandem lead one to the right use of mind in meditation and service rather than being the servant toward the realization of our desires. This right orientation of the mind brings us into conflict with worldly affairs, bringing a much needed adjustment. Desire becomes aspiration toward a higher goal. What once seemed concrete becomes abstract and symbolic. What we once projected outward returns us to ourselves. This right orientation of the mind leads to meditation instead of reasoned thought, and that brings in the ultimate ruler of Scorpio – Mercury – which expresses the 4^th ray, and serves to infuse us with the light of our very souls.

Mercury and buddhi: Mercury governs the later stages of the Scorpio experience. It is most active during the meditative practice, wherein form is increasingly seen as illusory as one moves closer and closer to the realization of the clear light, which stands behind all forms. Mercury is very much involved in the construction of the antahkarana, as it relates the personality and the soul via the rainbow bridge of light. Whereas Mars represents the conflicts and trials experienced in one’s personal life upon the spiritual path, Mercury represents the internal conflicts that arise as the stabilization, clarification and illumination of the mind proceeds. Mercury deals also with the unification of all three types of mind on the mental plane – concrete, abstract and atomic – the latter being the very vibration of the higher Self in mental matter. That type of mental energy is completely formless and is the actual approach to the clear light as experienced on the next plane ‘upwards’, that of buddhi.

To finally experience consciously the bliss of the buddhic plane at the third initiation marks the release from the influence of Scorpio. It represents the ultimate triumph of the disciple over the pull of the three worlds, physical, astral and mental. At this stage the Scorpio can finally proclaim, “Warrior I am, and from the battle I emerge triumphant.” That phrase describes the single most important keyword for this most human of the astrological signs: Triumph! With the preceding mind we move on to the consideration of this full moon and our current events.

The full moon takes place on the 26^th of October 2026 at 04:12 UTC (03:12 pm AEDT). The full moon axis makes a partile t-square with Pluto at the apex. Given what was just described with Pluto, we can expect events to transpire that will remove any illusions we may have had about the world and situations that no longer favor one’s evolution. In addition the Sun is in an applying quincunx with Uranus, while separating from its quincunx with Neptune. Thus, the Sun is the apex of a yod with Uranus and Neptune as the base sextile. That yod will introduce a certain amount of uncertainty and surprise as events unfold from this full moon, which will further contribute to lifting the veil via Pluto on what is actually going on behind the events we are seeing. We will be discussing this more as the letter unfolds. There is also dwarf planet activity connected with the Sun, with the Sun being in a partile conjunction with the dwarf planet Haumea.

The Sun in conjunction with dwarf planets tends to absorb their influence. The dwarf planet Haumea is one of the larger members of the dwarf planet contingent in our solar system. She is the third-largest after Pluto and Eris. She is also egg-shaped and has two moons. Haumea was the goddess ‘who bore children through her brain’. She was the Hawaiian goddess of fertility and childbirth. The two moons are named after two of her daughters. She was known as the goddess of the earth and was married to the god Wākea (space). Within the marriage of the two, then we have the relation between form and emptiness, or openness. Haumea was known to be a shape-shifter as well as a time traveler. In other words, she had overcome the prison of the space-time continuum. The aspect of Haumea as shape shifter will manifest itself as the shifting fortunes in politics and borders of nations as events immediately before us unfold. In the Middle East especially the borders we have known since World War II in that region are likely to dissolve and will become states based in cultures instead of artificial demarcations.

This full moon also contains indications of destructive activity – not necessarily violent – which will arise from old antipathies colliding with the emerging multipolar order. The old antipathies are related to the obsession of the old colonial powers seeking to maintain at least some skin in the great game as the saying goes. This is shown by the square of Saturn to the midpoint of a Mars/Uranus quintile. Quintiles can often show obsessions, while the Mars/Uranus combination in mundane charts pertains to violent people, fighters for freedom and revolutionaries. We have been witnessing some of the destructive actions already taking place in Europe, the Arabian Peninsula and in Ukraine, the latter which Russia has sharply escalated in the past few months. We may look upon these events negatively and with anxiety, but in reality what we are witnessing is the beginning of the end of an old extractive system which has made a small minority of people very rich but which has led to the urge to be free of such a system in the populace, which will be described presently, and which has run its course. An old admonishment comes to mind, being once stated to a disciple: “Be not afraid of emotional devastation, my brother.”^[19] It is a good Scorpio statement, that, and pertinent to today’s world. In truth we should look upon events as they are unfolding with courage, with expectancy, and with – strange as it may seem – a sense of hope and relief. With the preceding in mind we move to our investigation of current events.

