William Barr: Preservation of Hierarchy
William Barr wrote that the US government is "predicated precisely" on the Judeo-Christian system. This is an attempt to join church and state, which religious conservatives have always wanted to do. He also said that Catholic education should be promoted through tax breaks. William Barr is a product of Catholic education which above all else teaches the faithful not to question authority. And if misdeeds by authority are discovered, like in the Church, they are to be quickly covered up. Barr insisted that those involved in the Iran-Contra scandal be pardoned. The structure, the hierarchy, had to be defended. Truth is simply what the hierarchy tells the people. The Pope is never wrong. The hierarchy is never wrong. The individual must be subservient to authority. The only purpose of the individual is to protect and preserve the hierarchical structure. Barr has been described as having a "self-deprecating wit." That fits, for a man who serves the hierarchy.
What is ultimately Barr's motivation? For that you have to delve deeply into the Catholic Church, how if engulfs those who are susceptible. It owns their eternal souls. It threatens them with eternal damnation if they stray. The Church perverted the teachings of Christ to serve its own purpose of control and obedience. It teaches salvation is only through obedience.
The Church is a patriarchal institution where only men have power. It protects men's unfettered reproductive rights. Women must submit and bear children because God made men stronger. That is the will of God. The Church as a patriarchy enforces the will of God. The Church only cares about more children being born because it increases its power. It is essentially the same as a nationalist state.
If you give your soul to the Catholic Church in order to have a purer, higher, more godly life, you will become a soldier as Barr has become. He will promote Church's patriarchal values. He believes his rewards, after all he does for Trump, will be of higher value. Barr feels a profound need to save the nation from sin. To ram down his "Christian values" he wants the strongest authoritarian executive branch. This helps in crushing down dissenters. The nation can then become a theocracy and democracy be damned.
While most people see the defense of corrupt men in power revolting, many religious people see it as serving divine will. They are so drilled in upholding authority that they will tolerate immorality and corruption. Their "truth" is forced down by strong authority. Barr jumped in to defend Trump in 2017 with a 19 page memo criticizing the Mueller probe before he knew the relevant facts. His opinion on the extent of presidential power extends well beyond what most constitutional scholars think. He wanted to protect Trump, the would-be autocrat . But with Trump he defended a creature that is barely human.
Barr's deference and need to protect power must have a psychological basis. What can Astrology tell us about Barr? His birth chart is shown below. It is a noon chart because his exact birth time is not known.
The position of the Ascendant is not known and the Moon is approximate, but enough to be certain of its conjunction with Pluto. The Moon-Mercury-Pluto hard aspects indicate a person who is very firm in their opinions and who wants to assert them. These opinions are based on what he considers home (Moon), what is close to the safety of his Catholic upbringing. Pluto gives compelling energy to these feelings which are then projected to his thinking (Mercury). Moon-Uranus-Pluto indicates stubbornness and willfulness. Mercury in Taurus is another indication of fixed opinions. He is not a person who could easily be made to change his mind.
His thinking is also shaped by the Saturn in Virgo trine Mercury aspect. It is about system and order. Virgo is a sign of precision, neatness and abhorrence of disorder. Saturn represents our restrictions and fears, and combined with Virgo it means fear of disorder and chaos. Maybe Barr saw the beginning of the Mueller probe as chaotic and dangerous to the power structure of the presidency. But will he overlook the chaos Trump is bringing to the country???
Barr's austere Mars in Virgo is receiving impulsive and unconventional energy from a square to Uranus. This is likely a source of fear and consternation for him. Mars square Uranus is a wild and impulsive energy likely to manifest in socially unacceptable ways. He may feel that he needs to discipline and repress himself. And what better way than through submission to all the weight and authority of the Church. Barr assumes that all of us experience the same drives and same temptations, but that is not true.
Barr is a person who wants to preserve the status quo. He is fundamentally conservative. To him power structures are set, unchanging, and not to be challenged. Truth is as Catholic Church defined it. He will work hard (Virgo Mars trine Sun and Mercury) to preserve the structure of the hierarchy. Barr wants to be publicly prominent as shown by his Jupiter Sun square and Eris North Node conjunction. The Eris square Uranus aspect (4 degrees) probably means that he will have a somewhat unexpected impact on the world.
