Aries 12°

(For last year’s meditation on the Sabian Symbol for this degree: click here)

Another excerpt:

This chief Aries cardinal-fire power is our primal impetus to life, our purpose. Here we reclaim our freedom from outside influences, distractions or detractors. This energy of singularity urges us to approach life as if we were, each of us, the only person on the planet, thus entitled to take from existence what we want, on our own terms, without apology or second guessing. This premier cosmic energy is focused on our basic raison d’être, our initial aim, design and inalienable determination, with which we often lose touch on our path through life. So many of us ask ourselves, what is the point?, what the ef am I doing here? Well, accessing the 1st Cosmic Energy allows you to discover, indeed reclaim, those answers for yourself. Cardinal-fire denotes the flame of our own individuality, our unquenchable fire that nobody can snuff. Easy for Adam and Lilith, as sole terrestrial inhabitants, who refused to even live with one another—sexually, and otherwise, they each demanded the top position. But the rest of us live in a world of innumerable relationships, where we constantly come up against others’ opinions and agendas. Which explains why Adam and Lilith’s counterparts in classical mythological are the war gods, Mars and Athena. These armed deities are even more vivid personifications of the 1st energy. They embody the individual offensive (fight) and defensive (flight) manifestation of this energy in human form. Adam and Lilith, too, may well have evolved into war gods if they were likewise thrust into a pantheon of such divine egoists as the Greek and Roman gods. (These gods were originally worshipped locally, monotheistically, by clannish cults before being slammed all together.) So why are we delving into all this myth stuff anyway? Because: These figures embody archetypes that live within us all. They are the humanized forms of cosmic energy to which we can relate more personally, making our connection to this energy less abstract.

Our potent yet under-appreciated mandala, the Zodiac, symbolically rich and steeped in archetype, provides us easy, organic access to these prototypical personas upon which we may imprint in our efforts to channel each of the twelve cosmic energies. The primo sign of Aries, associated with the 1st Cosmic Energy, is indeed ruled by Mars, named for the aggressive and often bratty god of war whom the Greeks, no big surprise, called Ares. He was, also fittingly, the first-born male offspring of the Olympian gods just as his slightly older sister the war goddess, wise Athena, was the first female progeny, emerging from her father’s head, the body part governed by the sign of Aries. We all must suit up in their armor and grab hold of their spears to fearlessly stake out our individual fulfillment. Mars and Athena were likely hunter gods to begin with, taking on warrior status once their individual cults locked horns with neighboring clans. Hunting is an act of survival and of competition, both elements applying to the war field as well. The gender difference in these gods points to pure “masculine” aggression and prudent “feminine” defense and diplomacy. Both these aspects must in fact be channeled by all of us, despite our sex, although Athena’s archetypal nature is more valuable to females in general, just as Mars’ is more applicable to males. We see the Mars archetype echoing in popular culture from GI Joe to Gladiator, Superman to Ironman, just as Athena’s incarnations include Xena the Warrior Princess and even Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

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