Mars in Aquarius works quite suddenly and contrary to all expectations. This is why it can be a hard Mars to pin down. I’ll try to give it some kind of justice in this portrait.

I think that the startling nature of Mars in Aquarius is that it doesn’t just do what other people expect it to not do. It also tries to do what the person who has Mars in Aquarius least expects it to do. It’s a Mars that rebels against any imposition of self image whether that comes externally or internally. This isn’t a Mars that just buckles against conservative conventions. It’s a Mars that does things that the person with Mars in Aquarius doesn’t think they themselves will do.

This means that Mars is doing what Mars wants to do which is to drive change. Mars in Aquarius drives a lot of change.

If expected to be a quiet and demure little thing, Mars in Aquarius will pick up on this and become louder. If expected to be tightly controlled, Mars in Aquarius will start to profess secrets and spill vulnerability. If demanded to share, Mars in Aquarius will clench up, lighten the situation, and leave the room without giving anything. Mars in Aquarius tries to do what is contrary to how it is expected to behave.

I have noticed that a lot of people who have Mars in Aquarius tend to reflect on their own motivations after they have done a thing. “Why did I do that?” “That was unlike me but I must have had a reason to do this thing.” “Will I ever do this thing again?” It’s like they know themselves to be unpredictable and have accepted this to be okay. They have learned to live with a certain amount of self unpredictability in their wake.

There’s an abruptness with Mars in Aquarius. Mars in Aquarius makes decisions, reverses stances, and makes statements abruptly. This is especially true if the person who has Mars in Aquarius believes themselves to be a perfectly rational and cool headed person who always thinks before they act.

Aquarius is a very interesting sign. It’s a sign that opposes Leo. Aquarius moves by thwarting strict self definition. It moves by collapsing any expectation that the self should become knowable.

Action, in many ways, is a deep mystery. We often take action and then we figure out what it all means. Mars in Aquarius is a puzzle. It does things that confound strictness in self identity. It loves the bewildering decision just as much as it loves the artist who makes the decision. It loves those who live wild lives. It has little patience for those who live according to other people’s scriptures.

There is an element of genius with Mars in Aquarius and this has to do with its power. It is willing to act in confusing ways which means that it is also willing to live while confused. It is willing to live in confusion. This ensures that it is perpetually curious, that it will always learn. Because it is willing to learn through confusion, it has the ability to piece together quite interesting ideas and reach conclusions that no one else can reach.

When someone has Mars in Aquarius, they never feel like they’re doing the right thing. They’re not supposed to feel this way. If they ever did feel that way, they would buckle against the feeling. For someone with Mars in Aquarius, they feel like they’re doing unright things and they do them anyway, daring anyone to make a point about it.

It takes a certain amount of bravery to live as a Mars in Aquarius. You’re never quite relieved of your embarrassment. You just learn how to be yourself anyway. You do all the things that you want to do regardless of the wonder around how to be.

Sometimes, Mars in Aquarius is scared of success because success means that your identity is defined for you.

This is why Mars in Aquarius is such a slow moving Mars even though it tends to act abruptly. It has a tendency to think around its goal in the meta way where you’re deeply considering what kind of person you become when you want the things that you want. Some Mars in Aquariuses adopt the persona of failure as a costume to keep the world at bay. They talk about being completely unambitious and without drive. They own the laziness that all of us have to some extent very publicly. They call themselves a NEET and hold pride in not participating in society.

I don’t think that Mars in Aquarius is more unambitious than other Mars placements. I think that there is a kind of funny expression of power even in this cynicality.

The power of Mars in Aquarius is the power of cynicality. Cynicality is powerful because it refuses to allow anyone or anything define success for it. It will use all of its tools to resist it. It will use humor, mockery, satire, and even self flagellation. Mars in Aquarius is more willing to give up on success than to let anyone tell them how to live their own fucking lives. They expect complete psychological freedom. They refuse to be domesticated by their own unwilling ambition.

That, on its own, is pretty powerful. What makes Mars in Aquarius even more powerful is their willingness to create actual, breathing, inspiring lives in rebellion against the usual codes of conduct. This isn’t Mercury in Aquarius or Jupiter in Aquarius which prefers that the unconventional stay in the intellectual sphere. This is Mars in Aquarius and Mars in Aquarius makes the strange into a choice and quest for freedom. It disturbs as an action.

And then it disturbs again. You can’t pin it down. Mars in Aquarius views its choices in the full context and it lives to change the context. It doesn’t even obey ideas of who it believes itself to be.

It might stumble upon success the way it happens for most of us which is accidentally. When Mars in Aquarius finds that it’s achieved success, it merely changes the stakes of the game once again. It usually doesn’t find success because by coming up with a plan and sticking to it but because it is doing something very strange and then other people find that this strange thing is actually very cool. When the strange thing that Mars in Aquarius is doing stops being strange, it moves on. It finds a new strange thing to do.

This is the power of Mars in Aquarius. It is always willing to be strange. It is more willing to be strange than to be what they already know to be themselves. Mars in Aquarius loves the confusion and perplexity of life. It refuses to let confusion die. It would much rather behave in confusing ways.