Mars DSC line
Fierce relationships. The Mars DSC line (Descendant, often written DC) runs through the places where Mars was setting on the western horizon when you were born.
♂Mars lines· Descendant
What the Mars DSC line means
Mars setting brings dynamic, passionate and sometimes combative partners. Relationships here are intense and physical, with heat in both love and quarrels. Good for a partner who gets you moving, and for competitive collaborations. Keep an eye on power struggles and on attracting people who like to fight.
The Descendant is where other people meet you, and with Mars setting they arrive with their sleeves rolled up. Lovers are keen, colleagues are blunt, and the person across the table usually wants an answer today.
Older astrology gave the seventh house to open enemies as well as partners, and this line keeps both. Rivals, competitors and the other side of a negotiation all come into sharper focus. That's less grim than it sounds: a rival who makes you better is a Mars DSC classic, and so is a business partner who moves the work along faster than you would alone.
Psychological astrology adds a twist. It reads the Descendant as what you hand to other people instead of owning yourself, so a Mars DSC line is said to be where you meet your own temper in someone else. Anyone who finds anger hard is said to end up, here, with a partner who finds it easy.
Mars and Venus in aspect at birth colour this line strongly: a trine is read as passion that holds, a square as passion with a fight in it. A month in the place tells you more than a weekend of its nightlife.
Where it runs
The Mars DSC line is a curve, not a straight line. It crosses the equator 90° of longitude east of your Mars MC line. Away from the equator it swings towards the IC line in the hemisphere Mars was on that day (north or south of the celestial equator) and towards the MC line in the other, and it ends where it meets them. Everywhere on it, Mars was setting when you were born.
Mars's declination, how far north or south of the celestial equator it sits, decides where its rising and setting lines stop: at 90° of latitude minus the declination. For births between 1930 and 2025 it ran from 28.7° S to 27.2° N, so in some charts those lines end as close to the equator as about 61° of latitude, north or south. Beyond that point Mars didn't rise or set at all on the day you were born, while the MC and IC lines carry on to the poles.
Distance and birth time
A line is a band, not a wall. Zenith Map's scores count a line in full on it, about 60% at 250 km, about 14% at 500 km and not at all beyond 1,000 km. Astrocartographers draw the edge in different places; the methodology page gives the reasoning for this one.
Every line in a chart moves west by a quarter of a degree of longitude for each minute later the birth: about 28 km at the equator and 14 km at 60° latitude. A time rounded to the nearest quarter hour can put your Mars DSC line up to about 200 km from where it's drawn, which is why the map draws bands when you say the time is approximate.
Questions
Is the Mars DSC line bad for relationships?
It's rarely a quiet line for love. The partners it's known for are passionate, direct and sometimes combative, with heat in attraction and in arguments alike. People who want a strong counterpart and can hold their own often like it; anyone who avoids conflict or tends to give way will find it wearing.
Is the Mars DSC line good for business partnerships?
It suits partnerships that need drive: a co-founder who pushes, a competitor who sharpens you, deals done quickly. The same line is known for power struggles, so settle early who decides what.
Related lines
The other Mars lines: Mars MC, Mars IC, Mars ASC.
Descendant lines of the other planets: Sun DSC, Moon DSC, Mercury DSC, Venus DSC, Jupiter DSC, Saturn DSC, Uranus DSC, Neptune DSC, Pluto DSC.
Mars lines are drawn with Pro; the free map shows the Sun, Moon, Venus and Jupiter.