From Shedding to Striding: Closing the Year of the Snake & Entering the Year of the Horse
A Chinese Astrology Perspective on Transformation, Momentum, and Purpose
As we transition from 2025 into 2026, we move between two profoundly different, yet beautifully complementary archetypes in Chinese Astrology: The Snake and The Horse.
Together, these energies create one of the most transformative two-year cycles of the entire zodiac.
Where the Snake clears, the Horse accelerates.
Where the Snake awakens truth, the Horse activates purpose.
Where one strips us down, the other calls us to rise.
This is the shift from inner refinement to outer expression,
from introspection to embodiment,
from shedding to striding.
2025 - The Year of the Snake
The Quiet Alchemist & Keeper of Inner Truth
The Snake is one of the most mysterious signs in the Chinese Zodiac. It rules intuition, transformation, inner wisdom, and the unseen layers of the psyche. When Snake energy governs a year, we move through a kind of spiritual molting, shedding skins that no longer fit and releasing illusions we’ve outgrown.
What the Snake Brought Us:
Dissolving Illusion & Ego
Snake years reveal what has been distorted or misunderstood. They pull apart the stories we cling to, often gently but unmistakably, so we can see reality with greater clarity.
Bringing Hidden Emotions to Light
Snake energy draws buried feelings to the surface, fears, desires, wounds, longings, not to overwhelm us, but to free us.
Dismantling Outdated Identities
Like a snake shedding its skin, these years strip away roles, beliefs, relationships, or habits that we’ve outgrown. The shedding is uncomfortable, but necessary.
Turning Endings into Evolution
Snake medicine teaches that nothing truly ends, it transforms.
What we let go becomes fuel for what we become.
2025 was not meant to be a year of outward leaps or rapid change.
It was a year of clarification, purification, and internal recalibration.
Snake years often feel quiet on the surface but profound underneath.
They invite deep inner work, refining intuition, strengthening discernment, and reconnecting with the truth of who we are.
The Gift of the Snake:
A clear, open path.
One that may have required sacrifice, surrender, and introspection but one that now makes space for something new to grow.
2026 - The Year of the Horse
The Liberator, the Leader & the Bringer of Momentum
Where the Snake moves through stillness, the Horse arrives with motion.
The Horse is one of the most dynamic, expressive, and spirited signs in the zodiac. It brings yang energy, passion, extroversion, movement, strength, and a desire for freedom.
This shift from Snake to Horse is one of the most powerful energetic transitions in Chinese Astrology, from the internal to the external, from the moon to the sun.
What the Horse Will Bring:
Strength Returning to the Body
Where Snake energy may have felt heavy or slow, Horse energy revives physical vitality and motivation.
Confidence Reactivating
The Horse restores self-belief, bravery, and the desire to charge forward.
Clarity Turning Into Action
Under the Snake, clarity emerged.
Under the Horse, clarity becomes choice, and choice becomes movement.
Joy & Creativity Reigniting
The Horse lives to express, connect, celebrate, and create.
2026 wants you to enjoy your life again.
Horse years are excellent for:
starting new projects
launching ideas
travel and expansion
career shifts
creative pursuits
strengthening your leadership
following your passion
stepping out of comfort zones
embodying your purpose
Where the Snake stripped us down to our essence, the Horse asks us to rise into who we’re ready to become.
The Horse
will not carry you,
but it will run
with you
The Snake & Horse Together: A Two-Year Initiation
These two zodiac energies are not random.
They work in sequence, creating a deliberate progression:
The Snake clears your path. The Horse moves you forward.
2025 asked:
What no longer serves you?
Who are you without the old skin?
2026 asks:
What direction are you choosing?
What are you ready to run toward?
The two-year cycle can be understood like this:
Snake:
Strip back.
Reveal truth.
Release illusion.
Prepare the ground.
Horse:
Act.
Move.
Build.
Live your truth boldly.
One year dismantled.
The next year activates.
The Horse Will Not Carry You - But It Will Run With You
This is one of the most important teachings for the year ahead.
The Horse is freedom, momentum, and swift energy, but it is not passive.
It will not drag you.
It will not lead for you.
It will not make the decision.
But the moment you choose a direction, the Horse will run with you… fast.
This is the year where hesitation becomes heavy and decisiveness becomes magnetic.
It asks for:
courage
clarity
intention
willingness to leap
trust in your own instincts
The path is open.
The momentum is here.
The energy is alive.
Now you choose the direction.
How to Align With the Year of the Horse
1. Move Your Body
Horse energy lives in physicality, running, dancing, strength, embodiment.
2. Make Decisions
This is not the year for overthinking.
Make the move.
3. Follow Joy
The Horse thrives in play, creativity, and self-expression.
4. Say Yes to Opportunities
Momentum builds through action.
5. Trust Your Inner Fire
Your instincts are stronger this year.
Let them guide you.
A Year to Rise
2025 stripped us bare.
2026 asks us to stand tall.
The Snake removed the illusions.
The Horse reveals the horizon.
This is the year to trust yourself.
To act boldly.
To run freely.
To choose a direction with your whole heart.
The Snake prepared the ground.
Now the Horse carries the wind.
The question now becomes: