Mars's seven years are the years of push. Mars brings drive, heat, courage and friction, and its period turns life toward action: competition and command, property and land, engineering and sport, surgery and the army, brothers and rivals. People in a Mars mahadasha have more energy and less patience; they win by force what they could not by waiting, and they quarrel more than they used to.
For those born with the Moon in Mrigashira, Chitra or Dhanishta the Mars period is the first seven years of life — an active, sometimes accident-prone childhood — and Rahu's long period follows early. For everyone else it comes after the Moon's soft decade, and the change is felt as a call to arms: a promotion fought for, a house bought, a move, a dispute, a new ambition. The years are short and rarely dull.
Mars's house from the lagna says where the heat goes — the 10th for a career push, the 4th for property and quarrels at home, the 7th for friction in partnership, the 6th for victory over rivals and debt. Mars's dignity (exalted in Capricorn, debilitated in Cancer) and its aspects say whether the force is directed or merely hot. Mars–Mars, Mars–Sun and Mars–Jupiter are the productive antardashas; Mars–Rahu and Mars–Saturn the ones to drive carefully in.
What Mars brings
Traditionally, Mars brings drive, heat, courage, friction. A mahadasha is that graha's turn to colour the years: the house it holds from the lagna, the houses it rules and the planets it sits with all say what its 7 years are spent on. The antardasha inside it — each of the nine grahas in turn — sets the shorter weather.
Mars mahadasha by house
The tradition reads the period first from the house the lord holds in the birth chart, counted from the lagna in whole signs:
- 1st house. A Mars period from the 1st brings energy, accidents and a will that pushes through.
- 2nd house. A Mars period from the 2nd brings sharp words and money spent as fast as it comes.
- 3rd house. A Mars period from the 3rd rewards courage and effort; siblings are active.
- 4th house. A Mars period from the 4th brings property, vehicles and disputes at home.
- 5th house. A Mars period from the 5th brings quick decisions and heat around children or speculation.
- 6th house. A Mars period from the 6th wins against rivals, debt and disease through fight.
- 7th house. A Mars period from the 7th brings friction and heat into partnership.
- 8th house. A Mars period from the 8th brings sudden events, surgery and hard endings.
- 9th house. A Mars period from the 9th brings arguments over faith and long, purposeful travel.
- 10th house. A Mars period from the 10th is a career push — command, land, engineering, force.
- 11th house. A Mars period from the 11th brings gains through enterprise and forceful friends.
- 12th house. A Mars period from the 12th spends energy in hidden struggle, hospitals or abroad.
The antardashas of Mars
Each mahadasha is divided among the nine lords in the Vimshottari order, beginning with its own; the length of each is the mahadasha's years times the antardasha lord's, divided by 120:
| Antardasha | Length |
|---|---|
| Mars–Mars | 4 months 27 days |
| Mars–Rahu | 1 year 18 days |
| Mars–Jupiter | 11 months 6 days |
| Mars–Saturn | 1 year 1 month 9 days |
| Mars–Mercury | 11 months 27 days |
| Mars–Ketu | 4 months 27 days |
| Mars–Venus | 1 year 2 months |
| Mars–Sun | 4 months 6 days |
| Mars–Moon | 7 months |
Who begins life in the Mars mahadasha
Mars rules three nakshatras. A natal Moon in any of them starts the cycle in the Mars mahadasha, with the balance set by how far into the nakshatra the Moon stood:
- Mrigashira — 23°20′ Taurus – 6°40′ Gemini
- Chitra — 23°20′ Virgo – 6°40′ Libra
- Dhanishta — 23°20′ Capricorn – 6°40′ Aquarius