Mars in Virgo Hot or Nots: A Re-Post for the Current Mars in Virgo Transit (July 29 to September 14, 2021)

This is a re-post of excerpts from a couple articles written way back in 2011/2012 that apply to the current Mars in Virgo transit (July 29 to September 14, 2021).

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. 

Applying the Venus-Mars in Virgo "Relational Editor" Energy and a Reminder of Mars in Virgo Hot or Nots

As mentioned in a previous article, relationship planets Venus and Mars are currently traveling through the zodiac in a conjunction in Virgo (exact October 5 at 19 degrees). This indicates that a little editing, fine-tuning, or tightening up may be required in our relations with others. 

The application of heightened discernment, stronger filters, and higher standards (Virgo) in relationships of all kinds (Venus-Mars) is a theme.

Transiting Venus and Mars in Virgo are currently forming oppositions to Neptune in Pisces, and both bodies form oppositions to wounded healer Chiron in Pisces next month (exact October 10 -  15).

This brings up the possibility for some direct contact with "Neptunian shitbag" behaviours with a requirement to filter these out, making them fully unacceptable in our lives and in our relationships. 

As we are now hurtling headlong into the astrological era of Aquarius, these behaviours may be less prevalent or at least, a little harder to pinpoint than when we were in full-on tail-end Piscean era. 

At the same time, the slippery flakiness, charm, and shitbaggery that can be associated with Neptune/Pisces do rear their ugly heads, and Venus-Mars in Virgo is a great time to out this stuff, outsmart it, and quietly demand better.

As stated in the previous article, "Mars relates to desire, and in Virgo, only those with shit together - and with a history of having shit together - need apply."

(Again, this involves relationships of all kinds, not just romantic ones.)

As a little humourous yet reality-based reminder of the Neptunian shitbaggery to be on the lookout for, I will re-post an excerpt from an article from December 1, 2011, titled "Mars in Virgo Hot or Nots." This article was written just prior to the last Mars retrograde in Virgo (January to April 2012):

"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...

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...Virgo, and they're 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...

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."

Venus will be in Virgo until October 14, 2017 and Mars will be in Virgo until October 22. The Venus-Mars conjunction occurs at 19 degrees Virgo on October 5. So if you recognize yourself on the NOT HOT list, you have some time to move yourself onto the HOT list. And if you recognize yourself on the HOT list, congratulations on being a hot commodity!

Mars in Virgo's Antiseptic Sting Opposite Chiron in Pisces

Mars in Virgo is opposite ouchy, ouchy Chiron in Pisces, and I'm re-posting excerpts of an article from February's Pisces New Moon, as the energetic themes apply.

Mars in Virgo is currently in the final Grand Earth Trine formation of its transit, along with Mercury in Taurus and Pluto in Capricorn. This formation has been with us off and on since November 2011, and, though ultimately beneficial for accuracy, direction, positioning, and concrete progress, it has been quite heavy and arduous at times.

This formation completes and starts to loosen as of the final aspect - Mars trine Pluto - around mid-day on May 16.

If we use non-planet Chiron, its position in Pisces makes this Grand Earth Trine a kite, which means the wounded healer plays a pivotal role, and its often painful themes are stirred at this time.

We're at the end of the astrological Piscean era. The last puffs of old school Neptunian ether are tapering off, and we're being left with heavy doses of gravity and reality courtesy of Mercury, Mars, and Pluto in the earth signs. In many cases, this has meant a sharp, no-nonsense re-direction by Mars in Virgo coming out of its retrograde. The paring down to only the most necessary, effective, accurate, and concrete.

Old dreams are dissipating, though we may not notice until they're already gone.

Things longed for, hoped for, and secretly held dear have disappeared into the vapours.

We're left now with the solid, earth-based building materials on this planet. We're left with what's really going to happen. We're having to remake our dreams for an astrological Aquarian overlay without really knowing what that's going to mean.

Many of the things people had put their faith in have not come to pass. Many of the things people were led to believe have proven manipulative, diversionary, abusive, even criminal. Often, this has meant rapidly and painfully reformulating in whom and in what people have placed their faith.

The pain, the dangling carrots, and the wounding illusions of the entire astrological Piscean era are tied up in this Chiron placement, and Mars in Virgo is doing its utmost here to lead us out.

