Mars in Virgo sign project

[Jim Eshelman]

Welcome to the Mars in Virgo discussions project, which will run September 18 - October 18, 2019 (and then will remain around in case people want to revisit it in the future). Please gather your list of Mars in Virgo people (especially those you know personally) and join us.

Here are Mars in Virgo interpretive resources on the forum:
Primary section: https://www.solunars.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=32#p120
Garth Allen: https://www.solunars.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=33#p135

Mars in Virgo has similarities to and differences from Sun in Virgo. To help discern these similarities and differences, here is a link to the earlier Sun in Virgo https://www.solunars.com/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=1677

My current concise summary of Mars in Virgo (always subject to change) reads:

Strategic, analytical, logical, calculating odds (often deceitful, covert, manipulative, gamey). Very smart, curious, astute, eager to learn everything possible (intelligence is more accessible than feelings). Stands ready to assist, help, support. Substance abuse (alcoholics).

Here on Solunars, people with Mars in Virgo include Lance and WhichWitch (and, not seen recently, Hakim and Debbie).

[Soft Alpaca]

My mother has this placement. When I read her the description for this sign she responded to it more than her Sun/Moon. I guess as she has aged and actually grown more the temperament of her Mars sign has come out more. She is still very much a Mars-Uranus person and her Sun-Moon signs describe her well especially in her youth.

She is at a stage now in her recovery process to that helped her resonate with the addiction piece of this aspect. The support aspect is coming out now as she is supporting fellow recovering and using addicts. Working with PROA [Pennsylvania recovery Alliance Organization] and getting educated at a community college has helped her alot. It also fulfils Uranus/Aquarius change the world while meeting the requirements of Mars in Virgo willing to help and support others.

[Lance]

Here on Solunars, people with Mars in Virgo include Lance and WhichWitch

Yeah, me. I wanted to write a little about my experience of myself.

Strategic: I mean, I actually aspire to this. I wish I was better at it. I'm embarrassed to share anecdotes though. The times when it was most notable in my life were when I was most angry and obsessed with something.

Addiction: Yeah, I used to smoke a LOT of cigarettes. When I was stressed, I smoked up to three packs a day. It was like this thing I could do that could help me think more focusedly and clearly - revving-up the whole Mars in Virgo (Mercury) mental processes to help deal with the anxiety and figure out whatever problem. I always smoked when I needed to go think about something.

I never really drank until after we decided to get a divorce. But the impulse here is to turn off the thought-machine. I still see Mars in Virgo (Mercury) in that as well. There this constant desire to fix the situation (analyze, strategize), solve the problem, or at least solve the problem that is the painful thoughts themselves. Definitely, the desire here is to turn off the Mars in Virgo (Mercury) mechanism: to NOT think.

Anyway. That's about all I wanted to say.

[hakim]

Hello folks, I have been extremely busy. It is funny that we are discussing this. As lance can quite attest to it, we aspire to be strategic but I do have my moments of strategic brilliance regarding decisions I make. I think it is quite telling when I mentioned that my goal was to be a powerhouse of the mind. To apply my mind as one wields a weapon is perhaps the best way to succinctly describe it. As far as symbolism goes, it quite fits.

Also the cigarette is quite telling. I smoke and still do. Addiction; not sure but I do love smoking and its almost a ritual to have tea when I do smoke. Though I often used to joke with my friends that knowing my self I would have been an alcoholic. I still drink but only on happy occasions and find it absolutely insulting to the drink when somebody drowns their sorrow in it.

I have another theory. Perhaps, people with this mars sign feel a particular lack where intelligence is concerned so they expend quite a deal of energy in this realm. Maybe when they were growing up they were often teased of being slow and a bit dull. Can fellow martians in this sign confirm?

And as always, I never left.

[Lance]

...To apply my mind as one wields a weapon is perhaps the best way to succinctly describe it. As far as symbolism goes, it quite fits.

Been there and done that. Won the internet a few times. Lots of regrets too.

I still drink but only on happy occasions and find it absolutely insulting to the drink when somebody drowns their sorrow in it.

Ehhhh....

