Wielding a Powerful, Double-Edged Sword

This is the eigth part of my essay series “Inner Work with the Planets”. If you haven’t read the earlier parts yet, I suggest you start with part 1 to get the most out of this essay.

Boy, what a morning! Even back when the alarm rang the first time, you knew this day wouldn’t be one of your better ones. Sluggish, tired, and without any drive, you set the alarm forward for a few minutes. Then again. And again, until you finally managed to drag yourself out of bed.

Shuffling listlessly towards the bathroom, the only thing keeping you upright and awake at all was some sense of duty on a workday. Over breakfast, your partner suggested one of your favourites for dinner this evening, but you couldn’t even manage any enthusiasm for that. Still, you did your best to act excited and pleased, even though you’re pretty sure your lack of energy showed. You’ll have to make up for that tonight, although you’d much rather just drop down on the couch and don’t even lift an arm anymore.

Now, at work, things haven’t gotten any better, alas. The deadline looms, but you have no energy at all. Since you can’t get yourself to finish stuff, you instead stare at the outline of the new project you had been looking forward to. Getting going with this would just require you to send some emails… but you don’t feel like starting anything, much less like pulling through. Somehow you must have forgotten your usual initiative and drive in bed.

And to top it all off, in this morning’s meeting about the looming deadline, one of your colleagues offloaded the fault for his own lapses onto you. For a few seconds, you considered starting an argument… but today, even such a small fight seems to be too much effort. Instead, you just shrugged your shoulders, although your boss now believes the delay is your fault and not this colleague’s.

Staring listlessly at your screen, you wonder whether you should just spend lunchbreak slumping here at your desk – and what, for goodness’ sake, is going on with you today…

So… as promised, with this essay we’ve entered the sphere of another planet. Can you guess which one it is? I’ll give you a hint: What I’ve been depicting in the little story above is not this planet – but rather the lack thereof! 😉

Got it? Correct, it’s Mars. Or, to be more precise: an unfortunate absence of Mars.

And admit it, the story took you by surprise. In an intro to the sphere of Mars, you were probably expecting some striking display of Martian vices: Senseless war, bloodshed just for bloodshed’s sake, aggression, or, to pick a current societal favourite, “toxic masculinity”.

And indeed, compared to the other planets, Mars has a rather grim and unpleasant reputation. As the god of war, associated with aggression, violent destruction, and the copious spilling of blood, for long ages people have either tried to appease him to avoid war and bloodshed, or to pull him onto their (soon-to-be victorious, or so they hoped) side. Either way, Mars commands respect, and a careful approach, other than e.g. laid-back Mercury or easy-going Venus.

It’s not for nothing that Mars’ classic nickname is “the lesser Malefic”.

(Yep, there is also a “Greater Malefic” – and yep, we will of course get to it in due time, too… 😉 )

But for now, let’s focus on Mars, and on his vices and virtues.

The reason why I focused today’s intro story on an absence of Martian energy, and not on the (more obvious) Martian vices is simple: Just as we started into the sphere of Venus by noting her (less obvious) pitfalls and drawbacks in order to fully do her justice, we’ll need to consider both the vices and the virtues of Mars to do him justice. And since his vices are so much more obvious, it seemed prudent to balance them out by stressing what Mars is good for first!

There’s one thing we should quickly clarify, though, before we dive into the specifics: As might be obvious from the above example story, an absence of a Martian vice is not the same as one of his virtues. You might remember that we encountered the same principle in the Sun’s sphere. Since it’s rather important, we’ll talk more about it in a later essay when we turn towards practical implications of all this stuff.

(Yep, there are practical implications of all this – or rather, practical applications! Of course there are. After all, what would be the point of inner work only in theory, if you couldn’t use it to change some things in yourself, and thus also improve your life?)

As for the vices and virtues of Mars, it helps to keep in mind that he is a warrior god – and it also helps to throw a glance or two up at the sky, at the material planet Mars.

As usual, we can get quite a few clues from the outer appearance of the planet. While Mars is by far not as bright (and certainly not as enticing and lovely) as the planet Venus, his very distinct, energetic red shine is hard to miss in the months when he is out at night. Red like the colour of blood, the association is rather obvious.

But even though Venus and Jupiter might be brighter, Mars, too, does stand out against the backdrop of stars. The warrior at the night sky is just a bit brighter, a bit more fascinatingly red, a bit more intense than any of the reddish fixed stars.

The same intensity is part of Mars’ vices and virtues. Whatever Mars does, he does it with full force. There is no hesitating, no thinking twice, no weighing options, and certainly no second thoughts. Once Mars charges, he does so with all he has, consequenes be damned.