It's not comfortable, but it is effective, as long as we take our full dose of clarifying Mars in Virgo medicine.

We really are carving out a new expression for Pisces here, an expression of Pisces for the astrologicial Aquarian era. No one said it would be easy.

From February 18, 2012: New Moon in Pisces Conjunct Neptune, Pallas Athene, and Chiron: Carving Out Pisces for the Aquarian Era

"At the points where the burden of awareness has been too great, where we could not take another step under its paralyzing weight, we're released.

But we have to want it, and we have to be willing to go for it.

To survive emotionally and psychically now, knowing all we know, feeling all we feel, seeing all we see, we have to get out from under the most suffocating weight of it. The outpouring flow of the compassionate heart must be gently stemmed, moving into a place where to love and feel does not mean the sacrifice of personal health and safety.

Here, we step into a smart, new expression of Pisces, fully aware of the context of the times and of our context within them...

The transit and retrograde of Mars through Virgo...assist us in the process. We're picking through, analyzing, removing from the expression of the sign anything redundant, bloated, draining, past its prime. We apply the stinging Virgoan antiseptic, starting to create function in the sign of Pisces in areas where there has for too long been only dysfunction. We also apply the healing Piscean understanding of the way it all works together, of the ways it's shared, bringing new life to areas that have remained sorely isolated, neglected, outside the fold.

Wounded healer Chiron is here, and so is pain. A more in-depth treatment of this placement can be found here: Chiron, May We Pass? from February 18, 2011.

The intense levels of psychic pain held at this point in human history, collectively left denied and unvoiced, truly have the potential to do us in. The psychic backwash drops over us in waves, often without warning, threatening to drag us under. The homeless, the alcoholics, the addicts, the mentally ill, the depressed, the prostituted, the murdered, the missing are symbols of this unaddressed psychic pain and the resulting dysfunction, symptomatic of deeper roots. They've done all they can, said all they can, and still most don't see the connections.

It seeps into suburbia, into condo buildings, into schools and offices, and still people won't put their fingers on it.

Chiron transits Pisces until 2019. The first half of the Neptune transit through Pisces is coloured strongly by this body out in front in the sign.

"There is no easy answer, just as there was no easy answer for Chiron's wound. No magic pill makes it all better. We're past the point where concessions and tokenism soothe in any form. We don't want to be thrown another bone.

Until the underlying wounding dynamics are truly addressed, rectified, discontinued, no long-term healing is possible. We're just treating symptoms.

And the army of people bleating about victim consciousness and creating your own reality works very effectively, moving us further from the depth of understanding of power dynamics and structures on this planet that would get us to the true healing points. Every flippant use of those concepts is another pound of pressure pinning Sedna down, suffering in betrayal on the ocean floor."

Before forgiveness, we need to understand the underlying dynamics, give them name, give them voice, change them, ensure they don't continue.

Before healing, we need to get to the roots, working for complete systemic change rather than just anesthetizing, masking symptoms and calling it healing.

Before the victimization cycles can end, we need to understand why these damaging cycles have been held in place for so long and why they continue to be reinforced. Who benefits from them and who would prefer things go on just as they have? We don't get rid of "victims" until we alter the systems and dynamics that benefit from victimization, and that requires a shift from blaming people for their circumstances to a focus and analysis of the power dynamics on a socio-political level...

For the past eight years, the focus has been intensely on the transition. What to leave behind with a soft, sweet kiss, what to battle our way out of tooth and nail, and what to carry ahead with us...

We've moved through the grief, the confusion, the catatonia, and we're coming out the other side - because we have to. We're needed. We go on from here...

We don't forget. We don't deny. We don't sever from us all that has come before and all that is happening now. This would only increase the psychic struggle. We take the wonder and the pain and the difficulty and the beauty with us. But we don't carry it anymore as a hopeless burden, as endless, roiling suffering.

What has gone on, what has been done, is known. We know and feel what humanity, what all living things on this planet have suffered, have endured. We know what we suffer and endure now. We move forward with it shared among us, no one isolated in its pain and difficulty. It's part of us.

But again now, we move this story forward."

Yes, now. We've had enough time with the Piscean dreams. We've held out for them right until the end, but now it's time to carve out a new path.

Mars in Virgo doesn't have any more time to wait.

