Introduction to Sun and Mars
- written by Philip Graves - 9 Jan 2004

Sun

The glyph for the Sun is composed of the circle of Spirit with a central dot indicating the manifestation of Spirit in the microcosm as individual autonomously creative beings. The Sun is constant, evokes a reserve of power, radiated outwards in all directions, and stands for the principle of individualisation, which when positively expressed brings magnanimity; when negatively, egotism. It describes the conscious, the ego and core identity of any person, and his or her function as a centre of creative self-expression, and awareness of a destiny to attain or purpose to fulfil. It shows personal direction into the future, and what the individual endeavours to become. Yet it reminds of the connection of every individual to the macrocosm of Spirit, and of the unity and common goals of all beings.

By analogy, the Sun represents the life-source at the heart of any system. This includes the sense of personal identity, the innermost will and how it is best channeled (shown by the placement of the Sun in the figure), and also any male authority figures such as fathers and leaders.

The Sun's influence is ambitious and executive, and desirous of acquiring power. It is authoritative, creative, dignified, forceful, generous, grand, honest, masterful, organised, strongly individual, truthful, vital, wilful, wise-seeming, and worldly; but if ill-placed, potentially ceremonious, despotic, ostentatious, pomp-loving and ritualistic. It brings fame, honour, influence, power and pride in the areas of life shown by its position.

The Sun governs advancement, the constitution of the body, fame, the father, honour, monarchs, nobles, occupation, and rulers. It also signifies celebrity, elevation, glory, health, high patronage, power, and public offices. It confers an artistic, free, generous, glory-desirous, honest, judicious, noble, wise nature.

People signified by the Sun include courtiers; crafters and sellers of ornaments, pottery and metals; directors of public utilities; governers in high office; gentlemen; great huntsmen; male royals; money-lenders; nobles; physicians; senior judiciary and police; tyrants; usurpers; writers; and anyone desirous of preferment or honour.

Places described include all magnificent buildings; princes' courts; dining rooms; halls; houses; and theatres. Minerals include adamant, chrysolite, diamonds, etites, fire, garnets, gold, hyacinths, rubies, and topaz. Colours are yellow; gold; scarlet or clear red; purple. Flavours are aromatic; and a blend of sweetness with some sharpness, bitterness or sourness.

Herbs under its dominion are those of pleasant smell, good flavour, a love of open, sunny places, majestic form, and yellow or reddish flowers, with uses connected with the heart, the eyes, resistance of poison and evils, and comforting of the vital organs. They include amber, angelica, balm, barley, burnet, burning bush, butterbur, celandine (greater), centaury, chamomile, chick pea, cinnamon, cinquefoil, cumin, daffodil, elecampane, fenugreek, feverfew, frankincense, galangal, garlic, ginger, eyebright, hellebore, lavender, leek, lovage, maize, marigold, marjoram, onion, paeony, pepper, pimpernel, radish, rice, rosemary, rue, saffron, spikenard, St. John's wort, storax tree, sugar cane, sundew, tormentil, vervain, viper's bugloss, and water-lily. Trees include ash, bay, cedar, citrus (lemon, orange), heliotrope, ivy, juniper, laurel, mistletoe, mulberry, myrrh, palm, vines, and grape vines.

Animals include baboons, boars, bulls, buzzards, deer, donkeys, gazelles, glow-worms, goats, hawks, horses, larks, leeches, lions, peacocks, phoenixes, rams, ring-doves, sheep, shellfish, starfish, and swans.

Physically, the Sun governs the arteries; blood in organs ruled by its sign; back; brain (in male); brain structure; cellular excitation; cell nuclei; circulation; dorsal spine; etheric fluid; eye (right in male; left in female); heart (in male); memory; oxygen in blood; right-side reproductive organs.

When prominent in the nativity, it describes a healthy consitution; strong, thick, fleshy, well-proportioned body; large, round forehead; ruddy or saffron complexion; yellowish hair, but fast-balding; flourishing beard; large, sharp, piercing eyes.

Illnesses are brain diseases; catarrhs; cramps; eye troubles; fainting; fevers; halitosis; heart disease, palpitations; mouth diseases; pimples; organic ailments; spleen ailments; tissue generation, and upper spine ailments.

Unto character, the Sun confers honesty, high-mindedness, good-heartedness, humanity, and a spirited nature. When well placed, it favours affability; confidence; emotional self-control; faithfulness and deserving of trust; industrious ambition for honour and wealth; good judgement; graceful acceptance of losses; grave, concise, deliberate manner of speech; keeping of promises and secrets; majestic or stately bearing; prudence; punctuality; reflective nature; distaste for the sordid; love of luxury and splendour; and easy tractability.

