Mars and the Marginalised - including everyone in Mars Mythology

Mars and the Marginalised -including everyone in Mars Mythology

[00:00:00] Fiona Marques:

[00:00:00] Introduction and Welcome

[00:00:00] Fiona Marques: Hello everyone. Welcome back to The Vedic Astrology Podcast. I'm here with my friend and colleague, Nisha Sankaran. Welcome back Nisha.

[00:00:09] Nisha Sankaran: Thank you. Hi Fiona.

[00:00:12] Fiona Marques: It's lovely to have you here because we together have been exploring the Vedic Astrology Planetary Mythology. And our wish and aim is to make these Myths accessible because the planets are really important when we are learning Vedic Astrology, but sometimes some of the content and stories can be a little bit hard to connect to or even a little bit off-putting. So little by little we are working our way through each of the planets. 

And I would love to recommend to you if you haven't already, to catch up on our episodes on the Sun (S2E10) and the Moon (S2E11) because in those episodes I spend a little bit more time laying out the context for these conversations. Our intention is to allow as many people as possible to feel included, inspired and empowered by Vedic Astrology Mythology. And if there's anything that we can do in our discussions about this Mythology to make it more accessible, more open to people from more diverse backgrounds, then we feel like we are contributing something. So it is with those intentions in mind that we head towards Mars Mythology. 

[00:01:29] Qualities of Mars

[00:01:29] Fiona Marques: In some ways the whole purpose of these Myths is to create imagery, symbolism, stories in our minds that is like a little pocket cheat sheet full of information about each planet.

So rather than learning dozens and dozens of qualities for each planet, if we can connect to these stories, they tell us so much about the qualities. And for that reason, I want to just share some of the qualities that I think are important about Mars when I was learning about the planet and when I see it in my work doing Vedic Astrology readings every day.

And then as we are listening to this Mythology, let's see if we can connect to those qualities in the stories. Mars is really about power and impulse, isn't it? Energy, Vitality, Shakti. 

[00:02:23] Nisha Sankaran: A lot of energy, a lot of confidence, a lot of courage. Full of action. And I think a lot of the energy to initiate comes from Mars.

[00:02:35] Fiona Marques: I agree. It's one of the things I love about Mars. As a life coach, this Shakti thing, this pure power that Mars has, I think that is the power to change our lives. So I think when you're life coaching, you are always hoping to engage at some level with your clients Mars in their chart to make sure that the person feels the power and empowered.

 Also think that another subset of qualities for Mars is around being competitive. I think that's one of the qualities that we tend to associate with people with Mars energy. And also that Mars is really interested in protecting righteousness. It's a dharmic planet and it's come here to do good. And it wants to take those actions that we were talking about in an auspicious way, to, to make change that's helpful. That creates less suffering for people here on planet Earth. 

[00:03:29] Nisha Sankaran: In terms of protection, the destructive and the creative energy that Mars has and that the innovation initiation can come from both of those sides in order to enact protection.

[00:03:44] Fiona Marques: I think Mars lets you do things that you can't even imagine you'd be capable of. Courage, fearlessness, remover of fear. It's adrenaline really in some ways, isn't it? That when we are faced with those life or death moments, suddenly we find this strength to take an action that we didn't even know we had.

I think this comes out really nicely in the Mythology, is around Mars being pure, celibate, purifying like the purifying nature of fire. How Mars is associated with fire. We really can use fire to detoxify things. But also because of this, Mars also is associated with discipline or tapas, or restraining. Like often, restraining what a person eats or they'll have rules that they follow about their conduct and the way that they live their life which actually, they can be patient. Which is a great quality. If you have a really good Mars, you know to just cool it and be with the moment, observe what's going on, and only really take action when it's the last resort. "It has to happen now. Now I have to take action". And free from corruption. We talked about Mars being auspicious, that it, it loves to work for the good principles of the society. And therefore it works best when it's free of pursuing power for its own gain. I don't think Mars is really interested in power for itself, just as we talked about as a protective tool.

