The Red Planet
Mars fills us with energy. It is through Mars that we reach out for what we desire. If our boundaries are crossed, it is Mars who responds to the violation. He is the energy of the base and sacral chakras manifest through action. He is the urge to be competitive, to propel us into action, & fight for what we want. Mars serves the expression of the Sun, & provides the courage & drive to achieve the personality's goals. Mars is interested in conquest, his actions initiated by desire, his energy fueled by willpower.
Mars is the part of the psyche through which we experience and express energy, excessive force, anger, irritation, war, abrupt change, erratic action, determination, courage, sexual energy, and penetration.
The Tarot card associated with Mars is The Tower.
In the Tower we meet sudden change and disruption. Like an invading army, we are faced with change which is thrust upon us that may be violent, destructive, and catastrophic. The Tower represents destructive power, external or internal, and excessive force. In the ruin of the Tower, a process of insight and inspiration begins.
Arthur Edward Waite, the author of the Rider-Waite tarot, describes the Tower as misery, distress, poverty, adversity, calamity, disgrace, deception, and ruin. The Tower card is said to be reminiscent of the Tower of Babel, where humanity, who at the time spoke a common language, unified to build a structure that would reach the heavens. However, God made humanity multi-lingual, so that the endeavour would fail through the confusion and chaos that would ensue in humanity's inability to understand each other.
The lightning that strikes the Tower represents the destructive forces that war against what we have built. The lightning creates a fire that the inhabitants of the Tower must flee from, throwing themselves, or being thrown, from the security of the structure they have created. It represents a time of personal crisis, in which a new creative approach is born out of need. The people falling are also said to represent failure that has been brought about through a hedonistic life. Whatever the reason, there is nothing passive in what we meet in the Tower card, or our response to its energy. Our stability is threatened, and we must leap into a new course of action. Whilst it is a collapse of what was, it is a new beginning. The Crown symbolises a connection to our higher purpose, and how hubris, and over-identification with the spoils of success can impact on our relationship to our soul journey.
The chaos we meet in the card symbolises the dismantling of our illusions, a moment of insight. The realisation that change is upon us may come from forces we meet externally, or it may be the moment we realise we can no longer continue to live the life we are living. Here we see the devastation of our security both internal (protective illusions) and external (material possessions, status, relationships). We see in the card, that the wars we encounter and ruin that may ensue, put us on a path that serves our greater solar journeys, one that is built on truth not illusions.
