Dec 2025/Jan 2026 - The threshold - we are standing at a new beginning. This is the end, and this is the beginning. The collective rest button is being pushed. (so if you feel like your buttons are being pushed - well - they are!) One big one in fact - the one that says - LET’S START OVER!!
We are completing the Snake + year 9 (2025) and entering the Horse + year 1 (2026), we are truly living a threshold moment, as we enter a new era of embodiment. A seasonal, spiritual and energetic turning.
The horse year and collective year 1 rise on the horizon, but we are still completing the final arc of snake year and numerology year 9.
This overlap, an ending unwinding as a beginning sparks, is its own juicy alchemy. We are between stories. Between skins, between worlds dancing in liminal space, where transformation softens into embodiment. The Wood Snake year (2025) has transformed us and the Fire Horse year calls for us to embody what we have learnt and live it.
We are finishing a powerful 9-year collective cycle. The Snake year has been the inner alchemist, peeling away layers of identity, illusion, and inherited fear. Pairing this with a numerological year 9, a collective closing cycle, we are now in the final stretch of dissolution. (which might feel like the final meltdown!)
This phase often feels heavy, slow, deeply emotional, energetically raw, this is a call to stop, go slow and put some shades on. Chill. This is a reflective, integration moment before the Horse takes shape. We are integrating the deep shifts of this year and clearing space. This is the last exhale of a long inner journey, a final clearing before new beginnings take form.
In the Southern hemisphere - this might feel counter-intuitive to the summer festive season springing upon us - but use this time wisey by saying a firm NO to too much and too many, and let yourself bathe in rest, relaxation and cleansing. (I’m pretty sure champagne is a deep cleanser of sorts!) Get in the sea. Clear off the year. Take time to just BE. In the Northern hemisphere, the descent into winter magnifies the energetic themes of stillness, slowness, reflection, returning to essence. Where ever you are - let this time be a time of reflection, grace, alignment and clarity. Steadying your vision (or creating a whole new one!) Choose supportive rythms, early nights, quiet reflection, slower pace…
Take time for: Internal Processing, nervous system repair, soul-level recalibration
The snake is the keeper of inner worlds, it’s wisdom is subtle, cellular, snakes do not change by force, they evolve by shedding what has become too small. This last cycle has asked us to uncoil old patterns, identities, and fears, sit in the quiet of ourselves, cultivate inner stillness, listen more than act, heal beneath the surface. The process might have felt disorientating like wiping fog from a mirror only to meet new layers of truth beneath.
In traditional Chinese medicine, the snake corresponds to deep internal processes, blood essence the hidden rythms of transformation. The work was subterranean, nourishing yin, rebuilding jing (core vitality) connecting slow growth to long term strength. This year was a year of rooting, not running, the body called for rest, the spirit asked for truth. Completion. Closure.
Where year 9 completed, year 1 initiates…
The next cycle is about forward motion, courageous expression, directional clarity, leadership of the heart. There is a quickening here, an internal spark beginning to pulse beneath the quiet, we may feel a pull towards new creations, fresh desire awakening, restlessness, inspiration without clarity (yet), this is normal. We are still integrating, but the horizon is calling…
The horse year invites momentum, courage, self-expression and movement… Paired with a collective 1 year this is a time of initiation, where what once lived inside us begins to take physical form.
The Horse embodies: freedom, direction, motion, visibility, passion….
Where the snake slows, the horse accelerates. Where snake dissolves, the horse builds. The teaching now is to embody the transformation. Move with the truth you have discovered. Build the new life you desire, in alignment, in integrity with who you TRULY are.
The horse in TCM is connected to FIRE and the HEART (Shen) The heart governs: Sovereignty of spirit, emotional clarity, vision and insight, connection and communication. Fire must be tended, unbalanced, it burns wildly balanced it illuminates, inspires and warms the world around us
This cycle is about learning how to not extinguish your fire and not to let it consume you - but to channel it into true heart purpose.
This year strengthens courage, creative output, leadership, relationship awareness, heart-led expression. We move from inner reflection to outward creation….
However - Every force has a shadow, the horses strength can liberate, or destroy depending on how we wield it and how we channel it. It can easily run wild…Potential shadow could include: Over-extension, over-exursion, burnout, impulsivity, scattered energy, running without direction…..the lesson is not to suppress the horse, but to partner with it, learn when to sprint and when to walk, when to rest. When to be embers, when to be blaze!!
This is sovereign freedom, not rebellion without direction. Structures, routines and boundaries protect your fire so you can shine sustainably. Call in the Pericardium to help you keep a check on your wild heart and all its amazing projects!
This collective year 1 marks the start of an entirely new nine-year cycle
Key themes: initiation, new directions, identity rebirth, desire awakening, fresh opportunities - the question becomes, what will you build now that you’ve cleared the space?
This is about first steps, not perfect ones……..
This new 2026 year asks:
How do you embody what you have discovered? How do you live from your heart?
Preparing for the horse energy:
Begin waking up the fire + heart….
with FIRE qi gong forms, Drinking rose/goji/hawthorn teas, journel and vision boards, dance, walk, stretch daily, explore creative impulses, reconnect socially, plan without pressure, stoke the flame gently..
This year will mirror your inner state more vividly than ever, when grounded - life flows, when misaligned - friction rises.
Core practices:
Regulate your nervous system, anchor into ritual, tend your inner fire, move from intention - not reaction, rest as fiercely as you create, root before you run, honour your heart, your vitality is your compass
Movement without awareness is chaos, movement with awareness is mastery…
With so much love and heart FIRE
Wilhemeena
PS Tune into our annual Vision Quest here - ceremony, visioning together in circle for this wild ride ahead - saddle up!
images by Aniko Arts