Heavenly Figures 5

Mars, the Warrior

Mirrikh or Marrikh was originally a fierce underworld deity probably descended from the Babylonian god Nergal, with whom he also shared the attributes of fire, the desert and the planet Mars. The etymology of mirrīkh is not clear¹, but he was also known as al-Muharriq, “the burner”. He was worshipped by Beduin tribes of eastern Arabia and southern Iraq, though he was also found under the name Harka in the deserts of Oman and as Arsuf (from the Canaanite god Reshef) in the far north of Arabia. All these iterations, personalisations of the scorching heat of the desert, were of a wrathful disposition and inclined to send plague when dissatisfied.²

The red planet was thus associated with war, just as it is in the classical tradition, and is one of two planets with negative influence, Saturn being the greater of the two—so Mars is referred to as النحس الأصغر al-naḥs al-aṣghar, “the minor misfortune”. It’s also called النجم القاهر al-najm al-qāhir: The Subduing Star.³

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Picturing Mars (al-Mirrīkh المرّيخ)

For descriptions of the source objects, please refer to the first post in this series.

Mars is consistently depicted as a warrior fully kitted for battle, with armor, boots and helmet, though the exact design can vary to reflect local dress. Even more noticeable is that fact he usually holds aloft a sword in one hand while holding up a severed head by the hair in the other.

Mars is Planetary Lord of both Aries and Scorpio, and this iconography tends to persist in the images for these two signs, although for Scorpio the warrior can usually be seen holding up a scorpion by the tail instead of a head!

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On the Pen Box, Mars' posture has hardly changed when he's riding the ram of Aries

Despite the lack of definition, Mars is unmistakable on the basin, and likewise on a Mamluk bowl where the updated fashion of the armor is noticeable.

Both images come from the same tray; the first is from the central ring representing the planets, and the second is from the outer ring, representing the Zodiac. Can you spot the one difference between them?

Left: This image from a basin is extremely small but we can still discern a weapon (a bow in this case) and a severed head, identifying the planet. Right: Painted bowl.

The Vaso Vescovali, as usual, provides us with an extended iconography where we can recognise a scimitar, a bow, a shield and at least one severed head (the last item, at the lower left, could be another based on the way it’s held)

Astrolabe 3 has two clear if tiny Mars figures accompanying the signs Aries and Scorpio.

More Mars riding the Aries ram, from ewers 1, 2 and 3.

More Mars holding aloft scorpions for Scorpio, from Ewers 1 and 3, and Inkwell 4

Manuscript 1 is consistent in its depiction, and while other figures might get different colour tunics throughout the manuscript, Mars is structly red. But note the small dagger in one of the images, as the artist does introduce some variety in weaponry: below, the mounted warrior facing a large scoprion with a spear irresistibly evokes St George facing the dragon!

Manuscript 2, which is much later, shows the iconography beginning to break down. Only one image, that os Scorpio, still shows a fully armoured warrior; the other would never be identified as such if it weren't for the sword and head (though he does wear red).

These thumbnail images are even more removed. If it wasn't for the first one with the severed head motif, there would be nothing at all to identify the youthful figure as the planet Mars. It's possible that the rod he's holding is a mace (weapon) and would have been recognised as such by contemporary readers, but there's nothing left of the wrathful and menacing warrior archetype.

Sigil رسم

The modern symbol for Mars ♂︎ hasn’t changed since late Greek papyri, and always represented a shield crossed by a spear. The spear can be seen in Bianchini’s planisphere (2nd century AD) and is confirmed in Johannes Kamateros' 12th century Compendium of Astrology.⁴

The glyphs I have found on Astrolabe 1 (left) and in Ghāyat al-Hakīm (right), however, bear no resemblance to this.

The Astrolabe glyph looks almost identical to a sigil found in an ancient Greek alchemical text⁵, below left, that is also found barely modified as a sigil for the metal iron⁶, below right:

As for the Ghaya symbols, discount the small loops at the ends of the strokes, which are features of magical sigla, and discount also the transformation of the central shape from circle into triangle, which is often an artefact of copying shapes freestyle by hand, and they start looking very much related to the above too, only stylised by successive shorthand (we only have copies of copies of the orginal manuscript).

To finish, here are some of the correspondences for Mars listed in Ghāyat al-Hakīm:

Languages: Persian الفارسية

Cloth: Damask الخزّ, the furs of rabbits الارانب, cheetahsالفهود ⁷ or dogs الكلاب

Taste: Bitter hot and dry المرّة الحارّة اليابسة

Places: Forts الحصون, citadels القلاع, war zones مواضع الحروب, fireplaces مواقد النيران, slaughterhouses مذابح الحيوان, the dens of predators مآوى السباع, courts of law for disputes مجالس الخصومات

Gemstones: Agate العقيق and any stone that is red with darkness in it احمر فيه دكنة (could be interpreted as “dark red”, or taken at face value)

Minerals/metals: Arsenic الزرنيخ, sulphur الكبريت, naphtha النفط, glass الزجاج, red copper النحاس الاحمر

Plants: All plants of a hot nature such as peppers الفلفل, spurge-olive المازريون, euphorbia الفربيون, scammony السقمونيا, rue الحرمل, cumin الكمّون, rocket الجرجير, sappanwood البقّم, jujube السدر, and every thorny tree such as buckthorn النبق, hawthorn الزعرور, safflower العصفر, and what makes good tinder

Pharmaceutics: Any drug with bad properties that kills with its intensity and heat ردئ الكيفية يقتل بحدّته وحرارته, and of perfumes red sandalwood الصندل الاحمر

Animals: Red camels الحمر من الابل, any predators with fangs and harmful claws, every harmful red insect, snakes الافاعى, scorpions العقارب, lizards الحراذين

Colours: Red and dark colours الحمرة والدكنة

Next stop: Jupiter!

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1. I’ll just mention that etymologically it shares a root with مَرخ markh, “a tree whose wood easily ignites”, and the verb مَرَخ marakh means “to anoint [with oil]”, so the picture that forms is that al-mirrīkh is the one who is highly inflammable in that way, i.e. quick to anger.

2. Source: Mythology and religion of pre-Islamic Arabia: Deities, Spirits, Figures and Locations. I couldn’t access sources to verify all of this detail but enough of it to consider this broadly reliable.

3. The appearance of Mars during the foundation of the city of Cairo is the reason for its name of Al-Qahira. The reason it’s usually translated as “The Victorious” rather than “The Subduer” is that somewhere along the line it developed into the title “Subduer of Enemies”, in other words “victorious”.

4. I have already dealt in an earlier chapter with the woo-woo claim that it was ever “the cross over the circle” and symbolising “spirit constrained by matter”: see part 2 footnote 6.

5. Recorded by Berthelot in 1885 and reproduced by Gettings in his Dictionary of Occult, Hermetic and Alchemical Sigils, p166.

6. Recorded in the 17th-century Signa Lapidum pretiosorum, reproduced in Gettings p146. Mars is the lord of iron, so symbols for the latter are usually identical with or derived from symbols for the former.

7. Probably; the word is also used for leopards.