[00:05:19] Nisha Sankaran: Yeah, there goes that word purity again.

[00:05:21] Fiona Marques: Yeah. We're going to hear about Mars as the eternal boy, right? The eternal youth. 

[00:05:27] Nisha Sankaran: Yeah, I mean I think in terms of just the Element that it is just pure Fire, so it acts very dharmically. So in that sense I can see that sort of being driven in a very single-minded kind of way. And the Mythology which we're going to cover, it's always for just causes.

And that's where a lot of that anger and that fire initiates that action to be able to have an outcome that's favorable for fighting for those just causes. 

[00:06:00] Fiona Marques: Obviously Mars is a cruel planet. It's a malefic planet. And the picture that I put in my mind was like the iron-monger, bashing out the iron. He puts it in the fire to really heat it up and then hits it with the hammer to work the metal into the shape that it needs to be, to become a weapon, for example. So it's a very Mars example. But I think that, we need these malefics in our life. They help us with the hard things in life. They help us make the tough calls. And also they put us under pressure in the chart. So wherever your Mars is somewhere that one might be very successful, but it could be because of a lot of pressure and intensity.

So we've talked about these energies that are related to Mars in the Vedic Astrology birth chart when we are trying to remember what the planet represents. I wonder what some of the Mythology is and how that might help us remember too.

[00:06:58] Mythology of Virabhadra

[00:06:58] Fiona Marques: All right, so I will do my best to set the scene of some of this Mythology. And we've got a few different Myths like we've had with the Sun and Moon. We've got a few different origin Myths around how Mars comes into creation. So previously when we looked at the Sun and also the Moon, we actually had more of a I think we had a God and a human in both cases as a sage and a God. Like parents creating these entities, the Sun and the Moon, those are their luminaries. 

Here we are in the first of our planets and it's a different kind of creation process. So I'm going to tell a few creation Myths. The first one involves Shiva and the life partner of Shiva whose name is Sati, and she is a daughter of Daksha again. So he has featured heavily so far in our Mythology. Progenitor of the universe. And in this Myth, we're going to hear about the creation of Mars. Through the story of a particular party that Daksha was holding. So the idea was this progenitor of the universe decided there'd be good idea to hold a big sacrifice to increase their status. A celebration of, I guess being progenitor of the universe. Maybe one feels like one should celebrate that from time to time. And Daksha felt that Shiva was perhaps a little uncouth or unmannered. Because Shiva's sort of wild, isn't he? Shiva's extremely natural. And so Daksha did not want to invite Shiva. And of course that's caused a problem because his child Sati, is married to Shiva. So of course Sati wants to bring her life partner to the gathering and hear her parent is saying, "you can't do that". And Shiva saw this situation and knew that the best thing to do was just hang back, not go to the sacrifice, just let it happen. "It's okay". So Shiva's perspective was to let it just let it be, let it pass. But Sati was quite upset about it and did decide to go to the party without her life partner. However, in front of everyone at the party the parent, Daksha he insults Shiva. And this really offends Sati. She is so angry and humiliated, embarrassed, just full of rage. And with that energy, instantly she turns to flames. 

At that moment, Shiva on the other side of the world, wherever Shiva was at the time, could notice that the disruption in the energy field became aware of what's gone on with his life partner. And Shiva's own rage begins to build and he gathers together his followers and he's so furious that he's sweating. And a drop of this sweat of the heat of rage falls from his forehead onto the Earth. And we know from our previous chat about the Moon that actually Shiva is wearing a crescent Moon near his forehead. So it's the Moon has already had a run in with Daksha, if you remember from our chat last time, and it's almost like the Moon, this water element, gives a bit this permission for the sweat to drop to the Earth. And this drop of sweat lands on the Earth and becomes a fiery hero called Virabhadra. And it's the embodiment of the might of Shiva. And Virabhadra presents itself to Shiva and requests "Command me". And Shiva asks the hero to destroy Daksha and the sacrifice. So off goes the hero to the party. All of the attendees scatter because they feel the fear of this hero that's come. And sure enough, Virabhadra decapitates Daksha. And once that is done, Shiva commands Virabhadra to calm the cosmic ocean. And then Shiva raises the hero into the heavens and calls this hero the "Son of the Earth". 

