Yael Dragwyla First North American rights

email: [email protected] 13,000 words

NEW MAGICKS FOR A NEW AGE

Volume II: The Magickal Sky
Book 2: The Planets
Part 5: Mars

Ú
Chapter 1: General Discussion

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap951031.html

Orson Welles became an instant legend on Halloween in 1938 for his

radio dramatization of H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds". Some
listeners who did not realize it was a theatrical production were driven
to near panic by this fictional account of invaders from Mars. In the
story, as in the above Hubble Space Telescope image, Mars was at
"opposition", its point of closest approach to the Earth, a distance of
some 65 million miles. For the Martians, it was imagined that this was
a good time to invade. For astronomers, opposition is a good time to
study the red planet and this HST image, represents the clearest view
of Mars ever for an Earth telescope. The icy north polar cap is visible
at the top of the picture as well as a veil of white clouds along the
planet's left edge. The dark markings represent areas where the
 reddish tinged dust characteristic of the surface has been blown away
by the Martian winds.

Mars’ orbit around Sol lies just outside that of our world. At Mars’ Solar opposition, when He is at
perigee, He is closer to us than Venus is during much of Her orbit around the Sun. Of all other Planets, at
His brightest He is only outshone by Venus. His baleful, bloody light is appropriate to His position
among the Gods as Lord of War, Strife and Battle; that He sometimes comes closer to us even than
Venus surely is fitting, for we are a most contentious species, loving battle and strife at least as much as
peace and love, if not more!
Before the inception of the Space Age, many astronomers believed that Mars was a planetary twin of
our world, with an atmosphere similar to ours and polar ice-caps consisting primarily of water-ice. Over
the last two or three centuries, astronomers, science-fiction writers, and laymen alike speculated
endlessly about the possibilities of Martian life, and it was widely believed that if we ever reached the
Red Planet, we would find it teeming with life of some kind, however odd or alien it might seem to us.
Only with the launching of robot Martian fly-by space-probes and landers have we learned the true
condition of the Martian surface environment: arid, barren, subjected to extreme temperature ranges
dropping to well below the freezing-point of carbon dioxide during the Martian night, lacking open, free
water in any form, and swept by vast, scouring dust-storms that often last for months at a time. Even
now, it still isn’t certain whether living beings native to Mars dwell on His surface or, perhaps, just below
it, protected from the bone-freezing cold, the monster dust-storms, the desiccated, virtually airless
environment of the Martian surface by a thick layer of soil and dust.

Mars’ “year” is some 687 terrestrial days in length. He has an extremely eccentric orbit, as
previously mentioned; though He is 249 million kilometers from Sol at aphelion, at perihelion His
orbital distance from Sol is only 206 million km. H reaches perigee – His closest approach to us – when
He is simultaneously at perihelion and opposition (directly across the sky from Sol, as seen from Earth*),
so that we are then directly between Mars and Sol, on the line determined by Them. When this occurred
in September 1988, His distance from Earth was just 58,400,000 km, and His apparent diameter was
almost 24 arc-seconds wide. At that time, ground-based observations of Mars from Earth were clearer
than at almost any other time, since His perihelion doesn’t usually coincide with His opposition, the best
possible time to view Him via ground-based telescopes (otherwise, His disc is less than fully lit by Sol, as
seen from Earth).

*When Mars is at opposition to Sol, like the Planets beyond Him He appears to be in retrograde motion,
moving from East to West across the sky from night to night as observed from Earth. This is
 because the Earth moves faster along Her orbit than Mars does His, so at opposition, She first pulls
even with Him, then gradually passes and outdistances Him, like the way in which a racehorse on the
inside of the race-track pulls even with, then ahead of another horse moving at the same speed along
the outside of the track. When a Planet is retrograde, its esoteric influence is at a maximum, and its
mundane influence is weakened, debilitated; in horary charts, a retrograde significator is considered
a very inauspicious testimony for the outcome of the question. Why this is so isn’t clear, for the
Planet in question is then at perigee, and logically it would seem that the closer it is, the stronger its
influence, the reverse of the actual case. In any event, retrograde motion of a Planet occurs during
its perigee, while its direct motion occurs when it has moved away from its closest approach to us.
Mercury and Venus are at perigee when They are between us and Sol; Mars and the Planets beyond
Him are at perigee when we are between Them and Sol. In all cases, though, a Planet is retrograde
when at perigee or near it, and in direct motion when near or at apogee. Exactly what the geometry
involved implies in terms of astrological influence is still being researched and is frequently a matter
of hot debate among astrologers even today.