Current events: The following events have taken place or are carried on from the previous letter:

• In what is an obvious campaign caper, Trump has lifted sanctions on Russian diesel and is buying diesel from Russia and for the world market. Zelenskyy is not happy, nor the Europeans. The net effect is akin to adding a drop of oil to a gallon of oil. It will have no measurable effect on world diesel prices, nor will it lower diesel prices in the US or Europe. And…wait for it…that crude oil is coming from Iran.
• Deputies from the Lvov region in Western Ukraine passed a bill that prohibits Trump from putting pressure on Ukraine. As if. Those people appear to live in some parallel universe.
• Trump has floated the idea of renaming the Atlantic Ocean as ‘American Ocean’. His idea was sunk before it left the rally.
• Protests and riots in Europe have spread to numerous other nations across Europe and abroad. This is covered in a topic below.
• When I arrived in the US for my most recent trip there was a general sense of dismay and disgust about a planned public execution, which had been put forward by the Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth. There were good reasons why the execution of prisoners was moved to private venues, one of the main ones being because public executions were cruel and unusual punishment. They also exposed children to the spectacle. Thankfully, in one of his saner moments Trump quashed the event, bowing to pressure from advisors and religious groups. He was persuaded it was against American values, but also because it could serve to radicalize certain elements within American society and abroad. The last public execution as a mandate of the courts in the US was in 1937.
• The 1967 video of Bigfoot in California has been debunked as a hoax. A video showing a practice run was found locked away in a safe. Believers will still believe (“let deception rule”). Relevant to today, from the article, “One roll of film is the truth. The other is a lie. Which is which depends on who you ask.”
• Lula was reelected as the PM in Brazilian elections. Washington was heavily involved in manipulating the election in favor of Flavio Bolsonaro, most visibly via META, of Facebook and WhatsApp fame. Bolsonaro absconded from Brazil on an Italian passport with his family to Argentina and then onward to Florida in order to avoid arrest, prosecution and jail on charges of corruption. His extraction from Brazil was a joint US-Argentine operation, which tells us quite a bit about what the election was about. The evangelical Christian vote has been a rising voter bloc in Brazil, gradually replacing the Catholics, the evangelicals having been manipulated themselves via the CIA. It was another good example of “Let Maya flourish and let deception rule.” Lula’s win was a big sigh of relief for the BRICS bloc, Palestine and left wing politics in South America, and a large blow to the US, the dollar and Israel. (must see) Flavio was to be a US puppet overseeing the gutting of BRICS and ties with China. His father (Jair), ex-PM of Brazil is serving 27 years prison.
• Vučić was ousted in the Serbian election by a grassroots movement called the Student List. The List the list consists not of students but of 250 academics, professionals and public figures selected by student plenums, whose platform is to fight against corruption and organized crime, alongside other measures in education, housing and healthcare. The political movement grew out of protests over the collapse of the canopy of the Novi Sad railway station.
• In Bulgarian elections Liyana Yotova is in the lead. She favors dialog with Russia, is against sending aid or troops to Ukraine and is a thorn in the side of Brussels and Washington. The 2^nd round of the election will take place on November 1^st.
• There was a meeting of the Mecca pact in Tehran – that is, high officials from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Turkiye travelled to Tehran for talks, presumably about the war in Yemen, which the Saudis are losing badly. This is covered in a separate topic below.
• There has been a mutiny in the Israeli ranks. Bibi ordered a strike on Iran the day before the election, which was refused by the defense minister. The minister reported the incident to the press, which broadcast the details. This, too, is covered below.
• The 2^nd terrible train collision this year in Spain took place two days after the full moon (chart). Sixty-eight people were killed. It was attributed to human error. The computer systems functioned properly but the decision was made to continue the route anyway. The linked article gives the details.

Pop! Goes the hubris.: The topic about the full moon has already described what can only be seen as a blow to the hubris of Washington’s and Israel’s designs on the Middle East and the world. What was described in the full moon topic was written some days before the actual events. In the space of 24 hours four of the events described in the bullet points above took place on the day of the full moon or just before. Those four events were the upset elections in Serbia and Brazil, the meeting of the Mecca pact in Tehran and the mutiny of the Israeli Defense Minister against the orders of Netanyahu. These events bode poorly for Israel especially, and the larger aims of Washington. Serbia was one of Israel’s greatest champions in Europe, with defense contracts and the support by the outgoing Prime Minister, Vučić. He was also pro-Ukrainian and had been supplying ammunition to Ukrainian forces. The new administration as it forms in Serbia is likely to cancel support for Israel and Ukraine, as well as reviewing relations with Brussels. If the acting Prime Minister in Bulgaria wins in the second round that also bodes ill for Ukraine, since Bulgaria shares a coastline on the Black Sea.

Many comments over the past weeks have been to the effect that analysts had expected an October surprise with an attack on Iran by either Israel, the US or both. Such an attack would have insured a margin of safety for Netanyahu and a possible electoral victory. But the defense establishment and senior analysts in Israel know the score with Iran and are seeking to avoid a further escalation of the conflict because they know Israel would be possibly mortally attacked in a further round of war with Iran. The fortunes of Netanyahu are looking bleaker by the day.

The optics of the meeting of the Mecca pact in Tehran sent a clear message: Iran is in the driver’s seat in the Persian Gulf region. The members of the Mecca pact requested the meeting. That doesn’t happen if they were assured of being the dominant powers in the region going forward. Pakistan is looking toward divesting itself of IMF control and has been looking East for some years. China is one of Pakistan’s biggest allies and largest trading partner. Pakistan also relies on Iranian fuel, especially gas for cooking. The US has been trying to upend cross-border trade between Iran and Pakistan, with little effect. Pakistan’s position between the China-Iran trading partnership and Washington is precarious to say the least. Washington had pressured the arrest and incarceration of Imran Khan in Pakistan which is still a sore point with the populace. Pakistan has a very large Shia community and cannot afford to leave Iran in the lurch against Washington, hence their strenuous efforts at negotiation between the parties involved.

