The New Moon on Jan 29, 2025 at 5:36 AM MST ushers in the Lunar Year of the Yin Wood Snake.
Lunar New Year begins on the second New Moon after Winter Solstice, when the Sun and New Moon are conjunct in Aquarius. Snake offers us the unique opportunity to swiftly shed old skins and habits, discard the antiquated beliefs of the past, and move forward embracing new perspectives and life approaches. Representing wisdom and transformation, Snake is intuitive and creative, a deep thinker and strategically intelligent, a rare combination. Expect a powerful and growth-full year with a climate of emotional volatility, yet holding great potential for awakening consciousness.
Attributes of Snake
Snake is a Yin animal who embodies flexibility, and adaptability for change. With the ability to navigate and deeply understand complex situations, Snake always seeks wisdom in the face of great challenges. She is extremely resourceful and capable with a highly developed discernment chip, sometimes to a fault. Snake’s inner resilience combined with a forward think-outside-the-box mindset, are great qualities to help deal with our rapid world changes and challenges. It’s possible to cover substantial ground toward our long term visions and goals, both personally and collectively. Mystical, philosophical and a very spiritual creature, Snake is a seeker of deeper truths, and encourages us to trust our instincts and look beneath the surface. This is a year to foster deeper emotional and spiritual relationships both with others as well as ourselves. A good question to ask ourselves is “who truly is in my innermost circle?” Snake absolutely loves and values beauty in all things, and inspires creativity in the arts and magical arts. This is the year to create, the energetics are backing us on this!
Yin: This year we have Yin Wood Yin Snake, which is very different energy from last years Yang Wood Yang Dragon. The double Yin speaks to profound inner growth, and embodies a quiet yet potent energy capable of illuminating and revealing what’s hidden. This could be quite intense pertaining to the global situation, yet offers opportunities to creatively express what is in the shadows. Snake’s very Yin energy indicates a stealth kind of animal. So this year we may witness many breakthroughs and innovations achieved in secrecy or silence.
Fire: The element of Wood feeds the Snake’s innate Fire element, strengthening Fire. It looks to be a very active, forward moving year with increased communication, connections and community engagement, with potential disruptive emotions of anxiety and anger. Environmentally, this indicates issues with electricity and nuclear power with more fires as per the norm these days. Snake also has a hidden Earth element which grounds and gives us power to manifest our visions. Pay attention to issues with heart, circulation and eyes (Fire) and spleen, stomach and digestion (Earth)
Yin Wood: Yin Wood is like bamboo versus Yang Wood, an oak tree. Yin Wood is very flexible in the face of massive change. Its strength and resilience comes from its roots, what cannot be seen. Its outward yielding nature is firmly rooted in its internal nature. I love this metaphor! Yin Wood emphasizes transformative growth, renewal and grounded decision making. Its qualities of gentleness, perseverance, creativity, and adaptability are nourished by the supporting element of water through its intuitive and flexible nature. Put energy into long term vision and future planning this year, once there is clarity. It’s a great year to take your skills to higher level. Wood indicates potential challenges with liver, gall bladder, and neck. Liver cleanses! The energetics of the 5 element chart this year shows deficiency in the Water element, signifying emotional instability, and difficulty in making clear decisions.
The I Ching Hexagram for the year is Thunder/Lightning over Wind, signifying intense wind events, hurricanes and tornadoes and more thunderstorms bringing massive flooding.
Misc. Since Yin Wood is slow and softer, we may see some intensified issues start to come to more resolution in the second half of the year. Geopolitical tensions will persist, no shocker there. Be cautious about high risk investing. Look for major innovations in sustainable energy and tech sectors.
The Bagua Chart for 2025 – the #2 Earth star moves to the center, having a big influence over the years energies. It’s known as the ‘sickness’ star, possibly portending more global bacterial viruses, but whatever happens – take extra good care of your health. Earth is also associated with property and construction, and yes, more environmental issues. For more in-depth element information read on. Note the out of balance aspects of Shen (Fire) and Hun (Wood) may be what manifests in negative expressions and bad behavior this year.