The inclination of Mars’ axis of rotation from the vertical is 23.98°, almost identical to that of Earth,
which is 23.4°. As a result, Mars experiences four Seasons during the Martian year, just as Earth does,
though of course His Seasons are almost twice the length of our world’s. The progression of His Seasons
is clearly observable from Earth. For example, during Spring in His Northern hemisphere, His North
polar cap shrinks, while the material on his surface in His more temperate latitudes appears to darken in
color, the patches of darkening seeming to spread as His Spring progresses into Summer.
Mars receives about 40% more Sunlight at perihelion than at aphelion. As a result, His Summer
hemisphere is much warmer at perihelion than at aphelion, while His Winter hemisphere is far colder at
aphelion than at perihelion.
Operating together, all these factors produce temperatures ranging between -125 degrees C and +37°
C (-193 to +99 degrees F). On the whole, Mars is extremely cold, far more so than our world. His
equatorial temperatures range from a high of +26° C (+78.8° F) to about -111° C (-167.8° F) just before
dawn. Around the Martian poles, temperatures rarely rise higher than -123° C (-189.4° F) at any time
during the year.
Mars’ rotational period, 24h37m22.6sm is just a little longer than that of our world. Mars is a
relatively small Planet, with an equatorial diameter of 6,794 km and a polar diameter of 6,759, giving
Him a very low ellipticity, only about .0052, just a little over half a percent. He masses only 6.42 x 10 23
kg, a mass just 11% that of the Earth. With a volume 15% that of Earth, this gives Him a density of 3.93
g/cm 3, 71% that of our world, the lowest of any of the terrestrial Planets, and only slightly greater than
Luna’s. As a result, His surface gravity is only 38% that of Earth, and His escape velocity is 5 km/s, less
than half that of the Earth, sufficient to retain an atmosphere so thin it barely qualifies as such.

Mars’ Internal Structure

We have only a limited understanding of the internal structure of Mars, based more on theoretical
models than upon direct evidence. We aren’t even sure whether or not He has a core of the sort that
Earth has. The first fly-by space-probes to examine Him found a very weak magnetic field; but while
Mariner 4 encountered a bow shock, it was unable to determine whether this magnetic field was intrinsic
to Mars or was instead induced by the Solar wind. He is like Luna rather than Mercury in His apparent
lack of an appreciable magnetic field. If it does turn out that His internal structure resembles that of the
Earth, after all, including an iron-rich core, mantle, and relatively thin outer crust, the temperature of His
core would have to be much lower than that of our world to account for his virtually non-existent
magnetic field.

The Shape of Mars

The ancients believed that the heavens, the abode of the Gods, were absolutely perfect in every way.
But with the advent of modern astronomy and the invention of the telescope, this literal-minded
insistence on a concrete, geometric manifestation of spiritual perfection, with all that it implies, has had
to be abandoned, piece by piece, and Western humanity has been dragged, kicking and screaming all the
way, into a modern understanding of the natural world and its relationship to God by the findings of
modern, high-tech science. During the Middle Ages, it was generally believed that the orbital geometries
of the Planets were absolutely circular, since the Circle, being a perfect shape, mirrored the perfection of
God. But in 1609 e.v., Johannes Kepler discovered that this wasn’t so, that the Planetary orbits, rather
than being perfect circles, were instead ellipses. Medieval men properly believed that the surfaces of the
Lights, the Planets, and the Stars were absolutely without blemish; this idea was torpedoed in 1610 e.v.
when Galileo Galilei, using the newly-invented telescope, discovered Sunspots. And whereas medieval
humanity believed that the Planets, reflecting God’s perfection and embodying the perfection of His
creation, were perfectly spherical in shape, since the time of Kepler and Galileo, astronomical
observations have continuously added to the evidence that this assumption likewise doesn’t reflect
reality.
The shape of Mars is no exception. Mars is by no means a perfect sphere. On the contrary, He has a
pronounced bulge, centered at 101 degrees West, 14 degrees South, in His Tharsis region, which rises to
some 10 km above mean datum.* His surface exhibits a tremendous variety of features, but it can be
divided into two fairly unequal hemispheres, North and South, their dividing line running obliquely
relative to His equator. Generally speaking, His Southern hemisphere is the older of the two, shown by
the tremendous number of craters in it, similar in number per unit area to that of the Lunar highlands.
This older surface is also between one and three km above the mean datum. Mars’ Northern hemisphere,
on the other hand, has a much lower average elevation, and is much less densely cratered. The surface of
that hemisphere contains an abundance of volcanic features, including the gigantic shield volcanoes of
Tharsis, one of which, Olympus Mons, is almost certainly the largest in the Solar System. These
volcanoes rise from the Tharsis “bulge” and from a smaller but similar raised area in Elysium to the West
of the Tharsis region.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980317.html

