Jan 2026, Snake Transition to Fire Horse

“The spiritual journey is a continuous process of shedding layers, letting go of what no longer serves you, and embracing your true essence.” ~ Paulo Coehlo

Warm blessings as we cross this threshold into 2026.

I am not a resolutions kind of person because modern culture has wrapped change and evolution with pressure and self-punishment.

The beginning of a new year is not really meant to be a moment of striving, fixing, or self-correction.

In the Andean traditions, January is a time of burning old clothes, spiritual cleansing baths and honored as a period of shedding, a necessary emptying before anything new can truly arrive.

From an astrology point of view, the new year’s energy cycle does not fully arrive until February 17th, when the energy of the Fire Horse gallops in.

Until then, we are still in limbo where the deeper work is not about adding, but about a continued release of what does not belong.

Letting go is often far more transformative than setting another resolution we will try to carry through with sheer will.

Like the serpent releasing its old skin, we are invited to loosen the habits, beliefs, emotional contracts, and identities that have subtly shaped our health, our nervous system, and our sense of possibility (often without our conscious awareness).

Many of us can feel it in our bodies now. Not because a calendar says it’s time to change, but because our systems are asking for relief.

This is why, in shamanic traditions, clearing always comes before creation.

Before the dream can move forward, the field must be emptied of distortion.

Before vision clarifies, the mirror must be cleaned.

Yes, your mind may want to jump to the question “Who do I want to become?”

This is wonderful, however have you also considered, “What no longer belongs with who I am becoming?”

For now, I invite you simply to pause.

To listen to what your body is quietly asking to release.

And to trust that when you make space, life will reorganize in a way that will be beyond your wildest of dreams.

Here is a little shedding inspiration from my oracle deck on the Serpent from the image above. I am 95% almost done working on. (I’m working on cover art now!)

18. Amaru — Serpent — Shedding the Old

Inspiration

In the Andes, Amaru is the great cosmic serpent—half water, half sky—believed to move between worlds through caves, rivers and lightning. Elders say she slips through the cracks between the inner earth and the upper realms, shedding old skins as she travels. Near Lake Titicaca, stands the ancient portal of Amaru Muru, a mysterious doorway predating written memory—where local Aymara keepers say the serpents and ancestors step through to transition from one dimension to the next. High in the Q’ero mountains, her sister Sachamama, “Great Serpent Mother” teaches a similar wisdom: when a serpent rubs her body against the rock and splits her skin in one smooth peel, she does not look back; rather, she happily slithers forward in her new body.

Action

You carry a lifetime of skins—Child, Lover, Warrior, and the many roles from even before your birth. And you will eventually outgrow the identities that once protected you. Amaru shows that shedding is essential to your evolution: every release, a doorway into a truer expression of who you are becoming. Andean teachings speak of hucha—the heavy residue of old stories—and sami—the fresh living energy that enters once you release them. Let Mother Earth recycle what no longer fits. It is time to drop the husk of your old self behind and let the fertile ground of the new propel you forward.