The Symbolism of Aries: The Ram - SS Ep. 15

So Jesus being referred to as a Lamb becomes this numeric symbolism that's intimately tied to the Lamb that ties Jesus directly to the Sun and our skies and of course it's yearly 365 day path. And Jesus is also referred to as a shepherd and of course there are countless shepherd gods that we find all throughout the history of you know myths and religions and civilizations and things like that. Orpheus, Adonis, Mithras, Andamayan, Apollo, Osiris, Jesus. We have to ask why are there so many shepherd gods? And ultimately what is our answer? The answer comes from the heavens. It is the zodiac is our answer. And by the zodiac of course we don't just mean the zodiac up in the heavens. That also means the zodiac on below on us being the anthropocosm or the man of signs. Greetings from the Pacific Northwest. You're listening to Symbolic Studies Episode 15. I'm your host Mario. Once again joined by my partner in crime, my lovely wife Michelle. Today we'll be discussing the symbolism of Aries, the first sign of the zodiac. If you're new to this show we play voicemails from special guests and listeners like yourself. If you'd like to have access to early and exclusive content please consider becoming a member on my site, Patreon, YouTube or on the Symbolic Studies substack. All of those links can be found at SymbolicStudies.com. But before we dive into these voicemails, Michelle, my lady, how are you? I am doing very well. It's hard not to with the weather we're having. We have all the windows in the house open. The garden is really coming to life. I've been out there a lot this week. We have new birds showing up which is very very exciting actually. Just saw a couple new ones just at the window right when we started recording. And as usual I'm excited to be here with you and I got to ask how are you doing today? Thank you for asking. Like yourself I'm doing pretty good. The weather is awesome right now so it's been great hiking and seeing the new birds come around as you're saying and I know that you're in your element right now because you're spending more time out in the garden so that makes me very happy. And of course I've just been thinking about Aries season and sort of what I'm taking away from this revisit. Every year I look through all of my material for each sign and I just think it's so interesting with Aries that there's so much symbolism associated with it being youthful and having this spring like quality obviously being the first sign of the astrological year, the first cardinal sign that kicks everything off. And so there is this freshness that comes with Aries. Yet also there's this dynamic of aggression and war and sacrifice as well. So there's this interesting dynamic at play with all of these beautiful youthful qualities but then also these things having to do with death, having to do with strife, having to do with war. So that's kind of on the top of my mind right now. Yeah and you know what that makes me think of when you bring up sacrifice is some of the activity that I was doing in the garden this week which is cutting back the old growth from last winter. And so I decided to leave a lot more of the plant growth from last season up throughout the winter. As opposed to what I normally do is to cut everything back to make sure everything is like pretty clean and organized in the garden but this year because of the birds. Yet again we mentioned them. I really wanted to leave a lot of seeds out for them, the wild seeds, in addition to what we like to feed them. But the wild seeds is what they would thrive on if they didn't have humans like us feeding them right. And so when I was out there just cutting everything back it just really felt a lot like the freshness that you're talking about but also that sacrificial part of the plant that was left throughout the bitterness of the winter that cold weather. And cutting that away you can instantly tell that the plants that are now coming back that part of the plants that are coming back are just so relieved that that is gone. And one of the biggest cuttings I did was our lilac bushes. And the lilacs are already budding the buds are opening. And so I went through and trimmed off all the old flower buds from last year. And when I stood back from the plants it was almost as though the whole swath of lilac was just rejoicing and singing. And it felt shinier and brighter. And I think that that is definitely aries kind of in a nutshell when you really think about it. Yeah no it makes a lot of sense. I mean there's a reason why sacrifices have been part of a lot of people's cultures forever basically. And so they look at the idea of sacrifice as bringing about something necessary. And so that'll be something we discuss throughout the episode. And to kick things off we got a voicemail from Marty Leeds, one of our special guests for today. Here we go. Hey everybody's brother Marty Leeds here from the Nostek Church and Academy of Lord Jesus Christ. I just want to thank Mario and Michelle for asking me to do this. It is totally my pleasure. And what we're going to be doing is actually just reading a few excerpts from our book The Twelve Disciples of the Zodiac which you can get at Nostek Academy.org commercial over. And one of the things we do at the Academy, one of the big things we do is actually show how the Bible is, or from Old Testament to New, is a book of astrology. That's exactly what it is. And so a lot of people understand that Jesus is at least in one symbolic manifestation, a representation of the Sun. And Jesus is actually called a Lamb of God. And a Lamb is a baby sheep of 365 days or younger. So Jesus being referred to as a Lamb becomes this numeric symbolism that's intimately tied to the Lamb that ties Jesus directly to the Sun and our skies. And of course it's yearly 365 day path. And Jesus is also referred to as a shepherd. And of course there are countless shepherd gods that we find all throughout the history of myths and religions and civilizations and things like that. I know Mario has covered them before. Orpheus, Adonis, Mythris, Andamayan, Apollo, Osiris, Jesus. And so we know that Aries is assigned to the head on the human being and the head is the highest point on the body, obviously. And so there's this connection to the ram of Aries and the pole of Aries because Polaris is the pole stars, the North Star. It is the star that's on the top of the dome and it is of course the still star. And it is the high point on the macarcosm. And Aries, the ram is the high point and the microcosm. So Aries, this ram sits on the pole, axis, moon, or what we understand is the spinal column in the human being. And the pole of Aries sits on the, if you will, the spinal column of the body, of the celestial body of the heavens in the earth. And so in this grand celestial metaphor here, of course we always hear this phrase, the I and the father are one, right? I think that's in John or something like that. And so this notion that the Sun is directly connected to the pole of Aries because Polaris or the center pole of the earth because that's exactly what the Sun does. It goes around and around the center of the earth. And so in this grand celestial metaphor, the father sits in the center of this entire creation upon the throne of the unmoving star of Polaris and looks down on all of his creation while his Sun is wrapping around him. And we find this direct explanation of God's place as it being the throne of Polaris, if you will, in at least Biblically in the Old Testament in Psalm 4610 where it says, "Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth." And the pole star, the pole star, the North Star, Polaris is the still star unmoving star that is exalted on the highest point of the dome of the firmament. And so it makes perfect sense of like, "Hey, and you can even see in some Bibles they'll even draw of a chorus in earth with a firmament on it and where Polaris would be. This is like the heaven of heavens. That's where God sits and that's his throne." So all of these things we can see have a direct cosmological correlation. And that's exactly what there's exactly why the Bible is written is to make these correlations. So this is what we do at our church and academy. So let's look at the symbolism and the anatomy, if you will, of the Rams head and of course the Rams head on us. So first and foremost, there are two prominent features or attributes of the Ram that immediately jump out or present themselves when we look to deconstruct this animal symbolically with those being of course the bright white coat of wool and the Rams enormous curved horns that are sitting on the side of its head. We know that white number one is a symbol of purity. It's a symbol of cleanliness. That's sort of stuff. And of course that's what we're appeared to do is in the sense clean or purify our souls. And then the horns of the Rams play a key role in linking it to the head of the living man or the man of science or the anthropocosm, the areas the head. Because in located inside the medial temporal lobe exists a structure called the hippocampus which is shaped very much like a set of Rams horns. And so and what is a horn? If I said the horn to you what is it? Did I just say a trumpet or did I just say like a horn of like a the horns of an animal like a bull or a racer. sheep that's or stuff. So you have this connection between a horn and a trumpet. And so every time in the Bible where you hear about seven rams horns or seven trumpets that were blown or Daniel's cornette and things like that because a corned is just a trumpet or a horn. This is specifically what it's referencing. And even though the hippocampus is located sort of deeper inside the head than the eardrums, it basically those rams horns go right by the ear, right, by the ear drums. And so it's this horn that's blowing the sound right into the right by your ear in your areas of your ram on top of your head. And so the hippocampus, these rams horns are actually attached to an organ called the fornix. And if you look up the etymology of fornix, it means to heat or to warm, which is most fitting because what is aries? Aries is a fire sign. So aries this is ram. You have the hippocampus, rams horns, it's connected to the fornix and what is it? It literally means to heat or to warm. And so and of course if you actually look at the symbol for aries, it's basically we all know it. It's essentially a singular line that sort of branches out. It looks like a rams head. It's of course the symbolic of everything springing up and sprouting up and spring. But if you actually look down like from bird's eye view or in this sort of sense from, you know, if God in Polaris if you will, looking down through the head of a human being, if you look at that sign, it looks almost identical to the fornix attached to the hippocampus or this thing of heat or fire connected literally to what's considered like rams horns in your head. So pretty interesting. It shows you the depth of the symbolism of the zodiac really. But that's not all because lastly in the back of the head, another connection to the lamb or ram, essentially right near where the fornix and hippocampus is is a suture on the occipital bone of the skull and it's called the lambdoid suture. And it's named after the Greek letter lambda which forms an a shape which is the a is of course the alpha. I mean even Jesus says I'm alpha and omega that kind of thing. So this Greek letter lambda forms an a shape and the sutures, the suture arches up to the back of your head forming an a. And it just so happens to that the very place where the man of signs instructs us that there's a lamb, there is a literal reference anatomically to a lamb. So using the simplest of curves, the symbol of areas denotes the the reemergence of lifter in the spring aquedox. It points to the rams horns of the hippocampus leading to the fornix in the head. And it's so it's there's all of these connections literally through the simplicity of just in this sense like one line or a line branching out into two. It's quite genius. So and knowing that these signs in the heavens have been crafted expertly in order to be related directly to man below, we see the universal attribution we may make with the lamb and the numerous religions who were led by this hero shepherd or a shepherd of leading lambs or sheep. So within the head of the temple of the living man exists rams horns and of course this rams horns is the horns. It's the trumpet. It's the ever and once again every time you hear in the Bible it's something like the blowing of rams horns or there's a voice that he heard and that sort of thing. It's it's always a reference to what either God or or Jesus that sort of stuff literally connecting to man below. And of course where is this God sitting in the pole of aries. So and this what's beautiful about this is the universal quality of this symbolism because when you look at the the human being it doesn't matter. You look at the the qualities attributes characteristics of a ram or a lamb that sort of thing. They're universal. It doesn't matter where you're from when you're born in time. What your you know geographically where you exist. What your race is. What language