Mars

the king of the gods, so he would have been the one responsible for the protection of Rome.

But at the same time, Romans actually had a lot of affinity for the war god, Mars.

He was very important to him, even in their founding myth.

Romulus is supposedly fathered with a Vestal Virgin named Rhea Silva by the god Mars.

So he's kind of very closely tied to Rome, even though Jupiter is kind of their key god.

I see.

That's when the legend was born.

If a member of the cursed Godimus bloodline were ever to find that armor and wear all six pieces at the same time, the paintings here indicate that the power of Mars will be let loose in the world once more, making their wearer into a god.

Hello, and welcome to Draw Game, the podcast that asks, what if video games could be on your TV? I'm your host, Alex Frioli.

Joining me, as always, proud owner of the Under Armour of Mars, Ray Barnholt.

Alex, we're back.

Yes.

She has a couple of cameos in this.

Yeah, she plays Reiko, and we'll get into it later.

13.

Phoebus was judge between Jove, Mars, and Love, of those three gods whose arms the fairest were.

Jove's golden shield did eagle sables bear, whose talents held young Ganymede above.

but in verd field mars bare a golden spear which through a bleeding heart his point did shove each had his crest mars carried venus glove jove on his helm the thunderbolt did rear cupid then smiles for on his crest there lies stella's fair hair her face he makes his shield where roses jewels are born in silver field Phoebus drew wide the curtains of the skies to blaze these last, and swear devoutly then, the first, thus matched, were scanty gentlemen.

For though I oft myself of them bemoan that through my heart their beamy darts be gone, whose cureless wounds even now most freshly bleed, yet, since my death-wound is already got— dear killer spare not thy sweet cruel shot a kind of grace it is to slay with speed forty nine i on my horse and love on me doth try our horsemanships while by strange work i prove a horseman to my horse a horse to love and now man's wrongs in me poor beast descry the rein wherewith my rider doth me tie are humble thoughts which bit of reverence move curbed in with fear but with guilt boss above of hope which makes it seem fair to the eye the wand is will thou fancy saddle art girt fast by memory and while i spur my horse he spurs with sharp desire my heart he sits me fast however i do stir and now hath made me to his hand so right that in the manage myself takes delight fifty stella the fulness of my thoughts of thee cannot be stay'd within my panting breast but they do swell and struggle forth of me till that in words thy figure be exprest and yet as soon as they so form it be according to my lord love's own behest with sad eyes i their weak proportion see to portrait that which in this world is best so that i cannot choose but write my mind and cannot choose but put out what i write while these poor babes their death in birth do find and now my pen these lines had dashed quite but that they stopped his fury from the same because their forefront bare sweet stella's name fifty one pardon mine ears both i and they do pray so may your tongues still fluidly proceed to them that do such entertainment need so may you still have somewhat new to say on silly me do not the burthen lay of all the grave conceits your brain doth breed but find some hercules to bear in stead of atlas tired your wisdom's heavenly sway For me, while you discourse of courtly tides, of cunning fishers in most troubled streams, of straying waves when valiant error guides, meanwhile my heart confers with Stella's beams, and is even irked that so sweet comedy by such unsuited speech should hindered be.

fifty two a strife is grown between virtue and love while each pretends that stella must be his her eyes her lips her all saith love do this since they do wear his badge most firmly prove but virtue thus that title doth disprove that stella o dear name that stella is that virtuous soul sure heir of heavenly bliss not this fair outside which our hearts doth move and therefore though her beauty and her grace be loves indeed in stella's self he may by no pretence claim any manner place well love since this demur our suit doth stay let virtue have that stellar self yet thus that virtue but that body grant to us 53.

In martial sports I had my cunning tried, and yet to break more staves did me address, while with the people's shouts, I must confess, youth, luck, and praise even filled my veins with pride, when Cupid, having me his slave, descried in Mars's livery, prancing in the press, What now, so fool, said he, I would no less.

Look here, I say.

And of course, in mythology...

Mars, who rules the sign of Aries, and Venus, who rules the sign of Libra, are lovers.

So that's Aphrodite and Aries in the Greek pantheon, or Venus and Mars in the Roman.

So the fact that they are lovers... really indicates this connection between seeming opposites.

The goddess of love and the god of war are drawn to each other because they bring balance.

We'll come to that in the ritual.

But for now, let's really feel that pure, potent, fiery energy of this full moon.

Aries is ruled by the planet Mars.

But I mean...

Philosophically, there's definitely a hermetic transmission flowing through there, but it's the same one that went through the Florentine Academy with Marsilio Ficino and all the... you know, in Florence during the Renaissance, it in fact sparked the Renaissance, that Hermetic, when Marsilio Ficino in 14, I don't know, 90 or something like that, he translated the Corpus Hermeticum, which was sort of the spark that set off the Renaissance.

in Florence there.

So we definitely in the West owe a lot to that hermetic transition or transmission.