The weaknesses in this are rather obvious. Without the ability and willingness to change plans, to take new factors into account, we’re forever stuck in banging our heads against the same brickwall, even if the wall isn’t anymore likely to give in the future than it was in the past.

And without the ability and willingness to evaluate, to use our minds, to think and act strategically, we’re bound to attack any problem (and any person) full force, no matter what else we shatter and destroy in the process.

Mars is pure energy – and pure energy can be as deadly as it can be beautiful.

But on the other hand, there are virtues to these coins, too, even if they might be harder to spot! It’s the drive of Mars, no matter the consequences, which enables people to fight for what they believe is right, whatever the cost might turn out to be.

It’s his intense focus which allows us to really go deep into one thing, and to ignore the siren calls of diversions and of easier options.

It’s his ability to charge without thinking twice which allows us to put our minds aside in situations when constant worry or doubt get in the way, and instead to simply act without questioning ourselves.

These virtues can be harder to spot than the vices, and they aren’t always associated with Mars. We might even take them for granted sometimes – unless, of course, we’re stuck in one of the many situations in life where we lack the necessary drive, the focused intensity and the sheer willforce to tackle things and get them done.

When you look around, you’ll notice this is quite a common pattern for a lot of people. Be it New Year’s resolutions, getting started with sports, finally applying for a new job, daring to go on that major trip or move elsewhere, or changing their lives in any other regards: If you look closely, you’ll notice just how often people shy back from letting their inner Mars take over, and instead retreat into various forms of passivity.

(And quite ironically, it seems that this inability to apply the virtues of Mars in their own lives makes a lot of people condemn others who are better at this. I guess Mars is just too overwhelming and intense, and takes some getting used to!)

Of course, this overwhelming intensity and drive, this mindless passion and fighting towards a goal, those can all be good things, and maybe we need some more of these virtues in our current society.

On the other hand, there is the darker side of these coins, the vices: Blind passion can turn into rage. Thoughtless action and drive can lead to aggression and violence. The disregard of any consequences of one’s action can produce needless destruction.

Mars as the god of war embodies all these things, in their good shapes and their bad shapes. But really, to what extent can we even distinguish between “good” and “bad”?

War is one of the most desctructive of human actions, for example – but sometimes a war will be necessary to free a people or a nation from oppression or tyranny, two equally destructive forces. And sometimes an aggressive warrior stance, combined with the absolute willingness to go all in if necessary, might even prevent a fight before it happens…

The coins of Mars can be difficult to handle since his intensity turns them into such a sharp sword in our hands, sometimes quite literally. But for as much damage as this sword can do, it can also be wielded for good causes. And indeed, without at least some of the Martian drive and energy, each of our days would look and feel like the one in the little story above. A horrible prospect, isn’t it?

Just like Venus embodies part of the stereotypical female, so does Mars embody part of the stereotypical male – or rather, two aspects of it.

The first is the seasoned warrior who is fighting for what he beliefs in. He doesn’t mind maiming, destroying or killing if this should be necessary. Indeed, he knows that these things are necessary to protect the other members of his tribe, who without him would be defenseless. He has a sword, and he isn’t afraid to wield it if he has to – even if he himself might get killed in the process.

(As a somewhat funny aside, one of the meanings of the Latin word “virtutes”, the origin of the term “virtue”, is “courage”. Quite fitting for a discussion on Mars, isn’t it? 😉 )

The other one is the youthful warrior, full of drive and passion, whose hormons and aggression override any consideration or hesitation, and sometimes any thought at all. Once he is set on a goal, he will fight towards it with all his might, without stopping to think or plan. To this youthful warrior, anything but following his passions with single-minded intensity is not an option.

So far, we’ve mostly put a spotlight on this youthful warrior aspect of Mars, but of course the other side is there, too. The seasoned knight who fights for the good cause and protects the weak, even at the cost of his own life or health is the Martian figure of myth and legend. But even today, there are still such knights right around us, even if they usually don’t ride in on a horse anymore… 😉

With all his traits, Mars bears an incredible capacity for change and for action – and thus also the danger of changing things too fast and destroying too much of the old, of acting too rash and without considering the consequences.

If you wield his energy wisely, his virtues will help you achieve things you might not have considered possible. If you overdo it and let yourself be taken over by his energy, you might destroy a lot more than you notice in the moment of action and passion.

But, and this is the important thing: During your descent through the planetary spheres, you picked up a few coins of Mars. And however your personal Martian coins are minted, you have three options of dealing with them:

You can just let these coins with their aggression and energy rule your life however they please. That’s the easy option for some people, but you’ll also do a lot of damage, antagonize a lot of people, and keep banging your head against immovable walls, but hey… if that’s your cuppa tea, then go for it! 😉

You can suppress the coins of Mars very deeply in the lowest folds of your soul’s pockets, and just pretend that Mars doesn’t have any influence in your life. That’s the easy option for even more people, but only if you fancy a life like the one in the story above (well, not quite as pronounced as in the story, but you get the idea!), where you’ll never get anything done.

