The Russian-Ukraine Crisis — Failure of an Individuation Process

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War is always a failure. We are all shocked about what’s happening in Ukraine those days. Our thoughts and prayers goes to the souls of the fallen and their families. May the spiritual world welcome them with love.

I am not a geopolitics expert. As an astrologer, what I can do to make a deeper sense out of what’s happening in Europe is to look—as always—at the sky. This article is meant to be a humble contribution in this sense.

As you can imagine, in order to understand what’s happening we need to look at the Natal Chart of Ukraine. By doing so, we’ll get to know a little bit better this country as a spiritual being. Understanding the potential of the chart, we’re going to be able to recognize how it’s been triggered these days, as well as in the recent past.

Ukraine Natal Chart

Let’s keep things simple. Ukraine’s Natal Chart is mainly focused on the First/Seventh Houses axis, since the majority of the planets are there. This axis is so important that even the Lunar Nodes are in tight conjunction with the Ascendant and Descendant, placed in Capricorn and Cancer respectively.

In my opinion, Ukraine is a country who still has to find its identity. In jungian terms, the process of finding who we really are is part of the so called individuation process, and it takes place between the others (Seventh House) and us (First House).

This process starts with us belonging to something greater, such as a group or family (represented by Cancer). In Ukraine’s case we’re definitely talking about the Soviet Union or “Cancer-Mother Russia” if you will. Slowly we separate from it (Capricorn) to understand who we really are.

For Ukraine, finding its identity is definitely something that belongs to a karmic process in the chart. This because the nodes are sitting exactly on the Ascendant / Descendant and involve Cancer (the Union they belonged to) and Capricorn (their identity).

The confusion—or instability—about Ukraine’s identity can be understood if we look at Neptune on the Ascendant. The planet of “dissolution of forms” makes it very difficult to understand who we are, because it refuses any set and stable definition. Neptune is good for creativity and mysticism; bad for any form of structure.

This is also confirmed by the Second House, which represents natural resources and the territory. It’s in Pisces, the Zodiac Sign of Jupiter and Neptune, a water sign that makes it difficult to have a set and defined border.

If we look at the Moon, things are getting even more confusing. It’s clear that the people (the Moon in Mundane Astrology) clearly want freedom (Aquarius). But at the same time the identity of the country (first house) is still affected by other countries, since the Moon is ruler of the seventh house.

From an Anthroposophical perspective, I’d say that the karmic task (Lunar Nodes) of this “incarnation” (current Ukraine’s chart) is to find back the lost connection with the Folk Soul, an entity of the spiritual hierarchy of the Archangels. And this also involves a rearrangement of national borders.

This is the potential, the issue in the chart, that is going to be triggered over and over by the transits.

Learning from 2014

In technical terms, this identity issue is triggered every time one of these spots are activated:

• The Ascendent
• The Ruler of the Ascendant (Saturn)
• Planets on the Ascendant (Neptune)
• Planets in the First House (Saturn and the Moon)

If we look back at the most recent events we can immediately compare the current scenario with the Crimea crisis of 2014.

In February and March 2014, Russia invaded and subsequently annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. This event took place in the aftermath of the Revolution of Dignity and is part of the wider Russo-Ukrainian conflict.

Back then, the most important transit in Ukraine’s chart was Pluto in conjunction with natal Neptune (see the picture below). Please also note that on top of that, transiting Uranus was making a square with natal Neptune. This simply means that the identity issue, which again is a potential in the Natal Chart, had been activated back then.

Uranus, Neptune and Pluto Transits

Usually the slower transits of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto open a very wide time window. For this reason, to pinpoint the transit we also have to take into account at least Saturn and Jupiter, being the second slower planets after the generational ones. In fact when quicker transits adds up to the slower, we have a strengthening of their effect in a shorter time window.

Saturn and Jupiter 2014 Transits

It’s very interesting noticing that the natal Moon was highly afflicted by Transiting Saturn from January to May 2014. Also note that at the same time, transiting Jupiter was in opposition to natal Neptune.

