Keywords: Action, desire, anger, courage, competition, boundaries
- Rules
- Aries (and traditionally Scorpio)
- Full cycle
- About 2 years (about 6 weeks in each sign)
- Retrograde
- Every 2 years, about 2.5 months
Dignities: Exalted in Capricorn, in fall in Cancer, in detriment in Libra and Taurus.
Mars describes the step from wanting to doing. If desiring something is the work of Venus, taking action for it belongs to Mars.
It is also the indicator of anger and conflict: what a person does when angry, how they protect their boundaries, whether objecting comes easily or with difficulty. In charts where Mars is under strain, anger usually does not disappear; it moves elsewhere.
In traditional astrology Mars is the "lesser malefic" (infortuna minor). Modern readings understand this not as something negative but as a cost: where Mars is, there is progress, but never without friction.
Mars turns retrograde every two years, and the period is read as a time when outward moves are pulled back and stored-up anger comes to the surface.
In the houses
House placement: the area where energy, struggle and initiative concentrate.