2025: Transformation in the year of the Wood Snake
The snake, being an animal that is arguably the most grounded one since half of its body is constantly on the ground, is a symbolic reminder for the need to be grounded in order to fully change and evolve. The snake is historically and cross culturally a symbol of transformation, intuition, wisdom and mystery. In Indian culture, the snake is associated with Kundalini Shakti, the life force energy that goes up the spine and can unblock blockages within our energy system help us to embody more our internal power. It is not a coincidence that the most grounded animal, the snake, is also the animal cross culturally associated with transformation. This is the wisdom of nature speaking though symbolism. Being grounded in the midst of change is important because it allows us to change fully; when mind, spirit, emotions, and the denser aspect of our energy being; our physical body are all on board with change, we are able to integrate the change. Helping the integration of change within the denser aspect of energy that is housed within the physicality of our flesh allows change to be integrated into our being so that we embody the transformation instead of it only being a thoughtform or fleeting state of consciousness. I have found when working with clients that even when the mind and spirit has changed, the physical body sometimes takes a bit more time to catch up. Collectively, we are in dire need to get grounded because the earth and humanity and the other unseen forces within the universe and beyond are evolving, and so are we. Change is happening, and change is guaranteed to keep happening whether we like it or not, so we might as well find a way to embrace the process instead of resisting it and feeling even more powerless about the whole thing.
This year 2025 is the year of the wood snake, and the wood element deals with growth and change, and the snake deals with shedding, and letting go in order to transform, so we are basically in a double whammy of change. Energetically we are in a pressure cooker of change and transformation with both the wood element and snake’s association with transformation. Change is often scary for people because it implies a death process, and an entry into the unknown. The reality is that death is inevitable, and the more we can embrace the small death of change in the smaller cycles of life, the more prepared we can be for our final transition in these physical bodies. Facing death is incredibly important work because it makes us less fearful, and becoming less fearful makes us harder to control, and overall, more at ease with existence. I don’t know about y’all but existential dread has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, I even experienced existential dread as a child, this mainly showed up as fear of my loved ones dying. I am still not completely immune to fear and likely won’t ever be totally free of fear while I am a human on earth, it does have its place after all. However, I know that embracing change and the small deaths that happen from allowing myself to change, and allowing old friendships and identities to die has helped prepare me for death and as a result helped me to be less scared and actually enjoy this process of life as a human a bit more.
Within the context of the year of the wood snake; the shedding of the snakeskin is quite unpleasant, in fact it is painful, yet on the other side of this small death is a newfound liberation. Like the idea of the hero’s journey, we must go into the cave, the dark of the unknown, face ourselves and come out with more wisdom, if we want to live out our full potential. In classical Chinese medicine, the unknown is represented by the water element. Traversing the unknown is like going deep sea diving; it is both exhilarating and terrifying, so much so that most people will not ever attempt it and do whatever possible to avoid it. The representation of water in Classical Chinese medicine deals with our jing essence, the physicality of who we are, our nature and the physical cauldron needed to hold the alchemical fire. Without our jing essence there is no life. The water element’s associated emotion is, you guessed it, fear. What this all means from a five-element perspective is that when we face our fear of the unknown (water element) we are granted the gift of rebirth. The wood snake is a symbol of the rebirth that can happen when we face our deep waters; aka our emotions, subconscious, shadow parts of self by going into the cave and going within. The biggest hindrance I’ve personally experienced within my own transformational journey has been emotional blocks. I have found that societally we tend to avoid our emotions deeming them as a weakness. The emotions, the subconscious and the shadow are all part of this murky water element that we must face within ourselves in order to get to the more enjoyable rebirth stage of awakening.
The element that comes after the water element is wood, from death comes rebirth, from the entropy of deep diving into our subconscious comes a vision for what’s possible. In order to strengthen the wood element, we must nourish our water element. This means stillness and going within.
We see from trees that we need a healthy root system to grow strong, the health of how far deep we go correlates to how far upwards the tree branches can ascend. From an energetic perspective, the wood element, which is symbolized in trees, and plants and the ascending aspects of its nature, depicts the uprising energy of spring. This is incarnation, the cycle of nature showing us that anything that seems dead may actually just be in a state of dormancy, and there may be a lot more happening underground than we think. What we often fail to recognize is the orchestra of the invisible realm that happens underground, while we may not be able to perceive it, there is an entire unseen symphony that takes place in order for life to be made manifest. The root system, and all of its inner workings, the exchange of nutrients, water, the mycelium all working together underground that took place for this creation to become manifest. Similarly, in a spiritual context, often there is a strong focus on ascension and spiritual enlightenment while neglecting the wisdom of the emotions and the physical, meanwhile the so-called root system of our being can get ignored.
We see this in some spiritual and ascension practices that are geared towards separation of consciousness from the body, where we gaslight ourselves into the belief system of our choosing even though our body is screaming at us to listen to it, and what it is saying might actually be key needed to move onto the next phase. A prime example is avoiding emotions, the truth is that we are only as spiritually evolved as we are emotionally integrated. We take medication and substances not to feel, and cut ourself off from the intuitive guidance of these wise aspects of self. What this disconnection can create, from a Chinese medical perspective is a yang rising presentation, where there is not enough yin to ground the spirit, it is sometimes referred to as liver yang rising or empty heat and it is the over ascension of yang energy without adequate grounding, too much emphasis on spirit and mind and a neglect for the yin aspect of the body and emotions. This is the compartmentalization of our body, mind, spirit and emotions instead of recognizing its interconnection. We know that from watching nature that a tree without a strong root system will fall over when the wind blows too strongly. Similarly, if we place too much emphasis on ascending, what may be called nowadays as spiritual bypassing or lack of self-accountability, we neglect our root systems, and this leads to unsustainable growth that will not hold us in the winds of change.
The difference between integrated grounding and ungrounded spiritual ascension is like a funnel of energy spinning out, creating a cyclone of ungrounded chaos, versus a toroidal field in which energy is coming up from the earth, through us, and simultaneously coming down from the cosmos through us back into the earth; the main difference being that the focus is as much on grounding as it is ascending.
The way that I see this same pattern play out is in humanity’s obsession with looking outside of ourselves for the bad guy, or the savior, when what we really need to do is look within. As Dr. Carl Jung said, “Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.” This year of the wood snake is a year where we are being gifted the opportunity to go within and heal by facing the parts of ourselves that we have repressed, feeling our feelings, tending to the wounded inner child that felt the need to subjugate parts of ourselves in order to feel safe and loved. Only once we have gone within the cave of our shadow aspects and faced ourselves can we transform within so that we are able to embody a deeper expression of our own true essence and come more fully into our personal power.
