The 2014 Wood Horse
Freedom, Independence, Power, and Germinations
On the heels of two super new moons in January, the first occurring on New Year’s Day, we now arrive at Imbolc or Saint Brighid’s Day (the Gaelic festival marking the midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox) and Candlemas (the presentation of Jesus at the temple and a day of purification, renewal and hope) in the Christian tradition.
Additionally, we have just moved through the portal of the Chinese New Year and into a significant new cycle. Celebrations welcoming this new energetic chapter will be happening through 15 February, but as of 31 January we have officially entered the year of the Wood Horse. 2014 is unquestionably charging ahead.
Emerging from the last two internal water years of intense reflection, clearing and cleansing (the Dragon of 2012 and the Snake of 2013), we have shed many of our skins (in their varied forms) in preparation for this next (natural) stage of our individual (and collective) third dimensional human evolution journey.
The Wood Horse is all about germination. The water of 2012 and 2013 has fed the wood, and now germinations are ripe to emerge and blossoms ready to burst forth. Freedom, power, full honest expression, changes, new beginnings, independence, creative emergence, optimism, speed, movement…Yes!
The wood element makes this an earthy year, one focused on matter, foundations and manifestations. The horse animal brings its qualities: energy, power, play, independence, an inherent freedom-seeking drive.
The germinations of this year are certain to emerge, in whatever ways you have created/prepared/called forth. Certain does not refer to fated or fixed, rather it speaks to what is encoded at this stage of the cycle, to this part of natural process.
Because the Wood Horse energy of this year promises to be full, fast and intense (this, in addition to the continuing Pluto-Uranus square, Jupiter T-square, Mars Grand Cross, and more), it is vital to mindfully attend to our foundational needs (mind/psyche, body/health, spirit/connection-centering) and radically practice various forms of Self-love. Staying grounded, in allowance, and awake-aware will aid us in riding this momentum-wave skillfully (and in co-creative mastery toward magical realities) verses being inattentive and getting demolished by the wave or carried away by the undertow (and feeling “victimized”).
You are an alchemist. Harness the power (and speed) of this year’s energetic signature so to actualize your Soul Print in the myriad ways which have been calling you over these recent months and years.
The article below on our WOOD HORSE year is beautifully on-point. Thank you, Soul Harmony on Demand!
“There might not be a bigger shift of energies in the entire 60 year wheel of Chinese astrology than this one coming up–the shift from two Water years of deep introspection to the fast-paced spurt of extroverted forward propulsion that the Wood Horse brings. Hold on to your hats, folks, and realize that you won’t be able to, nor will you want to, slow your horses in the New Year ahead!
“This will be a promethean year, the Beginning of all beginnings, arriving around January 31st to February 4th, 2014. Full of uplift, optimism and compelling inspiration, we will be guided into purposeful action of the most elegantly simple and powerfully fruitful kind. After two years of feeling every revelation of corruption in the dark as if it was scouring our subconscious insides and wringing us dry of watery emotion, we are READY for this change! Light, hope and clarity of vision gallop in. Emerge from your cocoons, everybody, here we go!
“Because this will be such a big change of energetic experience for us, it will help to review here how the cycle of the sacred Five Elements, or Phases, have set us up for this shift. In that cycle, Wood feeds Fire, Fire’s ash creates Earth, Earth’s compression reveals gems of Metal, and Metal collects and holds Water, which nourishes the Wood to start the cycle all over again. The natural laws of these five elements are actually working in multiple ways throughout Nature, our bodies, our psychologies and the energetic movements of all things here on this planet. In these movements, there are cycles within cycles, one of which is the cycle of birth, growth, disintegration and death, or the void that comes after old life and before new life.
“We have just been traveling through that void, in two Water years, which immersed us in a descending place of degeneration, dissolution and chaos, a time when our internal world of formless spirit and emotions held total sway over every attempt at external control or order. For most of us, it was an unsettling time of letting go of many things, either voluntarily or forcefully, a time of deep soul-searching, with gradual or sudden destabilization in many areas of family and livelihood. There was a profound search for a return to a spiritual basis for daily living. This all had the effect of highlighting an individual’s isolation and powerlessness within a seemingly random and careless society. Not that outright rebellion and outcry didn’t happen, globally as well as internally. The 2012 Yang Water Dragon year saw to that, with its critical promptings of social responsibility and heroism, and this Yin Water Snake year that followed delved even deeper into the most hidden caves of stagnant dysfunctionality and corruption on all levels.
“The good and great news is that we have completed 5 years of the degenerative part of the cycles–that of the harvested, decomposing Earth, compressing and eliminative Metal, and dissolving, settling out, cleansing Water. We now emerge into the generative cycles–powerful, bursting buds of Wood’s new growth fueling the joyful outreach and passions of Fire and the beginnings of Earth’s fruitful harvests.
“So, that’s the Wood part of what’s coming. Now to turn our gaze to the animal symbol of Horse. This sprouting upward rush of Wood energy will find its perfect release into the impulsive and passionate nature of the Yang Horse, whose native element is Fire. The Horse energy inspires powerful INTUITION and an indomitable surge towards freedom in every aspect of life. This is a year to follow your inner voice like never before, for it will have a universal cosmic ch’i within it. Higher guidance is with us every step of the way. Reach for the sky, call up your vision, fuel your plans with vision boards and creativity, find a fresh path and pace yourself well. This yang Horse year has the potential to channel the powerful new upthrust of Wood’s Ch’i through the Horse’s Heart energy of Fire and into every project we start, every desire we reach for. It will keep our eager plans from being dominated by too much “head” and not enough “heart.”
“It may be quite challenging to trust that we have this absolutely new, purified and hopeful energy to build on now. Our hearts have had to endure a gauntlet of deconstruction through two Metal and two Water years, but the fiery Horse is about to change all of that. Within the extroverted “Green Horse” year, we will not only branch out with new growth, but we will be able to stoke the Fire element of love in every area of life. Follow your intuition fearlessly, as it is both the horse’s main attribute which preserves its freedom and powerful health and it is Wood’s primary talent for stretching into the unknown future. Reach out with irrepressible faith to a new level of social communion and mutual support. Trust every impulse to embrace a revitalized and renewed sensitivity for the pleasures this earthly dimension has to offer.
“Step up and out of any old clutter, stored memories, should-have-dones or regrets. The time to deal with that is over for now. Untangle your thoughts quickly and get clear on what it is that you truly desire in this lifetime. Your trusty steed is here, full of vibrant health and tremendous stamina. It should be quite a fast ride, so grab a fistful of mane, hang on to the reins, cast your old cares to the wind and let out a whoop of delight–Yeeehaaw! Upward and onward we thrive! May we all be blest abundantly as we hold each other closer in the circle of health and new life the Wood Horse year brings.”
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To your germinations! Let your freedom and power blossom!
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THE HOLISTIC LENS
When we change the way we look at things,
the things we look at change.