The Martian is the spiritual exploration of the Aries zodiac sign. Astrology tends to associate Mars and Aries with fighting with others and that just is not what Aries is really about. War is Libra. Aries is survival. Mars stands alone and battles to live. Mark Watney is the Martian. He pulls a radio antenna out of his abdomen and performs a self surgery and then philosophically states “I’m not going to die.” That is Aries confronting the reality you won’t die than doing what it takes to keep surviving. He has become Mars, the planet he is on. Mark is a given name that means consecrated to Mars. Watney is an old English description meaning Wat or Wata’s Island. Mars alone on his island. There is no war in sight, there is no fighting with someone else, there is no other person there. He will battle to survive on his island and he will cross an ocean of sand to rendezvous with the Hermes and join his comrades and return to Earth.
Mark is on his own. Mars rules direct action. Mars cannot count on help because there is no help, if it needs to be done, you have to do it. The retrograde asteroid Marc is at 28° Aries on the Sabian symbol “a large audience confronts the performer who disappointed it’s expectations.” The character lived even though everyone on earth thought he had died. This asteroid is in the 1st house; places of survival. Now he has to survive so they can retrieve him. Over the course of the movie, he is all action, the only real emotion shown is a little fear, some anger and frustration and yet he keeps going. One foot in front of the other. Just keep going.
There in the 7th house is the Libra Mercury. Mark Watney’s partner is the crew on the Hermes. Mercury is the Roman Hermes. The intense focus on Virgo shows the constant need to materialize solutions from what is on hand. Mercury is connected to the Scorpio Saturn and Capricorn Pluto represented in the movie by NASA. At a key moment, ABBA’s song Waterloo plays. “My, my, at Waterloo Napoleon did surrender.” Mark surrenders to NASA’s crazy plan and in his defeat rejoins his friends on the Hermes. He has to muster one last Arian stand. It’s bravery on display but he says it’s something else. “I’m selfish, I want all the memorials to be about me.” Commander Lewis arrives attached to Hermes by an orange rope. The symbol of the sacral chakra. He leaps into the ocean of space alone and sets course for Lewis. He isn’t on Mars anymore.
The Aries zodiac sign is the place in your horoscope where you can survive all alone. Your Aries planets are consecrated to Mars. There can be no dependency on anyone else with Aries. That does not mean they won’t be with other people or have desire for others, it just means Arians aren’t dependent. Others can come and go but Aries will keep going. Aries is the zodiac sign of survival. They stand all alone.