In this Mars-ruled month of Scorpio, I want to speak about the importance of the red planet in the chart. But first, how is Mars typically spoken about in astrology? Here's a typical description of Mars from a popular modern astrology website:
Mars is the planet of outward activity and animal passion including our sexual drive, aggression, and anger...When strong in the chart it can indicate a volatile temper, and also great courage. Its position indicates how your personality will assert itself, and what modes of activity will stimulate your physical energies, or your anger.
The functions that Mars gets associated with most by modern astrologers are strength, passion, courage and ability to be assertive.
But what about in traditional astrology? Here's a description from a popular traditional astrology website:
The nature of Mars is assertive, or aggressive and confrontational. It speaks of our sense of drive and urgency. As the god of war it rules strife, combat, conquerors, and weapons...Mars is the sex drive and the phallus. Where Venus is soft and slow, Mars is sharp and quick, and its nature is to attack, pierce, penetrate, cut, or wound.
None of this in incorrect. Mars does represent our capacity to be assertive and aggressive, if need be. But in most sources, Mars always appears to be the sort of planet that we only want to call upon when "things are not going very well". He doesn't typically sound like the sort of planet one wants to be associated with on a normal basis. Yet, we all have Mars in the chart. So it must represent a normative human function. We need to dig a little deeper to get a better handle on what Mars actually represents in all of us, not just the "hot-heads" or those defending ourselves from the bullies. Mars is a particularly significant planet in early childhood as well as early adulthood. So we need to look at how our early experiences have helped to shape the development of those faculties that are its responsibility. In doing so, I also want to draw a better picture of Mars in a diurnal chart, versus when he's in a nocturnal chart. Overall, my goal in this post is to present a better picture of Mars as a necessary component of the psyche that we all must develop in order to live a healthy existence.
Mars' Principle and Sign Needs
Every planet represents an overarching archetypal principle. Mars represents the principle of separation, which is a necessary component in many facets of life and nature. It's separation that allows for differentiation, that is, for identifying an entity as a thing distinct from its surroundings. Were it not for Mars, everything would be everything and nothing would be identifiable as a separate distinct object. For this reason, the process of birth itself is a Mars event, since it allows for the separation of the child from the mother's womb, which envelops and connects to it. A tell-tale sign is the screaming and pain that can often accompany a Mars event. The birth moment involves a literal separation of the child from its mother by severing the umbilical chord. By extension, the whole first phase of the life is a process of individualization, that is, of ensuring the independent survival of the individual through a gradual acquisition of increased autonomy (i.e. of separation). Aries, Mars' first sign, and the one that activates Zodiacally in the first 7 years of life, signifies the need for autonomy, which is secured through the native's continued acts of separation from its caretakers.
As domicile lord of Aries, Mars also represents the need to express innovatively, which itself reveals an act of separation. In this case, we are separating ourselves from the larger social pack, by allowing for novel ideas and our own way or manner of doing things. Modern astrology likes to give innovation and out-of-the-box thinking to the planet Uranus, because of Uranus' unusual axial rotation relative to the ecliptic. But one need only to test this hypothesis to see that it's actually Mars that best represents our ability to diverge or separate from others or to choose the path less taken. In these instances, Mars becomes the loner, the maverick or the disruptor. It does this because it's attempting to fulfill the need for autonomy and its existence as a separate entity.
The principle of separation can also be necessitated outside of the psyche, in external situations. For example, life may often place us unwittingly into situations that are toxic, unproductive or unsustainable. They are not random or accidental. They are a part of the 8th portion in the cycle of life. In these circumstances, Mars, as domicile lord of Scorpio, recognizes the need to purge that which has become no longer viable by separating and removing it from our lives. The most iconic example of this is shown through the death of those close to us, a situation encountered in Scorpio's 8th house. In such cases, Mars must courageously dispose of an attachment that is no longer viable, and thereby fulfill the Scorpio need for purgation. But we can find unproductive, untenable or toxic situations in any house in which we find Scorpio, which is the reason this sign becomes so challenging.
