Mars enters Leo

Mars enters Leo today, standing at the very first degree of the sign. The planet the tradition treats as the engine of wanting and doing now works through a fixed fire sign.

Sepharial, in Cosmic Symbolism, gives Mars two faces that belong together. Mars is the Desire that fashions chains and the Will that looses them. The same force that binds a person to repeated wants supplies the strength to break free of them. He calls these unexhausted desires the chains of Vulcan and makes Mars their symbol.

Ptolemy, in the Tetrabiblos, makes a parallel point about Mars governing the mind. Placed with glory, Mars produces boldness, self-confidence, strenuous effort and ability in government. Placed ingloriously, the same planet turns precipitate, restless and tumultuous. Neither author treats Mars as good or bad in itself. What matters is where the force is directed and whether it is held.

Leo shapes that direction. The Pavitts describe Leo as a fixed sign marked by fixity of aims and ideas. It is immovable once convinced, yet not aggressive, and sees no point in arguing with anyone who will not listen reasonably. They add that the type is liable to quick flashes of temper but harbours no grudge. It pursues what it takes to be its purpose with great persistence, whatever the cost.

Put Mars there, and it carries the impulse to fix desire onto a single aim and hold it. The Lion, the sign's image, suits that well: fire given a centre. At its best this is Sepharial's Will, wanting that has decided what it is for. At its worst it is desire hardened into stubbornness, the chain rather than the key. Mars also arrives at the apex of a T-square today, squaring both Chiron and Mercury as they oppose each other. This fire enters under friction, not ease.

Sepharial draws on the Kabbalistic picture of Malcuth, the Earth, held in balance between the higher and lower worlds. He doubts that those who live there share its freedom. Yet his own account of Mars leaves the way open, since the planet that forges the chain also breaks it. We follow that line and read the placement as a condition to work with, not a sentence.

The practice follows from that. Choose one aim worth the steadiness Leo asks for, and write it down in a single sentence. Then, whenever heat rises while Mars is in this sign, ask whether it serves that aim or only repeats an old want. Let the temper burn out without keeping a grudge, as the Pavitts say the sign is able to do. Then turn the energy back to the aim you named.