Astrology basics · The ten planets
Mars in a birth chart: the push toward what a person wants
Mars is the fourth planet, half the Earth's width, red from the iron in its dust, and the first planet outside our orbit. It takes about two years to circle the zodiac, six to eight weeks in a sign and up to seven months where it turns retrograde. Astrologers read Mars for how a person goes after what they want, and what they do with anger.
- What it is
- The fourth planet, the first outside the Earth's orbit
- Zodiac cycle
- About two years, six to eight weeks per sign
- Retrograde habit
- About ten weeks every twenty-six months
- Signs ruled
- Aries, and Scorpio by the older rule
- Natural house
- The 1st
- Its domain
- How a person goes after what they want, and what they do with anger
Two years around, with one long loop
Mars orbits the Sun in 687 days; from here it works through the zodiac in about two years, usually six to eight weeks to a sign, except once each cycle when the Earth overtakes it. Then Mars slows, stops, backs up for about ten weeks, stops, and goes forward again, and can spend six or seven months in one sign. It is brightest and closest at the middle of that loop, which is the red point in the sky that gets reported in the news every couple of years.
Because the retrograde comes only once in twenty-six months, fewer people are born with Mars retrograde than with Mercury retrograde: about one in ten.
Going after it, and what anger does
The two halves of Mars are one function pointed two ways: the push toward a thing someone wants, and the push back when a thing is in the way. By sign, Mars says the style of the push. A Mars in Capricorn files the complaint in writing and waits; a Mars in Leo says it in the room, loudly, and is friends again by dinner; a Mars in Pisces leaves and does not say why, and the leaving is the anger.
Where the push lands in the chart
By house, Mars says the area that gets the drive and takes the heat. A Mars in the 3rd argues with the neighbor about the fence and wins the point in the group chat; a Mars in the 10th goes after the title and has a row with the boss about it; a Mars in the 4th moves the furniture at eleven at night when the day has gone badly. The house is where a person can be found pushing.
Fast enough for the daily reading
At about half a degree a day, a Mars contact is exact on one day and noticeable for two or three, which puts Mars among the fast five in this site's daily horoscope: today's push and temper, against the chart. It is the laggard of the five, with the longest loop, so when a retrograde carries it over one natal point three times the contact stretches further than Mercury's or Venus's does, to several months. Every two years or so it returns to its natal place.
See Mars in your own chartA free birth chart, with the reading, from your date, time and place.
Questions
- What does Mars rule?
- Aries first. Before Pluto was found, Mars also ruled Scorpio, and many astrologers still read it as Scorpio's older ruler alongside Pluto. Its home house is the 1st, the body and the way a person comes through a door.
- How often is Mars retrograde?
- About every twenty-six months, for about ten weeks. The loop keeps Mars in one sign for up to seven months, so a person born in those months has a Mars that stayed put for a long while. About one person in ten has Mars retrograde at birth.
- Is Mars the planet of anger or of sex?
- This site reads Mars for how a person goes after what they want and what they do with anger, and stops there. The older sexual reading is tradition's shorthand for the same reaching: the wanting that gets up and crosses the room. Venus is the wanting; Mars is the reaching.