This is a continuation of my series on the Wehrmacht- “How strong is his Mars?” to test a theory in Astrology community- you’ve got to have a strong Mars to be competent in the military.
Is that theory true? Let’s find out with Walter Model.
A Pisces Mars can be pretty random- this Mars cannot fully explain “why I take this action??” It instinctually knows what to act on—pretty randomly, mind you. It generally leads to bipolarity and unsteadiness, unless a “personal truth” can be fully reached (after a lot of randomness and struggles).
As previously explored in Manstein’s Pisces Moon, Pisces is dissolution of boundaries. Since Mars is basically a forward moving action / goal-oriented momentum / how one overcome obstacles with force, its scattered force does not make a particularly effective Mars. Not a good placement for military leaders, but a good placement for poets and philosophers.
this Pisces Mars doesn’t distinguish one operation from the next one, nor does it put different actions into categories. Model probably sees “let the generals all sit down and name this attack Operation XXX, and make a decision” the dumbest approach and a waste of time. From the moment the war starts to its very end, everything is a huge flow of messy motions- that’s the gist of Model’s Mars.
Some astrologers would comment Pisces Mars as “too soft and nice to other people, too accommodating, too indecisive”. I think that is a dumb take if you take a closer look at Walter Model, whose eyes even the Führer dreaded.
This is indeed not the best Mars out there- Pisces Mars is simply too random, too scattered, too sentimental, and that weakens Mars significantly. It’ll make him an excellent tactician but a shitty strategist. On its own, it is only a 5-ish score Mars, but it is very well-supported with one important aspect, so its score is bumped up all the way to 8.
This Mars has incredible support from the Neptune-Pluto conjunction- but this is also Model’s greatest curse. Neptune-Pluto was a really long and really powerful generational aspect that lasted throughout the late 19th to early 20th century.
Neptune being the collective dream state, its combination with Pluto signifies “dreaming about the ultimate destruction, power, and transformation, the Ex-Machina-like CULT OF PERSONALITY that would end all history with a final history, whose mighty wheels crush little individuals like worthless bugs.” Everybody from that era was under this NEPTUNE-PLUTO influence, and you could infer where a person stands with this CULT OF PERSONALITY ZEITGEIST (be it formed around Hitler or Stalin) from their personal chart.
Erich von Manstein has his Sun in opposition to this aspect, it means his personal ego opposed and despised this cultish shit. But for Model, it is of the strongest support for his Mars, and is also harmonious with his Sun, his ego.
It doesn’t matter if Model knew on a rational level the whole NAZI shtick is a piece of shit, NEPTUNE-PLUTO was a Lovecraftian power, a pitch black Eldritch God that raised from the deepest of abyss of collective madness and lifted his poor little soul up. There is no way that a Pisces Mars could resist a dragon born directly out of that era.
In other words, without the power of this NEPTUNE-PLUTO, Model’s Mars is just a mopey little sad Pisces creature that acts randomly and goes with a messy flow. But with this support, his Mars becomes magical- not necessarily psychic, but magical. This random Mars all of a sudden makes miracles.
Model could notice some random thing on the battlefield, and by this Neptune-Pisces intuition, totally out of nowhere, decides to do something else, and it turns out to be a surprisingly good call. He had to personally run around with his soldiers or else his Mars would not work this magic.
PLUTO sextile Mars alone is a powerful boost, with or without NEPTUNE’S magical touch. Pluto-Mars allows him to simplify the worst conditions down to the ugliest of truth (the kind of horrible truth about the frontline that would give von Brauchitsch heart attacks and von Bock stomach ulcers), and he would not flinch and does not care at all. Oh, the war condition is a total disaster? Nah, Model does not feel a thing, he keeps going. Pluto the Roman god of Hell can drag a person through very cruel conditions, and the native actually loves it.
This chart unfortunately belongs to a sad soul. Model has a Leo Moon in opposition to his friendly, kind, and humanitarian Aquarius Sun. Due to Leo’s nature and its adversarial aspect, this overbearing Moon wants to behave like Sun, and totally beat down this Aquarius Sun and kicks it around, like a tyrannical mother.
Leo signifies AUTHORITY, and Moon is generally one’s feminine mind, archetypal MOTHER figure, ie, “what would lead you back to your mother’s womb of the subconscious, in order to find your deepest comfort zone”. Model finds his comfort zone in “authority”. I cannot explain it better than Asuka’s abusive mother, and how come this bad mother drives Asuka to fight to death in Evangelion’s final scene.
War historians’ often make comments about how Model was a war realist (who sees the whole reality). But, in my opinion, it is more likely that the Pluto-Mars aspect allows him the soul capacity to stare down the ugliest of truth and not flinch.
For this reason and on the ground of reading his chart, I strongly disagree with Thersites the Historian, whose comment I paraphrase here- “Model has been brutal with the Red Army, so he was afraid of being handed over to the Soviets. He figured it was a better option to kill himself.”
In conclusion, when the huge spirit of that ZEITGEIST fell down, that fanatical and deeply disturbing dream of the collective false god died, Model died with it.
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