01/29/2025
Year of the Snake, Dark of the Moon
Snake Comes riding in on this New Lunar Year
We have enjoyed the passing Year of the Wood Dragon, relishing and resting in its security and prosperity. Despite the political storms, living has had a solidarity to it, a sense of presence and knowing where we are, a sense of movement and motion filled with some direction and a bit of clarity. A security in the way things are and will continue.
Now we are embarked, as Lincoln would say, upon a time of great change and upheaval. Snake comes to accompany us, winding through the coming months of change and uncertainty. What was once clear and reliable is now delving and turning beneath us like the very coils of its form, holding unknowns and perhaps destruction in its scales. This is a time to journey with the snake as it slithers close to the earth, winding down into its den and reappearing unexpectedly with danger in its path.
Snake bids us keep alert. What was hidden in the depths now surfaces and must be watched and marked. Dangers must be avoided. And in this shifting perilous time of knowing and not knowing, revealing and uncovering of what has been hidden in the depths as we wind through them with snake, is growth. What we were oblivious to before has now surfaced, unpleasant as it may be, and is sunning itself on the rock before us, unexpectedly. With snake, one must determine if it is deadly or not. And still its bite, tho not of venom, may hold disease and infection, and is best avoided. All of this unwinding of the unknown begins in the Dark of the Moon, the time of No Light, in the lunar new year. We shall have to wait for the light to slowly appear.
Mark this as a year of growth, however painful, and know that you can trust snake to take you through it if you walk with care, perception and preparation. Ride on its back into buried places to find light to face things with and depth to understand them. Study the Ouroboros with care, the great snake eating its own tail tells us of the infinity of life and gives us the bigger picture. Grow – it is not always pleasant, but it is not optional, it is the way of nature to grow. As you do, remember snake, who sheds its skin, making room for growth, and let what is no longer a good fit for you go. Ideas and beliefs, ways of being and behaviors that once suited you may become constrictive, dried up or splitting off – let them go and keep growing, keep going on this most twisting and winding journey of dark and light where the end is not yet in sight and no vision for the future permeates.
Ride and keep alert in the moment to avoid the venomous bite and maximize the lengthening sight. This is the gift of snake, and the gift of moonlight, which will continue to rise and shine, fade and decline, with each turning of the coils of serpent’s monthly ride. We have twelve more full illuminations and times of darkness ahead of us. There are new opportunities each cycle. Keep a strong heart and move along with snake through this winding year of many moons.