you speak. All of these things are universal. They're axiomatic. They're the same for every single human being. And so this this gives this sort of beauty behind the divine order and divine you know construction of man. I and of course man reflecting the stars above. And so in the in this sense everyone has a lamb upstairs in the temple of their brains. And this in this sense we're all sheep in need of a shepherd. We're all in we're all in need of this sort of like savior to lead us lead us on. And of course we understand that where does that savior exist. And this is what we teach at the church in academy exists within you. Of course. So and this this I'll just read this to end this John 10 14 to 10 15. It says I am the good shepherd and know my sheep and I'm known of mine as the father know with me even so know I the father and I lay my life down for my sheep. All right. That should do it. I just want to say thank you guys once again and hopefully we learned something if you'd like to learn more. Nostec Academy dot org. All right. God bless all. All right. Marty leads. Thank you so much for that voicemail. That was awesome. Right up my alley. And I just have to say Michelle and I first met Marty or really came across his work around 2013 2014. Yep. We went into a conference called freer mind in Philadelphia. And it was a good time and we had a chance to meet him. I loved his presentation and he was doing this sort of work all the way back then. Yes. So he's been at it for a while. And it just occurred to me that we both share M. A. R. in our names which goes back to Mars. That's my understanding Mario relates to Mars. Very interesting. There's actually a card in the solubuska, the fourth card of the major arcana which corresponds with the emperor which also corresponds with aries and Mars. That card is called Mario because of this Mars connection. So that's my understanding. A lot of names that are M. A. R. go back to Mars. So I thought that was fitting. Also just have to say we are in March. March kicks off the spring equinox. That M. A. R. relates back to Mars. And there's all sorts of things going on there. But I just had to mention that real quick. Very fascinating what he's bringing up with the fornics. I also have to say that for you know it's right there in the name. And once again the fourth card of the major arcana is related to the emperor related to aries. And then also a lot of aries season takes place during the fourth month of the year which would be April. Yes. So there's several for connections going on here including how the four relates to Christ and the cross. The cross naturally having four quadrants or four arms that emanate from the center. And in my opinion this center as well. The center of any system to me does relate to stillness. But the fact that Marty relates aries to stillness and to this high point in the firmament. And therefore the center as well relating it to the pole star and he mentioned the pole of aries as well. This is all super fascinating and worth unpacking in my opinion. So the pole star would be the central star, the guiding star. It's the center of the wheel of heaven. And when you look into aries symbol isn't there's so much going on with aries being the starting point. And so in my opinion and I've been saying this for years everything is expressed from the center and then returns back to that same center. So it's not unlike a tourist field. And that center symbolism has a lot to do with say the seed right being the center or the origin point of that plants whatever plant you're talking about. And funny enough the aries glyph looks like a sprout right. And so the bottom of the aries glyph would be that starting point. And there's a lot of stuff to say about this point emanating and being expressed and basically relating to the generative force and generative properties. And so even just spring you know what spring represents and the birthing of new life. And the equinox interestingly enough has been likened to a pole that there's a symbolic pole from aries to Libra. And even the solstices have been considered to be poles as well. So this pole symbolism is definitely in play also with the fact that there is phallic symbolism with the pole and there's phallic symbolism with aries. So I think of the battering ram as an example they used to make battering rams with literally a ram head at the tip of it. And of course what do rams do they buddy chothers heads. And so there is just a phallic driving penetrative quality with aries. And this really relates to Scorpio as well which the traditional ruler of Scorpio is Mars. So Mars always has this penetrative sort of dynamic. All you have to do is look at the Mars glyph as well right. And you have that arrow pointing to the upper right. This represents drive. This represents energy going forward or moving forth. And actually the pole or the wand or the phallus the symbolism behind it the deep symbolism has to do with energy being sent forth. And so I think there's a lot of symbolism there that obviously makes sense with the ram with aries. And what the season really is all about also there's a quality with winter that has to do with stillness. Yes. Right. And so we have this stillness during winter and then obviously spring comes. comes through and then it's this driving sort of dynamic. Hey everyone, I hope you're enjoying our discussion on Erie's symbolism so far. If you aren't already aware, I have a series called Symbolic Secrets that's only available for members. I've released 19 episodes so far. Each one is a full-length symbolic lecture on all of the major iconic cards from the full to the moon cards with the remaining cards coming this year. That's nearly 20 hours worth of exclusive video lectures. You can access all of these videos with the membership on Patreon, YouTube, Substack, or my website, head on over to SymbolicStudies.com for the links. Membership, by the way, is also the perfect way to support the show for just $5 a month. This also gets you early access to every podcast, like the one you're listening to right now. And with that out of the way, back to our episode on the symbolism of Eries. Great points all around, as always. Thank you Marty. That was a great voicemail and I was so excited when you brought up Polaris for many reasons because I knew that Maria would also have a bunch to add with that subject and it totally fits with Eries. And speaking of that still point, I have a quote here from the Penguin Dictionary of Symbols that I think fits very well. The sign of Eries is a symbol intimately connected with the nature of primordial fire. It is the cosmic image of the brute force of fire which first manifested itself in an explosion of flame. This is the fire which is simultaneously creator and destroyer, blind and rebellious, disorderly and prolific, generative and sublime. It circulates in all directions from a fixed point. This fiery power is at one with the original gush of life giving forces, the primal surge of life. That to me explains Eries very well wouldn't you say? Yeah, absolutely. And when we're talking about this primordial fire or this primordial point that emanates, one thing that is important to keep in mind with center symbolism, whether we're talking about the pole star or something else, is that the center is the highest point of the system. And so the center represents the point of pivot in the system as well. And it's the most powerful potent point in the whole entire thing. And so it gives orientation to all things. And so to me in my opinion, he mentioned something about the throne of God existing in the north. While this makes perfect sense, because the leader actually has a relationship with the center as well. And so whether you're talking about the leader of a business or you're talking about the leader of a home or you're talking about the leader of your faith, they actually have a relationship with axial symbolism. And so they give orientation to their people. And so I think that this is just kind of obviously the case once it's really pointed out. So the leader, if you will, existing in the center gives guidance the same way the north star is referred to as the guiding star or the same way a good shepherd gives guidance to his flock. And so that symbolism to me has always been very, very powerful and extremely interesting. This idea of a good shepherd and how many of them there have been throughout world history essentially. And just to kind of throw it out there as well. I'm inclined to think that there is an obvious shepherd in the major arcana in the hermit. I think the hermit actually carries a lot of shepherd symbolism with him. And so he's leading the way. And so he's leading the way I would say in that card specifically for himself actually. He appears to be an elder shepherd. But obviously most of the time when we're talking about the good shepherd, he does have a flock. He does have those who follow him, which of course is what Christ represents. And Christianity. I'm so glad you brought up the hermit because I immediately think of the hermit's lantern and that light that's emanating from the lantern is representative of our inner light. And that is what he's basically being led by or he's allowing the inner light to guide him. And I think that that's really important in life. It's a good lesson that we all should learn. Well, I just have to say it's super interesting. We're talking about leading the way. The head is known for leading the way. Symbolically, you could say that your feet trail behind or that your tail, symbolic tail, kind of trails behind. But the head leads the way so many animals are leading themselves with their head, including the ram. And so they have this headstrong nature. We have expressions like head start as an example, right? And so we're talking about leading and we are talking about Marty leads. Aha, yeah. So with Marty, we got the Mars in Marty and then we've got lead literally in his last name. So that's just kind of interesting. Just throwing it out there. To carry on with the inner light or the inner fire, I have a few quotes from the book Real Elkamey by Robert Bartlett. He's going to be talking about the secret fire in man. The element of fire relates to the qualities of radiance, expansion, warmth and light, anciently known as the hot and dry properties. On the psychological level, fire relates to the super conscious mind. When he relates to the super conscious mind, that could be also called a higher state of awareness or beyond the conscious mind, basically the understanding of the true self and our true will. He goes on to say, this relates to what is referred to an Elkamey as the secret fire in man and Kundalini in Indian philosophy. The effects of awakening, this secret fire within, constitutes a true awakening into nature's mysteries with attendant changes in our perception of how nature operates. This is a direct experience of liberating interior knowledge. The physical body is also changed and improved in functioning, establishing a new center of balance on spiritual and physical levels. It's just really going into more of what we're talking about of the importance of the center point, everything emanating from it. To me, really, the importance of stoking that inner fire and that once you lose that inner fire, there's a spark, there's a passion, there's a drive for life that kind of starts to go away. I think that as we're all living beings on this plane, we have that inner fire. I believe that it never really goes out, even if you are to lose motivation for something or you change course or you decide to stop doing something. That inner fire is always there. It's just about, are you willing to stoke the fire? Are you willing to bring that element of wind in and rekindle the fire that will ultimately always be burning within all of us? Yeah, related to that, it just reminds me that fire needs some sort of fuel. Something has to be "sacrificed" in order for fire to thrive. I think that is how it works in life. If you're too comfortable all the time and you're not sacrificing anything, then I think that actually that comfort can be detrimental as much as I love to be comfortable and everything else. I find that when I push myself, actually, it's amazing what happens and what gets accomplished and your morale, how it gets boosted. As an example, if you're trying to complete a project, there may be things that you have to do in order to see that project through that are sacrificial in nature. Maybe you have to get up a little earlier, stay up a little late, push yourself a little bit. Even just the nature of push, it makes me think of the forward momentum of the ram. All of that is well received for sure. Something that Marty brought up as well that I wanted to talk about is that appropriately he brought up horn symbolism. I'm sure he's aware of this, but when he was mentioning the horns in the Bible, some of those horns are literally from the ram. These are the chaffars or the chaffar horns. They literally use ram horns as an actual instrument. That's something worth noting is that the chaffar is made out of the horns of a ram. Also I just wanted to mention how much I appreciate the fact that he did bring up