Planets: Mars—ray 6 (non-sacred)

E Ray 6 (non-sacred planet)

Method: The struggle towards an ideal

Mars: general information

There are slightly obscure references to the work of various esoteric schools throughout Esoteric Astrology, and Mars is mentioned as:

The School for Warriors, or the open grades for [spiritual] soldiers. Four of these planetary schools are responsible for the energy flowing through the ‘four castes’ in all parts of the world. Its teachers are spoken of as ‘Graduates of the Ruddy Flame’ and are frequently portrayed as clothed in red robes… They work under the first logoic aspect and train those whose work is along the lines of the destroyer. (EA 694, TCF 1177-1179)

For a long time during the during [the] cycle of reincarnations and periods of manifestation the human being is almost entirely by the activity of the [five] non-sacred planets:

• The Sun (veiling a planet)
• The Moon (veiling a planet)
• The Earth itself
• Mars
• Pluto (EA 53)

(see Sacred and Non-sacred Planets)

Details to follow

Mars: Rulerships

• Orthodox: Aries
• Esoteric: Scorpio
• Hierarchical: Sagittarius

In esoteric astrology, the overall effect of Mars is to establish relations between the opposites (EA 210). Because of this, its effect is spiritually beneficial. Conflicts are entered into so that the resulting struggle can work to bring opposing factors together in the end.

producing great struggles but leading finally to great revelation. In Aries, it is the final revelation of the nature of knowledge and the purpose of incarnation; in Scorpio, it is the revelation of the vision of liberation and service; in Sagittarius, it is the revelation of the purpose of soul control over the lower kingdoms in nature, via the human centre of energy. It must consequently never be forgotten that Mars… is a beneficent and not a malefic factor… (EA 210-211)

Orthodox: Aries ⇧

The three ruling planets of Aries cover “three crises” in the life of inner development of which Mars rules the first, the battle field:

The most archetypal sense of Aries being the first sign of the zodiac is mirrored in the orthodox rulership as it governs the sheer physical presence of our material lives, through which we experience, learn to face and eventually resolve conflicts, inner and outer:

Mars is definitely the planet which rules and controls the physical vehicle. Mars appears first of all as the orthodox ruler in Aries, the sign in which the first move is made towards bringing about objective manifestation, or physical incarnation. [We start] in Aries with Mars ruling, and the great war between the dualities which constitute [an individual] began. The pairs of opposites were thus brought into relation with each other. (EA 210)

As this process affects us personally during our human development and outer life, Mars drives the process in various ways:

Mars embodies sixth ray force which leads to idealism, destructive fanaticism frequently, struggle, strife, war, effort and evolution. [The archetypal] idea in Aries becomes the concrete plan in Capricorn where Mars is exalted whether that objective is the full flower of the planetary life in all its forms, the ambition of a personality working out its own ideas and ambitious worldly projects or the spiritual aspiration (worldly ambition transmuted into its higher aspect) of the initiate, who seeks to work out [and own the archetypal] plans… In every case, Mars leads to the battle ground of Scorpio. (EA 99-100)

Esoteric: Scorpio ⇧

The “spiritual warrior” whose own self is the battleground. Developing focussed will through personal continuity, endurance despite obstacles and adherence to the chosen aims. Here, Mars acts as a first ray “training ground of the will” (see Taurus-Scorpio-Mars).

In Scorpio, the result of all the struggles carried forward during the seemingly endless pilgrimage around the zodiac or wheel of life is brought to a point of climax, again through the activity of Mars which has not appeared actively in the intervening signs between Aries and Scorpio as far as the reversed wheel is concerned. The disciple has now to demonstrate the strength, character and quality which he has unfolded and developed within himself during his long pilgrimage. […] In Scorpio… the war is on and… Mars rules not only the physical body but the entire form vehicle, which we call the personality in the three worlds. All aspects of the lower nature are involved in this crisis… and the tests applied involve the form nature—gross and subtle, integrated and potent. (EA 210)

Hierarchical: Sagittarius ⇧

This rulership covers the esoteric view of the origins of humanity, which adds a spiritual dimension to the process of material evolution. The idea is that “souls seeking incarnation” at that distant time required forms or bodies in which to incarnate, and this was taken from the more evolved hominids among the animal kingdom who received the spark of humanity. Alice Bailey refers to this process as the fall of the angels in primordial times.

This sixth ray influence coming from three angles—orthodox, esoteric and hierarchical—and hence involving both Neptune and Mars—predisposes the race and individual man as well to become one-pointed disciples in Sagittarius. This latter constellation is ruled by Mars, bringing the man into control or closer touch with the lunar lords, the sixth Creative Hierarchy. … The sixth Ray of Devotion is consequently most powerful in this age or cycle and hence the expression in every land today of its best and its worst features, of which the intense devotion to material things and the intense devotion to spiritual values are dramatic instances. (EA 218)

So what begins with Neptune in Cancer through birth into incarnation and the experience of material life (via the “lunar lords” or devas who create our various bodies) is revisited in Sagittarius:

[after Aries and Scorpio] Mars… does not again appear in the life of the individual except as that individual responds to mass vibration in Sagittarius, where Mars appears as ruling the sixth Creative Hierarchy, the lunar lords of the form nature who must eventually be sacrificed to the higher spiritual aspect and brought under the control of the solar Angel. (EA 210)

This sixth hierarchy—the “Lunar Lords”—are consequently also known as the “sacrificial fires”, since they are connected to the collective emotional level (or “astral plane”) which is burned away on a personal level by the “fires” of the mental plane during the third initiation. At that stage of development, our personal life becomes a subset of the greater life of service to humanity—not through any personal urge to “become selfless” but simply because our consciousness has expanded beyond the purely personal self.

Mars decanates

In conventional astrology, decanates simply follow the rulerships of each elemental triad, but Esoteric Astrology has inconsistent information. See notes about the decanates, and the “decans” tab under each sign.

Mars Dignities

• Exaltation: Capricorn
• Fall: Cancer
• Detriment: Libra Taurus

Exaltation in Capricorn ⇧

Mars is the God of War, the Producer of conflicts, and in this earthly sign Mars triumphs in the early stages of the evolution of the fourth Creative Hierarchy [humanity] and in the life history of the undeveloped and average [person]. Materialism, the fight for the satisfaction of personal ambitions, and the conflict with higher spiritual tendencies goes steadily forward, and this most material of all the signs is the battleground of the old established order and habits and the new and higher inclinations and tendencies. (EA 170)

Fall in Cancer ⇧

In Cancer, the Moon veils Neptune and the militant idealism of Ray six gives way to the subtler side of that ray:

the sixth ray energy of Mars is transmuted into the sixth ray energy of Neptune, for the one is “objective and full of blood” and the other is “subjective and full of life.” (EA 217)

Detriment in Libra ⇧

The power of Mars is lessened in Libra; this is the sign of interlude and Mars is temporarily quiescent, prior to gathering… forces for a renewed effort in Scorpio or for the “quickening” of the spiritual life in Virgo, according to which way the wheel is turning… (EA 250)

…that is: the anti-clockwise wheel of learning through repeated experience and incarnations, vs the conflict in Scorpio on the (corrected and) reversed clockwise wheel as we face the “Dweller on the Threshold” that is the sum of our hindering personality traits (see reversed zodiac.

Detriment in Taurus ⇧

Mars is in detriment in this sign. Its activity adds constantly to the naturally warlike nature of Taurus but the potency of the Taurian struggle is so great, esoterically speaking, that the effect of Mars is lost in the larger whole. It “adds to the glamour and confusion and yet holds within itself hope for the struggling [individual].” (EA 402)