The Saudis have stepped in the proverbial and are in a bad place regarding Yemen. Ansar Allah has destroyed an estimated upwards of $2 trillion in Saudi Arabia’s infrastructure. The Saudis cannot export any oil (fuller explanation). They are unable to make payments. They are unable to extract themselves from Washington’s grip and that leads us to the conclusion that this meeting in Tehran was an effort to influence the Iranians to have a word with Ansar Allah about possibly ending the Saudi-Yemeni war. Ansar Allah acts independently of Iran, though they are erstwhile allies with Iran. But the situation between Yemen and Saudi Arabia may have gone too far already, with tribal groups talking about making new arrangements, as it were with the possible end result being the ousting of the Saudi family as the ruling party in Saudi Arabia. We will have to wait and see what the outcome of that meeting manifests, but we can be fairly certain that it will not favor Saudi Arabia. And that means Israeli concerns have taken a big hit with the loss of Saudi Arabia. The Saudis have been seen as the key toward normalization between the Arab states and Israel. But Yemen has twice the population of all of the other states on the Arabian Peninsula combined. It is clear now that Israel and the greater Israel project are no longer viable concerns in the region. So, we come to what is really the determining factor behind all of the conflicts we are seeing today.

Between two systems: In the Libra letter we looked at the revolutionary phase that is commencing now and why the West is in an accelerating decline. Choices have been made and the tests are being applied between nations. What is the fundamental root of what is happening, we might ask? Briefly, what we are seeing is a clash between two world systems. One system, basically embodied in the West, known as capitalism, is an extractive financial system. It depends on speculation and subjugation – otherwise known as control – over resources. The old colonial powers have been the expression of that system over the past 500 years. The working mechanism is that resources are seized from other regions or nations when a capitalist nation exhausts its own resources, brings those resources to the home nation and then manufactures goods to be sold abroad and at home resulting in added value, better known as profit. Resources are used as collateral for loans to build infrastructure, including housing, and those loans accrue interest payments, also known as usury.

When the resources from other nations begin to run thin then the extractive practices turn inward on the native population and we see wars waged upon other nations to shore up control over the targeted nation’s resources, which further drains the public purse at home and impoverishes the public. This is at the root of the protests we see in Europe. Seen in an alternative light, the EU was set up as a neocolonial actor (See Richard Wolff video in Suggested Viewing) with the aim of expanding its influence first over Eastern Europe with the ultimate aim being that of defeating and breaking up Russia into manageable small states. The Russians know this, hence their fight being against NATO as a whole. Since NATO has been unable to defeat Russia the United States has turned over the financial support of Ukraine to the Europeans with the net effect being that of the EU having to extract money from the people of the EU to support the military action in Ukraine.

Means of extraction: The main means of such extraction from the European populace, otherwise known as austerity measures, are via rental fees and taxes on goods and services. You may have noticed interest rates have been climbing and that loans are more difficult to negotiate. Housing becomes increasingly scarce and overly expensive in such a case. In the West we live in a rentier economy, where landlords and banks make money off of our investments and use our houses for speculation rather than for providing living space – homes. The sanctions against Russia have not appreciably harmed the Russian economy but instead have resulted in a large drain on European economies. Regardless of what you we might hear from establishment parties in Europe about the causes of the protests we are seeing, when you peel back the surface rhetoric the overall cause of protests and riots in Europe is due to austerity measures.

Banks and oligarchs control governments via money supply in capitalist economies. ‘The Markets’ give an indicator of how well the wealthy are doing, whereas the Dow Jones (for instance) shows very little about the wealth of the average American citizen. It is the same in other Western economies. Hence, over the past 500 years under capitalism Europe in particular has been riven by war after war. Western Europe, having coasts and the means (navies) has searched abroad and colonized whole regions for the enrichment of those European powers. At the same time the extractive practices of the West have given rise over the centuries to the Third World, which our establishments now like to call the ‘developing nations’, all the while the Western powers seek to stifle the development of ‘developing’ nations when the profit margins from the extraction of resources from those nations becomes too small. In a nutshell this is why the West has gone to war with Russia, Yemen and Iran. The West can neither control nor extract the resources from those nations, and it needs those resources as collateral for loans. Those three mentioned nations are sovereign. Then there is China.

The other system mentioned in this topic is the very one the capitalists are seeking to upend. In this latter system the government controls the banks and the wealthy are not allowed influence over government decision making. Corporations and the wealthy are made to contribute to the building of the state and houses are provided for living instead of speculation. This is socialism, in distinction to communism. Socialism can exist within a capitalist system. But there are two primary types of capitalism – financial and industrial. In the West we are under the rule of financial capitalism, wherein dollar values are placed on everything, including people, and money is made by speculation and payments on debt. In other words, the people making the most money in financial capitalist societies are doing so without during any sort of meaningful labor or activities. They set the values on properties and sit back and collect the profits. This is called unearned income.

