Mars is the first planet that can move independently of the Sun, which is integral to her meaning. Mars is the planet that is the most deeply associated with Free Will, or the power to choose between the Light and the Dark. As such, she is heavily enmeshed in materiality. Mars’ influence in manifestation is usually harmful, and she is known as the Lesser Malefic.
The Janya of Mars: Sai Vikhë
The Great Angel, or Janya, that governs Mars in the Filianic Tradition is Sai Vikhë. Sai Vikhë is associated with the element of Fire.
In many Traditions, there is a Fall, when our Souls became separated from the Divine. In the Judeo-Christian Tradition, this was when we were driven out of Eden after the disobedience of Adam and Eve. In the Filianic Tradition, it was when the First Maid was tempted by the Snake to call Darkness upon the world in order to experience rest. In a sense, this can be viewed as something bad, but in another sense, manifestation as we know it would be impossible if this did not happen. We could not be Axial Beings without the Fall, because the power to choose is also the power to disobey.
After the Fall, the Great Vikhail, or War between Light and Dark, began. It is deeply embedded in our lives and the way we view the world. For example, conflict is a necessary part of any story. Indeed, a story without at least some conflict would be boring. No one would read a tale in which the protagonist was happy every day and nothing bad ever happened.
A good description of the Great Vikhail is found in Feminine Scripture:
Truly, the world is a field of conflict between the powers of good and the legions of the Dark One. In the cycles of civilizations is the conflict manifest, and in the soul of every maid.
For the servants of the Dark One fasten upon the false self like to the bindweed upon a growing plant. And the radiant Janyati of heaven stand ready to defend the soul when she shall cry upon them.
The Gospel of Our Mother God, Thoughts of the Mind, 25-26
Sai Vikhë is our protector in the Great Vikhail, which always starts within ourselves. Each one of us has a True Self who is turned to the Light, and a False Self who is facing the Dark. In most cultures, Sai Vikhë is depicted as masculine; however, one very powerful feminine image for Her that has survived into the modern era is Sri Durga in the Vedic Tradition.
Mars and Gender
In the Modern West, Mars is associated with the masculine gender. Does this make Mars masculine? I tend to think not. There are many other things that Mars is associated with, such as the metal iron. This does not make Mars itself iron.
In the Western astrological tradition, as it has been passed down to us, the planets are said to have gender. The Moon and Venus are said to be feminine, Mercury is said to be neuter or androgynous, and the rest of the planets are said to be masculine. There has been some interesting work by the astrologer Charlie Obert that suggests that originally Saturn was feminine.
While I find the research into Saturn fascinating, in practice, I believe that the gender classification of the planets is no longer useful, if it ever was, and it may even be harmful. This classification comes to us through the Hellenistic tradition, which was highly patriarchal. There seems to be a strong impulse towards gender classification in the Indo-European tradition as a whole. For example, most Indo-European languages assign gender to nouns. This has been dropped in the English language, but it is still very much a part of other Indo-European languages such as Spanish, French, and German.
At one time, the gender classification of nouns may have had deep metaphysical meaning, but whatever that may have been, it is lost in the present era. For example, in German, a fork is feminine and a maiden is masculine. Mostly, this just serves as a headache for foreign learners of the language.
In astrology, by contrast, the meaning of the gender classification of the planets has become so solidified and taken so literally that many people, including experienced astrologers, believe that femininity is defined by and restricted to the Lunar and the Venusian and that masculinity is defined by the absence of these planetary principles. As both men and women clearly have all the planetary principles, this has morphed into the strange notion in Modern psychology that we all have a masculine side and a feminine side.
As astrology is a language, and like all languages, change and adaption are sometimes necessary. I think that it is perfectly legitimate to use either masculine or feminine imagery and language for all of the planets. There is nothing wrong with using masculine imagery and language for Venus or feminine imagery and language for Mars. On the other hand, I do think that there is a strong tendency to take these classifications literally, and for that reason, it seems best to use one gender or the other for all of the planetary principles. I use feminine imagery out of aesthetic preference and because part of my work is trying to restore the Divine Feminine. On the other hand, when I am working with the chart of a man, I use all masculine imagery.