[00:12:12] Nisha Sankaran: That's why Mars is also called Bhumiputra. So Bhumi means "Earth" and Putra in Sanskrit means "Son". 

[00:12:21] Fiona Marques: So this is one of the really important takeaways from this story, isn't it? That Mars is not born from the loving union of two beings. He's actually created from pure rage, from the this need to take action.

[00:12:37] Nisha Sankaran: That's exactly right. And I think the idea of the orphan archetype is going to show itself more as we go through the Myths. But I think that the independence and the fury and what he was created to do really shows how Mars can enact itself in the charts as well. 

 When I first heard this Myth, it did upset me because I know the real world consequences of what Mythologies is and how they impact religions and the real world impact of that. And "Sati" is when women supposedly self-immolate, but a t times they were forced into the funeral pyres of their husbands when their husbands died. And especially back then in India, they were girls who were getting married. And so teens and younger women and women of all ages were forced into funeral pyres of their husbands so the in-laws wouldn't have to take care of them. Again, I am not an expert I'm a lay person on on this information and just what I've heard from my family telling stories about what they know just being born and raised there. Regardless though, it did happen. And, even though it's been outlawed, I think it was just outlawed in last century. But it was a practice that was still going on and so it, it's a very upsetting thing to hear it, which is, I guess I can bring another reason why I am so interested in doing these things with Fiona, even though a lot of this stuff is very hard to hear. And we know what happens in the world when these things are incorporated into religion. It's helpful to know where some of these origin stories come from and why these things we see in the news, like why they happen. Obviously none of us would like to ever be in that position, and it's terrible that those things have happened and hopefully they're not happening anymore. I just want to clarify, the practice is actually called "Sati" that I'm not saying that it's because of this specific Myth that "Sati" became a practice. But recognizing that it's a tough thing to talk about and there's no resolution, but, it adds, at least to my knowledge, to know how these things came about to a certain extent.

[00:14:56] Fiona Marques: I'm glad that you bring that in because I'm from the outside and I'm hearing this story fresh. It was not the stories that I was raised on as a child. So from the outside, it's hard for me to see how that got translated into when the husband dies, the woman should throw herself on the fire. Like I, it just doesn't, I don't get how they, those are linked together.

[00:15:17] Nisha Sankaran: Yeah, I think, it would be helpful if Sati, instead of harming herself, could have taken out a ball of fire from her side the way that Shiva did with Virabhadra. That would be like showing how to use your tools without hurting yourself, amongst all these egos going on. And that you, knowing that you yourself have an ego, but you also have a way of entering the fray without sacrificing yourself. 

These women's stories weren't told by women. It was sacrificing herself, which to me isn't real power.

[00:15:51] Fiona Marques: It's so interesting what you're bringing up there because it's quite challenging as a woman to get angry effectively, isn't it? Like lots of women tell me about how when they get angry, they burst into tears, so I think there's 50% of us that when we get angry, we end up crying in some way. And then you end up getting comforted. Like you're angry and somebody thinks you need to be comforted. And that's obviously not what you're going for. And then there's maybe 30% is raging and maybe it's appears as if one has burst into flame. I've got this bright red hair. I'm sure that people have thought I've burst into flame at various times in my life. And that's also not that effective, right? That female rage is, it's hard for people around and for men around to go "Let's engage with that. This is really important". It's people want to get away from that. 

I, I love what you're saying that the retelling of this Myth, you would actually see that Sati calls fire into her hand that becomes Mars and goes off and does the attacking. 