What we are describing here is quite simplistic and not being an economist myself I would recommend reading a piece by Michael Hudson, “Finance Capitalism Versus Industrial Capitalism: The Rentier Resurgence and Takeover.” Financial capitalism started its takeover around the Thatcher and Reagan administrations. We are seeing the effects of the extraction of wealth from the public in the protests and riots in Europe. But we come back to China.

China has a system they evolved called ‘Socialism With Chinese Characteristics’. It is characterized by three main pillars – central control via the CPC (Communist People’s Congress), a socialist market economy, the Four Cardinal Principles (Adherence to the socialist path, the people’s democratic dictatorship, the leadership of the CPC, and Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought.) – all driven by a long-term plan toward the realization of common prosperity, which has caused a reduction of the wealth gap, boosting of regional development and lifting lower income groups into a growing middle class. What we have witnessed as a result in China is the very rapid growth of infrastructure, technological and educational developments in over the past 40 years.

Chinese society now is unrecognizable from what it was 40 years ago. We can have that sort of development in the West, too, but the rentier class would instead like to see a return to a more feudal type of society. If we don’t think the latter is true then it might pay to ask ourselves why our educational systems, infrastructure, purchasing power, social programs and educational standards have seen a steady decline since the institution of the rule by the markets (neoliberalism), the very reason why voting in our Western democracies fails to produce any real change for the public good.

There are a couple of other points to make about China and about capitalism in general. In its functioning China is not a purely communist country. China has a mixed economy, as do Russia and Iran. There is capitalism in China. There are hundreds of billionaires in China who became so through capitalist means. Jack Ma is a prime example. But the billionaires in China are not allowed to influence CPC decision-making. And they must pay their fair share in Chinese society. But China is seen as a threat in Washington and in Wall Street. It is not a threat to the American people. It is a threat to the system of finance capitalism by the example China is setting for the world. As a result, China has become the major trading partner for the majority of the world’s nations. And people who travel to China from the West come back amazed at what they saw and question, “Why can’t we have that?” The point is, we can, but it would mean overhauling our economic system and rejecting finance capitalism, returning to industrial capitalism with sovereign control over nations’ banks. This is the major battle we are facing in the West. Recall at the start of this letter Scorpio rules other people’s money and losses through partnerships. We can probably make a valid assumption that finance capitalism is ruled by Scorpio. And now the battle between capital and labor is starting to become the major conflict in the West. That brings us to the midterm elections in the US, the nation where the battle between socialism and capitalism will reach its peak.

The midterms: The midterm elections for Congress and some states take place on November 3^rd. As mentioned at the start of this letter polling suggests a landslide victory for opposition candidates in the sitting Congress, disadvantaging the Trump administration. (See Robert Barnes interview in Suggested Viewing) As it stands, all bets are off as to the outcome. There is a wider picture at work aside from public sentiments about this particular administration. The American oligarchy and Washington establishment along with that of Wall Street are facing very serious crises. American hegemony on the military front has been exposed as having many weaknesses. The American financial system of neoliberalism is being bypassed step-by-step as a growing number of nations realize they need to bypass such a system if they are to have any sovereignty. The public image of the United States as a bastion of freedom and democracy is no longer seen as such by the wider world. The United States support, funding and logistics for its proxy colony in the Eastern Mediterranean has ruined the reputation of the US as a supporter of human rights. In short, expect the remainder of this quarter to be very volatile and restive in the United States, regardless of the outcome of the midterms.

The Republicans in the Trump administration have already laid plans for rigging and stealing the midterm elections should a landslide victory for Democrats and independents be the outcome. (See Hedges in Suggested Viewing) Most of those plans have been knocked back according to insiders (Barnes video). I have a personal anecdote regarding the midterms relating to possible rigging. Being in ex-pat American I am eligible for voting abroad. I had sent in my application for the mail-in ballot, only to receive an email a couple of weeks later saying there was some inconsistency with the information I had provided. There was no inconsistency, in fact. I apparently forgot to dot an ‘i’ or cross a ‘t’ somewhere. Anyway, to make a long story short, since I was going to be in the US anyway I decided not to contest it online. Instead, I rocked up to the electoral commission in my old home county in the US, armed with all my documents including an expired North Carolina driver’s license and stood there waiting as the kind ladies at the commission checked all the records. I was duly cleared to vote and did so the next day. Word to the wise: If you go to live abroad and if you may need documentation to prove that you were once a resident somewhere, keep things like your old driver’s licenses and any other old photo identification that proves you were who you say you are. The ladies at the commission took an interest in that expired license.

Close victories by Democrats in the midterms will be hotly contested by various means including confiscation of ballots, court challenges, pressure at voting booths including and up to declaration of martial law. We are just over a week away from such elections, with the elections in Israel coming the day before the full moon. Now there are growing numbers of reports of the US removing troops from its bases in the Middle East, the wealthy and diplomats scurrying to leave the region of the Middle East, diplomatic staff and their families being removed from the Middle East, at the same time Trump has given a ringing endorsement of Netanyahu in Bibi’s bid for reelection, otherwise known as saving his neck. There are reports that the Iranians have reactivated their mosaic defense posture as we saw in the 40-day phase of the hot war. If the hot war reignites then the entire Persian Gulf region faces a catastrophic collapse. This is not hyperbole. The Iranians have stated clearly what would happen and thus far they have been good to their word. This all ties in with the midterm elections as well.

