Planetary Personalities: Mars

In October of 2024, I began working with an incredible illustrator and visual artist, Alex Raguso (@crumb_eater on insta), to transmute my written descriptions of the 7 primary planets into a series of Tarot Card style illustrations. We spent months talking through mythology, etymology, and astrology to find the cultural common threads. We did draft after draft of both the text and the illustrations until these cards were born. I am grateful and proud and hope this collaboration helps contextualize why celestial bodies and their rich cultural histories have always, and will always be celebrated as important to human's understanding of themselves and their power. Below, you will find the fruits of that labor in all their HQ glory. We posted version on social media meant to poison AI, so please refrain from reposting the unpoisoned version in this post anywhere else. I've also included the collage I made after writing each planetary profile at the very end. Next up, Mars!

Mars: Rules Signs Aries and Scorpio

Before I talk about violence, which is difficult to do as an angry black person hyper-aware of that stereotype and willing to eat it, I’ll leave you to consider first how you feel about violence. What is its place in the world? Is there justified violence? Who casts judgment and against what law? When I consider the violence of nature, of justice, of history, is inescapable despite popular political delusions about progress. Even from an evolutionary standpoint, survival is often a combination of one's capacity to withstand and perpetuate violence. We divide land, food, resources, and time, yet division is as politicized as anti progress. It’s hard for me to talk about Mars without bias as a marginalized writer and an Aries. Conflict is a necessary part of self advocacy and autonomy which are traits that are politicized within me. I am policed even in my blood.

To quote one of my favorite astrologers and writers, Alice Sparkly Kat,

"All physical actions are at least a little more damaging to your body. If you run too much or too long, your knees get worn down. If you climb all the time, then your palms get calloused. If you do too many repetitive movements because of weight training or swimming, you can hurt your tendons. On the scale of a lifetime, even small actions wear us down. Eating through the course of a whole lifetime causes less stomach elasticity and more heartburn. But what can you do? You can’t stop eating just like how you can’t stop running, jumping, or climbing. Your body was made to do things. You are a moving animal."

Mars, the war planet, know you can have movement without hurt, and you can't have hurt without healing.

Mars is a planet that isn't afraid to look directly at whatever it is the collective wishes to shy away from. It transmutes intensity into progress. Violence can become the righteous fight for justice, Anger becomes the galvanizing force to enact change, and Trauma addresses deep set fears we'd rather ignore. Mars knows that healing requires first, the transmutation of all of these intense energies. Anything that gets the blood pumping is a channel to release tension: sport & athletics, sparring & dancing & debating. Mars wants to be victorious, but in defeat, understands the value in anything that sets us on that path to expressing what bubbles up inside.

Mars likes pressure. It recognizes it as the true force behind any movement. The Planet of War understands that politically, change comes when we put pressure on. It sparks us into action. And that pressure, that tension, often comes from a divide. Division is a force that brings about revolution. Mars, the war planet, can appreciate conflict as a prerequisite for a movement. After all, before any good game can start, we've got to divide into teams. When we play sports, when we debate, when we fuck, it is the coming together of multiples that allows for passion, joy, and surprise to occur. We bring our best, divvy it up, and see what it is we are all able to leave with. This is a non-colonial divide because instead of following it with conquering, we use the tension to mobilize. Wars are always political, and so is passion. Some are untouched by it, desensitized to it, or frozen in fear of it. Mars is a planet that believes division is a natural force. It knows the value in tension as a tool to pressure something to the surface in need of deep healing. The truth is, it is impossible to heal undisturbed.

Aries, the fire sign of Mars, is represented by a ram who's horns on the head mean that everything it fights, it first must face. There is such vulnerability to fighting with the head. If any idea of who you are is stored in your brain, you put your own identity on the line when you head butt. This is why Aries represents the aspects of the war planet that are the front lines. Rushing head first into battle is easy when you are what you fight for. The desire to see your will take power is what initiates the forming of any army. After all, warriors are extensions of their culture's identity. Wars remove pretense and show us who we truly are. Aries represents what we know about ourselves from losses and victories.

Scorpio, the water sign of Mars, is what is revealed under pressure. What we learn about ourselves, our fears when we lose, hopes when we win, and the work we need to do to move forward. These things can come before, in the form of pressure and anxiety, or after, in the injuries we sustain and the wounds we must nurse. Beyond the fight, is what becomes of the community. A fight without knowledge or care for its impact on what is left behind is poison. If Aries is the front line, Scorpio is the corpsman. They reckon with what was revealed when we fought. All of our fears in the face of death and defeat can not be forgotten when the victory is won, or we will perpetuate the same violence. We must remember who we are and what we fight for. A righteous fight seeks to break something in the way of our healing.

Mars is interested in the breaking point. When tension rises so high you can no longer ignore or sit still it is a sign there is need for release. That is where deep healing and progress can occur. If you've ever had a knot in the muscle that restricts your movement, you know that something needs to break. Whether it be breaking ground, breaking barriers, breaking the surface, or breaking silence, both bravery and vulnerability are needed to relieve pressure. Mars is a planet interested in what we are left with after we have faced tension and division and come out healed. Not only can it spark change, but the aftermath helps us know who we are, remember what we fight for, and motivates us to heal deeply enough to fight another day. Progressing on the battelfield of life is an opportunity to express oneself. Division is a natural part of having your own opinion and peace often requires pretense. Mars fights for what it believes in and values the fight enough to prioritize healing from it. It knows there is a violence in inaction too.