Ep 12. Year of the Yin Wood Snake
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Hello and welcome to the podcast. My name is Irene, and I'm your host. This podcast is devoted to all things that support the illumination and liberation of the feminine. So here we go. For today, I want to share the forecast for 2025 based on Chinese astrology. For those of you who don't know me, I am a Chinese medicine practitioner, and I've been in the healing arts for over 20 years. I’m also a Western medicine doctor, so I practice both Eastern and Western medicine. I love astrology, particularly Chinese astrology, but I also have a deep admiration for Western astrology. I'm an astrology geek, and the reason I love astrology so much is because it provides us with a blueprint of the energetic forces at play in the sky.
In Chinese medicine, we understand the principle of "as above, so below," which is also part of the medicine of Daoism. We recognize that we are nature. We are made of the same elements as the stars—we are stardust. As the heavenly stars and planets create patterns, those energetic patterns affect our inner landscape—our psyche, our physical body, our emotions, and our minds. By observing what’s happening in the heavens, we gain keys to understanding what’s happening within us and in our environment.
In Chinese medicine, we also have an understanding of destiny, luck, and manifestation. So what does it mean to have good luck, and how can we manifest it? In Daoism, we know that three energies must come into play to manifest our desires: the sky, the human, and the earth. This perspective reveals that we are co-creators of our life. Based on the patterns of the stars and planets, we are affected by 33% of our destiny. The environment and seasons influence another 33%, and the human—the choices we make—affects the remaining 33%. This means that our circumstances don’t define us. With clear intent, we can co-create our destiny. We must be clear about what we want and strive to create a world full of beauty, equity, love, compassion, wisdom, abundance, and freedom for all. That is my prayer.
Understanding the heavenly stars gives us insight into 33% of the energetic influences affecting our destiny and the upcoming year. January 29th marks the Chinese New Year, transitioning from the Year of the Yin Wood Dragon to the Year of the Yin Wood Snake. I love Chinese astrology because it’s based on the lunar cycles. On January 29th, we also have a new moon in Aquarius. In Western astrology, Aquarius represents transformation, radical change, upheaval, and breakdown for breakthrough. This is a time when systems break down to be reborn. Aquarius is the rebel, the visionary, and it’s connected to technology and science.
In Chinese astrology, January 29th also activates the virtues of the Yin Wood Snake. As with everything, there’s a light and a shadow to these energies. The main theme for 2025 is deep transformation and healing. If we take the opportunity, this year offers a chance to raise our vibration, to illuminate our inner light, to ignite our joy, to embody bliss and pleasure, and to align with our true nature.
The Year of the Dragon was a time of exploration, impulsiveness, and high energy, akin to the teenage years—lots of exploration and travel. But now, we transition into the Year of the Snake, which is more mature but still represents young adulthood. It’s a time for evolution, with much to learn and transform. Yin energy is softer than Yang, and the Snake is associated with sensuality and the awakening of Kundalini energy in the body. The coiled serpent at the base of the pelvis activates the chakras, helping us evolve into the realization of our true self.
However, for this process to happen, we need to be in harmony with ourselves. If we are out of coherence, we may experience healing crises. We’re already seeing signs of this on the global stage, as we are living in an inflamed collective experience. But let’s take a step back and consider the energetic qualities of wood, which are associated with spring. In the spring, there’s a rebirth. After the death and dormancy of winter, energy surges upward to create new life. This vitality, or wood energy, has been present in 2024 and continues into this year.
When wood is in alignment, it embodies the archetype of bamboo—strong, resilient, yet flexible. It’s expansive, open, and generous. But when wood is out of balance, it can become rigid, like an oak tree—narrow-minded and stubborn. This is an excess of wood energy, and it’s a theme for this year. Wood is related to the liver, and excess wood energy manifests as irritability, anger, intolerance, and even rage.
To clear excess wood energy, it’s important to undergo practices like a liver detox. Be mindful of your intake of coffee, alcohol, sugar, greasy foods, and dairy—these can overload your system. This year, we also see an excess of fire energy. Wood feeds fire, and this is the guest element of the year. We’ve already seen this in events like the fires in Los Angeles earlier this year—uncontrollable fire and destruction. However, fire also has a purifying role, clearing what no longer serves us to make space for renewal.
In Chinese medicine, we always work with the balance of yin and yang, water and fire. The five elements—wood, fire, earth, metal, and water—feed each other in a cyclical creating cycle. But they also control each other to maintain balance. When one element is deficient, it can’t control what it’s meant to, and this year we face a deficiency in metal. Metal controls wood, but when metal is weak, wood can become out of control. This imbalance also contributes to the excess fire energy we’re experiencing.
This year, we are likely to see more inflammation, so it’s important to take steps to cool that down—avoid stressful situations, excessive heat, spicy foods, and focus on nourishing your water, earth, and metal elements. Practices that support grounding, such as walking barefoot on the earth or hugging trees, are great for the earth element. I personally find hugging trees to be incredibly grounding, allowing the energy of the tree to clear anything that isn’t serving me.
Resting is vital for nourishing the water element, especially getting enough yin energy at night. Sleep before 11 p.m., stay hydrated, and consider incorporating goji berries into your diet, as they nourish the yin, particularly for women entering perimenopause or menopause. It’s also important to release emotions—expressing anger in a safe space, through therapy, coaching, or cathartic journaling. Suppressed emotions create heat in the body, and we are already in a year of excess heat, so we need to find practices to discharge and express these emotions.
Embodiment practices, such as dance, circular movements, and Kundalini energy activation, are key. Move with slow, deep music, and connect with your sensual energy. Grounding foods like root vegetables also help calm the scattered, anxious energy. The snake, as a symbol of transformation, represents death and rebirth. It sheds its skin to evolve into a more aligned version of itself.
For me, Kundalini energy is closely tied to our inner feminine power—our Shakti. This energy awakens us and guides us in our spiritual journey. It moves through the spine and activates the chakras, so practices that support this energy, like chakra meditations and sacred sexuality practices, are essential. When we connect with our sensual energy and ignite Shakti, we also ignite our joy and pleasure.
In Daoism, orgasms are considered a full Qigong practice because they open the body’s channels and activate every cell with chi. The goal is to transform this chi into Shen—spiritual energy. This spiritual path is about growing in love, compassion, and awareness. We are all beacons of light, and this year offers us a chance to raise our vibration. The choices we make—what we eat, the relationships we nurture, the environments we inhabit, and our spiritual practices—will all shape how this year unfolds.
That’s all I have for you today. Each Chinese animal has its own specific forecast, so if you'd like to learn more, let me know, and I can share a second part of this talk. For now, I wish you a happy New Year—a year of deep transformation and healing. May it be gentle, may it be gentle, may it be gentle. Sending you lots of love and many blessings.
