Mars in Scorpio

Nobody at work knows how badly you want the job at the top. They will find out the day you get it.

Mars by night

The tradition gave Mars two homes: Aries, its house by day, open and hot, and Scorpio, its house by night. Modern astrologers later gave Scorpio to Pluto as well, but the older rule still stands. By night, Mars does not charge. It waits in the dark, patient and very still, until it is sure. That is how you fight and how you work: in private, with a plan, all the way to the end.

The long game

Your drive is deep rather than loud. You can hold one aim for years without telling anyone, and you work toward it with a concentration that shuts out everything else. Setbacks don’t stop you. They harden you. People underestimate you, and you let them, because being underestimated is useful, and you have a very precise idea of how useful. A hard case suits you, a problem that has defeated people before you, because pressure is where you feel most alive.

What you remember

A wrong done to you is filed, not forgiven. You don’t make a scene. You simply adjust, quietly, how much you trust the person, and you never adjust it back. Your anger is controlled rather than explosive, and all the more frightening for it. The quieter your voice gets, the more worried the other person should be. When you do strike, you strike once, where it counts, and there is rarely a need for a second blow.

All or none

You want a person completely or not at all, and the force of what you feel can unsettle you more than anyone. Jealousy lives nearby.

Letting go

The danger is holding on long after the fight is over. Some of your strength goes into old battles that no longer need you. The strength is the same thing turned the right way: a will that can carry you and everyone you love through almost anything.

People who have been through the worst with you know that you were the steadiest thing in it, and that you never once said so.