Ares (Aries, Mars) and the 'Fight Club' movie

FUCKED UP BIG TIME.




Ares, Aries, Mars (connecting it with the 'Fight Club' movie)

Sr. Shinoda Bolen??s description of the Ares archetype varies on the continuum from restless and impulsive ADHD child towards frenzied, bloodthirsty psychopath and imprisoned criminal. Historically Ares was described as a God who didn't know —what is right??, a person who was quarreling, getting into fights, a whining braggart, towards the gods from the Olympian society took a negative view. John McEnroe is given as example of the —here and now?? temperamental Ares character. We can see a contrast with Poseidon; in that Poseidon was able to control his wrath for years, Ares was a god who acted out immediate retribution. Because of his lack of fear, Bolen describes that possibly the most soldiers killed in the Vietnam war were Arean characters (recklesness.)

Assessment: Adventurous style (Oldham), Anti Social Personality (Millon), type E8 (Naranjo), type 7w8 (Riso)

Jan

I found an interesting comparison of the —Fight Club?? movie protagonist and the Ares character:

Case text citation:

Every now and then a movie comes along that completely embodies an archetype even if its writers do not consciously set out to make it so. The violent and misogynistic theme of "Fight Club" corresponds very well with the male Mars energy; but what is most astonishing is that this film depicts extremely well the more subtle psychological and mythological correspondences with the planet and the sign Aries, which it rules.

Mythologically, Mars is the Roman warrior god known as Ares to the Greeks. In the myth, Ares does not have a father; he is born out of Hera's rage toward her philandering husband, Zeus. Similarly, Jack tells us he never knew his father who left the family when he was 6 to marry other women. The rage that is so much a part of the mythical Mars is embodied by Tyler Durden, the personification of Jack's dissociated Mars impulse. Psychologically, Mars represents the impulse for survival and the emergence of an individual self from the collective; Mars needs to feel active, potent, unencumbered and vibrant. For him, to be like everyone else is to die and become impotent. These are issues that Jack sees himself confronting at the opening of the film as his life is one of consumerism and listlessness. Astrologically, relating to others and purchasing things are behaviors associated with the signs Libra and Taurus respectively -- both signs ruled by Venus, the feminine archetype. The Venus principle is opposed to the Mars principle; and in the horoscope, Libra and Taurus occupy areas of the chart which cause tension for Aries. In the Greek myths, Aphrodite (Venus) is the only one who can tame the anti-social brutish instinctual nature of Ares. She does this through her powers of sexual attraction, to which Ares is irresistibly drawn. In the movie, the dynamic between the Mars and Venus principles is depicted in two ways.

At the opening of the film Jack lives completely alienated from his Mars needs, living solely for his exaggerated Venusian compulsion to buy things, and to be pleasant. But after he meets Marla, his Mars begins to emerge in the form of Tyler Durden. Interestingly -- Chuck Palahniuk, the novelist whose book served as the basis for this film -- when asked if he approved of the romantic ending that was adopted for the screenplay, answered: "I approved of it because I wanted to see the romance emphasized more. I realized that would help sell the movie to more people. And the whole story is about a man reaching the point where he can commit to a woman, so the ending is appropriate." So not only did Jack succumb to the taming powers of Venus in the end, but Palahniuk himself gave in to Venus' need to be pleased and paid!
But it is throughout the whole film that we get to see what the warrior God would look like if he were free to operate in isolation of any other archetype, that is without restraining influences whatsoever. Tyler appears on the scene embodying all of the repressed traits that Jack cannot seem to get in touch with: determination, the ability to live on the edge and to withstand the pain of survival. In one scene he burns Jack's hand and urges him to: "Come back to the pain. Don't shut this out. Stop it. This is your pain -- your burning hand. It's right here. Look at it. Don't deal with this the way those dead people do. Deal with it the way a living person does." In fact, this idea of being on the verge of death and life is also present astrologically in the first degree of Aries also known as the moment of birth. Similarly Jack tells us: "Every evening I died and every evening I was born again." In the natural Zodiac, the sign Pisces is the last sign of the sequence just before Aries begins again.

Pisces represents the numinous otherworldly realms from which we emerge at birth. Pisces is also associated with altered states of consciousness and with mental illnesses such as schizophrenia or multiple personality disorders because these are indicative of a loss of will and of personal boundaries. Pisces to a great extent, represents many of the principles that Aries tries to overcome: impotence, a loss of self, a loss of will, a lack of boundaries and mental dissolution. Addressing this idea of endings Tyler likes to say: "On a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero." It is this artificial seaming of the break in the flow of consciousness that is symbolized by Tyler's job as the "changeover" guy who seams together the reels of film at the movie theater. Discovering the break in his own psyche allows Jack to seam together the disowned Mars within himself.

Don't deal with this the way those dead people do. Deal with it the way a living person does."
In fact, this idea of being on the verge of death and life is also present astrologically in the first degree of Aries also known as the moment of birth. Similarly Jack tells us: "Every evening I died and every evening I was born again." In the natural Zodiac, the sign Pisces is the last sign of the sequence just before Aries begins again. Pisces represents the numinous otherworldly realms from which we emerge at birth. Pisces is also associated with altered states of consciousness and with mental illnesses such as schizophrenia or multiple personality disorders because these are indicative of a loss of will and of personal boundaries. Pisces to a great extent, represents many of the principles that Aries tries to overcome: impotence, a loss of self, a loss of will, a lack of boundaries and mental dissolution. Addressing this idea of endings Tyler likes to say: "On a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero." It is this artificial seaming of the break in the flow of consciousness that is symbolized by Tyler's job as the "changeover" guy who seams together the reels of film at the movie theater. Discovering the break in his own psyche allows Jack to seam together the disowned Mars within himself.


Brad Pitt and Ed Norton play Tyler Durden and Jack.

(http://www.9types.com/movieboard/messages/9374.html)