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CHAPTER 1
Macbeth
SCORPIO AND ITS RULER MARS
Even the evil meet with good fortune as long as their evil has yet to mature. But when it's matured, that's when they meet with evil. Even the good meet with bad fortune as long as their good has yet to mature. But when it's matured, that's when they meet with good fortune.
— -Dhammapada 9, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!
— Macbeth (III, ii, 37)
The Story
In thunder and lightning, three witches meet on a heath and plan an encounter with Macbeth. In the meantime, King Duncan of Scotland receives reports from a wounded sergeant, a "bloody man", describing how the acclaimed warrior Macbeth, along with his fellow general Banquo, has put down an internal rebellion led by the traitorous thane of Cawdor and has heroically massacred external invaders from Norway. Duncan declares that he will transfer Cawdor's title to Macbeth. The three "weird sisters" do appear suddenly to Macbeth and Ban-quo as they return from battle and predict that Macbeth, now thane of Glamis, will become thane of Cawdor, and eventually King. When Banquo asks the witches to "look into the seeds of time" for him, he's told that he will beget a line of kings though he will be none. Fuelled by the witches' prophecies, Macbeth's imagination as well as his fear is stirred and his ambition grows — especially when Duncan suddenly names his son Malcolm as his successor.
When the King arrives at Macbeth's castle, Macbeth is tempted by his presence and goaded by his wife to assassinate him in order to take the throne. After struggling with his conscience, Macbeth tells his wife he wants to cancel their plan. But Lady Macbeth needles her husband into proceeding with the plan to murder Duncan, who's drugged by her and stabbed by Macbeth that very night. Once he's killed Duncan, though, Macbeth's mind is disturbed and he regrets his deed. He forgets to leave the bloody weapons at the murder scene, and Lady Macbeth must return to the chamber to plant the gory daggers on Duncan's drugged grooms.
Macduff and Lennox arrive, pounding on the door to awaken a drunken porter, and discover the king's bloodied body. To prevent them from protesting their innocence, Macbeth kills the grooms. Anxious and suspicious, Duncan's sons flee to England and Ireland.
Once invested as King, Macbeth's conscience begins to trouble him even more. Beset by terrible dreams, his fear and insecurity lead him to arrange the killing of his former friend Banquo, who's begun to suspect that Macbeth murdered Duncan. Banquo's ghost appears to disrupt a royal banquet and disturb Macbeth who's also fearful and doubtful because Banquo's son Fleance escaped the hired murderers. Macbeth now actively seeks out the three witches, who promise that he cannot be destroyed until "Birnam wood come to Dunsinane" castle and that he's invincible unless he confronts someone "not of woman born." Reassured, Macbeth proceeds to order the massacre of the family of Macduff, around whom opposition to his rule has begun to coalesce. Scotland is suffering under the tyrant's rule.
Macduff himself has fled to England, where he seeks out Malcolm whose virtues are contrasted with Macbeth's vices. They and the English forces who have gathered there proceed to invade Scotland. Just before the final battle Lady Macbeth, now guilt-ridden, haunted, and sleepwalking at nights, commits suicide. A messenger reports that Birnam wood moves toward the castle and Macbeth realizes he's been manipulated by "juggling fiends." Disheartened but driven to fight, Macbeth arms and leaves the castle. In a final bloody encounter Macduff reveals that he had a caesarian birth (and thus is not "of woman born"), clashes with the "hell-hound" Macbeth, and beheads him. Duncan's son Malcolm is hailed as king, honors his fellow fighters as newly created "earls", and, promising to "perform in measure, time, and place" whatever else is needful, restores order.
The Key to Macbeth: Mars
Clues to the archetypal symbolism underlying Macbeth are dramatically revealed in both the first and second scenes of the play. Scene 1 is unusually brief — only 12 lines — and features three supernatural creatures: the malevolent witches who speak in ambiguities (the battle will be "lost and won") and invoke a clouded and contaminated atmosphere ("fog and filthy air"). We are in the realm of the occult. (More on that later.)
Scene ii, however, takes us into the human world, where battles are raging. An alarum sounds, characteristically the noise of war, and the first spoken words are "What bloody man is that?" A Captain reporting to King Duncan paints a picture of the tireless Macbeth's superhuman achievement in slaughtering the rebel leader Macdonwald:
... brave Macbeth — well he deserves that name! —
Without the courtesies of Venus (like a gentlemanly shaking of hands), Macbeth confronts the head of the rebel forces, the "merciless Macdonwald", and in hand-to-hand combat slices him from nave (navel) to the chops (jaw). King Duncan, upon hearing the Captain's vivid description of the battle, exclaims, 'O valiant cousin! Worthy gentleman!" (I, ii, 24) This aggression is celebrated as a defense of the state and of established authority, and so our first impression of the generals is supremely positive.
