Slaying the Serpent Part 1

Mars in Cancer

If you are following astrological ingresses, you might know that Mars entered the sign of its fall, Cancer, on April 23. Mars will leave the sign of Cancer on June 11. In astrology, Mars functions to separate, burn and destroy. Typically personified as a warrior archetype, Mars in a person’s chart will signify how and where the native is assertive and takes action. Mars rules in Aries and Scorpio, is exalted in Capricorn and has detriment in Libra and Taurus. The sign of Mars’s fall is Cancer. Generally speaking, this is a detrimental place for Mars to end up because Cancer seeks emotional outlet, to create a home base and to defend. Mars does the opposite. You know what they say about fire and water. Frustration results from inability to act, from fights that can’t be won.

Before we get into some heavy gematria, here is a song about Mars in Cancer. Be entertained now, while you can.

Ok, ready?

In Qabalistic terms, Mars corresponds to the fiery fifth sphere of Gevurah on the Tree of Life, which means strength. Gevurah enumerates to 216, amongst which the word עמפו which means profound, and דביר which means inner sanctum are found. The sphere that sits opposite to Gevurah across the middle line of the Tree of Life is Chesed, which means loving kindness. Chesed is the sphere of Jupiter, who is exalted in the sign of Cancer and values to the number 72. There are 72 names of God, according to the Shemhamforash.

The path that connects and balances the two spheres of Gevurah and Chesed is the path of ט teth. This letter resembles a serpent. In gematria, teth spelled in full as טית has the value of 419, amongst which other words with that value are אחדות, which means unity, and המשוטטים which means going forth. It can also be read as the union of 400 and 19. The number 19 corresponds to the word חוה, the primordial Eve, the archetypical female. 400 is the number of ת, the letter tav and Universe card of the tarot associated with Saturn and the Element of Earth which I wrote about a bit here.

In Hebrew, Mars is called מאדימ, Madim. If we look at the word Madim through gematria, we see it values to 95. Contrary to what we might think initially, the number 95 corresponds heavily to Cancerian themes in addition to Martian ones. This is our first clue that there might be something worth looking deeper into during this time of Mars in Cancer. One of the words that also values to 95 is המימ, which means the water. The root of this word is מימ, the letter מ, mem spelled in full. You might recall that mem is the letter for the Hanged Man card of the tarot, a very watery card indeed! If we pick apart the number 95, we see that the factors are 1, 5, 19 and 95. The number 1 stands for unity, and is shared in common as a factor by every natural number. The number 5 is a very martian number, referring back to the fifth sphere on the Tree of Life, Gevurah, but is also the letter ה, hé. Hé, as I’ve written about before is a symbolic of the Mother/Daughter archetype in the Qabalah. You will recall the importance of the number 19 as a primal and archetypical feminine energy, when we looked at the letter teth. Adding another layer of Cancerian watery energy to the mix is the attribution of another 95 word, זבולנ, Zebulon. According to Wade Coleman in his book Sepher Sapphires, the Tribe of Zebulon should be attributed to Cancer:

Tribe of Zebulon. "habitation." Cancer. Connected with alchemical separation —the establishment of the personal purpose, the formulation of the particular definition. The subtle is divided from the gross and the distinction between appearance and essence is clearly marked. In Genesis 49: 13: "Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for a haven of ships." This established a clear correspondence the watery sign of Cancer and the 4th House (associated with the home as a "haven") [In the 4th house astrologers seek for indications as to the end of a matter-for indications of what cargo we may expect when our ship comes in].

It is clear from multiple angles that there is a connection between Mars, Cancer, and the element of water. The big question is, why should all this watery energy be associated with the fiery sphere of Mars? And while we are at it, why does Mars rule Scorpio and why is he night ruler of the Water triplicity? To find hints of why this might be, we must go to the beginnings of recorded astrology and look closely at Babylonian star lore.

Later carving from the first or second century CE showing Nergal with a lion head, the three headed dog of the underworld, serpents and scorpions.

In ancient Babylonian mythology, the planet Mars was associated with the god Nergal, a god of war, plague and the underworld. Nergal was often depected as lion headed or with lions. In later periods, Nergal was also identified with the Greek hero Hercules, another Martian archetype. In the myth of Nergal and Erishkigal, a great banquet was held for the gods and goddesses. Erishkigal, the goddess who ruled the underworld, could not attend the banquet as she could not leave the underworld. She sent her advisor, Namtar, whose name means “fate” to the banquet to recieve her portion of the food and bring it back to her. As Namtar arrived, all the gods and goddesses arose wtih respect for Namtar and his absent mistress, all except Nergal. As atonement for his disrespect, he was forced to go to the underworld, and eventually ended up becoming Erishkigal’s consort and co-ruler. From the paper entitled Hymns to Ninisina and Nergal on the Tablets Ash 1911.235 and Ni 9672, we can read a portion of a hymn to Nergal:

To see that the netherworld where the sun sets, where there is no light, is entrusted to Biti, to prolong the life of the black-headed people of Sumer where the divine powers are utterly cleansed, to fill their life with happiness, to make them reach an old age, to see that after their death they gather to the place where one is called by his personal god (i.e., to the place of death), to the netherworld, and to see that the precious and lasting cultic ordinances are performed befitting the netherworld, Nergal, the king of sunset, was entrusted by Enlil and Ninlil. Because of this they gave him the underworld where the numerous perished people …… as a dwelling place.

