Mars in Scorpio – Intelligent Anger and Passion

In astrology, the planet Mars has just entered the sign of Scorpio for a longish transit of the sign.

If you’re considering buying a gift during this period for someone with Mars in Scorpio, get them a mystery to explore, a puzzle to solve which no one else has been able to crack thus far.

You might want to make it an interactive one which you can participate in and maybe learn some tips and tricks from the Mars in Scorpio as to how to deal with the energies which this transit brings with it.

“I desired dragons with a profound desire. Of course, I in my timid body did not wish to have them in the neighbourhood, intruding into my relatively safe world, in which it was, for instance, possible to read stories in peace of mind, free from fear. But the world that contained even the imagination of Fáfnir was richer and more beautiful, at whatever cost of peril.”

– J.R.R. Tolkien

What comes to mind when you think of Mars?

Do you think of the planet in astronomy and the idea that humans may one day colonise it, do you think of the mythological god of war, or the chocolate bar?

What comes to mind when you think of Scorpio?

Do you think of the tiny creature with a deadly sting, which is apparently a really crunchy and juicy to eat nutritious delicacy if you’re a Meerkat, or of the tall dark stranger you have been told by a psychic you will meet… I wonder if tall dark strangers get told by psychics that they’ll meet a short pale familiar?

What about when you put them together – What comes to mind when you think of Mars in Scorpio?

Some years ago I started but never finished (typical of Mercury in Aquarius…) a project of capturing my astrological chart in photographs, and this is how I decided my natal Mars in Scorpio looked:

moonvoodoo was my old deviantart account

My cat expresses it better than I do. Her presence in the photo was unplanned, she just decided I needed assistance – hoomin, ur doing its all wrongs… she was right.

That look she’s doing is the Mars in Scorpio Eyes (if you do a search on Google for Mars in Scorpio – Mars in Scorpio Eyes comes up as a popular search, that one pops up in my blog search term stats a lot, and I used it for a post title … more than once I think).

She gives me that look every night just before bedtime, it’s her silent way of saying – You, gimme food STAT! – she knows that I am well aware of what the look means, and that she’ll keep staring at me like that until I do her bidding. Sometimes I like to see how long I can take it before giving in… I have yet to make it beyond five minutes and that feels like hours of intense scrutiny.

“To eat is to appropriate by destruction.”

– Jean-Paul Sartre

From what I’ve gathered, my eyes and the way they look at other people have a similar effect. I’ve had people blurt out their secrets just because I was looking at them… and because of what they read into my look – confess to me and be free of your sins? I’ve also had people accuse me of having all sorts of dark thoughts about them just because of the way they interpreted my eyes.

Funnily enough when people think I’m plotting their capture, slow torture and eventual demise because of the look in my eyes… that’s usually when my natal Mars in Scorpio isn’t activated and I’m not actually thinking that at all, I’m probably not even thinking about them… how dare I not.

I just have resting intense face (that may be due to Mars in Scorpio, or it could be due to having Pluto, the ruling planet of Scorpio, in the 1st house – in astrology placements in the 1st house, the sign on the Ascendant, as well as anything aspecting the Ascendant show up in your appearance).

Your natal chart placements are always active to a degree, they’re part of you being you, but the activity can be subdued, just a hum in the background.

With a placement like Mars in Scorpio, it’s always investigating, making note of that thing which doesn’t quite fit or make sense, digging deep, checking out what’s behind a facade, a surface appearance, but it often is doing that quietly, just doing its thing, no need to draw attention to itself unless it finds something interesting or useful for the other parts of the self.

Or its abilities are needed by another part – often my natal Venus in Pisces who has gotten herself into another typical Venusian fishy pickle by being too nice to someone she shouldn’t have been so nice to (My natal Venus trines Mars – it’s a soft aspect, they’re supportive and encouraging of each other).

Mars: Venus, bae, you’re bleeding… who hurt you, who wounded you, who did this to you?

Venus: *sniffles… I’ll be okay, it’s just blood, it’ll stop gushing out of me soon, and the wound will heal… it’s my fault really…

Mars: Yeah, yeah, you always say that, just tell me who the culprit whose fault it isn’t is…

Venus: Don’t hurt them, they’re already hurting which was why I was gentle, it was just a misunderstanding…

Mars: Yes, I get it, and I’m going to sort out the misunderstanding…

Venus: You want to kill them but that won’t solve anything, it’ll make things worse, karma…

Mars: I’m going to karma chameleon their ass…

Venus: I’m not going to tell you who…

Mars: I already know who, we’re the same person, remember…

Venus: Oh… I sometimes forget… then why did you ask…

Mars: It’s protocol…

Venus: Don’t kill them, please, for me…

Mars: Okay, I’ll maim them a little, how about that…

Venus: *sighs… if you must… shall I tell you where their vulnerable spot is?

