Happy Lunar New Year 2025
Chinese New Year happens on different days every year, because it is based on a Lunar-Solar Calendar.
Chinese New Year happens every year on the second new moon after the Winter Solstice, and it signals that spring is nearby. Traditionally, it is the time for family reunions and gifts that inspire prosperity. Celebrations last for two weeks, and the year itself is associated with a Chinese Zodiac animal. This year is the Year of the Yin Wood Snake or the Green Snake. In this post, I share some insights and blessings inspired by the symbolism of the snake.
Thinking in terms of Chinese Zodiac invites you to think of things symbolically and playfully. This is different from the way the world seems to call us to think about practical things, like fulfilling obligations and how to get ahead and make more money and have nice things. In contrast, the stories and the myths we share with one another invite us to use imagination and even dream. The story of Chinese New Year animals is that there was once a big race, and as the animals raced they revealed their strengths and strategies and also their weaknesses. The results were surprising, but in the end, so the story goes, the order in which the animals arrived determined the order that they appear in the 12-cycle Zodiac. The snake arrived in position 6, right in the middle of the 12-year cycle, because it hitched a ride on the horse’s hoof, and the horse year follows the snake year.
So, contemplating these details about the little story of the 12 animals invites us to ponder things while not being attached to hard and fast meanings, and more interested in what the symbols and stories evoke within us and how they make us feel and what they make us think about.
What the Snake Story Shows Us
The snake comes in the middle of the 12-year cycle and illustrates using the powers of observation and recognizing opportunities. In this way, snakes are associated with wisdom and knowing, which comes from developing and trusting intuition. I like that snakes have an ability to reveal the value of things that may have been hidden in plain sight, but not obvious to everyone. Like seeing the horse’s hoof in the middle of the race, and then quickly hitching a ride on the horse’s hoof at the right moment to get ahead. Maybe the other animals saw that and thought, “Well, look at that. I did not know we could do that. Form a team? Who knew?” Pondering things and considering things are totally appropriate things to do during the year of the snake. The general advice is to think things through, and not rush into things.
The Blessings for a Good Year
Snake energy in nature is about right timing and deep knowing. In nature a snake can be coiled and at rest and still one moment, and then suddenly strike in the next moment. That is the symbolic right moment. The unpredictability of snakes makes them formidable foes in nature, but somewhere in the mythology, snakes also became associated with healing. Maybe the snake’s amazing ability to pick the right moment points to their other abilities, which include knowing how to wait, being highly observant, having self-trust, not rushing into things, and so being naturally able to act when the time is right. Let’s not forget that snakes shed their skin and seem to become new snakes, fully repaired, on a regular basis. Snakes are natural masters of resilience and healing.
Every year has a feeling, and every feeling is an invitation to flow and harmonize with the energies of the moment.
Here are the special Yin Wood Snake Blessings for the year for you:
May you find the time to do things that are important to you.
May the unimportant things fall away like the snake’s shedded old skin.
May you cherish your connections to others.
May you be willing to dwell in mystery, and be okay with not knowing everything, and take your time to move and respond in your own time and your own way, if response is called for.
Finally, may you enjoy the puzzles, challenges, and seeming obstacles the year brings knowing that they make you smarter, more confident and brilliant in your knowing.