Mercury Retrograde in Scorpio

I made a few screenshots from Planets Today to visualize our point on Earth when Mercury starts going backwards this afternoon.  Mercury now appears to be standing still in the 2^nd degree of Scorpio.  It looks like I will post this just as the apparent backward motion begins.  Scroll to bottom for the Planets Today screenshot.

Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars are sometimes called the personal planets.

                                                              

Jupiter and Saturn are the social planets

Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are the trans personal planets.  

The real stinger right now is Mercury parked at 2 degrees Scorpio.  It will start moving backwards this afternoon (1:03pm local time).  The triangle of Uranus, Jupiter and Mars in fire signs is also really strong for the next few days.  I imagine a lot of people will have a hard time seeing how Venus is ruling when they read the news.  But we are being told to look for offerings of friendship at the end of the long chain of violence, posturing and adventurism.   Venus ruling in Libra is a definite promise of redemption during this spike in the clash of wills.

Mercury stationary in Scorpio ensures that we look beneath the surface and not let ourselves be fooled by the rosey tint cast by Venus.  

The IOC’s response to Oslo withdrawing its winter Olympics bid was a great example of how the planet of beauty is not necessarily beautiful when it is ruling.  http://www.npr.org/2014/10/03/353538180/why-doesnt-anyone-want-to-host-the-2022-olympics  
Here is a snippet from the end of the transcript that outlines the leaked Leonine expectations of the International Olympics Committee.  (Jupiter in Leo)

MARTIN: Lastly, we have to talk about this. The Oslo bid seems to have exposed, shall we say, the haughtier side of doing business with the IOC.
FATSIS: Yeah, the IOC doesn't take rejection well, we learned here. It issued this passive aggressive statement saying it is a pity that Oslo will miss out on this great opportunity to invest in its future. Poor Oslo. Norway's also going to miss out on a few other things, some demands that the IOC made. They were leaked to a Norwegian newspaper. And they read like a David Letterman top 10 list - cocktail party with the king, with the royal palace or the local Olympic organizers picking up the tab, separate lanes on all roads for IOC members - and I think it's important to point out that there are 105 IOC members - ceremonial welcome for the IOC president on the airport tarmac, meeting rooms set to exactly 20 degrees Celsius at all times. And number one of my top 10 list, IOC members shall be greeted with a smile when arriving at their hotel.

Power corrupts including in the case of diplomacy.