When and where do clouds form on Mars? The Mars Global Surveyor
spacecraft currently orbiting Mars is finding out. Photographs released
last week showed clouds forming above Tharsis, a huge bulge on
Mars about 4000 kilometers across and 7 kilometers high containing
several large volcanoes. These clouds temporarily disappeared as a
large dust storm emerged from the South, the first developing dust
storm to be tracked by an orbiting spacecraft. Mars Global Surveyor
continues to aerobrake during on its ongoing mission to survey the
planet Mars.
 http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970522.html

Two NASA spacecraft, Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Pathfinder,

are presently approaching the red planet. Pathfinder is scheduled to
land on July 4th and Global Surveyor due to enter orbit in September.
Recent studies of the Martian climate, motivated by this impending
invasion of spacecraft from Earth, have indicate that Mars weather is
more chaotic than previously thought - showing abrupt swings
between "hot and dusty" and "cold and cloudy". These Hubble Space
Telescope images from March 1997 show the Northern Hemisphere in
early Martian summer, with a receding polar cap and whitish water-
ice clouds. The left image is centered on Ares Valles, Pathfinder's
landing site, while in the right image, towering Tharsis mountains
(massive extinct volcanoes) can be seen poking through the clouds.
Stretching to the eastern edge of the righthand image (at lower right)
is the Valles Marineris, an immense canyon system. Martian weather
reports will play an important role in mission planning. Both
spacecraft rely on the Martian atmosphere for braking maneuvers and
Pathfinder's lander and rover are solar powered.

The topography of Mars

East of Tharsis is an enormous canyon system, Valles Marineris. Radiating outward from it are large
arrays of tensional faults, or “graben.” Both of these features are probably related to the formation of
Tharsis itself. North of the canyons in this region are a wealth of outflow channels, which may have been
produced during a period of catastrophic flooding around 3.0-3.5 billion years ago. The ancient, cratered
terrain and the young, volcano plains overlap and interlace at the boundary between the two. The ancient
surface has apparently wasted away there, in places collapsing into “chaotic terrain,” across which a great
deal of the debris eroded from it.

*Mars, unlike Earth, has no oceans, so “sea-level” can’t serve as a standard reference for altitude on
Mars. Instead, a standard of atmospheric pressure is used, in this case, 6.1 millibars (mb).

The youngest exposed surfaces on Mars seem to be those around His poles. Well-laminated deposits
appear in the polar regions, cut by deep valleys which clearly expose the layering. Very few impact
craters are found here; though such craters must once have been present in this region, evidently they
have long since either been removed somehow or covered over by sedimentary detritus.
Mars’ early history isn’t well understood. But it is likely that resurfacing of His Northern
hemisphere took place very early in His evolution, perhaps 4 billion years ago. This may have been
connected in some way with the formation of His inner core.
After this resurfacing took place, Mars experienced a period of intense volcanic activity, which was
probably directly connected with the formation of the Tharsis bulge. The extensive fracturing of His
surface must certainly have been related to the rise of Tharsis, and probably the opening of Valles
Marineris, as well. It isn’t clear how long ago this volcanic activity went on; considerably more data is
needed before we can be sure.
The details of Mars’ surface topography are fascinating. For example, in addition to His many
volcanic craters, His surface also contains a vast number of meteoric impact craters, some of them more
than 200 km across, suggesting that He suffered the same period of intense meteoric bombardment that
characterized the early Solar System and scarred many of the other Planets and Moons, especially Luna
and Mercury.* Mysterious channels, resembling river-beds in appearance but arising from no recent
source of liquid water, also cross His surface, some of them many hundreds of kilometers long.** The
gigantic canyon systems of the Valles Marineris, their vast domain dwarfing the Grand Canyon of the
Colorado of the American Southwest, and the many vast, smooth plains of Western Chryse Planitia,
possibly the remnants of gigantic outflows of basaltic magma that welled out of Mars’ incandescent,
molten interior onto His surface when He was still young and tectonically active, further complicate His
surface.

