Mars in Gemini

Today I’m going to be talking about Mars in Gemini. If you’re listening to this in summer of 2024, Mars is about to enter Gemini on July 20 and will stay there until September 4. Mars moves pretty quickly so it takes about two years to go all the way around the zodiac. Due to retrograde periods, it can spend as little as six weeks in a sign to as many as seven months! Last time Mars was in Gemini was from August 20, 2022 through March 25, 2023, but this is an unusually long time for Mars to stay in one sign. It retrograded in October 2022 but it stayed in Gemini the entire time, so that’s how it can sometimes be in one sign for a very long time.

When Mars transits through the airy, mutable, masculine (or positive) sign of Gemini, it is considerably less focused than in some other signs. As we might expect with any placement in Gemini, there’s an intellectual, chatty, indecisive and scattered energy. In the northern hemisphere, this might be perfect timing because we are going through the middle of summer and who wants to make fixed decisions and doggedly pursue ambitions when warm weather, beach vacations and weekend barbecues beckon?

That being said, Gemini is not a bad placement for Mars and although we may at times feel restless and indecisive, with our attentions pulled in many different directions, we’re just as likely to also feel alive with sparkling, effervescent and positive energy. We might feel like chatting up new and old friends, dancing late into the night, hosting a game night with or sing along, enjoy summer fun like fireworks, festivals and street fairs. Even solitary activities like getting engrossed in an exciting book, binging a new TV show or podcast, could be excellent uses of Mars in Gemini energy.

As Robert Hand says in his seminal book, Planets in Transit, Mars is a planet of energy and it specifically rules the energy that an individual uses to maintain themselves in the face of pressures from their environment. Mars is also connected with work and physical effort and its transits often signify days when you become very energetic and vigorous. So, as Mars transits through different signs you want to look at where you have significant placements in those signs in your chart. If you have the sun in Gemini or Gemini rising or, of course, if you have Mars in Gemini, this transit will energize your chart in a significant way.

You also want to look at what house Mars will be transiting for you while it goes through Gemini. If you have Gemini rising, Mars will be transiting your first house and it will light up your personality your self-expression your identity, your self-esteem, and it could give you a great boost of self-confidence or indicate a time when you are presenting yourself to the world and this could be a great time for you because you’ll find it easier to express yourself in your naturally effervescent Gemini fashion with Mars lighting up your first house. It could be a great time to meet new people or make a great impression on people who already know you, champion a cause that’s close to your heart or undertake a self makeover to present yourself or your ideas in an exciting new way.

You also want to look at any aspects that Mars will be making to planets in your chart. If you have any major placements in Sagittarius, Mars will be transiting opposite those planets while it’s in Gemini, so this could bring conflicts with people, opposition to your ideas, impediments and obstacles that suddenly come up, hindering your movements and thwarting your ambitions or aims.

Any major placements you have in mutable signs will be affected by Mars transiting through Gemini as it will make hard aspects to all the mutable planets, including Virgo and Pisces which will receive squares from Mars in Gemini.

As with any air sign, Mars in Gemini tends to have more mental energy and social activity associated with its martial tendencies. These people might be more the type to spar with you verbally then physically. They could be intellectually inexhaustible, pursuing higher education or gobbling up trivia like information junkies, memorizing movie quotes or song lyrics or sports statistics in order to repeat them at the ready anytime conversation turns to their topic of choice, or supplementing any pub trivia team with their sparkling, broad-based intellect.

These people love to exchange ideas and they’re motivated by communication, social and intellectual stimuli. They may be the type to go off on a political rant or some obscure tangent at the drop of a hat, or drone on about whatever personal topic fires their interest long past the point of exhausting others in the room. Used correctly, they could be excellent, engaging teachers or professors, journalists, radio hosts or podcasters, influencers, marketers or sales people.

Since Mars is one of the relationship planets, along with venus, we would look to Mars to find out what a person is like in relationships. Mars is the planet of desire and going after your object of affection, so people with Mars in Gemini will be the type who want to charm you with their wit, intellect, conversational moves and lofty ideas. Of course keeping their interest will be the real challenge. Mars in Gemini is not known for its ability to focus on one thing or one person for very long.

In Person to Person Astrology, Steven Arroyo says, “the essence of Mars in Gemini is that it asserts itself verbally, flexibly, cleverly, communicatively, through a variety of skills. The focus of one’s desire changes very quickly and often, easily diverted. Expresses a wide ranging friendliness, very good at making connections. Physical energy and sexual drive are affected by mentally stimulating conversations, images or curious new ideas, very open-minded.”

They may appear or behave especially youthful and embody a sort of ageless vitality and charm, flirting or putting on the charm for people of all ages and genders indiscriminately. This may be the guy who you dated just long enough to bring home to meet your parents one time and years later they still ask, “whatever happened to..?” He made an indelible impression and then flitted on to the next flower before you had a chance to make a real connection.

This is not to say they can’t commit. The wonderful thing about Mars in Gemini is that these people are genuinely interested in the thoughts and ideas of other people; they’re open-minded, curious and communicate well with their partners. If you make a lasting love connection with them, they could turn out to be a wonderfully stimulating and exciting partner for life, keeping you laughing well into old age, exploring new ideas and interests together long after other couples have settled into mutal silence.

Grant Lewi says, if you have Mars in Gemini, “you are rarely bored or boring, but you can wear yourself and others out by the ferocity of your attack on life. You are extraordinarily aware of the world around you, sense perceptions are acute, swift, probably accurate, and you are valuable in expressing what you take in. Energy flows naturally to the tongue; you are a better talker than listener. With any concentrated force, this position gains value, Without it, you scatter your energies.” He also cautions the Mars in Gemini individual to take care of their body as well as their mind. There is a danger of neglecting your physical well-being because you are so focused on mental pursuits.

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