THE INFLUENCE OF MARS IN A PERSON’S NATAL CHART
This article follows articles on my ASTRO_PSYCHIC Group Site where I have discussed various ways Planet Venus manifests its energy in particular charts, and is part of a lengthy, ongoing process of evaluating the various factors in a chart which have FORENSIC-QUALITYchart interpretation as their goal.
MARS in a chart, (as you may know!), shows ENERGY and DRIVE for both (or either) career, health and other well-being, or sexual goals. How expressive of constructive (“male”) energy a person is likely to be, shows-up in the position and aspects of Mars in a person’s chart. Sometimes MARS can even show DESTRUCTIVE energy, depending on its sign and house placement and aspects. Mars can help bring about such constructive action, as to make a person highly successful in life, as well as wealthy. But in certain configurations, it can be an angry force, that can be used for military and law-enforcement purposes, or, corrupted when seen in certain positions and aspects, in negative states, such as being over-frustrated for too long a time, weak because the male “drive” is weak, or, in other configurations, throbbing with explosive anger, which, if not used properly, can lead to sudden fights and attacks, or the occurrence of dangerous accidents.
FLIPPED OVER, ON THE I-10
A client I spoke with just yesterday has a MOON conjunct MARS conjunct URANUS aspect in his chart. When I asked him if he’d had been in any fights or accidents lately, he said “Things have been fairly quiet lately, Oh! except for a roll-over on the edge of the I-10. I was lucky… If I’d been in my seat belt, the front window, when it crashed onto me, would have decapitated me. But because I was thrown back from the window, I avoided being killed when it came down on me.” So that’s what “things being fairly quiet” to a person born with a Moon-Mars-Uranus conjunction!
SKYDIVING DISASTER FORETOLD
Another person used to come in to see me on Sundays, after he got out of church. He was trying to “SAVE” me by sharing the Words of the Lord with me. Finally, one day he asked me to have a look at his horoscope. I saw that he had some very good qualities in his chart, including lofty ideals. But he also had a very close MARS opposite URANUS in his chart, cutting right across the horizon (Ascendant–Descendant) line. I told him to be very careful, as I knew he was an experienced sky-diver. I didn’t see him for awhile, then I just happened to glance at a local paper… I saw a story with his name in it. He’d been skydiving with someone who was jumping for the first time. The person’s chute failed to open properly, it trailed upward but failed to open. His own chute got tangled in the other chute, and they fell to earth together, clutching each other, and landed in a field. Both were killed. The article was about his heroism in staying with the novice and trying to save him rather than opening his own chute, separately, and surviving.
MARS AND THE MERCENARY
A fellow came in the other day who seemed a bit skeptical at first, and sat there with arms folded across his chest. But when I told him his MARS conjunction URANUS meant he probably enjoyed danger, but needed to avoid dangerous situations where he might get hurt, he perked up. It turns out he is one of those contractors (some would call them: mercenaries), sent, a year at a time, to Iraq for about $8,000 to $9,000 a month. He was trying to decide whether to sign-up for an additional 1 year, or 2 years. Fortunately, the transits were positive for him, implying he would survive and prosper, and he gave me a $25 tip at the end of the reading.
MARTIAL ARTS AND MARS
A young lady born in December, 1983, has a MARS in Venus’ sign, Libra, which trines the Moon but squares Mercury. At least it gets plenty of aspects. It is a very ACTIVE Mars, and she is a very active person. But more noticeable even, than her Mars, is her SATURN which is smack-dab on the Ascendant. So, she enjoys the MARTIAL ARTS, (one of these who LIVES for that twice-weekly dose of controlled violence!), and the SATURN on the Ascendant makes her partial to DISCIPLINE and to hard work… just so it doesn’t break her back!
In the chart of ANOTHER, even more intense Martial Arts fan, Mars is rather isolated, having a sextile to Venus and only semisextiles to Neptune and Sun. (The story on semisextiles hasn’t been told yet!) They are SUPPOSED to be a mildly benefic aspect, but I’m not so sure! But in her chart, just as in the case of the other devoted martial arts student, SATURN is very powerful. Not only is there SUN and 4 planets in Capricorn, Saturn’s sign, but SUN conjuncts SATURN very closely in this ‘home sign’ of Capricorn, and up in the 10th House, where its traits are on public display… so there is exactly the same kind of appreciation of DISCIPLINE and hard work, which keeps her coming back week after week to be thrown-around on the mat by older, powerful guys… sometimes requiring some chiropractic help!
