Sun Opposite Mars: Meeting Your Own Fire in Other People

With the Sun and Mars at opposite ends, your will keeps running into challenges from outside. You are quick to compete and argue, and you come to recognize your own strength in your rivals and partners. This page starts from what the Sun governs (self, vitality and who you want to become) and what Mars governs (drive, desire, competition and conflict), then looks at how the opposition makes the two interact, how it tends to show up in everyday life, its strengths and blind spots, and some advice for it.

Sun Opposite 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 Sun Opposite Mars

The Sun is your will and your sense of self; Mars is action, competition, and anger. In an opposition the two fall in opposing signs and face each other across the whole chart. Their strength is equal and their directions are opposite, so it often seems that whenever you want to do something, a person or a situation jumps out to block the way. Your life never appears short of opponents. A boss, a coworker, a partner, a brother: somebody always makes you feel you have to respond, and you do find it very hard not to.

Oppositions and squares both carry heat, but in different places. The restlessness of a square is bottled up inside you, while the fire of an opposition burns between you and other people. You may feel that you are being perfectly reasonable and the other person is too forceful and too fond of a fight. From the sidelines, the two of you are in fact ramming each other with equal force. This is the projection so common with oppositions: placing your own aggression on someone else and looking at it there. Once you take that share back, your contests with people become mutual stimulation and much pointless wear and tear falls away.

How it feels inside

Inside, you are especially sensitive to being challenged. A skeptical look or a sentence that sounds like doubt can put you on a war footing in an instant. Alone you are actually peaceful; it is when you step into a room with other people that your fighting spirit lights up. You sometimes wonder why you keep running into people who love to argue. Slowly you come to see that the people who make you furious are mostly showing a forcefulness that you also have and are reluctant to admit.

In love and relationships

Relationships are both the battlefield and the classroom of this aspect. You are drawn to people who are forceful, opinionated, and full of drive, and life together brings plenty of sparks and plenty of quarrels. The two of you often dig in over who gets to decide. The subject changes every time, but the issue underneath stays much the same. Among friends and coworkers you react strongly to unfairness and will stand up for others. Swap “why are you always like this?” for “what is it that I want?” and many arguments will stop before they start.

At work and in getting things done

At work you need an opponent, and a competitive setting brings out your best. Negotiation, sales, law, sports, debate: wherever two sides face off you come alive, and you are good at reading the other side’s next move. The difficulty is telling which battles are worth fighting. You may take a colleague’s differing opinion as a provocation, or get locked into a long power struggle with your manager. Pick the goals that truly matter and give ground on the rest, so your energy goes where it will leave results behind.

Strengths

• Rising to the opponent: You are at your most driven when you have a rival. A challenge draws out your real ability, and you often outdo yourself in important contests and negotiations.
• Facing things head-on: You do not dodge conflict. When a problem comes up you talk it out face to face, and though the process can be heated, matters seldom drag on unresolved.
• Reading the other side: After years of going toe to toe with people, you are keenly aware of their intentions and next moves, and you know when to press and when to hold.

Blind spots

• Opponents everywhere: You readily take a differing view as a provocation and stay on guard even in relationships that need no competition, which puts people under pressure.
• Always the other person: You charge your own temper to the other side’s account and believe they started it, so the same quarrel begins again with someone new.
• Fighting for control: With a spouse or business partner you easily deadlock over who has the final say. Neither will yield, and energy you could have used together drains away.

Advice for Sun Opposite Mars

The next time you feel provoked, hold your fire and ask yourself one thing: is the other person doing something I also want to do but have not? Put your competitiveness where there are rules, such as a ball game, a chess match, or a sales target, and compete there to your heart’s content. With a partner or coworker, agree in advance on who handles what. When responsibilities are clear, there is far less left to fight over.

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 Sun opposite Mars is tight, the traits on this page will be more noticeable; if it is close to the 10° 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 opposition are usually in signs directly across from each other, but an aspect is measured by actual distance. In our calculations, 12.9% of oppositions 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. The Sun 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 the Sun 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 the Sun and Mars

Conjunction · Sextile · Square · Trine · Opposition

The opposition with other planets

Sun: Sun opposite Moon, Sun opposite Jupiter, Sun opposite Saturn, Sun opposite Uranus, Sun opposite Neptune, Sun opposite Pluto.

Mars: Moon opposite Mars, Mercury opposite Mars, Venus opposite Mars, Mars opposite Jupiter, Mars opposite Saturn, Mars opposite Uranus, Mars opposite Neptune, Mars opposite Pluto.

All Sun aspects · All Mars aspects · Planet aspects overview