Astrological Equations: Meadim : Mars

Meadim   /   Mars
40/600 10 4 1 40
Gematria: 95/655
Formative: 4 Thallet-Dallet
Sephira: 7 Netzach
Seal:
Direction: East
Contrary: Hhokmah-Olet
Rules
Toleh 'Aqarav
     
                           


Meadim (Mars) formed by Thallet-Dallet to the East, towards which we look, is always ahead of us. However long we look in that direction,we can never completely grasp it. The name Adam is contained in its name, mixed with Mem and Yod, the Autiot of the Waters. We project on Mars the wisdom which we have not yet attained. Our response to that projection is Hhokmah (intelligence) by Thallet in 'Aqarav (Scorpio); our blunt resistance to the future is Olet (folly).       Suares, The Sepher Yetsira, p.133





Meadim / Mars

Traditional Meaning: Energy, force, will, desire, passion. Initiative, assertion, aggression.
Formative Meaning: Adam immersed in the waters of existence, consciousness drowning in the flow of life. The future as defined by our resistance/response (Dallet) to an adaptive or developmental context. Duality: Wise-Foolish.
The Linked Semantic Qualities of the Hebrew Letter Dallet (Dalet/Daleth)
   4   
    50   
Thallet
Dallet
Meadim Wise Noun 'Aqarav
Olet Hay Toleh
   4   
    5   


In the arbitrary, "associative" language of traditional astrology, "Mars" is variously interpreted as initiative, energy, aggression, activity and male sexuality.

Mars is the indicator of how you express your energy or anger. It points out how you take action and assert yourself to satisfy your inner needs as dictated by your sun-sign. This planet also has rulership over your sexual expression and represents the type of physical man women are attracted to. Wherever Mars is located in your chart highlights where there is the most activity in your life.         Zodiac House

Mars represents the physical side of the native's life, and is an index of his energy, endurance, and so on -- of his ability to carry projects through, and of the active side of his temperament.
        Fred Gettings, Arkana Dictionary of Astrology, Penguin, 1990


Mars, in its indication of initiative, provides the basic approach for any understanding, through the horoscope, of man's day-by-day efficiency. The passing and shifting thresholds of choice or decisions are his objective means for an impersonal disjunction of life's relations as he encounters them. This process of an opportunistic self-act, when seen as pure convienience, is little more than efficiency in affirmation or negation, in commencement or refusal to begin. Neither vitality nor motivation are involved ...

... The familiar ruddy planet charts the way in which a native starts things, or the pattern of expediency under which he releases, directs and applies force or energy of a tangible sort in the world about him.
        Mark Edmund Jones, Astrology, How and Why It Works, Aurora, 1993

Note Jones' interesting denial of vitality and motivation, two qualities often attributed to Mars and his focus on an adaptive initiative in the face of life's choices ("efficiency in affirmation or negation"). Contrast Rudhyar who imputes a centrifugal force and "all forms of outwardly directed activity" to Mars.

Mars:
Function: Outer expression
Process: Emergence
Purpose: Externalization

Traditional Meaning: The principles of energy, force, will, desire and passion ... initiative, assertion and aggression.

Humanistic Meaning: The centrifugal forces active within experience. All forms of outwardly directed activity.

        Dane Rudhyar, A Handbook for the Humanistic Astrologer, Anchor, 1974


It seems that "Mars" has something to do with outward activity, initiative, desire and passion, endurance and force and will and accomplishment and sexual expression and physical energy according to the experts.

It is clear that one problem with astrology is its arbitrary associative semantics. The planet "Mars" is a different word in different languages and has varying folkloric/popular meanings in different cultures and according to different authorities. We are left with a semantic spread so wide it has little utility for precise thought.

What would a non-arbitrary and non-associative (where the signifier isn't free to slip over the signified) language look like? In the language of the Qabala and the formative astrology of the Sepher Yetsira, Mars/Meadim speaks for itself as an exquisitely eloquent example. First the letters:
Autiot: In Hebrew, Mars is Meadim ,     spelled   Mem- Aleph- Dallet- Yod- Mem,   40-1-4-10-40.
It should be clear from the definitions of the individual letters that we are dealing with precisely formulated, recursively-structured, basic abstract formative energies.   Of 22 available, 4 are used here, Aleph and Yod, Dallet and Mem, in a succinct equation that encompasses Man and his psychological state and developmental future.
Aleph: infinite, intemporal, creative energy.
Dallet: archetypal, active, resistance.
Yod: definite, temporal, existence.
Mem: the biological matrix of passive, life-supporting, resistance.

