IRON ROD OF MARS
Overall, iron is a great rejuvenator carrying vital forces throughout the etheric and physical organism, but when the iron forces predominate they tend to rigidity and become instead anathema to life itself. A fine example of these two expressions of the Mars-iron nature is the oak, a tree revered as a symbol for strength and generative power by the Celtic Druids and many other native people; but the oak is also harvested for its bark which has long been used in the tanning of leather, a type of mummifying process.
Hauschka writes “.. .the Mars impulses at work in iron are the carriers of the forces of embodiment,” but “these forces lead to mummification if they become too active and overwhelm the system.”
By taking this a step further we can see how the over-predominance of iron (particularly in its hard steel form) in this machine age has led to a rationalistic, mechanical way of looking at the world, inducing a kind of mental rigidity where the creative thought processes are indeed mummified; where the virtues of industrialization are glorified at the expense of Nature. One example is the tanning industry itself which resulted in whole forests of tan-oak being stripped in northwest California, beginning a slow drying of the region and a gradual transformation into desert-like conditions. Here we may marvel at the wisdom of the Druids who for seeing its consequences forbade the use of iron.
These two qualities of iron, the incarnating and ‘fixing’ qualities are also evident in the Egyptian deity Ptah who, although one of the most important creator gods and chief patron of all metal and stone-workers, is curiously depicted bound as a mummy with only his hands free to work at his creations. Mummified, he represents the vital fire of spirit incarcerated in matter; he “materializes the metaphysical principles” of creation and is found “In every heart beat and every sound.” Assmelter, caster and sculptor, Ptah created the great rectangular iron plate which formed the floor of heaven, upheld by four pillars which marked the cardinal points and the four directions of space. These are the cross of the four elements in the old sign for Mars surmounting the circle of the Sun <5 a mirror image of the sign for Venus. But while Venus is rising from the sea, alchemically Mars-iron describes, like Ptah, the spirit descending into the corporeal, or the Sun sinking beneath the cross to be hidden in the darkness of the earth.
This descent of the Mars force is even evident in the experiments of Lilly Kolisko where she describes the characteristic pictures formed by Iron Sulphate as it crystallizes on filter paper. In Spirit In Matter she writes: ‘ ‘They look similar to fingers pointing downward, sometimes like a closed fist, with one pointing finger. A strange, but often noticeable phenomenon is a minute deposit of Iron salt at the end of the finger-like form, adding to the impression of a finger with a nail.”7
Where Ptah incarnates the sacred fire of life, the god Set who rules the metal iron, fixes this living fire into the flesh, binding the soul to the body with the heavy forces of earth. In very ancient times Set, as the son of the primordial goddess, was regarded as a friend of the dead, helping them to climb the ladder reaching to the iron floor of heaven. However, in later times he was vilified and cast out to rule the barren scorching deserts so reminiscent of iron’s planet Mars; condemned to an eternal struggle against his twin the sun-god Horus. Here we see the rhythmic processes of iron reflected in this war between Set and his opponent as they oscillate between life and death, light and darkness, liberator or soul binder.
Richard Hoagland, who wrote the remarkable book1 about that enigmatic Face and pyramidal city on Mars photographed by NASA on the Viking expedition, contemplates the possibility of a cultural legacy inherited thousands of years ago from the inhabitants of the Red Planet and recorded in the construction of the Egyptian pyramids. Although ‘straight’ science immediately denied the existence of the apparently human Face, the Martian Mysteries continue. The Soviet Mars probe Phobos 2 has also been reported to have transmitted pictures of a huge city-like structure. Dr. John Becklake of the London Science museum commented:
“The city-like pattern is particularly fascinating. It’s 60km wide and could easily be mistaken for an aerial view of Los Angeles. The crisscrossing lines on the film frame are about 4km wide. And they show up on infra-red which means they’re emitting heat. That’s very puzzling indeed considering that Mars has an extremely cold carbon dioxide atmosphere.”8
Hoagland’s observation mentioned earlier on the red ferrous oxide on Mars being” found only where large quantities of free oxygen are present.. .or were present” certainly points to the possibility of life having existed once on Mars. Perhaps not so long ago, as Tom Brown investigated in the Journal of Borderland Research,9 giving among other evidence, photos published in the September 1955 issue of National. Geographic that show distinct green areas on the red planet. The article states that:’ ‘By 1954 the new green area covered some 200,000 square miles.” What happened to the green areas? As Tom asks: “Did the planet change or did the method of reporting to the public change?” Or both?
Hauschka takes our connection with Mars even further back in time when he writes:’ ‘We came to know the Mars process as the force that makes incarnating possible. Thus there must always have been a stronger than usual bond between earth and Mars, even before the earth became a solid body.”
OCCULT IRON AND THE MYSTERIES OF BLOOD
Astrologically, the planet Mars and the energy of iron rules the two zodiac signs of Aries and Scorpio, expressing the qualities of dynamic energy, courage and sexual drive. The desire nature is powerful if Mars is rising or strongly aspected in the horoscope. On its lowest level this is the Rambo syndrome, “a feed, a fuck and a fight” mentality so prevalent on today’s television, where the powerful sexual energy of Mars is subverted into the phallic substitutes of bigger and more deadly guns blasting a trail of carnage across the screen. To be sure Mars thrives on challenge and power, but the greatest challenge is the power and discipline over self, and on its highest level the expression of Mars is a powerful uncompromising creativity. Then Mars, like Ptah, “represents the emergence of new forms of self-expression through the interplay of Spirit and matter.” The symbol of Aries with its spiralling rams horns, also described as a fountain, is an apt description of the ‘ ‘tremendous outpouring of life force inherent in the first sign” ~ a symbol also perfectly expressing the spiralling descent of meteoric iron as it showers to earth, carrying from the cosmos the forces of life.