With Venus-Neptune opposition and Sun sesquiquadrate Neptune prominent in his chart Barr is likely be susceptible to believing in the ideal, to think that perfect hierarchical order is needed to ensure a pure society. His beliefs are idealized and not to be questioned. The Church teaches that social perfection can be achieved through concentration of power in hierarchy. For Barr social perfection is defined as obedience to the teachings of the Church. If he can bring that about by appointment of religious conservative judges he believes he can save America. The irony is that these religious people think they can use Trump to get to their goals, while Trump is modeling criminal behavior and using them for his narcissistic needs.
The first and only Roman Catholic US president, JFK, was not elected until 1960. That is 1 out of 45 presidents, or 2.2%. According to Wikipedia in 2007 Roman Catholics constituted 23.9% of US population. For many years there was a fear that a Roman Catholic president would pledge allegiance to the Church and its doctrines first and not to the US Constitution. With William Barr we see that this fear has justification. We can question whether he is truly protecting and defending the Constitution. While only one Catholic managed to become president, the Supreme Court is stocked with them. Presently it is Alito, Thomas, Roberts, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh. Republican presidents repeatedly chose Catholic justices, probably knowing their deep patriarchal and conservative feelings. These are the staunchest of the patriarchs, making sure US stays under religious control and that the power structures are not changed.
Addendum:
In his recent speech (Oct. 11, 2019) William Barr said: " Men are subject to powerful passions and appetites, and, if unrestrained, are capable of ruthlessly riding roughshod over their neighbor and the community at large. No society can exist without some means for restraining individual rapacity." Does not this description immediately bring Donald Trump to mind? Trump's criminality is rampant, yet Barr is on his side.
Barr in his speech speaks of men having "powerful passions and appetites" and needing "restraining individual rapacity". Could he be speaking of himself? Looking back at his natal chart there is tension in his Mars energy. Mars represents aggressive and sexual energy. His Mars square Uranus aspect indicates "out of bounds" Mars impulses. They are socially unacceptable and need to be brought under control. Religion does this for Barr and he thinks everyone has to have it for this purpose.
The quote above paints such a bleak picture of humanity. Religious people believe that all of us are so horrible at heart. We are all labelled as sinners, and according to Catholic Church will go to Hell if we miss church on Sunday. William Barr sees himself as the righteous warrior who will save us from ourselves.
What is ultimately Barr's motivation? For that you have to delve deeply into the Catholic Church, how if engulfs those who are susceptible. It owns their eternal souls. It threatens them with eternal damnation if they stray. The Church perverted the teachings of Christ to serve its own purpose of control and obedience. It teaches salvation is only through obedience.
The Church is a patriarchal institution where only men have power. It protects men's unfettered reproductive rights. Women must submit and bear children because God made men stronger. That is the will of God. The Church as a patriarchy enforces the will of God. The Church only cares about more children being born because it increases its power. It is essentially the same as a nationalist state.
If you give your soul to the Catholic Church in order to have a purer, higher, more godly life, you will become a soldier as Barr has become. He will promote Church's patriarchal values. He believes his rewards, after all he does for Trump, will be of higher value. Barr feels a profound need to save the nation from sin. To ram down his "Christian values" he wants the strongest authoritarian executive branch. This helps in crushing down dissenters. The nation can then become a theocracy and democracy be damned.
While most people see the defense of corrupt men in power revolting, many religious people see it as serving divine will. They are so drilled in upholding authority that they will tolerate immorality and corruption. Their "truth" is forced down by strong authority. Barr jumped in to defend Trump in 2017 with a 19 page memo criticizing the Mueller probe before he knew the relevant facts. His opinion on the extent of presidential power extends well beyond what most constitutional scholars think. He wanted to protect Trump, the would-be autocrat . But with Trump he defended a creature that is barely human.
Barr's deference and need to protect power must have a psychological basis. What can Astrology tell us about Barr? His birth chart is shown below. It is a noon chart because his exact birth time is not known.
The position of the Ascendant is not known and the Moon is approximate, but enough to be certain of its conjunction with Pluto. The Moon-Mercury-Pluto hard aspects indicate a person who is very firm in their opinions and who wants to assert them. These opinions are based on what he considers home (Moon), what is close to the safety of his Catholic upbringing. Pluto gives compelling energy to these feelings which are then projected to his thinking (Mercury). Moon-Uranus-Pluto indicates stubbornness and willfulness. Mercury in Taurus is another indication of fixed opinions. He is not a person who could easily be made to change his mind.