US presidents are always deemed to be more ‘presidential’ when they go to war. It is also much easier to manipulate the public in wartime. We hold the thought in meditative equipoise that this will not eventuate. But events have already probably gone too far. Whether or not war erupts with Iran before or after the midterms makes no difference. Such a war would completely upend a fundamental pillar of neoliberalism, which is the petrodollar system. It would also bring to an end the Sykes-Picot system that divided up the Middle East into statelets easily controlled by British and French interests after the First World War. That system has been very advantageous to the United States since the end of World War II. The Europeans are looking at all this, meaning the various European establishments, with a great amount of concern. Losing control of the Middle East means also losing control over transport routes, energy supplies, and lands them back in the lap of Russia concerning European energy supplies. The United States would be no help if the war reignites. So, the establishment of the US and the Western oligarchy are making their plans, hoping to snatch victory from the jaws of what looks like a certain defeat for their interests. And they will fight tooth and nail to hang on to what they have.

With the preceding in mind, in the long run we have seen that foreign policy at least does not change regardless of which party is in power. Republicans and Democrats alike in Congress and in administrations are warmongers regardless. Democrats tend to focus upon Russia, while Republicans tend to focus on the Middle East. The two areas of conflict are one and the same. The bottom line here is that Americans should prepare themselves for what is very likely to be growing instability, drawn out court battles, rising prices due to energy shortages and gaslighting in the media as desperation in the halls of power increases. And if the war with Iran reignites expect that life in the United States is going to be, shall we say a bit messy into the foreseeable future.

The European spring?: In this topic we will not be discussing the return of warm weather, strolls along the river banks enjoying the blooming flowers and the renewal of life from the cold and barrenness of winter. Instead what we are looking at is the probable start of a wave of revolutions across Europe. Before we even start and to repeat a bit of what has been stated thus far let us be clear about what is actually happening in Europe. For years the leadership in the European Union and the UK have ignored the demands of the people in favor of trying to continue support for the economic system that has increasingly extracted the wealth of the European populace and transferred it to the top 1%, in the same manner as we have seen it happen in the United States and other Western-allied nations. That system was described above. What we are told instead is that the protests we are seeing are about immigration, infiltrators who are inciting rioting, so-called radical leftists (apparently if you are young you are a radical leftist), socialism and communism (favorite tropes), the ‘Deep State’, open borders, Muslims, Antifa…take your pick. The fact is, these protests and riots have been building for years. And there is a common theme, as in follow the money.

There many comments to the effect that the riots we are seeing in Europe are not homegrown, when in fact they are. They are the result of decades of salami-slicing public services, stagnation of wages, governments prioritizing foreign adventurism over the needs of the public (with extractive policies toward foreign states), the growing and very obvious wealth gap over the past decades, the youth who no longer see a future for themselves in what were once rich Western countries, with public money flying out to finance foreign wars against countries which pose no threat to Western nations and so on. The protests are the result of years of stagnation, frustration and growing despair. Added to this is the failure of governments to properly integrate immigrants into their countries. That lack of integration turns them into second-class citizens, which only aggravates the problems in immigrant communities. If we did not engage in foreign wars in the first place there would be no problem with mass migrations in general. These protests and riots are spreading rapidly across Europe, and all for the same reasons just outlined. And unless the root problems facing the European public are solved to the public’s satisfaction such protests and riots will only increase in frequency and intensity over time. The people who feel they have nothing left to lose will resort to any means necessary for survival.

The protests in Europe started in France, driven by a brutal cost-of-living crisis and a state abandoning its people. Macron is one of the most hated leaders in Europe, with an approval rated at around 15%. Consider the following, from a comment:

“…everyday citizens are crushed while the state throws billions away. France handed over ~€4.9B in military aid to Ukraine, spent €630M+ housing refugees, and continues to approve hundreds of military-use shipments to Israel. But that is just the tip of the iceberg. President Macron is fast-tracking a massive €64B domestic defense budget for 2027, effectively doubling the military budget from a decade ago. To make matters worse, just this past August, the government rubber-stamped an additional €36 billion in military spending for drones, cyber, and missiles through 2030, completely ignoring desperate domestic needs while writing blank checks for defense.

Who pays? Regular people and their kids. To offset the soaring debt—now at nearly 120% of GDP—and fund these military expansions, the 2026 budget slashed funding for public schools, cutting around 4,000 teaching positions. Class sizes are swelling, school buildings in working-class neighborhoods are deteriorating, and 10% of high school classes went entirely untaught in recent years. Meanwhile, citizens are suffocating under a 21.3% spike in energy prices. People are furious they can’t afford groceries or rent, and their kids are being denied a proper education, while money flies out the door for weapons. Yet authorities would rather blame ultra-left “black blocs” for the violence than admit to an economic collapse.”

