The transits of the planets

Effects of transiting Mars

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Inward

The inward effects of Mars’s energy are surprisingly varied, although they can be traced to a common core of meaning. On a purely physical level, Mars signifies the body’s basic vitality, the activity of the muscles, and the blood. When something goes wrong physically, Mars signifies inflammations, irritations, and diseases that tend to raise body temperature. This can be seen in the red flushing of the skin during high fevers. Thus, when Mars transits the chart, one often notices a heightened sense of vitality and vigor, sometimes greater pugnacity, and in more extreme cases a desire to start a fight. Mars transits may also at times indicate fevers and inflammations.

On the psychological level, Mars is best understood as a defensive energy. Mars arises when the soul perceives an attack on the self. This is a manifestation of one of Mars’s most basic features: it symbolizes the internal energy of the self that prevents pressures from the outside world from crushing the inner world. The brilliant Kabbalist Warren Kenton once explained to me that the proper function of Mars can be represented by an inflated tire. If the tire is inflated too much, it explodes. If it is inflated too little, it collapses. One of the highest personal functions of Mars is to maintain this balance. In far too many people, this balancing function does not work very well.

Mars also has another signification that has only recently been clarified by the excellent work of Darby Costello. She has noted the linguistic similarity between the Greek name for Mars and the Greek word for one’s personal excellence. The Greek name for Mars is Arês, and the Greek word for personal excellence is aretê. She has proposed that Mars indicates the individual search for that personal excellence. This is not necessarily a talent in which you are better than anyone else. It is a talent you have that manifests the best part of yourself, irrespective of comparison with others. It is not entirely clear that the etymology is sound, but it is often useful to take the similarity of the sounds and spellings of words as indicative of other, more profound similarities.

Outward

The outward manifestations of Mars include involvement in vigorous physical activity such as sports or physically demanding labor. And of course, the two most difficult things that occur during Mars transits have to do with conflict and argument. In these, you may be either the aggressor or the object of aggression. Very often it is difficult to determine which side you are on, because what usually precedes actual conflict is a series of actions by both sides, beginning at a very subtle level and working their way up to open combat.

However, the defensive side of Mars has a much higher manifestation than the simple act of defending oneself in a fight. This higher expression involves protecting and defending others who are either the targets of someone else’s aggression or who are in circumstances where they are systematically subjugated and put down by others or by impersonal social forces.

Finally, during Mars transits one may experience neither anger nor conflict, nor sports and heavy labor. It may simply happen that during a Mars transit one is surrounded by people involved with iron and steel, tool-making, objects of red color, or any other physical objects that bear the signature of Mars.

Mars at the Personal Level

I have already stated above that Mars is fundamentally not a personal planet; it is an interpersonal planet. However, it is also true that Mars has positive, personal qualities. I have already mentioned physical vitality and energy, the search for one’s personal excellence, and the desire to maintain a balance between your own needs and those of others. Other Martian qualities that operate at the personal level are genuinely malevolent. These manifest whenever Mars goes beyond the legitimate defense of oneself (not a trumped-up excuse for conquest) and becomes a desire to win, to overcome the enemy or opposition at all costs, and to gain power over everyone else. This is the truly “malefic” Mars.

We can add to this the other malefic quality of Mars, which concerns inflammatory illnesses, fevers, rashes, and other such conditions that are in fact the result of a battle between your body and invading organisms or substances that it cannot tolerate. The allergic response is an excellent example of this.

Mars at the Interpersonal Level

This is the proper home level of Mars. Even those qualities I have just described as personal manifestations of Mars are, in fact, means by which the body and soul of the individual are enabled to fulfill the functions of the high Mars. The high Mars is not malefic. It is the willingness to sacrifice oneself, if necessary, to protect and defend others who need to be protected and defended. There is a passage from Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring that illustrates this principle perfectly.

‘I am Aragorn son of Arathorn; and if by life or death I can save you, I will.’

Here you see, illustrated perfectly, the unconditional willingness to do whatever is necessary to protect and defend the hobbits on their journey to destroy the ring. I hope it is obvious how this is connected to the notion of personal excellence. No one who does not know their own strength and excellence can possibly make such a commitment.

When this energy is diverted to the egoistic ends of a single individual who protects and defends only himself or herself, the interpersonal virtue of Mars is subverted to the purely personal.

Mars at the Transcendent Level

It may seem difficult to understand how the energy of Mars can express itself at the transcendent level. However, there are two pathways that clearly demonstrate Mars at this level. The first is hatha yoga, more commonly known simply as “yoga.” This is a set of physical techniques that involve learning muscle control and breathing practices. Long experience with astrology has demonstrated to me that hatha yoga is signified primarily by Mars, usually in connection with Jupiter. The second path is more obviously of the nature of Mars. All the martial arts require learning to control and handle the energy of Mars in an enlightened manner before the practitioner can claim to have mastery over a martial art. In this respect, I have another quotation, which I have only from memory, but I believe it is quite close because it is very simple. It is from the old version of The Karate Kid, starring the late Pat Morita, in which the master says the following to the student:

The best way to win a fight is not to be there.

Here you see that one of the highest principles of Mars is to be completely in control of its energy and, if at all possible in conflict, to use the energy of the opponent, slightly deflected, to defeat the opponent. In this manner, the conflict is resolved without a net increase in the total Mars energy, because at its best the Mars energy is coming from only one person at a time. And if both persons are equally in control of their Mars energy, then it is no longer a conflict; it is a high-quality athletic event.