CORE / 06 OF 36
Mars: Action and Drive
By the end you will know which side of you Mars describes, how long it stays in a sign, and how to check the force it stands for against your own life.
Approved original lessons, free on the web · 2026-10-12
THE IDEA
Mars is about how you push and how you get angry.
Table: the Moon stays in a sign about two days, the Sun about a month, Mars about two months, Jupiter about a year and Saturn about two and a half years. All averages from NASA orbit periods; retrograde motion changes any single pass.
Mars is about how you push and how you get angry.
What Mars is about
Mars is about drive, push and the way you get angry. Faced with something unfair, do you speak up on the spot, or hold it in and think it over at home? With a hard job, do you charge through in one go, or push a little every day?
Later interpretationWhen you look at your own Mars, ask two things: where does this force usually go? Can you put it down afterwards? You can answer both from your own recent experience.
Reflection promptWhat the old texts say: in Book I ch. 4 of the Tetrabiblos, Ptolemy says the nature of Mars is mainly to dry and to burn, in keeping with its fiery colour and its nearness to the Sun’s sphere. Ch. 5 counts Mars and Saturn as maleficent — Mars for too much dryness, Saturn for too much cold; the label rests on whether a nature is mild or extreme. Book IV ch. 4 makes Mars one of the three planets to look at for what kind of work a person does.
Cited sourceMars changes sign about every two months on average.
How fast Mars moves
Mars goes round the Sun in about 686.980 days (NASA figure). Shared across twelve signs, that is about two months a sign. It is an average — retrograde motion can take it back and forth inside one sign, so a single stay can be longer.
Derived calculationSo a Mars sign changes far more slowly than the Moon’s, and people born in the same month often share one. To tell people apart, add the house it fell in, and that needs a birth time.
Derived calculation / Later interpretationWhat the old texts say: Ptolemy talks about the qualities of Mars and its positions relative to the other bodies.
Cited sourceMars is about how you push.
Reading your own Mars
Mars describes how you push. Hands on first, or terms first? More force when blocked, or a different route? When angry, does it come out or stay in? It describes the way you push.
Later interpretationMars and the Sun can point different ways: the side the Sun wants seen and the place you are willing to put in effort may be two separate things.
Later interpretationWhen you check yourself, looking at the gap between the two is often more useful than the Mars sign alone. Ask yourself: is what you most want to put effort into the same as the self you want others to see?
Reflection promptWhat the old texts say: Book IV ch. 4 of the Tetrabiblos places Mars inside the question of what kind of work a person does, together with Venus and Mercury, and adds that the sign it is in matters.
Cited sourceOBSERVE YOUR OWN CHART
Look at my chart
Your turn: find Mars, then think of something you recently really pushed on.
- Find your Mars sign. If it changed sign on your birthday, keep both candidates for now.
- Compare it with your Sun: the same direction, or not quite?
- Write one line about the last time you forced something through, and see which side it looks like.
Without a birth time, rising sign and houses stay blank.
LOOK CLOSER
A common mix-up
“Mars is malefic, so Mars things go badly.”
“Malefic” means an extreme nature — too much dryness. When you read your own Mars, look at where the force goes and whether you can put it down afterwards.
“A Mars sign shows how big someone's temper is.”
Mars describes the way you push. People born in the same month often share a Mars sign, so telling them apart also takes the house it fell in.
CHECK YOURSELF
Now, try it yourself.
Sources and rights
- Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos, trans. F. E. Robbins (Loeb Classical Library, 1940)
Book I ch. 4 makes the nature of Mars chiefly drying and burning, from its fiery colour and nearness to the Sun's sphere; ch. 5 counts Mars and Saturn maleficent, Mars for excessive dryness; Book IV ch. 4 reads the quality of action from Mars, Venus and Mercury. Drive, push and anger are later usage and labelled as such, and the benefic/malefic framing is dropped with that choice stated.
The Robbins translation is in the public domain, as the University of Chicago LacusCurtius copyright page records. The transcriber's own notes and layout are not cited. · 2026-10-10 - NASA NSSDCA, Mars Fact Sheet (updated 2025-05-19)
Sidereal orbit period 686.980 days. The lesson's “about two months a sign” is our arithmetic from that figure over twelve signs, not a number the sheet states, and retrograde motion varies any single stay.
Under NASA's images and media guidelines, NASA-produced content is generally not copyrighted and may be used for educational purposes, while the NASA insignia and third-party material carry separate restrictions. Only the figures are used here — no insignia, no imagery. · 2026-10-10
Limits of this lesson
The example uses fixed demonstration placements — not a real person and not your chart.
YOUR STUDY
Write what you learned in your own words.
Write it down: does the way you push match the way you want to be seen?
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