       
Adam/Man
   
Meadim/Mars
   
Kadmon
     
Meqaddam/East of
       
Mayim/Waters


At the level of the word, each individually-meaningful letter contributes an intrinsic energetic/structural or formative significance (which is in turn defined by the alphabetic spelling of the individual letter: Aleph: Aleph-Lammed-Phay) to the semantic structure of the whole. Each word has its own, often vast (as in the case of Adam) depth, determined both by its inner structure and its related semantic linkages. With Meadim we see the linking of: intemporal consciousness, resistance to life, man, temporal existence, the waters of life and the east, the future and the perfection of man.

Is this an accident?

Qedem TWOT - 1988a
Phonetic Spelling Parts of Speech
keh'-dem
Definition: n m: east, antiquity, front, that which is before, aforetime

In Meadim we find simultaneously: Adam immersed in the waters of existence (Adam, Aleph-Dallet-Mem inside Mayim, Mem-Yod-Mem), the definition of man himself as the biological structure capable of resisting/embodying Aleph and the future in a psychological East defined as the perfection (Aleph becomes Qof) of Man. This theme will be elaborated on every level in Meadim: Man, Adam, carries Aleph, intemporal consciousness in his blood, Dam. His predicament, the conflict between the intemporal Aleph and the temporal Yod of duration, is symbolized by his immersion in the waters (Mayim) of biological existence. The only qualities that he can bring to the situation of his onrushing future are wisdom and foolishness, characterized as resistance or acceptance of possibility.

Thallet-Dallet (4) form Meadim which expresses in its two signs, Scorpio and Aries, man undergoing and realizing, or not, his mutation.

Meadim ... brings the extraordinary pattern of the whole of human existence. In it the Aleph (of Adam) is seen still immersed in the waters (between two Mem) which engender him. There Aleph, who now appears in the Zodiac, is held back, blocked, entangled in a thick resistant network in Aries and acquires intelligence and wisdom in Scorpio.     Suares, The Sepher Yetsira (Yetzirah), p.157,159

Tarot Autiot:

Sephirot: Mars/Meadmim is formed by Dallet (Resistance) at the 7th Sephira (indeterminate future).

7 Sheva Netzach Oomq Mizrah Phani
 
Seven Victory Depth of East Face
Seal: the 7th and 8th Sephirot are sealed by Hay-Yod-Waw and Hay-Waw-Yod, the axis of Life (Hay/5) which flows from future to past.
Formative: Dallet/Thallet (active, archetypal resistance) forms Mars/Meadim and leaves its stamp in the center of the equation: Mem-Aleph-Dallet-Yod-Mem.
Planet: Mars/Meadim: Adam (Aleph in Dam/blood) in the Waters (Mayim): Aleph and Yod in opposition (Dallet). When Aleph is perfected as Qof, Adam faces his future in Qedem, the East in East of Eden and projects as Adam Qadmon into cosmic indetermination (Waw-Noun-final). This is a remarkable schema. The developmental future of man is already in man, waiting to be found.

3. Your total individuality is your soul. It abides in the indeterminate plurality of universes. Because it is alive, it is evolving. Because it is outside of time, its evolution is only the time that you need to permit it to find you.

The Third Proposition: Chapter 29 of The Second Coming of Reb YHSHWH, by Carlo Suares, Weiser, 1994 (Carlo Suarès)
Primary Triad: Saturn/Shabatai, Jupiter/Tsedeq and Mars/Meadim constitute the primary triad of the outer planets. They are formed respectivly by 2/Bayt, 3/Ghimel and 4/Dallet, all single-digit archetypal-level numbers. The first two, Bayt and Ghimel form opposite poles of the axis of existence (sealed by Yod) and could be called embodied identity. The indeterminate future of this identity is described by the point of the triad, Dallet/Resistance, one pole of the Hay/Life axis. Together, they are unrealized states, in contrast to the other four planets and describe the individual's developmental course or unfolding pattern (found in astrological natal positions).
Binomial: Mars/Meadim and Sun/Hamah: this double equation describes energy flowing from the indeterminate (7th Sephira) to the indefinite (8th Sephira). Mars is formed by Dallet/4, an archetypal number, but the Sun is formed by Kaf/20, an existential-level letter-number which provides the physical supports and material existence for the life (future/past) axis.

See Planetary Binomials in the Cube of Space
Direction: East/future: paired with its binomial West/past, receives the 7 of its Sephira and brings it into life. Zayn/7 in Mizrah and Ayn/70 in Ma'arav reflect the flow of energy we know as time: an indeterminate future acting on unstructured and undifferentiated energy and a realized past of conscious and unconscious structure/containment of experience.

East   West
255 8 200 7 40   2 200 70 40 312
Mizrah   Maarav


       In the East (the future) the 7 is an archetype, in the West (the past) 70 is a reality. The East acts on 8, the undifferentiated the West on 2, the house.

Subjective Direction: The stake in the game of life is represented by the principle of indetermination under the signs of Zayn, Ayn and Noun final, which allows life to be all that it can be on every level -- archetypal, actual, cosmic -- and by the blessing of the Sabbath. That blessing was confered by the Sheen of Shabatai at the 5th Sephirot of Life, where it lives in the realized freedom of Ayn/70, formative of Capricorn/Ghedi, the new birth.

