To associate Mars with hotheadedness, anger, combat, etc. is really to sell short the psychic usefulness of the red planet.
At it’s most crucial level, Mars is the Will. Everyone possesses this, and some are far more in touch with it than others. It’s only when one’s Will is being thwarted or ignored that hotheadedness, anger and all of these pressure-cooker emotions bubble up. Let’s try to go to the root of things rather than obsessing over symptoms, shall we?
What is the Will?
Other words for the Will include striving, urging, wanting, desire, effort, you get the idea!
Arthur Schopenhauer’s Philosophy of Will sees Will as a slave to the world of ideas, therefore we are not free, and life is a sorry affair.
Schopenhauer saw the Will as an omnipresent force, not particular to the individual, but controlling us all, and so he was quite the pessimist.
The only thing that could kind of help us in this sorry world, was in experiencing something beautiful like art. In the midst of a great painting or an exquisite piece of music, the Will was transformed into ‘representation of the Will’ – the better the art, the better the representation- and in that moment, the person ceases to even exist!
Ah! At last I am nothing and no longer a slave to the Will! Courtesy of Van Gogh’s Cafe Terrace at Night.
Another famous thinker who gave considerable amount of attention to the Will (and was incredibly influenced by Schopenhauer) was Frederich Nietzsche. But Nietzsche ended up being a total optimist about it!
Nietzsche claimed that “The world itself is the will to power and nothing else! And you yourself are the will to power- and nothing else!”
But where Schopenhauer used the Will as an ultimate negation of life, Nietzsche used it as an ultimate affirming of life. He proclaimed himself a yea-sayer- and likened this Will to seeing life as positive as similar to that of the ecstasy-loving Dionysus.
Dionysus- the original “Life is Good” sayer.
So let’s just be happy to be clear on the notion that Mars as the Will is a powerful force that has been pondered for centuries. It is no small thing. It might be everything. So what is it up to now in the sign of Cancer?
Cancer is the sign of home and family but, as the first of the Water signs, it begs us to feel this truth, not just to think about it.
This is Chip (or Dale) inside of a Christmas tree from the Disney 1952 Classic “Pluto’s Christmas”.
I remember seeing this cartoon as a kid and being utterly enchanted by the sheer twinkling magic and coziness of these two chipmunks wandering around on the actual inside of a Christmas tree.
It’s not enough to convey the feelings of Cancer by referring to Christmas alone because you may not even celebrate it, or it may bring up family strife instead of warmth and sparkle.
But the inside of a Christmas tree, with your good pal Dale, now that is magical coziness. That is a recipe to feel great.
The Will to Home is an urging towards a place of magical coziness. Magical in that it is dynamic, not stagnant. Cozy in that it offers total restoration to the spirit. The destination may still be unknown to you, but you can follow the clues of what it is by tuning in to your true feelings.
Cancer is the stillness of the North Star. The sureness of that great feeling.
Mars is the Will to get there.
Until next time, Happy Astro Pondering!
-Tess
