Mars in Capricorn – Courage & Resolve

Mars has had a bad reputation since ancient times. Mesopotamian civilizations associated the ‘red star’ with Nergal, “a god of plague, war, death and the underworld.”[1] Although Nergal was reasonably considered the “god of inflicted death,”[2] like many gods and celestial entities, he also contained possibilities that opposed and reversed his worst significations. Nergal was also a guardian figure or watchman, and protected cities and houses “like a wall,” earning him the name “The lord of peace” in addition to his more fearsome epithets.[3] Moreover, the Assyriologist A.R. George notes that Nergal “can be a god of joy” and was associated with a temple named the House of the Joyful Heart.[4]

As we have noted with several of our fixed star talismans, mundane significations of a star, or in this case a planet, can at times be misleading when it comes to evaluating the magical effects and properties of a celestial body. Mars has a fearsome reputation as the Lesser Malefic, associated with injuries and violence, and of course it is true that Mars signifies many unpleasant, harmful, and life-negating aspects of the cosmos. At the same time, Mars talismans can be put to many positive purposes as well, such as victory, courage, protection, and various medical uses. Nergal was also associated in Mesopotamian animal imagery with the bull and the lion,[5] two animals that were quite powerful and deadly but that also have positive associations, the bull with fertility and agriculture, and the lion with protection, courage, and royalty. One of the cosmic lessons of astrological magic tends to be that everything has many aspects and images are never one-sided.

Long associated with flame and fire, Mars can sometimes blaze out quickly. Mars in his signs of domicile in particular suggests imagery with tremendous force but short duration: explosive, propulsive, but over before you know it. Mars in Aries can be like a bomb going off or a cannon  shot, and Mars in Scorpio can be likened to the sting of a scorpion or the precision shot of a sniper rifle. To use muscles as an analogy, Mars in domicile represents the fast twitch muscle fibers: great for bursts of energy, but sputtering out quickly. In short, the Lesser Malefic Mars is not usually known for his staying power.

Mars in Capricorn is different. Mars in Capricorn is relentless. Mars in Capricorn is in for the whole marathon, not just a sprint. The cooler and more grounded nature of the earth sign of Capricorn where Mars finds his exaltation changes the game. Here, in a Saturn ruled sign, Mars possesses a kind of steely resolve to see things through. Mars in exaltation represents the slow twitch muscle fibers: those required and evolved for repetitive, long-term efforts.

One of the under-appreciated aspects of Mars is that he solves problems. Rarely connected with the mind or upper faculties in popular discourse, Mars was actually associated with the faculty of the imagination by Marsilio Ficino. In a section describing the “seven steps through which something from on high can be attracted to lower things”—that is, the different planetary contributions to the theurgic art—he assigns to the Lesser Malefic “the strong concepts of the imagination—forms, motions, passions—which suggest the force of Mars” (Three Books on Life, Book 3, Chapter XXI). Tempered and grounded by the cold earthiness of his Saturnine exaltation sign of Capricorn, Mars can forge the quick flights of the imagination (we can transport ourselves instantly in our minds anywhere we wish) into a durable vision fit for the grandest plans. Mars in Capricorn evokes the hardy adaptation of mountain goats, who climb perilously steep rock walls for bits of sustenance. The grueling climb to the mountaintop requires not just raw power, but also foresight, planning, resolve, and a capacity for adaptation while traversing different terrains, obstacles, and challenges.

The keywords of this talisman, Courage & Resolve, were designed to capture the essence of Mars in his Saturnine sign of exaltation. Courage, the virtuous overcoming of fear, has long been associated with Mars, and is certainly befitting of the warrior-like aspects of the various gods of war that have been associated with this wandering star. Resolve captures the unyielding, unrelenting aspects of Mars in Capricorn. These talismans are not the gone-in-a-flash flame of a spark or a match, but the lingering, smoldering energy of a slow-burning coal.

In tandem, these qualities of Courage & Resolve bestow a willingness to do what needs to be done and say what needs to be said, though not in a brash or heedless fashion. In fact, the testing period of these talismans demonstrated a somewhat surprising emotional regulation effect, helping the bearer to dampen and tolerate strong emotional reactions and receive bad news or the strong affects of others with less reactivity. The martial-Saturnine confluence of Mars in Capricorn put us in mind of the Vulcans, the extraterrestrial race from the Star Trek series renowned for their suppression of emotions and high valuation of logic. Although not quite this extreme, the Courage & Resolve talismans seem to contribute to this sort of martial flavor of equanimity.

