The Russian-Ukraine Crisis — The Shadow of the Russian Government

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In the previous post we discussed about the natal chart of Ukraine. We tried to understand from an astrological perspective the struggle of this country to find its own identity, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. We also particularly focused on the Moon, as the representative of the Ukrainian people.

In this article we are going to talk about the natal chart of Russia. We will try to understand what are the deep reasons dwelling in the Russian folk-soul that led to the current situation. And we are also going to highlight a very interesting relationship between Putin’s Pluto, the ascendant-descendant of Russia and the Moon of Ukraine.

Please note that there doesn’t seem to be a unique opinion among astrologers regarding the chart of the Russian Federation. This makes things even more difficult to grasp, so I invite you to take this article just as a possible astrological contribution on the matter. Again, I am not a geopolitical expert.

Natal Chart of Russia

I’ve decided to take into account the chart used by Astrology Weekly that coincides with Gorbachev’s resignation and the beginning of Yeltsin’s government. The chart is set for December 25, 1991 at 5:19pm GMT in Moscow, Russia. I find the symbolical date of Christmas to be very powerful in this regard.

The Sun was in the strong and austere Capricorn, a sign that definitely suits to the Russian people. Leo, the zodiac sign of royalty, carisma, and leadership was rising. And the Moon in Virgo in the first house well describes a nation that identifies itself with a people (Moon) that comes from decades of communist proletariat (Virgo).

All the planets in the fifth house talk about self-expression, sense of payback and the awareness of having to deal with its children: the other nations of the former Soviet Union. A lineage that is both cultural (5th house in Sagittarius, Mars ruler of the 9th in the 5th) and karmic (North Node in conjunction with the Sun in the 5th).

Among those children, Ukraine stands out as it has the Moon (22° 23′ Aquarius) exactly on Russia’s Descendant (21° 00′ Aquarius). From this chart, the strength of the bond between Putin and Russia is also highlighted. In fact Putin’s Pluto (22° 43′ Leo) is sitting exactly on Russia’s Ascendant, in opposition to Ukraine’s Moon.

Venus, lord of the 10th house (the Government) is in the 4th house (The Fatherland, the Father) in tight conjunction with Pluto. This chart talks about a plutonic leader (10th house) who personifies the role of the powerful but dark father (Pluto).

As we are going to see, the current transits on Venus trigger a process of deep transformation concerning the power dynamics of the country, represented by the Venus-Pluto conjunction.

The Venus-Pluto Conjunction
activated by Transits

Mainly, we want to focus on the trine towards Venus and Pluto that Neptune in Pisces has started in 2021 (see chart below) and which is going to last until early 2023.

Transiting Neptune is in the 8th house of Russia. The house of death, power, finance, taboos, deep transformation, which also represents the shadow side of the country (in Jungian terms).

On top of that, transiting Pluto had activated the conjunction from 2018 to 2021 with a sextile. So we can look at the trine of Neptune as the continuation of a process that dates at least 4 years ago.

In my opinion the context introduced by this previous transit of Pluto has to do with a change in the power relationship between Putin, the government and the Russian oligarch system.

But what does the Neptune transit mean? Isn’t a trine a good aspect? We can never look at transits in an abstract way. Yes, a trine is in general easier than a Square. But which planet is activating which, and how?

My take on this is that forces of spiritual awaking and creative chaos (Neptune) are asking the Russian people to confront their shadow (eight house) in regard to their relationship with the government (Venus-Pluto conjunction) that is incarnated in the figure of an authoritarian father (Putin/Pluto) that they love and hate (Venus in Scorpio).

This process involves especially media since Venus is also the lord of the 3rd house. This explains the tough life of journalists in Russia in general, as well as the worsening of their condition under this war. In addition, the third is also the house of siblings and neighbors.

In this regard, Ukraine is not only closely related to Russia (they are “cousins”) but it is also a neighboring country. This is extremely important since the main reason that led Putin to invade Ukraine was its decision to join NATO. In fact this is mainly a war to prevent NATO (and therefore the United States) from becoming Russia’s new neighbor.

Saturn Transit on Russia Descendant

Let’s now take war into account. As we’ve already discussed in the previous post, the relationship with other countries (including war) is represented by the 7th House. Now, Ukraine is confronting the transit of Saturn on their Moon. And we know that their Moon is sitting on the descendant of Russia. This implies of course that at the moment Russia has Saturn transiting exactly on its descendant.

As always, in order to interpret transits on a house, we also want to look at the house ruler. In this case, Saturn is the ruler of the 7th. And interestingly enough on January 31st, 2021 Russia went through its Saturn return, which means that transiting Saturn conjoined its natal Saturn. We can think of it as the first impulse that brought us to today’s situation.

This, as well as Neptune transit started last year, confirms what experts are saying about this war. It’s being thought and prepared since 2021, although in Putin’s mind it should have been a very limited war, with the quick surrender of Ukraine.

How Long Will This Situation Last?

Again, please note that it’s extremely difficult to predict how things will turn out. This is just a perspective on the matter, based on a chart that is not even certain.

For now, my answer is limited to the transit analysis we discussed in the previous post and to this one. What’s surprising here is definitely the perfect fit between Putin’s Pluto, Russia AS-DS axis, and Ukraine’s Moon.

For this reason my answer is still the same, because it’s been confirmed by the particular chart of Russia that I’ve been using in this article. So in my opinion this situation is going to last until early 2023.

Especially because things are not promising if we look at the natal chart of NATO and United States, and to the upcoming transit of the South Node on the Venus-Pluto conjunction of Russia.

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