Special Issue #2 - Mars and Mars in Taurus
Mars
Natally, Mars is the planet of acute struggle, that which risks failure (pain) and necessitates decisive judgement. It delivers triumph and domination should the risk pay off. It is muscle and athleticism, the push necessary to make something happen, the force necessary to carry things to an extreme. It is engineering aptitude in the literal and the figurative senses. It is sex. It is what excites us to strife & dissent, and what places us at odds with others.
In a Sign, it determines how and why we go out of our way. It determines the style of our masculinity, and the way in which we sincerely & distinctly stick out. It is that which we bring to the fore defiantly and unilaterally, that for which we need no one else’s approval. Indeed, Mars will sometimes compel us to defy others simply to carve out a space for ourselves.
Mars’ Dignity
In good dignity - Throne, Exaltation - natives find it necessary to go their own way. Events conspire to drive them on a path towards independence, and they have the fight necessary to hold their own in the world which awaits them. They’re comfortable with breaking new ground and getting into fights. They’re able to make clear, decisive judgements by themselves and act on their own initiative
In poor dignity - Exile, Fall - the native has trouble asserting himself, trouble breaking away on his own terms. He is forced to seduce, bargain, wheedle, inspire, or otherwise guide the situation away from open conflict. There is a fear of pain and hardship, but also a drive to introduce conflict into inappropriate domains - for instance, the home with Mars Cancer (which placement often indicates domestic strife in youth).
Mars’ Joy
Mars Joys in the 6th House because the 6th concerns clear, concrete problems - problems which demand decisive action and a willingness to intervene in Earthly affairs, both of which Mars grants.
Aspects to Mars
With regard to other planets, Hard Aspect to Mars creates a need to force their powers into existence. One is forced to go out of his way and act unilaterally to speak, to charm, and the struggle never really ends. “It takes all the running one can do, to keep in the same place.”
For instance, those with Mars square or opposite Saturn must fight to demand respect; equally, to rein themselves in and keep from violence out of proportion. The Martian flame & fire will invigorate you when it’s not meant to, and conscious control must be exercised. Constraint excites you, and while this excitement can be turned towards the long, grinding efforts which those with Mars-Saturn contact are uniquely capable of, it can also prevent one from holding in one place and focusing. Another upside is that Mars-Saturn can be a foot in the door to the kinds of social regard which one MUST demand - which would not be afforded otherwise. The respectability of one willing to fight for his or her own self, even if that means violating other, less important boundaries.
With regard to Mars alone, hard aspects interfere with its capacity to get up and ACT, to make efforts of any kind, to act decisively and unilaterally. Hard aspect to Capricorn can overwhelm the will to act with crushing pessimism, or else force it down paths which harm and exhaust the body needlessly (although habits can be changed and the domain of struggle forced somewhere new). Hard aspect to Uranus makes the desires so bizarre as to necessitate bushwhacking, forcing one’s way through unbroken ground and being struck with sudden chaos in the midst of carrying out her will. In hard aspect to the 9th House, direct action may be troubled by ethical and spiritual quandaries, constantly throwing up tests to one’s beliefs, or else her metaphysics - but with work, she could also draw unique strength and drive from her spiritual life.
Hard aspects to Mars also trouble the sex life - a square to Capricorn may produce excessive restraint, self-denial and coldness towards the opposite sex, but also a great capacity for self-mastery and control where others would fall prey to their bestial desires. A square to the 8th House may involve trouble due to the taboo nature of one’s sexuality, coloured by the planet(s) and Signs involved. Hard aspect to the Moon could mean infantile traumas or physical pain interfere with the normal functioning of the sex instinct, but would also produce a deep tenderness or soulfulness therein. It can also simply mean that gross stuff happens during sex sometimes. Hard-to-manage instinctive attractions break in upon one’s conscious mind - objects of desire which one needs and fears - and one may be struck by an irresponsible desire to conceive. One may also develop a habit of neurotic masturbation, having a somewhat chaotic relationship between his means of attaining calm and the sex instincts.
Soft Aspects to Mars are similar, but simpler. They are uncomplicated. Physical vigor and decisiveness are loaded into whatever Planet, Sign and House are in contact with Mars. Independence, the freedom to choose and to forge one’s own path become possible. Mars, alongside Jupiter and Saturn, is a planet which affords the means to function outside one’s comfort zone - clear judgement and level-headedness in the face of threat.
