What Mars in Virgo means
You are the person who builds the checklist. Three days before a launch, when the whole team is tired, you catch the bug nobody else noticed and fix it before mentioning it in the morning meeting.
Virgo, a mutable earth sign and a home of Mercury, cares about skill and about being useful. Mars, the planet of effort and conflict, has no formal dignity there and takes on the sign's method: you study the problem, find the weak point and fix it. Your energy goes into craft, and you can work a long time without praise as long as the work is good.
A friend hands you a draft and you see the typo in line two before you see the idea. You notice what is wrong faster than what is right, and under stress the noticing turns into nitpicking or a running list of your own failures. Your anger comes out as a cool comment that lands harder than a raised voice would. Desire is attentive and modest. You take a while to show interest, and when you do, you show it by doing things for the person, carefully and well.
Mars in Virgo in love
You are the partner who remembers the allergy and books the dentist. Desire, for you, shows through effort and attention more than through grand declarations, and you want someone who notices that effort. It goes well with a partner who values competence and does not mind a little advice. It gets harder with someone who hears every suggestion as criticism, because pointing out what could be better is one of the ways you care. Fights start over details, like a suitcase packed "wrong" or the tone of a text, and underneath they are about feeling unappreciated or anxious. A partner who asks, "You are worried about something, what is it?" gets further than one who argues the detail. Physically you start out shy and turn very attentive once you are comfortable.
What drives them
Improvement keeps you going, whether that is a process that runs smoother or a mess turned into order. You like clear standards and measurable progress, and you are happiest when you feel useful. Precise instructions and enough time to do the job properly get your best work. Praise reaches you when it is as exact as your own feedback: "the second section was much clearer" does more than a general "great job". Sloppy colleagues and goals that change every week drain you. At home you take over the projects you enjoy, like taxes or the garage, and you do them your own way.
Men and women with this placement
Mars in Virgo man
A man with Mars in Virgo has solved the problem before you knew there was one. He is modest about his skills and capable of a dry, exact remark when annoyed. He shows love by making things work.
Mars in Virgo woman
A woman with a Virgo Mars has a plan, a list and a backup, and she works hard to meet her own high standards. Under stress she turns critical, of herself more than anyone, and the people she chooses are reliable and do what they say.
Find your Mars sign
Enter your birth date. The calculator places every planet on the zodiac wheel for that day and tells you whether your Mars is in Virgo. If Mars changed signs on your birthday, add your birth time.
| Planet | Sign | Degree | Stands for |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☉ Sun | ♌︎ Leo | 8°56′ | core identity |
| ☽ Moon | ♈︎ Aries | 17°01′ | emotional needs |
| ☿ Mercury | ♍︎ Virgo | 4°16′ | how you think and talk |
| ♀ Venus | ♍︎ Virgo ℞ | 7°19′ | love and taste |
| ♂ Mars | ♍︎ Virgo | 10°38′ | drive and anger |
| ♃ Jupiter | ♌︎ Leo | 20°58′ | growth and luck |
| ♄ Saturn | ♒︎ Aquarius ℞ | 3°05′ | duty and limits |
| ♅ Uranus | ♑︎ Capricorn ℞ | 10°44′ | change and rebellion |
| ♆ Neptune | ♑︎ Capricorn ℞ | 14°44′ | dreams and ideals |
| ♇ Pluto | ♏︎ Scorpio | 17°34′ | power and renewal |
| ☊ North Node | ♑︎ Capricorn | 17°51′ | life direction |
| ⚸ Black Moon Lilith | ♑︎ Capricorn | 10°50′ | what you refuse to tame |
Without a birth time we check the whole day in US time zones. If a planet changed sign that day, both signs are shown; add your time to settle it. ℞ marks a planet that looked like it was moving backward (retrograde). North Node and Lilith are the mean positions.
Mars in Virgo in numbers
- Share of birth dates
- 10.06%
- Typical stay in Virgo
- 49 days
- Retrograde at birth
- 12.5% of them
- Element · quality
- Earth · Mutable
Our count of all 35,064 birth dates, January 1, 1930 to December 31, 2025, at noon UTC.
