Shedding the Old, Preparing the Way: Between the Snake and the Horse
As we moved through 2025, we were living inside a 9 year in numerology. The final chapter of a nine-year cycle.
A 9 year is not about pushing forward. It is about completion, release, forgiveness, and integration.
This is the year that quietly asks us to loosen our grip on what has reached its natural ending. Old identities, emotional patterns, roles we have outgrown, and chapters that no longer reflect who we are becoming.
It is why so many people have felt more reflective, emotionally tender, or simply tired.
A 9 year can feel heavy, not to burden us, but to clear the ground. Often, that heaviness is felt through our resistance to change and the discomfort that comes with letting go.
✨ Some of you may feel like the rug was pulled out from under you, but in reality the shedding has not been a single moment - it's been like you are swimming in a pool of scrambled eggs.
Alongside numerology, 2025 is also the Year of the Wood Snake.
The Wood Snake carries a particularly gentle, introspective form of transformation.
This is not fast or dramatic change, it is organic, patient, and deeply intelligent.
Wood brings themes of:
Growth through awareness
Healing over time
Re-rooting rather than reinventing
Letting change unfold naturally
The Snake sheds its skin slowly and intentionally. Not all at once. Not on demand.
So if old emotions, memories, or familiar patterns have resurfaced this year, it has not been a step backward. It has been the final layers asking to be released gently, fully, and in your own time.
🐍 This year has been about:
Inner recalibration rather than outward action
Healing beneath the surface
Letting go without force
Allowing your own timing to be enough
🌱 And now, we find ourselves in the final weeks of this energy.
Before the Fire Horse arrives in mid-February, the Wood Snake invites one last, important pause.
The coming weeks may feel:
Emotionally quiet but internally active
Reflective rather than decisive
Slower than expected
Focused on tying loose ends internally, not externally
You may notice:
Old thoughts resurfacing briefly, then dissolving
A desire to simplify rather than plan
Less urgency, more discernment
A natural pull toward rest, honesty, and emotional tidying
This is not stagnation. It is completion in motion.
The Snake does not rush to become something new, it finishes shedding first.
🌱 As we look ahead to 2026, the energy changes clearly and decisively.
Numerologically, 2026 is a 1 year the beginning of a brand-new nine-year cycle (yep that's right we get to feel it all again).
The 1 year brings:
New beginnings
Fresh identity
Independent choices
The courage to initiate
This is the year where seeds are planted - not perfectly, but intentionally, knowing they will shape the decade ahead.
And beautifully, 2026 also marks the Year of the Fire Horse, beginning 17 February 2026.
🐎 The Fire Horse carries a bold yet clarifying energy:
Forward momentum after stagnation
Confidence and visibility
Purpose-driven action
Leadership shaped by lived wisdom
Movement that feels freeing rather than forced
Where the Snake worked inwardly, the Fire Horse moves outward.
Where the 9 year asked for release, the 1 year invites initiation.
🔥 Fire adds courage not recklessness.
🐎 Horse adds motion not escape.
Together, they remind us: Move because you are ready, not because you are running.
✨ The bridge between 2025 and 2026 is sacred.
We are completing a cycle while standing at the threshold of a new one.
Shedding the final layers.
Honouring what has shaped us.
And preparing to move forward lighter, clearer, and more aligned.
There is no rush to arrive.
There is wisdom in resting here for a moment.
Because when the Fire Horse arrives, you will not be carrying the past with you, rather moving forward with clarity, confidence, and purpose.
As this cycle completes, you may notice the quiet insights arriving more softly now, not necessarily as answers to chase, but as whispers to notice.
If you are drawn to listening in a little more closely, you will find those gentle messages continuing each Whisper Wednesday, shared in the same spirit as this space. 💫
🌱 What to Focus on This Week
This week, consider allowing yourself to:
Finish something quietly, without announcing it
Let one old thought or habit loosen its grip without forcing release
Rest without explaining why
Notice what feels complete, even if it feels unfinished on the surface
You are not being asked to decide what comes next.
You are simply being invited to notice what is already falling away.