Polaris and northern symbolism and everything else because what you'll find is that so many things actually go back to this original location. So many things have a correspondence with this, which is why I harp on it all the time. Just a very quick example of this is that, and I've probably mentioned this on the show before, I can't remember, but in a book called Galactic Alignment, the author was talking about how in ancient China, thousands and thousands of years ago, they had eight astrological signs right around the pole star. These were their main constellations. This was sort of their sky clock in many ways. When they became more solar over time, they basically transferred those eight original constellations which had a corresponding trigram from the E-ching. There's eight trigrams. You combine them. You can make 64 hexagrams. Each constellation had a relationship with a different trigram. When they became more solar, they actually transferred those eight constellations. put them on the path of the sun, the ecliptic, and then added four more constellations. So in the Eastern world, the 12 constellations that you see, eight of those actually came from the Northern sky. So just to add to what Marty's saying here that it is a relevant study to see the correspondence of how the signs actually relate to the Northern sky. And I would go as far as to say is that that is really the true origin of these constellations and the stories behind these constellations and the mythology behind these constellations. So I've talked about this in several presentations if people want to know more, but I just wanted to kind of show my respect and gratitude for that perspective that he's putting out there. Yes, I know you guys are both very passionate about Polaris and the North and what that really means for all of us. I love it too. You've brought it into my life and I'm very grateful for it because it really helps you make a lot of sense of a lot of things in life. And not many people are talking about it. So kudos. Before we move on, I want to comment on Marty mentioning the fornics. I had never heard of this part of the brain before and so I did look into it briefly and he does talk about its connection with the hippocampus. So what I learned though about it is that it is the output pathway for the hippocampus essential for forming and recalling autobiographical memories is involved in learning and emotion. The other cool thing about this anatomically is that it is in the center of the brain, which I think just goes along more with the connection to Polaris, things emanating from a center, our internal fire being in the center. That's really interesting to me and because I am an herbalist and I always think in terms of plants, I just wanted to throw out there that I think that lemon balm would be a really great plant to be stimulating this area of the brain because lemon balm is known to help us improve our memory. But the reason it helps us to improve our memory is because it calms us down. And because it brings the calm and it reduces anxiety, it actually helps us have a better grasp on our cognitive functions because anyone who has ever been anxious in their life, which is pretty much everybody knows that when you are in a state of anxiety, it's hard for you to actually recall things or have a clear memory. And so I just wanted to bring that to the table because Aries does have that more like fiery energy that could be almost like spontaneous or untamed, which can lead to anxiety. So you might want to look into lemon balm if you're a great stuff. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And when I think of lemon balm, of course, I'm thinking of the lemon. And I think of how acidic it is. There's, I think acidic symbolism with a lot of the fire signs. Ah. Actually, it's yellow, which is a warmer color. Again, we're dealing with fire signs. But I just wanted to point this out, this stillness idea. So Marty mentioned the world axis with axis, Moondie. There are so many symbols that go back to the world axis. I would say the mountain is one of them, the mountain being the holy mountain, right? Some people will say that really every mountain is a holy mountain. That's how I perceive things actually. There's a lot of holy mountains around the world. I imagine a sage at the top of a mountain, meditating as an example. You climb a mountain, you're closer to the heavens, you're closer to the divine. And when you climb a mountain and you reach the peak of the mountain, from an aerial perspective, you are now at the center of the mountain as well. So you're at the still point, the high point of the mountain. And I just wanted to mention the fact that pyramids are symbolic mountains. And with pyramid, you have pure ram id. So literally ram is right in the middle of pyramid. And what do rams do? They're excellent climbers, right? I just want to mention as well that the pyramid is a triangle and it looks just like an a. So we're dealing with aries, right? And so you have the letter A and then you have that dash up top. That's like the capstone of a pyramid. That's like the top of a mountain, basically. And we're also dealing with aries, the first sign of the zodiac and the letter A is the first letter of the alphabet. So I just wanted to throw that whole entire weave out there for what it's worth. Hello, Mario and Michelle. I'm calling in to chat about aries symbolism. So let's jump straight into it. Aries is a cardinal fire, positive or masculine zodiac sign that marks the beginning of the astrological year. It's ruled by the planet Mars, which is often associated with the god of war, blood and the metal ion. Not surprisingly, we are all born through blood and pain, just as we shed blood on the battlefield. And blood, or more precisely hemoglobin, the red blood cells, contain up to 70% of the body's total elemental ion. However, aries is not just about war and hot-headed tempers. As there was a time long ago in Bronze Age Mesopotamia, when the aries constellation was associated with a shepherd, they refer to this constellation as Mool Leunga, which translates to the hired man and was linked to the shepherd Dumusi, who some of us may be familiar with as the consort to the goddess Inanna, also known as the planet Venus, where we find the Iero-Skamos, sacred marriage performed as part of their agricultural customs to ensure future fertility. Initially, Dumusi was identified as a shepherd who vied to be Inanna's consort, beating out a farmer. But as time passed, Dumusi's myth evolved turning him into an agricultural deity, for he represented the dying and rising god in their annual agricultural cycle. He is basically the male version of the Greek story of Persephone, as Dumusi replaced Inanna in the underworld, to be reborn again every spring. For me, the sign of aries represents this dichotomy of birth and death, or rebirth. Childbirth and fertility were closely connected to the land, particularly the agricultural fields and pastures. And in ancient times, this was based on sympathetic magic, which is rooted in symbolic correspondences, or the science of natural patterns. For instance, the embryo was often compared to a seed and the fetus, which etymologically means offspring or hatchling, was often associated with the sprout or young shoots, breaking through the soil just as the fetus broke through head-first from the mother's vulva. In Vedic astrology, the aries constellation is known as Meshah, which is Sanskrit for Rama or sheep. And Meshah is also associated with Arja, which signifies the unborn or unmanifest potential of life. Meshah or aries represents the birth of consciousness, the creative sexual energy and life force, as let's not forget that Mars governs the sexual reproductive organs. In the Pisces episode, I described the sign of Pisces as encoding the delivery of the placenta and fetus. We discovered that we need to descend in order to ascend, and we found this head-first descent represented in the taro card, the hanged man. Now the inverse of that card is the Emperor card, which corresponds to aries, and for me, it encodes the newly born child about to be initiated through the birthing rituals or ceremonies. Aries represents the child, but you may be wondering why is the Emperor card depicting an old, bedded, crowned man? This, in my opinion, may be alluding to primordial beliefs, to a time long before we worshiped gods, when we worshiped our ancestors. The newborn child was thought to be the ancestor reborn or reincarnated. This is encoded into the myths of the death of the old king to be replaced by the young king or son. But before I dive into the Emperor card symbolism, I would like to briefly mention some of these ancient birthing rights of passage that are not only symbolic of the agricultural customs, but many of them actually mirror the funerary rights, such as the Egyptian opening of the mouth ceremony. After all, it's often said that birth and death are twins. And this brings me to the aries' glyph, which resembles a seed sprout or some may even say a fishhook, but it actually reminded me of the Pesakev blade, which is essentially a forked or fishtail knife that was used in ancient Egypt to cut the umbilical cord, often describing this tool as the splitter of his car spirit. And it was also used as part of the opening mouth ceremony. And as the umbilical cord is cut, another midwife would insert to two little fingers into the mouth of the newborn, to Clanemukus or obstructions from the airways to facilitate the breath. And this reminds me of the fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, hey, the divine breath as in Yodhava, hey, hey being the breath of life. The two little fingers of the midwife, as proposed by archaeologists and Macy Roth, were the prototype of a pair of finger-shaped blades called Natojoui. These twin finger blades were tested to use in the old kingdom in the opening of the mouth ceremony for the deceased or their statue replica. And were thought to mimic the clearing of the newborns' airways with the two little fingers of the midwife. This twin blade was later replaced in the new kingdom with the ads tool, thought to represent the arms of the midwife extended with the fingers, pointing as the pointers. Like we have those seven days of creation, the first seven days after the birth of a child would be commemorated with a naming ritual. Not surprisingly, the axiom of aries is I am, which I find very appropriate. You see, in ancient times, the infant mortality rate was quite high due to infection and disease. That in Egypt, for instance, they'd wait until the seventh day to see if the child survived before announcing the baby's birth in a ceremony called Sebu, Sebu meaning the seventh. And it's actually still practiced today in Egypt. On the seventh day, they'd announce the name of the child and introduce them to the rest of the family and community in a rights of passage ceremony. One fascinating aspect of Sebu was the placement of the child in a sieve on the floor. Actually, the heroglyph for the sieve is the same for the placenta. Anyway, the child is in the sieve and the mother must step over the child seven times while the rest of the woman make noise, chanting, and banging on mortars and pestles as it was thought toward off evil spirits. They would also place seven grains or seeds like corn or wheat next to the child. And here we can see that sympathetic magic in practice, linking the grains or seeds and the ritual with the sieve, which a sieve is usually used to winnow the grain compared to the newborn child. Traditionally, as well, by the seventh day, boys would usually be circumcised and girls the airs pest. No different to the lambs and calves being born in the spring months, who before their first three weeks, they're castrated. And the Greeks had a similar naming custom as well, usually held five to seven days after the birth, where the father would introduce the child to the rest of the family by name while walking around the hearth or fire of the home. Hestia, being the patron goddess of the hearth, is also known as the naval of the home. And here we can see how the element of fire is not only an element of initiation, but of ancestry and blood lineage forged in the fiery passions of the alchemical marriage. Now, let's decode this in the symbolism of the Emperor card. And for this, I was really drawn to the thoth dex geometry. So I actually printed off a copy of the card and got out my compass and ruler. As I could see the outline of the vesica piscous, the diad contained in the card, you will notice on either side of the Emperor is a gold orb with a 16-pointed star. So what I did was I placed my compass on one of those 16-pointed stars, stretched it to the other and got my radius and then proceeded to draw a circle from one star orb and I repeated it on the other side. And you will find that the Emperor perfectly fits within a vesica piscous with the vertical axis directly aligned to the crown of his head running straight through down to his foot that's placed on the ground. Thoth it forms a grand cross. Perhaps emblematic of the cardinal solar cross as the sun is exalted in aries. And it marks that quartering of the year among the two equinoxes