The cover of The Economist magazine. See what is hidden

In times of great upheaval, people tend to pay attention to signs that previously escaped their gaze, and which they did not notice due to various circumstances. And how interesting it is to find analogies with the events our present and our past! Most of what you will read next are just assumptions, but many of them are already taking on a very real form. This means that they should be treated not just as a fantasy, but as a fait accompli, indicating that some signs, no matter who they are sent, should be understood and accepted.

The cover of The Economist magazine, published in September 2021, features an image based on Lewis Carroll's famous fairy tale "Alice in Wonderland". We are sure that many of you are familiar with this novel, even if you have not read the book.

Obviously, Alice and the White Rabbit became the main characters of the illustration. The artist placed them at the edge of a rabbit hole, into which cryptocurrencies fall like into the abyss. It is almost impossible to consider the image on a coin that has already fallen into the abyss, and therefore, a variety of assumptions can be made around it. But the images of Bitcoin, Ethereum and the Dollar are read absolutely clearly. Coins with symbolic images of stock charts, scales and banking are also approaching the abyss.

At the time of writing this article (end of June 2022), the rates of the main cryptocurrencies have fallen significantly. But despite this, it is still not worth considering their fall fatal. It is only worth noting that The Economist sent us obvious signals a year ago.

Many researchers of Lewis Carroll's work believe that the White Rabbit is a character personifying curiosity and capable of dragging other characters along with him. It is for him that Alice rushes in search of knowledge. What does the rabbit hole symbolize? In the story, Alice literally falls into a White Rabbit hole, which is a passage to Wonderland. What is symbolized by the rabbit hole into which symbolic coins of the traditional and alternative financial world fall. It is obvious that if they fall, they will find themselves in a new economic reality or an alternative world, where their influence on society will no longer be the same. Then, the image chosen by the illustrator does not mean the collapse of the financial system at all.

Most likely, the authors of this image clearly told us that, once in the magical world, traditional and alternative finance will change their shape. And this is quite consistent with the reality in which we are now witnessing the loss of the influence of the usual currencies and the strengthening of the position of digital finance.

The next thing you should pay attention to is the images of Alice and the White Rabbit themselves. The Rabbit costume is a shortened light checkered coat of sandy color, reminiscent of clothes that were popular in the UK of the 19th – early 20th century. So, the Rabbit can be correlated with the UK itself, which left the eurozone and declared financial independence from the Euro.

If you look at the rabbit in detail, you will notice that the hands of his watch show 22:10 or 11:10. It is difficult to say what exactly such a combination of arrows means, but perhaps it is also a kind of sign indicating some events. Interestingly, it is on October 22 that the "International Day without Paper" is celebrated. A complete rejection of paper money? Well, maybe! Or maybe it's a reference to a specific date. On November 10, 2021, the popular crypto exchange Coinbase reported a drop in revenue in the 3rd quarter of 2021 (autumn) to $1.31 billion.

And now let's take a look at Alice. In the original book , Alice 's dress colors looked like this:

On the cover of the magazine, these colors are changed to the colors of the flag of Russia: red, blue and white. Did the artist want to show us that a curious girl who managed to make a trip to the magical world and return from there is a symbol of a particular country? In the fall of 2021, when this illustration was created, Russia was not yet under unprecedented economic sanctions, but perhaps the Rabbit was already preparing us for this.

Another option is also possible. Will the UK and Russia become the legislators of the new economic order? But now, in the middle of 2022, it is more than premature to talk about it…

From symbolism in clothing we move on to object symbolism. Fly agarics grow next to the Rabbit. Perhaps this can be considered a minor detail, but in the covers of The Economist, any little things are important.

So, there are exactly 5 fly agarics in the illustration. The fly agaric itself is known as a participant in shamanic rituals and a guide to the world of altered consciousness. But he (fly agaric) is not always an attribute of shamanism, and because of his properties he is involved in more complex religious systems. The number 5 can have many meanings. In Kabbalah, the five means fear. And in Christianity, for example, the Pentateuch of Moses.

Of particular importance is the number 5 in Islam, where it means 5 pillars (rules of conduct of a believer):
- Shahada – observance of the strictest monotheism (Tawhid).
- Namaz – performing a daily five-fold prayer (Salat).
- Zakat is a material donation.
- Saum – fasting in the month of Ramadan.
- Hajj – making a pilgrimage to Mecca.

One can only assume what kind of meaning the authors of the cover put into this number, but it is worth understanding that such a similar symbolism should correspond to a person's worldview. After all, where one sees fear, the other sees opportunities for moving forward, which is typical of Islamic finance systems that demonstrate stability even in the most difficult conditions.

Next to Alice is a snake, whose image is often interpreted from the negative side. A snake has a long row of numbers on its body: "316655", "39", "465", "8629". It is worth noting here that Charles Ludwig Dodgson, known under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll, was not only a scout, but also a professor of mathematics and logic. After retiring from operational work, he taught this discipline at Oxford. Researchers of his work say that he created a world of paradoxical logic in the rabbit hole where Alice fell, completely incompatible with the familiar to mankind.

On the Internet, you can find a lot of theories about what these numbers mean. Someone claims that they correspond to the words in chapter 1 of the book "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". If you replace them in the English text, you can get the following text: "Beginning to by and do had the no in use Alice considering well she very ..." (Starting with what was useless to do, Alice thought she was very ...). Alice does not understand what is happening with the course cryptocurrencies? Why are many coins falling in price?

If we use numbers as coordinates, they lead us to the city of Maysan in Iraq (31.665539, 46.5862). The city is located in the east of the country, on the border with Iran. Its population suffered the most during the Iran-Iraq War, when this region was a battlefield. In 2003, it came under the control of the British Armed Forces after the invasion of Iraq.

If you substitute letters of the Latin alphabet instead of numbers, you can get the following inscription: CAFFEE CI DFEH FBI. Cafe, the FBI and the Department of Hiring and Housing (California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) is an organization that is central to California's fight against discrimination and hate crimes… So many questions and almost no answers...

The gesture in which Alice folded the fingers of her left hand is interesting. If the gesture of the right hand can be interpreted as concentration, and stroking the chin indicates a decision, then the fingers of the left hand resemble the letter "C" in the alphabet for the deaf. The arm is pulled back. It can be assumed that Alice has her own secret plans. In any case, Alice does not look frightened by the picture that appears before her eyes, but rather puzzled.

Let's move on to the background. Here we see a burnt forest and stumps from burnt trees. But not all the trees were burned down, and a Cheshire Cat is sitting on one of the survivors. Most likely, the cat is an observer associated with the global elite. And the fact that he is shown in full, and not just in the video of his famous smile, tells us that this elite is still not ready to lose its position on market control and may try to change something at any moment.

Summing up the analysis of this most interesting magazine cover, it is worth noting that the meaning of the images with which the authors depicted the state of affairs in the world economy and politics can be studied and interpreted endlessly.

It is obvious that now, in the middle of 2022, the meaning of The Economist's "message" has become obvious even to those who did not initially try to decrypt it. This means that more interest can be expected for the next issue of the magazine.

After all, while the whole world is falling into the abyss of uncertainty, and the UK is looking at the clock, Russia remains a participant in the global transformation and is watching everything that is happening, trying not to fall into the "hole" into which Western countries are falling. Global changes have already come, and we will see how much they will affect our lives.