[00:17:00] Nisha Sankaran: That would be my version.

[00:17:02] Fiona Marques: I love Nisha. Great. Good. But it's true. I think that there is a little bit of powerlessness here that the woman has sacrificed herself like, so it was great. She's been seen, she's created change. But she's got no way forward because she used all of her energy in creating this this moment of rage of reaction.

And, I think this, and so many of the stories that we're going to hear about Mars today, they're really telling us about how challenging it is to work with fire and how challenging it is to change things, how challenging it is to be angry. And that's, inspiring for me to know that all of this time humans have been struggling with how to be angry.

It's something that we need, it's a survival instinct. The adrenaline that we are speaking about, that's how our DNA has reached this point is because all of our ancestors have had enough power to survive. But how do you work with anger in an effective way?

[00:18:08] Nisha Sankaran: Yeah I actually find it really comforting that Mars represents the emotion of anger as one of its primary characteristics. I find that to be very heartening because again, everyone has a Mars in their chart and it tells me that you can use anger effectively.

And so I think going back to the Myth when I was like, that's not using anger effectively, and that goes against everything of what just characteristically Mars represents. And the good placement is using your anger to fight for just causes. And then after you win that battle, or however it turns out, and you're past that moment in your life, then you go back to that Vishnu-esque way of being. That very calm. And, that's, I guess the good placement of Mars in your chart. But a bad placement would be just willy-nilly, just like going off like a sprinkler with your anger and not really doing anything effective with it. So yeah I really appreciate that. Because so many people that are marginalized right now in our world if they do use their anger in a way that people in the mainstream use it, they are seen as being only, that. Only angry, ineffective, not in a way regain their own power and find success that way. 

[00:19:22] Fiona Marques: So I loved what you were saying there, that really, this Myth, although it has problems that we've raised it does have these themes that I think we're going to hear through the rest of the Myths. That Mars has an unusual birth. Mars is related to anger. It works best when it gets the job done. And once it's done the job, like it says here, it should be resting in heaven, just goes back. And I think this story is also telling us about being careful about taking offense and insults. That Shiva right at the beginning of this story is obviously could take offense if he wanted to and could have gone straight to the Virabhadra reaction, but knew to "Hey, I'm just going to let that pass". In Australia we play this sport called "cricket". Well, in Commonwealth countries you play cricket. 

Yeah, it's huge in India. It's huge in India. And one of the skills in cricket is to let the ball go through to the wicket keeper, like not engage because the bowler is always trying to get you to attack because that's when you make a mistake. And it's interesting using a sports analogy because obviously Mars is really associated with athletes because of that whole competitive and skill thing. And so when the bowler is provoking you, one of the skills is let it go through the wicked keeper. So in Australia we say "Let it go through the keeper", and that's what Shiva's doing here, right? But eventually he gets drawn in. 

And then the other thing that I heard in this as well, is, it reminds me a little bit of the Pandora's box story because at that scattering of people at the party or at the sacrifice, the gathering is seen as where some of these diseases came into creation. That the heat from Mars, it still impacted these people even if they were running away. And that's reminding us that Mars' energy in the body is inflammation. And inflammation is the root of a large percentage of disease for the body. It's difficult for the body to be healthy with inflammation out of control.

But there's something about the scattering of the people at the gathering Reminded me of the Pandora's box. Something that you open. That once you open it, you can't put it back. So this drop of sweat that becomes embodied and is able to even decapitate the progenitor of the universe. So it's pretty powerful. You can't put that back in the box. It has consequences. And yes, we've got a great weapon to for change, but we've got this heat, this source of potential excess heat. 

[00:22:02] Nisha Sankaran: I think that's great. I think that, with Virabhadra and with that specifically, reminding yourself that Virabhadra, that form of Mars, came from Shiva himself. And that Shiva knows that he can do whatever he wants whenever he wants, but he has that constraint. And reminding yourself that's not all of who you are, and reminding the source of that anger, I think is, that's like the anger for the just causes is the protective covering around Mars at that point.