When poorly placed, it produces arrogance or pride; financial dependency; disdain; domineering or troublesome temperament; extravagance, overexpenditure and wastefulness; foolishness; a lack of gravity or sobriety; poor insight and judgement; and restlessness.

In ancient astrology, the Sun signifies the father; the light of the mind; our intelligent consciousness; the perceptual faculties of our souls; friendship; leadership; rank; and public authority. Well-placed, it confers honour and glory; poorly placed, dishonour and unknown. In horary astrology, the Sun is regarded as the administrator of the figure. The Sun and Moon as horary significators show a lost object as being close by the querent or in a bright place.


Mars

The glyph for Mars was originally a cross of the Soul over a Circle of Spirit - an upturned arrangement of that for Venus, showing the Spirit struggling under the load of the pained consciousness of the Soul, which exists at the juncture between the spiritual and material realms of existence. Yet equally this glyph, with the crescent of Matter completely absent from it, shows the desire of the conscious Soul to focus on creative Spirit to the exclusion of material restrictions, and thus to vanquish and defeat the limiting conditions of corporeal existence.

The modern glyph showing an upwards-tilting arrow emerging from the Circle of Spirit highlights the more aggressive, forward-thrusting, passionate desire of creative Spirit to fight for its aims and pierce all obstacles and defences in their way.

Martin Schulman also notes that the original glyph featured a cross over the Circle, but interprets it according to his view that the cross represents Matter, and deduces that it shows the need for material fulfilment dominating over and even somehow fulfilling the Spirit. Schulman also perceives the slant of the arrow on the modern symbol to signify an imbalance or incompleteness requiring fulfilment from external sources, whether they be personal or transcendent in nature.

The relationship between Venus and Mars in the nativity is a key to social adjustment, describing the balance between intake and output, passivity and assertion. The opposing nature of these two forces also makes them natural mutual complements in sexual and romantic attraction, with Mars making the moves and Venus calling. The position of Venus on the near side of the Earth and Mars on the far side from it relative to the Sun in their orbits around it is thought to account for Venus being experienced as a pulling force and Mars as a pushing one.

Mars evokes projection and forcefulness, which when positively expressed manifest as vigour; when negatively, as aggression. Because of its confrontational, strident manner, Mars has conventionally been perceived as serving as a negative, disharmonious influence on any point it contacts in the horoscope, albeit an energising influence too; and it has therefore been known as the lesser malefic.

The nature of Mars's influence is acquisitive; active; angry; ardent in pursuit; combative; concerned with physical achievements; ambitious; assertive; careless; centripetal; courageous; desirous; destructive; determined; direct; domineering; dynamic; enduring; energetic; enterprising; enthusiastic; expert; fearless; fraternal; fretful; hasty; high-spirited; indiscriminately sexual; indomitable; inflammatory; intolerant; mentally sharp and penetrating; patriotic; passionately loving; powerful; protective of self and kin; ruthless; self-assured; striving; unhesitating; unrestrainable; and unswerving; but when denied expression, potentially coarse; cruel; egotistical; quarrelsome; sarcastic and vulgar.

Mars governs adventures, athletics, cutlery, death, dexterity, energy, enterprise, fevers, fires, hurts by violence, kilns, madness, male relatives, mortuaries, poison, prowess, quarrels, sharp tools, slaughter houses, sports, steel, and weapons. It also signifies burnings, calumnies, sudden deaths, enmities, enthusiasm, glory in battle, sharp pains, poisonings, strifes, thefts, treasons, and wounds inflicted by fire or metals. It confers a brave, cynical, demonstrative, often destructive, expert, fearless, impulsive, independent, irascible, reformist, witty nature.

People signified by Mars include alchemists; armourers; apothecaries; armaments manufacturers; barbers; bailiffs; bakers; barbers; bear-keepers; butchers; carpenters; chemists; cobblers; new conquerers, and tyrannical or oppressive rulers; cooks; cutlers of swords and knives; dentists; dyers; engineers; gamblers; gunners; hangmen; leather finishers; marshals; merchants; metal workers; military personnel, esp. high-ranking officers; physicians; smiths; surgeons; tailors; tanners; thieves; usurpers; watch-makers.

