Virgo, what is it good for?

Mars in Virgo (June 17-August 6, 2025)

There is a funny thing that happens to Leo Rising people as we get older. As our personalities evolve and we get more mature, we are nudged to become more Virgo-ish. We start to get frustrated when people treat us like children, and we discover the joy of service. As we start to move into more challenging work that matters to other people, we learn that confidence and enthusiasm aren’t always enough, and we are challenged to develop confident competence.

This is because, in the magic of secondary progressions, everyone’s ascendants are constantly inching forward through the zodiac. Sometime before we turn 40, the progressed ascendant of every Leo rising person reaches Virgo, and it behoves us to add Virgo qualities to our personal presentations.

If you have natal planets in Virgo, the personality shift that comes with your progressed ascendant entering Virgo may not feel so dramatic. You’re already working on developing these skills, and it probably feels natural to allow other people to see those skills more clearly in you.

That wasn’t my experience, though. I don’t have any natal planets in Virgo. My progressed ascendant hitting Virgo when I was in my 30s made me feel like I was turning into my (Virgo sun) mother. It took time to adjust and find my own way of being virgo-ish, which is why I’ve written about progressed Virgo ascendants so much.

Ever since Mars went into Virgo on Tuesday the 17th, our relationship with Virgo (whatever it is) has been highlighted in a martian way.

Mars is our inner battery. Mars’ sign describes the nature of the energy that is available to us.

Mars was Leo for a very long time this year, which means that we got used to Mars having a fiery, solar energy. Constant, steady, copious… but difficult to channel in directions that were productive (at least, by conventional, modern standards).

Leo is the child who wants friends to play with. Leo panics when it needs to be responsible for things, just like a child panics when their parents aren't responsible.

Leo is the king but not the prime minister. Leo wears the crown but isn’t especially good at making the trains run on time.

Virgo, on the other hand, is exceptionally good at making the trains run on time.

Virgo is the child growing up, learning how to take care of themselves. In adults, the transition from Leo to Virgo can feel like your inner adult saying to your inner child, "I've got this."

When I woke up on Thursday morning, I felt the shift into Mars in Virgo energy hard.

I felt grounded, focused energy. I felt competent and executive. I felt able to separate out the different aspects of my life and give them their own place. I felt like I had the energy and desire to create new practices.

I was excited! Without natal planets in Virgo, I struggle to summon Virgo in my work when I need it. (My progressed Virgo ascendant often feels like playing an executive on TV.) I was eager to make the most of having a transiting planet in Virgo, so I dove straight in and spent several hours on Tuesday morning organizing Notion.

I felt confident. I have Mars in Gemini. Gemini and Virgo are both ruled by Mercury. I felt like I knew what working with a Mercury-ruled Mars was all about.

I was not, however, used to Virgo energy enough to be competent.

By mid-morning, I found myself opening Threads to check on how my morning post was doing. I was looking for encouragement. I was tired, and I needed energy to help me keep going. (And every Leo rising knows that the real reason for solar festivals is that the sun needs encouragement to shine.) Threads gave me nothing. I felt sheepish for “getting distracted,” and I used self-discipline to close Threads, put my head down, and charge on.

Powering through the need for rest has a cost. Mars doesn’t just give us energy for no reason. Mars is the life force. It is the energy we need to run away from bears.

It wasn’t long before my initial inspired energy turned sour. I stopped focusing on the improvements I was making, and I felt threatened by my own disorganization. With Virgo in the 2nd house, this felt like an existential threat. "I need to prove my worth by being organized.”

By lunch time, I was agitated and completely exhausted. As soon as I realized what had happened, I felt like a fool.

The lesson: Now that Mars has moved into Virgo, it is important to slow down.

Virgo is an earth sign. It is grounded, intentional energy. That is the essential difference geminish people like me need to understand about Virgo. Gemini is the frenetic energy we need to respond in the moment, to move quickly and turn on a dime. Virgo is the careful, methodical energy that allows us to make a very tall stack of dimes without knocking them over.

For Leo risings, Mars in Virgo is giving us the energy to become the kind of person we respect.

Mars is giving us the energy to level up our competence. We don't just dream and play and make believe. We support our dreams with action. We invest time and energy in becoming good at what we do.

We plan ahead, so we aren't blindsided by the unexpected. We trust that, if a project is worth investing in, the energy will be there to do the work properly. We can use that initial burst of energy to preserve our excitement—say, by writing things down—but we don’t have to follow the energy of the moment. We don’t have to do everything now or risk the party moving on without us.

Mars will be in Virgo until August 6th, giving us a little over 7 weeks to work with this energy.

I expect that many of us got off to a rocky start. Mars will be going retrograde the next time it makes the transition between Leo and Virgo in 2027. It will be going back and forth over that transition between the two signs three times, which means that there is something about the Leo to Virgo transitional time that Mars wants to get better at.

So, I urge you to pay attention to your mistakes. Try to learn from them. Maybe even write them down to remind yourself.

I have a note to self scheduled for September 2026 when Mars goes into Leo again. I like the quiet power of Mars in Virgo. The next time this transition comes up, I want to be able to really enjoy it.

If you’re enjoying learning about how to work more effectively with the energy of the moment, check out the Leo Risings Guide to World Domination. It’s my take on how to make the most of the major planetary shifts of 2025 and beyond (and it’s just for Leo risings).