Mercury Sextile Mars: Ideas That Find the Energy to Happen

With Mercury sextile Mars, two signs apart, your mind and your drive each have their own place yet can pass the baton. Use it on purpose, and you become someone who does what they say. This page starts from what Mercury governs (thinking, communication and learning) and what Mars governs (drive, desire, competition and conflict), 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.

Mercury Sextile Mars 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 Mercury Sextile Mars

Mercury governs thinking, speaking, and learning. Mars governs pushing, competing, and doing. In a sextile the two planets sit in compatible signs, say one in air and one in fire, so thought gives action a direction and action feeds fuel back to thought. Unlike people with the conjunction, you do not sound heated the moment you speak. There is a little space between your mind and your drive, enough to let you think before you act and enough to let you bring some force when it is time to take a stand.

This is an aspect that only grows through use. What it provides is a channel. You have what it takes to turn a plan into action and to give your opinions some weight, but nobody is forcing you, and you can just as easily think about it and leave it there. Compared with the effortless crispness of the trine, people with the sextile usually remember how they got good at it. Maybe it was a presentation, maybe a negotiation they forced themselves through, and only afterward did they discover they could do it.

How it feels inside

Your mind is fairly uncluttered. When you have an idea, you usually know what the next step could be, and you do not spin your wheels much. Even when you are angry, you can still organize your words and put your complaint into sentences other people can follow, which is not easy for many. You have basic confidence in your opinions. When challenged, you want to explain and do not immediately lose your temper. It is just that when life is too smooth, that willingness to speak up and act slowly gets put away. You need to set yourself a challenge now and then.

In love and relationships

In relationships you are frank without being hurtful. You can say what needs saying and keep your tone in check. Friends like to come to you for ideas, because your advice is concrete and you give them a nudge along the way. In love you appreciate a partner who has a mind of their own and can act alongside you. Talking something over and then going out and doing it is the kind of togetherness you find most comfortable. When conflict comes, you lean toward talking it out face to face. If your partner tends to avoid things, bring extra patience and take the lead in setting a time to talk properly.

At work and in getting things done

At work this aspect is very practical. You can break a complicated matter into steps and then actually move it forward one step at a time, which suits planning, project management, technical work, business development, and other jobs that use both head and hands. In meetings you dare to raise a different view, and your wording does not leave anyone cornered. To use it better, go after tasks that require persuading people or making a decision by a deadline. Those are the settings that polish your abilities most.

Strengths

• Doing what you say: Planning connects to execution. Once you have thought it through you get to work, and good ideas seldom stay stuck in talk or in a notebook.
• Direct yet gracious: You can state your position clearly without an aggressive tone, so people take it in and are more willing to adjust accordingly.
• Efficient problem solving: When trouble comes, you look for a fix first and break the problem down piece by piece. On a team, you are the one who gets things moving.

Blind spots

• Idle without pressure: The ability comes out only when the occasion calls for it. In a setting that is too comfortable, the side of you that fights for things stays put away.
• Underrating your way with words: Because speaking up takes little effort, you assume anyone can do it and miss chances where this ability could carry you far.
• Impatient with slower people: You think and then act. With a colleague or partner who needs to double-check, you easily feel held back and start to hurry them.

Advice for Mercury Sextile Mars

Schedule “thinking” and “doing” on the same day. When you get an idea, take the smallest possible step that very day: write the first paragraph, make the first call, set up the first discussion. In addition, every so often choose a situation where you have to speak up for what you want, such as pitching a proposal, negotiating salary, or speaking in public. This aspect gets sharper the more you use it. Leave it idle, and it is just ordinary quick-wittedness.

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 Mercury sextile Mars 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. Mercury and Mars 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 Mercury and Mars 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 Mercury and Mars

Conjunction · Sextile · Square · Trine · Opposition

The sextile with other planets

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

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

All Mercury aspects · All Mars aspects · Planet aspects overview