Mars
Usually six to eight weeks in a sign, but in the years it turns retrograde it can stay in one for more than half a year. The tradition reads it as drive, heat and the willingness to act.
Where Mars is now
What Mars stands for
Mars stands for how a person goes after things: drive, anger, desire acted on, and the willingness to be in a fight.
Mars is named for the Roman god of war, and the tradition gives it whatever heats, cuts and separates: blades, soldiers, surgeons, quarrels, and the push needed to start anything at all. Modern astrologers read it more evenly, as the drive a person acts on, how they compete and how they show anger and desire. It is read in every chart, not only men’s.
How Mars moves
It takes six hundred and eighty-seven days to circle the Sun and a little under two years to go round the zodiac, usually six to eight weeks in a sign. Every twenty-six months or so it goes backwards for around ten weeks, and then it can stay in one sign for half a year.
Its backwards loop is the most visible of any planet, and Kepler used Mars to work out the shape of orbits.
Mars is the first planet outside the Earth’s orbit, and the Earth overtakes it about every twenty-six months. Around each overtaking Mars stands opposite the Sun, is up all night at its brightest, and runs backwards for sixty to eighty-one days. Its orbit is noticeably oval, so some of these oppositions bring it much closer than others; the closest come every fifteen or seventeen years.
Put together, those stretches make Mars retrograde a little under a tenth of the time, so about one chart in ten has it retrograde. Its longest stays in a single sign, in retrograde years, run to about seven and a half months.
Rulership, dignity and sect
Mars rules Aries and Scorpio.
Modern astrology gives Scorpio to Pluto as well, and many astrologers read both. Mars is exalted in Capricorn, at twenty-eight degrees by the old reckoning, and has its fall in Cancer; its detriment is in Libra and Taurus, opposite its own signs. The Aries page describes the sign most closely tied to it.
Mars is called the lesser malefic, Saturn being the greater. In the tradition a malefic is a planet whose significations involve friction, heat, loss or effort. That describes the planet’s character, not a verdict on a person, and a strong Mars is also read as courage, stamina and the capacity to act. It belongs to the night sect, and is read as easier to live with in a chart born at night, when it is in sect. Its joy is the sixth house, of toil and service.
Reading Mars by sign and by house
By sign, Mars is read as the way a person goes after something: in Aries straight at it, in Taurus slowly and without letting go, in Libra through negotiation. By house, it is read as where a person spends effort, competes and gets angry. Its aspects to the Sun and the Moon are read as how comfortably drive and temperament sit together, and the houses set out which part of life each house covers.
A worked example: Mars in Capricorn in the tenth house is exalted in the house of career and standing, and is read as ambition that is patient and organised, willing to work a long time towards a senior place. Mars in Cancer in the fourth, its fall in the house of home, is read as drive that is protective and defensive and shows itself more in family matters than at work.
What gets confused about Mars
Mars retrograde is often described as a season of conflict. The tradition’s reading is of effort turned back on itself, a time for repairing and revising rather than starting; in a birth chart it is read as drive that works indirectly or looks inward before it acts. The retrograde page draws the loop and gives the dates of the next one.
Questions people ask
How long does Mars stay in a sign?
Usually six to eight weeks. Mars takes a little under two years to go round the zodiac, but it does not move evenly: around its retrograde it slows, stops and goes back, and it can then stay in one sign for more than half a year. Its longest continuous stays run to about seven and a half months, and it is those years people notice.
What does Mars represent in a birth chart?
Mars is read as drive: how a person goes after what they want, competes, defends themselves and shows anger and desire. Its sign is read as the style of that drive and its house as where it is spent. Traditional astrology calls it the lesser malefic, meaning its themes involve friction and effort, but the same tradition reads it as courage and the capacity to act.
How often is Mars retrograde?
About every twenty-six months, when the Earth overtakes Mars and it stands opposite the Sun. Each retrograde lasts between about sixty and eighty-one days. Mars is retrograde a little under a tenth of the time, so about one person in ten is born with it retrograde, which astrology reads as drive that works indirectly or looks inward before it acts.
Why is Mars called a malefic?
In traditional astrology the malefics, Mars and Saturn, are the planets whose significations are hard ones: for Mars heat, haste, conflict and cutting. The word describes the planet’s nature in that system, not a person with a strong Mars. The same tradition reads Mars as the nerve of a soldier and the hand of a surgeon, and judges it easier in a chart born at night.