But does this combination of transits immediately mean “war”? Not at all. This just means that one of the main issues in Ukraine’s chart, the identity issue, had being triggered. War, as any form of conflict, is definitely the worst way to tackle the individuation process we described.

Transiting Saturn square natal Moon means that the people (the Moon) was in trouble or pain (Saturn). This because Saturn is the planet of detachment, whereas the Moon is the planet of attachment.

Transiting Jupiter in opposition natal Neptune means that the former Union (Jupiter in Cancer, old sense of belonging to Mother Russia) was knocking at the door, opposing the already confused individuation process (Neptune in Capricorn). This led to the disputed Crimean Status Referendum of March 16, 2014.

Current Transits

I’ve introduced the 2014 crisis because in my opinion it’s part of the same process we’re facing today. In fact if last time Pluto was transiting on Neptune, this time it’s going to be transiting on Saturn. Which is even worse.

Not only Saturn is both a planet in the first house and the lord of the ascendant (double trigger), but it is also the planet itself of structure and form. Pluto is going to ignite deep transformations in this regard, but it’s going to start only in 2023 as you can see below (red circle).

Please also note that Ukraine’s Saturn is at 1° 31′ Aquarius, extremely close to 0° 29′ Aquarius where the Jupiter-Saturn Great Conjunction took place in 2020 on Winter Solstice. In other words Ukraine went through its first Saturn Return (and what a return!) relatively recently.

Uranus, Neptune and Pluto Transits

In my opinion, Ukraine is going to take a new shape in 2023, and the current situation is the dramatic preparation to this radical change. The blue and red arrows point to the transits which involve specifically the Government (Mars as ruler of the 10th house and Pluto as planet in the 10th house).

Transiting Neptune in opposition to natal Mars simply means that the government (Mars) is in chaos (Neptune) and it will be for a long time. Transiting Uranus in opposition to natal Pluto means that a sort of patriotic riot (Uranus from the fourth house) will likely try to overthrow the government (Pluto) this summer.

But if things are going to radically change only starting next year, why things are happening now? To answer to this question, let’s take a look at Jupiter and Saturn transits.

Saturn and Jupiter 2022 Transits

Just as in 2014 transiting Saturn was making a square to Ukraine’s natal Moon, this year Saturn is going to be in a very long conjunction with it (red circle, above).

Again, Saturn is the planet of detachment; the Moon, attachment. Their combination usually brings to struggle and pain that require us to let things go. It’s not pleasant, to say the least. Again, all our compassion goes to the Ukrainian people.

In my opinion Saturn triggered the international crisis first, by making a square with natal Pluto (red arrow). And now, this is quickly turning into a conflict that is going to directly affect the population (transiting Saturn in long conjunction with the natal Moon).

Pluto in Vladimir Putin’s Chart

As you can see from Ukraine’s chart, governments tend not to be very clear. The MC falls in Scorpio, in conjunction with Pluto, and Mars, rulers of the 10th, is in the 8th house—the place of hidden things.

In my opinion Ukraine, since its independence, has had a powerful shadow government (Pluto) which left people completely in the dark (square with the Moon) about extremely important issues.

Don’t get me wrong: all governments do. But from the chart it seems that their decisions go directly to the detriment of the people themselves.

On top of that is worth noticing that Vladimir Putin’s Pluto (22°43′ Leo) is in partile opposition to Ukraine’s Moon (22°23′ Aquarius). Of course this means that Putin’s exercise of power goes completely against the Ukrainian people.

How long will this situation last?

Although it’s extremely difficult to predict how things will turn out, it is one of the tasks of Astrology to provide a possible answer to such important questions.

My answer is going to be limited to the transit analysis, whereas a full Mundane Astrology response should take into account other factors we didn’t mention. Not least, the natal chart of both Russia and the United States (that is going through its Pluto return!), as well as Putin’s and Biden’s charts.

By looking at Ukraine’s transits only, my guess is that this situation is going to last until early 2023, where Ukraine is going to become something radically different. I identify the periods of greatest tension with the peaks of Saturn on the natal Moon: early April, early-mid August and late December / early January.

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