This sometimes arduous earthy energy starts to shift rapidly by Sunday, May 20 when the Sun enters Gemini, and we experience a zero degree Gemini New Moon - the first of two New Moons in the sign - that is also an annular solar eclipse. This means, the eclipse would be total, but the Moon is too far away from the Earth for its body to entirely cover the Sun.

A Gorgeous Grand Earth Trine with Benefics Venus and Jupiter Conjunct March 12 to 14

After navigating the grease fires, irritations, and provocations of Aries, culminating in a trying opposition to Saturn Rx in Libra March 4, Venus will exit the feisty sign of its detriment for almost a month of home sweet home in earthy Taurus starting March 5. Venus is a very comfortable Earth Mama in Taurus, all soft curves, bare feet, baby slung on broad hip, bread baking. 

As Venus slides into this home turf, it moves to a conjunction to Jupiter in Taurus March 13, and the two benefic planets collude to shower us in pleasantness. Not only do we experience a conjunction of the benefics, but the conjunction also happens within an exact Grand Earth Trine, increasing its influence considerably. Efforts made in the right directions (and there's the key) are rewarded handsomely as Venus and Jupiter form this exact Grand Earth Trine along with Mars Rx in Virgo and Pluto in Capricorn at 9 degrees of the earth signs. If you've been digging and working and getting your hands dirty, major gears can turn here both personally and collectively. Things come together. Increased efficacy, precision, craftsmanship, practicality, and attention to detail, being honed through the Mars retrograde in Virgo, start to pay off, and our yokes are seemingly lifted off us for a time, made light as a feather. 

Gorgeous. 

At the very least, outside any gorgeousness, the influence of the benefic conjunction offsets most of the difficulty associated with retrograde Mars (malefic planet) and Pluto (potential dirty bugger). 

This formation is exact between March 12 and 14, influential through most of the month. Trines are 120-degree aspects usually between bodies in signs of the same element - in this case earth - and the themes work together almost effortlessly. Grand Trines generally involve bodies in all three signs of that element (fire, water, earth, or air) forming a triangle and creating ease on multiple fronts. 

An exact Grand Trine like this one is something special, made even more so by the Venus-Jupiter conjunction in Taurus with Venus in its own sign. 

Mars in Virgo first formed a Grand Earth Trine with Jupiter in Taurus and Pluto in Capricorn in mid-to-late November, 2011, though it was not exact. Progress made at that time gets a major boost here as Mars backtracks and picks up where it left off, triggering new developments. This isn't just the goal, the dream, the far-off vision. This is real life, here and now, right in front of us. 

The final Grand Earth Trine formation involving Mars in Virgo happens May 13 to 16. It is very close to exact, also, as Mars in Virgo moves direct into a Grand Trine with Mercury in Taurus and Pluto in Capricorn at 8/9 degrees. At that time, benefic Jupiter will have moved into late Taurus and will be out of orb. 

The formation in May finalizes the details, solidifies the earthy progress made earlier, and grounds us fully within the new two-year goal cycle initiated by the Mars retrograde in Virgo. 

The only caution with the upcoming Grand Earth Trine with Venus and Jupiter conjunct would be taking this energy for granted. It won't last long at its height, so be sure to enjoy it and use it to your benefit by building on the events, themes, and progress of November, 2011 during this time of grace in the earth signs. 

Background: Mars in Virgo Retrograde: Precise Re-direction Within Grand Earth Trines

Mars Stationing Retrograde in Virgo and Fighting Scams

This Mars retrograde station in Virgo has the Virgo-Pisces polarity charged, and one of the themes along this polarity, especially with Chiron transiting Pisces, is scams.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of nefarious people aggressively pushing their nefarious schemes these days. So many that I feel ill when I think about it. And certain people are considered easy targets: the elderly, the disabled, youth, the inexperienced or naive.

Neptune enters Pisces February 3, and this increases the possibility of "scam hitting blind spot" exponentially, especially if you have some nasty Pisces/Neptune/12th house action in your natal chart.

I do. And I semi-fell for a "Hello, I'm a Microsoft professional, and there's something wrong with your computer" telemarketing scam this morning.

Now, I'm not an idiot. Falling for a scam doesn't make you an idiot. It makes you a person with Piscean/Neptunian/12th house naivete and blind spots. And my Neptunian naivete and blind spots certainly do have the tendency to be preyed upon.

