With today's launch of the Mars Rover Curiosity, it seems appropriate to launch an astrological discussion of Mars.

Keywords are an important part of astrology. Astrology is an art that, in a sense at least, is based on words. The art "works" by analogy, that is, the comparison of one thing with another based on perceived similarities. The heart is a pump; the heart of a thing is at its center. Hearts and pumps and centers are all ruled by the Sun.

What are some important keywords for Mars? These keywords contain "ideas" that our mind can extend to embrace many forms of manifestation. Let's look.

Mars is -----
LAUNCH -- One of the primary meanings of Mars, one of his essential and principal powers or attributes is INITIATIVE. Mars is the energy that gets things going, starts something new, is the first step. So the launch of the rocket carrying the Rover to Mars at Cape Canaveral at 1002 this morning is under the dominion of Mars. He launches things and is also "ignition". Mars is the spark found in anything, for example in the "ignition system" of a car. He is explosive, and without those explosions your car would sit in some museum and carry you nowhere.
FIRE -- The oldest "technology" known to man, his first important invention, was the controlled use of fire. Men are known to have used fire at least 300,000 years ago, before they were "us." Fire marks the beginning of civilization and technological development. Its controlled use allowed us to cook, to harden, bend or fracture materials used in making tools and weapons, to create ceramics and later smelt, refine and work metals, to bring light to the darkness, to warm us when we finally entered cold climates.... Mars rules combustion in all its forms: He rules the element Oxygen, which is what makes combustion happen, whether as the slow burning of food in our bodies to produce heat and energy, with the oxygen carried in our blood by the hemoglobin of its cells, or the rusting of a hinge, the blazing heat of the smithy's forge, or the raging inferno of an apartment house burning to the ground after some angry arsonist touches a match to the place.
ENERGY -- Fire is produced when the energy of the Sun is released from some substance into which it has been bound upon the application of sufficient energy to initiate combustion. Let's explore this idea and see how the "rulerships" of the planets change from one to the other. For practical purposes, the Sun is the source of all our energy. His light and heat make life possible, his gravity controls the otherwise uncontrolled energy of motion of the Earth itself and keeps her in a nice, comfortable orbit around him. But in order for life to exist, or anything else to happen, that raw energy must somehow be converted into other forms. Actually all of the planets participate in this process at one point or another, but we can focus our attention on a couple of them in order to illustrate how "rulership" changes hands among the planets. The Sun generates raw energy; the Moon gives that energy form; Saturn binds the energy and locks it away. Mars then comes along and releases the energy, converts it, gives it new direction...and the process assumes its cyclic nature as new forms appear, are consolidated, and then change once again.
What was once a great swamp full of reeds and other plants dies off, is covered and compressed, becomes coal which is extracted and put into our stoves to cook and heat for us. The swamp is ruled by the Moon (who is a watery planet); the compression and the coal it produces -- and the crystalization or binding of the energy into the form of a rock (coal) -- falls under the dominion of Saturn, while the mining (extraction) of the mineral and its conversion to heat and energy belongs to Mars. This energy, when applied and properly directed, allows us to do things, to create -- or destroy.
Mars, as we can see, is not essentially "bad;" on the contrary, life without Mars is impossible. But when his energy is uncontrolled or misdirected, then he becomes destructive, fragmenting, and "bad." In the heat of anger we spill blood. A fire that goes out of control destroys; controlled it makes good things possible. But even that destruction is ultimately "good," because it clears the way, removes the old and worn out, and makes the new possible.
Yes, Mars is the God of War. He brings forces that oppose us, and conflict, combat, contention. But just as the cannon belches fire and destroys, in the wake of the conflagration comes renewal.
It is only our perception of things, our human judgments, our aversion to pain and desperate longing for "happiness" that makes Mars such a bad fellow. But we should recognize that Mars symbolizes not only the "thorn in the side" but also the "burr under the saddle" that makes us act and change things for our own welfare. Without pain growth is not possible; we require a stimulus, and Mars is that. You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs.