Mercury goes direct today at 4:06 pm Eastern, 1:06 pm Pacific, 9:06 pm in the UK, 10:06 pm in Europe. The first thing to note is the general point that unless you are at the final stage of a long negotiation, agreements made and contracts signed under Mercury retrograde (ie during the last three weeks) may not stick and will almost certainly come up for revision. They are unlikely to deliver as expected.
Then there is the degree and sign position of Mercury to take into account. It turns direction at 7:35 degrees of Libra, which is an interesting degree for some of our beleagured world leaders.
Let’s look at Gordon Brown first, who looks terrible on tv right now and as if he has had no sleep for a week, which he probably hasn’t. Mercury squares his angular Uranus (conjunct his IC) and has recently been conjunct his Saturn (1 Libra, inconjunct his Sun and widely conjunct his descendant). Brown was born under a Uranus/Saturn square which falls on the angles of his chart, making it a dominant factor in his life experience. Right now, as I’ve written about before, we are heading into the first of a series of Saturn Uranus oppositions, and Brown will feel this more than most. The best case scenario is that he was made for this crisis and will truly be able to lead the world into improved financial organization. However, there is another way of interpreting this, which is that his personal astrology matches only too closely the sinking ship of the world’s financial markets, and so of course he is one of the people at the helm. Karma writ large. The 1801 UK chart has 7 Libra rising, which fits with the UK being so much in the global news today and Brown appearing to be the world’s financial savior. Or not…….. Brown’s Saturn being on the UK ascendant well describes him presiding over a time of recession, and of him being respected but not loved. And that respect is going to hinge on whether this buying up the banks deal is going to work.
And how about George Bush, presiding over such a calamity in his last weeks of ignominious office? Well, he has Neptune at 6 Libra (squaring his Cancer Sun at 13), so Mercury is right on that point. Neptune is in his third house and indicative of his confused speaking style and lack of intellectual acuity. He must feel completely in over his head, even after eight years in the top job. All this financial malarkey is overwhelming him mentally. I’ll bet he has a headache.
Mercury transits are fast and are often not considered to be very important. But they are when major global decisions are made on days when Mercury is not strong, and that is what has been happening the last three weeks. In addition, Uranus is the higher octave of Mercury, representing intellectual brilliance and inventiveness. Opposed by Saturn as it is at the moment, Uranus is hampered, and this makes it harder to come up with quick fix schemes and clever strategies to correct years of greed and mismanagement, even though people will try, most notably Henry Paulson two weeks ago. There is no quick fix to this mess.
All the recent attempts to stabilize world financial markets took place under Mercury retrograde. Now that Mercury is going direct, agreements will move forward and clarify over the next few weeks, although the impending Saturn Uranus opposition will continue to obstruct attempts to shore up a sense of stability, accompanied as it is by the foggy influence of the Neptune station. But what has been presented as the big fix, ie part-nationalizing the banks, will be shown to be only the tip of the iceberg of what will become necessary as we move into the government-heavy years of Pluto in Capricorn.