As stated, the need to embrace autonomy occurs in early childhood. There is an individualization process that occurs alongside our need for attachment, which is fulfilled through Venus as ruler of Libra, the sign opposite Aries. So this first negotiation between Mars and Venus takes place in early childhood (primarily the first 4 years) as we learn to talk and walk by ourselves in the presence of a secure attachment figure, who nevertheless should encourage healthy independence in the child. This process is understood in psychology through attachment theory. If the parental figure is too enmeshed with the child, the child's Mars function may become suppressed and he may struggle with individualization. He may become anxious and adopt overly-dependent, clingy or fawning behaviors, fearing others may reject him if he establishes his own distinct preferences or character. Courage will be lacking in these natives and an anxious attachment style may result in one's adult relationships. Conversely, if a parental figure embodies too much detachment or an aloof or even neglectful parenting style, the child's ability to cooperate or attach may become impaired into adulthood. If he's exposed to an overly aggressive, volatile or emotionally unstable environment, the native may become excessively autonomous, avoidant, and incapable of forming deep bonds or even collaborative interactions. In both cases, natives may lack emotional regulation and be either quick to panic or to anger. Whereas anxious individuals may inappropriately externalize their anger, avoidant individuals may be more likely to suppress their emotions and express them unconsciously through projection or competition.
Nocturnal Mars
Mars belongs to the nocturnal sect. In the temperament doctrine, Mars is considered a "hot" planet, irrespective of the fact that the actual planet Mars, is exceedingly cold in temperature. But astrology has little to do with the actual physical planets and more to do with the deities they are named after. However, because of its perceived "hotness", its so-called "preference" to be in the nocturnal sect seems unintuitive, and has led to much debate. Traditional astrology attempts to explain this discrepancy by speculating that this is because the nighttime "cools" down Mars and makes him less fiery and problematic. However, there is nothing to indicate that the supposed temperature of Mars has anything to do with the way the planet functions under a nocturnal light condition.
Let's turn our understanding to Mars' basic nature to enlighten us (pun very much intended. :-)) As stated previously, the basic principle of Mars is separation. Mars has the opposite principle of Venus: whereas the latter "brings things together" creating union, Mars breaks things apart, creating separation, severance, dissociation and differentiation. To reiterate, without Mars, it's impossible to have differentiation, innovation or even birth, since that is an act in which we differentiate and separate from our mother.
The Moon represents the principle of inclusion or gathering in the service of providing protective enclosures, such as we see in the depiction of the Crab's shell, in the home or other protective shelters, which bring us in and envelop us. What Robert Schmidt has said about Mars in a nocturnal sect, is that it "provides beneficial articulation in what has been inclusively gathered together." What can we make of that? Aren't "inclusion" and "separation" incompatible principles? How can we "gather things together" if we are "separating them"? We can, if the gathering is of that which is separate and distinct. The key to understanding this concept comes from Schmidt's carefully translated word "articulation", which I've underlined above. Schmidt is not using the word "articulation" in this case, as the sense of "something which is said". The most helpful analogy is to visualize the articulations we have in the joints that make up our body. What has been inclusively gathered together in that case, are the bones that make up our skeleton. But without those articulations, or separations, our skeleton would be too rigid and not move properly. Thus, the separations must occur as a part of the whole. This is how Mars functions in a nocturnal placement: It allows for the proper functioning of elements within an enclosure precisely because they are separated and distinctly differentiated, which makes them more flexible and dynamic.
Let’s consider an external example: a large complicated project involving many different parts, such as the building of a house. The organization of the project itself may be a Saturnian action. But we can divide (that is separate) the project into distinct phases in which each one involves a specialized skillset such as electrical, plumbing, framing, roofing etc. This articulation or separation into parts, allows for a better management of the whole project. When differentiation occurs, there is also a greater degree of precision and efficiency in its development or process because greater attention can be given to each of the smaller sections independently. “Divide and conquer” is a phrase that comes to mind with Mars in a nocturnal chart. It’s for this reason that Mars is triplicity lord of Virgo, a sign that involves the technical analysis of moving parts and a greater degree of precision and efficiency in the whole process.
In John Lennon's nocturnal chart, he has Mars in the 6th house, but in the 7th sign in Libra, together with the Sun, which I've spoken about in other articles, as Lennon's selection (the Solar function) of a working partner. Mars here refers to the introduction of competition and rivalry into that same working partnership. We can of course recognize in this combination, Lennon’s famous partnership with Paul McCartney. However, this rivalry is appropriate (Mars is in sect) precisely because their method of collaboration within the group (note that he has a nocturnal Moon in the 10-11th) was nevertheless, distinctly differentiated, allowing for the unique strengths of each member. How exactly did this manifest? Well, some of the songs were written completely autonomously by each songwriter, even though credit was given to both equally. But particularly in the old days, "in many instances, one writer would sketch an idea or a song fragment and take it to the other to finish or improve; in some cases, two incomplete songs or song ideas that each had worked on individually would be combined into a complete song. Often one of the pair would add a so-called middle eight or bridge section to the other's verse and chorus."[1] This ability to interject proper articulations to combine very distinct pieces of a song, made them more innovative and dynamic; each song benefited from the other member's strengths.
