In many wisdom traditions, transformation is not loud. It doesn’t announce itself with fireworks or certainty. It happens quietly, through release.

In the Lunar calendar, 2025 is the Year of the Snake, a year devoted not to rapid expansion, but to shedding, simplification, and deep inner recalibration. The snake teaches us that growth doesn’t always come from adding more. Often, it comes from letting go.

As this year comes to a close, we are invited into reflection, not as an intellectual exercise, but as a somatic one. What skins have you outgrown? What identities, beliefs, roles, or rhythms no longer fit the body you inhabit now?

The Snake as a Symbol of Wisdom and Renewal

Across cultures, the snake is a powerful archetype.

In Eastern astrology, the Snake is associated with intuition, patience, mystery, and inner knowing. Snake years often bring profound personal change; not always visible on the surface, but seismic beneath it.

In yogic and Tantric traditions, the snake appears as Kundalini Shakti, the coiled life force energy at the base of the spine. Awakening is not about forcing energy upward, but about removing the blocks that prevent its natural rise.

In mythology, snakes are guardians of thresholds; keepers of death and rebirth, destruction and renewal. They remind us that transformation is not linear. It is cyclical.

The snake does not drag its old skin with it. It sheds it completely.

Shedding Is Not Failure — It Is Completion

One of the greatest misconceptions we carry is that letting go means something went wrong.

But in nature, shedding is a sign of health.

A snake sheds because it has grown. The old skin didn’t fail. It served its purpose. And it is no longer needed. 

The Year of the Snake asks us to reflect on:

• What chapters reached their natural completion this year?

• What once felt aligned but now feels constricting?

• Where have you been holding on out of fear, habit, or identity?

Shedding can look like:

• Releasing roles that no longer reflect who you are

• Letting go of relationships, structures, or patterns that limit your expansion

• Rewriting beliefs around worth, money, success, or safety

• Allowing grief to move through rather than around you

This work is subtle. Often invisible. And deeply sacred.

The Cosmic Cycle: Creation, Sustenance, Destruction

In Tantra and yogic philosophy, all of life moves through a cosmic cycle:

Creation 
Sustenance 
Destruction / Dissolution 

We often celebrate creation. We tolerate sustenance. We resist destruction.

Yet destruction is liberation.

Without dissolution:

• There is no space for new creation

• Energy stagnates

• Growth becomes performative rather than real

The Year of the Snake lives primarily in the phase of destruction, the sacred dismantling. This is the phase ruled by Shiva, by Kali, by the forces that cut away illusion so truth can emerge.

When we honor this phase consciously, destruction becomes initiation, not chaos.

Reflection as Ritual: How to Honor the Shedding

Rather than rushing forward, the wisdom of the Snake invites us to pause before the next cycle begins.

Consider reflecting on these questions:

• What am I no longer willing to carry into the next year?

• What identities feel outdated?

• Where did I choose alignment over approval?

• What fears loosened their grip?

• What truth became undeniable?

You may choose to ritualize this process:

• Write down what you are releasing and safely burn or bury it

• Clean your physical space as a mirror of inner clearing

• Practice slow, intentional movement or meditation focused on the spine and breath

• Spend time in stillness rather than strategy

This is not about forcing clarity. It’s about listening.

From Snake to Horse: Preparing for Forward Momentum

In the Lunar cycle, the Year of the Horse follows and it is a year known for movement, visibility, courage, and momentum. True momentum is only sustainable when we’ve shed what weighs us down. The Horse runs freely because it is unburdened. The Year of the Snake prepares us for that freedom by asking us to travel lighter. What you release now determines how freely you can move next.

Trust the Shedding

If this year felt quiet, emotional, dismantling, or deeply internal, know that nothing went wrong. You were shedding. And shedding is holy work. As we close this chapter and prepare for what’s next, may we honor what was, bless what is leaving, and trust what is coming. Nothing essential is lost in the shedding. Only what no longer belongs.