Mars

Origin and myth

The Greek Ares was the god of war, son of Zeus and Hera, and the Olympian most disliked by his fellow gods because he loved combat for its own sake. In contrast, the Roman Mars was a much more dignified figure, a god of agriculture as well as war, the divine father of Romulus and Remus and therefore of Rome itself. The month of March takes its name from him, originally the first month of the Roman calendar, when armies marched out for the season's campaigns. The red colour of the planet, due to iron oxide on its surface, made the connection with blood and battle natural in every ancient culture.

In Hellenistic astrology, Mars was given rulership of Aries, where his initiating fire is most direct, and Scorpio, where his strategic intensity finds its deeper expression. The exaltation in Capricorn refines his impulsive force into disciplined achievement. Mars was also classified as a malefic, a planet of difficulty, in the binary distinction with the benefics Jupiter and Venus. This does not mean Mars is bad: difficulty is the medium of growth, and Mars is the principle of conscious assertion against resistance. Without Mars, nothing happens.

Meaning and function

In your natal chart, Mars describes how you act, fight, desire, and pursue. The sign of your Mars shows the style of your will, and the house shows where you most readily expend energy. Mars in Aries acts immediately and with full body; Mars in Cancer acts protectively and indirectly; Mars in Capricorn acts strategically over the long term; Mars in Pisces can struggle to locate its will but acts powerfully when in service. Mars also describes your sexuality, your relationship to anger, and the way you assert your boundaries.

The shadow of Mars, when over-active, is rage, violence, and the impulse to win at the cost of relationship. When under-developed, the Martian function shows up as a person who cannot say no, who collapses under pressure, or who turns aggression inward as self-attack. Mars in hard aspect to Saturn often describes blocked anger and the slow but enduring discipline that integrates it. Mars in aspect to Pluto intensifies will into total commitment. The integration of the Martian function is the practice of clean anger, conscious desire, and the courage to act before all the conditions are met.

In practice

Mars retrogrades for about 60 to 80 days every two years or so, and these periods are traditionally times of frustrated initiative, reviewed projects, and inner work on anger and desire. Mars transits through each sign in about six to seven weeks normally, but the retrograde periods can extend a stay to seven months. The Mars return, when transiting Mars comes back to its natal place, occurs about every two years and often coincides with a fresh push of energy. Hard transits from Mars to natal planets can mark accidents, conflicts, or surges of motivation, depending on the integration.

In synastry, Mars contacts produce friction and chemistry. Mars-Venus contacts give erotic attraction; Mars-Mars squares can produce real conflict between two strong wills. To work with Mars, exercise your body, take up a martial art, learn to say no clearly, and notice the difference between anger as information and anger as performance. The body needs to discharge Mars; sitting on the energy poisons. Use the daily horoscope to track Mars' sign and aspects, or your natal chart to find your own Mars placement.

Symbolic depth

In alchemy, Mars is iron, the metal of war and tools, the red metal that reddens further when heated. The alchemical Mars is the principle of separation, the sword that cuts what must be cut so that what is essential can remain. In the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, Mars is assigned to the sephira Geburah, severity or strength, the sphere of judgement and the disciplined limitation that makes form possible. In the tarot, Mars corresponds to The Tower, card sixteen of the major arcana, which shows lightning striking a tower and figures falling, an image of the necessary breaking of false structures.

Jung read Mars as the principle of the warrior archetype, present in every psyche regardless of gender, and as a key part of the animus, the inner masculine in a woman's psyche. The integrated warrior is the one who uses force in service of the soul; the unintegrated warrior is the bully or the soldier of someone else's war. Many spiritual traditions are sceptical of Mars, but the contemplative life requires a fierce inner discipline that is itself Martial. To work with Mars is to learn that anger is information, that desire is sacred, and that the world responds to the well-aimed yes and the well-aimed no. Continue through the glossary.

Also known as

• Ares (Greek)
• Tiu
• Red Planet
• Nergal (Babylonian)
• Mars (German)