It's knowing why you're doing it, because when your Mars is debilitated, you lose that connection with source. You lose your connection with your own sense of self-compassion and of love, and it can just become uncontrollable, which is, from what I understand of Pandora's Box, it releases all the ills. 

[00:22:56] Fiona Marques: In some ways this planet at the end of this story is called the Son of Earth. And in some ways this Myth is becoming more Earth-based and the diseases, the anger, these are things that are having Earth-based consequences in a way that, we had the Moon last time romancing the Moon's way around it's monthly journey, with all of these different life partners this is much more, there's consequences now, this is something's happening on planet Earth.

[00:23:25] Nisha Sankaran: Mars is is the very youthful boy energy, but I was thinking to myself that because of the orphan nature of it and just being parentless and just on its own, Mars is I think the general of the army, but it still listens to the king, right? So it's but he's still like super independent. And I thought that with this like sort of amorphous, not really having a strict origin, not really having a definite destination necessarily, that it is the first time in these origin Myths that I'm seeing some sort of ambiguity in who you define yourself to be so beyond, which is like what we're trying to do here anyway.

So beyond gender, beyond your class, beyond whatever it is that you think is a restriction. I think Mars, for the first time to me, it hit that part of me where it's just like you, this is undefinable, like this is just fierce independence. It's still love, like ancestrally, like it was created into being so therefore it's already so supported and so loved, but maybe in the material world it's not as supported, which I think a lot of people feel, but it just figures out a way to continue being successful. So that's what I got from it, more so than the Sun in the Moon. That's very highly structured and stuff. This is a little more like, yeah.

[00:24:52] Fiona Marques: It's interesting that you brought that up because one of the words that I didn't put in my list was sometimes Mars is called crooked. And it's because when you see it in the sky, it's retrograde is quite visible. It's very bright when it's retrograde and it's, it moves this zigzag, and the other planets, we don't, they're not so close (or too close to the Sun) that takes longer to see the retrograde, but Mars has this sense that it doesn't move in a straight line.

And so that goes with what you're saying, that this is the first planet that we've come across where it, it's breaking the rules. It's living within the rules, but it's breaking the rules that need to be broken. And we all know that Mars is the rebel as well. It's the rebellious energy.

All right. Shall we have a go at another Myth? 

[00:25:35] Mythology of Kretikeya and Skanda

[00:25:35] Fiona Marques: This is another way of explaining the creation of Mars. In one version, Shiva is reunited with Sati in her new form, Parvati. And they get together in this embrace that is full of connection and it goes on for a long time.

And all of the gods begin to get worried about the power of these two Gods embracing. What is going to come out of this? And so in wanting to disrupt that, they break up this embrace. They send Agni, which is pure fire to distract them a little bit. And in that distraction, a drop of the essence of Shiva falls to Earth and creates Skanda, the God of War. This is one version. So we have another drop, descending to Earth, similar to the previous version.

But let me wrap it up with another one because it involves Agni as well. So same catalyst Agni. So Agni, the God a Fire, feels this desire for the Kritikas, which are these stars in the Pleiades, the wives of the Bears. They're the seven stars of the Big Dipper.

And Agni kind of being this righteous energy vows to control their own lust or to end their life because they're not going to act on it because these people are already married. So there's nothing that can be done. "I'm going to take this sacred vow".

But another child of Daksha called Swaha is already in love with Agni. And this child has the power to present themselves in various physical forms. So this person decides to present themselves one by one as each of these life partners that Agni's got a crush on. And one by one she goes to Agni and has an interaction with Agni believing that the wife has come freely to him.

And at the end of each of these interactions, Swaha collects the essence and stores it in a jar as you do. But this essence is so powerful. That it creates life out of the jar. And out of the jar is born Kartikeya. 

