Ah, Mars in Leo, that flashy placement that makes you think it’s more fabulous than it really is, technically speaking, astrologically speaking, in which it’s merely a peregrine, or neutral placement, for the planet of war and violence. But Mars, in the sign of the lion, isn’t interested in technicalities; it’s too busy expressing itself, demanding your attention, and flashing a temper if you don’t provide the requisite adulation.
Mars strutted into Leo with jazz hands on June 11th, shaking off the water from its uncomfortable warm bath in Cancer, in the sign of its depression. The warrior planet will remain in Leo’s sunshine until July 29th, when it makes a scene-stealing exit before sitting down with the scribes to sift through data in Virgo.
Whenever we discuss either of the traditional malefic planets, Mars and Saturn, we must proceed with caution. Unlike the benefics, Venus and Jupiter, which generally are capable of sprinkling some fairy dust in any chart, even if they’re under some duress, the malefics are different, ranging from possibly constructive to massively challenging. If the bar is set to not lighting the house on fire or plotting a war in the back room with the generals, any behavior that falls short of these scenarios is, sure, constructive.
And with Mars in Leo, we are literally playing with fire. Mars is hot, dry, arid, masculine. It rules over all kinds of mayhem and violence, described in lurid detail in the ancient astrology texts, as well as accidents and injury. Leo is a masculine fire sign ruled by the sun, which is hot and dry. When the sun passes through Leo we will find ourselves in the middle of the summer, when the weather is hottest (in the northern hemisphere, where astrological tradition was developed), which gives the sign its dry, hot qualities.
Leo is one of the four fixed signs, along with Taurus, Scorpio, and Aquarius. Located in the middle of their respective seasons, fixed signs are steady and unchanging, when the weather is at its most characteristic for that season. Leo is like a steady, unchanging fire, a gas-powered fireplace or that fireplace film that never burns down. Unlike Aires, in which there is a sudden outbreak of fire, like a lightning strike, or Sagittarius, which rages across the land as a wildfire, Leo is contained, and never depleted. Its energy is constant.
In Leo, Mars has endless reserves of energy for its actions, and Mars is all about action. But what drives its actions? What is, as the leonine actors might ask, its motivation? Ruled by the sun, Mars in Leo, like every Leo placement ever, pulls the sun — a person’s self, their core identity — into its actions. If Leos have a not-undeserved reputation for self-absorption, well, there’s a reason for it. Everything that they do (Mars = action) becomes about them (sun). But don’t hate them because they’re Leo-full. They can’t help it.
Wherever the sun is placed in the natal chart, in whichever sign, it becomes the ruler of all Leo placements. So, what you see is what you get: a Pisces sun with Mars in Leo acts in a way that seems Piscean — buoyant and inspired and a little nutty, while a Capricorn sun with Mars in Leo is all business, let’s-get-this-in-the-can-I-don’t-have-all-day. And if someone has the sun in addition to Mars and any other planets in Leo? Welcome to the jungle. They’re the king/queen (or they think they are; the rest of us may not agree, but hardcore Leos don’t really have time for the opinions of others).
Like all the fixed signs, Mars in Leo can veer into stubbornness, and when they get going (remember: action) on a particular track, good luck getting them off of it. You’d have more luck trying to make that fireplace video burn out. Better to approach them like the regal but dangerous lion that they are, scratch their chin, rub their belly, and tell them they’re wonderful. Flattery is music to Mars in Leo’s ears (all Leo placements, really). And the converse applies as well — withholding attention is like withholding food. Without it, Mars in Leo will become angry and act out, like a caged lion denied its requisite gazelle.
Naturally, Mars in Leo loves the spotlight, and a short list of notable people with this placement reads like a who’s who of the performing (and political and athletic) arts: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Édith Piaf, Frank Sinatra, Gregory Peck, Sophia Loren, Leonard Cohen, James Dean, Sylvia Plath, Brigitte Bardot, Bob Fosse, Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Bruce Springsteen, Sigourney Weaver, Demi Moore, Robert Redford, Goldie Hawn, Hulk Hogan, Jodie Foster, Steven Tyler, Neil Young, Cher, Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, June Carter Cash, Kamala Harris, Sting, Jon Stewart, George Clooney, Enya, Iman, Billy Bob Thornton, Mila Kunis, Anna Kendrick, Daniel Radcliffe, Beyoncé Knowles, Salma Hayek, Amy Winehouse, River Phoenix, Adam Sandler, Monica Bellucci, Serena Williams, Brittany Murphy, Maggie Gyllenhaal, January Jones, Ralph Fiennes, Joe Exotic (retrograde Mars in Leo, fittingly), Michael Jordan, Seal, James Franco, Conan O’Brien, Quentin Tarantino, Boy George, Colin Farrell, Michael J. Fox, Sofía Vergara, and Megan Thee Stallion.
As always, when discussing malefics, we have to factor in sect, which is the concept that benefic and malefic planets operate differently in charts depending on whether a person was born during the day or night. In day charts (when the sun is located in the upper half of the natal chart, above the horizon), Mars is the more destructive malefic, while Saturn is more constructive. In night charts (when the sun is located in the lower half of the chart, under the horizon) this formulation is reversed, with Mars acting more constructively and Saturn the more challenging malefic.
So, in looking at any Mars placement in a natal chart, we must first determine the sect in order to understand how Mars is likely to behave. Mars in Leo in a day chart is more prone to the downsides of this placement, with potential for narcissistic actions and anger and general mayhem wherever it’s located. The Leo whole sign house where Mars is located in a day chart might as well have a “proceed with caution” sign posted at its entrance, indicating that the territory of this house (finances for the second house, career for the tenth house, health/illness/work for the sixth house, etc.) is prone to martian issues — anger, violence, injury, chaos, and a general “saying no” to the topics of the house.
