3. Composite 4th House - Mars

The Composite Fourth House
The fourth house represents more than the home, especially in the composite chart. It indicates the basic roots of a relationship - both literally, in geographical terms, and figuratively, in terms of mental and emotional background. The fourth house signifies the innermost depths of a relationship, which may be so far within as to be invisible on the surface.

On top of this, the fourth house does mean collective 'home'. The home is where a couple's deepest emotional and psychological attitudes have their strongest impact. The home is in many ways the physical embodiment of one's innermost being, and is therefore influenced by anything that affects the inner life.

The Meaning of Mars in the Composite Chart
The basic principle of Mars is the ego-drive, the energy by which you sustain your sense of being an individual, both toward the world and toward other people.
If you have a sound sense of yourself, as signified by a well-placed Mars, you will have little difficulty getting along with others. But if Mars is badly placed, your sense of your own being is deficient, and you will get into conflicts that make it impossible to relate to others.
In a composite chart, Mars signifies your ability to create an environment within the relationship for both of you to express yourselves fully without threatening each other and provoking destructive conflicts. Some - perhaps quite a lot of - conflict in a relationship is inevitable, and conflict per se should not be suppressed. But your ego-drives must be basically compatible within the relationship, or nothing can be accomplished.
In a sexual relationship, Mars also rules the sex drive. A successful sexual relationship requires that both Venus, the ability to relate, and Mars, the ego-drive, be in good condition

Mars in the Fourth House
The fourth house rules the innermost bases of life - your own inner foundation, the home, the unconscious mind, your parents and in-laws. If the Mars energy is working smoothly, you will hardly be aware of it. The two of you will work together with a natural rapport and an inherent smoothness.
However, if the Mars energy is not working smoothly, there will be a number of difficulties to work out. The causes of conflict will be in matters that you take so much for granted that you are not even aware of them. For this reason you must question even your most fundamental assumptions to discover how you are subverting your relationship.
If you live together, the energy could manifest itself as arguments in and about the home. You might have differing concepts of what a home ought to be, which could be a serious source of conflict. Or if you are married, your parents might be the immediate occasion for battle. The basic difficulty is that your unconscious ideas and notions on various subjects become clear to you only when they are challenged.

Mars Opposition Pluto
You must let this relationship change and transform the both of you without resistance. With the opposition of Mars and Pluto in the composite chart it will be difficult for the two of you to avoid conflict and power struggles.
The reasons for the extreme effects of this aspect are as follows. Mars has a great deal to do with the ego-drive, whereby one becomes a fully self-expressive individual. Pluto represents the energy of intense and fundamental transformations. When Mars and Pluto are opposed, this energy is combined inharmoniously with the ego-drives. Or to put it in less philosophical terms, a cosmic power is subjected to purely personal and selfish drives.
In order to deal with this energy constructively, it is necessary to reverse the roles of Pluto and Mars, so that the ego-drives are transformed by the cosmic power of Pluto. Unless you both do this, the experience will be very unpleasant.

Mars Square Ascendant
This signifies that the pursuit of egoistic goals is likely to come between the two of you.
You may argue constantly about seemingly trivial matters, which actually represent deeper psychological pressures that you are not expressing to each other. These pressures are very likely to be expressed as disagreements about your home together or about your overall objectives in life.
The main point is what the two of you are doing together. There may be perfectly valid reasons for this relatonship, and being together may be a very good experience for both of you. However, you must ask the question anyway, because the naturally competitive energies of Mars may make you think you are completely incompatible, even if you actually have a deep need to be together. This relationship calls for a great deal of self- awareness.

Mars Square Saturn
The square of Mars and Saturn indicates that the two of you are working at cross purposes. Usually it produces negative feelings that seethe below the surface without ever coming out into the open. Occasionally your feelings will go past the boiling point, however, and there will be a big explosion of angry words between you.
You obviously have work to do here. First of all, you must open the channels of communication between you. Say exactly what is on your mind and try not to express irritation in little cutting remarks.
In a sexual relationship, this aspect often creates differences of timing. One of you will always be in a different mood from the other, and both of you will insist on what you want when you want it. Obviously someone has to give, and that will be difficult in this case.

Mars Trine Neptune
This is a relationship that is motivated by the desire to attain an ideal. It is necessary to be unusually clear about what you are doing together.
It is often the case that the two of you are seeking a spiritual goal. However, you must not let your search for the spiritual ideal obscure your practical needs in a relationship, regardless of what kind of relationship it is.
At its most successful, this aspect can help you attain your ideals, if the two of you are very aware. At its least successful, this aspect may cause you to have cloudy objectives, so that neither of you will concentrate enough on the practical problems of making the relationship work.