Mars in astrology

Mars is your drive and your anger: the part of you that fights for when it is given room. What it is ultimately after is to want something and go get it.

It is at home in Aries and Scorpio, so the affairs of Aries and Scorpio tend to be where it has the clearest hand.

The sign tells you the manner: the same drive looks bold in Aries and careful in Cancer without changing what it wants. The house tells you the arena: the part of life where you will actually meet it, whether that is money, partnership or reputation.

Aspects then tell you who it has to negotiate with. A Mars squared by Saturn and a Mars trined by Jupiter behave very differently even in the same sign.

Moving overhead, Mars fires up whatever it touches, for 1.9 years for one full circuit. Slower bodies make chapters, faster ones make days — which is why a Moon transit is a mood and a Saturn transit is a re-write.

Astro Nox reads your own transits against your birth chart rather than against a Sun sign, so a Mars pass is dated to your degrees.

The Golden Dawn ties Mars to the cards below — the trump that carries the planet, and the decans it rules among the pips.