The Material World and Spirit
There are three symbols contained within all of the glyphs of the traditional planets. These are the Circle of Spirit, the Crescent of Soul, and the Cross of the Material World.
The symbol for Sai Vikhë is the Cross on top of Spirit. The Spirit is burdened by the Material World, but the Cross is turned 45°. This is because it is impossible for the Material World to dominate Spirit.
The glyph for the planet Mars has evolved to the point that the Cross has become a Spear. At this time, near the end of the Iron Age, the Vikhelic principle has become much harder and stronger. It could be that the patriarchal revolution came about because of the overbalanced state of the Vikhelic principle that is a defining feature of this Age.
Astrological Associations of Mars
Sect: Night
Oriental Element: Ka 火 Fire
Rules Scorpio, Night House
Rules Aries, Day House
Exalted in Capricorn
In Detriment in Libra and Taurus
In Fall in Cancer
Nighttime Triplicity Ruler of Water
Participating Triplicity Ruler of Earth
In Joy in the 6th House
Temperament:
Hot and Dry
Day of the Week: Tuesday
Orb: 7° (Moiety 3.5°)
Color: Red
Plants: Nettle, onion, garlic, pepper, ginger, hemlock, chestnut tree
Animals: Tiger, horse, wolf, hawk, vulture, shark, scorpion
Metal: Iron
Stones: Adamant, loadstone, bloodstone, jasper
The Way of the Warrior
Each of the non-luminary Janyati has a spiritual path, which if followed, will lead to the Divine. The Path associated with Sai Vikhë is that of the Warrior. In the modern age, this Path can be seen in the various Martial Arts, all of which teach mastery of self in addition to the skills needed to fight an opponent.
The Wisdom of Our Grandmothers 
I’m perplexed by your approach to gender with respect to the planets. Wouldn’t it be more effective to do away with gender altogether, than to assign them all to the feminine gender? Try as I have, it doesn’t make much sense to me. You do, however, suggest that when reading a male chart that all the planets be read as masculine. I will return to this.
I would have thought that would undermine your central premise. With respect, particularly to the inner planets, the idea of male and male has to do with energy expressed outwardly or one that draws us in or emphasizes the inner, nurturing qualities. In the case of Venus, she is highly complex and as we have already discussed has a wide spectrum of associations that reflect the phases of the planet itself. There is nothing particularly feminine about copper, but the qualities of copper and its uses do fit.
Mars is energy exerted in an outward way to affect some kind of change. Again, the attributes are Mars are many and the spectrum runs from (particularly) sharp tools which may be used to create shelter or engage in war – since war is attributed to Venus in pre-patriarchal cultures, this would seem to put Mars in the role of facilitator. An astrologer once told me that Mars will only fight for what Venus wants. So, the issue of gender becomes strained.
Your system would make more sense to me if you stripped all the planets of gender and instead considered how they work – ie energy exerted or received perhaps. Think of inspiration and exhalation. Perhaps I don’t understand how an all-female universe is better or makes more sense than one that includes both genders or, as I think most of us do in practice, is to take the attributes as they are intended. Obviously, they are not actually male or female in the usual sense of the word. Do you feel that excluding the masculine makes for better astrology?
To insist that everything in creation is feminine, from my viewpoint, ironically undermines the feminine. This could be seen simply in the role of motherhood – one cannot have the great archetypal and primordial mother without a co-existing male energy. The most feminine oriented cultures usually referred to as either matriarchies or goddess religions, tend to hold the male principle to be both necessary and equal – although the feminine is usually the dominant force, better called the essential cause, because she embodies agriculture, motherhood, fertility, sex, and war. The latter usually gives us pause because we think of the feminine as a lover of peace and stability. But just as a lioness is a hunter, the queen is often a warrior. Without these attributes, there could be no society and of course no children.
