When someone has hired a technician to identify a problem, what’s the first question they ask? Most likely something along the lines of “okay – but how do we fix it?” If that technician were practicing astrology, especially Hellenistic, Medieval, or Vedic, the answer would be remediation, and they would offer a prescription, most likely in the form of a talisman, mantra practice, prayer, offerings, or shifts to diet and behavior.

In short, astrological remediation is the use of corrective measures to reduce negative manifestations. These can stem from configurations within the natal chart or from transits and time lords – often a combination of both. There are always remedial measures that can be taken to mitigate ill effects! We don’t simply have to accept them at face value and resign ourselves to suffering.

Remediation gives us a say in the way these forces unfurl, in our bodies, personalities, and lives as a whole. It is medicine that resonates on every level of being, and a must-have tool for anyone concerned with astrology and improvement of the self and circumstance. Unfortunately the art of remediation has been lost in modern Western astrology, but globalization and the traditional revival have brought us many wonderful things, this being key among them.

Enter the Red Planet

The primary concern of this article is Mars, everyone’s favorite lesser malefic. The reason for this is twofold:

1. The items in the Mars in Scorpio + Mars Exaltation Degree series have terrific potential for remediation
2. Mars is in Aries from Tuesday, January 1st 2019 until February 13th

That’s a 6-week long period where all god’s creatures could likely benefit from a little attention paid to the Martial sphere. Normally we would be looking to remediate a challenged Mars, whereas Mars is very powerful in Aries, the fire sign which he rules. The goal of working with Mars during THIS period is to get the most goodness and mitigate potential fallout. It’s more along the lines of planetary propitiation, but essentially all of the same techniques apply.

Normal factors that contribute to whether you would benefit from Mars remediation practices, whether natal or transiting, include whether:

• Mars is in his fall (Cancer)
• Mars is in his detriment (Taurus or Libra)
• Mars is retrograde (as previously mentioned)
• You are a day chart (Mars is of the night sect)
• Mars is in a particularly detrimental place in the chart (house or angle)
• Mars is the ruler of OR placed in a profected house or active time lord period
• Mars is facing challenging aspects to planets which do not benefit him, or who stifle his proper expression
• Mars is significantly placed in the chart, having a lot of responsibilities or rulership over the life, but especially if Mars is not ‘well endowed’

All of that might be over someone’s head if they’re not an astrologer versed in traditional techniques, but luckily (or unluckily!) enough, because astrology actually works, if the Mars hose is kinked, it will manifest in the body and the life. This makes it possible for us to diagnose based on less technical criteria. Signs that you could benefit from remediating Mars can include:

• Issues with anger – under or over expressed
• Issues with lack of motivation or laziness
• Issues with blood flow, metabolism, muscle strength, overall vitality, immune function, lack of physical activity
• Avoiding confrontation to a detrimental degree, being afraid of conflict. On the flip side, making conflict where there shouldn’t be
• Not being able to stand up for yourself or others (being a ‘doormat’), not knowing when a fight is worth having, not being willing to have those that are. Also, the extreme opposite
• Fear of competition, or having a tendency to make non-competitive scenarios competitive
• Excessive defensiveness or aggression

If any of the above is presenting for you or someone you know, read on so we can learn to apply some remedial measures, or best propitiate the red planet.

Note that what follows is not exhaustive – there are infinite methods and practices that can be used to remediate, as touched on in Austin Coppock’s The Proper Care and Feeding of a Birth Chart course, but these are some simple predefined approaches.

Timing: Planetary Days and Hours

One of the most fundamental things to understand about remediation (and propitiation) is the concept of planetary days and hours. Ideally, we want to align the planet we’re trying to work on with the day and/ or hour that it rules, because the practice will have more resonance with the sphere, and therefore be more effective.

Tuesday is the day of Mars, and Friday is the night of Mars. For checking planetary hours, use an app or online calculator.

Note that planetary ‘hours’ are not usually 60-minutes long and change according to location and time of year. The first and eighth planetary hour of the day or night always corresponds to the planet that rules it. So a good time to do your Martial remediation would be following sunrise on Tuesdays or nightfall on Fridays – capiche? Excellent!

The Use of Materials

Materials that correspond to the planet you’re addressing can be used in two ways:

1. As sympathetic anchors that connect your energy with that of the sphere and create resonance
2. As offerings or propitiations to the planet, and/or the gods and spirits related to it

This is where our Mars in Scorpio + Mars Exaltation Degree series offerings come into play. If your Mars (or transiting Mars) is in rough shape, adding any standard Mars charge to the mix won’t be as helpful as adding high quality, effective Mars.