And regards that economic collapse, French 20-year bonds just topped out at 5.4%. Bond yields reflect investor confidence over time. 20 and 30 year bonds are reflective of lending on mortgages. And that means borrowing for housing and infrastructure crashes. Societal growth grinds to a halt, in simple terms. Housing was already a problem in France, as it is in many European countries. We see it here in Italy, too. This brings us to what the frustration and anger have produced, triggered by different things in different countries but always with the deteriorating economic situation at its root. The Trump-Netanyahu war against Iran has only served as a catalyst, throwing gasoline onto the fire, pardoning the pun.

Spreading protests: as to where the protests are taking place, here is a quick rundown:

– France, famously
– Albania, with daily clashes in Tirana and a government building set alight
– Belgium: the French movement spilled over, including riots in Liège
– Italy: “No Meloni Day” student protests since 16 October, turning into riots in Milan, Turin and Bologna
– Greece: students camping in Athens’ Syntagma Square over housing and education costs, explicitly inspired by France
– Germany: pupils blockading schools in Berlin and Hamburg in solidarity with France
– Spain: an indefinite education strike in Madrid, with students marching alongside teachers and families
– Serbia: the student movement born from the 2024 Novi Sad station collapse is now running its own list in the 25 October election

And now the Czech Republic with protests over how the government wants to fund public media, fearing the loss of independent media. As it turns out, such protests are not limited to Europe. We are also seeing a growing number of protests in South America, as follows:

• Colombia: Protests against the government’s economic and social policies, as well as demands from workers.
• Chile: A strike by miners due to working conditions and social benefits.
• Mexico: Protests due to the water crisis and the poor quality of tap water.
• Ecuador: Protests against rising prices, lack of medical services, and problems in the areas of employment and education.
• Argentina: Demonstrations against cuts in university funding and reductions in wages.

The Italian job: Let us be clearer still about what is happening with these protests. Living in Italy there is a prime example of how European governments were going to handle these protests. Dissatisfaction with government policy in Italy as with other European nations has been building for years. As is usual the government is seeking to blame other parties and to kick the can down the road, avoiding what the problem really is, which comes down to this: The problem is not horizontal as in right versus left, but is instead vertical, between the elites who fail to listen or just do not care and the little guy who has to bear the costs of government inattention.

The straw that broke the camel’s back in Italy was the hike in diesel prices (must read), which is devastating small businesses in southern Italy – truck drivers, farmers, fishermen, steelworkers and anyone else who relies on petroleum to conduct their business. What happened about a week ago was that the truck drivers said enough is enough and could not afford the diesel so they blockaded the roads. Nothing moved in southern Italy. Supermarket shelves went bare. People were panic buying, fearful of not having any food to put on the table. It started in the southernmost regions of Italy – Sicily, Calabria, Puglia, Basilicata, Campania, Molise and finally Lazio, where Rome is the seat. The truckers were soon joined by farmers and then by fishermen. My brother-in-law had planned a trip through that period, departing on a tour bus southbound that would normally take six hours. He finally reached his destination after 15 hours.

There were picket lines at ports. Then the protests quickly spread to the northern regions, several of which turned violent. Milan and Bologna were the worst hit with the violence, as was Torino. The response by the government was to convene meetings, lay down decrees, and call out and increase the police forces, even to the point of detaining 12-year-olds. Yes, 12-year-olds. Their detention was called ‘preventive detention’ because it was feared they could be provoked into violence. 12-year olds. Not a good look or move, Giorgia. Not only does the government response show the government’s disconnect from the most vulnerable in society, but it also shows the desperation of the upper classes that hold influence over the government. However, this is but the beginning. So long as the ruling parties continue to double down on war and ignore the demands of the people for proper government such protests and riots will only grow. And they will be coming soon enough to the United States and other Western aligned countries. At this point, we are presented with a conundrum, which is fundamental toward producing meaningful change.

The West’s conundrum: On the one hand we have peaceful protests, which governments tend to ignore because they really don’t force anything. This is what we have seen with the protests against the genocide in Palestine. Such protests may be a little inconvenient but they don’t really affect the running of the country. So the people in power simply let them peter out. On the other hand we have demonstrations that turn violent, and these encourage the state to clamp down hard, which is the usual response. Now, not to be advocating such, but such riots do interfere with the functioning of the state but the big problem there is that they usually have no planning behind them. And at this stage as the public begins to rise, the biggest challenge to the state, whichever state that is, is a public that is organized and has a real plan. What governments fear the most are protests that actually do shut down the state and which have planning behind them. These are lacking at the moment. We don’t have the like of Giuseppe Garibaldi in Europe these days – not that we know of.

At some point along the way as public frustration, anger and demands increase, someone or some group will step forward with a plan to challenge the governments to bend to the peoples’ will, and then the game will be on, in a manner of speaking. There were indications of this happening with the Student List political movement in Serbia, as one small example. It was a grassroots movement, had a clear agenda and rallied enough support across the social spectrum to oust the sitting parliament. But that is only a start. Now, for Serbia the gains must be solidified, strengthened and maintained. And that is where the real challenge comes in. The EU will seek to dilute and eventually overturn the election result because that result poses a challenge to the EU neocolonial project. With no money going to Israel or Ukraine and with the corruption that has fueled the former being hereafter under the microscope the EU will have to force more austerity onto the European public. Expect more protests, along with shape-shifting in European politics.

