THE HARMONIOUS ASPECTS

These indicate great energy, and, subject to the remainder of the map, much actual daring
and adventurousness. Nevertheless, this energy is frequently expressed in intellectual fields and is
by no means always concerned with adventures in the usual sense of this word.
There is usually strength and hardihood of body, though the physique is often spare and wiry
rather than heavy and powerful. There is quick decision, alertness and ability in all matters
appertaining to objective problems. Nothing is too much trouble; the native likes to exercise his
powers both physical and mental, and he is never happy unless doing something. He is far happier
when busy performing or discussing his own doings than when forced to listen to others. If airy or
mutable signs rise the energy is often intellectual; with watery signs ascending the force of character
is seen in the personality, which is of the kind often called magnetic. Regard must also naturally be
paid to the signs containing the aspecting bodies themselves, but in any case there will probably be
a decisive type of character, knowing well what it thinks, wishes and intends.
The profounder Scorpio side of Mars often causes the native to be a seeker after hidden
things, a deep thinker, and an incisive, close-knit writer, such as R.W. Emerson. It likes epigram and
apothegm. The same influence makes the native secretive, having a distinct inner side that is rarely
exhibited; it is also productive of personal dignity and self-control. Likewise patient endurance of
physical pain comes under this configuration, such as was exempliefied by the late Earl Curzon. It
may be emphatically said that the aspects of the Sun and Mars are by no means the purely
pugnacious and brawn-producing influences that they are sometimes supposed to be: in their
highest manifestation they signify the true hero, or man who fights, as it were, in the front ranks of
mankind for the welfare of the race, a modern Hercules, in the ideal sense of the myth.
Note that even the Harmonious contacts usually bring some of the effects more often
ascribed to the Inharmonious, especially if either body is weak by sign or by other aspects. But
these are likely to fall short of actual harm and may be rather of the nature of narrow escapes. For
example, Lord Roberts was in the utmost danger when he won his Victoria Cross.