Mars Sextile Neptune: Imagination You Can Put to Work

Mars and Neptune sit at a compatible angle, so action and inspiration are on the same line. If you are willing to practice hands-on, you can turn the picture in your mind into something real, step by step. This page starts from what Mars governs (drive, desire, competition and conflict) and what Neptune governs (ideals, imagination and dissolving boundaries), then looks at how the sextile makes the two interact, how it tends to show up in everyday life, its strengths and blind spots, and some advice for it.

Mars Sextile Neptune at a glance

Percentages are our own calculation from 8,401 charts of people born in Taipei between 1960 and 2005 with random birth times, using the same orbs as our chart calculator.

The core meaning of Mars Sextile Neptune

Mars is the strength to make a move; Neptune is the capacity for imagination and empathy. The sextile places the two in compatible signs. You can hear inspiration while you act, and you still remember to get to work while you dream. You are not rigid in how you do things, and you know when to push and when to go with the flow. You can usually sense other people’s emotions as well, and you adjust your own force automatically while still holding firm where it counts.

Compared with the conjunction, the two planets in a sextile keep some distance, so imagination does not blanket action entirely. You can tell fairly well which things are pictures in your mind and which can be done right now. Compared with the trine, it is a little less seamless and needs you to use it actively before the effect shows. Learning a craft, joining a volunteer team, or actually turning a concept into a finished piece are all ways of opening this aspect. Leave it untouched, and it is no more than the occasional good idea.

How it feels inside

There is a soft place in your heart, but you do not get dragged under by it. A movie moves you, hearing about someone’s troubles makes you want to help, and once the feeling has passed you can still return to the task at hand. You have a good conversion between emotion and action: when you are low, going for a workout, painting, or tidying your room usually brings you slowly back. That conversion does have to be started by you. Lying there waiting for it to happen does little, and it tends to begin only once you get up and do something.

In love and relationships

In love and friendship you know how to ask gently. For the same issue, you pick a moment and a wording the other person can take in, and you rarely go head to head, so conflicts are few. There is a touch of romance in how you show affection, too. You remember a small thing your partner mentioned in passing, and then one day you do it for them. When a friend is in trouble you are often the one who actually pitches in, going along on the errand or helping sort the paperwork, doing more than you say.

At work and in getting things done

At work you can turn an abstract concept into something that can be carried out. When someone in a meeting describes a vague direction, you understand the feeling they are after and can think of the first step. This ability is useful in design, marketing, film and video, teaching, and caregiving. To make it stand out more, give yourself regular practice time. The more skilled your technique, the wider the range where your imagination can land, and the more willing people are to hand you the important projects.

Strengths

• Inspiration that lands: You have the picture and the will to work on it, and you try ideas out instead of only talking about them, so a body of work slowly builds.
• A sense of proportion: You pick up the mood of a room and the feelings of others and know how much force to use, so you seldom offend people when asking for things.
• Glad to help in practical ways: When someone needs a hand, you think of something concrete you can do and then really do it. That thoughtfulness leaves a deep impression.

Blind spots

• Only shows with practice: This gift needs technique to carry it. If you never put in the hours of practice, it stays at the level of an idea that surfaces now and then.
• Too good at going around: You are used to handling things softly. When a situation really requires plain speaking, you may put it off longer than you should.
• Going along without a view: You are good at fitting in with the situation and with how others feel. Over time it gets hard to tell what you truly want from what you just went along with.

Advice for Mars Sextile Neptune

Choose something that uses both your body and your imagination and put it on your weekly schedule, for example dance, photography, an instrument, pottery, or regular volunteer work. The point is to keep going, not how well you do it. Look back after half a year and you will find the pictures in your mind getting easier and easier to make real. That is how the opening this aspect offers gets cashed in, a little at a time.

What to keep in mind when reading this aspect

1. The tighter the orb, the more it matters. In our calculations, only 13.6% of all major aspects are within 1° of exact, and 41.2% are within 3°. If your Mars sextile Neptune is tight, the traits on this page will be more noticeable; if it is close to the 5° limit, they will be much fainter.

2. Applying and separating. An aspect is applying when the two planets are moving toward the exact angle and separating once they have passed it. Tradition holds that an applying aspect is still taking shape and acts more strongly. Our chart calculator marks which one you have.

3. Watch for out-of-sign aspects. Two planets in sextile are usually two signs apart, in compatible elements (fire with air, earth with water), but an aspect is measured by actual distance. In our calculations, 9.5% of sextiles do not match the usual sign relationship (one planet late in a sign, the other early in another). The nature of the aspect is still there; it just shows up in a less typical way.

4. Most people born on the same day share this aspect. Mars and Neptune move only a little in a day. The difference lies in which houses they fall in on your chart, and that depends on your birth time; see Planets in the Houses.

5. Then look at each planet’s own placement. The signs Mars and Neptune are in decide how each one expresses itself; see Planets in the Signs. If either planet has other aspects, read them together. For a complete reading, use the In-Depth Chart Reading.

Other aspects between Mars and Neptune

Conjunction · Sextile · Square · Trine · Opposition

The sextile with other planets

Mars: Sun sextile Mars, Moon sextile Mars, Mercury sextile Mars, Venus sextile Mars, Mars sextile Jupiter, Mars sextile Saturn, Mars sextile Uranus, Mars sextile Pluto.

Neptune: Sun sextile Neptune, Moon sextile Neptune, Mercury sextile Neptune, Venus sextile Neptune, Jupiter sextile Neptune, Saturn sextile Neptune, Uranus sextile Neptune, Neptune sextile Pluto.

All Mars aspects · All Neptune aspects · Planet aspects overview