Action, anger, and sexuality planet Mars takes about two years to move through the entire zodiac, which means it swings back through a particular sign once every couple years.
The last time Mars transited Virgo was mid-August to early October 2019. The next time Mars will transit Virgo is July/August 2023.
The articles I'm re-posting here were written for an extended Mars in Virgo transit, including retrograde period, from November 10, 2011 to July 3, 2012. We were fully immersed in the energy and themes of Mars in Virgo during that time, and these articles provide a little check-in on how we've progressed since then.
Mars will next be retrograde in the sign of Virgo in January/February 2027. Since Virgo is a sign of proactivity and productivity, adjustments and tune-ups made now may bear fruit then, making that transit and retrograde a little easier to navigate.
In 2011, Mars began its transit of Virgo in an opposition to Chiron and Neptune in early Pisces. This time around, Chiron has moved into Aries, and Neptune is further along in the sign of Pisces.
Mars in Virgo will form a very potent trine aspect to Uranus at 14 degrees Taurus on August 21, 2021. Uranus will have just stationed retrograde at that time (August 19) ahead of a powerful 29-degree Aquarius Full Moon on August 22, the second Full Moon in Aquarius we experience this July/August. The earth trine between Mars and Uranus indicates an exciting and productive period of time, a time when we're given an energetic (or anger-induced) boost to make changes to our routines and status quo realities that can then create larger breakthroughs. This trine indicates good energy for breaking habits and changing patterns, especially as they relate to health (including financial health), diet, exercise, routines, and boundaries.
Mars in Virgo will form an exact opposition to Neptune in Pisces on September 2, 2021 at 22 degrees of the signs. This opposition is influential from August 18 until Mars enters Libra on September 14. The Mars-Neptune opposition brings in some blind spots and some coping mechanisms but also the spiritual perspective we need to power through and make some needed changes or adjustments. Accidents and physical injuries can be more prevalent under Mars-Neptune contacts, and strange health symptoms can pop up. Focused attention on our physical bodies in the material realm will be required throughout the Mars in Virgo transit.
Love, relationship, and aesthetics planet Venus is also in Virgo until August 15, making the masterful application of Virgoan energy even more appealing - or even required in our relationships and social settings.
From the January 23, 2012 article on the Mars retrograde station, Mars Retrograde in Virgo and the Active Re-Organizing Principle Comes Out in Full Force January 23 - April 13, 2012
"Virgo is one of the quieter placements for Mars. Mars is active here but only in the ways that count. No excess of motion, exertion, words, mental function, or use of will. Small movements, adjustments, and re-direction have big effect, and temperance rules, as too much effort in one direction results only in energy expended for self-correction.
The energy on the planet will be getting very bizarre and out of control at times over the next years, and things can really go haywire if we allow them to. This is why we need the Virgoan qualities applied through the iron will of Mars to set our courses now, doing battle on the fine points.
If we're oh-so-careful and diligent, smoothing every screwy detail, critiquing every glowing illusion, attending to every nagging issue, we set a tone with this retrograde that can keep us grounded and out of the worst of the hyped baloney and utter bullshit being amped up on this planet.
Clean, crisp, clear.
In Virgo, every detail matters.
Virgo is a sign that needs things to be just right, and with Mars here, we're going to have to take it personally when they aren't. If it hits our ears as incorrect, it's rejected, no matter how many people are saying it, doing it, or believing it. Anyone trying to fill our minds, bodies, societies, or environments with useless crap is viewed as an enemy of our health.
Enemies (Mars) of our health (Virgo). There are many.
Under Mars in Virgo, we're consciously fighting to maintain health in a world increasingly toxic to living things. Our systems are quite literally being attacked on multiple fronts. There's an immediacy with this Mars transit. There's no more time to put off the changes necessary to fortify our health. It's on. In order for our systems to continue processing and metabolizing what's going on, they need to be in tip-top condition.
