BRICS – providing a counter-balance to the west

A new world order is the hope that the BRICS alliance of nations offer as an alternative to the West. Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa are pinning their hopes on a New Development Bank seen as a substitute for the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. It is open to new members with Egypt, UAE,  Uruguay and Bangladesh taking up shares and interest being expressed by Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Argentina, Mexico and Nigeria.

 Originally started as a Goldman Sachs investor ploy for developing economies that were booming, it has switched tack  since with only China achieving sustained growth. The alliance is now offering a diplomatic forum and development financing, outside of the Western mainstream. As such it stands against the G7 – Germany, France, UK, Italy, Japan, Canada, US and EU.

  On the political front since the start of the Ukraine invasion, the BRICS countries have distanced themselves from the West and are not taking part in sanctions against Russia. There is near-historic levels of trade between India and Russia and Brazil is heavily dependent on Russian fertilizer.

  A political analyst commented: “ some European and US policymakers worry that the BRICS may become less an economic club of rising powers seeking to influence global growth and development, and more a political one defined by their authoritarian nationalism.”

  BRICS held its first summit on 16 June 2009 in Yekaterinburg, Russia which gives a Gemini Sun opposition Pluto square Uranus in Pisces – such a Uranus is status-quo-upsetting and a trailblazer but erratic and perhaps inclined to be contrarian. There is a high-finance and hopeful Jupiter Neptune conjunction; plus a passionately enthusiastic Venus Mars in materialistic Taurus trine Saturn on one side and Pluto widely on the other.

  The North Node is at zero Aquarius which may give a sense of a moment in destiny having arrived. But there will be failed plans for two or three years ahead as tr Neptune wends its way round the central BRICS T square; and heavy pressures across the turn of the decade as tr Pluto squares the Venus and Mars. Where it may come into its own would be the early 2040s as tr Pluto is conjunct the Jupiter and the Solar Arc Jupiter connects with Uranus and squares the Pluto.

  The G7 group is difficult to date since it has evolved in stages from an original informal foursome. But one start-up meeting occurred on 25 March 1973 in Washington. That gives an Aries Sun and Venus in a controlling opposition to Pluto and a successful sextile/trine to a weighty and influential Jupiter Mars. If the chart is sound then the next few years will see major problems with a trapped, frustrated tr Pluto conjunct Mars in 2023/24 and tr Neptune Saturn in Aries blocking the Aries Sun and financial Venus and Pluto between 2025 and 2027. It could rise again thereafter and across the turn of this decade into the 2030s. But it could be an iffy chart.

  Looking at the IMF chart, 27 December 1945, it reflects a fairly calamitous three to five years ahead so the G7 chart may be accurate enough.

  The only thing you can guarantee is that China will use BRICS to its own maximum advantage.

24 thoughts on “BRICS – providing a counter-balance to the west

  1. @Hugh: I have always found your comments to be well-informed and illuminating but on the matter of the the EU “punishing the UK over Brexit” I think you have allowed yourself to be overly influenced by the British press. The UK is hardly even mentioned in EU circles these days and the overal mood seems to be to let the UK stew in its own juice. You are right about ineffectual leadership in the EU but the main hand-wringing topic seems to centre on the erosion of the rule of law in Hungary and Poland and what to do about the refugee crisis which has had far more impact in continental Europe than a few hundred inflatables arriving on English shores. (Anyone here been to Brussels city centre lately which is awash with thousands of homeless refugees sleeping on the streets while only 60 a day can be processed? The contrast between the Eurocrats in their bespoke suits and the desperate flooding in from all corners of the globe is staggering, to say the least.) France is probably the only EU country that thinks to ‘extract a price’. The rest no longer care. They have other fish to fry.