Notice Nergal is given the title ‘king of sunset’. The element of water has traditionally been given the direction of west, the place where the sun sets, an attribution still used in ceremonial occult practice today. This establishes a connection between the planet Mars and the element of water. This relationship is further expanded if we look at the sign of Cancer, known in Babylonian times as the Crab. The Akkadian Babylonian word for the Crab was spelled with three characters, Mul Al Lul.

Cuneiform for Mul Al Lul, the name of the sign of the Crab. From Babylonian Star Lore by Gavin White. Source here.

Mul signified the starry nature of a constellation, the Al sign depecting a hoe or pickaxe, perhaps a reference to the digging aspect of a crab. The Lul sign is pictorially like that of a fox’s head, and was the primary element used in the name of the Fox Star or the False Star, a title that referred to Mars. From page 104 of the book Babylonian Star Lore by Gavin White:

The Crab is actually identified with the False Star in the astrological dictum: ‘the False Star is the Crab’. This aphorism illustrates one of the esoteric methods employed by astrologers to derive identifications between one stellar body and another. The common identity of the False Star and the Crab can only be understood in terms of the cuneiform writing system where the False Star is written Lul-La — when the name is read backwards the Sumerian name of the Crab, Al-Lul is revealed.

Another connection with the Crab and Nergal is the association with the underworld. In ancient cultures including Babylonia, the path the ancestors and the dead took to the underworld was located in the sign of the Crab, and of course Nergal ruled the underworld with his consort Ereshkigal. The underworld association remained into Greek times as the the cave leading to the underworld that was located near the Hydra’s lair, location of the place where Hercules killed the Crab that was put into heaven by Hera, creating the sign of Cancer. In Roman times this became the “Gates of Men” where soon to be incarnate souls traveled back to Earth.

Now that we’ve established the historical link between Mars, the Underworld, the sign of Cancer and the element of Water, we must examine why Mars is in fall in Cancer. To do this, let’s look at what a planet being in its fall even means. In the Michigan Papyrus, the author frames exaltation as being the “throne” of the planet and the fall as the “prison” of the planet. This duality comes into play when we examine Mars through the mythology of Nergal, as god of war on the one hand, and the god of the underworld on the other. In one case, he is completely external and energetically moving outwards, in the other case he is internal, turning inward. We can also view the other planets through this modality, as exaltation moving outward and fall as moving inward.

Mars naturally wants to sever, burn and destroy. This can be put to good use and in a positive manner, through competition and sports, or other such endeavors where boldness and assertiveness are positive traits. Esoterically, Mars is the Will. When we say Mars helps us move towards our goals, in actuality Mars destroys the barriers that stop us from getting there in the first place, making movement towards them less restricted. When Mars is in Cancer, we can use this modality to remove blockages that keep us from growing spiritually. If we use the esoteric ideas we have just examined, we see that Mars in Cancer is an opportunity to balance the the ideas of Love in Chesed and Will in Gevurah, and put them in their proper place through the action of the energies of the letter teth. Looking at the tarot card for teth, Either Strength in the Rider Waite Smith deck, or Lust in the Thoth tarot, it shows a woman taming a lion or riding the beast itself.

Going back to the myth of Hercules slaying the Hydra (and creating the constellation of Cancer at the same time), we can recognize that the Serpent represented by teth is equivalent to the Hydra, and key to understanding what is going on in this formula. If we look at the correspondence for teth in Liber 777, we find the magical formula to be ΤΟ ΜΕΓΑ ΘΗΡΙΟΝ, the magical motto of Aleister Crowley upon gaining the grade of Magus. ΤΟ ΜΕΓΑ ΘΗΡΙΟΝ means “The Great Beast” and when added up in the Greek version of gematria, isopsephy, it numbers to 666. This number, though it has gotten a bad reputation from some forms of Christianity, is considered the number of the Sun. The letter teth corresponds to the sign of Leo and thus the Sun.

The action of Mars must be used to slay the internal blockages represented by the Serpent to gain access to the underworld, the realm of the dead, no easy work. This is why we count Mars in his fall in Cancer, for it is a prison of sorts to be called to do this type of spiritual Work, and to follow through with it is undoubtedly unpleasant. It is only by exploring the dark night of the underworld that we can glimpse the Sun within.

Part 2 coming next week!

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-Ashley