Diet, exercise regimes, habits, routines, work conditions, the quality of our food and water, our mental and emotional environments - a crucial analysis and refinement is on the docket during this transit, fighting to maintain systemic health while preparing us for the next years on the planet. This involves the removal or at least strong limitation of anything that weighs our systems down: excess alcohol, drug use, cigarettes, perfumes, air fresheners, chemical cleaners, electromagnetic pollution, noise pollution, pesticides and additives in food, refined sugar, artificial colours, genetically modified food, fluoride, excessive internet, TV, music, shopping, socializing.
Mars is a hard-ass in Virgo, and with good reason. Even things touted as healthful should be gone over with a fine-toothed comb. With Virgo, less is more. Be careful what you add to your life and to your system. In most cases, Virgo is about what needs to be taken away.
There is a sexual element (Mars) to health (Virgo) here. A more precise application of sexual energy is required. A new understanding of the effects of sexual activity on health and on the surrounding energetic environment as a whole comes about here.
The "too much, too fast, too soon" sexual ethic constantly shoved down our throats is rejected by those who use this transit well, and the application of sexuality is streamlined with a new awareness and focus on the health of the individual, the partner, the relationship, the immediate social groups and society, and the spirit, in general.
There's a re-wiring of attractions and sexual habits here, a clarification, and a removal of toxic sexual connections. Holistic sexual health.
Our work is infused with a necessary level of fight during this transit. We fight to overcome the redundancy, uselessness, and listlessness forced upon so many through mass institutionalized unemployment, underemployment, and lack of meaningful paid employment."
(Warning: This article contains an extraordinary number
of occurrences of the word "shit" as well as derivatives of the word
"shit." Proceed only if scatological references in relation to human
behaviour do not offend...)
Mars relates to desire, and in Virgo, only those with shit together - and with a history of having shit together - need apply.
In the sign opposite Pisces, this especially relates to having your
Neptunian/Piscean/12th house shit together, and at the end of the
astrological Piscean era, this is a tall order for a lot of people...
I saw the 2008 film The Wrestler a few weeks ago, and the main character in the film illustrated the Piscean/Neptunian shitbag quite well. You know the kind.
It's a person who, on one hand, is deeply wonderful, gentle,
compassionate, loving, sensitive, human, spiritually-aware - a person
who can feel oh-so-good to be around, who has so much potential! This is a person who seems to know you on a special level, who can touch your heart in profound ways.
And then, on the other hand, the person's a shitbag.
The guy in the movie was an aging professional wrestler who was in many
respects a lovely man. He was funny, giving, compassionate, a real
mentor for up-and-coming wrestlers. He was exciting, sexy, interesting,
and he could waltz.
He was also a shitbag. He abandoned his daughter when she was little,
preferring to immerse himself in the cheering crowds and artificial
(highly Neptunian) world of professional wrestling. He spent his money
on alcohol, drugs, and lap dances, screwing random women still hot for
his fading star. He lived in past glory, trying to outrun the
requirements of the present. He made promises he didn't keep. He let
people down. When the going got tough, he cut and ran, taking the easy
way out and slipping out of his responsibilities.
The reality didn't live up to the hype - a big Neptune theme.
We've all seen or experienced Neptune at work in relationship. ("But I loooove
him!") Neptune glosses over all the shitbag behaviours, leaving only
the wonderful. If Neptune is strong enough, it's as if the shitbag
behaviours don't even exist. They're invisible, dimmed dramatically by
the shining, glowing, rosy light of the wonderful qualities Neptune
insists are the whole story.
The shitbag behaviours are skimmed over and forgiven almost immediately,
without holding the individual accountable, and nothing changes. It's
the same cycle over and over again: shitbag behaviour, disappointment
and hurt, forgiveness, being awash with Neptunian love; shitbag
behaviour, disappointment and hurt, forgiveness, being awash with
Neptunian love...
The damage keeps being done, keeps accumulating, and Neptune keeps
covering it all over, focusing only on the lovey dovey goodness.
Until the point comes where enough is enough, and the cycle absolutely
has to be broken. It takes a while to get there, but this is where we
are now.
There are many deeply-ingrained Piscean Era cycles to be, once and for
all, broken, cleaned up, and transitioned out of as Mars moves through
the transit in Virgo, and in many cases, these cycles are holding on with a great
deal of subtlety and tenacity.
