How to interpret the result
A Mars contact shows where effort and friction collect, not something that happens to you. Constructed example: natal Sun at 14 Aries, transiting Mars at 9 Libra, an opposition with a 5.00 orb, direct. At around 0.6 degrees a day Mars needs about eight days to perfect the opposition and spends roughly three weeks inside the 6-degree range; near a retrograde station, that could stretch to two months or more.
