What comes after cancel culture?
USA Moon Distributor Mercury/Scorpio says extracting the proverbial pound of flesh is now in play
Using Primary Directions to Identify USA Social Movements
Predicting social movements within American culture is possible by applying Abu Maʿshar’s system of Distributors and Partners—also known as “directing through the bounds”—to key significators in the Regulus USA National Horoscope. My book America is Born: Introducing the Regulus USA National Horoscope, published in 2009, featured social movements based on directing the Ascendant degree through the bounds. Other posts on this site document past predictions (here and here) and current predictions (here) based on that model.
Moon Distributor: Venus/Scorpio — May 19, 2020
One can also direct the Moon through the bounds to derive another set of social movements. In my post on Joe Biden, I link his presidency to the directed Moon in the bound of Venus/Scorpio between May 19, 2020, and November 2, 2024. The Moon’s active Distributor for that time was Venus/Scorpio—an identical planet/sign placement found in Biden’s horoscope—signifying his role as ‘Comforter-in-Chief.’ This role was elevated to the national stage as Americans sought emotional empathy during the 2020 COVID pandemic.
Starting just seven days before the murder of George Floyd, the Venus/Scorpio Distributor also brought concerns of socially oppressed individuals to the surface under the banner of social justice. A variant of this theme was cancel culture, which sought to stamp out any perceived slights against social justice warriors and their constituents.
Moon Distributor: Mercury/Scorpio — November 2, 2024
So what happened on November 2, 2024, when Venus/Scorpio handed her Distribution over to Mercury/Scorpio? In his May 14 Breaking History podcast episode, Vulgarians at the Gate: How Censors Lost the Culture War, Eli Lake proposes that Trump’s Madison Square Garden political rally on October 27, 2024, marked a change in tone. At that event, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe made controversial remarks, referring to Puerto Rico as a "floating island of garbage." These comments sparked criticism from various quarters, including political figures and celebrities.
President Joe Biden responded on October 29, 2024, by stating, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it's un-American.” Donald Trump responded by staging a political stunt in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on October 30, 2024. He arrived at a campaign rally in a garbage truck adorned with American flags and his campaign logo, wearing a reflective safety vest. Trump told reporters, “How do you like my garbage truck? This is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden.” The stunt was intended to mock Biden’s “garbage” comment and rally his base.
What struck Eli Lake was that Hinchcliffe’s “garbage” descriptor for Puerto Rico did not result in any sustained cultural reaction against Hinchcliffe or Trump. Had these comments been made in 2021 or 2022, the backlash would have been severe. Lake observed that by October 2024, Americans had grown tired of cancel culture’s strictures against politically incorrect language, which made life difficult for comedians. Lake places society’s earlier demand for politically correct speech in the broader context of how the comedian Lenny Bruce paved the way for free speech by using profanity—and how cancel culture ultimately backfired on social justice warriors. Hinchcliffe’s remarks on Puerto Rico, then, signaled the end of cancel culture and the start of Mercury in Scorpio as the USA Moon Distributor.
What Does Mercury in Scorpio Signify?
According to ChatGPT, combining Mercury’s planetary significations with the Mars-ruled sign of Scorpio yields the following themes:
Communication & Media: Investigative journalism, leaks, hidden agendas, secret negotiations; speech that is sharp, cutting, or revelatory. Tendency toward exposing corruption or manipulation.
Intelligence & Surveillance: Increases activity among spies, secret services, or state surveillance programs. Favorable for uncovering plots or secret networks.
Public Discourse: Communication becomes more suspicious, probing, or mistrustful. Heightened polarization or conspiracy-oriented rhetoric.
Commerce & Trade: Secretive financial deals, mergers, or economic policies. Risk of market manipulation or backroom bargaining. Hidden debt or toxic assets may come to light.
Transportation: Increased attention on covert or underground transit systems (e.g., tunnels, pipelines, submarines). May also signal mechanical breakdowns tied to neglect or sabotage.
Education & Youth: Focus on psychology, sex education, or trauma studies. Youth may be exposed to more serious or taboo topics. Potential for scandals involving schools or educators.
Criminal Matters: Investigation of organized crime, financial crimes, or political corruption. Police sting operations or secret indictments may be prominent.
Hinchcliffe’s remarks on Puerto Rico are a clear delineation match to ChatGPT’s first descriptive sentence under the category Communication & Media—specifically, “speech that is sharp, cutting, or revelatory.” Expect other themes on this list to emerge while Mercury in Scorpio remains the active USA Moon Distributor.
Personally, I prefer the delineation of Mercury in Scorpio as “a pound of flesh,” since Mercury is assigned to the skin and Scorpio is associated with revenge. Be careful here—this is not a descriptor for either left- or right-wing politics. Joe Biden, with Mercury in Scorpio mirrored in his natal chart, participated in this media cycle by characterizing Trump’s supporters as “garbage.” Trump himself drove the garbage truck.
Ahead of the 2024 election, I thought that if the Democrats won, the new Distributor would manifest as higher transaction taxes on financial market transactions because Scorpio is opposed to Taurus, whose glyph of the bull puts the ‘bull’ in ‘bull markets'. For the Republicans, it would manifest via Trump’s ‘I am your retribution’ campaign pledge. So far the most impactful retribution are tariffs which extract a pound of flesh from American importers. Possible taxes targeting liberal university endowment funds are another manifestation of Mercury in Scorpio’s penchant for revenge.
As a social movement, Mercury in Scorpio is not universally bad. One can play out the social mood by enjoying a G-rated Agatha Christie murder mystery without upending the global economy.
Get used to this: Mercury/Scorpio will remain the USA Moon’s Distributor until October 29, 2033.