Hindsight is always 20/20 in these cases, but a few things conspired to soften my guard: 1) I had just woken up (still groggy) when the guy called. 2) My computer had been acting weird for the past week, so I did think something was up. 3) I'm not technologically savvy, so when a guy representing himself as a Microsoft-trained professional called saying there were problems with Windows, I found it plausible. (I know, I know. Implausible to the max.) 4) This Mars retrograde station conjunct my North Node is hitting me where it hurts.

Scam artists use every silver-tongued trick of psychological warfare at their disposal, and many of them are quite sophisticated.

Anyone with a known weakness on this front, please be careful. The aspects we're experiencing have a tendency to put us in that energetic place where things can be slipped in and slipped by.

The paralyzing energy of the Saturn in Virgo - Uranus in Pisces opposition cycle we experienced a couple years ago is being stirred up and inflamed with this Mars Rx through Virgo with Chiron and soon Neptune in Pisces. And under that paralyzing energy, we can snap into that place where we are coercively persuaded to do things that are generally out of character for us to do. That Neptunian dimension that makes us into those impossibly naive, trusting, passive versions of ourselves.

Things to avoid to stay out of that energetic place:

- isolation
- sleeping too long
- too much TV/internet/music
- use of alcohol or drugs
- daydreaming

Mars Retrograde in Virgo and the Active Re-Organizing Principle Comes Out in Full Force January 23 - April 13, 2012

Mars' forward motion in Virgo grinds to a halt today at 23 degrees of the sign (6:54 p.m. Central) as we unfold into the Aquarius New Moon. The planet of action, will, aggression, and goals will be retrograde until April 13, when it turns direct at 3 degrees Virgo. 

With this almost three-month retrograde, an active re-organizing principle comes into full force in our lives, re-directing us and making necessary adjustments down to the very last detail as we start to exist under the astrological Aquarian era classification system. This transit addresses dysfunction, and it indicates a breaking point, an official "had enough" point, for workers (Virgo), particularly healthcare and service workers. 

Mars in Virgo is inflaming all the issues and dysfunction that should have been addressed but were not addressed during Saturn's transit of Virgo (2007-2010). This Mars transit is a breaking point and a precise re-direction of the efforts of workers within (or out of) criminally corrupt and unresponsive Pluto in Capricorn structures. This includes workers both un- and under-employed (numbering in the hundreds of millions in North America alone) as well as those fully employed within systems intentionally designed to fail. 

There are not many workers unaware of the problems at this point. Those attempting to reinforce and gloss over the dysfunction rather than working to change it are the owners, the CEOs, the upper management. Those are not the people slogging it out, doing the real work. 

The real workers know the score, and, coming out of the momentum-building Occupy Movement, they hold a huge amount of collective power at this time in human history. 

With this Mars transit, if we're lucky, the workers of the world are infused with the guts, the courage, the grit, and the will to stand up and say enough is enough. With this transit, the workers of the world can be infused with enough bad ass Martian energy and rock-solid organization (with the Virgoan intelligence to use them) that they'll never back down again. They'll refuse to bow to the fears instilled by the hierarchies, refuse to allow themselves to drop, silent and passive, under collective Neptunian amnesia and anesthesia. My hand on my heart, I pray this is the scene. 

This Mars transit through Virgo activates the Pluto in Virgo generation in a big way, and the momentum starts to catch for a grand-scale generational power shift. 

Very fundamentally, this Mars in Virgo transit relates to how we apply (or refuse to apply) our physical energy and what we serve or support with that application of energy. This takes on particular importance within the context of rampant structural criminality, moral if not legal. 

From a previous post during Saturn in Virgo: 

"Don’t participate in things that are not acceptable to you. Don’t put your personal energy into things that lack integrity to you. Make your service to the planet a sacred thing and answer to a higher power than the business/money hierarchy. Answer to yourself." 

Virgo is most often about skimming off the unnecessary in order to increase function, and this transit will have us applying ourselves only in the most vital of directions. All the Virgoan territory comes under a state of intense analysis, scrutiny, and precise re-direction, particularly in the areas associated with the house in which Virgo resides in your astrological birth chart. 

As Mars Rx in Virgo forms an opposition to the Pisces Sun at 13 degrees on March 3, the previous two-year cycle of goals, will, and personal direction under the Mars in Leo overlay officially draws to a close. 

