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Mercury Retrograde and the US Railroad Strike

 

Railroad Strike


Nearly 115,000 US rail workers are poised to go on strike on Thursday at midnight, shutting down 40% of long-distance trade, after negotiations between rail unions and carriers failed to bear fruit. While the end of the “cooling off” period does not guarantee a strike, two of the 12 rail workers’ unions have yet to reach a deal with the industry’s bargaining committee, and the other 10 have vowed to walk off the job if even one union is left without a contract. https://www.rt.com/news/562814-rail-workers-strike-unions-attendance/

 

In mundane astrology, the cardinal ingresses of the Sun (entry into the four cardinal signs, i.e. 00 deg of Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn ) have a traditional reputation as important mundane events. We have now entered the shadow phase of the upcoming Libra ingress. A chart for the ingress at Washington,DC has (a) the Saturn-Uranus square straddling the horizon (b) Pluto on the MC.

 


Astrological "squares" are known for creating tension between two points — and this one involving Saturn, the Planet of Rules and Boundaries, and Uranus, the Planet of Freedom and Rebellion can bring about periods of radical change. Saturn- Uranus alignments coincide with periods of revolution and political upheaval. There may be sudden breakthroughs and/or breakdowns that lead to the reform of society. Long-term problems are revealed, sometimes through the sudden collapse of systems that need reform and structural change. 

Next with Pluto on the MC and Uranus on the Ascendant, we have what is referred to as a “mundane square”. Uranus-Pluto is essentially: Individual Freedom Versus Institutional Control. Pluto in Capricorn represents ttraditional structures where authorities at the top of the social hierarchies give orders that are to be obeyed by all those below. 

Uranus can mean standing up for freedom through the protection of personal rights against the draconian power of a collective — whether governmental, corporate, or social — that no longer considers the needs of individuals, which is the dark side of Pluto in Capricorn (rule by and for a privileged oligarchy). 

Broadly speaking, the two alignments (a) and (b) in the Libra ingress chart for Washington DC explain the US strike...but why railways? Well that is because the Sun-Mercury retrograde conjunction aspects the angles too! A retrograde Mercury is known to create all kinds of disruption in communication. Moreover, the Sun-Mercury retrograde conjunction [0li] also aligns with the US Sibly MC [1li]

 


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