Overview

The year of the metal Rat begins January 25, 2020. These important twelve months mark the threshold to the year of the Ox, and 2020 is a very good year (even better than last year). The Rat, your secret friend, quietly enhances happiness and makes all areas of life easier. The element metal resonates with your natural element of earth, accentuating the confidence to seize moments. The only thing you need to do is bear in mind that the easier the year, the more complacent you could become.

✨Year of the Dragon is here! Find out what's in store for you!✨

How to begin? The pre-Chinese New Year Cancer eclipse in early January, is uber-transitional, a benchmark point to contemplate how permanent you want to make the things you initiated in 2019. What benefits your life? What do you want to do about the things that don’t benefit your life? These are big questions. The answers can be found when you look at all angles of the big picture (thank you, Rat). Oxen are always dedicated to goals you hold dear. Don’t forget that. The metal contribution is in the courage to let go of some things in order to make room for new assets in the future.

March and September are checkpoints, times to be flexible and open to ideas based on changing conditions and opportunities. In case you’re tempted, you can’t sit back and rest on your laurels. You have to stay current about what is in motion. By the Sagittarius solar eclipse on December 14, as you prepare for the year of the Ox, look at what still excites you. Those are the things that carry good energy and can take you forward.

Love

The theme this year is the growth of love and the strengthening of bonds. These add lots of positive things to your relationships and revitalize your soul and the souls of significant others. Rats are action-oriented optimists, while Oxen are wise and realistic. The good news is that the energies blend, symbolically dedicated to working together. The fusion facilitator is the element metal, stimulating people to learn how to have productive relationships. Metal also gets them—and you—talking about it.

In March, right after the Chinese New Year begins, the Aries new moon is about as magnetic as it gets. It holds people together, even those not remotely close to being on the same page. Venus, the metal planet of love, is retrograde in Gemini (the sign of “let’s think and talk about it”) between mid-May and late June. In this light, differences can be made clearer, and with that, understanding can deepen. Strong and silent Oxen need to do their part and talk, too. Another relationship checkpoint surfaces between September and October. Sweet!

If you’re unattached and looking, love is in the air and metal adds assertiveness. You can find your match and let them know you’re interested, or your match can find you and so on. A sharing of hopes and dreams with someone new feels nice. Go slowly during the Venus retrograde. If you’re seeing someone in December, the relationship that flourishes can move into the new year with a greater desire to settle down, and nothing will stand in your way.

Family & Friends

The cheerful Rat likes to party, and the element metal brings diverse people together just for the potential expansiveness of it. In this light, the Ox had best get ready to socialize. You have your choice of your personal “with whom?” part, because Oxen have a talent for adapting and reshaping, conducting like a maestro whether host or guest.

The personal side of socializing involves family and friends. The start of a new twelve-year cycle is auspicious for healing (Cancer eclipses) by forgetting past grievances. Old friends return. Metal adds a touch of adventure and zip—if you dare—to any get-together. This would be in addition to new alliances that symbolize the future in the present. You may be drawn to humanitarian interests or those involving a shared vision and unified force. Some in need of strong leadership sound like they were made for you.

The Ox’s social life also involves business networking this year. There are opportunities for you in May, as long as you stay true to yourself. Things could get competitive in June and July. Try to avoid taking things personally, and decide how you want to be assertive. It’s best to do it in your comfort zone. September is a bit of a game changer, with a few new rules as well as new opportunities. Strengthen your connections in October. Overall, it’s a lovely, social year in which you can balance your life. It can’t be all work and no play. And you don’t want a social life that’s so narrow that you just end up plowing the same furrow year after year.

Work

The Rat is both an achiever and a survivor. It’s rare to see a Rat doing nothing. Sound familiar? Those are traits like yours, aren’t they? In a year designated as one that should be easier and happier, career success should be easy-peasy to achieve, and with that, you’ll be content. Enter the element metal, which quickens the pace, and everything new is inspiring to those who are willing to adapt. Metal Rat helps you prosper. You’ve just got to find a niche that you love.

The Cancer-Capricorn eclipse pattern represents “aha” moments. The first is a Cancer lunar eclipse in January, before the Chinese New Year. The message? The sign suggests that overprotecting is a good way to lose something. Trying to maintain something just the way it’s been for the past 19 years isn’t the best approach now.

Add a Capricorn lunar eclipse in early July, when you instigate changes of your own. Don’t let others make them for you. Changes that you may dislike can open doors when you’re willing to try new things. You’ll be nudged between October and November, in case you ignored the messages in summer. You’re a long-term thinker. You could begin an ascent up a shiny new ladder, not that old one.

Finally, Rats are inquisitive, and metal inspires learning. Put the two in your toolbox as far as studying something new. Never underestimate the power of research.

Money

The Rat excels at making money, so you’ll be hitching your wagon to a “star,” so to speak, the element metal (gold, silver, platinum—‘nuff said!) The first month of a new cycle is an opportune time to look at nest eggs and security in relation to what you need in the future. That first month represents what you carry on from the year of the earth Pig, the foundation upon which to build.

Expect financial changes through the year. Many thought earthy 2019 was going to be stable, and only get better if it was going to do anything at all. Symbolically, with earth, things sometimes aren't what they seem. They aren't even familiar, so there it is. The year 2019 was far less stable than promised. Oxen aren’t in the group that likes to walk on the wild side. The positive is that people are less prone to make bold moves, and it benefits you this year.

The Snake month of May is a good point for an audit, but be sure to take changes into account. This is important because the moneymaking Rat tends to be poor at accounting. The influence of the metal Rat hits you in 2020, and also influences markets and employers and all the people other than you with hands in your resources. And they may not be diligent. In this light, especially from May to October, make sure you keep copies of documents in a safe place. Stay up to date with copious notes of your actions, phone calls, e-mails, and so on. It’s a good year. Take advantage of your natural caution and it can be a stellar year for you.