The best transits for radical upswings in life depend upon one’s unique birth chart blueprint and what planetary time periods are activating particular karmas in a chart. However…there are some pretty basic conditions to take into account for general yearly transits. This is one of them.

Virgo is commonly associated with: healing, work benches, accounting ledgers and narrowing things down to get to what is necessary in life.

The conjunction between these two planets lasts up until August 27th, as the Sun begins to progress through the early degrees of Virgo.

Most Important Considerations to Note

Mars and Mercury in Virgo create a strong need to actively manage our health, work and daily activities that sustain us (chores, exercise, etc.). This is a great time to improve our lives by working on all the little things that comprise the larger whole, the very thing we call “my life.”

There will be a great potential to improve our health, mindset and relationships. Virgo corresponds to health-conscious people, and is involved in supporting/serving others. Virgo also creates good habits that provide a better foundation for relationships.

Uranus in Taurus casting a trine to Mercury gives a genius originality to how we manage our daily affairs. We could find new ways of getting our work done faster, for instance. We should seek to make a plan, write it down and get it done. Mercury also gives us the strength to acquire knowledge very quickly. That could come in handy.

Mars and Mercury are indeed an odd pairing. Mercury, being inquisitive and free-thinking, feels powerful and able to move mountains in Virgo, but Mars doesn’t. He is the hardened no-nonsense general who smolders with disdain for the playful youthful prince, who only has power because his father is the king (Sun/soul).

But because Mercury has so much strength in Virgo, Mars inadvertently becomes stronger alongside him. It’s ironic, given their relationship — Mars’s one-sided hatred for Mercury. Mars is shaped by the mercurial influence, no longer acting through the typical violent impulses, but through a newfound cerebral mental acuity, well-planned organization and skillful activity on small-scale projects.

Mars influences this transit heavily. He is all about taking action. And aside from just fighting battles, Mars loves improving on things and motivating others to become better versions of themselves. This is actually because Mars originally rules the house of identity, which culminates on the eastern horizon, and the classical eighth house, which begins the Sun’s descent into the darkness of night.

Mercury, on the other hand, loves to manage the details. Virgo, mutable earth, is all about improving and bettering things by criticizing them. This sign involves the things we do to support our relationships and our passions or creations, thus corresponding to the natural sixth house. When Mars is in Virgo, we cut and destroy what is no longer useful instead of putting it aside.

Remember that when Mars is acting for the highest good, he seeks to destroy that which is evil or threatening to the Dharma. In this case, he is. Guided by Mercury, Mars gives us the power to purify our lives: better food, better work habits, better health and better friendships.

In addition to a powerful Mercury, we will very soon witness a grand trine in air signs, between Saturn (giving the strength to be down to earth and do the hard work of bringing dreams into concrete reality),Venus (the strong desire to connect with other people and things we find valuable), and the North Node in Gemini.

Because Gemini corresponds to the original Third House of the Zodiac, it relates to one’s mental activity…

Where are you in your mental space? What kind of thoughts are you keeping and what information or media are you willingly consuming? Mental formations impact what environment we manifest.

Virgo is about purification, separating the wheat from the chaff and getting the little things in life to be just perfect. When the lord of the nodes is here, with an action-oriented war-like malefic planet, we have to take hard action to purify our thoughts and make sure our immediate environment, connections to other people (neighbors, siblings, friends) and are correctly attuned. By doing this, we find greater support for our destiny.

North Node in Gemini is Our Basic Collective Desire

Some of the general themes include:

• New, unorthodox and controversial information, data or facts
• Exploring new methods of connecting with our immediate environment
• Communicating with others in unconventional ways
• Undergoing short-distance travels that improve our physical lives in some way
• Discovering new-found skills, talents, intellectual capabilities and ways of expressing one’s self

The energy to manifest these themes comes from how well positioned Mercury is. Mercury’s exaltation provides the power to actualize the desires of the North Node. Earlier this year, on March 15th, when Mercury started transiting through Pisces, our desires were not being actualized in a wholesome or pure manner — sometimes not at all, they were often thwarted by external events and forgotten about.

Not today, however!

In order to actualize the north node’s potential, by taking advantage of the transit of Mercury, one must also take into account the applying square to the South Node. The area of life that we must release clinging towards, whilst seeking to appropriately understand its nature, the “why” behind it, is found in the themes of Sagittarius: philosophy, ideologies, law, leaders and zealous idealism.

People must let go of their ardent “beliefs” in what’s true and right. If you happen to view the world through a black and white moral lens, it may help to embrace more curiosity, like Mercury, and be less judgmental, preachy or self-righteous.

The South Node in Sagittarius & Jupiter (R) Aquarius

This is clearly not the time for travel, higher education or reliance on some external authority (leaders) to bail you out or save you from peril. You must do it through your self effort. While Ketu/South Node is here, we have to relinquish old beliefs and ideologies (many won’t, since the ego is identified with warped collective thought patterns). Moreover, an exalted Mercury gives us the strength to manage how much of our lives get wrapped up in such things.

It is key to remember that Mercury has to do with the ability to befriend people, places and things, to be light-hearted, knowledgable, fact-driven, curious and inquisitive. These qualities cut out the opposite planetary energy of Jupiter (who is in his weakened state) that leads to prejudice and ideological possession of the mind or, as Buddhists terminology refers to it, “wrong view.”

By accessing the energies of Mercury, conjoined with the vital power of Mars, who likes to cuts through the B.S., we can overcome some of these blockages and, ultimately, move our individual lives forward in a positive trajectory.