Mars in the eleventh house of a composite chart indicates that the two people will enjoy working with others in groups. Robert Hand starts there, and the reason he gives is what makes the placement distinctive.
They will derive more satisfaction from their work and their energies if they feel that what they are doing is part of a greater whole. Together they will identify with various group projects, movements and other situations in which the individual ego is subordinated to group expression.
What This Placement Describes
The basic principle of Mars, in Hand's account, is the ego drive, the energy by which a person sustains a sense of being an individual toward the world and toward others. In a composite chart it signifies the ability to create an environment where both people can express themselves fully without threatening each other and provoking destructive conflicts. Some conflict is inevitable and should not be suppressed. The requirement is that the ego drives be basically compatible.
The composite eleventh house is the house of friendship, and Hand says a strong one is very appropriate in a composite chart. It does not limit a relationship to friendship. It helps two people be friendly in whatever they are doing together, which he calls especially important in a sexual relationship. It is also the house of hopes and wishes, so a good eleventh house gives a relationship a strong sense of shared ideals, with both people looking for the same things in life.
Mars in that house is ego energy that works best when it is pointed at something bigger than the two of them.
How It Tends To Play Out
Hand makes a point here that reverses the usual expectation about Mars. He says it is easier for both people to completely express their personal energies through the relationship this way, meaning through group involvement rather than despite it. Subordinating the individual ego to a group expression is not a loss of drive. It is how the drive gets its full outlet.
On the hopes and ideals side he is equally concrete. Mars here indicates that the two will work very hard to attain whatever they want out of life. The eleventh house supplies the aim and Mars supplies the effort.
He draws the practical consequence directly. It is very important that the two have similar or at least complementary goals in life. That is the working condition of the placement, and it is worth reading as a description of what makes it function rather than as a caveat.
The Opposite House
Hand's paired house rule comes from the mechanics of the composite. Two midpoints exist for any pair of planets, and although the nearer one is used, the farther one keeps some effect, an effect that increases as the two natal positions approach opposition. So an eleventh house Mars should also be read through the fifth, and where the two natal Mars positions are near opposition, reading both is essential rather than optional.
The fifth house is love affairs, creativity and self expression, and Hand calls it a very compatible position for Mars provided the need for self expression is met. His reading of Mars there insists that the two give each other plenty of room to be themselves with a minimum of interference, and that ego energies create no problem if expressed. Read as an axis, the fifth is personal self expression and the eleventh is the same energy given over to a larger project. Both houses rule friendship in Hand's scheme, and both make the same demand, which is that the energy have somewhere to go.
Hand gives no threshold for when the second reading takes over and no method for blending the two. Both stand.
Where It Gets Difficult
Hand names one specific risk. The placement may indicate that the two will try to dominate their friends or associates, which will make matters rather difficult for them.
He immediately widens the point into a general rule, and it is one of the plainest statements he makes about the planet. No matter where Mars is located in a chart, the two must be careful how they handle its energies so that they do not cause strife and arguments with others. The care is required by the planet, not by this house in particular.
The second pressure point is the shared goal. Where the two do not have similar or complementary aims, disagreements about that are likely to be a great source of conflict.
His general remark on the house adds the last condition. A couple with a strong eleventh must be able to share a great deal of their lives with each other, or the relationship is not likely to be a very successful one.
The house sets the issue. Whether the shared effort runs cleanly or abrasively is described by the aspects to Mars, which is a separate question.
Recommended Reading
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- Robert Hand, Planets in Composite: Analyzing Human Relationships (1975), chapter nine.
- Robert Hand, Planets in Composite: Analyzing Human Relationships (1975), chapter four, on the composite eleventh house and the paired house rule.
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Next: Composite Chart Placements and How to Read a Composite Chart.