Mars, the planet of war and confrontation, rules over our personal drive and how we express anger. Anger is potentially a healthy part of life, butit’s the way we choose to show this emotion that determines whether it’s effective, or destructive.
Your Mars sign and its element (are you earth, fire, water, or air?) speaks volumes about how you let your anger show—or not! While some signs are quick to react, others take a long time to simmer, and others are already plotting revenge. Check out this Mars guide to understand how you lose your cool or how you could loosen up a bit more. (If you don’t know your Mars sign by heart, head to Horoscope.com’s free birth chart calculator to find out!)
Read Me: Moon Sign Compatibility: Here’s the Sign You Need to Date
With Mars in Aries, you never shy away from confrontation, and take the direct approach when expressing anger. Your temper flares fast but dissipates quickly (and your bark may be bigger than your bite). You need to get everything off of your chest immediately and will boldly go to the source to handle a confrontation in person. Your anger style is to give the offending party and angry earful, with a megaphone, but you rarely hold a grudge. What’s done is done.
Grounded and complacent Mars in Taurus takes a long time to get worked up. You can patiently endure a lot of dramas before blowing your stack. Stable and slow to react, people in your life may take your calm demeanor for granted, until one day you really let them have it. When messing with the bull, we eventually get the horns! Once angered, you stubbornly hold your ground. While your seismic blow-ups are epic, fortunately they’re rare.
Gemini is the zodiac’s most mischievous sign, known for provoking and button pushing. When angered, your quick wit lashes out with cutting remarks, that land on your opponent’s weak spot. With Mars in this sign, expressing anger may feel like a game, that devolves into verbal jousting, a sport that you excel at with your keen intellect. Careful not to play too mean! Once bored of the argument, you will eventually crack jokes, and laugh it off.
With Mars in Cancer, you tend to retreat from confrontation, withdrawing into your shell when hurt or offended. Being a protective and nurturing sign, you become defensive against slights on family or personal attacks. When angry, you feel extra sensitive, and may need time to gain your composure before facing a confrontation. In the meantime, if anyone invades your personal space, beware the pinch of your crab claws! In the end, you’ll just want to hug it out.
Mars in Leo is a courageous placement, making it easy for you to stand up for yourself. Disloyal people will hear you roar, as you demand respect and honesty in your relationships. If you have been wronged, you tend to retaliate by rising to a higher level. You will out class and out dress your opponents, showing up ferociously fashionable to an argument. When it comes to exes? You practically invented the “revenge body.” The only thing, though, is that even though you look great, it may be heard for you to let any of the toxic stuff go.
Virgo is an earthy, practical, analytical sign that will think before acting. You will likely need to talk out your grievances by carefully addressing all layers of the argument. When angered, your critical nature emerges, and rude, messy, inconsiderate people will hear your clear, articulate delivery of how they have let you down. You may blow off steam by cleaning and organizing your way back to a calmer state.Your greatest punishment to others is letting them sort out their own mess!
Social and diplomatic Libras have a hard time with arguments. Since you prefer to stay balanced in messy confrontations, you might try to referring to negotiate a resolution before getting mad. If the problem can be fixed before it even starts, that’s a win for a Libra. Unfortunately, this does mean that you tend to surrender to the other side—just to keep the peace—which, doesn’t get you anywhere. Thus, you may have to practice sticking up for yourself. Though you could say “it’s okay” remember, sometimes it’s not, and that is okay too.
Moody and intuitive, Mars in Scorpio withdraws into silence when wronged. A master of covert maneuvers, you play a long game when dealing with anger, picking your moment for confrontation. Explosive bursts of anger are not your style, and you prefer to take your time when mulling over an offense. It can be hard for you to shake an angry mood, often holding a grudge well past its expiry date. A sincere apology will work wonders to restore your trust.
Sagittarians live for authenticity, so when it comes to speaking their truth, they can’t hold back. With Mars in Sagittarius your anger style is brutal honesty, delivered with fire, passion and conviction. What you have to say may be hard to hear, but often is what others were thinking anyway. You love life too much to hold a grudge, so once you’ve said your piece, you return to seeing the best in others. Remember, however,to hear out the other side too.
Stern and authoritative Capricorn defaults to logic and reason when angry. Cool and grounded, you will handle confrontations like a court in session, discerning and judging all sides of the argument. Mars in Capricorn respects those who can be depended on to follow through with their responsibilities, and you will definitely make it known when you are disappointed. Your low serious tone is somehow more intense than yelling!
Mars in Aquarius may pride themselves on staying detached and aloof when others are losing their cool. Trouble is, underneath this intellectual exterior, anger may be brewing that is hard to admit to and express. Angry feelings may be projected onto others so that they can be dealt with in the open, which can get a little tricky for you. With Mars in this air sign, you may tend to discuss anger as a concept to help work with it constructively.
As the most sensitive, intuitive, creative zodiac sign Pisces can take a long time to tune into anger. A natural empath, you may absorb the anger of others, and need to take time to tease out which feelings are truly yours. Your anger style is colored by other potent feeling states, like sadness and vulnerability, and you may cry before you would ever dare yell. Others may pick up on your anger only by noticing you are extra moody, quiet or absent.
Lead photo courtesy of Twenty20