Work, sport and anger
Work is where you feel most at home, especially where the details decide the result: editing, engineering, research, accounting, skilled trades, data. You can be the second-in-command who keeps a project from failing. Your anger arrives as an itemized complaint with worry underneath it, and the worry is the thing worth talking about. Before a criticism, ask yourself whether it needs saying today.
Mars in Virgo in the houses
The house needs your birth time and place; the sign is the same for everyone born in these years. What each house covers on its own: 1st · 2nd · 3rd · 4th · 5th · 6th · 7th · 8th · 9th · 10th · 11th · 12th.
Mars in Virgo in the 1st house
A pressed shirt and a menu straightened before ordering are what strangers notice first. Your drive shows as precision. You look calm and capable, and the effort underneath stays hidden. You push yourself hard on fitness and grooming, with a routine you track in an app and break only for something that really matters.
Mars in Virgo in the 2nd house
A savings goal gets hit a month early, because you push it like a training plan. You earn by being skilled and careful, in accounting or a skilled trade. Spending is practical, and a cheap tool that breaks makes you angrier than a pricey one that lasts. Anger also shows when money is wasted, and you check the restaurant bill line by line while friends pretend not to notice.
Mars in Virgo in the 3rd house
A sloppy group email gets a reply from you so precise it stings a little. Words are a tool you keep sharp. Your notes are the ones classmates and coworkers borrow before every deadline. Neighbors know you as the person who has read the HOA rules and can quote the page number.
Mars in Virgo in the 4th house
A squeaky hinge lasts about a day once you hear it, since you repair things around the house yourself. An unwashed dish can start an argument. Family members get your help and your critique in the same breath. You want a clean, working home more than a showy one, and the toolbox is better organized than the closet.
Mars in Virgo in the 5th house
Friends say you overthink first dates, and they have a point. Romance moves carefully, with planning and small acts of service, like an umbrella packed for a date when rain is forecast. Creative work is detailed, a model train layout with every tree placed by tweezers. Kids learn knots and bike repair from you, and patience is the part you keep working on.
Mars in Virgo in the 6th house
Every task that nobody else will do properly lands on your desk, partly because you volunteer for it. Mars works hard in Virgo, efficient and precise, and in daily work you set the standard for any team. Health routines are strict and specific. Stress comes out as worry, so a hobby with no goal at all gives the mind a real break.
Mars in Virgo in the 7th house
Partners get held to the high standard you set for yourself. Love shows up as effort, their tax form done early or the gutters cleared before they ask. Fights in marriage grow from criticism, small notes that add up over a month. A contract with you has its terms checked twice, and a partner who shows up on time and keeps promises wins you over.
Mars in the 7th house in any sign: the full page.
Mars in Virgo in the 8th house
The joint account gets reconciled by you on the first of every month, down to a two-dollar fee. Shared money works best when nothing is left vague. Intimacy builds through trust and attention to detail. When something breaks down, you make a checklist and work through it, and that calm steadies everyone around you.
Mars in Virgo in the 9th house
Research can turn into a passion with this Mars, the kind of project where you lose an afternoon to footnotes. Higher learning suits you when it is practical, nursing school, law or a technical degree. Travel is planned to the hour, with backup bookings saved offline. Ideas earn your trust by surviving tests, and you change your mind when the evidence is clear and not one minute before.
Mars in Virgo in the 10th house
Before review season, your own list of errors is longer than your supervisor's. Career thrives in roles where precision pays, engineering or medicine. Colleagues bring you the work that cannot have mistakes in it. Unfair criticism stings, and a clear role with measurable goals gets your best work.
Mars in Virgo in the 11th house
A friend's leaking sink gets you over with a wrench the same evening. Friends rely on you to organize, and moving day goes faster when you hold the clipboard. Groups that do real work, a trail maintenance crew or a professional association, suit you. The goals you set are measurable, a certification or a paid-off loan.