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Thank you for your comment, but I do not see where you get the idea that I am insisting that everything in creation is feminine. I have never said that in anything I have ever written, and I do not believe that. What I am saying is that the Divine, or the First Cause is something beyond gender division, and if you were going to say that it was either gender, it would be more feminine than masculine. But the imagery we use for the Divine should never be taken literally, because the Divine is beyond anything we could imagine. Furthermore, there is no shortage of imagery for the Divine as masculine in this world, so even if we just wanted balance, there is plenty of room for quite a bit of imagery for the Divine as feminine.
Honestly, your vehement response is exactly why I think that we need to rethink the gender assignment of the planets. You talk about Warrior Queens, yet you seem to object to feminine imagery for Mars. Yet, in order to make your point, you must muddle the meanings of Venus and Mars. Yes, there are goddesses of love and war, and there are also goddesses like Athena, that seem to combine the Mercurial and the Martial. There are many mythological figures that combine and mix the planetary powers. On a practical level though, particularly in this day and age, I think it a far better practice to retain the clear meanings of each of the planetary principles, and allow for them all to be masculine and feminine! A Warrior Queen is clearly Martial, but that does not she is masculine!
I am not stripping the planets of gender, nor am I saying that everything is feminine. What I am saying is that the planetary powers and the qualities of masculine and feminine are larger than the current rigid gender assignment of planets would allow. For example, in the Hellenistic tradition, Eros and Cupid are both clearly Venusian as well as clearly masculine.
You also say that feminine is the inward energy and masculine is the outward energy, and after long study and contemplation, I have come to believe that this is just not the case, and that this was a patriarchal redaction to justify suppression of the feminine.
If we are going to use masculine and feminine for any qualities, then they would be better applied to the wet and dry properties, or the bringing together and taking apart. I think that there is ample evidence that this was the original division. There was a time I thought that it would be a good idea to do just that, but given how very sensitive people are about the issue and how quickly it solidifies into rigid beliefs about gender, it seems better to just use the terms soft and hard.
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Yes, well I’m reading this as part of number or articles that go back years. I’m not complaining. You have every right to assign any planet to any gender. That has never been the issue.
You mention Mars as the planet of war, but my point is that Venus and the early goddess religions that watched her so closely through all her phases. The best known is Innana, but there is a reason to believe the Indians might have ultimately been the source As I stated, what is often described as female traits are only a small part of the Venus spectrum. So yes, you have female warriors closer to Venus. That’s just history and cultural astronomy.
You also say that feminine is the inward energy and masculine is the outward energy, and after long study and contemplation, I have come to believe that this is just not the case and that this was a patriarchal redaction to justify suppression of the feminine.<
I used the example of inhaling and exhaling. The universe expands and contracts. It is said by physicists as well as mystics, that in effect the universe is breathing. That has nothing to do with concepts of patriarchy at all. Moreover, the points I made were not from a patriarchal point of view.
I sense you being rather defensive, but my intent was only to respond to an interesting article.
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P.S. as far as your claim that you don’t use the feminine for all planets is found via the link you posted @ http://www.mother-god.com/goddess-religion.html
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There is a lot to unpack here, Peter, and I will probably not address everything you have said.
First of all, the Janyati are NOT the planets. The Janyati are Divine Principles. There are other Janyati that are not associated the planets at all. The Janyati have been associated with various gods and goddesses throughout human history, and I guess the best way to characterize them is as Intelligences. In the Vedic tradition the planetary gods are all masculine and William Lilly characterized them as the Archangels who were associated with the planets (who were all masculine by the way).
The claim of Deanism/Filianism is not that they ARE feminine, particularly not in the limited sense of the human female gender, but that it is legitimate to use feminine imagery and language for all of them. To the extent that we go further than that, it is to point out that there is good evidence that feminine imagery for the Divine predates masculine imagery. Saying that using feminine imagery is legitimate does NOT mean that masculine imagery is illegitimate. On the other hand, there is more than enough support and community in this world for using masculine imagery for the Divine. The aim of Filianism is not to convert the world, but to give support and guidance to those who have a heart need to see and give devotion to the Divine in feminine form.