New, more practical, effective, and precise goals as well as the uses of will to achieve them start to unfold as Mars goes direct this April. 

As long as we accept and apply the re-direction, these new goals and directions are infused with great and grounding staying power from an exact Grand Earth Trine March 12-15 involving Venus-Jupiter in Taurus, Mars Rx in Virgo, and Pluto in Capricorn, all at 9 degrees of the earth signs. This is big, collective gears shifting and wheels turning. 

Mars has been transiting Virgo since November 10, 2011 and will not ingress Libra until July 3, 2012, after the Venus Transit and the first exact square between Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn June 24. This means we have almost eight months to go over things with a Virgoan fine-toothed comb, precisely re-directing ourselves through this three-month retrograde us as we enter the new and active duty indicated by this transit. 

From November 13, 2011: Mars in Virgo Retrograde: Precise Re-direction Within Grand Earth Trines  

November 10, 2011 - Mars enters Virgo 

November 18, 2011 - Mars enters the retrograde shadow 

January 23, 2012 - Mars goes retrograde at 23 degrees Virgo 

April 13, 2012 - Mars turns direct at 3 degrees Virgo 

June 19, 2012 - Mars leaves the retrograde shadow 

July 3, 2012 - Mars enters Libra 

The Mars transit and retrograde through Virgo involves an eight-month period of mutable, transitional energy that requires our precise and active participation to direct, re-direct, adjust, and re-adjust our courses. Throughout this time, we'll be directed down only the most pertinent and effective channels in our lives, honing and refining our courses and withdrawing personal energy from anything that is not necessary, valuable, or vital moving forward. This process is happening, specifically, in the house or houses where Virgo falls in your natal chart. That's the area where things need to be tightened. 

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 of our health. 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. 

Charting the course for the next two years correctly requires our absolute focus over the next eight months. Mars entering Virgo sets off a grand earth trine with Jupiter Rx in Taurus and Pluto in Capricorn that will be in effect most strongly November 16-23. Mars retrogrades back into this grand earth trine in March when the configuration will be exact. 

Jupiter in Taurus, Mars Rx in Virgo, and Pluto in Capricorn will be exactly trine each other at 9 degrees of the earth signs from March 12-15, 2012. 

Mars in Virgo will trine Pluto in Capricorn one last time May 15-17, 2012 with Mars moving direct. At that time, Jupiter in Taurus will be out of range. 

Needless to say, within these grand earth trines, the application of specific choices and actions - including what we choose not to do or say - has big ripple effects, creating real, concrete, structural changes. 

Additional articles on the Mars in Virgo Rx transit:  

Mars in Virgo and Going Scent-Free Mars in Virgo Hot or Nots 

An explanation of two-year Mars cycles and the Mars in Leo cycle officially drawing to a close: New Moon in Virgo Sets a Preparatory Tone For the Upcoming Mars Retrograde

Mars in Virgo and Going Scent-Free

Today is the two-year anniversary of me being poisoned by the antibiotic Ciprofloxacin. It's also my Sagittarius Sun mother's birthday (Happy Birthday, Ma!). For those who have only recently started reading this blog, you can catch up on the evil that are Cipro, fluoroquinolone antibiotics, and Nazi (literally) pharmaceuticals companies by clicking here: Cipro is evil. 

My system was devastated by this drug, erroneously prescribed for a very mild urinary tract infection that I'm not even sure at this point I really had. I took three little pills, and I've been working through a recovery process from complete systemic and neurological poisoning ever since. 

Cipro was originally developed by Big Pharma corporation and agribusiness GMO-pusher Bayer to ward off anthrax attacks. Bayer has a long history with the military industrial complex and was once part of IG Farben in Nazi Germany. Cipro was given to many Gulf War soldiers and is considered by some to be one of the causes of Gulf War Syndrome. 

Once the anthrax scare was over, Cipro was re-purposed as a cure-all for a variety of fairly minor infections, including urinary tract and prostatitis. Cipro is a drug with such severe potential adverse reactions (including death) that it should only be prescribed when death by infection is the other option. All less dangerous antibiotics, outside the fluoroquinolone family, should be tried first. Instead, fluoroquinolones like Cipro are being handed out like Chicklets as first-line antibiotics by doctors ignorant of the potential side effects. Most doctors do not believe the types of adverse reactions involved are even possible. None of the doctors I saw believed me when I recounted the severity of what I was experiencing. 