*Called the “Noachian” period of Planetary formation. In this case, the flood was one of meteors and
comets, rather than rocks, and in each case it lasted millions or tens of millions of years, battering
the entire available surface of each Moon and Planet.

**It is now believed that these river-channels are the result of enormous floods of liquid water that came
about in Mars’ youth as a result of the sudden collapse of huge ice-dams. He was still relatively
warm with the heat of formation, then, and while there had been time for deposit of water on his
surface from volcanic eruptions, released from minerals in which it had been trapped until then, there
had not been sufficient time for this water to sublimate away to space or become sequestered in
surface deposits of minerals as hydrates of those minerals. And because Mars still had a respectable
atmosphere – also the result of volcanic outgassing – and hadn’t entirely lost His heat of formation, a
good deal of that water was still in the form of liquid or slush. At times, areas on Mars where vast
lakes and slushpiles of water and water-ice had formed and become dammed by ice suddenly
warmed up for whatever reasons, and the ice-dams melted. The result was sudden, enormous floods
of water washing across the face of Mars, digging great river-systems in the process. The river-beds
left behind by these floods, now completely empty of water, still exist.
Data for this model for the formation of Mars’ river-channel systems came from the Scablands
area in the Eastern parts of my own home state, Washington. There, a vast system of empty river-
channels virtually identical to the Martian systems can be found. The formation of the Scablands
was long a mystery, one which was finally worked out in detail in the past decade or so [written in
1996 e.v.]. During one of the last Ice Ages, an enormous dam-lake covering much of the Western
portions of what is now the state of Montana and the Eastern border of what is now Washington was
created due to a gigantic ice-dam that formed as a glacier on the lake’s Western side. Then, as the
ice began to wane and the Earth warmed, the ice-dam became progressively less solid, more rotten,
until finally one day it burst all at once, spilling the entire contents of the lake into the Western
lowlands beyond. The flood that spilled out of Lake Missoula took the form of a wall of water
hundreds of feet high and hundreds of miles across, roaring across the land at sixty miles an hour or
more. As it went, it scoured out the land into a myriad river-channels essentially identical in form to
those on Mars.
So there was indeed once water on Mars. The evidence is scoured into its rugged, forbidding
landscape. And someday, when human beings make permanent homes on the Red Planet, there will
be surface-water there again – and Mars will be neither so forbidding nor rugged, for on His surface
will be golden, fruited plains beneath gracious blue skies, and verdant fields, and great forests, and
the homes of all Earth’s creatures.
 And that surface is still evolving. Clearly, active erosion and transportation of erosion debris,
processes which have gone on for hundreds of millions of years, still continues on Mars even now. Many
of Mars’ volatile chemical compounds must still be locked within His surface, probably within the sub-
surface permafrost layer of ices. The melting of this ice during periods of intense volcanism may have
played a significant part in the formation of the outflow channels that cross so much of His surface. (But
see footnote to previous paragraph.)

