Embodying Mars Part II
This newsletter is part of a series on the magical-creative properties of the planets, as well as how to begin embodying them yourself.
So much of astrological study nowadays is confined to book learning but my understanding of the planets improved dramatically when I began engaging them directly. By doing this, I could conjure feelings, deeply-impressed images and great meaning behind the words I used.
This newsletter offers you a portal to have your own connection to Mars. It’s one thing to say Mars is about war or strength but it’s another to be in the midst of a final push at work or treating sunburn and think “Mars would like this too”.
If you want help connecting to your unique Mars, and the rest of yourself through the stars, my books are currently open! My readings are meant to lift you up, to secure you against difficulty and remind you that there is always space, creativity, play. Book now to remember your place in the cosmos.
This writing is intentionally not technical and meant to be understood even by those who have not studied astrology but want to connect more deeply to their world and themselves. Remember: these planets all describe fundamental parts of us. Whether you try to or not, you embody Mars everyday. By learning what functions and activities with which Mars corresponds, you learn more about yourself and your life, with nothing added but attention.
By reaching this felt understanding of Mars (and the other planets), I believe we are also able to be better magicians and artists— two categories whose differences are slowly shrinking in my eyes. Do we not need the same centeredness and momentum to create a piece of art as we do to create a spell or gaze into the future? Aren’t we vessels for something beyond our small self in both? This essay also delves into where in your creative-spiritual practice a dose of Mars could serve you well.
To read Part I, click here.
Transgression
War does not merely echo in the lives of those on the battlefield. Countries at war must divest their resources and manufacturing to the military; tax payers pay for weapons and are subject to new laws that alienate or even imprison the undesirable foreigner. During times of war, our civilizing laws and civic norms bend, often break.
For this reason, among others, Dr. Olomi calls Mars “the planet of transgression”:1 “Mars violates the oaths that Jupiter2 binds”. The infringing nature of the red planet also extends to its signifier of adultery and infidelity. Abu Ma’shar places “faithlessness, breaking of oaths…capriciousness, struggles, trials, adultery, ugly and selfish sex” under Mars’s purview as well.3 "As Dr. Olomi puts it, “What can be more transgressive and horrible and horrifying and violent than the take that person whose care has been entrusted into you and to violate that trust through lies and deception and cheating?”.4 Mars can be the break that hurts you to your core. Mars, also ruling breaks and severing, extends this meaning to our deepest, most intimate bonds and how quickly that closeness can turn into a knife.
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