The Lonely Hero

Recently I finished watching the tenth and final season of the British spy series MI5 (aka Spooks).  It’s among my favorite TV series, ever.  SPOILER ALERT! If you haven’t seen Season 10 yet and plan to, read no further!

One of the sub-themes in Season 10 was the love between our hero, Harry Pearce, Head of Section D (Counter Terrorism), and Ruth Evershed, intelligence analyst extraordinaire.   Would they ever work things out and be together?  Alas, no…  Just as they had finally declared their mutual love and were planning to leave the spy life behind, Ruth was accidentally stabbed by one of the bad guys.  Brutal!

In another of my favorite TV series, 24, Jack Bauer was our sexy CTU hero who could never manage to stay with his love partner for any length of time.  He certainly tried.  But something always happened to those women.  They were killed, or went mad, or Jack had to leave.

So: Why could these warriors never have their loves?

Astrology provides the answer.  It is because our warrior heroes are Mars, and their loves are Venus.  Mars and Venus just can’t be together, at least not for long.  It doesn’t work.  Their priorities are too different.

Mars rules Aries and Scorpio, the signs where Venus is in detriment.  Venus rules Libra and Taurus, the signs where Mars is in detriment.  When Venus is in the house of Mars, she is miserable and functions badly.  When Mars is in the house of Venus, he is miserable and functions badly.

Mars has to be in his own house to do his best warrior work.  If his love life becomes his focus (Mars in Libra or Taurus), his work is compromised.  He can’t be himself, nor do what must be done.

This truth played out very purely in both of MI5 and 24.  Many times over we saw how Harry and Jack had to sacrifice their personal happiness for the job.  Their work always had priority; the safety and wellbeing of entire nations depended upon it.  Other characters, weaker than they, who succumbed to the demands of love inevitably ended up ruined. 

Although we protest, in truth we would have it no other way.  Whatever would the UK do without Harry at the helm of the Grid, deploying his assets with superior skill to fight the enemy?  What disasters would have struck the USA without Jack’s fearless actions to save the day, again and again?

Harry and Jack, both Mars archetypes, were the very best of heroes.  But the price of being the best was loneliness.