Mars
Because he is ruled bv Mars, the god of war and battles, an Aries struggles to maintain control over his own life.
In mythology, an entire group of deities was associated with Mars: Audacity, Fearsomeness, Honor, Martial Bravery, and also Victory, Peace, and Serenity.
An Aries feels impelled by con-tradictory forces. He is bold, and sometimes takes pleasure in intimidating others. He also has a sense of honor. Is his desire to reconcile victory, peace,. and serenity a quest for the impossible?
An Aries goes into battle confident-ly, without fearing defeat. He is a per-son who is willing to face sacrifices for the truth.
Mars' symbols are the lance, an instrument of warfare and death con-veying authority, and the torch, a sym-bol of fire as a source of purification and enlightenment.
Mars also loved Venus pas-sionately.
His boldness and adventures pro-vided amusement for the Gods. Once Venus' husband, Vulcan, trapped her in a net with Mars, and summoned the gods to witness their adultery. The gods laughed at Mars' predicament.
Even this extremely humiliating experience (and there were others, too) failed to deter Mars. The gods decided that Mars "had no spirit or soul."
An Aries has strong sexual in-stincts.
It is difficult to comprehend the risks which he takes. He proceeds without foresight and is sometimes trapped by insurmountable difficulties. It is difficult to classify an Aries,
Nothing stands in his way, and he is not afraid of humiliation. Impelled by his adventurous spirit, an Aries does not stop to explain his motives to others; he rushes onward.
An Aries appears to be an outcast. Unable to find acceptance for his beliefs,' he hunts for the meaning of life.
Mars brutally sought vengeance against one of Venus' lovers (Adonis), and the gods punished him by expelling him from Olympus.
Mars dealt harshly with his posses-sions and with his own holy places (the city of Thebes, which he devastated with wars), as well as with his beloved (Venus). He only seemed aware of his own turbulence.
An Aries is capable of testing himself or destroying himself in pursuit of the source of his strengths. At the innermost level, an Aries is already con-vinced that the fire which rules him is inexhaustible and that it encompasses the meaning of life.
Intrepidness often leads an Aries into situations which seem insurmount-able, but, with faith in his intuitive in-telligence, he is confident of finding solutions. An Aries is often surrounded by impossible situations.
An Aries may rashly ignore wise advice: the many dangers which he con-fronts are a form of trial by fire, allow-ing him to pursue self-awareness by tak-ing risks. Does the arm raised against him represent his own arm, symbolizing the spirit of sacrifice which governs Aries? He is prepared to face sacrifices in order to provide an example for others.
When Mars was captured by the Alaudian giants and imprisoned in a bronze cage for thirteen months, Hermes, or Mercury (intelligence), helped him escape.
The goddess who dealt Mars his worst defeats was Athena, symbolizing wisdom. She guided the arm of Dio-medes when he wounded Mars, who bel-lowed "like a thousand men" (Homer).