Mars is the same size as Earth's molten core. It embodies a celestial abstraction of an inner dynamo - Earth's hot heart projected out onto the heavens. Mars mirrors our deepest motives in the sky of consciousness. Perhaps it symbolizes Hell itself raised up and redeemed through the travail of life.

Involutionary Venus draws one into a magnetic vortex of desire. She seduces one into life. Earth actually lives. Mars, one half the size of these sister planets, describes the stripped down essence, ultimate purpose of that life. Put another way, Venus' thick roasting atmosphere presses down at 100 times Earth's pressure; Mars' thin cold air wisps away at 1/100th Earth's density. Venus' sky embodies the plenitude calling one into being, Mars' a rarefied aura sublimating out of it. Mars distills an energy signature from all the complexities of personality. And emits it into the universe as one's final ego statement. Jupiter then portrays its subjective spiritual meaning, Saturn its objective consequence, result or karma.

Mars is the last of the relatively small, rocky terrestrial planets moving out from Sun (Mercury, Venus, Earth/Moon, Mars). These planets describe personal qualities: mind, love, life/memory, will. Beyond Mars lies the shatter zone of asteroids, demonstrating ego's disintegration in death. Then comes the qualitatively different realm of the gas giants (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune). They portray a social role beyond personality and a spiritual reality behind conscious psychology.

Mars marks the final frontier of individual consciousness. Here all the complex motivations of personality boil down into specific decisions. Perception (Mercury), desire (Venus) and memory (Moon) resolve themselves into defining acts. Mars describes will. What one does and a summation of all one ever did. Who one is when the chips are down.

At Mars consciousness turns to action. An infinite chain of causation ignites into immediate decision. Subconscious subtleties and overt considerations focus into the proximate motives of actual conduct. With many possibilities and limited information one makes those irrevocable choices that define character. The doer becomes the deed. The deed is simpler, but more objective, than the doer. Here there are no explanations or excuses. Only the truth of what really happens.

Mars = High Noon. The acid test of behavior reveals one's deepest self. Mercury illuminates awareness of choices, Venus the criteria by which they are evaluated. Mars makes the call, chooses sides, takes a stand. Beyond the justifications of rational intellect or ideal values it openly displays true intention. Thus Mars is both brutally primitive and utterly sublime.

Mars portrays the hidden passion behind conscious attitude and social persona. The real agenda animating superficial attributes. Fundamental drive, prime directive, essential purpose. Here all instincts converge on one imperative, all desires concentrate in one motive. Mars points to the taproot of real performance. What one does, how one acts, and the reason why.

5% of chapter