Mars in Virgo in the 12th house
Ask how your day went and you may get a list of everything that went wrong in it. Worry and self-criticism run deep in this corner of the chart. You work well out of sight, in labs or archives, where a careful job gets done without an audience. Time alone with a simple task, oiling a bike chain or sanding an old chair, settles your mind better than advice does.
Your Mars and your Sun sign
The easiest company for this Mars is an earth Sun. A Capricorn or Taurus with a Virgo Mars thinks and works the same way all through, reliable to the point of caution. The hardest pairing is a Sagittarius Sun, square to Virgo. The Sun wants the big picture and the open road, the Mars wants every detail checked, and the person swings between grand plans and long lists. On a good day that makes someone who dreams large and still checks the numbers; on a bad one, someone who never leaves because the packing list is not finished.
When Mars is in Virgo: dates and retrograde periods
Another long stay is close. Mars enters Virgo on November 25, 2026, goes retrograde on January 10, 2027 while still in Virgo, stays until February 21, then backs into Leo and returns to Virgo from May 14 to July 15, 2027. Earlier retrogrades kept Mars here just as long: November 14, 1932 to July 6, 1933; November 6, 1964 to June 28, 1965; November 11, 2011 to July 3, 2012. Those stays put 13.3% of 2010s birth dates in this sign, against only 6.5% in the 2000s, and 12.5% of everyone with Mars in Virgo was born under a retrograde. A typical pass takes about 49 days, every second year or so. The most recent one ran from June 17 to August 6, 2025.
Mars is retrograde from January 10 to April 1, 2027. The dates, the shadow period and what it means for your sign are on our Mars retrograde 2027 page.
| Entered Virgo | Left Virgo | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 18, 2019 | Oct 3, 2019 | |
| Jul 30, 2021 | Sep 14, 2021 | |
| Jul 10, 2023 | Aug 27, 2023 | |
| Jun 17, 2025 | Aug 6, 2025 | |
| Nov 26, 2026 | Feb 21, 2027 | long stay, retrograde year |
| May 15, 2027 | Jul 14, 2027 | |
| Oct 24, 2028 | Dec 20, 2028 | |
| Apr 8, 2029 | Jun 4, 2029 | |
| Oct 2, 2030 | Nov 20, 2030 | |
| Sep 12, 2032 | Oct 29, 2032 |
Dates in UTC: days when Mars stood in Virgo at noon UTC. In US time zones a change can fall a day earlier; on the first and last day the exact time matters, and the calculator above checks it for your birthday.
Share by decade of birth. It rises and falls with the planet's cycle, not with fashion.
Mars in Virgo compatibility
Pisces, across the zodiac, attracts and confuses in equal measure: Virgo wants order and detail, Pisces flows and imagines, and each has to stop trying to fix the other. A partner with Venus in Capricorn or Taurus matches your practical, steady approach, and desire builds on trust. Water placements in Cancer or Scorpio give it emotional depth and appreciate its care. Fire partners, a Sagittarius Venus for example, can find you too careful, and you find them careless. Air placements bring good conversation and some debate.
To compare your Mars with a partner's, enter both birth dates in the zodiac compatibility calculator.
Both partners with the Sun in Virgo: Virgo and Virgo compatibility.
Famous people and celebrities with Mars in Virgo
- Carl Sagan, American astrophysicist, cosmologist and authorNov 9, 1934
- Judi Dench, English actressDec 9, 1934
- Alice Munro, Canadian writerJul 10, 1931
- Britney Spears, American singer, songwriter, actress and modelDec 2, 1981
- Sylvester Stallone, American actor and filmmakerJul 6, 1946
- Ariana Grande, American singer, songwriter, and actressJun 26, 1993
- Robert Downey Jr., American actorApr 4, 1965
- Will Smith, American actor, film producer and rapperSep 25, 1968
Birth dates from Wikidata, only entries with a single sourced date. We list a person only if Mars was in Virgo for the whole of their birthday in every time zone. A placement describes a style in the astrological tradition; it does not explain anyone's success.
More Mars signs
How common each Mars sign is, and where Mars is today: Mars signs.
In tarot, the Golden Dawn gave Mars the card The Tower: its meaning upright, reversed and in love.
