Sovereignty, Surveillance, Scandal, and the Struggle for Self
Mercury stations retrograde at 15 degrees Leo on Thursday, July 17th, marking its first retrograde since Uranus entered the sign of Gemini, bringing a new tone of disruptive and revolutionary energy to everything Mercury will be doing for the next several years. But Uranus isn’t the only outer planet whose influence will be deeply felt during this retrograde. Mercury entered its pre-retrograde shadow at 4 degrees Leo in an active opposition to Pluto in the early degrees of Aquarius. During the retrograde, it must journey back to revisit that opposition for the direct station on August 11, 2025.
The implications are profound. Pluto intensifies everything it touches, and on the Leo–Aquarius axis, this retrograde promises to evoke themes, both individually and collectively, of personal autonomy, power and authority, and the rights and power of the people.
The signs of the zodiac derive their major signification from their planetary rulers as well as the seasonal amounts of light and dark in a 24-hour period. Leo, the domicile of the Sun, whose season is also in the long days of summer, naturally represents major solar themes such as sovereignty, selfhood, and the power of the will, as well as our sense of individual creative purpose. Mundane solar themes like kings and presidents, celebrities, and legal or social authority figures are also present and can be observed during major transits through Leo.
By contrast, Aquarius is the masculine air sign ruled by Saturn, the dimmest of the visible planets. The elemental archetype of Air makes Aquarius social, technical, and communicative, but its saturnine nature makes it somewhat impersonal and boundaried. While some might say Aquarius is “progressive,” it is more accurate to describe it as future-oriented but ideologically rigid. Aquarius’s major interest is in collective, socio-cultural, and political themes and ideals, as well as persuading or compelling the masses to adhere to those ideals. It gatekeeps through a kind of social hegemony, defining boundaries between belonging and exclusion, and in the current age, it monitors, judges, tracks, and enforces, particularly through the use of technology.
Leo and Aquarius each have productive qualities and shadow qualities. Their interests, however, are functionally opposite. Leo’s primary interest is in the individual, while Aquarius’s primary interest is in the community or collective. These two interests create a natural tension that must be balanced in order to maintain a healthy order of individual rights and public welfare. Major oppositions along the Leo–Aquarius axis juxtapose the autonomy of the individual against the collective zeitgeist, or the authority of the ruler against the rights of the people. This is the age in which we currently find ourselves. Pluto’s involvement portends a period of imbalance and extremes in which personal sovereignty must be balanced with community interests, and the authority of the ruler must be rebalanced to protect the rights of the people.
Personal significations will, of course, vary based upon the highly individualized nature of your own natal promise. But on a fundamental level, this will be a time to evaluate the self and external influences, especially as it relates to the embrace and expression of authenticity, creativity, autonomy, and independent thought. Mercury naturally represents the mind, thought, and communication. It governs our capacity to reason, understand, and transmit information. In Leo, Mercury represents these things on a highly individualized level.
Pluto in Aquarius exerts pressure, sometimes intense pressure, on these capacities in the form of group and social expectations (think high-control religion or extreme political partisanship), strategic messaging, control of information, propaganda, and even technological advancements like highly refined algorithms that tend to partition us into online social silos, keeping us in an information echo chamber. Mercury’s retrograde dance with Pluto invites us to examine how our desire to belong in community influences our most authentic expression of self, our capacity to think outside of community-sanctioned boxes, and our ability to express ideas that challenge or contradict the authority of community-approved narratives.
By contrast, it will also prompt us to examine overinflated valuations of the individual and independence, which diminish and deprive us of the many benefits of community, belonging, and social attachment and adherence. The effect is the opportunity to recognize the dichotomies of harmful extremes and strike a healthy balance between individualism and social cohesion rejecting social influences that police and shame individual expression, while realigning and engaging in healthy social and community support. Let us not forget the Uranian influence from Mercury’s own masculine, air domicile, Gemini. The theme is ultimately one of power, control, and liberation of the mind.
Collective Expression in Real Time
In the collective expression, the emergence of similar themes, collective encroachment vs. hyper-independence, should be expected, as well as exposures of corruption, power and the abuse of power, scandals, revelations of secrets, and the fall of leaders. Most visibly, these archetypes have been expressed in three prominent news stories:
1. The tragic flooding in Texas, and the resulting revelations about the diversion of federal funds away from badly needed infrastructure updates in Kerr County after residents urged local government to return the funds—a decision that, without question, cost many lives. Recently released video footage reveals residents warning of impending communism, invasions, and federal mandates if Kerr County were to accept the money, highlighting the archetypal tension and polarity of the Leo–Aquarius axis and the perils of venturing too far to one extreme or the other.
2. Claims by Attorney General Pam Bondi that there is no Jeffrey Epstein client list, and the ensuing revolt from Trump-aligned media and MAGA supporters—compounded by Trump’s demand that supporters “move on” from this story.
3. The death of controversial evangelical pastor John MacArthur, a prominent leader in hardline conservative evangelical circles, who passed away late on July 14th after a battle with pneumonia.
In Conclusion
In this retrograde season, we are asked to navigate a complex interplay between personal truth and collective pressure, between individual will and social influence. The Mercury–Pluto dynamic across Leo and Aquarius demands that we confront the consequences of unchecked power, both within ourselves and in our communities. If we engage this moment with honesty and discernment, we may find not only greater clarity—but a path forward that honors both autonomy and accountability, self-expression and shared responsibility.