The Fire Horse has Arrived!

Something rare is happening today. The kind of rare that only comes around once every sixty years. If you have been feeling a shift, a stirring, a sense that something is different today, you are picking up on the energy of the Lunar New Year.

The Lunar New Year falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice, which is why the date shifts each year. This year it arrives alongside a Ring of Fire Solar Eclipse, making the convergence especially potent. Eclipses fold endings and beginnings together, with light briefly disappearing so that something new can be seen.

The Architecture of the Chinese Calendar

The Chinese calendar is built on two interlocking systems: the Earthly Branches (twelve animals) and the Heavenly Stems (Yin, Yang, and the Five Elements). The stem informs the energy of the animal, and together they shape how the year moves and feels.

We have not felt this particular combination in sixty years.

Yang Fire & the Horse

This is the Year of Bing Wu: Yang Fire Horse.

Last year was Yin Wood Snake: quiet, preparatory, and transformative. Like carefully arranging dry wood in the pit and preparing the fuel.

This year, we strike the match.

Yang Fire (Bing) is not the ember or the hearth. It is the open flame. It is the sun itself, vital and energetic, giving light and warmth without asking for anything in return. Yang Fire moves fast and illuminates as it goes, bringing what was hidden into the light.

The Horse meets that fire with its own nature: strength, endurance, freedom, and forward momentum. Horses are powerful and fast, yet they are also among the most sensitive and intuitive creatures we know. They respond to subtle signals and move with purpose rather than impulse. This is also a double fire year, as the Horse is intrinsically linked to the element of fire, which amplifies everything this year carries.

In Chinese medicine, Fire governs the Heart, the Small Intestine, and circulation. It is the element most closely tied to joy, connection, and openheartedness.

The goal this year is not to slow the Horse down, but to strengthen your system so you can ride it!

What This Year Is Asking of Us

The new moon today falls in Aquarius, the sign of community, of collective intelligence, of seeing ourselves as part of something larger. The eclipse opens a window: who are we becoming? What do we genuinely care about?  The energy available is enormous, and so is the invitation to use it wisely.

The last six years have been about building your strength, your clarity, your possibilities. This year feels like the culmination of that. A fire burns bright when the wood is ready.

But just as fire burns itself out if left unattended, discipline is what brings vision into reality.  The invitation this year is to move with intention rather than impulse, to move with authenticity rather than urgency, and to let your passion be sustained by rest.

How to Support Yourself This Year

In Chinese medicine, small and sustainable shifts are often the most powerful. Here are some ways to tend your inner fire well:

Nourish the Heart.

Protect your sleep like it is medicine. Create a gentle evening wind-down and keep your rhythms consistent. Practice one joyful thing daily, something light, even playful. Let your heart remember what it loves. Balance Fire with Water: baths, hot springs, time near rivers or the ocean, swimming, or quiet walks near water. Hydrate generously.

Move and Ground.

Get sunlight as the sun is Yang Fire itself, and letting it reach you reminds your body what season it is.  The Horse supports travel, creative projects, socializing, and community. Plan things that feed your spirit and your purpose and reconnect with loved ones that you haven’t seen in a while.

Receive Support.

Many people choose acupuncture around the New Year to help their bodies transition from winter's stillness into spring's gradual unfolding. We would love to be part of that support for you in the New Year!

We are encouraging you to live by the Golden Rule. To pay your good fortune forward and to be kind, not as an afterthought, but as a practice.

We are wishing you luck, health, and abundance in this Lunar New Year.

the root & the branch