Mars Combust Dates

Mars is combust for about five months every two years, when the Sun passes within seventeen degrees of it. Parashara and Surya Siddhanta give seventeen degrees as Mars's orb, the widest of any graha. Near its conjunction Mars keeps pace with the Sun, so the two separate slowly and the period is long. Jyotish calls the state asta and treats it as a loss of strength.

The Sun and Mars are friends in Parashara's table, and both are fiery. Mars's significations, courage, effort, brothers, land, machines, disputes and the blood, lose their edge for the period. Anger arrives without the strength to act on it, which makes it worse. Effort is spent and the result is late.

The texts hold that a combust graha cannot give its full results, and for Mars that has two faces. A person whose Mars was a source of accidents and quarrels has a quieter five months. A person whose Mars was their drive and courage feels tired and blocked. The birth chart says which applies.

Count the house of the conjunction from the Moon and from the lagna to see where the loss lands. Property matters, litigation and disputes with brothers or colleagues need patience. Surgery, when there is a choice, is better scheduled for a visible Mars. The body's heat, the blood and the muscles need rest and a cooling diet.

Mars combust shows how one holds force when it is spent, and it reveals the difference between courage and heat. The five months are well used for training, planning and the patient repair of what haste broke.

The remedy is Hanuman and the mantra Om Angarakaya Namah. Parashara's dana for Mars is red lentils, copper and red cloth, given on Tuesday. Offer water to the Sun, cool the diet, and let every quarrel wait.