Just past the mid-way point of the calendar year, it’s natural to look at your goals and feel like maybe you aren’t making as much progress as you’d like. One challenge that comes with setting big goals is that they can be too big. It might be unclear where to start, or how to make progress.
Fortunately, we get an energetic boost starting today, as Mars, the firey planet of action, enters Virgo, a sign known for strength of planning and efficiency.
Mars enters Virgo on July 10 at 7:40 am ET and will be in Virgo until August 27.
Mars and Virgo: Aligned Opposites
Mars and Virgo aren’t a natural fit. Mars is impetuous, impulsive, and impatient, while Virgo is thoughtful, practical, and detail-oriented. As the ruler of Aries, Mars is associated with the Cardinal sign’s initiating energy. Virgo is a mutable sign, which means it bridges seasons — a slow process that can often feel like the energy wavers.
Mars is the planet of action, but in Virgo its action is not a full-fire action. Virgo is an earth sign, and earth tempers fire.
Despite the differences, Mars and Virgo also have similarities. Neither likes to waste time. Mars is always in a hurry, and Virgo likes things to be efficient.
Mars in Virgo can be an aligned placement when we allow our Mars energy to work in a style that fits Virgo’s “house rules.”
Here are 5 ways to work with the energy of Mars in Virgo to tackle your to-do list and make progress toward your goals.
5 Ways to Work With Mars in Virgo to Get More Done
(1) Create New Rituals
Mars in Virgo marries action with foresight and planning to help us not just “get things done” but actually do the things that will make a difference.
Virgo is a sign of planning, effectiveness, and efficiency. It doesn’t want to waste time by doing what is unnecessary.
Mars in Virgo is about intentional action — action that has been thought through and designed to get you closer to the big goals.
In Virgo, we seek to create intentional rituals and practices that are designed to compound over time to help us reach our bigger goals. We come back to the single most important question for creating new rituals and practices:
What is ONE action that, if you did it daily, would have a compounding effect on your health and/or your work and service?
(2) Think Small
Virgo loves a good routine, but this isn’t about doing a complete overhaul of your routine.
Virgo is about the details. It teaches us that the best way to make a big change is by making small changes that will add up over time.
Mars in Virgo is about consistent daily action that will create a steady change.
The best way to build a “habit stack” is slowly over time, by mastering one thing at a time and establishing that practice in your routine before you add the next one.
The same is true for skills. The way we develop complex skills is to break them down into smaller sub-skills and mastering one at a time before we layer on.
Complex yoga poses and compound movements operate on the same principle. You break them down into their component parts and master one at a time, starting with the foundational level move. If you try to learn it all at once, you won’t have the proper foundation for it to be sustainable and it will fall apart.
Chunk your goals down into the smallest discrete actions that will have an impact when you do them consistently over time.
(3) Create a New Routine
As a mutable sign, Virgo recognizes the impermanence of every season.
No routine or ritual is meant to last forever.
If parts of your routine are no longer working as effectively as they once did, this is an opportune time to create new rituals and a new routine that might serve your current needs more effectively.
This is yet another reason to create rituals instead of trying to create habits. Habits become unconscious and are harder to break.
Rituals, however, are actions done with intention and purpose. When they no longer serve their intended purpose, we can change them.
Maybe you don’t even need new rituals; perhaps you simply need to rearrange the sequence of your current rituals to create a new routine that serves you better.
Virgo loves to be efficient and effective, and it loves to organize.
Consider how you might change the sequence of your current rituals to create a more effective and efficient routine.
How can you change the way you organize yourself in time and how you use time to get better results from the same actions?
(4) Develop a New Skill
Virgo is a sign that pursues mastery. It likes to develop and refine skills.
As a mutable sign, it looks ahead to what’s coming and what it might need for the next phase.
What is one skill that, if mastered, would help you reach your goals more effectively?
Maybe it’s learning how to code, or finally mastering how to operate your website or integrate your other tools. Maybe it’s sales skills or conversational skills, fitting for a Mercury-ruled sign. Maybe it’s a skill that can help you eat better, like cooking.
Pick one skill and consider what might be possible if you dedicated yourself to learning and improving that skill over the next 6 weeks.
(5) Watch Out For Perfectionism and Criticism
The shadow side of Virgo’s detail-oriented nature can be a tendency toward perfectionism and criticism of self and others.
Virgo can get lost in the details at the expense of the bigger picture outcome.
When you add Mars’ fire to this mix — in a sign ruled by communicator Mercury — it can lead to some cranky outbursts and sharp-tongued words.
Astrologer April Kent explains that
Mars acts as the guard dog of the ego – and Mars in Virgo shows its cranky side when we feel we’re being taken for granted, or that the quality of our work is being impugned.
When you find yourself getting critical or cranky, take a step back to see the big picture and remember what really matters.
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