Yearly Horoscope: Virgo – 2020

If there were someone who could fix, restore, remodel, renovate and otherwise clean up the solar system, a Virgo would be the ideal candidate do so.

So, what makes you so perfect for the job? For starters, you are all about mastery and organization. With minimal commotion, you dutifully set about to achieve your objectives with the patience of a saint and precision of a robotic laser. You’re discriminating with an eye for how all the pieces fit together.

How could so much perfection come in one perfect package? Oops, we mentioned the “perfect” word a few too many times and probably ruined your day.

Perfectionism may be your guiding principle but lately, it’s become your secret downfall. Perfectionism is all about control, right? And you thought you were in control until Team Capricorn showed up and took over your solar 5^th house of creativity and children. Yes, they have given your creative output an almost dignified aura, but their presence here also has slowed your roll. You want your creativity to be admired but you’re so modest about your talents and insecure about your qualifications, that you’re afraid of taking creative risks.

Maybe you’ve upped your expectations of yourself. Maybe selling your work has thrown you off your game (like asking a high price for your work but not believing you’re worth it or just producing formulaic work that you know will sell easily).

Plus, lately, you’ve realized some lovely things are slipping through your fingers … fun! Joy! Spontaneity! Needlepoint! Herb gardening! Texas Hold ‘Em! Stock car racing! Your own children, for Goddess’s sake. Just your run-of-the-mill 5th-house delights.

How did this come about? Well, to recap, Pluto arrived in your 5^th house way back in 2008. Not such a big deal then, because Pluto was in a complimentary earth sign. How bad could that be for a Virgo? Unfortunately, Pluto rules obsessions (and the transformation that arise from them). Something tied to your creative output got Pluto’s attention and started becoming a bigger deal. Two years ago, Saturn, the ruler of Capricorn, arrived in your solar 5^th house, and since then, things have gotten more serious. Heavier. Challenging.

Saturn’s job is to kick the tires, inspect your handiwork and make the kids behave. He’s done his job so well since December 2017 that he’s become a buzzkill (and maybe you have, too). Being Mercury-ruled, Virgos can easily imagine all the things that can go wrong with any creative endeavor and have to mentally overcome those nightmares every time they try to break out of their 5^th house shell.

Creative blocks are often temporary, even this one you’re experiencing, but they can be dangerous for a Virgo. Being critical and fault-finding by nature, a Virgo who turns away from her hobbies redirects all the intelligence and fussiness reserved for her pastimes toward herself. Every aspect that is not perfect becomes magnified until you’re almost frozen in place. This analysis paralysis is harshing your mellow, for sure.

Fear not, the end is in sight. Saturn moves on later this year, but first he’s meeting up with Pluto in an exact conjunction on Jan. 12. This conjunction is not only rare, but it’s been gathering steam for more than a year. It signals an ending in the 5^th house, and a maturing. Your tastes have grown up. Thus, it might be time for a new artform or medium. And those intense interactions with your children should lighten up, enabling you to develop a new way of relating with them.

2020’s three Mercury retrogrades (times when your planetary ruler appears to travel backward in the sky) might actually help you re-embrace your creativity by letting you to purge those pesky little things known as emotions. You sometimes have to feel to heal it.

During Mercury’s first retrograde, from Feb. 17 to March 10, Mercury’s winged feet travel backward through the mutable water of Pisces into the fixed air of Aquarius, and you can thank your spouse, business/life partner or close friend/confidante for any tearful interludes. And/or they might be the ones reaching for Kleenex.

This person asks a lot of you. But you stick it out, telling yourself they are doing the best they can, they love you in their own way and that only you know how to help them deal with their issues. It’s your duty, after all. On the plus side, they can be so creative and mystical at times that it inspires you, allowing you to believe in magic and things that earth signs don’t readily accept.

With Neptune (the co-ruler of Pisces) in your solar house of partnerships, it’s hard for you and your partner to see each other clearly. This retrograde may give you a brief glimpse of who each of you really is, and especially later, post-retrograde, when Mercury conjoins Neptune on April 3. It’s a chance for a meeting of the minds that helps you plot a course forward. The danger is in being manipulated by your partner because you’re so open and receptive to their way of thinking.

Mercury’s second retrograde takes place in the cardinal sign of Cancer from June 18 to July 13. Here Mercury does its moondance in your solar 11^th house, which concerns friendships and associations with those in the community who share your passions for a better world.

Mercury here is helping you become aware of emotional issues that stop you from being creative. Perhaps the social mores of your friends (and maybe family) are inhibiting your creativity? Or your involvement with a group that exists to care for and nurture others takes your focus off creativity and becomes a way of hiding out. Maybe you believe the pressing needs of humanity rate higher in priority than you addressing that creative bug in your bonnet? The emotions of nurturing and being nurtured loom large this time of year, especially with two eclipses activating the same signs as the retrograde. Maybe it’s a good time for a trip home to visit dear ol’ Mom?

But the summer isn’t all about “the feels.” There’s a 10-day period in 2020 that all Virgos should look forward to: Aug. 25 to Sept. 3. Not only will Mercury be feeling strong and confident in Virgo, the sign it rules, but it will make a plethora of earth trines (showing up as support from others) as it passes through Virgo. First, Mercury trines Uranus in Taurus on Aug. 25, triggering unexpected ways in which to broaden your horizons. (Weekend in Las Vegas, anyone?)

Next, in your house of creativity, Mercury trines Jupiter in Capricorn on Aug. 29 (a card shark gives you poker tips over a beer in the casino lounge), followed by Pluto on Sept. 1 and Saturn on Sept. 3., also in Capricorn (Pluto helps you win big, and Saturn helps keep your winnings!). Anyway, Virgo, try not to be so risk averse in late August!

From Oct. 14 to Nov. 4, Mercury goes retrograde for the third time in 2020, in the fixed water sign of Scorpio ending up in Libra. This time it may be your sibling (or neighbor) who give you an emotional kick in the pants. There may well be some deeper issues at play, causing you to do some digging into them (or they into you), potentially causing a fracture in a sibling or neighborly relationship. The extra time that Mercury spends in Scorpio could well darken your communications and bring anger-tinged emotions to the surface. You well know that painful truths said in anger cannot be taken back, even during a retrograde!

At the winter solstice, you can sense change is in the air, literally! On Dec. 21, Mercury returns to the sign of Capricorn where it began the year, in your fifth solar house of creativity. On that exact day, Jupiter and Saturn both leave Capricorn and the fifth house, effectively ending that longtime creative block. How do you spell relief! Bring on the board games and craft supplies, Mercury is back in the house.

As they leave, Jupiter and Saturn form a conjunction at 0 degrees of Aquarius on the cusp of your solar sixth house. It’s a whole new ballgame in all things related to your workplace, your daily routines, your health and service projects. It’s your own personal age of Aquarius, and you’ll want to check back to see how that will play out in 2021.