“Shen, the Spirit of Fire relates to inspiration, insight, awareness, and compassion. Shen is the inner guiding light of our own heart, the heavenly aspect. It is the spirit of enlightened, conscious awareness, insight, and love that comes to us from the divine and is said to reside in the human heart. Shen is the seed mantra I am, the initiator and spark of human self awareness and pure potentiality. The Shen will always direct us to the path of our own true nature. The Shen are the star spirits that connect human beings with the cosmos. Its presence is reflected in the luminous vitality that shines from the eyes of a healthy human being. The element of Fire is related to intuition, to magic and spiritual transformation. We live in a world where assaults to the heart come from every direction. Maintain the tranquility of the heart, so the direction of our lives will be clear, and our paths will be illuminated. Work on having some neutrality with our emotions. When the heart is disturbed by intense emotion, fragmentation and further confusion, anxiety, agitation and restlessness can occur.”
“Hun, the Spirit of Wood represents the spiritual aspect of the soul. It relates to vision, imagination, bringing creativity and growth into our lives, clear direction that helps us know our true selves and purpose. Hun helps us discern our path with decision-making and strategic planning, imagine the possibilities, and move forward toward our goals. It endows us with the capacity to organize the chaos into meaningful patterns which give direction to our lives. It is related to the liver and the element of wind, the emotion of anger. When it is out of balance, we become chaotic and confused full of self recrimination, irritability and anger and blame. Righteous indignation, ranting and raving, extreme emotion, outbursts of anger and not taking responsibility for one’s life.” Lori Dechar, The Five Spirits
Numerology of 2025 is #9: This totally coincides with the aspects of Wood Snake! A time of reflection and letting go of what is holding you back, a time for completion, closure and spiritual growth. Brings new opportunities. Focus on creative projects and long term vision. This is a year of renewal, transformation and community engagement.
Tips for Navigating the Energies of the Year: * Take steps toward creating clear goals with strategic long term planning. * Use ruthless discernment to dump what isn’t working and upgrade what is. * Reassess priorities; declutter everything; let go of past with grace. * Develop more flexibility as you adapt to new realities. * Match visionary ideas with practical strategies to turn your dreams into reality. * Focus on aligning your actions with transformative, resilient, and adaptable energy * Be discerning in finances, relationships, work decisions, everything. * Adapt new approaches and perspectives; prepare for uncertainty * Set healthy empowered boundaries. Repeat. * Prioritize communication and emotional intelligence in relationships. * Reevaluate your relationships with others and align them with your values. * Engage in activities and practices promoting emotional and spiritual well-being * Trust your intuitive insights. * Prioritize your self-care; manage emotional energy, meditate, exercise. * Watch for overthinking, anxiety and burn out, indecision, emotional turbulence * Stay curious, explore creative solutions; make art * Be deeply connected to nature. * Use the Snake’s spiritual energies to keep frequency high to not get pulled into fear. * Take the high road. Hang with people that are good examples, be one for others!* * Know that challenges are opportunities to evolve and build strength and resilience.
Stone Medicine recommended for energetic support in Wood Snake Year: Opal is a yin stone for emotional balance and spiritual support. Green Jade for transformation and compassion. Azurite for intuition and releasing past. Amazonite for releasing fear and promoting inner strength. Black Tourmaline and Shungite for resilience and protecting from negativity, as well as good boundary support.
Recommended Colors to wear or have in your environment: vermillion red, any greens, blues for calming.
Recommended Totems: Pi Yao – a protective mythical creature, and Snake. As always, we get to choose how to handle these strong energies, I trust we will do our best to choose wisely. Certainly not everyone on the planet will do well with them.
May you align with the Snake’s transformative energies, and navigate the coming changes with grace and beauty, and emerge more deeply connected to your purpose and vision.
Love and Blessings for a successful year full of creativity and connection!
Gaela
forcesofnaturedesign.com LLC
Creativity and Sacred Sites Retreats Geomancy Consultations and Property Clearings
gaela@forcesofnaturedesign.com
***May 25-June 2, 2025 Ireland Retreat Explore the magical Southwest peninsulas of Beara and Iveragh in County Cork and County Kerry! This retreat is being planned with the Irish Celtic Shamanic teachers, John Cantwell and Karen Ward, and Gaela Morrison. The theme is Irish Celtic Shamanism and Creativity, Imbas Forosnai, which translates to ‘manifestation that enlightens’, or ‘visionary inspiration’. Oh, yay! Details TBD. Email me if you want to be on list for further details.