2025 Year of the Blue Wood Snake

Going through what to expect as the energy of 2025 unfolds.  Nu Gua meditation: https://youtu.be/xG0_QKPKF6w

Transcript

2025 Year of the Blue Wood Snake

As we enter into the new year, moving from the energies of 2024's Dragon to 2025's Snake, it's both traditional and understandable to have the urge to wash our hands of a year which was, for many, tumultuous, difficult, destructive, and disheartening on a multitude of levels. It's good to start fresh, keep moving, and, like Anne of Green Gables, see tomorrow as a day with no mistakes in it. In years past I would agree with this and do my own version, however, with the cycle started in 2024 it seems like it might be worth the time to enter into things a bit differently.

First, it's helpful to know that, among all the other rhythms to life which we experience including seasons, moon and pay cycles, daylight savings and the weekly grind, there's another rhythm we aren't necessarily aware of. This is described well in Chinese Astrology and is the two-year cycle of Creation and Implementation. Like an infinity loop pushing energy back and forth in a virtuous cycle, the energy of this planet influences us as human beings, our social systems, and all of the ways in which we interact into a bi-lobed cycle of bringing new things into being, then integrating them into the embodied world. This is a bit like farming in that the first half of the cycle we plant seeds. These might grow into healthy and flourishing plants easily, might need support and additional effort or they might fail. Whatever comes to be in the first half, it is harvested and transformed in the second, made into an end product while at the same time we are preparing the fields for a new crop. 

2024's Dragon was a creative year, full of the energy of empire building and setting new systems in motion. However, while we humans like to focus on the positive, seeing the building, creating, healing and mending aspects of energies, this dragon flew into the world breathing fire to burn out everything which no longer served. It cleansed systems, communities and individuals of their masks, disguises, deflections and glamours, raised old habits and leftover supports to the ground, as well as forcing people to move beyond "I'll deal with it someday" into dealing with it right now by setting everything ablaze. 

This is an aspect of empire building understood and appreciated by historians, power brokers, and politicians, but dramatic and often traumatic for those who are involved, no matter the intention or goal. 

Which is why so many in and out of spiritual community are asking "Is it over yet?" To which the answer is "Yes and No."

Dragon is leaving, having torn down the old and leaving what remains to be used to build the new, but without leaving any plans for what should be built in its place. The Yang of Dragon 2024 flies off leaving the Yin of the Blue Wood Snake to navigate through the remains, draft plans, and start the rebuilding process.

Snake is well suited for this, which is helpful. It is associated with many creation myths and at Lunar New Year it's closely associated with goddesses, specifically Nu Gua. She is a snake/mother goddess of China who is said to have created human beings from mud beside a river. Her energies are of creation but also support and rebuilding. In one myth the forces of heaven went to war and caused such structural damage to the celestial structures the universe began to break apart. Nu Gua repaired the pillars of heaven saving the earth and humans so they could continue to grow and thrive. I have a meditation video to support those who want to connect to her or the energies she provides: Nu Gua

In Greek culture the snake was a symbol of spirituality and healing as in the Caduceus which we still use as the symbol for medicine today.  In ancient Celtic cultures it was seen as an aspect of fertility, both in producing eggs, but also fertilizing them in an endless cycle of rebirth and renewal. 

In Chinese astrology Snake is intelligent, introspective, a seeker, but also cautious, wise, quiet, and complex.  Snake listens more than it speaks, understands complicated situations in great detail, makes plans, and then is swift to execute them, often without warning.  Snake is persistent in moving towards it's chosen goals, but rarely takes a straight route to them.  It winds through things, avoiding impediments and negativity, smoothly seeming to go with the flow when in reality it is manifesting the best route and options it can to achieve success.

Because Snake is not loud, demonstrative, or an extrovert, they can seem mysterious, cold or aloof.  In reality they value quality over quantity in everything from material possessions, career moves, conversations and even relationships.  They can seem manipulative to those who don't realize how much they have been preparing in any given situation.  Their moves and counter moves seem effortless and even mystical when in reality they are simply well prepared.