Mars’ placement in a day chart can be strengthened if it’s in one of its home signs (Aires or Scorpio), in its sign of exaltation (Capricorn), or if it can “see” its ruling planet through one of the traditional aspects. Its position can also be improved through a helpful aspect from Jupiter or, to a lesser degree, Venus. But, Mars in a day chart is always potentially problematic, even if it has some support. And, in Leo, Mars is in a neutral sign, so much depends on the placement of its ruler, the sun.
In a night chart, Mars in Leo is better positioned to demonstrate its more positive qualities of showmanship, with its destructive instincts channeled in a more constructive direction. A classic example of a more helpful night chart Mars in Leo is the legendary choreographer Bob Fosse. A sensitive Cancer sun with a disciplined and cool Aquarius rising and a firecracker Aires moon, Fosse has Mars in the seventh house conjunct Venus and co-present with dreamy Neptune, all in hammy Leo. While this placement could also tell us a lot about his dramatic personal life, with his partners in dance and life (Venus and the seventh house), our focus here is on Mars, not Venus. His spotlight-seeking, action-oriented Mars athleticism was tempered by graceful Venus and imaginative Neptune into a high-octane jazz dance form so representative of his individualistic style (Aires moon signature) that it became synonymous with him. Tell a studio of dancers to do something in the Fosse style and instantly they’ll tuck their pelvises under and strut and slouch, legs turned in, arms at striking angles, fingers snapping or electric with jazz hands.
Though he’s best known for his sultry choreography, Fosse was also a charismatic, scene-stealing dancer himself. Here is a delightful montage of clips of him dancing, occasionally with his third wife and iconic dance partner, Gwen Verdon (hardworking Capricorn sun and Virgo moon with a magnetic Pisces rising and an explosive Aires Mars that compliments Fosse’s Leo Mars), demonstrating the pure delight of being in the spotlight for Mars in Leo:
Taking a look at the topics of the Leo whole sign house in your natal chart, and taking into consideration the sect of your chart, will help determine what topics Mars will energize or aggravate as it passes through Leo. Mars will be relatively quiet through most of the rest of June, forming only loose sign-based sextiles to the sun, Venus, and Mercury (retrograde until June 22nd) in Gemini. But, at the end of the month, on June 28th, Mars starts to pick up the tempo, making an energizing exact sextile to the North Node at 10 degrees Gemini, the sight of the recent eclipse drama of increase. Mars’ energy/aggression could light up whatever topics arose during the solar eclipse on June 10th.
The story changes significantly in early July, as Mars moves into a tense square/opposition face off between the two heavy hitter planets, Saturn in Aquarius and Uranus in Taurus, that are continually clashing this year, via a tense square, in a dizzying array of standoffs taking the form of left vs. right, liberal vs. conservative, new vs. old, change vs. status quo. Mars opposes Saturn, dignified in its home sign of Aquarius, on July 1st, and squares Uranus in Taurus (currently at work disrupting the earth, currency, food, agriculture, and the arts) on July 3rd, forming a tense T-square (two planets in opposition and one squaring both). These are all extremely stubborn signs, but Mars is the most explosive, located in fiery Leo. Expect some sort of standoff, with potential for unpredictable (Uranus) uproar or actions (Mars) against institutions (Saturn). Sounds fun. Maybe I’ll be doing something low-key this July 4th.
But it’s not all prizefighters staring each other down. There’s a fun moment, on July 13th, when Mars conjoins beautiful Venus at 19 degrees Leo, forming a powerful, magnetic duo. This is the time to express your inner rockstar, to tap into whatever secret identity you’ve been hiding in your metaphorical closet and flaunt it like a Eurovision upstart. Go ahead, to quote the imitable Shrek, and “let your freak flag fly.”
Then, on July 29th, on its way out of Leo, Mars opposes Jupiter, newly retrograded out of Pisces and back into 29 degrees of Aquarius. The greater benefic tips its hat at the aging rock star, limping off the stage with a bad hip, headed out to pasture in Virgo’s harvest fields. But, Jupiter is diminished in Aquarius, out of its expansive home in Pisces for the rest of the year, so its effect on Mars may be to unhelpfully expand whatever conflagration the planet of war has started in everyone’s Leo houses. A reminder, perhaps, that Mars must be approached with caution (particularly in day charts), that whatever issues it sets ablaze must be tended to or they can ignite something larger. The good news is that the temperature will lower as soon as Mars goes into Virgo, where the planet of action has an endless and wonkish to-do list to keep it occupied. There will be less chest thumping and flame throwing and more meetings and emails.
To send us out onto the stages of our lives, I leave you with beautiful Beyoncé performing Hold Up while strutting down the street in leonine yellow, smashing car windows (and, hopefully, the patriarchy). With Mars in Leo in a day chart, a hardworking Virgo sun, and a gorgeous Libra rising conjunct Venus, Beyoncé playfully demonstrates a positive manifestation of Mars’ potential for destruction (she’s literally smashing things!). Expressed in her eleventh house of audiences, community, and fans, her Mars in Leo displays her creative work ethic and attention to detail (its Virgo sun ruler) while commenting slyly on relationship dynamics (hello, Libra!). All while looking fabulous, naturally.
Now, get out there, rocker! I want to see some jazz hands.