Our goal here is to make ourselves and our lives do Mars better, and for that we look to where the planet is exalted. And even then, there is a single degree of peak performance called the Degree of Exaltation (DoE), which is when this series was constructed.

A planet when in its exaltation degree is running the ‘cleanest’ it possibly can. It gives a flawless performance of its duties with almost no unintended side effects – the equivalent to playing DnD and rolling a 20.

The distinct advantage this series also possesses in terms of the upcoming retrograde, is that it was constructed in the degree before the shadow period of the 2018 retrograde began, or as I like to think of it – Before the Fall. The ‘shadow’ is how astrologers refer to the span of degrees the retrograde will occupy. These are essentially ‘haunted’ by what is to occur there, where the ripples and rumbles leading up to an eruption can be detected, before the lava starts flowing and the ash falls over them.

Retrogrades, especially of the inner planets, are aberrations of their routine course and cause the planet to go haywire. Sticking with the DnD metaphor, chances of rolling a 1 skyrocket, but that is also the case when Mars suffers other debilitations, earlier mentioned.

Application of Material Measures

Every Tuesday and/ or Friday night, during the hour of Mars, do any of the following:

• Anoint yourself with Exalted Mars oil, burn the incense, or light the candle before saying the Orphic Hymn or performing mantras (presented later)
• Use the Mars spray or smell the powder as a sensory attunement before meditating on the Martial sphere, and the areas of your life it has dominion over
• Use any of the materials as a form of offering to appease Martial forces, but do be conscientious that feeding energies that aren’t running very smoothly can sometimes cause an uptick in undesirable results. Start slow and pay attention – if you’re not getting good results from an offering practice, then cease doing it.

These items can also be used in our day to day life to help provide a Martial boost. For instance, whenever there are times where we’re feeling unmotivated and need to get ourselves to work. Using the Exalted Mars spray is an excellent way to prime ourselves for the grindstone and create an organic urgency to be productive. The other items in the series can also be used for that purpose – burn the candle while you’re hard at work, or apply the oil to that which needs worked on.

These can also be used anytime to instill courage and boldness. Spray or anoint before going in to ask your boss for a raise, or before going into court, or before entering competitions, playing games, or going to work out. Ask the Martial forces to muster on your behalf and be with you while under stress or during times of confrontation. Anoint your weapons to further empower them, whether real or talismanic. The applications are endless.

Prayers and Mantras

One mantra for Mangal, the Vedic term for Mars, is Om Saravanabhavaya Namaha. There are many others that can be easily Googled or looked up on YouTube. Such videos or recordings are excellent to chant along with (at first) for the purposes of right pronunciation and number of repetitions. Even playing them while you meditate or give offerings, without saying them along, creates a resonance and is better than nothing.

The Orphic Hymns are prayers to certain gods and planetary powers. The Hymn to Ares follows, which essentially asks for Mars’ mercy. This is good for quelling negative or overactive Mars and will be especially helpful during the retrograde or to calm down overly Marsy scenarios. It is not particularly useful as a war cry.

Magnanimous, unconquer’d, boistrous Mars, in darts rejoicing, and in bloody wars
Fierce and untam’d, whose mighty pow’r can make the strongest walls from their foundations shake:
Mortal destroying king, defil’d with gore, pleas’d with war’s dreadful and tumultuous roar:
Thee, human blood, and swords, and spears delight, and the dire ruin of mad savage fight.
Stay, furious contests, and avenging strife, whose works with woe, embitter human life;
To lovely Venus, and to Bacchus yield, to Ceres give the weapons of the field;
Encourage peace, to gentle works inclin’d, and give abundance, with benignant mind.

You can also write your own prayers and develop your own practices for Martial remediation, once you understand enough about the principles and powers at play.

Disclaimer

Note that Mars energies should be applied sparingly and only under targeted circumstances – it is a malefic, after all.

Working with powerful Martial objects may result in temporary dehydration, running ‘hot’ physically and emotionally, headaches, and reactions of the skin in the form of breakouts or rashes, depending on one’s nature and sensitivity.

And finally…

If you found this information useful and wish to help better equip your fellow man, consider sharing it! As thanks, may the spirits of the Martial sphere do you no harm, and may the intelligence of his exaltation guide you in both word and deed. May the blessings of Mars be upon you, and he be ever your ally!