Places described include chimneys; forges; furnaces; slaughterhouses; smiths; shops; and anywhere where bricks or charcoal are burnt. Minerals include adamant; multi-coloured amethysts; antimony; arsenic; bloodstone; brimstone; jasper; red lead; magnetite; ochre; touchstone; vermilion. Colours signified are red, yellow, and all fiery and shining in appearance. Flavours are bitter, sharp, and those seeming to 'burn' the tongue.

Herbs under its dominion are mostly those red in colour, with sharp, pointed leaves, a caustic, burning taste, and a love for growing in dry places, with a corrosive, penetrative action on the human body, generating a subtle heat. They include wood anemone, asarabacca, basil, bindweed, brooklime, broom-rape, butcher's broom, Scotch broom, goldilocks buttercup, bryony, cayenne (chili), lesser celandine, chick pea, chive, cress, crowfoots, cuckoo-pint, cumin, daffodil, dame's rocket (Hesperis / eveweed), eggplant, erysimum (treacle mustard / wormseed mustard), fenugreek, fleabane, frankincense, galangal, garlic, gentian (Autumn), geranium, (wall) germander, ground pine, hedge hyssop, hedge mustard, hellebore, hop, horehound (white), horseradish, leek, lettuce (wild), madder, marjoram, marrow, masterwort, mustard (black and white), nettle, onion, pepper, Polygonum spp, radish, restharrow, rhubarb, rue, saltwort (Russian thistle), sanicle, sarsaparilla (Smilax), sowbread (ivy-leaf cyclamen), spurge, squinancy, tarragon, teasel, cotton thistle, holy (or blessed) thistle, sowthistle, star thistle, toadflax (flaxweed), tobacco, weld, sweet woodruff, wormwood. Trees include bitter almond, barberry, chestnut, cinnamon, gorse, hawthorn, pear (wild), pine, gum tragacanth, savine (dwarf juniper), tamarind, and all that are prickly.

Animals are those that are bold, ravenous and warlike, including barbels, bats, bears, comorants, cranesbills, crows, dogs, donkeys, flies, foxes, gnats, goats, hawks, horses, kites, lapwings, leopards, mastiffs, mules, ostriches, owls, panthers, pigs (wild), pikes, pyes, ravens, scorpions, sharks, tigers, vultures, wasps, wolves, and stinking worms.

Physically, Mars rules the assimilation; blood manufacture, red corpuscules, haemoglobin and iron; left cerebral hemisphere; diaphragm; digestion; left ear; forehead; gall bladder; ganglia; external genitals; hepatic process; motor function of spinal cord; motor nerves; muscles; naso-pharynx; rectum; sinews; sympathetic nervous system; urethra.

When prominent, it describes a medium stature with a relatively lean, strong, large-boned body; a ruddy or brownish complexion; sharp, piercing, hazel eyes; a round face with a bold, confident countenance; red or sandy flaxen hair, often crispy or curling; an active and fearless manner. If Mars rises before the Sun, the complexion is a bit paler; the height a little greater; the body hairy; and the character valiant. If after the Sun, the complexion will be very ruddy; the stature shorter; the body smooth, not hairy; the hair yellow and stiff; the head smallish.

Illnesses signified include abcesses; blisters; burnings; sudden distempers in the head; dysentery; recurrent, or pestilent and burning facial scars; fevers; fistulas; frenzies; gallstones; genital diseases and wounds (in men); haemorrhages; high blood pressure; infections; inflammation; injuries inflicted by iron; jaundice; migraines; the plague; ringworms; shingles; smallpox; and all illnesses connected with an excess of anger, choler or passion.

Unto character, when well placed, Mars confers boldness; bravery; a tendency to challenge others to act honorably; confidence; a contentious nature; a disobedient, non-submissive nature; a fearless facing of danger; immovability; invincibility; prudence in personal affairs; self-publicisation; scorn for any who surpass oneself; valiance; and a victory-seeking, war-loving spirit.

When poorly placed, Mars produces cheating and dishonesty; faithlessness; fury; immodesty; inhumanity and lack of care for people; a love of quarrels and killing; obscenity; oppressiveness; perjury; an inclination to promote commotions, frays, and public disorder and rebellion; rashness; thanklessness; thieving or traitrous, treacherous tendencies; turbulence and wavering of spirit; and violence.

In ancient astrology, Mars signifies action; energy; troubles; when well placed, an audacious, noble but irascible character; but when poorly placed, boisterousness, cruelty, drunkenness, mischievousness, overexpenditure, rapaciousness, tumultuousness, and a precipitate, ruffian-like temperament. As a vocational significator, it produces military people, and workers with fire. In a lost-item horary figure, Mars as significator suggests its violent theft or destruction (as through a burglary).


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