Now, this causes a problem because it brings to light the deception that has been going on.

However, that deception has not found out before the husbands take it seriously, think that their life partners have betrayed them and excommunicate them. All apart from one who was so pure that she couldn't even be impersonated by Swaha. So Kartikeya is then raised by everyone. It's the orphan, doesn't have a mother or a father, but is raised by all of the Kritikas. They breastfeed the child and that breast milk becomes the Milky Way. And then this child just grows so big and so strong and so righteous that it's obvious that the child should become part of the realm of the gods.

But Indra does not recognize Kartikeya or they're also called Skanda. And Skanda has to fight for recognition and challenge Indra until it becomes clear, even to Indra that this being is the head of the army, is one of the worthy, is part of the celestial realm. 

So, we have yet again, Nisha, a story with a very unusual creation. And we also have this energy of fighting for one's place that it's not given to you. You have to prove yourself. You have to use your strength and your skills to draw attention to yourself and to be recognized.

[00:30:06] Nisha Sankaran: Throughout time, I would say that most humans, if not all, there are parts of us that feel orphaned or unseen or unloved, that we know in the larger sense we are loved and that part of us is also loved. But to consciously ourselves be able to love those part of ourselves when other people have not, I think, resonates with me very strongly in this story.

And that's like the Jungian, like the shadow. Not just the kind of parts that we feel like are unseemly about ourselves, but just the undiscovered like pools or treasure troves and pots of gold that exist within us that we also may have been trained to not see until much later in life.

I was not really expecting Mars to have all of this great, like juicy, all these characteristics that we were going to be able to get into. But I think that, this shows much more of the, like the material side of our needs as being humans in this world, more so than the Sun and the Moon Mythology would go into.

[00:31:14] Fiona Marques: There's lots of really, as you said, juicy stuff in here. Some of which is that I think this has the manipulation of men. How we can talk about this from a feminist perspective and see these Myths as being misogynistic or patriarchal, that all of the powers with the men and the women treated badly in the Mythology. That's one of the things that personally makes it hard for me to engage with Mythology, whether it's Greek Mythology, Vedic Mythology, whatever. It's got values that I'm not that comfortable with. 

But I find the whole disguising yourself as somebody else and going and having sex under false pretenses. It's definitely not okay. It's deceptive. It's against the person's will. And also taking something from them that they don't realize that you are keeping or that you are using them for. I feel quite uncomfortable about the way the man is treated or the way Agni is treated here.

I guess this is one of the things about patriarchy is that it's not necessarily gender-based. It's power-based. People have power and they misuse the power over other people. That's a bit ick for me in this story. The kind of deception, just like we had last time, the gods setting up, "You've got to feed me naked", which I felt was ick.

The ick for me in this is deceptively making someone break their vow of discipline for your own gain, for your own desires. 

[00:32:52] Nisha Sankaran: I agree with that. I agree that this form of deception is one of the many things I find very ick throughout all of these. I don't think that's a right thing to do. So let me just make that clear. That being said, this is also the kind of form of manipulation that through a male perspective the only way that they can show female empowerment is just not, it's not empowerment. It's just women are manipulative, like that kind of thing. 

And also I would go back to Agni. His initiation into this story is that he just lusts after these seven siblings and he couldn't imagine life, he'd rather kill himself than not have sex with these women who already had their own families and already had their own lives and had all these things. So I'm not blaming anything on the victim, but I am saying that if it weren't for that lust blinding him as well. I'm not saying Swaha is not culpable, she definitely is. But you have to be responsible for your lust. And if it's too good to be true, then it probably is.

[00:34:09] Fiona Marques: And I think that's what this story is trying to share with us is like the previous story was anger, how hard it is to control anger. And I think this story is trying to share with us passion. That fire of passion, that heat of desire and attraction it's really hard to control. And it's a warning for us. Like you said, if it's too good to be true, it's too good to be true. 

