Proceeding with our comparison of Mars and Venus, let us not make the
mistake of thinking that Venus is altogether lovely and Mars totally evil.
Each has light and shadow, and ours is the privilege of living in best or the
worst of their phases. The intrinsic nature of Mars is "dynamic energy"; from
him comes ambition to accomplish; he furnishes the power for the world's work.
Necessarily the hustle and bustle incident to the expression of this
constructive energy cause friction between man and man. Thus anger and hate
are engendered by the Mars energy in operation along various lines. Mars never
generates this discordant element directly; it is produced by our method of
using his energy, and it is as much a mistake to blame Mars for our temper as
it is to blame well prepared food for causing indigestion when our stomach is
out of order. In the latter case the stomach should be blamed for not
performing its duty properly and for spoiling the good food instead of
utilizing it in the economy of the system. Similarly, when the Mars ray works
through us as passion, we are to blame for not better using this great
constructive force.
Then again, how wonderfully everything is balanced in the
Kingdom of God,
the solar system, and how necessary these opposites! If we had only the Venus
ray, we could never really learn to love the good and the beautiful, for we
distinguish only by contrast. if nothing around us were ugly or evil, the
desirable qualities of the opposite condition would not appear so marked.
People who aim to cultivate exclusively the Venus faculty of love and beauty
find their aesthetic sense revolting more and more at the sordid phases of
life, which they bewail but in a helpless manner because they have mistakenly
repressed the Mars ray and killed out their temper. Mars energy drives people
to face disagreeable situations and overcome difficulties that would
discourage people dominated by the Venus ray. Blended, the Venus ray softens
the harshness of Mars, and thus the highest good is reached.
Letter Number Seven
The dynamic energy of Mars, which is the power that moves the world from the
civil and industrial standpoints, under certain afflictions becomes
recklessness and destructiveness, making the person so expressing it a
dangerous man, a public enemy. When the Venus ray is afflicted, it curtails
the sense of beauty and order; hence the person becomes slothful, disorderly,
and lacking in proper self-respect. Incapable, because of the affliction, of
feeling true love, such a person becomes perverted and licentious, and it is
often said of him: "He is his own worst enemy." Such people do not harm others
intentionally; yet they spread an immense amount of unhappiness among those
whom they profess to love. One of these classes is dangerous to society
because it has not the love ray of Venus to guide its exuberant energy; the
other, because it lacks the dynamic Mars energy necessary to carry its good
intentions into execution.
We see these classes in the world, and the misery they cause themselves and
others; but usually their character has become "set," and we can do but little
to change their condition and must leave them to the schoolmaster
"experience." Children are growing up among us and our chances of helping them
are great.
When the "Spirit" spoke to the churches in Revelation, it found fault in
many directions; but one received a stinging rebuke: "I wish thou wert hot or
cold, but because thou art neither I will spew thee out of my mouth." The
so-called "bad boy" is not nearly so difficult a problem as one who is so
goody-goody that he is likely to turn out to be a good-for-nothing, a pitiable
human wreck. You will do well to look the latter over constantly and thoroughly,
and remind him of the slightest neglect or mistake. It takes strength to be a
sinner, and the worst boy becomes the best man when Mars has been downed by
Venus; but the greatest firmness is required to correct an afflicted Venus and
give the child sufficiently dynamic energy to be really, instead of seemingly,
good.
Letter Number Eight
The intrinsic nature of Mars is dynamic energy, that is to say, force in
action, and people who have Mars strong at birth are people who make a stir in
the world so far as their environment reaches. They are so full of life and
ambition that they sweep all other people's rights aside and force their own
views, ideas, and methods to the front regardless of whom it hurts or harms;
they are impulsive and always ready to initiate novelties on the spur of the
moment. They strongly resent objections to their plans, but usually lack
sufficient persistence to carry their designs into execution. If obstacles of
magnitude present themselves, they abandon their plans as suddenly as they
conceived them, and commence to ride another hobbyhorse with the same ardor
that marked their previous ventures, and with the same disregard of reason.
In the Kingdom of God all things balanced to produce the highest ultimate
good to all, and so the influence of Saturn, another so-called evil planet, is
used to offset the exuberant life of Mars. The intrinsic nature of Saturn is
obstruction; he is as slow and persistent as Mars is impulsive and quick to
change; he takes no chances, but looks before he leaps, and his cold,
calculating reason misses no flaw in any scheme.
In the horoscope of a young soul Mars is dominant and the man grows along
physical lines much as animals do under the law of the survival of the
fittest; but gradually the thumbscrews of Saturn are put on, squares and
oppositions bring sorrow and suffering, Saturn is placed above Mars in the
horoscope to frustrate and check him, till it seems as if every effort is
futile because of the Saturnian obstruction.
Elijah could not hear the voice of guidance in the fire, the storm, or the
earthquake, but when the tumult was over, he heard "the still, small voice" to
cheer him; and likewise with us, while we yield to the unchecked Mars
impulses, our lives are too turbulent to admit to communion with the Higher
Self, but when the sorrows of Saturn have chastened the unruly Mars spirit,
when the night seems darkest, as in Elijah's cave, then we also may hear the
voice that shall speak peace after the storm.
— Max Heindel
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