Cosmic indetermination is implicit in Shabatai and Rom. It becomes explicit in the freedom (Ayn) that produces the second movement of Lama'alah, and then becomes the subject/object of the axis of Life, East/Mizrah and West/Ma'arav where biological structures (Mem) are conditioned with a future and a past defined in terms of the possible (Zayn/7) future evolution of consciousness (Hayt/8) at the Seventh Sephira and the realizations (Ayn/70) that build the house (2) of our (unconscious) past at the Eighth. Note that archtypal resistance, Dallet/4 forms the 7th, indeterminate Sephira, while realized actions (Kaf/20) contain the energies of the unstructured 8th. See the physical and psychological faces.

Face   Behind
140 10 50 80   10 200 8 1 218
Phani   'Ahhari


With the anatomical equations, we return to the fates of the unstructured energies, and find Phani/Face and Hhani/Behind, complementing the realizations and achievements of the 7 and 70 of East and West with the unstructured possibilities and sum of actual probabilities of the 8 and 80 of face and behind. We "face" our future, where possibilities (Zayn/7) interact with a pool of actual probabilites (80) to produce, explicitly for the first time since the Reshit/Acharit of the first and second Sephirot, the Yod/10 of existence, factual in the future and part of the unstructured energy of the universe in the past.

In terms of the interplay of 7/70 and 8/80, in East/Face we find archetypal indetermination and definite probability; in West/Behind we see realized possibility and unstructured potential. The two Yod of Phani/Hhani will appear again in the next set of pairs, as existence is actually formed in the Yamin of the Ninth Sephira (Yesod) and energy completes the circuit in the Tenth as the existence (10) of Shem-El.

Contrary Qualities: Hhokmah/Olet: Wisdom and Folly. The apparent choices that we make in life can be characterized as wise or foolish. This is basically a quality of resistance/acceptance (as Mark Edmund Jones points out above) in relation to life's possibilities, which is practically a transliteration of the seventh sephira being sealed with Hay.

See Planetary Contraries for issues of semantic coherency between sephira, planet and contrary quality.

Hhokmah-Olet
  
400 6 30 1    5 40 20 8
437    73
Gematria: 510


Zodiacal Environment: Toleh/Aries and 'Aqarav/Scorpio are the diurnal and noctural rulerships of Mars. Life begins when Aries/Toleh is formed by Hay/5 (archetypal life) and it is consumated when it is formed by Noun/50 (existential/factual life) in Scorpio. Once again, the activity of Mars/Meadim is defined by and defines life.

The zodiacal signs are passive environments for the active energies of the planets and their structures are linked to their ruling planets as the natural homes for those energies.

It should be clear by now that all of these words/equations exist in a complex ecology of linked categories and related structural-energetic terms. Their structure is not arbitrary and neither is their semantic relationship to neighboring terms (Aleph, blood, man, existence, waters of life, East, future, perfection). The energy they are describing is one, and they are one with that energy in their exact differentiations and interrelationships. The words and letters are obviously recursive and their relationship to larger semantic structures appears hologrammatic when gone into in depth.

Others have placed the Sun and Venus at the 7th Sephira, in place of Mars/Meadim. These and other variants may be analyzed for semantic integration and coherence in the related categories.

Formed by pointed Dallet, Meadim in Toleh takes leave of its senses from the impact of the magnified solar shock. This "brainstorm" sends it into the cosmic 400. Such is Meadim's return to the cosmos.   SY 160

In 'Aqarav Meadim is Hhokmah: the conditioned man finds his personal realisation in this sign. He is Hhokmah (8.20.40.5) that is to say, his subconscious (8) comes into view, enters fully into existence (20) and tries to resolve all kinds of problems (Mah: what?). In fact, 'Aqarav opens all possibilites to him (Ayn: 70) and, by Qof (100), permits the Aleph captive in him to have access to the Uiversal. Meadim's awakening, however, does not change its nature, which can be summed up in one word: resistance. It impounds Raysh and Vayt, the outcome of 'Aqarav, in a "house." Meadim claims to know itself and gains positive confidence.

In Toleh Meadim is Olet from its hardening that occurs in this sign. It breaths its cosmic resistance into an embryonic conscioiusness.

In Teomaim Meadim introduces increasing difficulties into a sign torn, like itself, between Aleph and the Waters: they are hard to bear without sympathisers.

In Meoznaim Meadim finds a sign both very close to it but inconsistent with Zayn-Noun in the position of its Dallet. These two schemas want to fuse, but collide: believing they understand one another, they contradict themselves.

  SY 166-167

See: Astrological Language in the Sepher Yetsirah for more on Meadim.





Psyche.com: Contents