Mars
What is my Mars sign?
Mars describes how you go after what you want, how you argue, and what your anger looks like from the outside. Your birth date is enough.
What a Mars sign describes
Mars is the chart's verb. It covers initiative, appetite, competition and conflict: how you start things, how you chase, what you do when something is in the way. The sign it sits in describes the manner rather than the amount. A Mars in a cardinal sign tends to move first and correct later; a Mars in a fixed sign tends to outlast whatever it is up against; a Mars in a mutable sign tends to change the angle rather than push harder. None of that predicts how forceful a person is. Plenty of people with a loud Mars sign are conflict avoidant, and the placement then describes the shape of the avoidance instead.
Where Mars gets complicated
Two things make Mars less tidy than the other personal planets. The first is retrograde: roughly every two years Mars appears to reverse for about ten weeks, which means it can occupy a single sign for six or seven months rather than six weeks. Around 9 percent of people are born with it. The second is the vocabulary. Mars is routinely written up as aggression, sex drive and war, and read literally that is both alarming and unhelpful. It is more accurate, and more useful, to read Mars as the way you spend effort. Anger is one expression of that. So is finishing something difficult.
Mars in every sign
Twelve portraits, one per sign. The one you want is usually the one that describes an argument you recognise.
Frequently asked questions
What is a Mars sign?
The zodiac sign Mars occupied when you were born. Astrology reads it as your style of action and confrontation: how you begin, how you pursue, and what you do when you meet resistance. Your Sun sign is about who you are, your Mars about how you push.
Do I need my birth time?
Not for the sign. Mars moves at about half a degree a day, so it takes roughly six weeks to cross a sign and your date settles it, except on the day it changes over. On those days this page shows both candidates instead of assuming an hour. Your birth time is needed for the house Mars falls in.
How long does Mars stay in one sign?
Six to seven weeks in normal motion. But when Mars turns retrograde, which it does for about ten weeks every two years, it can move back into the previous sign and then forward again, so a single sign can hold it for six or seven months. Anyone born in that stretch shares the placement, which is one reason Mars is less individual than it is often made to sound.
Was my Mars retrograde?
This page tells you: if it was, the result carries a retrograde note. It happens to about one person in eleven. Read it as an inward direction of the same drive rather than a fault. The usual description is effort that gets rehearsed internally before it is spent, which can look like hesitation from outside and like preparation from inside.
Is Mars only about anger?
No, though older books lean that way. Mars is the capacity to exert yourself, which shows up as anger only when something is in the way. The same placement describes how you train, how you compete and how you finish things nobody is thanking you for. A chart describes tendencies, not behaviour you are obliged to repeat.
Positions are computed with Swiss Ephemeris; the interpretation is editorial. How we work