They should take a look at some of the stories here: FQvictims.org. 

Or on a number of other internet sites devoted to the subject. 

Unfortunately, expecting most mainstream medical doctors to do any independent research is sort of like expecting the audience of Jersey Shore to do so. 

Though I'm night-and-day better now, two years in, I'm still in a recovery process, managing residual effects, and probably will be for a while longer. 

My situation is, of course, only the tip of the tip of the Plutonic iceberg. Tens of thousands, probably hundreds of thousands, of people have experienced and are experiencing horrific reactions to fluoroquinolone antibiotics - many much worse than my own. 

But even that doesn't tell the tale. 

In the United States alone, more than 2 million people have adverse drug reactions every year. Of those, 1.5 million cases require hospitalization. A low-end estimate is that 100,000 people die every year from adverse drug reactions in the U. S., making adverse drug reactions one of the leading causes of death. These statistics are old, and the numbers have surely increased as the manufacturing of drugs, their prescription, and sales have increased. 

There's an idea that adverse drug reactions are quite rare (false) and that the effects of them are fairly short-lived (often also false). People can struggle with the damage from these reactions for years, decades, their entire lives. 

There is a culture of denial, cover-up, irresponsibility, and greed in the big pharmaceuticals industry that, with Pluto transiting Capricorn, must be addressed layer by layer. 

I was careful about what I put in or near my system before Cipro, but after Cipro, it went to whole new level. A level to which only Pluto can take you. 

As Mars transits Virgo for the next eight months, the removal of anything taxing our systems unnecessarily is in our best interests. 

From November 13, 2011: Mars in Virgo Retrograde: Precise Re-direction Within Grand Earth Trines 

"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." 

Part of this battle is the limiting of exposure to household chemicals and toxins. These are things we're around daily or weekly, including perfumes, dyes, air fresheners, and household cleaners, and they often go unrecognized. 

 Mars in Virgo and Going Scent-Free 

These are some products I use personally that have helped. I found some of them on Amazon where you can buy bulk amounts for discounted prices and set up a group of them here:  

Alberta Natural Products Simply Soap:

This is a natural, unscented bar soap made in Calgary, Alberta that is affordable enough to use every day. I love it. You can purchase packs of six bars ($11.95 plus shipping) from a company called Global A.P.E. in Airdrie, Alberta, Canada. Telephone number: (403) 948-6928 - 

Puraderm: 

This company produces an unscented, hypo-allergenic laundry detergent I use. 

Dr. Bronner's Unscented Castille Soap: 

This stuff is magically great. It can be used to wash dry and sensitive scalps, and it doesn't leave an oily residue on your hair, as I've found most natural shampoos do. It can be used as soap for your body, as household cleaner, as laundry detergent - pretty much anything you need to clean can be cleaned with this. Just don't get it in your eyes or swallow it. It's really potent! 

Tom's of Maine unscented deodorant: 

As long as your pH is fairly balanced, and you're drinking enough water, this stuff works great. I sometimes layer the lemongrass scent over top if I'm going to have a strenuous day, but the lemongrass variety is too harsh for me to use alone - just a tip for people with really sensitive skin.

Natracare feminine hygiene products: 

Did you know that conventional feminine hygiene products are full of oil derivatives? Yep. Crude oil plastics as well as petrochemical coatings. Conventional products also contain chlorine from the bleaching process, synthetic materials, as well as unnecessary chemical additives and often perfumes. I don't know about you, but I'm not a fan of putting petrochemicals, chlorine, synthetic materials, or perfume down there. Natracare pads and tampons are non-chlorine bleached, perfume-free, plastic-free, and biodegradable. They also use organic cotton, reducing exposure to chemicals used on conventional cotton crops.  

Lunapads: These pads are cloth with liners that are washed and reused. They can also be used for light incontinence. This company comes from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and I can recommend it because I use the products. Other companies out there with similar products include GladRags and WillowPads.  

Green Beaver fluoride-free toothpaste: 

Fluoride is a toxic chemical, a derivative of aluminum processing. It should not be in our water, our medicine, or our toothpaste. Frosty Mint is the one I'd recommend. It doesn't get sudsy the way the major fluoride toothpastes do, but that's because there are no chemical sudsing agents involved. A good thing. 