[00:34:36] Mythology of Narishima

[00:34:36] Fiona Marques: Alright, so I have a third Myth to share so this is how the story goes. There's a Demon called Hiranyakashipu. This Demon has a boon that he cannot be killed by man or beast. It cannot be killed in the ground or on the sky. Cannot be killed in the daytime or the nighttime, and no weapon can cause him harm. Okay? It's a pretty great boon.

So he's feeling pretty powerful and he basically goes around being a big Demon and making trouble. And he has a child called Prahlada. And this child of a Demon is a devotee of Vishnu. And this is very upsetting to the Demon, right? This is the last thing you want. And the Demon does everything to try to turn the child back towards the good ways of the Demon ancestry. But no matter what he does, the child is devoted to Vishnu. And in fact begins to convert some of the other Demon children into following Vishnu as well. Even worse. That's how devoted he is.

There's lots of different strategies that are applied, but it comes to a head when the Demon confronts his child, and the child explains that God is everywhere.

And the Demon says "Are you willing to stake your life on the fact that Vishnu is inside this pillar?" And he points to a column that's supporting a building. And of course, the child says, "Yes, I am. I do believe that". 

And at this point, Narasimha bursts out of the pillar. And this is a lion man, a half lion, half man. And he fights with the Demon father. They engage in an epic battle. And it goes on for quite some time, but just as the Sun is setting, nshima begins to get the upper hand. And as the Sun is going down, he picks the Demon up and puts the Demon on his knee, and he rips out the guts of this Demon. And he's able to end the life of this Demon because he fulfilled all of these exceptions to the boon. So it was not daytime or nighttime, it was in between. The guy was not on the ground or in the air. He was on the the knee of Narasimha. And he didn't use a weapon. He just used his clawed hands. And Narasimha is not a man or a beast. He's both at the same time. And right in that moment when the deed is done, then the child bows to Narasimha and the rage of the Lion Man beast is ended and calm is restored to the world. 

[00:37:28] Nisha Sankaran: I really like how in Vedic Astrology Mythology that boons are like a total equalizer. Demons can get boons because you just have to do them. They're just very action oriented. And if you do them, you'll get some sort of protection from gods. Whether or not you deserve it as not the question. So the asuras and the rakshasa and all the demons are having these boons and having these children that are totally devout to God. I really liked all the mishmash of this here.

[00:38:05] Fiona Marques: What I like about it is that Mars can solve any problem, it can overcome any obstacle. And the boon sounded pretty watertight. No man, no beast, not in daytime, not in nighttime. One can be overwhelmed. Problems can seem too big. You can be like David and Goliath, you're just up against this unbalance. It's overwhelming. And Mars just finds a way to solve these problems. And it works really well in Capricorn because Capricorn is the kind of the toughest stomping ground on the Zodiac. The Earth sign that's owned by Saturn. It's a tough, tough place. But it has all the resources there. And Mars is like the guys from the "A Team" (TV Show) who can, take a paperclip and a matchbox and a piece of string or something and they've come up with a device that's going to win them this overwhelming battle. So I like how this story reminds us that Mars never gives up.

Again, it's got the same thing that you, one loses one's anger as soon as the job is done. The man beast is back to being calm. And this one is maybe the strongest in that whole thing of Mars protects the righteous. That the devotion of this child to Vishnu just calls forth Mars, who will do any deed to back up the faith and the belief of a devote. 

[00:39:27] Nisha Sankaran: And Narasimha is usually attributed to Vishnu, then Mars is attributed to Vishnu. And it goes back to the totality and how the different parts of you make up the totality of who you are. Beyond any one characteristic, physical or otherwise about you. And I think that this story specifically, even though Narasimha is the male version, it again just takes the entirety of the person and their character and shows that in the fable versus just having to be one or the other. 

[00:40:10] Fiona Marques: So Nisha, we've covered some very interesting stories about Mars. 

