Planets in Play: How to Reimagine Your Life Through the Language of Astrology by Laurence Hillman

Author:Laurence Hillman [Hillman, Laurence]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2007-09-20T06:00:00+00:00

VIOLENCE

The phallus is often used as a symbol for aggression. Gestures symbolizing violent penetration vary around the world. In Eastern Europe a thumb stuck out between your forefinger and middle finger means the same thing as giving someone the finger in the United States. Often, the fist is part of an obscene phallic gesture, such as the ubiquitous showing someone the back of your elevated right fist while slapping your right upper arm with your left hand, with comments such as “Shove it.” All of this is Mars in action.

Thanks to the Internet, we can easily find lists with thousands of euphemisms for the male penis. If you peruse such lists, you will soon notice how many of them have connotations to weaponry and violence. When not refined through years of disciplined training, there is a primitive, simplistic, and raw violence to Mars’s sexuality.

Mars is also center stage when we sexualize objects or people. We see this when Mick Jagger strums his guitar, held low down and in front of his crotch, or with the leather-clad biker who mounts his motorcycle to go “burn some rubber,” or when a woman says she is going home to “ride her man.”

Violence is a difficult subject for many to discuss. The actor Woody Harrelson, reflecting on his past, once said, “Violence was almost an aphrodisiac for me.”

As one looks at the prevalence of violence in our culture, that notion seems to ring true for the whole country: An extraordinary murder rate, our fondness for hunting, the prevalence of guns, violent movies, and video games are just some obvious indications.

At the same time, pacifism exists in American society too. It is taught to us mainly through humanistic and religious institutions. The universal pacifist doctrine, to bear insults without revenge, which in essence means to turn the other cheek, is the pinnacle example of this. Various religions, however, also teach the doctrine that we must fight for our religion, and this often includes bloodshed in the name of our belief. In the Bible, in Timothy 6:12, this is spelled out as, “fight the good fight of faith.” Non-Christian religions express the same idea in other words. People fight for peace and call themselves peace activists, both martial words.

These obviously mixed messages—fighting in the name of your God and bearing insults with dignity—are highly confusing, until you apply archetypal language. Archetypally, killing for your beliefs or taking a firm Gandhi-like nonviolent stand, are both expressions of Mars, only on opposite ends of our scale.

Because Mars exists in every one of us, those who whip us into a martial frenzy—be this for the glory of our team, our country, or our God—are speaking cleverly to the Mars in all and trying to move him along the scale toward a place where he will support some particular kind of violent action.

As Gandhi proved, it is equally possible to bring huge crowds of people together in an activist yet peaceful manner. This does not imply being inactive. Gandhi once said, “I am not a pacifist.

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