Gryphon Astrology Blog

As an astrologer, I find political scandals fascinating, such as the recent one with Mark Foley. What tends to interest me about such political fallouts is the way in which blame spreads like wildfire, leaving nothing untouched. This being an election year, it is as though the ground was first thoroughly soaked in gasoline. I was particularly interested to see how House Speaker Denny Hastert was going to fare, with increasing pressures on him to resign his job.

I cast a horary to see what would happen to Hastert. I noticed the late degrees of the rising sign, which made me wonder whether the decision had not already been made, even though the question has been asked on October 3.

The horary chart for the question “Will Hastert resign due to the scandal?” is here:

Hastert himself is shown by Mars in Libra in the turned sixth house. The sign of Libra is ruled by Hastert’s opponents (7th from the 7th). By being in their sign, Hastert is very much at their mercy, which explains why Mars is so debilitated in Libra. Beyond being in a malefic house, Mars is also combust, which is the greatest affliction that can happen to a planet. Being close to the Sun is considered very harmful, due to the Sun’s excessive heat. What’s more problematic here, is that the Sun is moving faster than Mars, getting even closer to Mars. So Mars is going to be even more debilitated as time goes on, though it will be a slow process.

However, we do not see Mars about to change signs, nor do we see any change in sign by the job, ruler of Hastert’s 10th house of career (Saturn in Leo). Too, the fact that the 10th cusp is in a fixed sign, and its ruler is in a fixed sign makes me think that there will be no immediate resignation. I also cast the Part of Resignation and Dismissal, and its dispositor, Venus, is not aspecting either the job or Hastert himself.

The applying opposition between the moon and Saturn might suggest resignation, as opposition is the aspect that breaks people or things apart. However, Mars is applying to Saturn by sextile (Hastert going to the job), which makes me think that Hastert is more likely to get reelected for the position should the Republicans retain control of the House. The Sun applying to Mars however, shows increasing pressure on Hastert, so even if he gets reelected for the Speaker position, it looks as though his troubles are far from over.

Update: I have thought about the applying Mars-Saturn sextile some more, and because both planets are so very essentially weak (both are in detriment),  I find it less likely that Hastert will get reelected for the Speaker position next year.  To have an effective aspect between two planets, the planets need some manner of essential strength; these two are very weak, indeed, and Saturn (the job) does not care for Mars (Hastert) at all.  Odds of Hastert’s reelection are low.

Just the other day, I read a very relevant quote in On the Psychology of Military Incompetence:

It is a sad feature of authoritarian organizations that their nature militates against the possibility of learning from the experience through the apportioning of blame… Since authoritarianism is itself the product of psychological defenses, authoritarian organizations are past masters at deflecting blame. They do so by denial, by rationalization, by making scapegoats, or by some mixture of the three. However it is achieved, the net result is that no real admission of failure or incompetence is ever made by those who are really responsible; hence nothing can be done about preventing a recurrence.

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