Mars’ atmosphere

The pressure of the atmosphere at the surface of Mars is less than 1% of what it is on Earth, about
that which would be found in the terrestrial atmosphere about thirty kilometers above sea-level. On His
surface, at such atmospheric pressures, in His frigid surface temperatures liquid water quickly becomes
unstable and freezes. Other effects of such a thin atmosphere include saltation, the transportation of
material along the surface, and the raising of fine material to form dust-clouds, both conspicuous
characteristics of the Martian landscape.
95% of the atmosphere of Mars is made up of COv2. Another 2% is nitrogen, and argon forms 1-
2%. The rest consists of trace amounts of water-vapor, carbon monoxide, oxygen, ozone, krypton, and
xenon; the abundance of atmospheric water, oxygen, and ozone varies according to the Season and the
geographical location. Like Earth’s atmosphere, that of Mars came into being as a result of volcanic out-
gassing, in this case mainly through the giant shield volcanoes of the Tharsis region.
During Summer in a given hemisphere of Mars, there is a small cap at the pole of the opposite
hemisphere. At the North pole, the cap is composed of water-ice, but the one at the South pole consists
of dry-ice (frozen carbon dioxide). The reason for this difference in chemical make-up of Mars’ two
polar caps isn’t yet known. Sublimation of water-ice at the North pole provides a supply of atmospheric
water-vapor in the North; the Southern hemisphere is generally deficient in this gas.
There is ample evidence of weather on Mars. Clouds appear regularly in His atmosphere, which is to
be expected, since temperatures in His atmosphere are always close to those of the saturation point for
water vapor. Clouds of COv2 are also present; at high altitudes and in polar regions during Winter,
temperatures easily fall low enough for COv2 to condense, forming such clouds. In addition, from time
to time gigantic dust-storms cover vast areas of the Martian surface. These are believed to be fairly
frequent on Mars, and the pink sky photographed by the Viking lander suggests that dust from such
storms may be constantly present in His atmosphere.
Mars’ atmosphere was probably much thicker in the past than at the present time. He may also have
had a great deal of surface water then, including oceans hundreds of feet or more deep. There is a great
deal of evidence of the work of some liquid agent on his surface, such as numerous features that appear
to be ancient stream-beds and other terrain that has obviously been shaped by flowing water. There are
also channels that emerge at the heads of canyons below areas of collapsed terrain, which may have been
formed by underground water, or by the melting of sub-surface ice. This water may have had its origin in
some cataclysmic event, such as the impact of a comet or meteor, or volcanic eruptions. If a large
volume of water was suddenly added by some such process to Mars’ atmosphere, it could have stayed
there long enough to have rained out onto his surface, with resultant erosion of surface features by runoff
and weathering. If, as we now think, Mars’ atmosphere was much thicker in His youth than it is now, it
could have produced running water on his surface.
There is another factor that could have produced climatic changes on Mars on a vast scale. The
eccentricity of His orbit, 9.3%, is the third greatest in the Solar System, third after Mercury’s and Pluto’s.
This gives Mars a variable orbital speed, so that as a result His Seasons have different lengths. His North
pole is tilted away from Sol at perihelion, so that Autumn in His Northern hemisphere last for only 142
Martian days, while Winter in His Northern hemisphere lasts for 156 days, Spring in that hemisphere
lasts for 194 days, and Summer for 177. Summer in His Southern hemisphere is as long as His Northern
Winter, of course, and His other Southern Seasons are similarly reversed, since Northern Summer takes
place at the same time Southern Winter does, and so on. The obliquity or inclination of His axis varies
by about 10 degrees over a million years or so, an enormous variance in comparison to Earth’s obliquity.
As a result, Solar radiation receive at His surface over this period may vary by more than 100%. When
insolation is at a maximum, it may release more COv2 into His atmosphere, making the latter more
massive and, ultimately, warmer. Changes in obliquity will also affect the redistribution of water-vapor
and the generation of dust-storms. There could very well be wetter periods in the Martian future, giving
Him a much more hospitable climate.
 But at the moment Mars is cold, dry, and, as far as we can tell at this point, without life. Nor is His
surface broken up into plates as a result of active tectonic processes in His interior.* The ruddiness of
His surface, which gives Him His characteristic color as seen from Earth, and is the reason for one of His
best-known names, the Red Planet,** is due to oxides of iron, which make up a great deal of the bulk of
His soil. Almost all His free oxygen, except for that which is found in the carbon dioxide and water-
vapor that makes up most of His tenuous atmosphere, was locked up in these iron compounds long ago.
From all appearances at the present time, organic life as we know it was still-born on Mars, or else was
never conceived there.

*The models of Planetary dynamics developed by James Lovelock et al. strongly suggest that at least on
Earth, the motion of Planetary plates and tectonic dynamism are the result of the activities of the life
on a world taking place over billions of years. If this is so, it is possible that Mars was a dynamic
world in His hot youth, but a barren one, so that He could not keep the tectonic dynamism of His
early days. If life were reintroduced to Mars through terrestrial colonization, would it eventually
give Him tectonic activity of a terrestrial sort? How one wishes for a time-machine, to look forward
into Mars’ future! :)
For more on this model, see James Lovelock, The Ages of Gaia: A Biography of Our Living
Earth (Bantam, 1990), esp. pp. 104-105.

**Mars has His esoteric dominion in Capricorn, the Sign-ruler of Russia. For many decades in this
century, “Red” and “Russian Communist” were virtual synonyms.

