The placement of Mars in Virgo indicates that you have a need for your actions to be perfect. This often manifests itself as a particularization of action. By focusing on small details or by breaking action down into manageable events and then organizing your course of action, you may feel that can control your actions and improve your chances of approximating perfection. This desire for your actions to be seen as correct tends to lead you to internally limit your desires to what is “proper.” This may save you from “wrong” actions. Much of the behavior and many of the personality characteristics associated with Mars in Virgo are a result of your striving for perfection in your actions and desires. 

The placement of Mars in Virgo may be complex or ambivalent, as symbolized by the natural quincunx between Virgo and Mars-ruled Aries. Virgo is the Mutable Earth sign. The fine-grained earth of Virgo symbolically forces the Mars energy to be restrained and disciplined, flowing only through circumscribed channels. If the active and self-assertive nature associated with Mars does not chafe at the restriction associated with the Virgo qualities, its energy (and your desires and actions) will be refined, contributing toward your quest for perfection. 

Mars also symbolizes the animus in the psyche. Thus, if you are male with Mars in Virgo, you are likely to model your masculinity in order to incorporate characteristics typically associated with Virgo. If you are female, you are likely to be attracted to someone who projects or embodies Virgo-associated traits. 

Insecurities

As an individual with Mars in Virgo, because you are insecure within your inner self, you feel burdened with the ideal of perfection and you feel that you can do nothing right. Your ego knows, however, that if ever Real Perfection is attained, that is its death. So, in fretting about imperfection (in reality, avoiding the quest for the Real Perfection), you may waste your time trying to perfect what is good enough or fix what is unfixable. Or, faced with an internal demand for perfect order, you may revolt, give up trying to attain the ideal and exist in a state of disorder and chaos. 

Mars in the 3rd House:

Mars in the 3rd House is compatible with its externally directed nature. The 3rd House is associated with early and simple contacts with your environment and with learning about that environment. The outward focus and explorative nature of the 3rd House allows the action principle of the Mars energy to freely assert itself within the limits of a realm with which you come directly in contact. 

With Mars in the 3rd House, your desires are likely to be stimulated by your immediate environment. Your actions are likely to be focused on affecting your immediate environment. Much of this contact may involve interaction at the mental level, since the 3rd House is ruled by Mercury. Consequently, much of your energy and activity may be directed toward learning about the world or communicating within the immediate circle of your contacts. 

Having Mars in the 3rd House, since so much of your activity involves interaction with the concrete world around you, if your Mars principal is functioning well, you are likely to develop much competency in dealing with the day-to-day aspects of life. Of course, if your Mars energy is dysfunctional, you are likely to find everyday life to be fraught with problems. With Mars in the 3rd House, you are also likely to be assertive in your daily life, especially when communicating with others.