On February 10th, we officially say goodbye to the Year of the Water Dragon and hello to the Year of the Water Snake. Imagine the wings and scales of a dragon transforming into a lithe fluid snake body that can easily appear and disappear in a heartbeat…. It’s this quicksilver quality of ‘now we don’t see it, now we do’ that weaves itself into this year, presenting us with an interesting mix of energies.

Sudden changes in the fabric of our lives can be quite unsettling. Most people who have physically encountered a snake recall how surprising and often alarming it is. Such an abrupt shift in reality produces a wake-up call that is memorable. Suddenly, we see something significant that we didn’t see before and must act accordingly. Experiences like these compel us to sharpen our observation skills, heighten our present-state awareness, and pay attention to who and what surrounds us.

Whatever amount of heaven the Dragon opened within you last year is now ready to be solidly grounded into your life on earth. It is time to blend your five senses with your intuition and maintain a deep communion with your visible and invisible streams of guidance.  Eyes open and feelers out, you literally align yourself with synchronicity and chart your course accordingly. As a conscious conduit of heaven and earth, your capacity to sense and feel subtle energies can key you into the ideal timing to be out in the world.

A snake is fluidity in motion. She has the capacity to move like lightning or remain motionless until just the right moment. She teaches us how to be mindful and align our thoughts, words, and actions with the flow of each moment. Impulsiveness is a direct pathway to unwelcome surprises. Like the snake, practicing patience and presence can assure safe passage through life.

These directives inevitably lead us into the depths of self-inquiry, especially with 2013’s Water element plunging us into our own deepest mysteries. To buoy our explorations, Feng Shui suggests that we create (or recreate) two places – an outer and an inner sanctuary. An outer sanctuary, housed in our abodes, may be any size that’s appropriate, from a tiny altar to a whole room or section of the house. As you craft your sacred space, include meaningful items that symbolize the 5 Elements and fashion a personally pleasing and serene atmosphere where the alchemy of incarnation is solidly anchored in place.

To deepen your practice, liberate your creative imagination and breathe life into an inner sanctuary. Make it an extraordinary reflection of yourself, flesh out every detail, and savor the process. You are the ‘soul’ creator of your inner sanctuary, free of all constraints. Here, you are truly limitless!

The more you develop and refine your sensory and intuitive acuity, the better. The study of any healing modality (including the environmental healing practice of Feng Shui), art, music, dance, yoga, martial arts, shamanism, animal communication, and the many veins of earth wisdom such as herbal medicine, organic gardening, foraging, and tracking, are just a few suggestions for learning during 2013. No more fooling around – it’s time to root yourself in your true interests and make them an active part of your daily life.

Our collective work is to transform any tendency to sleepwalk, space out, or disconnect from self or each other. We invest ourselves in being solidly grounded, wide-awake, and openheartedly connected to all that comprises our everyday down-to-earth life. This is a year of maturation, a coming of age, as we intimately embrace the sacred equality of earth and heaven. The Year of the Snake opens us up to the wonders of the embodied world. Let’s see it clearly, feel it fully, and maybe for the first time in our lives, come in for a landing.

With Love  & Every Blessing,

Terah Kathryn Collins

Founder, Western School of Feng Shui™

You probably know your sign in Western astrology (I’m a Sagittarius), but do you know which is your Chinese Zodiac sign?The Chinese Zodiac uses your birth year to determine your primary astrological animal. Over the course of a 12 year-cycle, each year is represented by one of the animals the Buddha called to himself before he died, in the order in which they showed up.