Other planets in Virgo: ☽ Moon in Virgo · ☿ Mercury in Virgo · ♀ Venus in Virgo · ♃ Jupiter in Virgo · ♄ Saturn in Virgo · ♅ Uranus in Virgo · ♆ Neptune in Virgo · ♇ Pluto in Virgo · ☊ North Node in Virgo · ⚸ Black Moon Lilith in Virgo. Three or more of them together: stellium calculator.
Virgo elsewhere on the site: Virgo zodiac sign (the Sun in Virgo: traits, dates, love) · Midheaven in Virgo · Virgo compatibility by birth date · Moon sign calculator · earth signs · The World (the tarot card of earth) · in tarot, The Hermit (the Virgo card) · The Magician (the tarot card of Mercury, ruler of Virgo).
Mars in the sky now: where every planet is today · transit chart calculator (today's planets against your birth chart) · Virgo horoscope 2027 (the year ahead for the Sun sign) · all planet sign calculators.
Mars in Virgo in a full chart with a birth time on record: Ariana Grande's birth chart · Princess Diana's birth chart · Blake Lively's birth chart · Stevie Nicks's birth chart · Addison Rae's birth chart · Brooke Shields's birth chart · Ben Affleck's birth chart · Jenna Ortega's birth chart · Gordon Ramsay's birth chart · Hailee Steinfeld's birth chart · Sylvester Stallone's birth chart · Matt Damon's birth chart · Gwyneth Paltrow's birth chart · Austin Butler's birth chart · Willow Smith's birth chart · Cameron Diaz's birth chart · Simone Biles's birth chart · Will Smith's birth chart · Britney Spears's birth chart.
Questions people ask
Is Mars in Virgo common?
Yes. It ranks second among Mars signs in our count, on 10.06% of the birthdays we checked, because Mars moves slowly here and often turns retrograde nearby.
Why is a Virgo Mars so critical?
This Mars notices flaws quickly because it wants things to work. Under stress that turns into nitpicking. It helps when it separates real problems from small ones before speaking.
What is Mars in Virgo like in bed?
A little reserved at first, then very attentive. It notices what a partner likes and grows more open with trust.
How does this Mars show anger?
Through words: a precise remark, a correction or a run-down of what went wrong. It rarely shouts, and its anger comes with worry underneath.
When is Mars next in Virgo?
November 25, 2026 to February 21, 2027, and again May 14 to July 15, 2027. Both ranges are in UTC.
Is Mars retrograde in Virgo in 2027?
For part of the stay. Mars turns retrograde in Virgo on January 10, 2027, moves back into Leo on February 21 and returns to Virgo, moving direct, on May 14.
What signs match well with Mars in Virgo?
Partners who are steady and say what they mean, for example people with Venus or Mars in Capricorn, Taurus, Scorpio or Cancer. Pisces, the sign opposite yours, brings strong attraction and a running lesson in letting go of control.
Is Mars in Virgo a good placement?
That depends on what you want from it. Mars has no formal dignity in Virgo, so the tradition neither crowns nor penalizes it. What you get is precise, careful drive that goes into skill. It can work a long time without praise. The price is a critical eye. Under stress, noticing flaws turns into nitpicking.
What are the qualities of someone with Mars in Virgo?
Precise, diligent, skilled, critical and modest. Astrologers describe this Mars that way. Someone with it studies a problem before moving, finds the weak point and fixes it. Energy goes into craft and being useful. Desire is attentive. It shows through things done carefully for the person. Anger comes out as a cool, exact remark, with worry underneath.
Sources
- Astronomy Engine: the open-source ephemeris library behind our planet positions, dates and statistics
- Wikidata: birth dates of the famous people listed
- How we create our readings: our own calculation of sign dates, positions and the 1930 to 2025 statistics
Written by The Zodiac Atlas editorial team with the help of AI and edited by a person. Planet positions come from the astronomy-engine ephemeris (tropical zodiac), and the statistics from our own run of every birth date from 1930 to 2025. Astrology is a symbolic tradition, not a science; read a placement as a set of questions about yourself.