I have another theory. Perhaps, people with this mars sign feel a particular lack where intelligence is concerned so they expend quite a deal of energy in this realm. Maybe when they were growing up they were often teased of being slow and a bit dull. Can fellow martians in this sign confirm?

Not my experience. It’s more like chasing the experience of “flow” - all cylinders firing, mind fully engaged, total focus achieved.

[hakim]

...To apply my mind as one wields a weapon is perhaps the best way to succinctly describe it. As far as symbolism goes, it quite fits.

Been there and done that. Won the internet a few times. Lots of regrets too.

Don't want to pry but would really like to know how you won the internet and what you mean by that and maybe learn something worthwhile from the regrets.

I still drink but only on happy occasions and find it absolutely insulting to the drink when somebody drowns their sorrow in it.

Ehhhh....

I was being cheeky but it is a rule of mine to be absolutely not inebriated through all kinds of emotional turmoil.

Wish I had your experience of flow as you described it. Though if I am desperate or sufficiently inspired, I can see ways of fulfilling a particular goal or solving a problem and then go about my way resolving it. I forgot to mention that I like studying probability and predictions on the roll of the dice. A gamblers instinct but I assure you it is quite harmless.

Infact after writing this post, I am coming to the conclusion that my view on my particular mars sign is colored due to various aspects it makes to other planets natally. Not only that but also how it expresses itself. I hope Jim and various other members can glean something insightful from it.

[Jim Eshelman]

I was being cheeky but it is a rule of mine to be absolutely not inebriated through all kinds of emotional turmoil.

You have Saturn exactly at MC (and perhaps I should add the Leo-Aries luminaries). From this I conclude that you want to be in control, don't want to run the risk of being overwhelmingly not in control of yourself. Might this be correct?

Or, another way to put it: Alcohol removes inhibitions. One way to anticipate the way alcohol will affect someone is to remove Saturn from their chart and reinterpret it. Saturn 2° from your MC is so defining of your character that you would be fairly unrecognizable with it removed. (Try it: Make a copy of your chart with no Saturn and then interpret it freshly.) Might an intuition of this be the basis of your choice (your personal rule)?

Lance OTOH has Saturn background but closely square Venus. Deleting Saturn from his chart frees his Venus (perhaps makes it almost over-compensate, gushing out). There is a certain Saturn character to his Libra Sun, but even here the deletion of Saturn leaves Libra as an all-Venus constellation.

My only Saturn is a close conjunction with Mercury. Getting drunk unleashes non-stop talking. But, of course, I can do that without drinking.

...I am coming to the conclusion that my view on my particular mars sign is colored due to various aspects it makes to other planets natally...

Your Mars is intensely aspected, 0°15' from conjunct Jupiter, both of them closely square your 0°08' Uranus-Neptune square. (And then there is the particular "marsiness" of your Aries Moon.) You're right, this is not a simple Mars at all.

[Lance]

Lance OTOH has Saturn background but closely square Venus. Deleting Saturn from his chart frees his Venus (perhaps makes it almost over-compensate, gushing out).

Can confirm.

Don't want to pry but would really like to know how you won the internet and what you mean by that and maybe learn something worthwhile from the regrets.

“Trying to win the internet” is a sarcastic phrase describing the [formerly] irresistible yet futile drive to conquer another perspective online. Lol.

Regrets: Umm.. I went too far on several occasions, let it possess me, got lost it in. Thing is, it feels good to get lost in it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berserker

[Jim Eshelman]

Mars in Virgo examples from my Example Charts Catalogue:

