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Mars
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Mars is the planet of action and separation: drive, courage, desire, anger, competition and the capacity to cut through. It describes how a person goes after what they want, how they defend themselves, and where friction is most likely to arise. The tradition gives it soldiers, surgeons, smiths and all who work with fire and iron, and it signifies fevers, cuts and quarrels — but also the initiative without which nothing begins.
Nature
Mars is hot and dry, masculine and nocturnal. It belongs to the night sect, with the Moon and Venus, whose cool moisture tempers its excess heat; by the same logic it is thought to be more troublesome in a day chart. It is the lesser malefic, beside Saturn, the greater. Its virtues are courage, initiative and decisiveness; its faults, rashness, anger and contention.
Signs it rules and where it is strong or weak
Mars rules Aries, its day house, and, traditionally, Scorpio, its night house. Modern astrology gives Scorpio to Pluto and often keeps Mars as its co-ruler. Mars is exalted in Capricorn, traditionally at 28°, where force becomes disciplined effort. It is in detriment in Libra and Taurus, the signs of Venus, and in its fall in Cancer.
Motion
Mars takes about 687 days to go round the Sun, and usually spends six to seven weeks in a sign. It turns retrograde about every twenty-six months for roughly two to two and a half months; in those years it can stay in one sign for six months or more, which makes a Mars retrograde a long, concentrated period. Its stations, when it seems to stand still before reversing, are often felt as moments of pent-up or redirected energy.
In a chart
Mars by house shows where a person is most inclined to strive, compete and push: in the 10th, for position; in the 6th, through hard work; in the 7th, through partners who challenge or rivals who sharpen; in the 1st, in a direct and energetic manner. Its condition in the chart says whether that energy is more likely to come out as courage or as conflict — never which it must be.
In transit
Transiting Mars energises whatever it touches: a few days of urgency, effort or friction around the natal planet or angle concerned. Its conjunctions and hard aspects are often read as times to act decisively and to take care with haste, temper and sharp edges. Its slow retrograde loops can bring an old contest or project back for a second round.
In the tarot
The Golden Dawn's correspondences, which most English-language decks follow.
Major Arcana: The Tower
Decans it rules: Two of Wands (Aries 0°–10°), Nine of Swords (Gemini 10°–20°), Seven of Wands (Leo 20°–30°), Five of Cups (Scorpio 0°–10°), Three of Pentacles (Capricorn 10°–20°), Ten of Cups (Pisces 20°–30°)