Nevertheless Mars lies well within the Life-Zone, that region around Sol that could support our sort
of life, all other things being equal. Certainly he could be made habitable for human occupation by the
liberation of the oxygen locked up in his soil to provide an atmosphere, together with employment of
other terraforming techniques to provide enough water for human use and soil for agriculture.

Phobos and Deimos, The Moons of Mars

In this connection, it is of some interest that of the inner, terrestrial Planets, He shares with our world
the distinction of having one or more Moons. In the case of Mars, He has two small Moons, named
Phobos (Fear) and Deimos (Panic) after the chariot-drivers of Ares, the Greek God of War, of Whom
Mars is the Roman avatar. Both of these tiny Martian satellites were probably captured by Mars from the
near-by asteroid belt lying between Him and Jupiter.
Discovered in 1877 e.v. by Asaph Hall at the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, DC,
these Moons are so small that almost nothing was known about Them, beyond the bare fact of their
existence, until Mariner 9 and the Viking landers made their surveys of Mars. From these probes we
have since learned a wealth of data about Mars’ Moons.
Both Moons are relatively close to their primary, something we did know from ground-based
observation well before the space-probes took place. The physical dimensions of Phobos, the inner
Moon, are 20 km x 23 km x 28 km, which makes Phobos the larger of the two Martian Moons. Phobos
moves in a nearly circular orbit about 9,300 km from the center of Mars, closer to its parent Planet than
any other known Moon. Phobos revolves rapidly about Mars, taking 7 hr 39 m 27 s to complete its orbit
around its primary, so that it completes one orbit around Mars in less than one Martian day. From the
surface of Mars, it would appear to move from West to East across the heavens in the course of a day.
Before the recent discovery of the smaller, inner satellites of Jupiter and Saturn, it was thought to be
unique in this respect among the Moons of the Solar System. Phobos’ orbital velocity is very slowly
increasing; it is possible that it will impact the Martian surface in about 100 million years, though this
isn’t certain.
The dimensions of Deimos are 10 km x 12 km x 16 km. This small chunk of rock orbits Mars at a
distance of 23,400 km from the Martian center. Its revolutionary period is 1 day 6 hr 21 m 16 s. Like
Phobos, Deimos has a nearly circular orbit. Both satellites lie within 2 degrees of the equatorial plane of
their primary, and have synchronous orbits with respect to Mars, i.e., always turn the same face toward
their primary, due to the braking effect of tidal friction upon their rotation.
To an observer on the surface of Mars, Phobos, the closer of the two Martian Moons, would seem to
shed about as much light as Venus does on Earth, and cross the sky in only 4-1/2 hours, during which
time it would display more than half its cycle of phases. As previously mentioned, it would also travel in
a retrograde motion across the sky, from West to East. The interval between successive Phobos-rises
would be only a little over 11 hours. Total eclipses of Sol by Phobos would never occur. The little Moon
would never rise above the horizon at any Martian latitude higher than 69 degrees North or South; even
when above the horizon, it would frequently be hidden by Mars’ shadow.
Deimos, farther out from Mars than Phobos, would remain above the Martian horizon for 2-1/2
consecutive days, and would be visible above the horizon at any latitude lower than about 82 degrees
North or South. Without a telescope, its phases would be virtually unobservable, and it would be dimmer
than Sirius is from the Earth. Like Phobos, it would be swallowed up in Mars’ shadow fairly frequently,
at which times it would not be visible from the surface without extremely sensitive observational
equipment (of which the human eye is not, in this case, one).
Obviously, as parcels of cosmic real estate go, these two Moons are extremely small. Their barren,
regolithic surfaces and other unprepossessing characteristics don’t seem to endow them with much value,
as far as exploration and colonization of the Solar System goes. Nevertheless they have a great deal of
importance in this regard. In the first place, their composition and other physical characteristics will
have much to tell us about the evolution of the Solar System in general, and that of Mars and the asteroid
belt in particular. In the second place, they could serve very nicely as observational and logistical
staging platforms for manned explorations of Mars, or even His colonization by terrestrial life. Like
Mars Himself, these two tiny bits of celestial flotsam promise to hold a great deal of potential value – and
surprises. It will be of great interest to follow future probes and explorations of Mars, for in such probes
will come clues to Earthkind’s past, as well – not to mention to our future, in the Solar System at large
and beyond.53