The third option is to be aware of the Martian coins in your soul’s pockets, and to apply them wisely and with care (and, if a situation really should call for it, with all the intensity, energy and courage you can muster).

This third way of applying your Martian coins consciously, as virtues, isn’t easy, of course. With all his energy, passion, aggressiveness, and intensity sloshing around, it’s a balancing act on the best of days! But it also offers the most potential.

Which of these options is it going to be? Well, that’s up to you… 🙂

Since Mars is one of the planets whose influence is rather easy to spot, he also makes for great case studies about the influence of society vs. individual planetary influences in a person’s life. In this essay series, we’re not going to go into the former (it’s about your own inner work, after all, and there isn’t that much you can do to change societal worldviews and behaviours, besides working on your own…).

Still, you might want to keep this aspect in mind when you contemplate the influence of Mars on your life – which, I hope, you will do!

(You might have noted from some of my side remarks above, though, that I believe Mars and his virtues to be somewhat underrated in our current (Western) societies. Of course, Mars having the drive of Mars, this doesn’t keep him and especially his vices from showing up in other, unexpected ways in said societies.)

Anyway, this leaves the personal aspects of Mars for our contemplation. And as I hinted at in the last essay, from a Hermetic point of view, these personal aspects have a direct relation to your (astrological) birth chart.

Or, in other words: Which coins you picked up in your descent through the planetary spheres is directly reflected in the positions of the planets at the time of your birth.

If this sounds weird, then because it is – at least from a materialistic point of view. For the old Hermeticists, and not just for them, this was a perfectly reasonable assumption, tying that which is above together with that which is below…

So let’s, just for the remainder of this essay series, assume the Hermeticists were onto something with this assumption. What exactly does this mean?

Well, your birth chart is fairly unique. Not quite, of course, there might be a few other people with the exact same position of the stars at the time of their birth as you have. But given that even as little as a minute or two can make a difference in astrological terms, and that the location of people’s birth also matters, this won’t be that big a number. I.e. your birth chart is much more unique than your sun sign.

Consider it: There are 12 astrological signs, like Libra, Aries, or Cancer. The planets move through these signs on their path around the heavens. The Sun in particular takes one year to pass through all 12 signs.

Thus about one twelfth of humanity shares the same sun sign as you, i.e. at the time of their birth, the sun was in the same sign as it was for you. Even when taking the ascendent into account (the sign which was “rising” at the time of your birth, i.e. just at the horizon in the East), this reduces the number of people who share your characteristics to 1/144 – still several dozen million people.

But what Hermeticism claims is that you are much more unique than this, because the full story can only be told by taking all of your birth chart into account: not just the sun sign and ascendent, but also the positions of all the planets, the relationships among them, the placement of the Midheaven and other things.

And then there are also the signs to consider in which things happen. For example, it does make a difference if at the time of your birth, Mars was placed in headstrong Aries – a sign he rules, he shines in, which underlines his strengths and virtues -, or if he was placed, say, in Libra: a sign of peace and harmony, and so very unlike Mars.

If the latter, the power of Mars in your chart might be more subdued, and you might have to work harder on being assertive and on making the best of the Martian coins you have been given.

(To make things more complicated interesting, the signs also have some significance of their own. We’re not quite there yet in our ascent, though – they’ll have their grand appearance in a later essay…)

Of course, this is a somewhat over-simplified explanation of the whole birth chart thingy. It also matters which house (i.e. part of the heavens) your natal Mars was in, what relations he had to the other planets, etc. But you get the idea, I hope!

Simply put, there are placements which make it easier for us to use the virtues of a certain planet productively. There are other placements which subdue the coins of a planet, or which mainly let their vices shine, or which just might make it somewhat harder for us to make good use of their virtues.

All of this is highly individual, and there is no one size fits all. And from a Hermetic point of view, this (almost) unique birth chart is a direct reflection of the planetary coins you picked up during your descent into this incarnation.

I.e. the combination of your very specific strengths and weaknesses, the planetary vices and virtues you have at your disposal and can employ, the stuff we’re working on in this essay series… this has been gifted to you through your incarnation into this material world we inhabit.

And if this, dear reader, should remind you of concepts like “fate” or “karma”, well, you might be on the right track… but we’ll get to that in the next essay. 🙂

Until then, I hope you’ll have fun (and some interesting insights!) pondering the coins of Mars, how they have manifested in your life so far – and how they could manifest if you so chose.

The next essay will go live in two weeks. As usual, I’m looking forward to your comments and thoughts below. 🙂

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Image: Marek Studzinski on Unsplash