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Sometimes, the astrological significance of an event is revealed in the pattern it becomes a part of.
Last year, the Mercury Rx in Capricorn that began in December 2022 and ended in January 2023 marked a long stretch during which the HarperCollins Union remained on strike; they ratified their union contract shortly after Mercury cleared its shadow, after a 3+ month long strike.
Earlier this year, during Mercury Rx in Taurus in April and May, the WGA announced that they were going on strike, effectively shutting down Hollywood. Soon after, SAG-Aftra followed. Both major creative guilds have remained on strike through this second full Mercury Rx of the year, in Virgo. To say there have been genuine efforts at negotiation rather than intimidation on the studio side would be a stretch, but talks seem set to resume next week.
And effective midnight tonight, on this last day of Mercury’s retrograde as it stations, another major industry — not one grounded in the fine arts, but one that keeps the United States running in every way — joins the fore: the United Auto Workers, who have launched an unprecedented series of targeted walkouts against the Big 3 (GM, Ford, and Stellantis) after failure to reach a contract.
Mercury doesn’t just rule communication and writers, but also travel, roadways, vehicles of speed and flight, and the people who make them. Those of us who work the margins, the in-between, the subconscious.
The artists who help you find the missing piece, to see what you’re missing, and the blue collar laborers who help protect you on your journey and get you where you need to go: we are all Mercury’s children.
And these strikes, so increasingly concurrent with retrogrades, are highlighting just how much we, the children of the psychopomp, unbound by hierarchy, are keen to bring the world back into tune.