Cydonia and the Face on Mars

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980406.html

This image, showing what looks to be a human face (above center)

and other features of the Cydonia region on the Martian surface, was
produced using data from NASA's Viking 1 orbiter in 1976. Described
in a NASA press release as a "rock formation which resembles a
human head", some have since offered the extraordinary explanation
that the face is an artificial construct built by a civilization on Mars!
However, most scientists have a more conventional view - that this
feature is indeed a natural Martian hill whose illusory face-like
appearance depends on illumination and viewing angle. This month,
the Mars Global Surveyor satellite will be in position to take new
pictures of this region of controversial Martian features along with
areas around the Mars Pathfinder and Viking landing sites.
 http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap950722.html

This image, showing what looks to be a human face sculpted on the

martian surface, was produced using data from NASA's Viking 1
orbiter in 1976. Described in a press release as a "face-like hill" it
caused some to offer the sensational speculation that it was an
artificial construct built by an intelligent civilization on Mars! As a
result, this image was splashed across the covers of many grocery
store tabloids at the time. A detailed analysis of multiple images of
this feature reveals a natural looking martian hill whose illusory face-
like appearance depends on viewing angle and angle of illumination.

xx

A Warning?

Physically, Mars doesn’t really fit the picture of a battle-mad God of war. But His desolate, barren
surface and remnant atmosphere may be a warning of what our own world might look like if we continue
to waste and despoil it according to a “Looking Out for Number One” ethic which, unfortunately, doesn’t
include a thoroughly enlightened selfishness which would otherwise prevent such potentially suicidal
behavior. After all, Mars rules self-assertion. When His influence remains untempered by the altruism
of Venus and Jupiter, Saturn’s practical sensibilities, and Neptune’s wisdom, it becomes deadly. The
physical appearance which Mars now exhibits may be a much-needed caution against the pitfalls of such
an unbridled, unconscious, unloving greed, which only wants to take and take and take, and the hell with
everyone and everything else, even one’s own future needs. His frigid, dead surface, continuously swept
by monster dust-storms and endlessly keening thin winds, seems to proclaim: Beware! For as I am – so
you may soon be, o Earth!
As shown by the relationship between Uranus and Neptune, Whose Sephiroth are the respective
heads of the Left-Hand Pillar of Might and the Right-Hand Pillar of Love on the Tree of Life, Power and
Grace must co-exist in a balance. Otherwise, an oversupply of one above the other has ugly
consequences. The lesson of Venus’s toxic inferno of a surface environment is that Grace without Power
is either impotent or poisonously overprotective, the ultimate example of smother love. That of Mars, on
the other hand, is that Power without Grace is murderously deadly, and ultimately sterile.
In line with this, we should remember that mythologically speaking, Mars is not only the deadly God
of War; He is also the Protector. To the Greeks, He was Ares, the blood-thirsty monster Who forever
instigated bloodshed and strife among men in order to feed upon the resultant carnage. But to the
Egyptians He was Horus Who, like the Roman Mars, was Protector of the People, and of the civilization
necessary to sustain human well-being. His traditional dominion over Aries and Scorpio show His twin
nature: He oversees the birth of the individual in Aries, and its destruction and re-birth in Scorpio. Thus
He is the Destroyer of the outworn and outmoded, and a midwife at the birth of the new, the future. His
apparently lifeless, desolate surface also holds rich promise for colonies of terrestrial life, colonies which
could, with proper cherishing and sufficient investment of our resources, effort, vision, courage, and love,
give us all a beachhead on a future filled with unlimited treasures – not only material treasures, but also,
and more importantly, the eventual establishment of those most priceless treasures of all: interstellar
colonies which would ensure that the life of our world need not die when our Sun dies. Successful
Martian colonies would be the perfect manifest fulfillment of Mars’ function as the Protector, in this
case, the Protector of the greatest hopes and even the future of all Earth’s life. But this would require
that most or all Earth’s national and special-interest groups give up their ancient ways of war and strife,
their endless quarrels and bickering, as well as the petty pursuit of wealth and power for the few at the
expense of the many, and unite in concord and common vision, to bring about establishment of such
colonies and maintain them successfully until they are ready to stand on their own, self-sufficiency and
thriving. So Mars’ barren wastes also tell a story full of hope and promise for our world and all its life,
evidence of His nature as the Protector – but only if we choose to heed what His physical avatar has to
tell us, and take His lessons to heart.