    • Most of the political instability on European borders and some of the migrant influx is a direct result of US policies particularly in the Middle East. The Ukrainian crisis should be resolved by Europe but it is again playing second fiddle to Washington. Unfortunately Europeans decided to spend most of the “peace dividend” from the end of the Cold War on themselves and to let Uncle Sam pay for defence. Hardly surprising they dont have much influence now. The European bet on getting most of its energy from Russia in retrospect proved a very unwise choice particularly as it could so easily be cut off. All these factors go back to the failure by the West to properly integrate Russia politically and diplomatically into its world after the collapse of the USSR. There was too much capitalist triumphalism and we are now paying the price. Anyway one of the consequences is that the seeds of current European weakness were sown in the early 1990s. To put it bluntly in the new World Order Europe (and I include the U.K. in that description) and its margins is likely to be one of the spots where the rival power blocks choose to fight out their conflicts.

      One of the things to watch in the next 20 years is the points at which Pluto will square its positions while it tracked through Scorpio as they may be trigger points particularly when other chart factors come into play. At the moment the squares will be hitting the charts from the year 1983 which those who lived through it will remember was a time of heightened nuclear tensions particularly in Europe. Of particular danger was the 28 September 1983 just before Plutos ingress into Scorpio in November 1983 when the USSR almost launched a nuclear strike on the west because of a malfunctioning satellite system. The next two years are therefore likely to be picking up the aspects that triggered that crisis. Interestingly the film War Games about a kid hacking a military computer and almost causing nuclear war was released in 1983 and the chilling U.K. film Threads about the impact of a nuclear strike on the U.K. came out in 1984. As the closing section of the War Game concluded “The only winning move is not to play”

      • “the failure by the West to properly integrate Russia politically and diplomatically into its world after the collapse of the USSR”

        I agree Hugh, the West failed, and was dazzled by all the money that began to flow from Russia. Few questions were asked, much was ignored or even glamourised. That river of cash changed many things.

        I think it’s worth looking at the astrology for the Cold War and it’s end too. Pluto in Capricorn, with all those associations with wealth, power and secrets, has been transiting:
        Mercury 28 Capricorn, Yalta Conference, 4 February 1945
        Jupiter 24 Cancer, Uranus 24 Cancer, Neptune 25 Libra, Venus 23 Aries – Warsaw Pact 14 May 1955
        Saturn 24 Capricorn, Jupiter 29 Capricorn – Berlin Wall, 13 August 1961
        Nodes 29 Capricorn – Treaty of Paris, 19 November 1990 – also the position of the G7 Mars.
        Mars 25 Aries – London Declaration, 6 July, 1990

        Also worth considering is that transiting Uranus has been opposing the Scorpio stellium in place on the opening of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989. Sun 17 Scorpio, Mercury 16 Scorpio, Pluto 15 Scorpio. Uranus squares the Nodes, at 21 Aquarius/Leo of that chart next year, also aspecting the Leo planets for the Berlin Wall 1961. And since the Treaty of Paris had Pluto at 18 Scorpio, it was triggered by the Mars-Uranus-Nodes line-up in Taurus last summer, marking a signficant moment as the 1990’s developments, assumptions, and agreements were tested.
        Both the 29 Aries Solar and 15 Scorpio Lunar Eclipses this spring may serve to underline some of these tensions and themes in the immediate future. I agree we are in a dangerous place, and not happy to note there was a 29 Aries Solar Eclipse on 19th April 1939, followed by a Lunar Eclipse in Scorpio, 12 degrees, on 3rd May of that year.

        • Ordinary Russians suffered greatly in the 1990s when their country was essentially looted. In that period the life expectancy of the average Russian citizen dropped by 6 years for men and 3 years for women. It is unsurprising that Putin was propelled to power on the back of that experience. There is a certain grim irony that countries such as the USA and the U.K. are now suffering their own declines in life expectancy.

  2. The US is very worried about the dollar being superseded by a putative new BRICs currency. This would mean the dollar would no longer be the world’s reserve currency, and would be deeply problematic to the US, and indeed other, economies. Some speculate that at least some of the dark actors in powerful positions in America would be willing to countenance a war with China, to somehow preserve the economic status quo. Americas SA Mars retrograde is problematic as well as Pluto in Aqua., also the Moon sign of that country.

