Paul Ryan's Identity Crisis
For a long time we have thought of Paul Ryan as the intellectual Republican, the kind of guy who can quote famous conservative theorists like Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman and gives out Ayn Rand novels as Christmas presents. While many of his colleagues on the right focus on social issues, such as abortion and gay rights, opening themselves to accusations of misogyny and prejudice, Ryan has manage to stand above this fray, and maintain an aura of intellectual purity.
Of course, a lot of this has to do with the fact that Paul Ryan is an Aquarius by Sun sign. (Click on Paul Ryan to see his chart.) Aquarians gravitate toward ideas, and rarely let themselves get dragged down into emotional debates. True to his Aquarian nature, some of Ryan’s ideas are quite radical. For example, his dreamscape of total capitalism leaves little room for popular government programs like Social Security and Medicare.
But we forgive Ryan for such excess because they are consistent with is overall intellectual approach. No one thinks he would really be able to eliminate these programs. (Right?) So when he calls Social Security evidence of creeping socialism, we’re not alarmed. We expect Aquarian to stick to their principles, regardless of how unpopular they might be, and we respect them for that consistency, no matter how much we might disagree with what they think.
Recently, however, we’ve seen another side of Paul Ryan. We’ve seen him acquiesce to a new president whose wants to shrink government regulations (something that Ryan wants) but at the same time greatly expand government spending on the military, infrastructure and a “beautiful” wall (something that a small-government advocate like Ryan should abhor). Meanwhile, Ryan doesn’t seem to bat an eye when this president criticizes U.S. intelligences services, threatens freedom of the press, and wakes up on morning believing Obama is under his bed, or maybe just tapping his phone.
This brings us to Neptune, and its placement almost directly on Ryan’s Sagittarian Ascendant. This tells us several things about Ryan. First of all, despite his doctrinaire conservatism, Ryan is a compassionate man who is serious about his Catholic faith. On the other hand, having Neptune on the Ascendant indicates a high tolerance for vagueness. It is also an indicator of deception, but not so much of other people. Neptune on the Ascendant more often is an indicator of self-deception and instability with regard to one's personal identity.
The main problem with having Neptune on the Ascendant is the way in which this placement contradicts the mental clarity and consistency of Ryan’s Aquarius Sun sign. The health care bill that Ryan is currently trying to muscle through Congress is a good example of this astrological mismatch. The impetus for the bill was a demonstration of the power pure capitalism to cure governmental overreach, but political realities caused it to get bogged down with provisions that make it sound very much another “socialist” entitlement. While Ryan seems able to deal with this vagueness, other conservatives in Congress are not.
In Ryan’s secondary progressed horoscope, the Sun is moving into an opposition with his natal Pluto. This is an indicator of obstruction and frustration, and doesn’t bode well for passage of Ryan’s bill. It is also an indicator of self-doubt, and of having one’s autonomy and sense of self smothered by circumstances or by other people with greater power. The next year is going be a tough one for Ryan, and he’s going to have to make a choice between Aquarius and Neptune.
