The unintended consequence of Putin’s ill-judged and barbaric attack on Ukraine has been to unify the EU and strengthen NATO. Finland and Sweden, both EU members, are now inclining towards NATO membership in the face of naked aggression from the east. Both are in the EU and already Enhanced Opportunity Partners in NATO. Because of the sophistication of their militaries, the stability of their democratic political systems, they would easily be accepted as full members. Their critical geography is likely to raise red flags with Russia if they were to reverse their non-alignment status.
Though if Russia was to invade either at the moment, it would also trigger the EU’s mutual defence clause for members who are a “victim of armed aggression on its territory”. The other 27 member states would step in to defend them and engage Russian forces directly. This also extends to other EU eastern countries like Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, who are in addition NATO members.
Finland’s independence chart of 6 December 1917 3pm Helsinki has a Sagittarius Sun which caught last December’s Solar Eclipse challenging them to make key crises decisions and to institute significant changes. Their Saturn at 14 Leo will catch the tr Uranus square from late this April into early May, returning in January 2023, which will bring a series of considerable jolts and tensions into the open – and tr Uranus then moves on to conjunct the Saturn/Uranus midpoint at 17 degrees from mid June with the same result. These are degrees showing up as critical on several of the related charts so it will be a turbulent time ahead. Into 2023 tr Pluto will conjunct the Finland Venus, on and off till late 2024, bringing an emotionally and financially challenging time.
The last time there was a Finnish-Russian War, 30 November 1939, Uranus was at 19 Taurus, but there was also Pluto just into Leo about to be squared by Saturn – so not entirely similar.
The Sweden 7 December 1865 3.30pm Stockholm chart, also has a Sagittarius Sun and Mars, both rattled by the last December Solar Eclipse, covering these months up to May. Their Pluto at 12 Taurus square the Leo Moon at 17 degrees will be rattled and jolted by tr Uranus in hard aspect, starting in a few days with tr Uranus conjunct the Sweden Pluto and in June square the Moon – repeating on into early 2023. The Swedish population are likely to be upset and reactive since the Moon is 4th house. If anything mid 2023 onwards for a year looks even riskier and more violence- or accident-prone.
Finnish President Sauli Ninisto’s 2nd Term chart, 1 February 2018, with an Aquarius Sun Venus at 12/18 degrees and North Node at 14 Leo will be shaken up – and in an all-systems-change phase from the middle of this month onwards.
Swedish PM Magdalena Andersson’s Admin chart, 30 November 2021, has a Sagittarius Sun conjunct Mercury, again in the line of fire from the recent Solar Eclipse; and has a stalwart Mars in Scorpio trine Neptune, sextile Pluto Venus in Capricorn. That chart picks up a worrisome, high-risk and calamitous tr Neptune square the Mars/Pluto midpoint from March 19th (now); and another swampy, not-progressive Neptune conjunction to the Saturn/Uranus midpoint from late May onwards. Plus plus – and these less than helpful influences roll on into 2023. She looks in a meltdown panic.
It isn’t possible to extrapolate exactly what these influences relate to – pandemic recovery, Russia’s psychopath, economic pressures, domestic crime or whatever. But the likelihood is that the Ukraine situation is likely to drag on.
Thank you, Solaia for your very interesting and informative posts.
I have to make one addition to this list, after talking to my Swedish co-worker today: While he is understandably shaken by Russia’s actions in Ukraine on humanitarian level, he sense Finns have a deeper emotional involvement in this.
And I think he is absolutely right. We fought two Wars between 1939 and 1944 against Soviet Union. The first attack happened after mounting tension, but with a false pretense. Many Finns were displaced, and the 1944 evacuation order became “permanent”, leaving 400 000 people or up to 15 per cent of then population as internal refugees. Many of these “evakko” are still alive, and great number of Finns have Karelian Finnish (or Karelian, who are a separate, even if closely related ethnic group) roots. My husband’s maternal grandfather was from Koivisto, now Primorsk, with roots there reaching to 14th century on some lines. His mother was born after the war. My mother-in-law has visited her family sites. It’s been a very trying and emotional time for her. And it seems given now that Finnish media, at least tabloids, use word “evakko” instead of “pakolainen”, ‘refugee’, for Ukrainians.
We also can identify with Ukrainians’ pleas of not being let alone: This largely happened to us during Winter War. Obviously, logistics were different, so some of the help we got didn’t arrive in time, but there also was widely spread sentiment if non-involvement due to Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
The level of emotional involvement is one of the reasons I think Finland will join NATO, but Sweden might just not.
And, obviously, this is reflected by tr. Pisces Jupiter opposite Finland’s Natal Moon/Mars. I also feel Finnish National 1917 Chart is extremely telling and accurate. The timing is counted on Finnish Parliament – which was working under Autonomy, and had been renewed as unicameral some 10 years earlier – vote for approving Declaration of Independence, and thus reflects will of people.
Lots of interesting background info there, Solaia. Thank you.
Marjorie your point about the risk that Sweden and Finland joining NATO is well made. It will undoubtedly increase the already over the top paranoia in Russia, particularly at leadership levels. The current situation in the Ukraine is in part a result of the Russian response to the steady expansion of NATO eastward in the past 30 years. One of the problems with the collapse of the USSR in the early 1990s is that the opportunity to create a new collective system of European security that included Russia and the ex Soviet Republics like Belarus and the Ukraine was lost. Instead we got 20 years of hubristic triumphal capitalism about the ‘End of History’ where the US was going to be the only super power and the millennium was going to see the fulfilment of the Plan for a New American Century. All that ran into the sands of Iraq, the mountains of Afghanistan and the financial crisis of 2008. Neither the US or the EU ever really made an attempt to engage in constructive political engagement with Russia. Both were guilty of passively watching while gangsters essentially seized the wealth of the country and most of its people were impoverished. Hardly surprising the Russian people were prepared to accept Putin’s leadership and his vision for Russia when the alternatives were so poor.