and two solstices or perhaps the crosses are loading to something else. The Emperor's perfectly contains within the vesica piscous, which in myth represents the meeting of the pre-Mevil parents, the Eroschamos. Polar tension, polarity is at the roots of all birth and creation. And here we see this encoded in the Emperor card, the Emperor who is the fruits of that sacred union of opposites. In fact, in sacred geometry, all five platonic solids are birthed from the vesica piscous, the simplest of which is the tetrahedron. And Plato himself identified the four ancient elements or states of matter, including the quintessence, which is the fifth platonic, within the five platonic solids. The state of fire, which we may refer to as plasma today, the fourth state of matter, was associated with the tetrahedron. And tetra, tetra meaning four, and the Emperor card is the fourth card in most tarot decks. Four is associated with physical manifestation, solidity and stability. And we can find the four, the square and the tetrahedron encoded within the Emperor card, all of which are created from the vesica piscous. As I mentioned earlier, we find that cross symbolism in the Emperor card, in that cross section within the vesica piscous, aligning from his crown to his foot and across horizontal and that axis between these two star orbs. Which, and at all, that cross point seems to be meeting exactly at that hand holding the orb, which lines up to the womb or the reproductive organs. And of course, we see it in the cross legs, which happen to mimic the shape of the numerical four. And cross symbolism, like the addition and multiplication signs, denote fertilization, like we find in such words as cross pollination, cross breeding, or even star crossed lovers, basically incinerating multiplication or multiplying your progeny. Every birth occurs at this interpenetration of male and female, electricity and magnetism and so on. For this reason, I see why Crowley has chosen to use the 18th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Zadi, which happens to have the numerical value of 90. Perhaps he's alluding to the 90 degrees we find in the square or the angles of a cross. And pictorially, the Zadi reminds me of a squiggly sperm. And the letter itself is associated with a fish hook, funny considering Pisces precedes aries. And the letter Zadi itself is composed of a combination of a bent noon letter and the yod or arrow fate. The noon letter signifies the fish, the air, or the successor. And its pictograph is that of a seed or sprout. And from Zadi, we get such words as Zadiq, meaning a righteous person who is crowned in glory, such as we see in the crowned emperor. And I think of righteous, I think of that right angle, that 90 degrees. But before I wrap up, I want to briefly speak about the throne and seated posture, which is often associated with the feminine. And I'd like to offer up a hypothesis for its origin. In ancient times, even up until the 1700s, women gave birth in a squatting or seated position, often using a birthing stool or a birthing chair for support. The birthing chairs were actually quite throne-like and retrofitted to have a hollowed out U-shaped seat, whereby the midwife would be ready to catch the infant, dropping from between the legs. In fact, I find the Hebrew letter, "Hey, sort of reminds me of a stool or a low-back chair, but I'm going to end it here." Because there's just so much rich symbolism found in the emperor card that I could go on and on and I'm running out of time. So I just want to say thank you again for the opportunity to share some of my thoughts and observations on airy symbolism. And for anyone interested, you can find me on the venous diaries on Substac, where I share more on topics like this. Bye for now. Thanks, guys. - Okay, Katrina, thank you so much for that voicemail. We consistently love what you bring to the table. It's always appreciated. A few things that I found to be particularly interesting off the top of my head. The first being the idea that a child represents an ancestor being reborn. That to me is very, very intriguing and makes a ton of sense. And I know for a fact that there are rituals essentially that revolve around this. If I'm not mistaken, the Tibetan Buddhists have this tradition rather where they look for the next Dolly Lama. in a child and they believe that it'll be reincarnated through a child and so they go on this search to find this kid and they become anointed essentially and become the next in line. Also she brought up a couple of different knives, the fish tail knife and the splitter knife and she was saying that this proceeds the ads tool in the opening of the mouth ritual but then she was talking about the two fingers with the midwife you know basically opening up the mouth of a child if there's mucus or anything else in the way. That to me is really really fascinating because there are actual circumcision tools in Judaism that look like the ariescliff and so I have to think that those knives perhaps come from the same line of knives that you're talking about the fish tail knives and so this is of interest because there's a whole storyline in the Bible about circumcision and my big takeaway from what I've learned over the years is that symbolically circumcision is used in lieu of sacrifice. This is what the binding of Isaac story is all about. So as she was mentioning this I couldn't not think of those Jewish circumcision knives that encode aries symbolism of all things and of course we're talking about blood with aries and just wanted to mention the fact that men have more iron in their blood women have more copper in their blood. That's fascinating because iron corresponds with Mars as Katrina said and copper corresponds with Venus and so to me that's just like a beautiful symbolic weave just in and of itself. Also Katrina loves to focus on birthing symbolism which I think is supremely important and oftentimes overlooked and she was talking about the birthing chair being what was the inspiration for the throne, the Queen's throne and I just want to say that in the tarot in my opinion the Empress card the third card of the major arcana I think she's actually sitting on a version of a birthing chair which is the card just before the Emperor and so to me that's kind of intriguing. Great point as always and thank you Katrina for the contribution to tack on to the birth aspects of aries and what we're talking about. I have a quote from Babylonian star lore by Gavin White and he says "Vueed within the wider context of the whole star map the springtime season of birth represents the end of a nine-month pregnancy. Tracing back the months on the star calendar brings us back to the summer solstice. Now that to me is so interesting for so many reasons and it also kind of pin points the importance of the 90 degree angle the cross the cross that's created between the equinoxes and the solstices and how important that all really is and how potent of a symbol and how much potent energy is in that cross itself. Also what's really interesting about that is we're talking about cancer right at the beginning of cancer season which has a lot of birth symbolism just baked into it. So I've heard that before that cancer does represent this fertility dynamic birthing dynamic and then nine months later we have aries which relates to as we're talking about here some stuff having to do with childbirth and you know this youthful quality. Also if I'm not mistaken aries has a relationship I think with the first few years of life as well so there's that overlap. Also how fitting is it that the mantra for aries is I am which relates to being conscious being aware being alive being present you know all of these different types of things come to mind so I think it makes perfect sense that aries represents this also the correspondence with tizidi and the emperor card I think is worth unpacking a little bit. It is interesting that it represents fish hook and as Katrina mentioned clearly we just went through Pisces season and so to me I think what's going on is you know Pisces has a huge relationship with the depths murky waters a dream like sort of state there's a lot of things having to do with Pisces with extremities like the extreme ends of a river system or something along these lines and when I think of this relationship with the emperor card and the Hebrew letter that means fish hook it's almost as though we are swimming in these depths for the last three signs because we have Capricorn the Seagote there's an oceanic dynamic there we have the water bearer Aquarius which it's an air sign but there's a watery aspect there as well and then we have Pisces a literal water sign and then we have aries the fire sign the first fire sign of the year to me what I see with that is that it's almost as though we are being yanked out of the aetheric waters into the light right and that's what spring season kind of represents to you know that you're being pulled out of the winter and you are now experiencing the light and this relates to the idea as well that now we are on the dayside of the zodiac so the dayside of the zodiac would be aries through Libra and then the rest of the signs are basically the nightside of the zodiac so I think that that's kind of what I see with that personally one of the things that stood out to me with Katrina's voicemail is her mention of the hired man in its relationship to aries and in Babylonian star lore Gavin white writes at face value the hired man represents an agricultural worker employed to bring in the springtime barley harvest but with a little scholarly latitude the name can also be understood as the sheep of appeasement now this goes to what we're talking about with sacrifice that is a big theme with aries and the fact that this harvester this hired man is basically appeasing the gods by harvesting the barley so that it can then be stored and used for food in the future well just to add to that the meaning of appeasement is giving people what they want to prevent them from harming you or being angry with you that is very interesting in the context that you're saying and then it just reminds me of the sacrificial nature of the lamb and so there's kind of like a full weave going on here with that also it's pretty obvious but Christ was referred to as the sacrificial lamb or the lamb of God and he was sacrificed during aries season and so for people who don't know aries season has long been associated with sacrifice and war you know what is a war some people have argued that it's actually a sacrificial ritual essentially at the end of the day which makes a lot of sense so this appeasement dynamic really is something that can be threaded through multiple multiple stories myths and sort of encodings with aries symbolism another thing I wanted to mention is some of what Katrina said regarding the emperor card and she was saying that she found a hidden vesica piscous or vescapicies in the thoth version of the emperor card and to me that's really interesting what I've said for a while now is you know when you look into the Yang you will find the Yin when you look into the Yin you will find the Yang so when you're looking at the feminine symbolism deeply enough you're gonna come across masculine aspects when you look into the masculine you will find the feminine and it's pretty interesting you know this card the emperor we obviously think of a king or a lord of some sort and it's not a common for them to be wearing armor they're associated with aries they're associated with war potentially and all these things but when you look at earlier versions of the emperor there are several classic old decks where the emperor is very effeminate they look very feminine and so to me this is kind of a clue it's almost something that you wouldn't notice unless you're really looking at it and really studying it but some of these old decks like to encode the feminine with the emperor card this is sort of a traditional kind of thing so I'm not surprised that Crowley would do this and I'm not surprised that she found that all right so let's leap right into this this is a conversation centering aries Mars the planet's re ruler of the first zodiac sign and perhaps the least respected and least understood member of his divine pantheon and maybe with fair reason we have a profound fear and resentment of aries his chosen I said to be fobles and demos fear and terror respectively and because the experience of conflict leaves us so intrinsically vulnerable it is difficult not just for the ancient Greeks but even today for us to truly recognize the strengths that this deity has to offer hopefully as we come to the conclusion of this quick dialogue we gain a better sense of understanding and sympathy and insight into his character and how it reflects or how it is imaged through aries as the ram now we call them in all of the textbooks of God of War but he's much more specifically battle lost that is a very precise term and I think it is most evocative of what he represents and what he symbolizes. Aries is the raw throne and hunger for clashing arms as an end within itself. He embodies a primit of passion, joy and rage for fighting. He is the assertion of will, the satisfaction