Deaism/Filianism is quite conservative in the imagery we use. As much as possible, we prefer Feminine images that are currently in use by an orthodox tradition, such as Lady Mary and Quan Yin. The reason I used Sri Durga in this article is that she is currently worshipped in the Hindu tradition. It is fundamental to us that we are in the Late Iron Age, and that our ancestors were our superiors. They understood things that we are incapable of comprehending today. Imagery that is currently in use has been adapted for our age, and we have well attested authority as to the meaning of the symbolism. Using imagery that has fallen out of use is not wrong per se, but we feel that we are on shaky ground in trying to interpret and understand it.
Inanna is interesting, isn’t she, and in our tradition, she is probably the closest mythological figure to the Daughter. On the other hand, we see the Daughter as Lunar, not Venusian. The Lunar incorporates all of the planetary principles and mediates them to us.
Now, my concerns as an astrologer are different from my religious ones. The planets are merely the representatives of the Janyati or Divine Intelligences, reflections and guides that help us in our lives in the material world. Anything in the material world is accidental, not Universal. While the modern world sees the accidental as certain and the Universal as uncertain, I believe that it is the other way around. The accidental nature of the planets is why Mercury can be debilititated in Pisces, for example. It would be an error to ever say that Sai Mati was debilitated.
With respect to my musings and speculations on gender with respect to astrology, that is really all they are. I am well aware that I am going into new territory, and that I am saying things that are controversial. I try to do so carefully and conservatively, but even so, it is still speculation. So with that in mind, let me try to address two other things.
1) With respect to your statement about inward/outward, I am not arguing that this is not a feature of the Universe. I am merely questioning the association of this with masculine and feminine. Now, of course, it depends on what polarity you mean when you talk about inward/outward. Do you mean the activity/rest (day/night) polarity, or the unity/separation (wet/dry) polarity? I would agree with the feminine/masculine association with the latter, but not the former. These polarities have been muddled in the tradition since at least Ptolemy, and that is what I think that the patriarchal redaction was. They really are two different polarites.
2) Let me clarify my beliefs about biological gender. I really do not see biological gender as Universal. I see it as an accidental feature of materiality. The accidental springs from the Universal, but it can vary significantly. In this sense, my philosophy is closer to Plato than to Aristotle. What this would mean is that if we found life on another world, it would not necessarily follow that they would have gender divisions, or that they would be male and female as we know it. While humans, birds, and mammals in this world are divided into male and female, there is quite a lot of diversity in the natural world as to how living beings reproduce. If we have this amount of diversity on this planet, I would imagine that life elsewhere would be just as varied.
Even if there were two genders on another world, they may not be split along the Martian/Venusian principles as they are here. I suspect that one of the genders must be Venusian if there is to be reproduction, because it is the only principle that is inherently reproductive. But, really this is far in the realm of speculation, and I can not say that I, or anyone else for that matter, would really know.
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That is precisely why I enjoy reading your articles and they tend to stimulate my own thoughts on the issue. I think my many articles on the phases of Venus and the goddess as portrayed in Sumer, Babylon, Assyria and so on. This is also found in the earliest Vedas. So, I found it somewhat liberating to see Venus as a complex and indispensable force. What I mean by that is that she represents everything that is necessary for life. She is a ‘trinity’ with the Sun and Moon, but she is the most observed, worshipped and at times feared. Think of the power and unpredictability of the Volcano. The other planets and luminaries are not given the same prominence at all She might be a more inclusive goddess than many would care to embrace.
As an aside, I didn’t mean to imply that an inspiration of exhalation is gender bound. I’m pointing to a universe that is beyond gender in the usual meaning of the word. It’s the reality of ebb and flow, day and night and so on. It’s a living dynamic rather than a means of taking apart the process to give names to forces which require none in any case. Moreover, one cannot exist without the other.
I came to this, as you probably know, due to a malaise I had regarding the Classical Venus, who is a very pale reflection of the goddess. But please bear in mind that my ancestry is not patriarchal. It is in fact radically egalitarian and nature-based.
In any case, I hope I inspire or intrigue more than I annoy or frustrate. Keep writing this material and know that we are not as far apart as you might suspect. Much of the difficulties are in the nomenclature and of course the medium.