    • It is fighting Wars in Vietnam and the Middle East that has weakened the dollar. The imperial delusions of the Project For The New American Century, the neo Conservatives and the Bush family that have hastened that process. I now this is not a popular view but GW Bush did far more damage to the USA than Trump ever did in his term of office. In fact ultimately historians may look back and decide that Trump defeating Jeb Bush in the a Republican Primaries in 2015 was the single greatest service he did his country.

      • Hugh Fowler I agree with your analysis completely. More, and more Americans are waking up to the realization that for decades we were sold a bill of goods to justify military intervention, as well as CIA coups across the globe, all of which financially benefitted the MIC, and corrupt politicians. A positive aspect of the US Pluto return is that relevant documents are being declassified, and evidence of US war crimes in the Middle East continues to emerge, not to mention exposing the mind boggling extent of the surveillance state which arose post 911. This transit is not only bringing hidden information to light, but transforming the public perspective regarding the whole debacle. The economic consequences, immigration crisis, etc. are just America’s chickens coming home to roost. Hopefully this Pluto transit will end on a positive note, with transformation, and regeneration, instead of destruction.

    • @ Gamal
      Astrologically speaking, it would be interesting to ask marjorie to study
      ( if it is possible) how the US dollar will evolve ( date of 1st emission?). Please marjorie ?

      Of course it is worrying. It is by the way not only the currency, but also the swift system that is avoided as BRICS are also creating their own ” clearing houses”. Everybody i know in europe understand that the international banking system as we have known it has been weakened by the US ( and its allies) ” sanctions” imposed to countries to a point of no return.
      The USA debt is huge, and untill now it could always count on the dollar as an international currency to live above its means. The high demand fixing the high value. If there is less or no demand for the dollar, it value will be lesser. And how then to finance budget or importations ?
      It would be a real desparate move to attack china. Putine and Xi are the best of friends now, also thanks ” to sanctions” . It would mean the end of the world.
      Pray for peace

      • The current dollar system can be traced back to the failure of the Bretton Woods system in the early 1970s when Nixon decide the dollar was no longer convertible to gold. The late Australian astrologer drew up a chart for the replacement Petro Dollar dated 8th June 1974. It has the Mars at 29 Cancer opposing the Moon at 27 Capricorn. Pluto by transit has been squaring that opposition over the past year and will continue to do so into 2024. Interestingly it is also picking up that 1983-84 Nuclear Crisis Pluto as it moved from late Libra to Scorpio. This is quite a dangerous moment in world history yet many in the west seem oblivious apparently deeming issues such as sexual identity politics more important than potential nuclear annihilation. I guess that is Neptune in Pisces dreaming of a utopian future while the old world is about to burn. It is noting that in late 1983 Neptune was at 26 Sagittarius and is exactly squaring the current Neptune at 26 Pisces so that is getting hit as well.

      • Hi Aline
        Yes the SWIFT system is a part of it for sure. The UK and Australia have been bullied by America into buying very expensive submarines, for use in long range theatres like China. The people that brought us Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya are the same people looking to go to war with China. Their fanatical greed and disregard for humanity including the US itself, is intensely concerning.

        • @gamal

          Swift gave also bank revenues. That also is partly gone.
          As for the submarines,
          don t count too much to have any submarines built soon. There seem to be troubles with the building of them on the US west coast i read a while ago ( don t remember what exactly)
          Anyway, the US government will be served first. And allies will have to wait .
          Might be a good thing after all as i read that new zeeland did not want atom driven submarines in the region.
          They prefered the french project that would have build submarines( not atom driven) on site in australia. And the project was quite advanced as i understand

          Aukus did a bad turn to france and now it is backfiring on australia left without any submarine probably for at least a decenia.
          But it might be a good thing and serve peace after all, who knows

  3. I don’t really see any common interest between the BRICS. India and China are potential rivals both economically, politically and militarily . China has the upper hand economically but demographics favour India.

    Brazil has been hailed as the new economic power in the Americas for as long as I have lived but has never really delivered on its promise. It is also well within the US sphere of military, political and economic dominance which it is unlikely to escape any time soon.

    Russia has lots of nuclear weapons and natural resources but it is a demographic disaster and its conventional military has been shown to be wanting in the Ukrainian conflict. It’s essentially a dictatorship led by an obviously delusional individual who has massively overestimated his ability at geopolitical chess. Moreover Russians seem to have forgotten that all the successful invasions of their country have come from the East not the West.