of desire, and the most brutish face of conflict, the direct instinct to compete, and the raw savagery of the instincts themselves at its most aggressive. Now, this instinctuality, especially if we read the Iliad, makes him seem sort of demonic, right? There is a darkness to his character, which is undeniable. As point of fact, he even is said to possess mortals. He possesses the Trojan Prince Hector. The only god in the poem to do this. So he is very intimate to the human experience. Homer is especially graphic with his metaphors of blood and flames with Aries. Two images we likewise associate with the first zodiac sign from his far back as the Renaissance. But rather than being something intrinsically demonic, I would assert that he is an animal shadow of the divine, not insidious, just animalistic, and thus natural. The first one to gut since challenge, and the first one to act blindly, almost as if he can smell it, complete with his ever-handy phallic spear. His name could be rooted in the Greek "Ara", which means curse. But then it also sounds deeply similar to another Greek term "Arate", "Arate", "Arate", "Arate", "E-T-E". Something that a term that suggests the apathy of excellence or virtue for warriors, virtue, virility, the Latin root of these words being man. So we are seeing a clearly male gender dimension to this god and to this sign, as well as something honorable. Yet ironically he is his mother Queen Aries avenger before anything else, which ties him back to the feminine. He is a sort of glimpse of matrilineal lineage, from Oranus, to Cronus, and from Cronus, to Zeus. There has been this almost part the nigenic siring from the feminine mother goddess, to have a son born entirely of herself, who is going to avenge her injustices, who is going to correct her wrongdoings at the hands of the vial any masculine, heartoranical husband. We've seen it passed down from generation to generation. Aries himself is just the Olympian remix of this old family complex. So this is an image of internalized fighting amongst the male principles, over a woman, which within itself is extremely evocative of seeing two rams clashing heads against each other over and over. This is perhaps part of the reason why he has such a contentious relationship with his father, Zeus, beyond anything related to their natural dispositions, because Zeus is aware of what this really is about. Ironically or incidentally, Zeus is associated in Egypt with Amun, who is a ram headed god. That's the one thing about these stories. The same figures keep showing them over and over as the same representations of the sign in different characters. It's like we're watching the same actor split amongst the entire task, protagonist and antagonist, and we're seeing them interact and create these dramas, so we keep coming up with the same principle themes. A few quick details regarding Aries lineage. According to Hezod, Aries has said to be the only legitimate child between Zeus and Hera, which was suggested in trend to contention within their marriage relationship. But an obvious specifically in his narration says that Aries is born out of competition, because he is generated again and maculately by Hera herself to compete with Zeus, because Zeus has seemingly formed the goddess Athenii entirely out of himself. Athenii is of course his great enemy and myths, right? She is specifically war strategy and war craft, the judicious machinations and prudent arts of combat to secure victory. Athenii, unlike Aries, is not coming into anything had at first, as she guarantees success. The other interesting thing about Athenii is that she entirely centers her father Zeus. She is his brightest child, besides Hermes Mercury, but she's a woman, so she poses to show venistic Zeus no immediate threat. And I think that she represents something within the sign Aries as well, because she comes from Zeus's head, likewise armed with a spear, and the head is said to be the body part associated with Aries as the first sign. So it's very interesting considering that Aries the God was born solely from Hera to compete with Athenii. To challenge Athenii, we're looking once again at this conflict amongst the Perennial relationship. We're looking at Aries, this exaggeratedly masculine image coming from a goddess, and we're looking at Athenii, this extremely powerful image of victory, another term we associate with Aries the sign coming from a male daddy Zeus and from his brain. And there are always at each other's throats, like Buffy and Faith, Aries and Athenii. It's like their stories are written just for the sole purpose of watching them one up each other back and forth. He fights with Heracles and a Faces as well, a Faces in particular, twice over the attentions of a woman, once for his mother, and once for their mother, and once for Aphrodite. But in each of these instances Aries loses. He's always losing. Why is this so? Because he's too subjective, too ram-headed, he's not thinking ahead because he's all rushed both armed swinging and not giving himself the opportunity to gain any sense of objective detachment to properly assess his combatants and to adequately see what is best in terms of attack. As a result, he's constantly getting his ass kicked. There is this amazing scene with him in the Iliad where he is defending Prince Hector. The Trojan War is the greatest representation we have of his character Aries because he doesn't feature in many myths. As a god, he champions the underdog, primarily because the underdog, the ones who have the greatest opposition stacked against them, have more opportunities to fight and more chances to evidence bravery. So while Athenian of course represents the Acayans, the Greeks, Aries is on the side of the Trojans, who lose. And when the Greek forces are fighting against the Trojans, Aries himself goes on the battlefield directly. Again, Aries is the only god to do this. The other gods act around mortals. They direct them. They manipulate them. Not Aries. He's out there slugging with the best of them. He's the only one who fights on behalf of the mortals actually, physically defending Prince Hector himself. Hector is Trojan royalty. Their greatest fighter, and Aries quote, "makes play with his spear." He is sceptical before Hector and he is sceptical behind him. Guarding him, it is very powerful. But again, Aries is defeated. To restate, he leaves himself incredibly vulnerable and open because in his aggressive offense, and in the heat of his fury, he lacks strong defense. He can defend Hector and always defends his children. Aries is very honorable, but he cannot defend himself. Aries is the contender who doesn't know how to properly guard himself. He is a clumsy, reckless energy to intensely in the moment. Blind rage means it lacks scope. And this fine quality, so clear in characters like his sister, who is his foil, can prove a men'sly, helpful in combat. Aries with a little ingenuity, some distance, and an ounce of cunning, Aries is easy to defeat. Zeus calls him an image of Harris' uncontrollable anger, but Aries can be conquered, and his winning combination of rash thoughtlessness, hypersensitivity, and zero foresight is his greatest weakness. So yes, he is perpetually ineffective. But where he loses here, he succeeds elsewhere. Perhaps because of his closeness with his mother, he is a champion of the Amazons and a defender of the feminine. For all his appetites, he is the only god with no stories of violating women, neither mortal nor divine, besides trying to fight Athena. Which brings us to his relationship with Aphrodite, his divine consort, his equal and mythic ruler of his succeeding in opposite signs, Taurus and Libra. With her, Aries' parents, Harmonia, and Aros, a name that sounds too similar to his own, there is something deeply interpersonal about Aries, mirrored in its opposite sign Libra, the sign of relationship. But with Aries in battle, it's one against one, whereas with Aphrodite and Libra it's one with one. Aries is successfully neutralized through his desire for her. Meanwhile Aphrodite is still as conflict wherever she goes. Perhaps Aries and Libra, Mars and Venus, are not so different after all. Thank you once again for this spectacular opportunity. You may find me on Instagram, T-Mac, E1018, or you may find me at corrodww.corrod.com/profile/tom-mac-69. I've been doing birth charts for over 20 years and I'm a huge mythology nerd. I'm so pleased and thrilled with this opportunity and I look forward to contributing again in the future. Alright Tom, thank you so much for that contribution. That was awesome. You guys might remember Tom from previous episodes. He's been submitting voicemails for a good long while now and I figured that it was time to have him on for a full segment and he definitely delivered. I'll say that probably the thing that is the most intriguing to me has to do with Aries being defeated in battle. I see a few different ways in how this relates to the modern symbolism of Aries as we know it. and the term sacrifice has been been brought up. And I think that maybe there's something going on there that I think in many ways men are kind of sacrificial creatures. I think of war. I think of soldiers going to battle. I think of soldiers being cannon fodder. I think of the fact that a lot of veterans basically are kind of brushed to the side once they've served their time in the military and whatnot. I think of men in many ways as being sacrificial the same way as an example. I think of sperm cells. And I think of the fact that men create so many sperm cells every single day, but how many of them actually complete and fulfill their duty of inseminating an egg. The ratio of that is very, very, very, very small. And so I think of the men who have to work and do very hard labor and they're kind of doing it in silence. No one's thanking them. It's not something that they get rewarded too heavily for depending on where you live, depending on what kind of job you do. And so I think that there is something to kind of be said about that. That the role of the male is almost like cannon fodder. And so I think that this perhaps has something to do with that. At least that's what comes to mind off the top of my head. So does that make sense? It does for sure. And one of the things that comes to my mind is hunting season. So it's illegal to kill a doe, but you can go ahead and kill a buck and you can kill all the bucks you want. And that is the prize possession. That's what people are after. It becomes trophy piece at 1.2 if you are able to get a buck that has many points and his antlers. And that is kind of a theme throughout hunting from what I can understand anyway. Mm hmm. Right. Yeah. That makes sense. It kind of reminds me too. I know this is a random example, but I think of the movies where you have some sort of villain and he has all these henchmen. And so he has all of these minions, foot soldiers, if you will. And there's dozens or hundreds of these guys that basically become disposable. And so they're disposable and they're kind of on the front lines. And you will be able to find other men to fill that slot or fill that role. Let's just face it, women are more protected. They are considered to have a higher value. You know, if we're going to put market value on men and women, I would say regardless of what a woman may or may not receive at a job, her value is much greater than anything she could do at any kind of job. Right. She gives birth. She raises the children. She has all of these beautiful assets. Men on the other hand, as an example, like I'm saying, they're considered to be a little bit more disposable. And so I think that there's something kind of going on here with that, even just to relate it to the ram real quick, the Rams butt heads for mating rights. And so it's only the alpha that's going to have the privilege of actually mating and passing on his seed versus these other males who aren't able to kind of cut it in that arena, they're not going to pass down their genetics. So they're not going to have the right to mate. And my understanding too is that some of these Rams can butt heads for hours and hours to the point of like near death exhaustion. Right. And so it's a tough road. I think for a lot of men, I think it's a tough road for a lot of women too in today's world. So I'm not saying that one necessarily has it better than the other. We each kind of have our own circumstance that we have to deal with, but that's just kind of what I'm picking up from the symbolism here with everything. Hey there, it's Mari once again. Did you know I'm a lifelong artist and graphic designer? In fact, that is my bread and butter. I've been a graphic designer for nearly three decades and have designed just about everything imaginable. Whether it be logos, book covers, websites, you name it. If you're looking for a creative who is symbolically literate, look no further, you can check out my portfolio at symbolics studies.com. And of course, if you have any questions, get in touch. Okay, back to the episode. The other thing that comes to mind right now is growing cannabis and what that entails when it comes to having female plants and male plants. If you are growing cannabis to get flour, you