To reinforce our immediate impression of Macbeth as an undaunted warrior, Shakespeare doubles the battle: not only must Macbeth defeat rebellious forces that threaten the state from within, but he must also take arms against the opportunistic Norwegians who seize the chance to invade from without. The Captain assures the King that neither Macbeth nor Banquo were disheartened by this second threat: "... I must report they were/ As cannons overcharged with double cracks/ So they doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe." (I, i, 36-8) The word "double" will assume a more sinister meaning later when the witches begin their incantation around the cauldron with "Double, double, toil and trouble", recalling this unusual double combat as well as the "double dealing" that is rampant throughout the play.
Many key words in this scene — "bloody", "revolt", "soldier", "brave", "merciless", "valour", "quarrel", "execution", "conflict" — point inexorably to Mars, the god of War. Mars, dubbed "the red planet", has specific rulership over blood. We are unquestionably in the arena of Mars.
Like all astrological symbols, Mars is double-sided, as is illustrated by two quite different classical interpretations. The Greeks' name for their god of war was Ares. They considered him unevolved, a symbol of unthinking brute and blundering force with a low level of conscious development and little self-awareness.
By contrast, the Romans exalted Mars as defender of the state, appropriate for an empire that depended on military might for its expansion and consolidation. At the beginning of the play, when he's earned praise and honor as captain of the King's forces, Macbeth is almost the literal incarnation of this more positive Roman Mars. To defend the state, under the direction of a legitimate king, is highly esteemed. Duncan judges that the captain's words and wounds "smack of honour both." This honor applies to Macbeth as well, who has dominated the field. Ross even dubs him "Bellona's bridegroom," an extremely important mythological allusion for it depicts Macbeth as actually married to the Roman goddess of war. He's at one with her bellicose spirit, and exhibits all the positive qualities of the Roman Mars. (I, ii, 54)
In astrological tradition prior to the modern era, though, Mars had a poor reputation as the "lesser malefic"— not bringing as many difficulties as Saturn, the "greater malefic", but coinciding with bad luck or ill fortune nonetheless. Consistent with the more reprehensible side of Mars, as the story progresses Macbeth devolves into a "bloody-sceptered" tyrant instead of legitimate ruler, a murderer of defenseless women and children instead of a hero in battle against armed men, and finally a "dead butcher" mated with a "fiend-like queen." (V, xi, 35) Ironically, just as at the beginning he decapitated the traitorous Macdonwald and mounted his head on the Scottish battlements, at the end he is decapitated and his head is displayed as a trophy of war. Symbolically, since Macbeth has progressively become more obsessed and less rational, he has "lost his head." (It's also significant that the head is the part of the body ruled by Mars!)
In keeping with the spirit of Mars (who is too impatient to allow for lulls in the action), Macbeth is the shortest of Shakespeare's plays, and the action proceeds directly and precipitously (like the Martian arrow loosed from a bow) once it begins. The pace of the play is relentless, and Macbeth acts in accord with it. After his second encounter with the weird sisters, he vows, "From this moment/ The very firstlings of my heart shall be/ The firstlings of my hand. And even now,/ To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done." (IV, i, 162-5) Without reflection or hesitation, his intentions will immediately manifest in Mars-like action.
The Zodiacal Sign of Scorpio, Ruled by Mars
Mars is traditionally assigned rulership of SCORPIO, the eighth sign of the zodiac. As a tragedy and for dramatic purposes, the play concerns itself with the uglier and more repugnant expressions of the sign Scorpio along with the downsides of its ruler Mars.
Scorpio is probably the most complex and difficult zodiacal symbol to unspool, encompassing profound areas of challenge, mystery, and taboo: the secrets of birth, the fearsomeness of death, and the enigma of an afterlife; the compelling power of sexual desire with all its ecstasies and degradations; the forbidden realm of the occult, both exalting and damning (and damned); the challenge of wielding power in the sphere of politics; and the use of depth psychology to probe the inner psyche.
Individuals with strong Scorpio energy in their horoscopes may attain positions of influence without being elected, like Mahatma Gandhi who influenced millions and altered history or Bill Gates who made millions and midwived the transition into the computer age. Other Sun in Scorpio figures like Teddy Roosevelt, Charles de Gaulle, and Hillary Clinton have participated dramatically in the political process through conducting conventional campaigns and occupying established offices. Politics and leadership positions offer particular challenges for Scorpios; you may run for office with the most idealistic of motives — to serve the people who elect you and legislate for the good of the state — but all too easily become bogged down in the quagmires of the political process, tempted by money and influence and lured into egotistic displays of bombastic rhetoric.
