Today is Friday, Aug. 26, 2011. Mercury, which has been retrograde since August 2, stations direct in Leo at 6:03 pm. The retrograde spanned from early Virgo back to mid-Leo. For the next couple of weeks we’re in what’s sometimes called the echo phase or shadow phase, as Mercury goes back over the degrees of the zodiac where it was just retrograde, and re-enters Virgo. This culminates with a Mercury-Chiron opposition on Sept. 10.
This was the Mercury retrograde that began with the United States coming right up to the brink of default, as the Treasury’s ability to borrow money ran out the very day of the station. Congress raised the debt ceiling just in the nick of time, but not before taking the world through a nauseating hostage situation. A few days later, the United States had its credit rating dropped by Standard & Poor’s, causing yet another wild ride on global stock markets.
Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, held a religious revival at Reliant Stadium in Houston, where he prayed for God to heal the economy, and declared his candidacy for the presidency. Many of his guest speakers believe that the world is ending, and that it’s their job to hasten the process along.
A Russian spacecraft blew up on its way to the International Space Station. Steve Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple Computer. And a rare East Coast earthquake, centered in the district of everyone’s favorite congressman, Eric Cantor, shut down the cooling systems of the North Anna nuclear power station, which had to be shut down. The quake damaged the Washington Monument and the National Cathedral, and immobilized Amtrak up the eastern seaboard. Numerous nuclear power plants declared ‘unusual events’ but remained in operation. As the retrograde winds down, Hurricane Irene is headed up the East Coast.