Year of the Wood Snake Part 1: Chinese Astrology & Feng Shui Outlook
January 29, 2025 takes us into the Lunar New Year of the Wood Snake as the Moon turns new in Aquarius at 4:36AM Pacific Time (8:36PM in China). Also called the Spring Festival, the Lunar New Year is the most important festival in China celebrated by Chinese communities around the world. The 15-day celebration starts on New Year’s Eve with a family reunion dinner and ends with the Lantern Festival on the following Full Moon on February 12, 2025.
While the lunar new year is celebrated on new moon’s day, which varies each year according to the new moon that falls between January 20 to February 18, the solar calendar or astrological new year begins on February 3rd or 4th each year at the start of spring in the Chinese solar calendar. This is the calendar used by Chinese metaphysics practitioners and Feng Shui consultants to calculate one’s natal/Bazi chart and the changing of energies in the Feng Shui Flying Stars chart. In 2025, the astrological new year starts on February 3 at 10:10pm China Standard Time (or 6:10am Pacific Time) as the Sun enters 15° Aquarius. A baby born before this time will still have the Dragon in the year pillar of his or her natal chart, while those born after will have the Snake in the year pillar of their charts.
The year of the Wood Snake, which follows the year of the Wood Dragon, marks the end of a Wood cycle and the beginning of a Fire cycle. Whereas the Wood Dragon is a Yang year, the Wood Snake is a Yin year with Yin Wood in the heavenly frequency and Yin Fire in the Snake.
Here are a few keywords for the year of the Wood Snake: highly creative, collaborative, transformative, fast-paced / dynamic, and exciting, but also unpredictable and explosive. Artists, writers, and creators will especially find the Wood Snake year to be highly inspiring. We may travel near and far for art, fashion, entertainment, and culture as we seek to express, heal, and enrich the heart and mind.
Yin Wood is artistic, imaginative, curious, and open-minded, with an eye for beauty. Like flowers clambering up the branches of a tree, Yin Wood invites us to see the world from a higher perspective and open the eyes to the beauty that surrounds us. This is a year to get inspired, learn, create, and share your light. We’re interested in exploring the unfamiliar and seeing the bigger picture.
Yin Wood is easygoing and peace-oriented, as compared to Yang Wood’s divisive and often angry nature in 2024. Whereas Yang Wood like an upright tree can be unyielding, Yin Wood is flexible and willing to compromise for the sake of harmony. We may see more negotiations for peace taking place in the world stage.
Those born on Yin Wood day are blessed with the talents to transform their visions into original works, whether it’s words, visual art, fashion, or music. It’s easy to find many famous people who have Yin Wood as their self-element or day-master as their talents make them stand out in public. Yin Wood day masters include Julia Roberts, Madonna, Prince, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Anne Rice, and Coco Chanel.
Yin Fire in the Snake, associated with light and the heart, brings light to darkness. Yin Fire can be unstable and unpredictable compared to Yang Fire’s steady, radiant light. Whereas Yang Fire, associated with the Sun, lights up the whole world, Yin Fire is the small light in the dark. Imagine a soft flickering candle flame, a camp fire that warms up the night, stars or fireworks that light up the night sky. The light of Yin Fire can easily burn out yet it can be quickly re-ignited. Yin Fire can also be a rapid moving or explosive fire. These qualities of Yin Fire can show us how ideas and trends form. We can feel empty and uninspired one day and all of a sudden a flash of inspiration finds its way to the heart and ignites the fire within. Expect to see viral content in social media and new trends in pop culture spreading like wildfire.
People with Yin Fire as their self-element/day-master (those who were born on Yin Fire day) can easily and quickly inspire others with their words and actions like a single candle can light many others. Taylor Swift is the perfect embodiment of the Yin Fire archetype. Born on December 13, 1989, which is a Yin Fire day in the year of the Earth Snake, she lights up the stage everywhere she goes with her songs quickly dominating the music chart. Whether you’re a Swiftie or not, we see her Yin Fire effect clearly and her light will only shine brighter in 2025, which is her Snake return year.
The Snake as a travel star is quick, but it also has the patience to wait for the right moment to make a move. This is a year to hold your cards close to the heart. The Snake as one of the more complicated signs in the Chinese zodiac contains hidden elements of Yang Fire, Yang Metal, and Yang Earth, which indicate that not everything is as it seems. What may appear like an overnight success is often the result of hard work and persistence behind the scenes. Off the record negotiations and covert activities may lead to sudden change and surprising developments in the world stage.