Mars: Nah! Don’t spoil the fun of finding it for myself…

Neptune: Hey, everyone, I just saw trees waving at me…

Mars: Shut up with your rainbow unicorn bullshit!

Venus: Pretty, I wanna see it too, where, where!?!

Pluto: Let’s kill everyone…

Uranus: And become trees!

All the placements tend to work together as a team, even if some of the team members spend a significant amount of time arguing with the others (such as with hard aspects, oppositions, squares, conjunctions).

My natal Mars in Scorpio squares my natal Mercury – those two are constantly debating every thought I have, which can be useful but can also be a nuisance.

Mercury: I didn’t say anything…

Mars: Saying that you didn’t say anything is saying something.

Usually there’s one or two placements which lead the rest – the leadership may change based on transits activating those placements, or other factors in the natal chart.

For instance my natal Sun in Capricorn used to take a back seat, letting everyone else take the lead for most the time, it was often elbowed out of the way by the planets in my 1st house (Pluto and Uranus – outer planets pack quite the wallop even if they think they’re being careful and are only using the tip of a finger to softly nudge), but ever since Pluto and Saturn have been transiting Capricorn… the Sun has become more dominant.

Sun: It’s my turn at last to shine!!!

Saturn: Don’t forget I’m still squaring you and always will… keep the shine under control or else!

Sun: *mumbling… grim asshole…

Saturn: I heard that… but I quite like it so you get a pass, for now…

Mars: Hey, can the rest of you shut it, this post is about me!

When Mars in Scorpio is activated, I usually avoid people, and if I can’t avoid them I’ll minimise eye contact… unless they’re crowding me, trapping, cornering, attempting to control, manipulate, bully me, then I turn the lasers on blast.

“Don’t get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.“

– Bruce Lee, A Warrior’s Journey

Apparently that’s a fairly common tactic which those with Mars in Scorpio employ – To retreat when passion and anger are activated within until they’ve had time to work through it, applying personal intelligence to the process.

This morning I did a quick internet search for “Mars in Scorpio” to see what came up, and if there was anything interesting rather than the same old stuff written most often by those who don’t have the placement…

And found an interesting question asked on a reddit astrology forum.

Here’s the link to the posting on reddit:

Mars in Scorpio – can any of you that are lurking here in true Scorpio fashion please provide some insight?

And this is what was asked:

“Quick question, what is the best way to protect yourselves when you incur the wrath of someone with this placement and any advice on how to counter their aggressive ways?

Also I feel like the Scorpio energy in this placement is so intense. Am I the only one that sees this?!

Scorpio Moons tend to pick their battles so to speak and if the occasion is important enough they might get vengeful. They radiate a quiet strength. Scorpio Venus is similar.

But Scorpio Mars? I’m almost jealous of their intensity and when this energy is properly harnessed it’s something to be reckoned with.

excerpt from Mars in Scorpio – can any of you that are lurking here in true Scorpio fashion please provide some insight?

Several people with Mars in Scorpio came out of lurker mode and shared their perspective.

The answers, while slightly different…

Since everyone is different, has different natal charts, and even when they share a placement like Mars in Scorpio, their personal experience of Mars in Scorpio will be different due to house placement, aspects, and transits – all of us Mars in Scorpios will at some point over the next several years feel the shock of an opposition from transiting Uranus in Taurus, which will electrify our passion and anger and inner action motivator.

… were also similar.

It’s not always easy for those with Mars in Scorpio to agree on something, because…

Mars in Scorpio loves to argue – but the argument has to go somewhere, usually into the depths of a discussion. To debate, play Devil’s Advocate, and explore the roots of a matter.

A lot of what others experience as “aggression” isn’t aggression to a Mars in Scorpio – it’s passion.

We only tend to get “aggressive” about what has stirred our interest, our passion, us deep within… we can be cold and detached as fuck if it doesn’t interest us, but people only tend to notice us when we’re being “aggressive”, because that’s when we come out of aloof “lurker” mode.