do not want any males present in the entire lot of plants. Because what can happen is the males will pollinate the females and they can actually turn them into males or they can turn them into homophidites. And then you are not going to be producing flour, you would be producing seed. So there is an element there and it's always like, "Ah, get rid of the male." You know, it's kind of like this thing that you really have to be aware of. So that is something that comes to mind right there. Also, I think on so many levels, as it relates to Katrina's email as well, with Aries being the hired man that in many ways men are valued for what they can do. And what they can create and sort of basically their actions essentially. So maybe that's a word we're talking about real quick, action. Aries is a very action oriented sign. Aries starts with A, action starts with A. They're known for their forward momentum, forward progress. That's like everything that is sort of encoded in what they look like and everything else. And so a man is the hired man. The one that's going to harvest the barley and this and that. Women obviously are amazing workers, clearly, but men will do arguably more of the dirty grunt work for society. Although women carry that weight as well, obviously. So I would never say that women or men one works harder than the other necessarily. But if you have a village or if you have a city and you have a particularly dirty job to do, you're going to send a man. Right. You're going to send a man. And so generally that is the case at least. And so I'm okay with that. As a man, I'm okay with that. And so I have. As a woman, I'm okay with right. Yeah, exactly. It's just how it is. Right. And so but I can't not think about that as Tom was kind of going through everything about Aries losing these battles. Also this idea of Aries losing, you know, it kind of relates to me to Cardinal fire and the nature of a Cardinal sign. So whenever I think of the three fire signs. So in order that would be Aries Leo Sagittarius, we're going from a Cardinal sign and Aries to a fixed sign and Leo to a mutable sign in Sagittarius to me Aries almost represents like an explosion or almost like a shotgun blast. Right. And so it's not refined. It's not fine tuned. And so as Tom was saying, this could be the reason why Aries loses in battle versus Leo, it being a fixed sign that represents balance. And so I think of something that is able to be sustainable. I think of something that's a little bit more refined. And then when we have Sagittarius, that is even I would say almost like a pinpoint. It's almost like a laser or something like that. Literally the arrow. How precise do you have to be when you're shooting an arrow? And so I think with Aries the ram, it's almost just kind of like this explosion that sends chards everywhere, but doesn't necessarily have a pointed focus. Right. And so it just reminds me of just brute kind of force, you know, in many ways. So just wanted to mention that as well. Well, and I think too one of the probably shadows or challenges for someone who isn't Aries or the energy of Aries is to be able to tame that excitement or the flailing as Tom mentioned because the haste that comes with that definitely is detrimental, but also can be positive. But what it made me think of was the conversation of the forenix and how I brought up lemon balm. And perhaps Aries the God needs a little lemon balm in his life so that he can kind of tame that a little bit so that the likelihood of him succeeding with the goals that he has is more achievable. Isn't that interesting? This is one of these things as well where we're talking on one hand about stillness and the high point and the central point and everything else. And then also now this lack of focus. Right. So there's both this idea of focus and lack of focus I can see. So very intriguing stuff. Hi Mario. Hi Michelle. This is Emily Redout at the International School of Astro Yoga calling in to talk to you about Aries energy. So Aries is the ram or the lamb of God and it is the first sign of the zodiac. In the tropical zodiac it initiates at the vernal equinox and it is considered to be the solar new year. It is a sign that rules over your head, your face and the upper part of your brain and specifically those nerve centers that govern signs. So when we're looking at Aries energy, you could really go on about the sign just for hours, exploring the complexities of the differentiation between the ram and the lamb, the differentiation between the innocent pure start and the associations we have with both Aries and the ruler of Aries Mars with war and the martial arts. So there's complexity here in this first sign. But the energy itself is quite simple. So we have the cardinal sign of fire, and fire rules over enthusiasm, it rules over spirit, and it rules over a plane of formation where things happen very quickly, almost electrically, very quickly. And so with Aries, it's a fast moving sign, and it is quite directional. So from one point to another, because of this Aries energy tends to go well when it has vision for where it's going, instead of being perhaps beguiled by the myriad shiny things in life, or angered by the myriad, angering things in life. So when we're looking at Aries energy, we have to consider vision. And this is both being able to see. So the ways that we use our sense of sight, our interpretation of the world around us, the beliefs we form based on what we've seen, as well as the vision we hold for our lives, for the future, for humanity, any of these things. And with Aries having a vision is very important. So it's our visions that can help us align our actions with what we really do believe. So vision drives us toward particular actions. If you have a vision for peace, you will take actions to create peace. If you have a vision to succeed in a particular field, career field, a particular exercise regimen, whatever it may be, you'll take action for those things. And you'll also use your power of vision and sight to read the landscape. So for example, if you have a vision to succeed in a particular career field, for example, or a particular endeavor, you'll read the landscape first. You'll see, what could I do, what could I contribute, what already exists, and where are there problems that have yet to be solved. So that's a big thing with Aries energy. This is the cardinal fire sign and first sign of the zodiac. And it rules over something specific in every single person. And it is our capacity to have leadership within our own forms. So when we're looking at the astro-yoga associations, the bodily associations, we have the head, the brain, the eyesight. And when we look at the tarot associations, we have the emperor. Now the emperor in the tarot is the card that comes right after the impress. And the emperor, the word itself means he who sets an order. And so we're moving from the impress, she who sets an order to the emperor. And this is an understanding in the tarot that with the impress, we are given manifestation. She represents the Venusian aspect of life where manifestation exists. Nature exists. Prolific creation exists. And then from that prolific creation, we have this Aries capacity to use our vision, to use our brain power, our knowledge, and our action power to set things in order again. So this is the understanding that we've created all sorts of things in our lives, right? In the last cycle, the last solar cycle, the many years already people have been alive. And now we have a responsibility to understand our own minds and our own visions, and start to arrange what we already have, and set things in order that we already have according to our vision. And I know you're a fan of the tarot Mario, but if you look at the tarot card for the emperor, he's almost always cloaked in armor. Now part of this is a nod to Mars and the Medal of Mars and the association with the Marshal rulership of Aries. But this is also associated with the understanding that to actually rule over something to actually change the circumstances of your life to match your vision, you must be willing to act. So you have to be willing to both see and see clearly. And often you'll find emperor cards where he's in profile and you see one eye, right? So you have this understanding of the single eye in the forehead, the single vision that is the enlightened vision, and then the actions that you take to back that up. And I think this is such an important thing in the world today because so many of us have philosophical systems. We have ideas about things. But then a true measure of what your philosophy is doing is what your spirit is doing within you is what do you decide to actually spend your time doing? What do you decide to work toward? What are you willing to do to further the things that you really want to see showing up in life and in the world? Now the other tarot card associated with Mars, not Aries. So Aries is the emperor card. Mars, the ruler of Aries, is the tower card. This is a card I see a lot of people nervous about because it does show a tower with two figures falling from it and there's a big lightning bolt striking the tower. And what we see here pictured is the flash of insight that occurs for people. When the old worldview, the old vision we had for life is completely tossed out the window and you'll see the people who are tossed out the window are symbolic of layers of our consciousness. And they're cloaked in a lot of riches. So one of them I believe is even wearing a crown in many decks. And it's the understanding that we dress up our consciousnesses in systems of belief, but then at some point many of the beliefs we hold might not be the full picture. And so we have a flash of insight and then we release those false ideas that we had before and we come to higher understanding. I think side note this is quite interesting and an interesting time to be discussing this with you because this year at the Vernel Equinox we have Mercury turning direct all planets will be direct for not quite two months until I believe may six or maybe may fourth if I remember correctly. This is a big deal. These planets going forward. There's big deal outer planet alignments this whole year going on as well. And we're due to have some CME's coronal mass ejections from the sun, these solar flare energies coming in also on that very day. So there's just a lot of energy hitting the earth for this area season. But the main thing I wanted to bring up and there's certainly a larger discussion that maybe you and Michelle are touching on about what does it mean to have an inner being who's always innocent and yet see the reality of the world where everybody's inner being is always innocent. There are outer beings might not be doing innocent things and then reconciling what are the layers of consciousness that allow for wrong action that allow for ignorant action and that allow for patterns of suffering as well as patterns of championing really human potential human growth and the beauty of life. The dichotomy of course of of the good that can come from action and the ill that can come from action and understanding the relationship between action and the neurological centers in the brain, as well as the understanding of spirit in the body. So there's what we could just go on for months talking about that. But the main thing I wanted to bring up was the RAM, Mars, head, brain, eyesight, the Emperor, and the Tower. I hope that you have a beautiful Aries season and solar new year, and I'll talk to you guys again. All right, Emily, thank you so much for that voicemail. Always bringing it. And I think it's really interesting that she focused on vision as relates to Aries. And to me, that makes a lot of sense, actually. You know what's fascinating, though, to me is as I was reading through some of our symbolic reference books, it did make mention the fact that Aries can relate to blindness in some ways. Just like we were talking about this cardinal energy being more explosive directionless in some ways. And so the theme continues to come through of focus or like a lack of focus. And here she's talking about vision and having a vision for the future. And her talking about the Tower card, which relates to Mars, that sort of being an old vision sort of coming down. Interestingly, related to that as well. Traditionally in the Tower card, who do you see falling from the tower? Often it is the Emperor and the Pope or the Hyraphant. So there's a relationship there as well that I wanted to bring up. But the idea of vision, right, you want your Emperor to have a vision. So you want your Emperor or Lord or King to have some sort of vision for the future, to have some sort of game plan. And as she mentioned, Emperor means he who sets an order. Absolutely. He brings order, he brings stability, ideally, unless you're dealing with the tyrant, of course, but he brings orientation once again to his people. I have to bring up the fact as well that I symbolism relates to the Vesca Pisces and Katrina was talking about that being encoded in the Emperor card. So the Vesca Pisces, it looking like an almond, you know, that's basically the shape of the Yoni, but that's also the shape of the eye. And the eye has