On Saturday, October 17, the head of US Central Command, Brad Cooper, said the Strait of Hormuz is controlled by the United States and its regional partners, not by Iran. Iran's Revolutionary Guard says the opposite: it calls the passage unsafe for ships that do not coordinate with the authority Iran created during the war. According to UKMTO, at least 12 vessels were attacked in the week ending October 16, and the container ship GFS Pride sank while under tow. Washington says an Iranian projectile hit it, and Tehran says it was a mine. Brent touched $110 a barrel on Friday, its highest level since May. Pakistan and Qatar keep relaying messages between the parties, with no breakthrough expected soon.
This week Mercury, the planet of messages and negotiations, slows to a stop at 21° of Scorpio and turns retrograde on Saturday, October 24, around 1 a.m. (Mexico City time). Scorpio is the sign of what lies beneath the surface: the hidden, shared resources and control. With Mercury nearly stationary, messages repeat, get reinterpreted and move forward very little, much like mediators passing notes without reaching a deal.
On Friday the 23rd the Sun enters Scorpio, and on Sunday the 25th at 10:12 p.m. the Full Moon arrives at 2° of Taurus, opposite the Sun. The Taurus-Scorpio axis is about who holds the resource and who controls the passage: Taurus is the oil that gets sold and the price that gets paid, Scorpio is the strait being fought over and what is hidden behind it. A full moon lights up what was in the shadows, and this week's figures (ships attacked, barrels crossing, dollars per barrel) are that light.
Mercury retrograde in Scorpio invites us to reread before we sign. That same Sunday the 25th, in the early morning, retrograde Venus returns to Libra, the sign of pacts where the October 10 New Moon was born, as if diplomacy were retracing its steps. It is a time to review the terms, measure the real cost of what is being disputed and notice what holds up once the light is on.