Three days’ worth: The governments of the UK and Japan have just one thing to say to their people: Boo! Well, it is Halloween. What can we say? But apparently the leadership of those two nations wants their people to be prepared for emergencies, such as a Russian invasion of the UK. In Japan I have seen reports that such warnings happen on a regular basis which means people there are likely to keep a stock of food and water anyway but are unlikely to be very alarmed. But in fact, Japan is subject to natural disasters and it follows that emergency preparations are in order. That is not the case in the UK. In the UK, though, people are supposed to be afraid – very afraid – of a Russian invasion of Europe. The European elitess are so desperate to escalate the conflict with Russia in an attempt to ‘Article 5’ the situation and prolong the war that they are literally resorting to toilet propaganda. Apparently you can make this stuff up. All they do instead is to soil their reputations while the world laughs at them.

The prepping line goes as follows – keep three days’ worth of food in stock, 3 liters of water per person per day, batteries and flashlights, enough cash for three days and so on. It is utter madness. The British establishment wants the British public to be doomsday preppers. The Russians look upon British threats and fear mongering with a shrug of the shoulders. They know the British military is a shadow of its former self, but the British establishment wants the British public to be under the illusion that Russia poses some sort of existential threat to the British Isles. The old canard of Russian interference in the Brexit vote has returned, when in fact the Saudis did some meddling of their own with the Brexit vote behind the scenes. In fact Europeans are not allowed to even talk about anything that might mention anything positive about or rapprochement with Russia. Now, in Italy keeping such provisions in store has merit, given the blockade that just happened in southern Italy. But that has nothing to do with Russians. It has much more to do with Meloni’s government and the American blunder of going into war with Iran.

Life in Ukraine: Speaking of Russia, the war is not going at all well for Ukraine. A new report has finally given out numbers for the ratio of casualties, with Ukraine suffering 10 times more casualties than the Russians in the conflict. The recruiting patrols who snatch the men off the streets are becoming very wealthy by extorting thousands of dollars from the people they capture, who if they cannot pay are sent straight to the front. Ukraine is coming under withering attacks on its infrastructure from Russia. There is a planned trilateral meeting between the US, Ukrainian officials and Russia on where things stand. The European E3 want to be included. The Russians are not interested. The Europeans and Americans want a cease-fire, which the Russians reject out of hand. Negotiations will continue under fire. Zelenskyy still goes around Europe trying to round up $200 billion to continue the war. The European public is sick of it. Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff continue to offer financial sweeteners to Russia with hopes of business deals after the war is over. The Russians are not interested in financial deals. The Russians want of comprehensive European security architecture, meaning all of Russia and Europe combined. As it stands, Ukraine faces a bleak winter and a much harder 2027 going forward.

War with Iran: Since the Israelis have been unable to cajole Washington into attacking Iran before the Israeli elections, talk has now turned to probable attacks on Iran after the US midterms. Trump has no desire to go back into war with Iran. But the Iranians are ready for any eventuality, including a nuclear attack on mountain complexes. There have been reports of heavy transport planes from Russia landing in Tehran. The Strait of Hormuz remains closed and attacks on ships that try to slip through seem to occur on a daily basis now. The price of oil keeps climbing. There have been sharp increases in fuel prices in swing states. Some American states had dropped their sales tax on gasoline and diesel, but it has seemed to bring little to no relief. The Iranians have been very specific: If they are attacked again everything on the Arabian Peninsula aside from Yemen will be targeted, including data centers, undersea cables, desalination plants, oil infrastructure.

In short the states that were set up by the British a century ago would be rendered uninhabitable, at lease for a time. In light of that, the Gulf monarchies are beginning to see the light, and they are turning to Iran in an effort to set up some sort of pan-Persian Gulf security infrastructure with Iran as the major player. Yemen plays into that conflict as well and looks well on its way toward ejecting foreign influence from Yemen in total. The next 30 days will be very telling with regard to the Persian Gulf. If no war is reignited in that period then we may in fact be seeing a restructuring of politics across that region away from the West and the isolation of Israel.

The Israeli elections: To round off this letter we finish with the result of the Israeli elections and their probable impact. There was no clear winner. It was a bad result for Netanyahu. Eisenkot and Netanyahu are neck-and-neck. Suffice it to say that whatever coalition forms, with roughly 80% of the Jewish population of Israel desiring the expulsion of Palestinians from mandated Palestine not much is bound to change regarding Israeli behavior toward neighboring states or toward Palestinians. Voter turnout was the highest in 50 years, with over 77% turnout. The election was cast as a vote about Netanyahu. The Arab bloc made gains, with Bibi calling for a strong right wing coalition to offset the Arab gains. But the Arabs could turn out to be the kingmakers in any coalition government that forms. Eisenkot has refused to form a unity government with Netanyahu. All this means that Israel will be in turmoil for some weeks, probably while a coalition government is formed, with Netanyahu as caretaker PM in the interim. And that means the push to war with Iran will continue so long as he is in office. During the campaign he made a pitch to the ultraorthodox voters saying, “The Jewish state is on the brink of ruin.” If so it is largely because of his own policies. War has a tendency to bring nations to ruin.

