Also called: Outer Mars · Mars Negative · Mental Mars · Urdhva Mangal
Where on the hand: The strip on the percussion between the head line and the heart line, below the Mount of Mercury and above the Mount of Luna, on the side of the palm opposite the thumb. Centre roughly x 0.92, y 0.62.
What it looks like: When developed it makes the hand's outer edge bulge outward at its middle and forms a perceptible pad on the palm's inner side. When deficient the percussion runs straight, or shows an actual depression where the mount should be.
Upper Mars measures RESISTANCE — passive courage, moral courage, endurance, the ability to take punishment and get up again. It is the mount of the person who holds a position rather than charges it, who is calm under fire and cannot be pushed.
The quality it measures
- **Resistance** — as distinct from Lower Mars's aggression and the Plain of Mars's temper.
- **Passive and moral courage** — endurance, the capacity to take punishment and rise again.
- **Benham's Upper Martian** — is calm, does not lose his head, persists through setbacks, and rises after defeat.
Well developed
- **Coolness under fire** — self-control, composure.
- **Determination** — the capacity to hold a position indefinitely.
- **Resistance to being manipulated, coerced or bullied**; stability.
- **Moral stamina; patient courage.**
- **Indian reading** — धैर्य (fortitude), and devotion and loyalty in marriage.
Flat / deficient
- **A straight percussion, or an actual depression** where the mount should be.
- **Gives way at once** — surrenders easily, no staying power.
- **Cannot resist pressure or persuasion** — easily dominated.
- **Collapses under adversity.**
Over-developed
- **Obstinacy; sullen stubbornness.**
- **Defiance for its own sake**; hardness.
- **Resistance that has become mere brutality.**
- **Combined with a bad hand** — cruelty and tyranny.
Displaced / leaning (apex migrated)
- **Toward the percussion (outward)** — pluck: raw, physical nerve.
- **Toward the palm proper (inward)** — aggression: resistance converting into attack.
- **Toward Luna (downward)** — hypnotic power: the classical signature of the mesmerist and of forceful personal influence over others.
Professions & temperament
- **The soldier who holds ground rather than charges.**
- **Police and law enforcement.**
- **Surgery and emergency medicine.**
- **Endurance sport.**
- **Negotiation and trade unionism.**
- **Anything requiring the ability to be pressured and not break.**
Body parts governed
- **The blood** — blood disorders, blood cancer, anaemia.
- **The throat.**
- **The kidneys and respiratory system** (Chinese table).
- **The adrenal system**; **muscles**; **inflammatory response**.
- **Fever, high blood pressure, headaches, injury-proneness.**
Marks on this mount
- **Star** — distinction in a fight, a war or a struggle; honour won by courage.
- **Cross** — strength, leadership potential, fighting spirit.
- **Vertical lines** — energy, passion for adventure, resilience.
- **Horizontal / cross-bar lines** — accident tendencies; also opposition and quarrels.
- **Triangle, quadrilateral, or clusters of points** — Indian sources: blood-related disease; Western sources: martial science and strategy. A genuine divergence.
- **Grille** — ungovernable temper; danger of violent death.
Western reading: Benham defines the mount purely as resistance, and gives the Luna-ward displacement as the sign of hypnotic power.
Read with care: Blood cancer, danger of violent death, and blood disease from a triangle are traditional claims and disputed between traditions; present them as doctrine, never as diagnosis.
RECONCILED — this was a mirror-image error that would put every mark on the wrong side of the palm. LOWER MARS (Mars positive / active, निम्न मंगल) is the small area INSIDE the start of the life line, in the thumb web. UPPER MARS (Mars negative / passive, उच्च मंगल) is on the percussion, below Mercury and above Luna. The nine-fold map entry had these two swapped.
is calm, does not lose his headBenham
Palmistry is a traditional interpretive art, not a science. Offered for reflection and self-understanding — not medical, legal or financial advice.