Natural Urinary Tract Infection Remedies - Uva Ursi: 

This herb acts a diuretic and helps to bring things back to a state of health.  

Traditional Medicinals Cran-Aid tea: 

contains cranberry concentrate, uva ursi leaf, cleavers herb, and marshmallow root. This acts as a diuretic to flush bacteria out of the system and is best taken as soon as you start to experience the first symptoms.  

Cranberry pills: 

Cranberry pills have been found to help ward off urinary tract infections before they start. Preventative.

Mars in Virgo Hot or Nots

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.

Venus is conjunct Pluto today, and the eliminatory function (Pluto) in matters of relating (Venus) is strong. The Moon is also in Pisces opposing Mars in Virgo, so let's roll with it, shall we?

From the Venus-Saturn mutual reception post:

"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.

Mars began its transit of Virgo opposite Neptune and Chiron, and the successful use of this transit means, in particular, identifying, analyzing, and removing the influence of wounded and wounding Piscean/Neptunian shitbag behaviours. This is of particular emphasis for anyone experiencing a Chiron return in Pisces.

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 eight-month transit in Virgo, and they're 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 until the beginning of July 2012, carrying us right through the Venus Transit.

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.

Those who don't have it together at this point are going to have to get on it right quick if they would like to be, in any way, considered a hot commodity over the next eight months - and to a great extent, over the next two years.

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. You have eight full months to move yourself onto the HOT list. And if you recognize yourself on the HOT list, congratulations. Get ready to be a hot commodity.

This post is fun and games (sort of), but if we don't get on top of the Neptunian/Piscean/12th house stuff over the next eight months, it really won't be all fun and games.

Chiron transits Pisces until February 2019, and Neptune transits Pisces until January 2026. Chiron in Pisces indicates that every missed leak, every clouded blind spot, every unconsious or semi-conscious acceptance of what is unacceptable in our lives has the possibility of doing us in in a big way over the next seven years. These are major possibilities for self-sabotage as well as for sabotage by others who turn out to be not who they seem.

If you don't want the next seven years to be one of those blanked-out, do-over stretches of life where you're overrun and turned into that sillier, dopier, more naive version of yourself (the Neptunian "What Was I Thinking?" Syndrome), focus on clearing everything you can up now.

Mars in Virgo Retrograde: Precise Re-direction Within Grand Earth Trines

November 10, 2011 - Mars enters Virgo
November 18, 2011 - Mars enters the retrograde shadow
January 23, 2012 - Mars goes retrograde at 23 degrees Virgo
April 13, 2012 - Mars turns direct at 3 degrees Virgo
June 19, 2012 - Mars leaves the retrograde shadow
July 3, 2012 - Mars enters Libra

The Mars transit and retrograde through Virgo involves an eight-month period of mutable, transitional energy that requires our precise and active participation to direct, re-direct, adjust, and re-adjust our courses. Throughout this time, we'll be directed down only the most pertinent and effective channels in our lives, honing and refining our courses and withdrawing personal energy from anything that is not necessary, valuable, or vital moving forward. This process is happening, specifically, in the house or houses where Virgo falls in your natal chart. That's the area where things need to be tightened.

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 of our health. 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.

Charting the course for the next two years correctly requires our absolute focus over the next eight months.

Mars entering Virgo sets off a grand earth trine with Jupiter Rx in Taurus and Pluto in Capricorn that will be in effect most strongly November 16-23.

Mars retrogrades back into this grand earth trine in March when the configuration will be exact. Jupiter in Taurus, Mars Rx in Virgo, and Pluto in Capricorn will be exactly trine each other at 9 degrees of the earth signs from March 12-15, 2012.

Mars in Virgo will trine Pluto in Capricorn one last time May 15-17, 2012 with Mars moving direct. At that time, Jupiter in Taurus will be out of range.

Needless to say, within these grand earth trines, the application of specific choices and actions - including what we choose not to do or say - has big ripple effects, creating real, concrete, structural changes.

Previous post on Mars in Virgo retrograde from August 29, 2011: New Moon in Virgo Sets a Preparatory Tone For the Upcoming Mars Retrograde

New Moon in Virgo Sets a Preparatory Tone For the Upcoming Mars Retrograde

We unfold into the New Moon in Virgo today and specific new work/service assignments begin to be defined ahead of the Mars retrograde in Virgo. You know the kind. This is "my purpose and role on the planet at this time" type stuff, with work (hopefully) acting as a vehicle for that. 