In conclusion, over the next 30 days especially we are going to see very significant shifts in politics across the West and in the Middle East. The tribal leaders in the Arabian Peninsula are all singing different tunes now, seeing the troubles of the Saudi royal family. The Iranians are leading the calls in the region for a region-wide security architecture, which will exclude the United States. Israel is facing increasing isolation on the world stage as one by one nations abandon their support for the Israeli project. Israel itself is facing uncertainty as to its political leadership although public sentiment remains constant. A glimmer of hope returns in South America due to the Brazilian election for a turn away from American dominance. But perhaps the largest change in this immediate interregnum will be the results of the American midterm elections. Naturally, we will cover that in the next letter. But if Trump is rendered a lame-duck, as is widely predicted, then his administration will be embroiled in lawsuits and the effects there will be seen downstream through the cronies and the donor class who have so enriched themselves with this administration.

The most hopeful sign in the West is the beginning of true public uprisings in opposition to the policies that have so disadvantaged the Western public over the past decades. People everywhere are beginning to utilize their most valuable trait, as stated at the lede of this letter of their judicious sense of what not to believe. And if approval ratings for leaders reflect that trait, then we are on our way toward saner policies and real leaders instead of being ruled by comprador elites. What we are seeing will take time, of course, at least for the remainder of this decade. We first have to settle the major conflicts and begin the processes of real negotiations and rebuilding, along with investigations into the corruption and manipulation that has brought all this mess to pass. But Pluto, Mars and the influence of Scorpio are doing their work on the growing awareness of the true spirit of humanity. There is plenty of work to be done in the process of inspiring that growth and we are all called upon to do our part. If we can approach it with goodwill, letting go of our base antagonisms and in seeing that we are all caught in the devil’s bargain, then we as humanity will arise as the triumphant warriors we are meant to be. The result will be that the earth will become a beacon of light within our local universe instead of our having to make up for lost ground. Have faith. We are on our way toward that grand Triumph!

Scorpio blessings,
Malvin
28 Oct 2026
malvin@malvinartley.com

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Suggested Viewing:
Daniel Davis Deep Dive: The Dollar, Sanctions & Bombs Can’t Bring it Back Alastair Crooke
Double Down News: Lowkey Drops Bombshell on Trump, Israel & UK’s Failed War in Yemen
Forex ForFun Trader: Prof. Richard Werner – Brilliant Interview! (on banks and banking)
George Galloway: The Mother Of All Tucker Shows (long interview with Tucker Carlson)
The Grayzone: ‘We are fighting for a just peace’: top Yemeni official on Ansarulah’s new war
Chris Hedges: How Trump Plans to Steal the Midterm Elections
Judging Freedom: Who Will Trump Blame? Robert Barnes (midterms)
Danny Haiphong: Richard Wolff: Europe Collapsing, Iran Unravels the US Empire
John Mearsheimer: Trump’s Three-War Trap | Episode 13 (an overview of the Iranian, Ansarallah and Ukraine conflicts)
Israel’s Lobby vs US Democracy | A Special Roundtable
Protect Ancient Christians: Christians Need to Wake Up

Picture Credits:
Scorpio: Instagram (Lisa Ryan)
I Voted: Author
Hurricane Isaias: WUFT News
Death Jeep: Author
Store display: Author
Scorpio card: Modified from Deckaura
The Moon’s formation: National Geographic
Pluto: NASA
Haumea: Play INAF
Protester: Al Jazeera
Lula victory: Al Jazeera
Mecca pact in Iran: The Amargi
1894 cartoon: Reddit
China before and after: Reddit
Forbes page: Facebook
European protests: Instagram (Earth Signal)
Bond yields: Instagram (Your Money and Macros)
Truckers’ blockade: Mjengo Hub
Boo!: Author
Israeli election results: i24 News
Comprador elites: Medium (Kumaravadivelu)

1. Euripides, Helen (412 BCE) ↑
2. Bailey, Alice A., Esoteric Astrology (1951) New York, NY, Lucis Publishing, p. 193 ↑
3. Op cit ↑
4. Ibid, p. 194 ↑
5. Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, pp. 1258, 1259 ↑
6. Esoteric Astrology, p.35 ↑
7. Bailey, The Light of the Soul, p. 310 ↑
8. Esoteric Astrology, p. 199 ↑
9. Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, p. 575 ↑
10. Bailey, Esoteric Psychology I, pp. 50, 51 ↑
11. Esoteric Astrology, p. 653 ↑
12. Ibid, p. 114 ↑
13. Ibid, p. 68 ↑
14. Ibid, p. 78 ↑
15. Ibid, p. 507 ↑
16. Ibid, p. 209 ↑
17. Bailey, Esoteric Healing, p. 154 ↑
18. Bailey, Esoteric Psychology II, p. 304 ↑
19. Bailey, Discipleship in the New Age I, p. 556, the disciple O-LRD in the Healing Seed Group ↑