An Odd Expression of Mars on the Midheaven

Photo by Alfonso Benayas (cc)

I have a dear friend with an aspect that puzzled me for a long time. This person has Mars exactly conjunct his midheaven, at 13 Leo. I scratched my head over this for a while because he didn’t seem to exhibit many of the usual traits or issues that traditionally accompany this aspect. The usual connotations of Mars conjunct MC are:

• Often comes across as assertive and dominant, even pushy
• Has difficulty submitting to authority
• Not so good at working with other people (but excels at team sports)
• Prone to making rash decisions, especially when angry
• Happiest in a career that involves a lot of physical labor or energy

The last bit is true for my pal; he cheerfully works in a shipyard which is about as old-school laborer as you can get on the west coast here (except Bering Sea fisherman, perhaps). But he’s also a Libra with Venus conjunct ascendant and Sun in the twelfth, so he’s far more easygoing about most things, and generally isn’t interested in making waves. But the strength of the aspect—6 minutes—made me wonder if there wasn’t some other way for Mars to manifest itself.

On a couple of occasions we talked at length about his work, and I asked him all kinds of questions trying to ferret out other possible expressions of this. And then we hit on a candidate:

• He can lift ridiculously heavy objects with ease.

I was then treated to a long series of anecdotes describing how his coworkers—and mind you, these are all salty old riggers, so feats of strength that will impress them are rare—were completely astonished at things he could move, lift, and haul without a second thought. I do chuckle to myself at the thought of my terribly innocent-looking (Venus rising) friend moving metaphorical mountains while slack-jawed union bosses look on in disbelief.

As I thought about it, he has quite a vigorous manifestation of Mars conjunct midheaven; all the Venus activity he has just seems to squelch the more common negative expressions of it. This aspect is often described in relation to professional sports, but rigging is by definition a physical team activity as well.

But one case does not a definition make, so I tried to think of anyone else I knew with a talent for heavy lifting.

I have another Libra friend and coworker who immediately leapt to mind, with Cancer rising and Venus in Libra square ascendant… he too has that innocent air about him. A look at his chart shows Aries on the midheaven, with his north node within one degree. Mars? Well, we find it in late Virgo opposing the MC. Not identical charts by any stretch, but we’re racking up some similarities here. In this case I am the astonished coworker who regularly watches him, a guy not particularly large or muscle-bound at all, lift entire 120lb. batches of dough from the mixer in our bakery without breaking a sweat. He doesn’t have many aggressive tendencies either, but all his (many) jobs are quite physical: baker, apartment maintenance type, and theater technician. The last makes up the bulk of his work and involves a good deal of lifting heavy, fragile objects and scaling multiple-story ladders.

So if you have Mars on the MC or a Mars-ruled midheaven, you might surprise yourself in the gym even if you’re the peaceable sort… or maybe especially so. Alas, I have Libra and Venus but my MC is at 0 Taurus; I’ve barely missed the Herculean boat. But it sure is fun to watch.

Related posts:

1. On the Ascendant: Transiting Mars Redux
2. On the Ascendant: Transiting Mars and Mars Retrograde
3. Farewell to Mars in Leo