Example Placement: Mars Taurus
[All hyperlinked examples have Mars Taurus.]
Taurus is a difficult place for Mars. It seeks to be of service unilaterally, and yet in its service to retain independence - indeed, to seek independence through it. One’s power is in service to others, as a vessel for another will. Adolf Hitler regarded himself as the vessel of a divine being. Rudolf Steiner preferred to act only at the behest of others. Artist Richard Dadd was told to kill his Father by voices, and did: Receiving and carrying out violent Martian impulses as a Taurean vessel.
As Mars Cancer can coincide with physical deformity, so Mars Taurus can produce an unusual voice. Alex Jones is famous for his gruff, archetypally manly voice - he has Venus in Capricorn ruling it, shaping its manifestation. Jordan Peterson is famous for his croaky, weepy voice - Venus Cancer. Both are successful merchants, boasting Taurean abundance. Both are implacably stubborn.
Mars Taurus prefers to act only when its power is absolute, unassailable - when it faces no serious competition. Like Scorpio, it wishes to crush its opponent in one fell swoop, decisively and permanently - or else it will dig in for siege warfare, as Hitler did in his last days. Where Mars Aries is excited to action by competitors, Mars Taurus is excited to action by immobile, powerless things. Jimmy Savile molested the helplessly ill, and indeed a great deal of his public persona revolved around his charitable services to others. Sathya Sai Baba headed up countless charitable endeavours, and here he displays the Lunar self-satisfaction of the Sign - Mars Taurus being ruled by Venus in Sagittarius tints it with a cosmic feel:
As a matter of fact, there is no trace of ill-health in Me. I am always healthy. Not only today, till 96 years I will be like this.
My power is immeasurable; My truth inexplicable, unfathomable.
There is no one who can change My course or affect My conduct to the slightest extent. I am the Master over all.
My Power is eternal, all-pervasive, ever-dominant.
“LOVE ALL - SERVE ALL.” The Taurean motto.
Those devoted to me have to treat joy and grief, gain and loss, with equal fortitude. This means that I will never give up those who attach themselves to me.
The Lord is the refuge of all who seek refuge, the saviour of all who have to be saved.
Gottfried Leibniz went above and beyond in carrying out his assigned task, even to the chagrin of those who assigned it:
The Elector Ernest Augustus commissioned Leibniz to write a history of the House of Brunswick, going back to the time of Charlemagne or earlier, hoping that the resulting book would advance his dynastic ambitions. From 1687 to 1690, Leibniz traveled extensively in Germany, Austria, and Italy, seeking and finding archival materials bearing on this project. Decades went by but no history appeared; the next Elector became quite annoyed at Leibniz's apparent dilatoriness. Leibniz never finished the project, in part because of his huge output on many other fronts, but also because he insisted on writing a meticulously researched and erudite book based on archival sources, when his patrons would have been quite happy with a short popular book, one perhaps little more than a genealogy with commentary, to be completed in three years or less. They never knew that he had in fact carried out a fair part of his assigned task: when the material Leibniz had written and collected for his history of the House of Brunswick was finally published in the 19th century, it filled three volumes.
Taurus gives gifts; Mars Taurus gives gifts without first finding out what the recipient will like - indeed, pointedly refusing to consult them. Takes risks; gives so excessively that the recipient is challenged to respond.
Mars Taurus also often enjoys very thick, heavy clothing, natural fibers and so on, ideally in antique style - Mars carrying all this to excess, as we see here in the dress of painter Cecil Collins:
In the words of Martin Buber, who had Mars joined to Neptune in Taurus (expresssing its ideal form), “Greatness by nature includes a power, but not a will to power.” He derides unilateral force:
…As soon as this bond with the goal is broken off or loosened, and the man ceases to think of power as the capacity to do something, but thinks of it as a possession - that is, thinks of power in itself - then his power, being cut off and self-satisfied, is evil; it is power withdrawn from responsibility, power which betrays the spirit, power in itself.
Have a nice week,
Owen.
P.S. Now that you understand Mars and Saturn, you understand a lot about Capricorn, which Exalts Mars and is Ruled by Saturn.