Mars in Aries

Aries belongs to Mars as his day house in Lilly 1659, and Ptolemy (Ashmand's 1822 translation) assigns the same sign for a reason of his own: a dry planet takes a sign of like nature. Lilly also hands Mars the first ten degrees of Aries as his face, a ten-degree slice of the sign, and degrees 22 to 26 as his terms, a smaller stretch allotted to each planet. Hot and dry in the old scheme, planet and sign match on both counts.

One old refusal complicates the picture. Ptolemy takes the triangle of Aries, Leo and Sagittarius away from Mars and gives it to the Sun and Jupiter, so the planet owns this sign and still holds no share in the group it belongs to.

Adams 1928 pictures Mars here as a dashing young soldier, and Raphael's Guide of 1877, in an entry identified through its rank in a damaged list, gives a well-set build with a temper quick to anger. Heindel 1918 says the sign's people are bold and impulsive but often lack persistence, and that the Sun and Mars rising in Aries would intensify this. Modern popular astrology keeps the same outline and speaks of a direct, quick-starting drive, which is a modern gloss the chart cannot confirm. Mars crosses a sign in under two months on average, so the placement is shared by everyone born in those weeks.