Planets and points

Mars

Direct answer

Mars in astrology represents action, desire, heat, conflict, courage, assertion, defense, anger, libido, and the way energy cuts through resistance.

Planets & Celestial BodiesThe Great Almanac DictionaryUpdated 2026-09-26

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At a glance

In astrology: Mars rules Aries and Scorpio, is exalted in Capricorn, falls in Cancer, and is in detriment in Taurus and Libra.
Found in: Planets & Celestial Bodies
Related: Planetary Placement, Planetary Position, Birth Chart, Transit

The planets on their engraved orbits before a brass armillary sphere — Celestial motion · visual guide **Mars**
Mars represents action, courage, conflict, desire, and drive.
The orbit map distinguishes physical bodies, calculated points, and symbolic cycles where possible.

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What sets Mars apart

Mars is the first planet beyond the Sun in the Chaldean order, the nearest of the three that can stand opposite it, and the one Ptolemy calls dry and strongly heating, from its fiery colour. It takes 687 days to circle the zodiac, but 780 to return to the same place against the Sun, and it turns retrograde only once in about 26 months. The Hellenistic texts call it the lesser malefic and give it the nocturnal sect, so a night chart is read as restraining it and a day chart as leaving it out of sect.

Circuit of the zodiac: about 687 days, or 1.88 years
Synodic cycle: about 780 days between oppositions to the Sun
Retrograde: about two to two and a half months, once every 26 months or so
Exaltation degree: 28 degrees of Capricorn in the later tradition
Joy: the sixth house, which Firmicus calls Mars's place, Bad Fortune
Egyptian name: Pyrois, in Firmicus Maternus

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Mars in the traditional textbooks

Mars is the dry malefic, the second in Burgoyne's ranking. Ptolemy places him nearest below the Sun's sphere, with a fiery color, and gives him the night, against his nature, so that the night's moisture tempers him. Firmicus calls the sixth house Bad Fortune because it is Mars's place. Dorotheus says Mars' portion is the night.

Nature (Ptolemy): Mars is dry and strongly heating, because he is nearest below the Sun's sphere, with a fiery color.
Class (Ptolemy): malefic, by excess of dryness.
Sex (Ptolemy): masculine. Team: the night team, deliberately against his nature, so that the night's moisture tempers his dryness.
Sphere (Firmicus): the sphere below Jupiter.
Egyptian name (Firmicus): Pyrois.
Color (Ptolemy, reading eclipses and comets): red.
Orb (Abu Ma'shar): 8 degrees.
Body (Ptolemy): the left ear, kidneys, veins and genitals. Body (Burgoyne, 1896): the external sexual organism, the muscles and the sinews.

Mars: dignities, bounds and strength

Where Mars is strong, according to the same few authors:

Domicile: Aries and Scorpio. Ptolemy's reason: he is dry, and his distances from the houses of the luminaries are discordant.
Detriment: Libra and Taurus, the signs opposite its own.
Exaltation: 28 degrees of Capricorn, because Capricorn is the most southerly point, where fire is at its greatest intensity (Ptolemy). Fall: 28 degrees of Cancer.
Joy by sign (Dorotheus): Scorpio. Joy by house (al-Qabisi): the sixth house.
Triplicity: partner of the earth signs (Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn); night lord of the water signs (Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces) (Dorotheus).

The Egyptian bounds of Mars add up to 66 degrees of the 360. Aries 21 to 25, Taurus 28 to 30, Gemini 18 to 24, Cancer 1 to 7, Leo 25 to 30, Virgo 22 to 28, Libra 29 to 30, Scorpio 1 to 7, Sagittarius 27 to 30, Capricorn 27 to 30, Aquarius 21 to 25, Pisces 20 to 28. The widest is 9 degrees, in Pisces, and the narrowest is 2, in Libra.

Mars rules 6 of the 36 decans: first decan of Aries, second decan of Gemini, third decan of Leo, first decan of Scorpio, second decan of Capricorn, third decan of Pisces.

Facing (al-Qabisi, after Ptolemy): a western planet is in the facing of the Sun when it stands in the fourth sign from the Sun, as many signs as its domicile is from the Sun's.
Face (Ptolemy, a phase and not a decan): it makes square to the Sun.
Morning star (Firmicus): it becomes one when it precedes the Sun by 8 degrees.

Mars: people, years and the limb in each sign

Burgoyne calls Mars the planet of strife, energy and combativeness, electric and fiery. Firmicus gives his Egyptian name as Pyrois. Hill's candlestick places him with Jupiter and Saturn on the far side from the Sun.

Among siblings, Dorotheus assigns it middle brothers (with Jupiter); when it rules the second house, he traces a decline in fortune to violence, theft or fire. Dorotheus's figure for the years of evil an angular planet holds off is 15 years. Ptolemy says that as lord of an eclipse he brings war, civil strife, fevers, tertian agues, hemorrhage, drought, fire, lightning and the early death of the young.

Al-Qabisi gives each planet a limb in each sign, the part that shows illness when it is troubled there. For Mars:

Aries: head
Taurus: neck
Gemini: chest
Cancer: chest
Leo: belly
Virgo: belly
Libra: private parts
Scorpio: head, arms, thighs
Sagittarius: feet and hands
Capricorn: legs and shoulders
Aquarius: ankles, heart
Pisces: ankles and belly

The story behind Mars

Mars is a classical planet associated with the war god Ares or Mars.

The spiritual meaning of Mars

Spiritually, Mars asks how force can be made clean, protective, and purposeful.

Why Mars matters

Mars matters because it shows how a person pursues, fights, protects, separates, competes, and moves when something matters.

How to read Mars

Astrologers reach for Mars when interpreting motivation, anger, boundaries, sexuality, athletics, conflict, courage, and Mars transits.

Mars in practice: an example

Mars in Virgo may act by diagnosing the problem, improving the method, and working with precision.

Where readings of Mars go wrong

A common error is to call Mars bad because it brings conflict. Without Mars, there is no boundary, courage, or decisive action.

Sources and editorial method

This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.

Source: The Great Almanac Dictionary
Category: Planets & Celestial Bodies
Aliases: Mars astrology, Mars meaning
Last updated: 2026-09-26

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Planetary PlacementPlanetary Placement is a planet's location and condition inside an astrology chart. Planetary PositionPlanetary Position is the exact zodiac location of a planet for chart calculation. Birth ChartA Birth Chart is a personal astrology map built from birth date, time, and place. TransitTransit means current planetary movement activating a chart. SunThe Sun represents identity, vitality, will, and conscious purpose. MoonThe Moon represents emotion, instinct, memory, and bodily rhythm. VenusVenus represents love, beauty, pleasure, values, and attraction.

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