These newly defined assignments coming into play could be completely new gigs or they could be the refining and clarification of roles within old work arenas. In light of the current circumstances on Planet Earth, Mars, the planet of personal will, goals, direction, and physical energy, will be re-directing us down only the most crisply effective channels during its almost eight-month transit of the sign of virginal purity. 

And in light of the monstrous levels of unemployment and underemployment that have been purposefully and systemically created, this retrograde is about the fight (Mars) to remain engaged in one's life's work or any work at all (Virgo) at a time when people (at least the people who are not on the top rungs of the socio-economic pyramid scheme) are being treated as if redundant. 

We're not redundant. We're the most potent, influential, rock-and-roll force there is. And this retrograde asks us to stand up and prove it by being the most effective, the most useful, the most thorough, the most practical, the most down-to-earth, the most organized we can be. 

The splashy, fiery, everyone's-an-artisan Mars in Leo overlay, kicked off almost two years ago during the Mars in Leo retrograde in winter of 2010, quiets and draws to a close. 

In order to achieve our goals now, we have to practically and effectively apply the creative fire we've spent two years blazing in ways that hit just the right spots to fix, straighten out, heal, clean, clear whatever fucked up mess we find before us. It's hardcore, warrior holism, and at this time on Planet Earth, we have lots to work with. 

This is the fight (Mars) to heal (Virgo) and to stay healthy, to maintain health as Fukushima spews, as our environments are poisoned physically, emotionally, psychically, electromagnetically all around us, as we are manipulated by those who profit from us being unintegrated, toxic, unbalanced, disconnected, dysfunctional. 

During this Mars transit of Virgo, we address all that, right down to the teeny tiniest detail. 

Mars will transit Virgo for almost eight months - from November 10, 2011 until July 3, 2012. It will be retrograde from January 24 to April 14, 2012 - prime re-direction processing time. 

Just before, as Mars transits Leo (September 18 to November 10), the creative fire in our hearts becomes concentrated. The big, blazing, dancing flames die down, and we start to work with the distilled, with the quietly glowing embers that, despite appearance, are the smoking hottest, the most alchemical, the most transforming. The most pure. This is what Virgo can work with. The pure. And if it's not, it'll carve it down until it is pure. 

This is what Mars in Virgo is after: right action. Only the right action. Just the right touch, the right word, the right angle, the right analysis, the right effort, the right medicine. Smooth, flowing functionality. Work that is a natural extension of self. Work that is self. Nothing more, nothing less. 

There's a re-direction and a restraint in application of our physical energy with this retrograde that stills the over-the-top showiness, the grandiosity, the tendencies to self-promotion of Mars in Leo. 

You know what, Mars in Virgo asks? Who gives a shit? Who gives a shit about your fashion statements or who your influences are or how much of an ego-pampered pretty, pretty peacock you are? 

Virgo is the sign that gets things done utilitarian-style, no frills, no hoopla, no ego stroking. It separates the coddled artistes from the people who can really play ball. And when war planet Mars comes to town amidst initiations of World War III, it doesn't give a shit about your artist's statement or how many magazine interviews you've done or who you had dinner with last night or your greatest fucking hits. 

If you can't break out of the self-flagellating ego bubble and hit the most pertinent marks just because 1) they're there and need to be hit and 2) you just might have the means to do so, you're excess, and Virgo has very little tolerance for excess. 

Be of use in the most practical, immediately necessary ways and flow with that shit like it's a second skin or you're really not hitting the heights you think you are. 

Pretty hardcore, that Mars in Virgo. Demanding standards. But there's the gauntlet as it is about to be thrown... 

Mars in Virgo touches this New Moon point at 5 degrees Virgo November 20-22, and we officially begin. 

Mars enters its retrograde shadow November 18 at 3 degrees, and we start to get an understanding of what will be sanded down, honed, sharpened for efficacy in our lives and selves during the retrograde process. 

Mars stations retrograde at 23 degrees Virgo January 23, and it stations direct at 3 degrees Virgo April 13, 2012. 

It leaves the retrograde shadow at 23 degrees Virgo on June 19, 2012 and enters Libra July 3, finally conjuncting Saturn in Libra August 14/15, 2012.