    Africa has massive potential but its leading economy South Africa has a hopelessly corrupt and incompetent political leadership and is becoming a violent basket case.

    Europe has unpopular and ineffectual leaders, a host of economic problems due to its dependence on imported energy and a EU bureaucracy that appears to be more concerned with punishing the U.K. over Brexit than dealing with the situation in the Ukraine.

    That leaves the USA that has its own political, economic and social problems which manifest themselves in many ways but particularly in the declining life expectancy of its population, a factor that is replicated in in the U.K. The quality of political leadership in the USA is at an all time low and it’s economic elite is as greedy and corrupt as anywhere else. Astrologically it is currently experiencing a Pluto return which marks a new cycle beginning so things may begin to change but with Pluto involved it is going to be slow and painful. The US progressed Mars is retrograde for most of the current century so it will probably be ill advised to start any wars of aggression as it would almost certainly lose. However, it’s Mars power while constrained is probably not going to disappear overnight as some commentators think. If you look at world history in term of “land empires” and “sea lords” the US fits in the latter category where it replaced the former dominant maritime power Britain. Its strength is its geography which gives it a coastline in both the Atlantic and the Pacific. No rival can match that set up so it’s naval dominance is not going away anytime soon. Like Britain before it the danger is getting involved in land wars and trying to defend continental territories. It was the delusions of trying to “paint the map pink” which essentially undermined the British Empire from the late 18th century. If the US can avoid that trap and reform itself and use its strength more wisely then it will still be a major player in world affairs. At the moment it desperately needs political choices in leadership a lot better than Biden or Trump.

    • @ hugh
      but hugh, i dont see the BRICS as a political association. More as a commercial association.
      You don t need to have political ” affinities” to commerce. You need only rules of law and currencies.
      And those countries are already trading in their own currencies,

      • I think the US will see BRICS very much as a political threat and I believe China see it very much as a political opportunity. Politics will therefore come into play as each party seeks to destabilise or utilise the group. Ironically, a multinational currency unit for settling trade transactions was what Keynes and the British proposed for the post Second World War World . They were over ruled by the USA at Bretton Woods.

        Anyway the square between the PetroDollar Mars and the current Pluto transit through late Capricorn and early Aquarius suggest what is going on is very much about power with a capital P and confrontations not just mutually beneficial trade relationships. The astrology is actually quite worrying at the moment.

        • @ hugh
          Yes everythings also worries me at the moment. That is why i keep an eye on the brics commerce/currencies and also goldprice and precious metals.

          Money meaning power, i understand very well that the usa will try everything in their power to retain the power of the dollar . Their banking system is also very much at risk at the moment. We are getting this year the last whack from pluto and it is going to be ugly.

          Not only poor countries, but any country have everything to gain by a new commerce monetary system in own currencies .. Much cheaper and no extra territorial law binding them to the USA.

          I don t know about the USA, but in europe most of the heavy steel, naval etc industries needed for warfare were dismanteled and delocalized in south east asia end 70.
          So it leaves the USA alone with its own military power. Would they be foolish enough to start a war against china/ russia ? surely that would be suicide

  4. A lot has changed since Goldman Sachs coined the term BRICS way back when.

    On 15th June 2020, China tried to cross the Indian border, and a total of about 40 people were killed (Indian and Chinese). India responded by putting sanctions on China, and banning Chinese apps such as Tiktok.

    The US, UK, Australia and Japan condemned the Chinese beligerance. Unfortunately, the EU responded by signing an investment Treaty with China six months later in Dec 2020, despite the Biden administration, which had just been elected but not yet inaugurated, breaking protocol to ask the EU not to sign (and getting angered by the EU ignoring them).

    That’s why India has stayed neutral on the Ukraine crisis. If the EU couldn’t give a toss about India being invaded, why should India give a toss about conflict on the EU’s borders?

    But it’s only lazy jounalists who think India and China have common interests. India is conscious of China trying to encircle it by giving aid to Pakistan and taking control of a port in Sri Lanka.

