Puer

What this is

Puer is the Boy, the warrior-boy, fire leaping forward. Two single points at the head, a doubled line across the middle and a single point at the foot give the look of a figure with a weapon raised, all drive and little reflection. Agrippa describes a young man, fierce and warlike; it is the figure of impulse, useful for starting, unsuited to negotiating.

What it governs

Puer answers to Mars and to Aries, element Fire. It rules youthful ardour, competition, courage, and sudden action; favourable for love pursuits and contests, poor for anything needing reflection. It is strongest in the 1st of self, the 5th of pleasure and courtship, and the 3rd of siblings.

Its properties

Its colours are red and scarlet, its metal iron, its number five, its stone bloodstone or ruby. The virtue of Puer is courage and vigour, the decisive strike; in the 7th of partnership, though, it is too impulsive to stabilise anything and warns against it. Its shadow is recklessness and violence, the impulse that wounds before it thinks, energy with no governor. It is good for beginnings and battles, ill for patience, peace, or care.

Where else it appears

The young warrior is one note in many skins: Mars with his spear, the Knight of Wands charging on a hot horse, the cutting Geburah-force of severity on the Tree, the line of breakthrough where the resolute push carries the day. There is also the ardent boy of folk-tale who wins by daring what wiser heads refused. To feel your blood rise before a challenge is to feel Puer move; the god of war and the racing pulse are the same heat.

Where you meet it on the Oracle

Puer shows on the Geomancy surface as the day's figure. When it rises, the Oracle reads the day as combative and fast, charged with energy that wants out. Read it as favourable for bold action, competition, and passionate pursuit, and as a warning to govern your temper, for the same heat that wins the fight starts the quarrel. It stands against Puella as Mars-fire to that figure's Venus-air.

Why it matters

Puer is so because Mars gives the body its fire and the will its edge, and youth has not yet tempered the blade. The figure asks you to spend your courage well and your anger sparingly. The energy is real and will move whether you steer it or not.

Correspondences

planet

Mars

element

Fire

zodiac

Aries

number

5

sephirah

Geburah

day

Tuesday

colour

scarlet

metal

iron

stone

bloodstone

tarot

The Emperor