Skip to content
StarMap
Your StarMapMenu

Mars · Cardinal water sign

Mars in Cancer

Mars in Cancer is where Mars sat in the zodiac at the moment of birth, the part of a chart read for how you act, compete and get angry. Mars stays in a sign for six to seven weeks, up to seven months around a retrograde. Cancer is a cardinal water sign.

Of the 6,194 well-known people in StarMap's dataset, 543 have Mars in Cancer for the whole of their birth date. Jimmy Wales, Lionel Messi and Albert Camus are among them. Their commonest Sun signs are Cancer (71), Leo (69) and Virgo (56); every Sun sign appears with Mars in Cancer. 13 more were born on a day Mars moved into or out of Cancer and are left out, because the hour decides and StarMap has no birth time for them.

Jimmy Wales and Lionel Messi both have Mars in Cancer.Is your Mars in Cancer?Find out with the free Mars sign calculator

What Mars in Cancer means

Read for how you act, compete and get angry. If this is your placement:

You act to protect the people and things you care about, and your anger is usually about feeling hurt more than feeling wronged. The habit to watch is going quiet or indirect instead of naming what upset you. Other people notice a shift of mood and take a while to trace it back to its cause.

One placement is one part of a chart; the Sun, the Moon, the rising sign and the planets around them change how it plays out. Draw your whole chart to see the rest.

Famous people with Mars in Cancer

All 543 people with Mars in Cancer, A to Z

Mars in Cancer, from last year to two years ahead

  • 11 August 2026 to 28 September 2026
  • 20 July 2028 to 4 September 2028

Dates are UTC. A retrograde close to the sign boundary shows as two stays a few weeks apart; born between them, Mars was back in the sign before.

Questions people ask

How do I know if I have Mars in Cancer?

From your birth date: the Mars sign calculator works it out from the real sky. Mars stays in a sign for six to seven weeks, up to seven months around a retrograde, so most birth dates settle it; on a day it changed sign, the time decides.

Which famous people have Mars in Cancer?

Jimmy Wales, Lionel Messi, Albert Camus, Mikhail Gorbachev and Diego Maradona all have Mars in Cancer. StarMap's dataset of 6,194 well-known people has 543 with it for the whole of their birth date, each with a birth chart.

When is Mars next in Cancer?

Mars enters Cancer on 20 July 2028 and leaves on 4 September 2028. It was last there from 11 August 2026 until 28 September 2026.

More of Cancer

Positions are computed from each person’s birth date and place with the astronomy-engine ephemeris, checked against Swiss Ephemeris. Birth data comes from Wikidata; a placement is listed only when it holds for the whole birth date, and a rising sign only with a birth time Astro-Databank records. Readings describe tendencies, for entertainment and self-reflection; StarMap predicts nothing. Every planet in every sign.

Photo credits (48 photos from Wikimedia Commons)

Each link opens the photo’s page on Wikimedia Commons, which states its author and licence.