that pupil right in the center or the iris. And some people have said that Polaris actually maybe is a reference to Polaris. And Polaris has been referred to as the eye in the sky as well. So there's a few things going on here that I find to be particularly interesting. Also related to this sort of duality that we're talking about with aries, focus, lack of focus, this innocent youthful dynamic, but also it being balanced with aggression and war and everything else. On one hand, we're talking about aries relating to action, which it is, and that makes a lot of sense, it being cardinal fire and everything else. But also this still point in the middle that we've also been referring to is related to contemplation. It's a lot of action. So the stillness in the middle of a system relates to a contemplative dynamic, the middle of a wheel as an example, the axle of the wheel relates to contemplation, not action. It's the external part of the wheel that relates to action. But what I would say is that right action is taken when you contemplate, when you consider the outcome. If you have a vision, if you're able to look ahead, if you're able to basically think about something and have an awareness of what you're about to do, then you are probably more than likely going to follow through with right action. Unfortunately, most people in today's world, generally, especially in the West and in the modern world, they generally just act. They act, they create, and they're doing things, but a lot of times they're not evaluating what they're doing. They're not really taking deep, deep consideration or contemplative thoughts about what they're doing, if they're harming themselves or the people around them, if this is going to help them with their goals or whatnot. So in a way, I kind of get the metaphor of the hamster on the hamster wheel or the person who is just kind of going around and around and around, but they never take a moment to kind of be still and really think about sort of where their life is going. If they're happy about it, if there's any changes that they should be making or whatnot. So she was talking about this dynamic of the inner being relating to innocence. I think it's interesting because innocence in is right there, and we're talking about this inner dynamic versus the outer being who maybe doesn't act accordingly to reflect that. Or maybe acting against that or what have you. Thank you, Emily, for your contribution. You always bring so many fabulous insights to the podcast. I'm thinking about, again, the polarity aspect that we're talking about, and it makes me think of the emperor and makes me also think about that anyone who has sense about them wants an emperor with a backbone. That's very important. And there is a relationship to Aries and the upper spine that connects to our brain, and I was reading about that in the zodiac and the Seltze of Salvation. And to further explain this connection, I have a quote here. The cerebral spinal system is the first part of the organism developed and from it, the whole form materializes. The cerebral and cord constitute most truly the tree of life for they bear or produce the rest of the body. So this to me further illustrates the importance of structure. The importance of the structure that the spine brings helps us to be upright and closer to the heavens. This is really important and it also just goes along with Aries because they're such an upright energy with Aries. We're springing forth. We're coming up from the ground towards the heavens. Right. Just like the sprout, right? And so shooting upward towards the heavens. It's really interesting because when we're dealing with the spine, it's like our symbolic pole. Right. And so it keeps us vertical as you're saying. When we're dealing with the pole or the spine, we're dealing with the world axis symbol. And as I was saying earlier, one of the classic world axis symbols is the mountain. And when you're looking at the emperor card, especially the right or right version, they do it most clearly than any other deck that I've seen. They are deliberately placing the emperor in between two mountains. And he himself looks like a mountain. So he is actually the central mountain. He's a symbolic holy mountain. And so again, just this idea of climbing the mountain and you're closer to the heavens, you're closer to the divine. It's the same idea of climbing a tree, right? It's the same idea of the classic Kundalini serpents going up the spine. It's really the same symbolism pretty much. And really when it comes to vision, as Emily is saying, we want to aspire towards the gods, towards the divine, towards the heavens and having this vertical spine, basically, I think relates to that pretty much. And so I also just have to say that being vertical and having this world axis sort of dynamic just built into the way we look as humans, what people have said for a long time is that we are the bridge between the above and below. This is called the Great Triad, that there is a triune relationship between heaven, earth, and man. And we literally are the thing that bridges the gap between all that is above with all that is below. Good evening, symbolic studies. My name is Tindy, I am a listener of your podcast and a big fan. And today or tonight, I'd like to contribute to your discussion on Aries for this month. I connect to Aries in a very different way. I am very fascinated with the word Aries. And I am fascinated with the letters that comprise the word Aries. And how when you switch them around, you get a lot of coincidences. Some I find fascinating and I would like to share with you tonight. To do this, I will share a sentence I was inspired to write or statements. And it will help you understand what I am talking about. And it goes like this, "When Aries arises to meet Aries in battle, the ram rams against Mars, the God of War. But I find interesting about the statements is the fact that a lot of the words are anagrams of one another. And you can best way to, I found to put them all together is in another statement. It's much shorter and it's simple. It's this. The arm rises or arm rises. And this image is one or the most elementary image of what itself. And arm raised against life, arm raised against something else. That's what war is essentially. And in the words arm rises, you can spell out the words Aries, Aries, Aries the God of War. You can spell ram, rams and the word moh. And all of these words together drive our driven towards combat, battle and war. And I find it interesting how they all just play on one another. Thank you for listening. Goodbye. All right, Tendai. Thank you so much for that contribution there. You're right. There's a lot of words associated with Aries, Mars and RAM. That could be anagrams of each other. I've noticed that as well. And one thing I want to put out there, March has Mar right there related to Mars. And what do soldiers do? They march. There you go. Yeah. So once you start studying it, you will see many, many examples actually. The other one I want to throw out there is he mentioned arms, I believe. Mm-hmm. Right? Like the right to bear arms. This also relates to having an R-me. Right? And the thing that I always think of with that is the fact that Gemini corresponds with the arms. And we have people to figures, twins that are often at odds with each other. The evil twin, the good twin, what have you. And so this idea of arms and arming yourself and an army having armor as well as related relates to this dynamic of aggression and different parties warring against each other. And whatnot. So fascinating stuff. The Aries symbol the RAM, which is like a V shape with two swirls at the top. It looks suspiciously and wonderfully like modern data pictures of a womb. And I think it's fitting because Aries is the first sign of the zodiac. And the womb is from is where all life is birthed from. Where human life is birthed from and for those of us who do have a womb as I do myself, I really do tend to a lot of my creation process in the space in the sphere of my womb. And along with the birthing, I think something that doesn't often get talked about when it comes to Aries is how big a role, fear plays in birth. I am have a blessed position of chatting with a lot of expecting mothers and so many of them even in modern day times have a lot of fear about whether they're going to survive the birth portal or not. Like it's this very like instinctual fear about will I survive will my baby survive. And not only birthing human children's but like re birthing yourself, birthing creative projects, birthing things that you care about into this world, whether you're a womb holder or not. I just think the symbolism of steeping yourself of all creation coming from the womb and also the question of fear, how big is fear, how big is this like instinctual existential fear really being a part of your process so much so that it might be keeping you. It might be keeping you from taking those Aries leaps of faith that are so necessary when it comes to birthing, re birthing and living a pioneering authentic life. Victoria, thank you so much for that voicemail that was thought provoking. There's a few things I want to touch on here. And I'll say that the first thing is that mankind's greatest fear, my understanding is the fear of the unknown. As an example, I think that's what's connected to a lot of people's fear of death. They don't know what's going to happen. They don't know what's going to happen with their family. They don't know what's going to happen in the transition. They don't know what the other side is really all about. And so people have this fear of the unknown. And a lot of great movies take advantage of this. Not necessarily seeing who the killer is or what the monster looks like or how things are going to end up. That is something that can really jar a lot of people. And so I think it has to do with that. And I like what you said regarding the fear basically taking hold and maybe preventing you from that Aries leap of faith. Fear is sort of the mind killer. It kind of is the killer in many ways. And I think it has to do as well. A lot of fear has to do with scarcity and projecting scarcity and not projecting abundance. And so if you are embodying completeness, oneness, and you have more of a holistic sort of attitude with things, you basically are embracing the abundance of the universe versus if you're seeing the scarcity of everything. And if everything is seemingly sort of separate within, you're going to see that played out in your life. So I think there's kind of a lot going on there. The other thing, however, I will say with all of this is that if we're dealing with this sign that has all of this symbolism related to birth, you know, birthing anything is an easy. It's not necessarily clean. It's not simple. And so I would say the same thing as well with sort of birthing a new awareness of self. Enlightenment, it's not easy. It actually can look very, very messy. The same way birthing a child brings about all sorts of things related to that. It's almost as though creation requires some sort of destruction. So a lot of things that are destructive in nature seemingly appear to be chaotic. But that needs to happen in order for things to be birth. As an example, Emily brought up the tower card. A lot of people, just as she said, the tower makes them nervous. And so, but this is exactly what you need in order for that next thing to be built, in order for that next thing to be created. People have said for a while the first step in any creative process actually is destruction. So I think that has to do with a lot of the things that we're kind of talking about here and what she's bringing up regarding fear. And as a man, I just want to say that I can completely understand and sympathize why anybody would be fearful of this process. Because it's a serious thing. And women have died during childbirth. It's not that terribly uncommon. Great points, babe. And thank you, Victoria, for this wonderful voicemail because it really did bring up some good thoughts for me as well. And as a woman with a womb, I would agree with you that a lot of our creative energy or creative force comes from that region of our body. And I feel as though every month when we poor our monthly blood, that is a sacrifice. That is something we're giving back to the earth. That is an opportunity for us to remember maybe what happened in the last month and to give thanks for the things that happened as well as the things that are going to come from that sacrifice. I love this weave with fear and the existential fear that comes with birth and bearing a child and then also beyond that, I'm sure there's lots of fears that come from well, what happens after the child comes then what's going to go on and you know, you can really probably spiral into all sorts of directions with this. But one of the things that I want to say about this is that I think that aries actually is the antidote though to the fear because there is that fearlessness that comes from aries there. Whether we're looking at it as a flailing energy or hasty or whatever that energy though really can just blast past all that fear. And conquer whatever they're wanting to conquer