    As for Brazil and South Africa, they have very different objectives and interests too.

    If the west wants allies in this group, they need to take their interests seriously. Instead of embarassingly kow-towing to China as Macron and Von der Leyen have been doing this week, and then acting surprised when they encounter disapproval from Japan to India to the USA.

    • @ Candy,

      I don’t agree with India’s neutrality regarding Ukraine. However, it should be noted that India has been providing unlimited humanitarian aid to Ukraine and I think that deserves credit.

  5. Thank you Marjorie,

    I remember asking about BRICS a few months ago. I’m glad to see that the astrology doesn’t suggest much success for BRICS anytime soon.

    I have one American friend living in South Africa and a few friends living in Tamil Nadu (India) and they all tell me BRICS is basically a scam. What was supposed to be an economic union that promotes “multipolarity” has basically morphed into a club of Global South despots intended to promote Chinese and Russian hegemony.

    While the Russian Federation is collapsing (their experiencing a massive “brain drain,” and execrated population decline), China is definitely rising. However, given that India now has the world’s fastest growing economy and has a volatile relationship with China, I’m curious to see how BRICS further holds up.

    For example, India has recently begun forming closer ties with the United States (my country) and France. Plus, India and the U.S. have been conducting a series of military exercises together and India has recently begun purchasing more arms and defense systems from the U.S.

    Also, I think President Biden and Vice President Harris see how important it is for the U.S. to invest more in nations in the Global South if we want to lessen China’s influence over this part of the world. Biden has been particularly keen to strengthening ties with India, Brazil, and various countries in Africa. For example, Kamala Harris just completed a successful tour of Africa (where she was welcomed and received very warmly by the locals). Harris was even instrumental in helping influence Ghana’s current Prime Minister into changing some of his stance on an anti-LGBTQIA+ bill Ghana’s Parliament was trying to pass.

    All in all, I am optimistic that the U.S. and other nations in the Global North will make inroads with nations in the Global South if they continue to engage with them.

  6. Thank you Marjorie for answering my request. As you may remember, I am now in Johannesburg, South Africa, sorting out my mother’s estate:
    South Africa is a stunning country and it is also an incredibly rich country. And Johannesburg is particularly wealthy with massive industries, malls, businesses, and it is also rich in minerals, etc, which when you see the extent of the wealth and vast properties, it becomes utterly jaw dropping. Plus the weather is fantastic. Anyway, I grew up here and returning has been an eye opening adventure. The people are incredibly hard working, friendly and helpful and I have thankfully managed to spend quality time with childhood friends. But sadly, the country’s corruption, the electrical load shedding and water restrictions etc, is creating a massive financial loss of billions every year. Yet due to it’s wealth – it manages to press on regardless.
    To then also realise that the government is allowing Russian and Chinese ships to dock and perform military exercises in it’s various ports is shocking. And it doesn’t stop there. But this is because they are members of BRICS and as a result, the Socialist government will not criticise Putin. This is because they still think Russia is the old USSR that helped them fight Apartheid. And now sadly, they have openly declared that if Putin does arrive in August for the BRIC conference, South Africa will refuse to arrest him.
    And hence my request that you look at the relevance of BRICS, especially in their advancement of attracting more countries into their lair. So thank you once again.

  7. “The North Node is at zero Aquarius”…isn’t that exactly where tr Pluto is? So are the Nodes being activated by tr Pluto being conjunct/opposed to them for the next couple of years?

    “a political one defined by their authoritarian nationalism.””….I’d imagine that that would make Turkey a prime candidate country. How does Turkey’s chart sit with BRICS? And would it be possible to compare national charts for at least Russia, India and China with BRICS?

    • On a separate note, noticed that Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto and a Node have all gone retro(-grade) in the fourth-sixth houses for the BRICS chart.

      Interestingly enough, the G7 chart also has a concentration of different retrograde planets in the same houses.

      Is there any significance to that, particularly that the retrogradation are in the same houses (though not the same signs)?

      How should such a concentration of retrograde planets in a particular area of the chart be read, in both personal and organisational charts?

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