Dear Madame,

All this Virgo stuff is making me a little crazy. I feel it shouldn’t, but it does. You know my chart already, so you can see my North Node’s in Virgo, and as you’ve explained, this is an area where I’ll need to put a little more effort and consciously cultivate those qualities in my life.

But I gotta tell you, after watching a couple of those organizer videos you posted, I broke out into a cold sweat! All those little bits — the papers and the color systems, and the million tabs and boxes! I know I’m a sensitive person, but I had no clue how watching Filofax demonstrations could produced that level of anxiety! So please help me. This is a little embarrassing. I really want to conquer that North Node.

— Planning to Plan

Dear Planning,

I have good news for you. And then still more good news.

The first piece of good news is that no human need conquer their North Node all in one season. Give yourself the rest of your life to get that baby down. Your North Node vision will evolve over time.

The second piece of good news is that the universe is soon gonna give you a solid bump up: first, next week’s solar eclipse will shine up your Virgo zone; and second, come November we’ll all be doing the Virgo North Node shimmy for two years. We’ll all become pickier, or if you prefer, more discriminating, together.

You won’t be alone. With Jupiter in Virgo for the next 11 months, you’ll likely find others attempting to get their Virgoan act together. Just look around. Honestly. It’s in the air! And because your natal Virgo North Node is in its natural home (the 6th House) all those classically Virgo things will be easier to spot and apply in your life.

Hate to use a cliché, but it’s true: you need to think of this season as less of a challenge and more of an opportunity.

Remember that when we looked at your chart, we saw major new movements on all four fundamental fronts in your life: health, home, partners and profession. You got it all goin’, babe! And you’ve just begun to get a taste of big changes in your life. Thus, all this comes at the right time: you really do need added value to your Virgo sort-and-process zone. Imagine it like an old fashioned mailroom: the Big Boss at the top can’t execute her executive self without someone delivering timely data to her desk. And you need “executables” on four fronts!

Don’t panic, though! Give yourself permission to window shop options for your data delivery. One woman’s methods might be another woman’s madness. Find the method or madness that best suits your needs and check out that option. Then check out another option.

The key here is options. You have them, and you’re not stuck with one answer.

Give yourself time, too. Anxiety is real. It has real and potentially lasting effects on your nervous system and body. To mitigate the approach-avoidance dance of anxiety, try the exposure treatment. The exposure approach allows you to experience little doses of change so you can acclimate to the idea that this new whatever-thing isn’t so bad after all. This takes a little time, but giving yourself TIME is a gift you need now to grow into your Virgo mode.

Depending on how challenged you feel, you may start with a tiny step, like buying a nice pen. Doesn’t need to be expensive. A small purchase toward a little Stabilo or gel pen will do. Sit with the pen; write with it; draw. Notice how much or how little you enjoy that feeling of it in your hand as it moves against the paper.

Like it? Keep it. Not so much? Move on. No judgments on YOU. But notice how every single detail in your pen observation is Virgoan in nature — the attention to quality, experience, flow, output. The little things that actually do mean a lot.

Was that so scary? Not really. And you got a bonus — a good pen!

Now move to the next step, keeping the stakes low. Watch a new video, or take out a book from the library about your growth zone. Educate yourself about something new. Or buy an inexpensive little calendar or journal. A small investment. Repeat the process above, with attention to quality, experience, flow, output. Get comfortable with the new thing. Observe and breathe through it. You got it.

And so on. Baby steps, observe, breathe.

Practice conscientious attention to details in the privacy of your own place before taking this Virgo show on the road. Begin writing plans for personal goals, things that matter only to you. Make charts for home chores that no one else will see. If you keep at it, by November you’ll feel confident enough to make that holiday gift list and formulate a strategic attack on your baking, knitting, purchasing and traveling goals that would be worthy of any armed services logistical central command. You might even get half of it done!

Speaking of, Santa-lady, put me down for a new Moleskine.

Yours in the struggle,

Madame Z