or to accomplish what they're wanting to accomplish or to just remind themselves that this fear is fleeting and it's not always going to be there. And that once that moment comes when the baby is out of your womb and it's in your arms, it's all going to melt away. And to piggyback off of what you said Mario with the unknown and that being a big fear for everybody birth is one of the biggest unknowns. We don't know what's going to happen. Sometimes you become pregnant and in the early stages of the pregnancy you unfortunately might lose the baby. So there's fear with that. We don't know what it's going to look like. We don't know if we're planning for a home birth. There might be something that a midwife or a doula tells you well maybe we should go the other route. You have to be flexible. And I think the best thing you could do in this situation would be to embrace the unknown. Well, lastly, I just want to say from the warrior perspective, which this is interesting as well. Some people have said that Aries represents the warrior class or cast of people which always exists throughout history. You're going to have different types of people that are interested in doing different types of things and they're aligned with those things. There's as an example always like a spiritual priest class. There's always a warrior class or warrior cast and what are you trying to do in war besides instill fear in your opponent. That's a whole nother angle, right? So just wanted to throw that out there. Hello, everyone. This is Zaynab. I speak very fast because I only have two minutes. My mother tongue is Arabic so whenever I hear the word Aries, three words come to my mind. A phallus, pregnancy and a burden. Aries in English have a similar sound for the Arabic word "air" which means a phallus and a lot of Arabic dialects. If you look at the Aries, it does look like a phallus and a symbol of Mars which consists of the shield and the spear of the god Aries also to me symbolizes that. which all in all represent the sexual and sexual activity. the warrior nature of areas. The Arabic word for areas as a zodiac sign is at Hamil, which literally means a pregnancy. And if you change a few accents on the letters, it sounds like a hem, which means a bird in or a weight of something heavy. Emishyadi for the area Arabs and the Muslim astrologers, the constellation of areas was called al-Qaqshus-Saril. Literally translates to ayang sheep. Since areas is the first zodiac sign that represent the young energy which we find in a lot of areas, boldness and puffs ofness, having no fear and taking risk. Speaking of the young sheep, three stories come to my mind all relates to sacrificing the ram. The story of Abraham and his son Ishmael in the Quran, where Abraham was ordered to kill his son and before he did, God sent him around to sacrifice instead of his son, ending the practice of a human sacrificing. Generally speaking, the story appears in Genesis, the first book of the Torah with Abraham and his son Isaac. And again we find it in the Greek mythology with a Frexes where he was saved by a golden ram. And the ram was sacrificed. That's from me. If you'd like to discuss more or add or send any insight or chat with me, you can find me on Substac, Zero Flection, that is Z-E-E-R-E-F-L-E-C-T-I-O-N-S. Thank you. Zyna, thank you so much for that voicemail. That was excellent. And actually there's a lot going on here between these three words and then the three myths that she brought up. Very very interesting. So once again she said, "Falace, pregnancy, and burdens, slash weight." I would say that one is a particular interest to me. It kind of reminds me of what Thomas saying regarding, I believe is, our meaning curse. Oh yes. Right. So maybe there's some sort of relationship there. Also, the hired man going back to that, someone who is hired to be a laborer probably has a burden on their shoulders that they have to take care of. Whether it's tilling or any number of physical jobs, but a lot of times these difficult jobs, even just symbolically carry a weight with them. And so to me, it could potentially relate to that. Also, isn't it interesting that multiple cultures have this idea of the sacrificial lamb as she was saying in the mythology section of her voicemail related to that as well, just have to say, there's so much overlapping symbolism between the ram and the goat. And so it's almost like two sides of the same coin. The ram in my opinion has more of a daylight sort of aspect. It's on the day side of the zodiac. It has more of a solar sort of dynamic in my opinion. Obviously Mars is the correspondence, but you can see what I'm saying with the sun. And I would say that the ram has more of this right hand path sort of symbolism associated with it versus the goat has more of a left hand path association with it. But also the goat has also been sacrificed. And so I just want to say that this is where we get like the word scapegoat from, you know, and so people putting their sins on the goat and then sacrificing the goat. So whether you're talking about the goat or the ram, the sacrificial nature of both of them is like off the charts. And so these would really be the two sacrificial animals in the whole entire zodiac, I would say. Thank you, Zinev. Those were great insights. Always love hearing different ways of looking at the signs. And I'm thinking about the pregnancy aspect, basically piggybacking off of what what Victoria was bringing up. And it makes me think about what she was talking about with the fear. But also there's like something heavy there, the burden. There is a heaviness and a burden that is put on to the mother with this whole aspect of bearing a child and the childbirth. So that to me is very interesting and just goes along with the theme that we're kind of running with right now currently. Right. Exactly. It takes a toll on her body. And on her emotions and everything else. Thank you once again onto the next one. Erie, Erie, Erie, Erie, we are a whole lot and a bag of chips. But we are first and always will be, we are what you feel when you look at the color red. You feel buzz, you feel attraction, you feel a burst of energy. It's stimulating. It is pure raw desire itself. And just like red being the first color of the rainbow, we are that as well. And you know, the rainbow is melting into many other different colors. But that is the very start to it. Another thing is is we are sensitive, but we are not soft. We are first in the sense of we're first to take accountability. We're first to do things. We're the first ones dancing out on the dance floor. We are independent, pioneering, and unapologetic about it as well. We represent spring and spring equinox and birth and beginnings and concentrated energy just like canned heat that is meant to be carried throughout the rest of the zodiac. Pretty much that. We have the glyph as well as another thing I love to talk about. Basically, it resembles, you know, the ram's horns. But it also looks a lot like a flame flickering upwards, a headlamp before charge or perhaps a sprouting seed breaking through the ground or even a uterus and ovaries often being correlated with birth and new beginnings. You know, we are spring. We are the start to the new year spring equinox to carry on the rest of the year and rest the zodiac. Cardinal sign as well. We love new projects. And to close this off, I will say that we are the fireiest out of all the fire signs. We take the cake and number one on that. Erries is many things, but this is just a small glimpse and a view from an areas myself. Thank you so much for listening. All right, Julian, thank you for that contribution. Absolutely the color red. And I would say all warm colors in general. I'm thinking of orange, thinking of yellow. I think there's other signs that maybe are better suited. I'm thinking of Leo as an example, associating with orange and yellow and the sun and all that. But I think all warm colors are appropriate here. And you're right. It's the first color of the rainbow. It's also the color of our root chakra. So in this way, it kind of reminds me of this idea of aries climbing the mountain. And so the metaphor is that you got to start from the first step and work your way up, almost like a ladder or almost like the series of steps or something like that. Climbing the ladder, climbing the mountain, climbing the pyramid, if you will. And so the color red I think is kind of initiatory in some ways. And just thinking out loud, a lot of people have said that Scorpio really kind of in a very potent way relates to initiation. And that is also ruled by Mars. And so even the glyph of Mars having that arrow or the glyph of aries shooting upward. You got to focus or you got at least acknowledge that starting point, whatever it is. Okay, this wraps up the live recording Michelle and I made on Wednesday, March 18. Before I put a bow on this episode, I wanted to clarify something I mentioned just after Katrina's voicemail. And it has to do with this knife that looks like the glyph for aries. I said that there was a Jewish circumcision tool that was a knife that looked like this glyph and actually I misspoke. And what I was referring to is a shield. This is the circumcision shield, which is called the mage. And so you can look that up for yourself and undeniably it looks like the aries glyph. So there is of course circumcision symbolism that relates to aries, although it is not with the knife specifically, it is with this shield. Also, I wanted to briefly mention something regarding the nature of war, given everything that's going on in the world right now. Naturally, war is shocking, it's traumatizing, and a lot of people during wartime, they get displaced. And basically there's just a lot of disorientation going on. So the main thing I just wanted to mention is that if you or your family or you're in a country that is going through it right now, and of course we will all be suffering the consequences of a World War III if that is to take place, then the solution to disorientation is orientation. It is being centered, it's being grounded. And even if you have to travel, as an example, or you have to go somewhere, you can still stay centered, you can still stay grounded, even while you're on the move. And so this is something that I just wanted to mention, because there are a lot of people going through a lot of difficult situations right now. And who knows what's going to be happening over the next few years. But the solution in my eyes is to be more centered than ever. And I relate centeredness to being present as well. So not being necessarily caught up in the future or in the past. You've probably heard me say this before, but if you find yourself constantly thinking about the future, you're going to be prone to anxiety. If you find yourself constantly thinking about the past, you're going to be prone to depression. But if you find yourself in the present moment, you're going to be prone to peace. And so I think we can use a bit of that right now. I see a lot of people that are projecting ahead of what's going to happen over the coming weeks, over the coming months, over the coming years. And in my opinion, no matter what you have to do for you and your family, being present is key. You're going to make the best choices by being as present as possible. And I'm completely aware that this is much easier said than done. And with that out of the way, I just wanted to also mention just how grateful I am for this podcast, its listeners, and its contributors. So thank you for listening. If you ever sent it to a friend, if you're a supporter, if you've contributed a voicemail, much love, and thank you so much. Of course, I have to say thank you to our regular contributors, Emily and Katrina, and a special thanks to Tom and Marty for their awesome insights this episode. Marty can be found at NostickAcademy.org or Nostick Academy on YouTube. Tom can be found on Instagram, T. Mackie, 1-0, 1-8, and he's also on Korra, Tom-Mac-69 is where you can find him. Katrina as always can be found at the Venus Diaries on Substack or at KatrinaEmmanuel.com. Emily Ridout can be found at astroyoga.org or EmilyRidout.com. For exclusive content, grab a symbolic studies membership, either on Patreon, YouTube, Substack, or my site. They all host the same exclusives, including 19 symbolic lectures on the tarot. Membership also gets you early access to the podcast. Without a doubt, this is the best way to keep up with everything I have to offer, and it's just five bucks a month. Also in case you weren't aware, I am available for tarot readings, private lessons, and I just launched a mentorship program for students who want to learn symbolism over a long-term basis. Also, I have to mention again the fact that symbolism came across my radar due to being a graphic designer. I've been designing for nearly 30 years, so if you're in need of creative assistance with your project, check out my portfolio in the site and get in touch. Links to all my accounts can be found at SymbolicsStudies.com, including my Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, etc. And that'll do it for this episode. I'll see you next month with a show on the symbolism of Taurus. Until then.