What Mars means
Mars is fighting energy: how a person achieves goals, competes, protects what's theirs and expresses anger. This is not the degree of aggression but its manner: at once or later, in words or in deeds, openly or on the sly.
Tradition gives Mars everything that requires effort and risk: sport, rivalry, a craft with a tool, the resolve to say “no.” It rules Aries, and in the classical tradition also Scorpio.
Mars in the signs
Mars passes through a sign in about a month and a half on average, and in retrograde years it lingers in one sign for up to seven or eight months — then Mars's sign is the same for everyone born in that time. By element Mars is read like this:
- In fire signs (Aries, Leo and Sagittarius) — drive at once and openly: flares up fast and cools just as fast.
- In earth signs (Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn) — drive through persistence: speeds up slowly, anger builds up and comes out in deeds or in refusal.
- In air signs (Gemini, Libra and Aquarius) — drive through words: argument, reasoning, irony, often in writing.
- In water signs (Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces) — drive on the sly: resentment, silence, long resistance instead of an open quarrel.
In detail — Mars in each sign, with a “not about you” sign and a check on yourself:
Mars in the houses
Mars's house is the sphere where you have to fight and where it's easiest to snap: in the 1st — personal initiative and sharpness in plain view, in the 6th — work and arguments about how to do it right, in the 7th — rivalry in the couple, in the 10th — the fight for position. The house needs the exact birth time.
Mars retrograde
Mars goes backward once every 26 months, for 60–81 days, and on your birthday that was the case for 9.6% of people. Tradition reads a retrograde Mars as a delayed answer: anger and resolve come not in the moment but later, when it has already passed. Mars is retrograde only when it stands almost opposite the Sun.
When Mars goes backward — station dates, Moscow time →
How to check it on yourself
Each statement below may turn out to be false about you — that’s how it’s written. Check it against your past, and write your answer down before you compare it with the chart. The first item checks the calculation itself, the rest — the interpretation.
If Mars in the calculation has ℞
What should match. Mars stands in the part of the sky opposite the Sun: by our measurement for 1950–2030 it was retrograde only when moving away from the Sun by 129° or more. In signs this means: Mars in the sign opposite the Sun's sign or no more than two signs from it — with the Sun in Aries that is Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio or Sagittarius.
When it’s not about you. ℞ on Mars standing in the Sun's sign or in one of the three nearest signs on either side — the wrong date went into the calculation. This is a check of the calculation, not of the interpretation.
If you know the element of your Mars
What should match. Recall the last three conflicts in which you were stung. In at least two the response was in the manner of this element: fire — at once and out loud, earth — in deeds or in refusal, and for a long time, air — with argument and reasoning, water — with silence and resentment. By chance this matches in about one case in six.
When it’s not about you. In two cases out of three or more the manner of other elements — this isn't about you.
If your Mars is retrograde (℞)
What should match. You more often don't answer a jab at once: resolve and anger come later, when the moment has passed, and then you replay for a long time what you should have said.
When it’s not about you. You usually answer a jab at once and immediately forget it — this isn't about you.
What retrograde motion is and where in the sky it happens for each planet — on the page of all planets. How we check the rest — the site’s method.