Mars Square Neptune: Confusion Before the Breakthrough

You’re pursuing a big goal. You have clarity, motivation, and momentum. And then, as you get closer, you suddenly start getting confused.

It’s like a fog falls over you, and you can no longer see the path clearly.

You feel lost. You wonder if you’re heading in the right direction. Your enthusiasm wanes.

This is what Gay Hendricks calls an “upper limit problem” in his book The Big Leap. It’s a common form of resistance that emerges when we are stretching ourselves to a big goal and about to have a breakthrough to a new level.

It’s also the energy we might feel as Mars in Sagittarius forms a square to Neptune in Pisces (December 14, 2025, 6:43 am ET, 29º22’).

The Energy of Mars Square Neptune

Mars represents our motivation, drive, and how we take action. It’s impulsive, decisive, and wants to move quickly. Mars is confident, sharp, focused, and driven.

In Sagittarius, a fire sign, Mars is in its preferred element. It’s forward-looking, driven by a mission, ready to shoot its arrow. It wants to take on the world.

Neptune represents the infinite, imagination, and the formless. It is the planet of compassion and spirituality. Like a watercolor painting, Neptune is dreamy and diffuse.

In Pisces, Neptune gives us nothing to hold onto. It also represents the archetypal energy of illusions, dissolution, and deceptions.

With Neptune, we don’t know what’s real. Facts are hazy. We can’t see the road ahead.

Mars in Sagittarius has a big vision and wants to move forward, but Neptune in Pisces dulls its drive and its sharp edges. Suddenly, you might doubt the reliability of your information. You lose faith in what you know. The path forward suddenly seems unclear.

Friction at the Cusp of Change

This square between Mars and Neptune brings them into a relationship of friction. With both planets at the final degree of mutable signs, we’re on the cusp of change. We are getting ready to head into a new adventure, but suddenly the landscape is foggy.

Unlike Mars square Saturn, which asks us to navigate a physical or inner limitation impeding our forward drive, Mars square Neptune challenges us to navigate an emotional or spiritual obstacle. It pits the part of us that is certain of the way forward against the part of us that suddenly gets confused by the murkiness of the road ahead.

Keywords for Mars Square Neptune

Mars square Neptune is often described as the “fog of war” — a situation where you’re trying to take action amidst uncertainty of the terrain or the facts.

It can look like trying to punch something, but having the wrong target, directing your aggression toward the wrong object, or directing your energy to the wrong project.

You might feel confused about what path to pursue.

Your efforts and intention might be based on misleading or false facts.

More maliciously, it might represent the use of confusion to elicit a certain result. I often think of the balloon scene in the movie Ocean’s 11, in which the brothers intentionally create confusion to facilitate entry into the back of the house at the casino.

A Final Lesson to Integrate

This square between Mars and Neptune is the “closing square” in a cycle between Mars and Neptune that began with their conjunction in Pisces on April 29, 2024.

The closing square is associated with the final crisis of consciousness in a cycle. It is a moment for re-evaluation of what you’ve done and an integration of lessons learned before the next phase begins.

Neptune has been in Pisces since 2012, and Mars has made this square to it from Sagittarius several times since then. This is the final time Mars in Sagittarius will square Neptune in Pisces. Coming at the final degree of these signs, this square represents the final opportunity to reflect on and integrate the lessons we’ve learned in this conflict between ambition and spirituality, and how the fog of uncertainty gets in our way just before we’re about to have a breakthrough.

In 2026, Neptune will move into Aries for a 14-year run. When Mars meets up with it there, it will start a new cycle with different energy.

How to Work With The Fog of Mars Square Neptune

The fog of Mars square Neptune can make you feel lost and uncertain of your path.

The best way to work with this energy is to lay low, wait out the confusion, and resist the impulse to act.

Double check your information and your sources, and ground yourself in what’s real. Re-orient to your inner north star and make sure you’re acting from a place of integrity.

Feed your faith, not your doubts.