Some insight into the Year of the Fire Horse

 “Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach.”
- Clarissa Pinkola Estés

To all of our patients, friends, and community, 

Happy Lunar New Year!! 🔥🐴

 Today we welcome the Spring Festival and step into the Year of the Fire Horse.

In the lunar calendar, this new moon marks the very first, baby stirrings of springtime. Just a very very beginning,  no shoots or blooms, yet an unmistakable promise of, and movement towards light.

In Chinese cosmology, the Winter Solstice is the rebirth of yang (expressive, outward moving energy). By this new moon, that young yang is rising. The seed cracks underground, new life prepares to reach upward.

Ok, If you've read my emails before I think you may know what I'm going to say… As the outside shifts so does the inside!  Because we ARE nature after all! Our body operates inside of the natural laws and cycles of the Earth and Cosmos.

This new year is the year of The Fire Horse!

The Horse is pure movement. Freedom. Vitality. Courage. Horses do not want to stay confined for too long. They want to run in open fields. They respond to instinct. They trust momentum. 

When the Horse is paired with Fire, the energy becomes even more dynamic.

Fire governs the Heart. It brings joy, connection, visibility, spirit. It illuminates what has been hidden and burns away what is no longer true. It asks us to live more honestly. More boldly. More from the center of who we are.

A Fire Horse year is said to be passionate, expressive, magnetic. It can feel fast. It can feel bright. It can stir dormant dreams and awaken creative force.

And this year, that Fire gallops in on the uprising current of Spring (wood element).

Wood energy - the element of birth, vision, growth, and forward movement begins to push upward. Fire follows Wood. Joy follows creativity. Momentum builds.

When I think of Fire and Horse together, I cannot help but think of my beloved friend Rebecca Firehorse, who crossed the rainbow bridge almost 8 year ago. 

She claimed the name Firehorse, and it fit her completely.

Rebecca had that unmistakable spark. She did not live small. She loved fiercely. She showed up with warmth and conviction. There was something untamed in her spirit and something deeply devoted at the same time.

Though she has passed, I still feel her presence and fire regularly. 

She shared this words towards the end of her life:

"I live in a kaleidoscope of love that my family and friends weave around me. With them I am never nothing. I feel fully embraced. Even though I am physically altered – my hair has fallen out, I'm wasted thin, my belly distended – still, I am whole with them. This is an incredible gift. I am whole in their presence." 

Thank you Rebecca for the mark you have left in me and so many. 

For me, this specific new year feels like an invitation to remember her, and to remember that same fiery spark in myself.

So I can ask,
where am I holding back my own light?
Where is it time to move?
What hurdle am I ready to jump?
What vision is asking for momentum?

In Five Element medicine, Wood gives us direction. Fire gives us joy. The Horse gives us momentum.

Grief and inspiration are friends. Loss can be fuel. The seed cracks before it becomes a shoot. Friction and heat precedes the bloom.

As we enter this Year of the Fire Horse, may we move with intention rather than frenzy. May our passion be guided by heart. May we mend what is within our reach. May we tend our inner fire so it lights the way forward without burning us out.

May this be a year of courageous beginnings.
May your vision be clear.
May your spirit be bright.
May the fire you carry be guided by love.

With love, 

 Lance
 
P.S.  Mending what is within our reach begins with tending ourselves. If you could use support right now, Felicia is offering $15 off new community acupuncture sessions in February. Use COMMUNITYLOVE and come get some care. → Book Now

P.P.S. If you need immediate support - Try this point! → Liver 14 -Gate of Hope - An Acupuncture Point for Possibility & Perspective