I don't make resolutions. Quit that many years ago. I do take stock however, in the past year, where I am currently, what growth has occurred, what challenges, what I want to let go of and what I want to invite. I was going to write a volume here about all of that, but I received an e mail this morning...and I am going to post it instead...to remind me, to give me great joy and encouragement during 2014.
By Karen Abler Carrasco, WSFS Consultant,
Mentor and Teacher
There might not be a bigger shift of energies
in the entire 60 year wheel of Chinese astrology than this one coming up–the
shift from two Water years of deep introspection to the fast-paced spurt of
extroverted forward propulsion that the Wood Horse brings. Hold on to
your hats, folks, and realize that you won’t be able to, nor will you want to,
slow your horses in the New Year ahead! This will be a promethean year, the
Beginning of all beginnings, arriving around January 31st to February 4th,
2014. Full of uplift, optimism and compelling inspiration, we will be
guided into purposeful action of the most elegantly simple and powerfully
fruitful kind. After two years of feeling every revelation of corruption
in the dark as if it was scouring our subconscious insides and wringing us dry
of watery emotion, we are READY for this change! Light, hope and clarity
of vision gallop in. Emerge from your cocoons, everybody, here we goooooo!
Because this will be such a big change of
energetic experience for us, it will help to review here how the cycle of the
sacred Five Elements, or Phases, have set us up for this shift. In that
cycle, Wood feeds Fire, Fire’s ash creates Earth, Earth’s compression reveals
gems of Metal, and Metal collects and holds Water, which nourishes the Wood to
start the cycle all over again. The natural laws of these five elements are
actually working in multiple ways throughout Nature, our bodies, our
psychologies and the energetic movements of all things here on this
planet. In these movements, there are cycles within cycles, one of which
is the cycle of birth, growth, disintegration and death, or the void that comes
after old life and before new life.
We have just been traveling through that
void, in two Water years, which immersed us in a descending place of
degeneration, dissolution and chaos, a time when our internal world of formless
spirit and emotions held total sway over every attempt at external control or
order. For most of us, it was an unsettling time of letting go of many
things, either voluntarily or forcefully, a time of deep soul searching, with
gradual or sudden destabilization in many areas of family and livelihood.
There was a profound search for a return to a spiritual basis for daily
living. This all had the effect of highlighting an individual’s isolation
and powerlessness within a seemingly random and careless society. Not
that outright rebellion and outcry didn’t happen, globally as well as
internally. The 2012 Yang Water Dragon year saw to that, with its
critical promptings of social responsibility and heroism, and this Yin Water
Snake year that followed delved even deeper into the most hidden caves of
stagnant dysfunctionality and corruption on all levels.
The good and great news is that we have
completed 5 years of the degenerative part of the cycles–that of the harvested,
decomposing Earth, compressing and eliminative Metal, and dissolving, settling
out, cleansing Water. We now emerge into the generative cycles–powerful,
bursting buds of Wood’s new growth fueling the joyful outreach and passions of
Fire and the beginnings of Earth’s fruitful harvests.
So, that’s the Wood part of what’s
coming. Now to turn our gaze to the animal symbol of Horse. This
sprouting upward rush of Wood energy will find its perfect release into the
impulsive and passionate nature of the Yang Horse, whose native element is
Fire. The Horse energy inspires powerful INTUITION and an indomitable
surge towards freedom in every aspect of life. This is a year to follow your
inner voice like never before, for it will have a universal cosmic ch’i within
it. Higher guidance is with us every step of the way. Reach for the
sky, call up your vision, fuel your plans with vision boards and creativity,
find a fresh path and pace yourself well. This yang Horse year has the
potential to channel the powerful new upthrust of Wood’s Ch’i through the
Horse’s Heart energy of Fire and into every project we start, every desire we
reach for. It will keep our eager plans from being dominated by too much
“head” and not enough “heart.”
It may be quite challenging to trust that we
have this absolutely new, purified and hopeful energy to build on now.
Our hearts have had to endure a gauntlet of deconstruction through two Metal
and two Water years, but the fiery Horse is about to change all of that.
Within the extroverted “Green Horse” year, we will not only branch out with new
growth, but we will be able to stoke the Fire element of love in every area of
life. Follow your intuition fearlessly, as it is both the horse’s main
attribute which preserves its freedom and powerful health and it is Wood’s
primary talent for stretching into the unknown future. Reach out with
irrepressible faith to a new level of social communion and mutual
support. Trust every impulse to embrace a revitalized and renewed
sensitivity for the pleasures this earthly dimension has to offer.
Step up and out of any old clutter, stored
memories, should-have-dones or regrets. The time to deal with that is
over for now. Untangle your thoughts quickly and get clear on what it is
that you truly desire in this lifetime. Your trusty steed is here, full
of vibrant health and tremendous stamina. It should be quite a fast ride,
so grab a fistful of mane, hang on to the reins, cast your old cares to the
wind and let out a whoop of delight–Yeeehaaw! Upward and onward we
thrive! May we all be blest abundantly as we hold each other closer in
the circle of health and new life the Wood Horse year brings.
