Mars

Mars is, in the classical order, the lesser malefic — infortuna minor. Saturn is the greater. The name describes a mode of action, not a judgement.

What it means

What separates. Everything that cuts, loosens, attacks, sets things in motion: tool and weapon, fire and iron, surgery and strife, courage and anger.

It rules Aries and Scorpio, is exalted in Capricorn at 28 degrees, in detriment in Taurus and Libra, in fall in Cancer at 28 degrees.

The Capricorn–Cancer opposition says a great deal: Mars is strong where things are limited and endured, and weak where they are taken in and preserved.

Sect is decisive with Mars

Mars belongs to the night sect. The difference is greater with Mars than with any other planet.

In a night birth Mars is in its own sect: its sharpness works within bounds, and turns into resolve and drive. In a day birth it is out of sect: the same sharpness works unchecked.

Two charts with the same Mars in the same sign and house must therefore be read differently, depending on whether the Sun stood above or below the horizon. This is the factor most often passed over in modern practice, and the most consequential.

Why “difficult” does not mean “bad”

A dignified Mars, angular, in its own sect, is an excellent planet. It describes someone who carries something through, holds out, and sees it to the end.

Tradition calls it difficult because its mode of action separates — and separation hurts, even when it is needed. A surgeon, a smith, a soldier: all Mars, and none of them possible without it.

What harms is a weakened Mars: out of its own sect, in fall, without reception. The separation then remains, and nothing comes of it.

Retrograde motion

Mars is retrograde for about two and a half months roughly every two years. The cycle is long enough that a retrograde natal Mars is nothing rare — about one person in ten has one. See retrograde planets.