After moving through fiery Sagittarius for the past six weeks, Mars will enter earthy Capricorn on February 16. The red planet will stay in the sign of the Sea Goat until March 30, when it moves into Aquarius.
You might know that Mars rules our sex drives, but the planet also influences our ambition, courage, and energy. And as it turns out, it’s the perfect fit for stubborn, practical Capricorn. In fact, astrologer Lisa Stardust says the Sea Goat is the red planet’s favorite sign. “Mars is exalted in Capricorn, meaning it loves to be in the earthy sign,” she explains. “That’s because Mars in Capricorn completes tasks they set out to do.”
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“As the ruling planet of our drive, sexual vitality, and ambition, Mars equals fire," adds Narayana Montúfar, senior astrologer at Astrology.com and Horoscope.com. "In Capricorn, Martian qualities — courage, strength, and motivation — are harnessed positively and stoically. Capricorn is an earth sign, and while fire and earth aren’t the most intuitive combination, the productive and orderly ways of the Sea Goat can transform and mellow Mars’ intensity into a slow and steady effort to achieve his goals.”
The other planets and the South Node (a mathematical point in the cosmos) will affect this energy, though. “Until February 25, Mars in Capricorn will be aligning with the South Node of Destiny. This will make us all extra lazy and irritable, which is uncharacteristic of Mars in Capricorn," Stardust says. “We will feel unable to move in any direction until February 25, when the aspect perfects. Mars and Pluto connect on March 23, which will bring us all a strong desire to work towards our goals and to assert our dominance over others. March 31 brings the intense Mars and Saturn conjunction that'll make us all extra ambitious — which is a far cry from the nodal alignment in the beginning of Mars’s stint in Capricorn.”
Mars visits Capricorn only once every two years, and typically “infuses our drive with this unmatched focus and self-discipline,” Montúfar says. “However, things will be different this time around. While this would normally be an amazing time to roll our sleeves and face our current challenges head-on, Mercury’s retrograde in Pisces from February 16 to March 9 will force us to take another approach.”
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That’s right: Something else for Mercury retrograde to mess up. But it’s not all bad. “Mercury retrogrades are all about revising, redoing, rethinking, and gathering the information we need in order to act. With this mismatched energy of Mars wanting us to push ahead and Mercury wanting us to chill and wait, well… we have no choice but to find a way to mix both,” Montúfar says.
“The combination of these two transits asks us first to take a deep dive, then to go for a long swim and — with Pisces' help — intuitively absorb all the information we need,” Montúfar adds. “Once Mercury goes direct on March 9, we'll be ready to shamelessly charge ahead as we embody the cool, levelheaded brilliance of Mars in Capricorn. But until then, we must be aware that pushing our agenda might really backfire and bring us the classical obstacles, delays, and mini-nightmares Mercury retrograde is so famous for.”
Luckily, Mercury retrograde lasts just three weeks, so at least it will be over quick — and then we can enjoy the rest of the time Mars is in Capricorn.
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