As one forum commentor put it: “Intense yes but I also can’t be arsed wasting energy on idiots so I tend to just walk away from stupidity. Def pick my battles and tend to prefer discussion as opposed to arguing.“

Or as another one stated: “I just have to walk the fuck away when things get bad to be completely honest. I either give a silent treatment when I am pissed (I guess bc of the need for introspection, processing) or I will state my case. It usually takes a lot of repeated blows to get me to be actually scary.“

Overall, when a Mars in Scorpio gets angry… we’ll walk away from the argument and from the person who pissed us off until we’ve processed it privately.

If you’ve pissed us off… give us plenty of breathing room, space, distance. Give us time to calm down and enter logical mode. It’ll work out better for both that way. But if you’re the sort of person who can’t leave well enough alone, you’ll get burned… we prefer not to burn you, but if you insist… you did ask for it and we did warn you not to ask for it (or at least we usually do lots of times… a bit like Cassandra of mythology, no one effing listens to our warnings).

We tend to be intelligent, use emotional intelligence, when it comes to processing our anger because we delve deep into to it to discover what it is really about, and often choose to channel it productively rather than destructively – that becomes more prevalent as we gain more experience and get older, wiser about it.

The whole vengeful trope which goes with the placement is not entirely wrong, but it’s one facet of a whole picture. Digging two graves… have you ever tried just to dig a small hole for a plant or tree… it’s better not to have to dig anything of that sort and instead to dig within and sort things out there before it spills out.

My partner just asked me what I was writing about today, so I said Mars in Scorpio and he heard – Martin Scorsese…

After I checked out the forum discussion, I searched Astrotheme‘s database, using their Astro Search Tools By Astrological Placements feature, for famous people with Mars in Scorpio and Martin Scorsese came up as a result.

So did Leonardo DiCaprio who often works with Martin Scorsese.

So did Bruce Lee.

So did Mahatma Gandhi, and his quote below sounds like his Mars in Scorpio talking:

My partner has Mars in Scorpio too.

I’ve noticed that I often gravitate towards others with that placement of Mars, both in person and through their work.

For instance I enjoy the stand-up of Marc Maron – he has Mars in Scorpio. I like his blunt truths, raw perspective on life, and gritty view of being human. Even when he’s being shallow there’s a depth to him which is palpable. He’s not afraid to go dark, explore shadow.

There’s a sense of true freedom of speech, of self-expression in the company of those with Mars in Scorpio. You can speak your mind, raw and unfiltered, no need to apply sugar. You can share your truth… and it doesn’t matter if your truth conflicts with theirs, in fact it may make the conversation and interaction more lively, more interesting, more in depth. You can explore those fields beyond right and wrong together.

There’s also a sense of respect, deep messy human to other messy human respect, not superficial respect which actually disrespects you behind the polite facade put on to appear nicey-nice.

You can be a total bitch to a Mars in Scorpio and they’ll just laugh it off… however they’ll make note of it.

They’ll have a whole collection of post-it notes about you. They never forget anything… anything which matters, to you, to them, to them about you, and which is consistent about you.

I love the way the placement makes notes of everything.

Marc Maron uses that for his work, and in his act.

You can also see it in Martin Scorsese’s films.

While browsing the famous Mars in Scorpios… I spotted two actors, Jason Statham and Liam Neeson, who often take roles in films which require of them to enact a complex revenge on those who have done them or their loved ones wrong, their revenge may speak few words, but it’s always deadly – that’s a very Mars in Scorpio trope.

Astrologers like to portray the placement as something dangerous lurking beneath still cold water… don’t go swimming in it at night, and don’t stay in a cabin in the woods beside it.

Whatever you do, don’t try to take their precious… J.R.R. Tolkien had Mars in Scorpio.

Or their head will spin and green gunk will spurt from their mouth and splatter you… William Friedkin had Mars in Scorpio.

And definitely beware of a Mars in Scorpio having an existential crisis… Jean Paul Sartre had the placement. Being and nothingness nausea indeed!

“People who live in society have learned how to see themselves in mirrors as they appear to their friends. I have no friends. Is that why my flesh is so naked?”

Jean Paul Sartre, Nausea

I also spotted my almost astro-twin in the results, so let’s end this post with a happy clappy song from him:

Marilyn Manson’s cover of Depeche Mode’s Personal Jesus… takes me back to my teens, a time of testing your personal mettle, rebellion and exploring the taboo – Mars in Scorpio loves to do that!