Diurnal Mars
It is true that Mars can manifest more inappropriately (i.e. out of synch with what the situation demands) when in a diurnal chart. But again, this has little to do with its so-called "heat". Schmidt identified two possible expressions: Mars as accusation and Mars as excision. In the first case, because the solar light is selective by nature, Mars will engage in accusation because that constitutes in Schmidt's words "separation via the singling out of someone to blame". In other words, this singling out is the highlighting of someone or something in the external world that has been identified as causing division. This is the typical situation we see when people have a conflict or argument with another. We target Mars externally and it does not matter if we are the ones singling out someone else, or if we are the ones who are singled out as the disruptors. In either case, an externalized Mars will be inappropriate in either situation. The other expression of diurnal Mars is as excision, and refers to the exile or separation of oneself from others or from a problematic situation. In other words, we check ourselves out of the conflict or someone else does it to us.
The diurnal separations of Mars are NOT necessarily more aggressive or "hotter" because of Mars' temperature or Aristotelian quality, as is often stated in the traditional literature on sect. The reason Mars is inappropriate in a diurnal chart is because these separations are designed to cause distinction from the whole. We select what is external to us as something we reject and cannot identify with or relate to. This then causes, interpersonal division and instability within the larger whole to which both entities belong. However, the inappropriateness in either of its two expressions (excision or accusation) does not necessarily imply an unjustified martial outcome. It all depends on the situation that gives rise to the Mars act, not necessarily the Mars response itself. For example, if someone is being mistreated at work and decides to leave the job because of it, it's the unmerited accusation that is inappropriate, not the act of separation that results from it. Leaving and finding other work may be a very justified Mars response, if there is no other recourse and the accusation is unwarranted. In that case, it would be a justified excision, despite being an inappropriate (out-of-sect) Mars that gave rise to the situation and caused the instability in the work place. Another response might be to lodge a formal complaint to a departmental head. In that case, our formal accusation of harassment might be a very justified response, despite having itself arisen from an inappropriate singling out of Mars. In other words, the inappropriateness derives from an improper selection -- the selective solar light that Mars is ill-fitted to inhabit -- rather than from the separation that ensues. In other words, think of Mars as the Babylonian Nergal, the king of the underworld and therefore appropriate to his unilluminated (that is, not distinctive) contained environment. His emergence above ground into the open sunlight, only brings differentiation through separation (as in childbirth).
This does NOT mean that those who possess Mars in a diurnal chart are "inappropriate people". We are speaking of metaphysical concepts, not individuals. Princess Diana had a diurnal Mars configuration and she was a model of social decorum. What does occur, with this placement, is that these natives will often encounter someone or a situation in their early life, who will embody the separation principle in a manner judged to be inappropriate, which will then lead to the native's imprinting an unbalanced relationship with that archetype.
In Diana's case, this ended up being her separation from her mother, who abandoned the family to be with a lover when Diana was 8 years old. This was publicly judged to be an inappropriate abandonment of a mother from her children. If Mars is above the horizon AND also afflicted, it may express externally, out in the world, as an excessive tendency to feel excluded or to create exclusion: either through competition, autonomy or difficulty identifying with others. In cases of early extreme trauma, it can also express as a tendency toward violence or aggression. Diana's Mars is afflicted by an opposition with Chiron in the place of family, reflecting a wounding over that family separation. This Mars wounding was then internalized by Diana, as a fear of abandonment and difficulties establishing her own autonomy. (Remember that autonomy is one of the end goals of the Mars function.) This fear, of course, came to a head when she and then Prince Charles, filed for divorce on the grounds of infidelity. It is not uncommon for women with diurnal Mars to project that Mars outward and have it embodied by the significant men in their lives, such as Diana did with her father and husband. When Mars is unafflicted (that is, not in any hard aspect with problematic planets), this may not express very dramatically. But when Mars is afflicted, and it is angular, as is the case with Diana's, then it will alter the direction of her life in a dramatic way.
[1] The Beatles Wiki. Lennon-McCartney. https://beatles.fandom.com/wiki/Lennon%E2%80%93McCartney
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