As Russia amassed troops on the Ukrainian border, I spoke with my mentor about timing if and when they would invade. As it happened, he had already taken down the details for a chart to interpret which he handed over to me. The chart was cast for the 23rd of January 2022, but I’ll leave out further details for privacy reasons. It is as follows:
Who is who?
As neither I or my mentor are Russian or Ukrainian, Russia as the core component of the query is Lord 9 – a foreign nation, represented by conveniently warlike Mars. While it would be easy to simply paint Ukraine as their opponent, their turned House 7, this is not the case here – the chart is more descriptive than that.
Russia’s significator, Mars, sits on the cusp of House 11, its own Turned House 3 (House 3 being the house of neighbouring things). With Russia amassing on the border of neighbouring Ukraine, this fits perfectly. House 11’s cusp is in Sagittarius, so Ukraine is Jupiter.
It’s not needed for the reading, but Russia identifies Nato and the West in general as an opponent. Their Turned Lord 7 is Venus in Capricorn – exalting Mars and expecting Russia to do something big.
What does Russia want?
At this point in the timeline, we didn’t know for certain that Russia planned to invade. Receptions in the chart are damning, though. Russia in the domain of Ukraine’s Jupiter could be seen to be ruled by them, but given their apparent massed strength it makes more sense to say they desire Ukraine for their own.
With Ukraine’s Jupiter in Pisces, they are painted very much as the ‘good guys’ in their own domicile, and sitting in the first house are ‘on the querent’s mind’ – though he is not necessarily taking a side at this point.
What’s going to happen?
This is where things get nifty – we’re looking for an event but that doesn’t mean we automatically need an aspect, as the chart is suggesting something else. Mars, Russia, is just on the edge of changing signs in around 43 minutes of arc. When it changes sign it becomes exalted – up and over, boys! In Capricorn, too, it will try to ‘bring down’ Jupiter, being in its fall and literally doing it harm.
So there’s a narrative – a massing on a border, a sudden movement aimed at lifting Russia up and bringing Ukraine crashing down. As we can see, though, Ukraine is in domicile and in the 1st House, where it is angular and thus active. Neither is a sign of ‘going down without a fight’.
When will it happen?
We take 43 minutes of arc as units of time. The change of sign is from mutable Sagittarius in succedent House 11 suggesting a middle timing range. Given the news at the time, Russia could have invaded in hours, so a range of hours, days or weeks makes sense. Our initial estimate is 43 days.
But there’s an important nuance – Mars is moving pretty fast, at around 135% of its normal speed. With a little maths, that brings the projected timing down to 31 days – February 23rd, 2022.
Results
Russia continued to build troop numbers on the border to Ukraine, upping rhetoric before eventually recognising the breakaway regions of Donbas as independent on the 23rd of February. At 9:45 PM in the time zone for this chart, the invasion was declared by Vladimir Putin.