MARS OVERSHADOWED BY MORE ANGULAR PLANETS
Mars can be overshadowed in some of the affairs of life by other factors. In the birth chart of a woman born in July, 1978, MARS is in the middle of a trine formed by SUN in Cancer and URANUS in Scorpio. MARS is smack-dab in the middle, in a 60 deg. sextile to both SUN and URANUS. MARS is, moreover, in the 10th House. One would think this would give her great success at work. And it DOES, she is in a “law enforcement” type of job, where she does very well. MARS in the 10th cries out “Law enforcement!” Except she also has a VENUS-conjunction-SATURN even closer to the actual Midheaven, and also in Leo. The issue at hand when she visited me for a reading, was: She is dramatically (Leo) reacting to her lack of a lover (Venus-conj-Saturn) at work (10th House) by publically trying to SEDUCE HIM into having sex (Mars) with her. She dressed in fancy lingerie and “gave him a good look”. The inevitable result is, he must think she’s a bit of a nut and he is giving her the slip… She baked him a gourmet meal that took 7 hours to make, but he seems to have not eaten it. He might be a little afraid of her! He kids her (in public) about the fact she’s come out with this incredible passion for him. MARS is energetically keeping her obsessed with this man, whom she can’t have, since she can’t have ANY man at work, which is the upshot of having VENUS conj SATURN in the 10th. She COULD have him, but it wouldn’t come about through MARS (sudden, abrasive, aggressive action), it would come about through VENUS+SATURN, i.e., lengthy and conservative, disciplined (SATURN) actions. The fact she LAUNCHED HERSELF AT THIS MAN (Mars+Uranus, Mars+Sun), serves only to push him farther away from her and insure that the Venus-Saturn loneliness and coldness continues on her job, in fact, she will LOSE FRIENDS instead of make them (possibly even risking her job) with this kind of inappropriate behavior!
TOUGH, INSIGHTFUL THERAPIST MARS
A woman born during the Second World War enjoys a MARS Rising, which trines a SATURN-URANUS conjunction (Aquarius to Gemini). The MARS aspects SATURN much closer than it does the URANUS, so the hard work (on a mental level–Aquarius/Gemini) is implied. Mars-Saturn in GOOD aspect has given her a great responsibility: She is literally in control of many people’s lives, because she is a mental health therapist (Ph.D in Psychology), for a SCHOOL DISTRICT. She analyzes and diagnoses the mental health problems of an endless stream of troubled students. She has learned to put-up with the amazing stress of having such a job because of the powerful MARS Rising in innovative, humanitarian AQUARIUS. Besides! MARS GIVES COURAGE wherever we find it, if the REST OF THE CHART, and the aspects and conditions of Mars say “Courage” rather than “Anger”,”Hatred”, etc.
WRITER’S MARS
In my own chart, MARS is in Virgo, in the 4th House, implying I could stay home (4th House) and write books or in some other way process information (Virgo, ruled by Mercury, an extremely “bookish” factor!). MARS aspects my natal MERCURY and VENUS and ASCENDING degree by sextile, implying success with writing, but writing pleasing (Mercury + Venus) material–if I work at it! MARS in Virgo implies I WILL work at it, I won’t be lazy when it comes to writing, and that seems to be the truth, since I’ve sent 14 books winging their way to a publisher so far in 2008.
GREAT VENUS/JUPITER “OVERPOWER” AN AFFLICTED MARS
Sometimes an indifferent or highly-stressed MARS can still occur in the chart of a person who has attained a lot of success in life. A woman born in December, 1949, has a wide Mars-Saturn conjunction, and a Mars-Sun square (Virgo to Sagittarius). Both of these seem to indicate many difficulties on the road of life. But she also has a VENUS conjunction JUPITER in the 7th House — the most success will come through marriage, anotherwords, and she has been married 3 times, each time to a more and MORE successful man who has helped her become more and more wealthy. PLUTO in the 2nd House (avarice for wealth) opposite VENUS (the wealth is more important than the love in the marriage), tends to show the subsequent divorces come from a push-pull relating to finances and jobs with the husband, as well as a Mars-Saturn feeling of “turning off” (Saturn) to “men” (Mars), possibly from those times in her childhood when SUN square MARS put her into antagonistic and very stressful situations with her father, which can be seen in even more detail in the Pluto-Venus opposition, showing she was an ‘at risk’ child generally. This also started her on the path of putting herself, and her work, first, beyond any relationship considerations. Her work was intense — with Mars conj Saturn you can see she put a lot of effort into what she was doing — but that did not make her rich like choosing the right man to marry did. One of her husbands was a TV network anchorman in San Francisco; another, was a very successful commercial painter; her first husband was —myself! I insisted me move to the big city together,right out of college. She hadn’t even finished college but was bored to tears and wanted out. As soon as we got to S.F. she got a smashingly good job, better than what I could come up with, but I soon MISSED SCHOOL (Virgo Mars, etc.), so I had a harder time of it. But together we started to buy and fix-up Victorian apartment buildings –on the edge of a spectacularly good real estate market –a damn good idea for a couple of ambitious kids in their early ’20’s!
I guess I could not possibly exhaust all the sub-topics and combinations possible by looking at planet MARS in a natal chart! 100 more examples would not be nearly enough. But at least it is good to know that, armed with good birth data, a lot of high quality data can be eeked out about the person.
Best, —-Ed
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