This isn't just straight-up, easily identifiable Neptunian shitbag we're dealing with here, as in The Wrestler.
This is immersed into the scene, woven into the energetic fabric. This
is a multitude of subtle variations. This is even just the energetic
impression of shitbag with little to no identifiable behaviour.
The Neptunian gloss is potent stuff, crystallized and unquestioned in
many cases. People have been getting away with this stuff for a good
long while.
Mars in Virgo has its work cut out for it, but it's on the case like a
dog on a bone.
If we assist it, Mars in Virgo will cut through the gloss in a valiant
attempt to address fatal character flaws and make things right through-and-through. Virgo relates to personal development, and Mars does battle
on the fine points here.
For a little helpful guidance on this front, here are some Mars in Virgo HOT or NOTS:
HOT: A person who will defer sex until the right time and the
right conditions out of respect for the health and well-being of both
parties.
NOT HOT: Someone slobbering in your ear and getting all hot and bothered when you're basically still at handshake stage.
HOT: A person who puts effort into learning the details about you, what you like and don't like, and then applies it precisely.
NOT HOT: Discovering someone you've been dating for weeks can't pronounce your last name correctly.
HOT: People who run their lives like well-oiled machines who would be scandalized if they bounced a cheque.
NOT HOT: Flaky, floaty, space cadets who routinely bounce cheques
(if they even have a bank account) and live in a state of constant
chaos that spills over into the lives of other people.
HOT: Finding a new boyfriend or girlfriend with carefully
cultivated associations and influences who has no problem weeding out
detrimental ones. This person has been anticipating you and has created a
place that is just right for you in his/her life.
NOT HOT: Discovering your new boyfriend comes with a string of:
old exes who call regularly in some variety of life crisis, hard-up
buddies looking for a place to crash, down-and-out family members asking
for money, slightly obsessive old flames who still have a thing for
him, and various shady types always involved in some type of
not-quite-above-board situation, bringing you into contact with people
you would choose not to be around otherwise. Discovering the place he
has created for you is a dirty mattress on the unwashed floor that you
have to share with the sleeping-it-off ex-girlfriend of his high school
best friend.
HOT: Someone who shows his desire for you by keeping bills up to
date, dishes washed, floors vacuumed, and laundry folded, thereby
removing stressors so energy can be directed into more *ahem*
extracurricular-type activities.
NOT HOT: Someone who forgets his wallet at home, leaves dirty
dishes strewn around, and thinks the hamper is wherever his clothes
happen to fall. I know a few slobs, and I love them, but I'm here to
advise that slobbing is NOT HOT under Mars in Virgo.
HOT: Moderation, temperance, practicality, humility, modesty,
earthiness, focused drive and self-direction, attention to detail,
awareness of the fine points.
NOT HOT: Escapism, substance abuse, chaos, pie-in-the-sky ideas,
ineffectiveness, weak will, scattered energies, being excessively
impressionable and easily led astray, allowing oneself to be tossed
around by the circumstances of the day.
HOT: Living simply and within one's means.
NOT HOT: Financial over-extension, frivolity, living on (bad) credit.
HOT: A person who has developed a level of self-control and self-mastery.
NOT HOT: Someone looking to be taken care of.
HOT: Taking full responsibility for half-assed behaviour, rectifying it immediately.
NOT HOT: Making vague, weaselly excuses for half-assed behaviour and then continuing it.
HOT: Saying you're going to do something and doing it, on time.
NOT HOT: Saying you're going to do something but then consulting
your psychic who tells you not to do it unless six particular signs as
well as a white eagle's feather show up within fourteen days. Staying in
a state of "tortured" limbo for months, hashing it over ad nauseum with
every person you know to the point that people start avoiding your ass.
If you recognize yourself on the NOT HOT list, never fear. Mars is currently in early Virgo, and you still have
some time to move yourself onto the HOT list. And if you
recognize yourself on the HOT list, congratulations. Get ready to be a
hot commodity.
Venus moves into Libra on August 15, and Mars moves into Libra on September 14, 2021.
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