Mars in Leo

What this Mars goes after

This Mars wants to be picked, and it wants the picking to be visible. Being someone's private arrangement is the one outcome it cannot enjoy, however good the arrangement is — half the point of wanting somebody here is being seen to have gone and got them.

What it goes after, it goes after handsomely. This is a generous placement in pursuit: it plans things, it pays, it makes an occasion, and none of that is calculated. It is simply how the effort comes out, and the effort is genuine.

What it will not do is grovel. There is a hard floor under this Mars, and once the pursuing starts to feel like begging, the whole thing stops — not out of strategy but because dignity is load-bearing here, and this placement cannot want somebody from underneath.

How it makes the first move

Warmly and unmistakably. Nobody is ever confused about whether Mars in Leo is interested; the attention is generous, sustained and pitched at a volume that makes the other person feel briefly like the most noticed person in the building.

Competition sharpens it. Somebody other people want is more compelling than somebody free, and this placement should know that about itself, because the resulting choice is sometimes about the contest rather than the person.

The early failure is a cool response. This Mars reads mild enthusiasm as rejection — not as reticence — and will withdraw the whole display rather than repeat it into a silence. What it needs is a plain signal back, given early.

Inside a relationship

It stays warm, and warmth here is not weather. This placement keeps making the occasion, years in, and the effort does not quietly become the other person's job the way it does in half the charts in the zodiac.

What it needs is to be told, out loud, in words, more often than seems necessary. Being appreciated silently is not being appreciated; a partner who feels it deeply and says it annually is starving somebody who would have done anything for the sentence.

Conflict is loud and short and needs a proper ending. This Mars cannot let a fight simply fade out — it wants an apology, or to give one, and a partner who prefers to let things settle leaves it standing in an unfinished argument for weeks.

Where it goes wrong

Pride runs the whole failure. Being wrong is survivable; being made to look small in front of somebody is not, and this placement will defend a position it privately abandoned days ago rather than concede it in company.

The second failure is needing the reaction more than the outcome. Anger here is partly a performance, and a performance requires a response — which is why a partner who stays calm through it is not calming this Mars down but escalating it, without knowing why.

And there is a slow one that hurts more. This placement can spend years being magnificent for somebody and never say plainly that it needs something back, because asking would spoil the impression of not needing anything.

Who it works with

Fire and air match the register. Another fire Mars competes and then gets over it; Gemini, Libra and Aquarius enjoy the performance and are happy to say so, and saying so is most of what is required.

Water is where the volume becomes a problem. Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces do their reacting privately and hours later, and this placement reads that delay as indifference and turns the display up, which pushes them further out of the room.

Earth is the underrated pairing. Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn are not impressed by the show and are extremely reliable about the substance, and this Mars, which is used to being adored and quietly unsure whether it is liked, tends to find that steadier than it expected.

The three cards of this sign

Leo is a fixed fire sign, so the Wands rule its decans, and the degree decides which of the three carries your Mars.

The first ten degrees are the Five of Wands, and the detail for a Mars is that none of the staves connect. Five people swinging and not one blow landing. This placement's contests are frequently exactly that: real effort, real noise, no actual damage intended anywhere.

The middle ten are the Six of Wands, and there are two wreaths — one on his head and one tied to the staff. Winning and being seen to have won are separate items here, and this Mars needs both or the victory does not register.

The last ten are the Seven of Wands, and look at his feet: one boot, one shoe. He was caught unready and is holding the ground anyway. That is this placement at its most admirable — improvising a defence of something it cares about, badly dressed for it, and winning.

Five of Wands

V

0–10°Five of Wands

Six of Wands

VI

10–20°Six of Wands

Seven of Wands

VII

20–30°Seven of Wands

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