As a Yin Fire sign, the Snake is the sign that represents the energy of Period 9, a 20-year cycle that officially started in 2024. The Wood Dragon year took us into a new era, but the transformative Fire of Period 9 won’t be fully ignited till 2025, the year of the Snake. Ruled by the Fire trigram, which is Yin Fire in nature, Period 9 highlights the heart and the light within, though it doesn’t mean that it will be easy to stay in the light as Yin Fire is unpredictable and needs to be cultivated from within.
Fire is the element that helps us raise our frequency. It will be easy to jump in and out of different realms in the next 20 years as the Fire trigram opens up other realms – this includes AI, the metaverse, virtual reality, and also the spiritual and energetic realms. All these realms are in different frequencies. The Fire trigram’s associations with light and the middle sister indicate their growing influences – think light-filled industries such as entertainment, light work or energy work, and middle-aged women taking power. In the next 2 decades, it’s critical that we keep stoking the light within to raise our frequency so we can keep up with Yin Fire’s rapid advancements.
What’s ahead for the signs in 2025
If you were born in the year of the Snake (1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013), you will experience your Snake return year (also called the Grand Duke Jupiter return or Tai Sui year), which happens every 12 years. This is your year! Expect a most transformative year with major life changes. The Grand Duke Jupiter visiting your sign presents you with challenges along with blessings and guidance. This can be your most successful year with major milestones achieved, or this can also be a year of surprising setbacks and unexpected change. Be proactive in initiating your own change and be solution oriented in dealing with challenges that will be thrown at you. Choose your troubles or they will choose you. Your mindset and your own free will can make a big difference in shaping your year.
Those born in 1965 will experience a “double return” from Yin Wood in the heavenly frequency and the Snake, which usually coincides with the second Saturn return in Western astrology. Many people may enter a new phase in their personal life or career. The universe may slow you down during the year to give you space to reflect and think about your next moves. Surrender to the changes – when one door closes, another opens.
Signs that have affinities with the Snake are secret friend the Monkey and allies the Ox and the Bird / Rooster. Those with these signs in their chart can expect a more collaborative year in 2025, with support from friends and family. This is a year to make good progress in many endeavors.
The Snake is the travel star to those born in year or day of the Pig, the Rabbit, and the Sheep / Goat. Expect an active, exciting year full of travels and commuting if you have one of these signs in your year or day pillar.
The Snake brings Divine Support as the nobility star to those born in Yang Water or Yin Water year or day. A year or a month when your nobility star appears is an ideal time to invest in personal or professional coaching as the help and guidance you receive will contribute greatly to your growth. *Water years are years that end with 2 and 3 such as 1972, 1973, 1982, 1993, and so on. You can calculate your birth chart (BaZi) here to discover the element of your birth day (your self-element).
Those born in the year of the Pig, the sign opposite the Snake, will face their clash year. The Tiger and the Monkey will also experience a half clash with the Snake squaring both signs. Practice mindfulness in your movements and keep your awareness high during the months that these stars appear (which are February, May, August, and November), especially if you have one of these travel stars in your chart – this won’t be a slow year!
It will be an interesting year for the Monkey as the Snake brings secret friend blessings, but the square also presents the Monkey with challenges along the way. As the secret friend to the Snake, the Monkey is this year’s favored sign and it’s a good idea to carry a symbol of the Monkey for luck and protection, especially if you have the Snake or opposing sign the Pig in your chart.
**Click here for Part 2: Year of the Wood Snake for the 12 Animal Signs, which includes a more detailed sign by sign forecast of the 12 animal signs of the Chinese zodiac. I’m also planning another post on Year of the Wood Snake for the 10 Archetypes - stay tuned!
Guidance from the Chinese Five Elements Oracle for the Wood Snake year
The Sacred Triangle spread from The Chinese Five Elements Oracle, which features messages from Heaven, Earth, and the collective soul, can help us navigate the year ahead. The triangle symbolizes our sacred connection to Heaven and Earth. We can live our highest purpose when we are equally connected to the Divine (Heaven), nature (Earth), and the inner self.
