Red Magic

Tuesday, Iron, Mars



Red glyph of Tuesday, Iron, Mars


As Tuesday's Sword of Iron Mars the Redden Earth,
Twin Sacraments - of Fire and Blood - dishonour Birth.

Red
Between the cyan waters, God gathered together dry land and found that it was Red - so red, in fact, that the Man created from its dust was called 'Adam', which has the meaning 'Red'. Cyan and red are complementary (i.e. cyan light mixed with red light will produce white light). The Latin for 'red' is ruber, rufus; and red's stone naturally is the ruby, the Philosopher's Stone: antidote to poison, preserver from plague, banisher of grief, diverter of evil thoughts.

Though not all of the Earth's rocky, dusty surface is red, much of it is and due mostly to oxidation of iron - the same burning chemical action which allows the red blood to carry life sustaining oxygen around our body. The Blood is Life. The iron of Mars cuts the iron of life whether sword or ploughshare.

Apart from its other fiery and bloody connections, red is the colour associated with Magic, 'otherness', the 'underground', insurrection, and prostitution. In Early Christian iconography, the Virgin Maiden, Mary (from the Hebrew Mariam or Miriam, the same name as 'Marian') wears red; and a Gentleman of the Good Folk, though otherwise in green, will often sport a fine red jacket, waiscoat or hood - and his name might well be 'Robin'.

Iron (like quicksilver) was unknown in ancient times. The earliest weapons (or agricultural implements for that matter) were sticks, stones and animal bones but the earliest metal swords of more than ornamental use were made of bronze, a reddish alloy of copper and tin. In the early Bronze Age, when the association between metals, days and planets was initially conceived, the metal linked with Mars and Tuesday was bronze. The biblical account of Solomon's Temple specifically states that iron was not used in its construction. This shows that, although iron was known and used by the Middle to Late Bronze Age, it was still not considered part of the sacred heptads - those sets of seven each of which as a whole represent the deity.

Week of interlinked triads

The early use of bronze as the metal of Mars, along with Mercury's original electron, (a natural alloy of gold and silver) clearly demonstrates the interdependence of the three principle heptads - metals, days and planets - and illustrates the reality of the interlinked triads in the hexad of Creation.


Magic
Square of Mars
Magic Square of Tuesday, Iron, Mars


Angel
Camael

 Bird
vulture

 Creation
Land,
Earth

 Deity
Nergal,
Ares,
Tiw

Infernal
Shadow of
Death

 Member
right hand

 Metal
bronze,
iron

 Numbers
5, 25, 65,325

Orifice
right nostril

 Planet
Mars

 Stone
ruby,
diamond

 Weekday
Tuesday

 
Link to Colour Magic - Index Link to Yellow Magic Link to Magenta Magic NoLink to Red Magic Link to Cyan Magic Link to Green Magic Link to Blue Magic Link to Black Magic


Ink Amera

 		(C) David 1/9/2007

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