[00:40:16] Symbols of Mars

[00:40:16] Fiona Marques: What can you share about the symbols that represent Mars?

[00:40:22] Nisha Sankaran: A lot of these deities, they could be male, female, they could be like in drag. I hope some drag kings and queens somewhere, look at this or hear us. And say, "I really need to look, take a look at this!", because it's so theatrical, the makeup and the jewelry, like you can do amazing things with this. Would be so much fun to see someone embody this in that kind of like art form. 

[00:40:45] Fiona Marques: You're throwing the invitation out there.

[00:40:48] Nisha Sankaran: Yes! So Mars is reddish and they have four hands. And in two hands it's mudras. And then and the other two hands they're holding tools. So in one hand it's the Abaya mudra and that's the gesture of fearlessness, of reassurance of safety and the peace, vitality and protection. And then in another hand it's the Vara, or the Vara, which is compassion, sincerity. It's also for granting boons and forgiveness. It's forgiving and giving. And it's usually in combination with the Abaya mudra. And you'll see those two in balance, typically. 

And then in the other hand, they're holding the Trishul or the Trident. And then in another hand they're holding the gada or the mace.

And then Mars is usually with a ram or a sheep, but I'm going to go with a ram because of Aries.

[00:41:54] Conclusion

[00:41:54] Fiona Marques: So we have covered some territory. Put ourselves to the task of trying to understand Mars through Mythology.

[00:42:03] Nisha Sankaran: I think with the Mars Mythology, I'm able to see how there's, especially in the retelling, how there's a lot of invitation to not only all kinds of people into being invited into a spiritual lineage or if you're so called to practice something like this that you can find yourself in it and know that you belong. But also within ourselves, like not only externally in the sense of belonging, but internally in all the parts that don't really fall along any sort of demarcation outside in the world. It's just who you are and are you conscious of it? Are you not conscious of it? So also like just doing things like this, like being able to talk about it and to have a forum where you're able to express things that made you really uncomfortable with your own religion or others. And that it's not a threat to a sense of God or do anything else. We're not telling anyone to believe anything that they don't want to, but it's just a freedom of exploration and knowing that even amidst all your doubts, you still have a home and that at least in my view that whatever created us is big enough to handle all of it and handle all of it with a giant hug and love. That's what I believe.

[00:43:36] Fiona Marques: I've really enjoyed the Mars Mythology. Each one of these, I feel like I've gotten more from spending the time to talk with you about it. You used the word juicy. It just makes the Mythology richer for me and seeing how we all struggle with our Mars. It's such an important energy for changing our life, and that is essential, that's what we want that power to change our life.

But it can be hard to get angry effectively. It can be hard to know what to do with the heat of passion or the heat in the body. And these Myths are sharing some of that compassion with us. And it's not easy for anybody to deal with this. And yeah, maybe that's one of the things that I'm taking away.

And also to really value that once we've taken our action, just having that out breath and relaxing and returning to peace. That's so important part of each of these Mythologies. And just it's not easy to get angry effectively, or use one's anger effectively, it can be also not easy to calm down, to calm back after a rage and know that you've done your best, you've said your peace, and that it's finished. The need for that is no longer there anymore. Working on the cooling experience of Mars as well, she says as a redhead. All right. 

And what about you guys at home? What have you taken away from our discussion of Mars and how do you feel about the Mars in your chart and the Mars in the world that we see at the moment? Nisha and I are hoping that we've got at least another Myth in us yet. So we're we hope to see you back again here on the Vedic Astrology Podcast soon.

Until then, I'll look forward to seeing you on Patreon, where you can interact with me, come along to meditation, let me know your thoughts, and I can also share with you what I'm working on and you can give me a bit of feedback. So I'll catch you there on Patreon. Okay. Bye everyone. Bye Nisha. Thank you.

[00:45:56] Nisha Sankaran: Thanks.