Mars + the culture of modern medicine | Part 2

War + medicine have a long history together. Cosmologically, we demonstrate this understanding by associating Mars to both war and medicine. When leaked documents (from Russia) indicated a massive medical emergency on the horizon, it was a giveaway/confirmation of an invasion (of Ukraine). Last year I wrote a brief reflection on Mars + the culture of medicine which was reflected by what has been unfolding. The expectations of casualties and the way people are treated as sacrificial parts that keep a person and set of values in power is one of the reasons Mars has been associated as a malefic (one of the trauma vortices that Mars is known for).

Violence isn’t an isolated geographical event, however. The consequences ripple out through the elements and not through the internet. And Mars is both fight and flight. Like Saturn, it is often a prominent symbol in  events/experiences linked to domination. Domination is very much the approach modern medical sciences (and the Romans) have taken. Hence Mars + medicine go together.

What happens when we treat the body as a subject to be submitted? This inadvertently happens when the focus of medicine is on pathophysiology and not on what is normal (physiology). The answer is, we fight. Or we flee and avoid (purity culture). How many health campaigns can you think of that celebrate fighting diseases? We’re in a pandemic right now and for two years have been desperately trying to fight and flee from an evolving virus. This sounds like a hate post on medicine, but really it’s an observation of our response and reactions (because mostly we have been reacting) to the natural world and in some ways the delusions we create in seeking to embody our Mars energy through violence and domination. It’s a reflection on our views more than a criticism of people’s conditioned and circumstantial choices involving health and survival. This is more about orienting to the cultural bodies we’re living in rather than any individual healthcare provider or human caught in the currents of post industrialism and medical complexes.

Mars teaches us about aggression and protection. Both are valid and subconscious reflexes. The cosmos show us this. War on the land and its people is reflected in individual bodies. Cultural bodies share and spread what they experience and this trickles down to the micro/individual level, in addition to those bodies directly inflicted by violence. When we sit with the body’s sensations we offer anxiety, fear, and heartache room to be heard and seen, we give the body support and love. That generally happens more effectively (at least when coming directly from an abundance of overwhelm and lessened capacity to be in the storm) when we have a person to co-regulate with.

In somatic experiencing and in inner relationship focusing we are invited to do that. Some people might feel excessively triggered by or even numb to what is happening in the world right now and I want to validate that those are nervous system responses that make sense. To be present and step into response-ability requires internal resources. External resources help a lot too.

As exalted (maybe heavy-handed) Mars is getting close to perfecting its conjunction to Pluto we’re undergoing old physiological patterns that seek to be connected to something stable. Capricorn encourages responsibility. The ability to respond depends on resource from within. From the culture of Chinese medicine, this resource is known as Zheng qi/upright qi (chee) or righteous qi. It isn’t a different type of energy. It is simply what you’re made of. Mars and Pluto often might manifest as Xie qi (pathogenic) and your body’s ability to expel or dissolve it depends on how well resourced it is. Can the energy be allowed to circulate (Mars) and exit (Pluto)? Is the energy being recognized, perceived, without resistance, and allowed to transform?

Mars and Pluto in earthy Capricorn giveaway to imagery of crumbling and cracking earth. Dispersion and volatile impulses. What is the other end of that spectrum? Newly turned up soil, dense with nutrients. Living earth conducive to growing new seeds. 

To show up for others in the world, you need to have the physical capacity. Fostering your natural ability to recalibrate and widen your window of transformation is what integrative somatics is meant for. It is a process and less of a destination. In looking through a cosmic lens we’re willingly dialoguing with the archetypes and configurations in the natal chart. We make contact with these spheres in the body as they surface and attune when appropriate or adapt our ways of embodiment in the moment, like a natural ebb and flow of ocean tides on the beach. Bits of life are carried onto the shore, new little shells embedded in the sand carried by the water, and tiny creatures and sediment gets pulled back in as waves recede.

This is an invitation to reflect, rather than an answer. This stream of thoughts and these invitations in Heaven and Earth Somatics is about offering a place to be with all that’s stirring, arising, and in need of support in the body as the skies and ground reflect something waiting to be transformed. If showing up for others is something you do (we all must in some way, but sometimes we struggle to for various reasons) or want more capacity to do, or continue doing (even for yourself), I invite you to come sit in a session (or various if we resonate).