In 2025 Snake is assisted and honed by grounded Wood energies. This makes their efforts more practical, but also supports their creativity which for this year will show up in technology, innovations and inventions, as well as new systems, regimes, and financial opportunities.  It will enhance Snake's ability to be pragmatic and not leap to conclusions or "fix my problem quick" schemes. It also encourages Snake to create its holistic sense of interconnected self from the events of the past, crafting wisdom from experience which can help it navigate what is to come. This year will more than likely be about navigating the chaos of dying regimes and titans (of industry, political families, oligarchies, and world powers) fighting for domination, while focused on steady and solid personal progress, laying foundations, clearing away what no longer serves and coming to a level of comfort with the version of ourselves which emerges from Dragon's destruction.

As Snake is a force of creativity, it doesn't look to outside forces for its path forward, but instead creates it from within.  Snake lives a full and eventful life up in the trees, going through the grass, swimming in the water depending on the species, maintaining the balance and doing all the wonderful snaky things it does. Being dry and scaly, their skin actually feels like what a dragon would feel like if you could actually touch one. They are a little bit of fire on earth helping goose things into moving when they are wanting to stay still. 

Snake is also, by its own nature, a creature of transformation.  In the life of a snake there comes a point where it's time to replace the old with the new. We humans do this constantly. We have a cloud of sluffed skin cells and hair constantly floating away from us. We are continuously regenerating in every moment, until we finally stop. Snakes are more into "peel the onion." Waste not want not is their motto, so they wear their old skin until they outgrow it, until it's no longer useful; meanwhile they grow a new one underneath. It can seem like a complete duplicate of the first one and indeed it incorporates everything in the old one which was good and useful and supportive, but ditches what didn't work and adds in new features including renewed strength and vigor. Plus, it's bigger. 

Then the snake starts doing something rather wonderful. It starts shrugging around to detach the old skin. It starts working from the inside out, loosening things, tying up loose ends, getting everything ready to go. Eventually it's wearing an old snake suit and a brand new one underneath. And when the entire thing is loose, it walks right out of it. Well, not exactly. It has no hands, no feet, no nothing to start removing the suit, so searching for something around it with a sharp edge. A rock or a branch or something. And it scrapes and bangs its head against it. Rams its nose into something over and over again. It struggles and bashes and rips until the front of its skin is all torn up. Then it drags itself against that sharp thing to drag the skin off. It's a bit like birthing, the old from the new and so you'll hear the owners commenting the snake makes a "mess" in its cage. Yep, it's a "releasing" kinda process. Out with the old, in with the new as it were. Don't tease a snake while it's down. Well don't mess with it while it's shedding or directly after. Not only is the new skin brand new, never having been touched by anything, but snakes shed a layer off their eyes as well and so have severely limited vision and feel very vulnerable during the process. It can take a few hours before they are up and running again with their new skin and seeing through new eyes.

Something to remember is snake does this more than once in a lifetime. It does it often. Snakeskin isn't elastic. It has to be replaced each time it's outgrown. I most often see this at the individual level, people having reached the end of a phase in their life, things feel like they are completely done without being dramatic. They are just empty and it's time to move on, so the person shrugs out of the old life, sits blindly waiting for their insights to clear so they can move forward with the new self they've become, and the next phase begins. 

However, with this year it's not only happening at the personal level for individuals, but also on all the levels from the planetary on down, which can make things feel chaotic, confusing, and even traumatic depending on how much is going on all at once. It definitely makes things feel unstable, unpredictable, and difficult to navigate. Which is why I suggested at the beginning we not wash our hands of 2024 and just move into 2025 like it's a blank slate. It may have no mistakes in it yet, but a lot has been put into motion we need to keep our eyes on. The better to maneuver through it safely and navigate our way towards the goal.

The skin of our old selves began peeling off over the holidays of 2024. For some it left us feeling raw, exposed, shocked, and unsure. But things will start to become clearer towards the end of January and through February as Snake energies get into full swing. Snake blends into its environment, keeps itself to itself unless threatened or blocked, and creates health, wealth and abundance wherever it goes. Here's to wishing the same for all of us.