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Thank you for your kind words, and your detailed comments. This is difficult material, and I know that I am pushing boundaries. One of the things that has been helpful is that you are showing me where what I am saying may not be as clear as I would like it to be. I do think that we agree on a lot, and the differences we have may very well be mostly nomenclature.
Yes, in many cultures, the Venusian principle is infused with the Martial. There is some logic to that. The Venusian principle is the Creative Force in the Cosmos, and physical manifestation can be quite harsh. My own belief about mythology, and all religious doctrines, is that they speak to Truth, but they can not be Truth. Truth is something beyond human language. The Tao that can be spoken is not the true Tao.
I think that where we agree is that the feminine is far, far larger and more complex than Modern culture would have us believe. The masculine may be too, I do not know….but there are plenty of people talking about the masculine :). I really do think that the association of the feminine with the nocturnal, and thus, the passive, contributes greatly to the misconceptions in the modern world. If it were accurate, I would say….well, we just must deal with it, but I really do think it was a patriarchal redaction from the Hellenistic period.
It is not really a matter of egalitarianism. Our conversations have led me to think about what I mean by femininity, and to try to find new language that would be more accurate and less divisive. The problem with using the terms masculine and feminine is that they get caught up in the gender politics of this age, which are a huge mess! When I say the world needs more femininity right now, what I am talking about is the quality of softness, which I think may be a good way to describe the wet humor/temperament. The muddling of the polarities has led people to believe that soft and passive are the same, but they are not.
The biggest problem with patriarchy, as I see it, is not really about gender relations. The problem is the drying out or hardening of society. The cross has turned into the spear, as it were. I think it has gotten to a critical level, and that if we do not get some moisture, and soon, we are in real danger of disintegrating.
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I took the Seven Janyati to be spirits of the planets and because of background, this seemed like an angelic or essential spirit, in a similar sense as the Almuten. If I say my angel or almuten is Jupiter, I don’t think of Zeus. Philosophy, high mindedness, and jurisprudence are no doubt better described as Sophia – not the moody, imposing thrower of thunderbolts.
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This is something that we both agree on 100%, In fact, I have never seen gender politics as confused and thereby misleading to what is germane to your work. I don’t see why nocturnal itself is essentially feminine or passive, at least in the sense that these words are commonly used. Surely only a fool would consider giving birth to be a passive act and yet that ability is at, or close to, the top of essential female abilities. As a father, I can never forget the strength and will, the ability to work past the pain of childbirth. I was present for both and as a very young man participated, with the assistance of midwives, with the birth of my son. I stand in awe of how women can go through this and willingly. I see nothing passive about that. See what happens when any mother sees their child threatened, not only among humans but virtually all animals and you will see how she will fight without a second thought. She is willing to sacrifice as much as any true warrior of either gender.
In this age, feminine strength is seen as possessing masculine traits in competition with men. I saw a film recently where a visitor to a home referred to any domestic chores as the “dark arts.” Indeed anything that has historically been connected with ‘femininity’ is regarded as unfit and in many cases, motherhood itself is seen as a trap and impediment to progress. I’m guessing that this has something to do with the hardness you write about. In an age of third-wave feminism, the feminine itself is often reviled as the weaker path.
So, when we consider the attributes of the early goddess religions and cultures, we see that feminine doesn’t equate with passive any more than it does with the masculine. From this, comes what I referred to as cultural egalitarianism. A woman’s power is already obvious and so you have sages, priests, warriors etc working together. It was the classical world, the Greek no less than that Roman, world that assaulted and did everything they could to limit a woman’s’ power in the social sphere. Julius Caesar, Strabo, and others accused the druids of patent absurdities such as impugning human sacrifice. The culture they were confronted with was everything they were not. It was a culture that preferred to the company of trees rather than grand buildings and had women in every imaginable role in society. The tactics used by the Romans to conquer these people included cutting down the trees and raping women. What clearer statement could they make regarding their fear and hatred of the feminine?
Passive and active apply to our understandings of the natural world. They are not, and shouldn’t be, labels to stick on human beings by other human beings.
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