As with all talismans, your mileage may vary, and like all of our talismans (see our guarantees and disclaimers), the Courage & Resolve talismans are not intended nor do they claim to treat any disease or disorder that contributes to emotional dysregulation.

Footnotes

[1] Enn Kasak and Raul Veede, “Understanding Planets in Ancient Mesopotamia,” Folklore 16 (2001): 27.
[2] Frans Wiggermann, “BAdW · Reallexikon Der Assyriologie,” 1998, 221, https://publikationen.badw.de/en/rla/index#8358.
[3] Wiggermann, “BAdW · Reallexikon Der Assyriologie,” 222.
[4] A. R. George, House Most High: The Temples of Ancient Mesopotamia (Eisenbrauns, 1993), 43–44.
[5] Wiggermann, “BAdW · Reallexikon Der Assyriologie,” 223.

Several factors deserve mention in this chart. First, having Jupiter in the 1st house is a significant boon to any election. Al-Qurtubi says in Picatrix Book II, Chapter 3 that a working in which “Jupiter or Venus [is] rising or in aspect with the ascendant…will proceed easily and obtain a good result, and accomplish its goal easily and swiftly.”

Second, auspicious fixed stars anchor three of the four angles in this election: Vega on the Midheaven, Spica on the Descendant, and Sirius on the Imum Coeli. 

Third, and related to the second point, this is one of the rare elections that satisfies Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s much more stringent demands for talismanic elections, which require the participation of four bodies: the significator, the Moon, a fixed star, and Mercury, each on one of the angles of the chart (see Michael Noble’s Philosophising the Occult, Chapter 5, sec. 5.2). In this election the Moon is angular in the fourth, Mercury and Mars are angular on the Midheaven, and fixed stars occupy three of the four angles of the chart. With Jupiter on the Ascendant, all four angles of the chart have auspicious participation from heavenly bodies.

The Courage & Resolve talismans were carved with an image from Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy: “A soldier armed and crowned, girt with a sword, carrying in his right hand a long lance” (Book II, Ch. 40). On the obverse side of the cabochon were carved the symbol of Mars and the sigil of his planetary intelligence.

Two stones were chosen for this election, each expressing different virtues of Mars and accentuating different aspects of this talismanic image:

• Several large 30x40mm red jasper cabochons were carved during this election. Jasper, probably red jasper, is attributed to Mars by Lilly and Agrippa, and red stones are attributed to Mars by various medieval and Renaissance authors in the tradition. Tracing this stone’s magical virtues in ancient texts presents something of a challenge because the name jasper or iaspis as it was known in ancient lapidaries almost never referred to the stones called jasper in modern times. Pliny the Elder discussed a stone that may have been red jasper under the name haematitis, which he describes as being blood-red in color (unlike the modern stone called hematite); Pliny cites curative attributes, success in petitions and lawsuits, and benefits in battle among its virtues (Natural Histories, bk. 37, chap. 60). What we call red jasper in the contemporary world might have been considered by some ancient sources to be what is called sard, sardis, or sardinus in ancient lapidaries, a stone that is described as “of a red colour, like red earth” (Peterborough Lapidary, trans. Francis Young, p. 70; though other sources are clear that sard is usually translucent whereas red jasper is opaque) and was said to counteract the harmful properties of the onyx stone. Sardis “makes a man bold and hardy, and [it] forms the will” (ibid, pp. 70-71). Regardless of its ancient name, red jasper was a frequent choice for magical gems of Mars/Ares in the ancient world (see, e.g., Gems of Heaven, eds. Entwistle & Adams), making it a good choice for the Courage & Resolve talismans.
• A larger number of 13x18mm amethyst cabochons were carved during this election. Amethyst or amethystos in antiquity was renowned as a stone of temperance, as its name in Greek literally meant “not intoxicated.” Amethyst was attributed to Mars by Agrippa and Lilly. This stone was also said to “hold a man in good belief and strength both of body and soul to him who bears it worthily and purely” (Peterborough Lapidary, pp. 11-12) and to “repress evil thoughts” (De Mineralibus, Albertus Magnus, trans. Dorothy Wyckoff, Book II, tract. ii), which lend it power to aid in resolve.

Note: although it is not always possible to make or document so clean a division, we can state that for this election, the amethyst cabochons were carved and suffumigated while Aries was rising, and the red jasper cabochons were carved and suffumigated while Taurus was rising.

An herbal mixture of two of the resins used to suffumigate the talismans, bdellium and ammoniac, was affixed to the back of the talismans. These resins are part of the suffumigation recipe for Mars given by Agrippa, and the ingredients were established via divination.