Yesterday, by chance, I caught a UFC fight between Alexander Volkanovski and Diego Lopes. I had not watched a martial arts bout for many years. Martial arts. Arts of Mars, obviously. Strife, contest, dispute, the imposition of bodily force, brute strength, the cult of the body itself as a machine for self-defence and for the destruction of the other, the opponent, the enemy. The body reduced to an instrument. Every fight is a pure zodiacal axial: the I, the Ascendant, the 1st house; against the Other, the declared enemy, the Descendant, the 7th house, face to face, with no possible metaphors.
Throughout the fight, and as the featherweight champion Volkanovski was gaining an advantage on the scorecards, with each jab and hook landing on the opponent’s face, Diego Lopes smiled, as if saying it was nothing, that he was fine, seeming good-humoured as he absorbed the impacts with his jaw and skull. As if the blows were also a confirmation of his own valour.
I immediately thought of the Seven of Wands. Its astrological decan is Mars in Leo. The planet of physical combat in the sign of the stage, of display, of the solar affirmation of the ego. The distinctly leonine pride of taking part in that contest, of feeling the physical limit, the impact of destruction, and of enjoying that very process because one is on stage, one is being seen, one sustains the position even when the outcome is no longer favourable. Like all sevens in the Tarot, there is also an element of desire at work, related to Netzach. In this case, that desire is focused on performance itself, towards endurance, display, and the pleasure of remaining upright under pressure, going at it again and again.
To show bravado, resistance, martial honour, even from a position of disadvantage. The stage is Leo. The octagon is Leo. And Mars is the fighter, tireless, obstinate, asserting itself in the clash. All augmented because Diego was fighting in Alexander’s own country, against the whole audience.
In the end, defeated and exhausted, Diego smiled all the same, wiped away the blood, put on his cowboy hat and left. For him, the fight would be repeated today itself, I am sure, because what was at stake there was not just victory, but being present, fighting, taking the centre of the circle and sustaining his position.
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