MARS, THE GOD OF WAR
Mars is the "red planet" who rules Aries, the first sign of the zodiac. The sign of Aries heralds in the season of spring--when everything awakens, grows, sprouts, rebirths after the dormant winter months. Aries is the leader, the first sign around the tropical zodiac wheel. It is a cardinal, active, initiating sign; and its element is fire, bringing enthusiasm, chi, the spark of life. "Me first" is an Aries mantra.
Debbi Kempton-Smith in her book Secrets From a Stargazer's Notebook, has this to say about Mars:
Hey, bay-bee! Want a good time? Fight maybe? Step a little closer,
tell you what I'm going to do. Introduce you to Mister Mars, ol' fireball
glowing red in the sky--the most macho planet in the whole universe!
Mars likes war. Mars makes enthusiasm too, though it'll settle for trouble.
Mars is your energy, what you put your energy into, your drive and your
courage. Mars stands for lust and drive and passion. Mars burns for things.
Mars has a mythological history, that goes backwards from Mars as a planet,
Mars as ruler of the sign Aries (and also of Scorpio in traditional and Vedic
astrology), and Mars as the Roman god of war. Following the genealogy of Mars
we come to Ares, the Greek god. He was known as the despicable god of war,
who "delights in the slaughter of men and the sacking of towns."
Ares was loathed by all the other gods, including his own parents, Zeus and
Hera. He was loved only by his sister, Eris (Discord), her son, Strife, and
oddly enough by the beautiful Aphrodite (Venus). Ares fathered many children
including Phobos (Panic), Deimos (Fear), and Tereus (Terror).
Ares was worshipped very little in ancient Greek religion, and there are few myths about him. Although Ares fathered many children he had no wife. His longest adulterous affair was with Aphrodite (Venus), the goddess of love and beauty. He fathered several children with Aphrodite, even though she was married to another god. Ares and Aphrodite were the parents of Panic and Fear. They also had a daughter together, named Harmonia. For Aphrodite, Ares was "her muscular pretty-boy vandal." I guess the sexual appeal of the "bad boy" type of male goes all the way back to Aphrodite's lust for Ares!
Ares' father, Zeus, called his own son the "most hated of gods." Ares' sister, Discord, and her son Strife were Ares' companions on the battlefield, along with his own sons, Panic and Terror. The animal sacred to Ares was the vulture--a fitting totemic animal for the god of war. There were no Greek cities where Ares was worshipped. Epithets that were descriptive of Ares were "bellicose Ares" and "hard-hearted Ares." In war, Ares was unrestrained violence; whereas the goddess Athena, also a warrior, represented the strategy and tactics of war. The horses belonging to Diomedes (another son of Ares) were said to dine on human flesh.
Ares was the incarnation of blood lust. He is pure testosterone, known for war, violence, and unrestrained sexual passion. Both war and sex can be seen as forms of frenzy--the frenzy of killing in war; the frenzy of desire in sexual passion. Men engaging in acts of violence often experience a huge adrenaline rush--the thrill of blood lust, of violence, of killing. It is a "high" that leads soldiers to acts of heroism, albeit through bloody violence.
War can be seen as an extended frenzied high, a state of extreme action, outside of the flow of normal life. The energy of Mars, and the accompanying terror, panic, discord, and strife of war are at odds with civilization. Sexual passion, without restraint, is also a force that goes against the boundary of civilized structures. There are forces that hold a society together; and those that undo social structures. Illicit sex often breaks up marriages and challenges social norms. War breaks up nations, kills people, destroys all in its path of frenzy, fury, and fear.
Ares, when hurt or wounded himself, turned into a cry-baby. For all of his cold-hearted love of killing, he could dish it out better than he could take it. But Ares is indeed a very ancient god. Enyalius is the Linear B, or oldest name for Mars, prior to the Greek Ares.
Ares, in Roman times, became the Roman god Mars. The Romans were fonder of their god Mars, than the Greeks had been of the god Ares. The Romans themselves were a warrior people, conquering Northern Africa and much of Europe and the Middle East. The Romans were nothing if not the servants of the god of war, Mars. It seems that every age has continued to be at the service of Ares/Mars. Our present age, in the new millennium, the year 2002, is no exception. From the description above, I invite the reader to draw their own conclusions about the Martian energies now at loose in the world, especially in the wake of September 11. It may perhaps be time, as astrologers, to have another look at this furious and feared dark god. The more we know about the psychic roots of this dreaded archetypal force, the more conscious we can be in our viewing of the Mars energy at loose in current world events, as well as in the personal psychology of individuals, and that of Mars in the natal horoscope.
Copyright Carolyn Joyce, M.A. March 2002
Carolyn Joyce is an astrologer and published poet living in Montreal. She has an new book of poetry entitled The Goddess in the Garden, coming out from Ekstasis Editions, Victoria, B.C., in June 2002 (under the name Carolyn Zonailo). She is co-originator of The Aquarian Symbols. Visit her websites, www.aquariansymbols.com and www.carolynzonailo.com
© Carolyn Joyce 2001-02
