Solar return & vacations

I was undecided where to meet the solar return this year. The home place gave strong Jupiter on ascendent, but afflicted 6th house of health with detrimented Mars on Algol inside:

The chart for the work place had ruler of ascendent Mars on Algol, and detrimented Saturn on MC – this was not good

To change the ruler of ascendent for Venus, I decided to take a birthday trip (combined with visiting my trusted dentist) to get late degrees of Libra rising, Sun in Leo on MC and strong Jupiter in 2nd

Still, very nasty Mars, but this is not what I could improve. The Moon is almost in its natal place, and ascendent repeats the natal one, so the year might be important, in particular, according to lunars of September

and next April

After the short birthday trip, I came home for vacations and was amazed to see Russia steadily recovering after all the sufferings in the 90s. The Kremlin area is beautiful

with refreshed St Basil Cathedral

The Unknown Soldier Memorial is now served by guards of honour – instead of the grave of that marxist who tortured my country

The Christ Saviour Cathedral is restored after being demolishes in the 30s

I do not know how they dared to destroy this beauty then, especially if one thinks it was dedicated to the Patriotic War of 1812. Now, it is again in its original shape, with all paintings, marble panels, and names of the soldiers participating in the main battles. The Tzar’s war manifest is moving, this is not just history, but the Russian character, alive and well.

Yet another touching detail: restored chapel near Kremlin. On its stairs, it is written that it was built in 1782, demolished by communists in 1929 and restored in 1995.

Kremlin has its own ravens, although nobody cares about them, unlike in the Tower, - yet they populate every corner and bore the cleaners

My home city seems to be flourishing too:

It is exciting to see the recovering country. The entire century of sufferings, from First World War, to revolutions and hunger due to cruel and stupid government led by insane theories, then Great Patriotic War which killed millions of the best young Russians, then yet another insanity in military competitions with the West and feeding communistic movements abroad instead of the own nation. Then economic collapse, when again millions suffered and thousands died. And after all this, just let the country to breathe for a few years – and it again is recovering, more beautiful and strong than ever. Isn’t it a miracle?

Ironically, Russia entered the First World War, which triggered the century nightmare, just trying to protect the Slavic countries in Europe. The panslavic ideas were so popular in Russia that even Dostoevsky was under influence. However, his genius foresaw the future of this relationship: “There will be no worse haters, slanderers, and even open enemies of Russia than these Slavic tribes – once Russia has freed them and Europe agrees to accept them as free… Once freed, they will start their new life asking Europe a guarantee and protection for their freedom… and namely in defence against Russia… They will start convincing themselves that they owe no gratitude to Russia, and rather opposite, they just escaped Russian lust for power… and if Europe didn’t interfere, then Russia, removing them from Turkish, would swallow them immediately”.

This was written in 1877! Dostoevsky explained not only the war with Turkey in XIX century, but also all the trouble of the XX century. Now these “tribes” remember neither Turkey nor Austrian-Hungarian Empire – good for them.

Well, doesn’t matter. Russia overcame this and is now free from silly ideas.