The Year of the Snake: Digest and Imagine
By Amanda Briody
The Year of the Snake: Digest and Imagine
despite our best efforts, nothing remains the same. every year brings new challenges, every season brings new weather. even the collection of cells that make up our bodies is not the same as it once was. in a cycle of destruction, integration and creation, we grow and evolve, personally and collectively. while the weather fluctuates, the temperatures rise and fall, and the winds whip, the center of the earth remains bright, hot, molten and churning. she remains true, her spirit constantly stoked. and while your physical body turns over every cell and recreates every tissue, your essence, your capital S “Self” remains true. and with every shedding, a snake is still a snake. perhaps with every shedding, the snake gets closer and closer to the capital T “Truth.”
welcome to the year of the yin wood snake. this lunar new year marks the transition from a very yang, very big, very chaotic wood dragon year to a very yin, very inward, very personal wood snake year. one way that I am thinking about this transition is that the snake, after lying in wait for 12 years and with a gut instinct, ate the dragon. and so for the foreseeable future, the snake is digesting the year of the dragon, processing all of the big events, changes and challenges that occurred. the snake is integrating the experiences of the dragon year and arriving at new ways of understanding herself. and eventually, with all of this integration, the snake with grow, and need to shed her skin. and she will become vulnerable, and seek safety and comfort in her surroundings, in her community as she grows.
this is what the snake year is all about. turning your attention inward, establishing a locus of control. tending to your own growth and becoming. giving yourself the space and time to process. to digest. to separate what is for you and what is not. to be discerning. tapping into your snakelike instincts by learning the signals of your body. this year is all about you, your spiritual development, your connection with physicality, and intuition that links that two.
the snake year of processing and reimagining after the destruction of the wood dragon year will lead in to the building year of the horse. but for now, its time to tend to yourself and be in a community that’s got your back while you digest your wood dragon year, shed your old habits and mindsets, clarify your perception of what is important to pay attention to, develop patience and snakelike instincts, and most importantly, grow.