Have you ever met someone who, after being introduced to a new thing for a few minutes, is able to sit down with you and tell you exactly how it works, why it works, and how it is made?

That's Mars in Virgo.

Take a Mars in Virgo to a restaurant and they’ll be able to break down all of the ingredients of what you order and tell you confidently that they’ll make this for you themselves. They’ll count the number of tables, estimate the foot traffic, and correctly guesstimate how much profit the business takes in. They’ll see a pretty graphic and know exactly what Photoshop effects the designer used to make it. They’ll see a movie and know exactly how it was shot or what special effects it took to generate.

Mars in Virgo moves through the world and it scrutinizes everything that it comes across. It has the ability to break things down.

Mercury in Virgo also has this ability but Mars in Virgo is different from Mercury in Virgo. Mars in Virgo is not motivated by curiosity but anger. Mars in Virgo doesn’t feel particularly inclined towards breaking everything down and studying its ways and quirks. Mars in Virgo is prone to breaking things that it distrusts and dislikes down.

This is why Mars in Virgo is capable of the sickest burns. It has a mental ability that works quickly to skim the surface appeal of something cleanly off so that only the awkward interior lays about, unable to cover it back up. It can make you feel quite dissected. It can insult someone using words that make it seem as though Mars in Virgo is only giving a calculated and, yet, objective opinion. It can tear someone open thoroughly.

Mars in Virgo is not overly intimidating on the surface. It’s anger is quiet. It doesn’t make these loud declarations of angst. Instead, it will whisper in someone ear the exact things that make that person blunder. Mars in Virgo can make you feel quite small.

Would you rather face a blunt hammer or a precise switchblade? Mars in Virgo is a switchblade. If the hammer misses you, it will be some time before it can try again. Mars in Virgo is not a hammer. It is flexible and effective.

The calculating aspect of Mars in Virgo actually brings us to another one of its characteristics. It is important that Mars in Virgo is motivated into obsession not by curiosity but by temper. Mars in Virgo, you see, can sometimes be quite cynical.

This is a Mars that plans and plans. It knows what will happen three steps ahead of its first action. It knows all of its options and it understands its choices. Mars in Virgo, being an information savant, can sometimes feel as though it knows everything there is to know about the world and particularly about the things that it despises the most.

Knowing too much about one’s enemies is a survival skill. Mars in Virgo is effective at surviving. And, yet, when it knows too much about the things that it opposes, it may forget to rejoice in the things that it most enjoys.

Take the prospect of new employment for instance. Mars in Virgo will research the hell out of any company that dares try to hire it. It will know all of its weak points and it will understand well what kind of situation it is put in when in service to this company. It will make its choice accordingly. But one thing that Mars in Virgo can sometimes neglect to put attention towards is the question of what purpose is motivating the Mars in Virgo individual towards working this job.

It understands the intricacy of the situation—but what about blunt purpose? What larger vision motivates Mars in Virgo into doing all that it does?

And what purpose does cynicism serve in this larger purpose? Because cynicism in itself is small minded but, when put to work, it can serve one’s own divinity like a multilayered tool.

What I’m trying to say is that Mars in Virgo’s power is quite obvious. It is effective. It will get the job done and it will do the job impressively well. It can teach itself anything. It can stay focused for hours and it will turn a passion into an obsession. This cannot be overstated since Mars in Virgo is often underestimated at one’s own peril. But Mars in Virgo’s effectiveness blooms best when it is integrated into a greater vision.

Mars in Virgo is good at things but its intense focus can keep itself working too small. The world is HUGE. This hugeness can be quite overwhelming. Sometimes, cynicism tries to protect us from our own daunting largeness.

Mars in Virgo’s power comes from its skill. It is able to embody its power when it realizes that its skill is not defensive but part of its own inner strength. It is able to wield the switchblade instead of becoming a switchblade that is wielded in service of things that it does not control when it realizes that it has the power to decide and be who it wants to be. The switchblade is not powerful because it is sharp. It is powerful because it knows how to aim.