Mercury Retrograde, Wendy Davis, and the People’s Filibuster

As one of the 107,000 people watching on the livestream from the Texas legislature as June 25 turned into June 26, it was one of the most galvanizing things I’ve seen in three decades of following politics.

If you haven’t followed the story, I’ll let Google catch you up rather than try to cover everything here, but there are a few things I wanted to mention in relation to astrology.

I don’t know exactly when Mercury went retrograde on June 26, (not that it matters exactly) but there were many "Mercury" and "Mercury retrograde" aspects to the whole episode.

First, the emphasis on speech and communication inherent in Senator Davis’s 11-hour filibuster, and the intricacies of the Rules of Order, as well as the more "retrograde" aspect of the disputes over "germaneness."

Then there was the dynamic of the GOP senators using the "germaneness" rules (absurdly) to cut off Davis’s speech.

Next came the dramatic turning point when Lt. Governor Dewhurst (intentionally?) overlooked the motion from Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, and railroaded the process by instead recognizing the motion from his male GOP colleague to force the vote.

This led to the epochal words that sparked the waves of chanting and disruption from the gallery (the People’s Filibuster).

Sen. Leticia Van de Putte: "Point of inquiry."

Lt. Gov. Dewhurst: "State your point of inquiry."

Van de Putte: "At what point must a female senator raise her hand or her voice to be recognized over her male colleagues?"

As many of you saw, these words, coupled with the blatant steamrolling of the process, unleashed the voices from the previously patient and quiet gallery, including chants of "Let her speak!" regarding Davis.

This vocal disruption (a grassroots defense of democracy) was, somewhat miraculously, able to disrupt and delay the (voice?) vote until just after the legislative session expired. The vote was not recorded until 12:03 am on June 26, making it invalid.

The most classic Mercury retrograde aspect of the whole affair was the fact that this was TOTALLY confused and undetermined for about three hours, with no one knowing whether the bill (SB5) had passed or not.

The GOP claimed that the bill was passed, and Lt. Gov. Dewhurst fed this story to the Associated Press (which as you may know has suffered a right-wing takeover in recent years). The AP reported that the bill had passed, as did CNN, I think, while many protested on Twitter that that the vote was too late and that Senators on the floor themselves did not know if the bill had passed or not.

(This seems to me very similar to Richard Tarnas’s description of the Mercury retrograde during the indeterminant phase of the 2000 Bush v. Gore election, when we did not know who the president-elect was through all of November and early December.)

The official Texas state legislature website posted the vote with a timestamp of 12:03 am, June 26, (therefore too late.) But nine minutes later, the website suddenly switched to show the vote squeaking in at 11:59 pm, June 25, and therefore, law.

This has yet to be explained. It’s quite possible that this chicanery might have worked, if not for the fact that within seconds, folks on twitter were posting screenshots of the original posting, next to the altered one.

I think it’s quite possible that the Texas GOP, or their staffers, saw this evidence on Twitter and thought, if we try to push this through, some of us might end up in jail.

At three am, Democratic and GOP senators came out of a private meeting and it was announced that the vote had been too late.

So… it seems to me that the dynamics of Mercury and Mercury retrograde were very strong through all of this. (And more could be mentioned, such as the importance of the Texas Tribune setting up a good livestream, the role of Twitter, the fact that Gov. Perry is forcing a re-do of the special legislative session, and thus the whole thing, perhaps… etc.)

It was a truly powerful moment, one related to the larger outer planetary transits that are bringing waves of awareness and transformation, as well as challenges and struggles, around women’s rights, around GLBTQ dignity and equality, and more.

–Drew Dellinger, June 28, 2013.

#StandWithWendy #SB5