You may know your "big three" signs, but getting to know the roles of all the planets in your birth chart can grant you a much deeper understanding of astrology….and yourself! In this series, the team at VICE Horoscopes explain each planet, and how it correlates to your natal chart.Mars is the planet of passion, anger, war, assertion, and separation, and its placement in your birth chart indicates how you pursue your goals, assert yourself, attack and defend, and cut people or circumstances off (think breakups). It also points to the way you weaponize your skills for protection and competition. Knowing someone’s Mars sign can tell you how they fight and what they fight for.
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But Mars isn’t all about the battle. It’s also the planet that symbolizes your sex life! In a natal chart, Mars symbolizes the way you tap into raw, primal instincts, including the way you disseminate creative and sexual energy. It’s true that Venus plays a major role in creativity, but Mars offers the fiery energy that disperses that creativity. Venus is the yin to Mars’s yang, meaning Venus is the more receptive energy while Mars is more concerned with projecting outwards. Both have their place in the bedroom.While Venus symbolizes your experience of harmony and receiving, Mars shows stamina and how you express your libido. Venus is the embrace, and Mars is the thrust! And although Venus demonstrates social and romantic compatibility, your Mars’s placement in your natal chart will clue you in on inexplicable chemistry—the type of attraction that feels powerful, animalistic, and driven by passion. Regardless of sex or gender identity, Mars essentially symbolizes peacocking behavior to potential mates.Mars can travel far from the sun, so it’s not easy to guess simply based on someone’s birthday! To find your Mars sign, plug in your birth date, time, and location to your preferred birth chart generator and find the symbol that looks like a circle with an arrow pointing up, illustrative of a penetrative force. Once you’ve figured it out, read what our team of astrologers at Astro Guide have to say about your Mars sign!
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Mars in Aries
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Mars in Taurus
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Mars in Gemini
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Mars in Cancer
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Mars in Leo
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Mars in Virgo
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Mars in Libra
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You’re highly motivated to win the trust of others, and humility is one of your greatest qualities that helps you achieve this goal. The passive type, you’re more likely to wait for others to make the first move in the bedroom and on the debate floor. As an airy cerebral Mars placement, you’re good at mirroring partners and opponents, intuiting their train of thought and movement. But rather than risking rejection or failure, you prefer to wait and see how you can reach your goal without spending time in the trial-and-error process, which makes the pen (and written word) a more powerful tool to you. You can erase, scribble out, and carefully edit a written message, but actions speak louder than words, and the thought of that being used against you makes you reluctant to say or do anything that can give others ammunition. Committing to a decision can feel intimidating to you because you’re well aware that there are always consequences to actions, and the thought of not being able to undo something often makes you hesitant. But more often than not, that can lead you to gain an unfavorable reputation, so it’s important that you make an effort to earn and maintain people’s trust by following through.Weapon: Stinger, poison, secrecyWith Mars in Scorpio, you like to play offense—you’re very calculating and often eight steps ahead of everyone else, making sure that all bases are covered before others have the chance to make a move! Intuition and focus grant you talent in uncovering and addressing every weak spot your opponent possesses, so you’re keen on taking your time to make the right move. Psychological warfare is your game, and no one plays it better than you. As someone who is highly empathetic, you know how to get under someone’s skin, but you also know what to do to make someone desire you. Instead of taking information at face value, you rely on sharp psychic senses to suss out insecurities, weak spots, and hidden desires, and then weaponize them or use them to seduce others. That said, your tendency to fixate on goals and objects of desire can be a double-edged sword, making it important that you embrace detachment and the law of impermanence. Losing and making mistakes are important experiences to acquire if you ever want to win.
Mars in Scorpio
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A natural sleuth, you often use anonymity or camouflage to protect yourself until you’ve assessed that it’s safe to let your guard down. When threatened, you don’t hesitate to use whatever secrets or insecurities you’ve dug up to sting others—and your targets often won’t know what hit them until it’s too late. People tend to be afraid of the dark because they don’t know what’s around them, but you’re comfortable lingering in the shadows, and you’re fond of luring both mates and opponents there to have your way with them.
Mars in Sagittarius
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People need to be long-winded to keep up with you, especially in a fight—when you show up for a battle, you’re usually found stepping on your soap box. But Mars in the sign of the centaur also points to your love of partying. Despite your moral interests, indulging in a little debauchery can actually be a turn-on and the party scene is where you’ll let loose. If you’re not thoughtful, people can call you out for being hypocritical and try to throw you off your high horse. That said, justice is incredibly important to you and your carrot stick tends to be “doing the right thing.” While your bottom half is all animal (a sign of great instincts), your top half has a brain—one filled with cultured insights from your travels. Whether you’re flirting or fighting, you’re always ready to flex some knowledge.
Mars in Capricorn
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Patience is part of your strategy and you have the capacity to play the long game, knowing when and where to strike. Yours is a Mars sign filled with wisdom and grit. Everything you do is for a reason, and you have the fortitude to wait out the hardest situations until opportunity arrives. You’re no stranger to pushing yourself to aspirational heights, even when there’s no end or finish line in sight. In fact, there often isn’t a limit for you because you’re always setting the bar higher. Your headstrong demeanor usually leaves a trail of followers and hopeful competitors in your path, inspired to accomplish the greatness that you pursue without fear.When it comes to sex, you have plenty of stamina—you’re one lusty goat! Playful taunting and teasing, as well as flaunting power in the bedroom are fun ways you enjoy expressing your sexuality. As an earthy Mars, your lovers would also say you’re highly sensual.Although Capricorn is famous for its business-oriented reputation, you definitely party as hard as you work…that passionate energy has to go somewhere once you leave the office! While you’re not one to take revenge, you’ll end someone’s career if they deserve it.