John Boehner Resigns
John Boehner’s announcement that he was stepping down as Speaker of the House surprised a lot of political pundits, but it was even more surprising to astrologers. Boehner is a Sun sign Scorpio, and the one thing Scorpio’s almost never do is voluntarily give up a position of power.
We don’t have a time of birth for Boehner, but even without that crucial bit of information it is easy to see that he is currently undergoing a couple of significant transiting aspects. (Click on John Boehner to see a chart done for noon on his birthday.) Pluto is moving across his Venus, while Jupiter is approaching a conjunction with his natal Mars. The first aspect is indicative of the sacrifice of personal pleasure for the sake of a larger love. On and emotional level, It could also be read as a feeling of betrayal.
It is also possible that Uranus is currently opposite his natal Moon. We can’t know for sure without a time of birth, but I think it is likely. The opposition of the Moon by Uranus is a very important passage. It spurs a person to do radical things, and to express him or herself in dramatic, and disruptive ways. Boehner’s surprising announcement certainly fits that description.
That brings us back to his Sun in Scorpio. One basic rule in astrology is that every action associated with any of the personal planets (the Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars) eventually, on one fashion or another, comes back to serve the needs of the Sun. So how does Boehner’s resignation fit into this scenario?
At the present time the ultra-conservative wing of the Republican congress is gearing up for a government shutdown over the funding of Planned Parenthood. Their plan is to hold up the federal budget until the president agrees to defund the organization. As Speaker of the House, Boehner’s role in this plan is crucial. If he acquiesces to the Tea Party people and their stipulations, the U.S. government could be shut down for an indefinite period of time. On the other hand, if he opposes the conservatives, they will have to resort to delaying actions, postponing the fight until December.
In previous years Boehner’s has been criticized by hard-line conservatives because of his willingness to negotiate with the president and give ground where needed. He apparently has some weird idea that shutting down government services to the poor, old people and children will do more harm to the Republican Party than good. This kind of realism (Scorpio is the most realistic of the Water Signs) has not set well with doctrinaire Capricorns like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, (both of whom are currently running for president and badly need a boost in the polls.)
Some people think that Boehner’s resignation represents his surrender to the hard-liners, but others propose a very different motivation. With his resignation already in place, Boehner doesn’t have to worry about what Ted Cruz and his minions have to say about him. He can thwart their efforts to paralyze the federal government without fear of retribution.
Boehner was under a very similar set of aspect back in 2014. Then he was threatening to sue President Obama. That attempt to exert power proved to be fruitless. From what I know about Scorpios, I think that he will use his resignation as another means of exerting power, at least in the short term, and take one last swipe at the hard-liners who have been so critical of him. When Scorpios can’t get power, very often they will settle for a touch of revenge. (And it appears that I was right. See this link.)