His thinking is also shaped by the Saturn in Virgo trine Mercury aspect. It is about system and order. Virgo is a sign of precision, neatness and abhorrence of disorder. Saturn represents our restrictions and fears, and combined with Virgo it means fear of disorder and chaos. Maybe Barr saw the beginning of the Mueller probe as chaotic and dangerous to the power structure of the presidency. But will he overlook the chaos Trump is bringing to the country???
Barr's austere Mars in Virgo is receiving impulsive and unconventional energy from a square to Uranus. This is likely a source of fear and consternation for him. Mars square Uranus is a wild and impulsive energy likely to manifest in socially unacceptable ways. He may feel that he needs to discipline and repress himself. And what better way than through submission to all the weight and authority of the Church. Barr assumes that all of us experience the same drives and same temptations, but that is not true.
Barr is a person who wants to preserve the status quo. He is fundamentally conservative. To him power structures are set, unchanging, and not to be challenged. Truth is as Catholic Church defined it. He will work hard (Virgo Mars trine Sun and Mercury) to preserve the structure of the hierarchy. Barr wants to be publicly prominent as shown by his Jupiter Sun square and Eris North Node conjunction. The Eris square Uranus aspect (4 degrees) probably means that he will have a somewhat unexpected impact on the world.
With Venus-Neptune opposition and Sun sesquiquadrate Neptune prominent in his chart Barr is likely be susceptible to believing in the ideal, to think that perfect hierarchical order is needed to ensure a pure society. His beliefs are idealized and not to be questioned. The Church teaches that social perfection can be achieved through concentration of power in hierarchy. For Barr social perfection is defined as obedience to the teachings of the Church. If he can bring that about by appointment of religious conservative judges he believes he can save America. The irony is that these religious people think they can use Trump to get to their goals, while Trump is modeling criminal behavior and using them for his narcissistic needs.
The first and only Roman Catholic US president, JFK, was not elected until 1960. That is 1 out of 45 presidents, or 2.2%. According to Wikipedia in 2007 Roman Catholics constituted 23.9% of US population. For many years there was a fear that a Roman Catholic president would pledge allegiance to the Church and its doctrines first and not to the US Constitution. With William Barr we see that this fear has justification. We can question whether he is truly protecting and defending the Constitution. While only one Catholic managed to become president, the Supreme Court is stocked with them. Presently it is Alito, Thomas, Roberts, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh. Republican presidents repeatedly chose Catholic justices, probably knowing their deep patriarchal and conservative feelings. These are the staunchest of the patriarchs, making sure US stays under religious control and that the power structures are not changed.
Addendum:
In his recent speech (Oct. 11, 2019) William Barr said: " Men are subject to powerful passions and appetites, and, if unrestrained, are capable of ruthlessly riding roughshod over their neighbor and the community at large. No society can exist without some means for restraining individual rapacity." Does not this description immediately bring Donald Trump to mind? Trump's criminality is rampant, yet Barr is on his side.
Barr in his speech speaks of men having "powerful passions and appetites" and needing "restraining individual rapacity". Could he be speaking of himself? Looking back at his natal chart there is tension in his Mars energy. Mars represents aggressive and sexual energy. His Mars square Uranus aspect indicates "out of bounds" Mars impulses. They are socially unacceptable and need to be brought under control. Religion does this for Barr and he thinks everyone has to have it for this purpose.
The quote above paints such a bleak picture of humanity. Religious people believe that all of us are so horrible at heart. We are all labelled as sinners, and according to Catholic Church will go to Hell if we miss church on Sunday. William Barr sees himself as the righteous warrior who will save us from ourselves.
December 15, 2020:
William Barr turned in his resignation letter on December 14, 2020. Given William Barr's religious sentiments, it has all been about conservative judges. Barr made a bargain with the devil who had power - Trump. He served Trump so Trump could serve him. Now that Trump has appointed the last of the SCOTUS judges, he is no longer useful. It was time to jump off the Trump train. Barr does not want to destroy law and order in America. He just wants to bend it enough to serve his religious goals. Barr probably believes that he saved the moral fiber of America by stacking the courts with judges who will lock up or execute those who show "individual rapacity". To repeat, Barr said: " No society can exist without some means for restraining individual rapacity". And, of course, Trump fits that description perfectly.
Addendum: January 7, 2021
Today, January 7, 2021 Bill Barr said that Trump committed "betrayal of his office and supporters" following the storming of the Capitol. How hypocritical! He gave Trump every support as long as Trump was nominating religious judges. These judges were worth all the damage Trump was doing to the country. Now that Trump is no longer useful to him, Barr develops a conscience.