Although – and I am happy to be corrected – if Finland and Sweden are already protected from invasion by the EU agreement which would mobilise EU forces to come to their aid, maybe full NATO membership might not make much difference. But definitely a rock and a hard place with a deranged Putin being resistant to reason or decency.
@Hugh Fowler, we also must see that NATO membership is only a prentense to Putin and I would say many of his closest advisors. Putin said this much when he recognized Donesk’s and Luhansk’s Independence and talked about restoring Russian 1914 boarders.
Therefore, there is also one, significant difference between Finland’s and Sweden’s risk analysis with Russia: One of these countries was part of Imperial Russia in 1914, one not. Add that to one of the countries actually having a 1300 km landboarder with Russia, other not.
This is why I’m convinced large majority of Finns will continue preferring having Article 5 protection to potentially “upsetting Putin” even more. We have a long history of believing our President can act as some kind of a “Russia Whisperer”, guaranteeing good relationship with Russian Leaders. Well, this theory has now been debunked. President Niinistö seems personally shaken and surprised by Putin’s actions. And we see that.
Therefore, I find it hard to believe that even if Ukraine wan their war – even in some non-complete way – we’d continue as non-aligned country.
Thank you very much, Majorie! As stated elsewhere, we have very little visibility on Finnish led negotiation that took place last week, and will continue next week, with Finnish Minister of Defense Antti Kaikkonen visiting Washington on Monday. I would, however, expect a “Major Non-NATO Ally” agreement akin to those NATO has with Japan and Australia. Obviously, given Sweden is situated directly on North Atlantic and Finnish Lapland/Sàpmi just 20-30 km from the shore in places, it would make sense countries sought became full members.
Here’s how I think astrology will tie to current events:
– Sweden holds General Elections September 11th, 2022. Therefore, Magdalena Andersson’s Term Chart only has relevance up to that point. She is already leading a struggling minority Government, due to Swedish Center Right /Center Left bloc politics being challenged by Sweden Democrats. Unlike many populist parties, Sweden Democrats have been relatively firmly Anti-Russia, finding their counterparts from Poland, so they have less to loose here. That said, Moderates have a profile as “military specialists”, and could gain significantly before Elections.
– Finland’s next General Elections will be April 2nd, 2022. Coalition Party – sister party to Moderates -, have been leading polls since 07/2021, and also wan our new Regional Elections. But I sense situation with Russia might effect parties internally more than in Sweden, given in Sweden, people vote for party, who have nominated a preferential list of candidates, and places will be assigned accordingly, while in Finland, we vote party and candidate directly. I think Social Democrats and Center Party in particular might become to view some candidates as Cold War Relics and dead weight that they are. For instance, SDP’s former Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja could finally be driven to long overdue retirement. And, we might get a Blue-Red Government akin to one we had in the 1990’s after Depression.
– Finland has Presidential Elections up in 2024, early spring. This is consequential, because President’s role in internal politics has been very limited after Constitutional Reform in 1999 (before that, we had a semi-presidential system). As in the US, we have two term limit, so Niinistö can’t – and I think wouldn’t, because he has a young family from his second marriage (he was a widower). I feel we haven’t yet seen the winning candidate declare, but Sperbank Board of Directors membership quite likely destroyed what ever hopes former Center Party PM Esko Aho had.
– Economic hardship: “Hard times” on Finnish chart could be caused by drop in Russian trade. Many, I would even say most, of Finland’s most profitable companies had/have operations in Russia. Many have withdrawn in the past few days, but Fazer, a 1.6 billion food industry company, which has bakeries in Russia, is keeping them open. This will obviously not be 1991, when Banking Crisis akin to Iceland’s 2008 one and losing 15-20 per cent of export revenue with collapse of Soviet Union caused a perfect storm. That said, we can forget investing in Russia, and also will have harder time getting foreign investments and tourists (who’ve actually been interested in Finland due to good handling of covid-19 crisis) in.
– Possible Russian unrest effects: There’s a non-negligible possibility Russia will descend to a chaos not seen in 100 years. People sometimes forget it took Bolsheviks almost exactly 5 years to stabilize their power in areas they managed to keep under Soviet Union – Finland and Baltic States gained their Independence by 1920, and Western Ukraina and Belarus, as well as Eastern Lithuania were parts of Poland. This would probably cause waves of refugees from Russia. And – this is important given those authoritarian eclipses – if Putin somehow managed to keep power, or if there was a military coup, I would expect the same would happen. During our last refugee crisis – which Russia tried to at least exploit by funding small break-away racists parties and probably also spreading a word on “friendly countries in North” among Iraqi youth – a former Minister of Interior told we got refugee centers up and running fast, because they had been looking at possible consequences of Russian Civil War.
In any case, these aren’t easy times. I would, however, expect some concrete news on the US and NATO countries giving security guarantees to Finland and Sweden in coming days. In Finland, I see things going inevitably towards a full membership. This is contrary to my previous assessment that we’d need Sweden to take the first step. The situation has changed profoundly, with people who used to think we could “reason” with Putin quickly changing their minds. But it seems very reasonable, given our Parliamentary Calendar, that the main discussion on membership will take place from April to May, with that Uranus square Saturn, and that NATO country Parliamentary tour will be done in Autumn 2022, so we should be in by January 2023.