• Pres. James K. Polk, Pres. Chester A. Arthur, Pres. Bill Clinton, King Henry VIII, King Louis XVI, Dalai Lama XIV, PM Winston Churchill, PM Margaret Thatcher, Jawaharlal Nehru, Henri Philippe Petain, George Plantagenet, Queen Elizabeth Stuart, Pope Francis I, Sec. Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Joseph McCarthy, Sen. Thomas F. Eagleton, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Justice Samuel Alito, Mayor Tom Bradley, Maria Shriver, Queen Consort Mary, Kellyanne Conway
• Sarah Bernhardt, Annette Funicello, Salome Jens, Candy Barr, Jenny McCarthy, Gwyneth Paltrow, Nicole Kidman, Morgan Fairchild, Lisa Kudrow, Whoopi Goldberg, Margaret Cho, Lenny Bruce, Johnny Carson, Barbara Walters, Kathryn Bigelow, Oliver Stone, Ted Turner
• Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Dr. Dre, Karen Carpenter, Terri Lyne Carrington, Whitney Houston, Yo-Yo Ma, Kathleen Battle
• Paul Cezanne, Suzanne Valadon, Ernst May, Friedrich Nietzsche, William Faulkner, Theodore Sturgeon, Carla Van Raay
• Arnold Palmer, Peggy Fleming, Mark Spitz, George Lincoln Rockwell, David Duke, Rose Mary Woods, St. Therese of Liseux
• Aaron Kosminski, Dan White, James Huberty
• Sigmund Freud, R.D. Laing, Nikola Tesla, Louis Braille, Bill Gates, Johannes Kepler, Gary Duncan, Liz Greene

[Jim Eshelman]

Moved here from another thread:

Just wondering if anyone had anything to say from a Mars in Virgo point of view. As stated sun, moon and mars are important so i'd like to have some info if anyone had any about this sign in mars. So far i've found it to be strategic, time-saving, likes to organise, analyse and help others practically with their energy. Any more insight? Gathering that Mercury rules Virgo - i'd say it gives it a high-nerve energy that multi-tasks. Just some ideas.

I'd broadly agree. Mars in Virgo is definitely strategic - almost ruthlessly. Bright, penetrating, effective - or, on the other side, actually deceptive and treacherous because of the strategic extremes. You might look at the Sun in Virgo notes for some other ideas. (And, of course, see the exact statistical findings under Mars in Virgo above.)

There wasn't any statistical findings (other than high for alcoholics) for this placement thus the question.

Actually, there was. The vocational and character trait results from the Gauquelin data is given. Vocationally, Mars in Virgo was significantly high for actors, and significantly low for sports champions. In the character trait catalogue, it was significantly low for the traits "traveller, courageous, powerful."

Oh yes i saw this but as this was mainly just saying A a career type and B what it isn't - it wasn't overly insightful psychologically. Just was looking for more - which you've thankfully enlightened me with, with your description above - thanks. One comment though is that i did study acting at university and my mars is in virgo so that's interesting that it matches the observation. Though i'm guessing my neptune exactly on the Midheaven is a big indication why i'm a singer/songwriter.

Yes, other things in the chart can enhance this.

These brief statistics can give significant insights as we find our way through identifying these meanings. I just haven't taken the time, over the years, to vet and write out detailed Mars sign interpretations, though they're arguably as important as Sun and Moon.

Think it through this way: From observation, we know that this placement is especially strategic. People around them, in fact (even their best admirers), often regard them as sneaky. (Consider Clinton, whose fans even will chuckle over 'Slick Willy.') My observation is that Mars in Virgo will be strategic, indirect, etc. even when they don't need to be - distrust is surprisingly high. Now, take the statistical finding that these are people who are (to a statistically significant level) not called "powerful" by folks around them. Simply put, they don't seem powerful (and, in the aggregate, apparently don't feel powerful.) BTW, I totally disagree about them not being courageous - I think Mars in Virgo is terribly courageous. But it doesn't take the usual form people think of (physical courage etc.) - I think they are very strong on moral courage. Nonetheless, to a statistically significant degree, their biographers, interviewers, etc. did not characterize these people as courageous.

Take the inherently, easy to observe strategic temperament, take that they don't appear (and often probably don't feel) powerful, see that a path in which they flourish is acting... a picture starts emerging. Add that the only two U.S. Presidents ever to be impeached had this placement - their enemies were strong enough and their friends weak enough etc. From these few facts, we can start to get a feel of what is going on with Mars in Virgo even if we don't have it all worked out in nice language cross-compared with notebooks and biographies to give a standardizable interpretation paragraph.

This can be done with all of the sign placements.