Message from Heaven: the Metal Snake appears as a message to embrace the great transformation that the Wood Snake year brings. Like a snake shedding its skin, this card signifies a time of major changes that will take us to a whole new world once the process is complete. Transformation comes with pains and gains— allow them in without fear, for you will be pleasantly surprised with where you end up.
Message from Earth: the Earth Monkey highlights the power of sheer will and determination to make the impossible possible. Believe in yourself and be bold in your actions to achieve the impossible. The Monkey as the secret friend of the Snake reminds us that we have support from the Divine, which may manifest as help and assistance from loved ones and strangers alike.
Message from the collective soul: the Wood Rabbit as a double Yin Wood pillar invites us to follow our curiosity, reinforcing the message of Yin Wood in the heavenly frequency of the year. Get out of your comfort zone and allow yourself to explore this wonderful world in all its colors and beauty. Travel, read, study, and listen.
*You can order your copy of the oracle at Amazon or click here for more options. To the many of you who ordered the deck, thank you! I hope you can leave a kind review on the retailer's site, as that will help the oracle find its way to more people who are in need of guidance.
2025 Hexagram: Hexagram 5, Waiting / Patience
The I-Ching hexagram for the Wood Snake is Hexagram 5, Patience, which features the Water trigram over the Heaven trigram. All solid lines in the Heaven trigram below indicates a solid foundation achieved through perseverance and faith. There’s still a river to cross and we can see what awaits us, but we must have patience and wait for the right moment when everything falls into place to get to the other side. Relax but stay connected to the self, the heaven above and the earth below you.
Feng Shui for the Wood Snake year
While the lunar new year of the Snake is celebrated on January 29 with the new moon in Aquarius, Chinese metaphysics practitioners refer to the solar calendar, which counts February 4 (or occasionally February 3, as is this year) as the first day of the astrological new year, to mark the transitions of the annual and monthly Feng Shui energies. The solar calendar is also used to calculate the BaZi (the four pillars) of one’s natal chart.
The various meanings associated with the year’s ruling flying star, its trigram, and its associated element can provide us with additional guidance for the specific period. The year of the Wood Snake has flying star 2 in the center, associated with Kun, the Earth trigram.
The Earth trigram relates to Mother Earth, the family matriarch, and the digestive system. It is a pure Yin trigram, with three broken Yin lines symbolizing the female principle, the receptive force. The Earth trigram reminds us that we have the freewill to choose our own actions and the power to create our own outcomes. We’re part of Mother Earth, and what we do matters.
In the year ahead, whenever you’re confronted with opposing options, choose the side of Mother Earth. She represents nature, creativity, kindness, and inner peace. Let the qualities of the Earth trigram be your guide: listen and contemplate your actions before you react, take care of the family, nurture the self with nutritious food, be kind to each other.
Star 2 has been associated with illness energy in the past 20-year periods, but its influence as an illness star is slowly weakening as we entered Period 9 in 2024, and it’s now considered an upcoming prosperity star. We still need to treat the center sector with care, however. Keep the center of your office or residence clean, tidy, and free of loud noises and bright colors to reduce the heavy Earth afflicting the sector, especially in February, April, and November, when the monthly stars mirror or amplify the annual stars, doubling the effect. *February and November are also the months of the Tiger and the Pig, which clash with the Snake. Be vigilant during these months.
The best sectors for productivity in 2025 are the East, blessed with the annual star 9 of joy and prosperity; the Southeast, visited by star 1 of wisdom and future prosperity; and the South, with monthly star 6 of power and authority. Spend more time in these sectors to activate the positive stars. The West sector, visited by star 4 of romance and creativity, is an ideal space for entertaining, relaxation, and creative activities.
The Northeast is the most sensitive sector of 2025, with star 5 of misfortune residing in the sector. Be mindful when using the sector and keep it quiet, clean, and tidy, especially in February, May, July, and November, when the monthly star amplifies the star’s effects. Reinforce all doors and windows located in the North, visited by hostile star 7. The Northwest sector, visited by star 3 of conflicts, should also be used cautiously.
*Although there are remedies to lessen a sector’s negative energy, the best solution is to simply avoid using the sector, or keep the area as tidy and quiet as possible, especially if you’re not familiar with your home’s natal energies as you may accidentally activate a negative natal star. If you do have to spend time in the area, keep your activities there only as needed.
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© 2025 Vicki Iskandar at www.vickiiskandar.com
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