Because Scorpios often exude a charged energy through a forceful personality as a result of sustained focus, a developed will power, and consistent self-discipline, others often fear them or are in awe of them. It's easy to impute sinister motives to a Scorpio even when the Scorpio person may be working to bring about the greatest good for the greatest number. Whether a force for good or ill, the Scorpio type is magnetically compelling. The challenges for a Scorpio are daunting: coping with physical desires; finding a creative outlet for intense feelings; keeping psychologically healthy; and exerting appropriate influence in a chosen sphere. All of these themes are explored in Macbeth.
The Scorpio type is especially driven by strong and passionate DESIRES, usually manifested as a hunger for power, sexual pleasure, or wealth (or all of these). Gaining the fruits of these desires is not necessarily evil, unless you use illegal or immoral means to do so. The first step to a healthy integration of these desires into your life is to acknowledge your lust for power, or the intensity of your sexual drive, or your yearning for money. If you feel GUILT about any of these, the tendency is to SUPPRESS DESIRE, which leads to various personality kinks, perversions, and displacements that can cause you to act out in destructive ways — destructive to yourself and possibly to others around you. GUILT can also trigger an overactive CONSCIENCE, so that regret for past actions haunts you while desires still persist.
For Macbeth, what drives him is the desire for POWER, his AMBITION to be king of Scotland. This is confirmed by both Lady Macbeth who describes her husband as "not without ambition" (I, v, 17) and Macbeth himself who admits that the only spur to his intent is "vaulting ambition"— but adds ominously that it "o'erleaps itself/ And falls on th'other —" (I, vii, 25-8). Then begins the terrible struggle within Macbeth between acting on this desire or restraining it.
The struggle is made more complex by the influence of the three witches, who predict his elevation to kingship, and by the persuasion of his wife, who urges him on to greatness by "catching the nearest way." We know he's tormented by their combined influence and by his own lust for power which conflicts with social and cultural inhibitions because he laments, "O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!" (III, ii, 37) The SCORPION, of course, is the creature associated with the sign Scorpio, and the pictograph for the sign includes an upturned stinger that warns of danger and threatens death.
Another animal associated with the sign Scorpio is the SNAKE, a powerful symbol in the West. In the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden the snake represents the first couple's desire for knowledge and consequently is a personification of temptation and evil. There are many telling references to snakes in Macbeth, especially Lady Macbeth's advice to her husband: "To beguile the time,/ Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,/ Your hand, your tongue; look like the innocent flower,/ But be the serpent under 't." (I, v, 61-4)
Other animals associated with the dark side of Scorpio are black birds such as ravens and all creatures of the night such as owls. Owls are mentioned several times during the play, most significantly immediately before Duncan's murder when Lady Macbeth hears it shrieking, and then after the murder when an owl achieves ascendency by killing a noble falcon. Falcons fly at higher altitudes than owls, implying that the higher has been brought down by the lower.
Before the banquet and just after Macbeth has enlisted hired assassins to kill Banquo and his son, Macbeth again invokes darkness to hide his deeds and refers to a black bird: "Light thickens, and the crow / Makes wing to the rooky wood;/ Good things of day begin to droop and drowse,/ Whiles night's black agents to their preys do rouse." (III, ii, 51-4) As always in Shakespeare's works, dominant images such as these reinforce other clues to the archetypal zodiacal sign to which the play is keyed.
Not just black birds, but all things of the color BLACK are associated with the sign Scorpio, often decorated with splashes of RED. Innumerable references to black night and to blood stud the play from beginning to end. These are the main colors mentioned throughout.
The Water Element and Emotions: Control versus Repression
Scorpio is a WATER sign, the second of three in the zodiacal pantheon. Shakespeare inserts many and significant references to water in the play, like Lady Macbeth's confident assumption that a small amount can wash away their sin: "A little water clears us of this deed" (II, ii, 65). Even more stunning is Macbeth's lament after the murder of King Duncan; not only will "a little water" not wash away his crime, but he questions whether "all great Neptune's ocean [can] wash this blood/ Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather/ The multitudinous seas incarnadine,/ Making the green one red." (II, ii, 58-61) The power attributed to water, of purification, has been reversed, and Macbeth's dreadful deed corrupts the entire ocean. After Macbeth has added the death of Banquo to his account, Macbeth says, "I am in blood/Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,/ Returning were as tedious as go o'er." (III, iv, 135-7) His previous comment foreshadows a complete transformation of the sea; it no longer consists of water but is now entirely blood, as if Macbeth's blood-letting has flooded the world.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Macbeth"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Priscilla Costello.
Excerpted by permission of Ibis Press.
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