As we move out of the Snake year and into the Fire Horse year, I’ve been reflecting on how uncannily this transition mirrors my own life. What looked on the surface like a personal breaking point (my divorce) now feels like a path I was meant to walk.

This wasn’t a sudden decision. It was a long shedding.

The Snake Year: Staying, Shedding, and Surviving Quietly

The Snake year taught me how to endure and how strong I am to hold into hope and fight for something I believed in. 

I didn’t leave the moment something felt uncomfortable. I learned that being uncomfortable is a feeling that I’ve grown used to but when in reality, it’s my intuition telling me I don’t belong here.  I stayed long enough to understand what’s happening and then eventually accepted the divorce Jerry insisted on. Snakes shed in private. They conserve energy. And they don’t move until they’re ready.

That was me.

I stayed longer than I probably should have but not out of fear, but out of responsibility, hope, and the belief that patience could still lead to transformation and healing. Those things were true for me, but not in the way I wanted. With patience, it led to my transformation and healing, not my marriage’s. 

The Snake year mirrored that internal process perfectly. It wasn’t dramatic and loud despite some arguments being loud. The shift was quiet, heavy, and deeply introspective.

Tarot archetypes like The Tower, Chariot in reverse and The Hanged Man showed up repeatedly for me during this time. They are the cards of destroying what didn’t have a stable foundation, pause, surrender, and seeing things from an entirely new perspective. I wasn’t meant to act yet. I was meant to understand. 

And understanding hurts.

When the Old Skin No Longer Fits

There comes a point in every transformation where the old skin doesn’t just feel tight but actually becomes suffocating. The Snake teaches us that shedding isn’t optional. If you don’t release what no longer fits, it will open you up anyway.

By the end of the Snake year, I knew something fundamental had changed. The relationship I was in no longer reflected who I was becoming. It wasn’t growing and transforming with me. Staying would have required shrinking, self-betrayal, and dimming my fire.

That’s when the Fire Horse energy began to make sense.

Enter the Fire Horse: Choosing Courage Over Comfort

The Fire Horse does not negotiate with misalignment.

Where the Snake waits, the Horse moves. Where the Snake sheds quietly, the Horse leaves visibly. Add Fire, and the message becomes unmistakable: move now. As an Aries sun, I am always moving and trying to move. So often to the point where pausing is something that doesn’t just happen automatically. 

Accepting the divorce wasn’t an impulsive act, it was the result of months, even years, of internal reckoning. I came to realize that forcing something isn’t going to give me what I want. I needed to surrender control and trust in the universe to guide me on the path that best aligns with me. The Fire Horse gave me the courage to shift my energy on what I already knew.

Tarot-wise, this was the shift from The Hanged Man to The Chariot and eight of wands. From waiting to moving. From endurance to direction. From silence to speaking my truth and reigniting my fire and passion. 

The Fire Horse energy isn’t destructive but instead it asked me to walk away from what no longer fit, even if it once did.

Walking Away Is Also an Act of Love

One of the biggest myths about endings is that walking away means failure. Society tells us this. My family, family’s religion and my culture, tells me that the woman does everything she can to provide for her family. In reality, staying in something that no longer serves either person is often the greater harm. 

No one sees this unless you’re in it yourself. It’s easy for an outsider to say:

“Fight for your marriage” – but I did, for a year 

“Wait it out, he’ll understand eventually”- I did and was willing to but he wants to leave. 

“Staying together is best for your child”- it’s not good for our son to see conflict on a weekly basis. 

“Alaric deserves a mommy and a daddy”- I agree, but his daddy wants to leave, which is his CHOICE. 

The Fire Horse doesn’t tolerate half-truths or emotional self-abandonment. It asks us to live in alignment, even when that alignment disrupts stability.

This year’s energy has a way of exposing where we’ve been compromising ourselves in the name of peace.

Tarot Guidance for Letting Go

During this transition, tarot messages around Three of Swords, The Tower, Eight of Cups, and Strength kept appearing for me. These aren’t cards of destruction, they’re cards of conscious endings.

The Eight of Cups, in particular, speaks to walking away not because something is bad, but because it no longer fulfills the soul. 

That distinction matters. Walking away can be grief-filled and still be right. I think divorce is hard for many people because not only are you healing from a breakup, you’re also grieving, and on top of that you have to navigate separation of everything. 

Lunar New Year as a Threshold

Lunar New Year is what Vietnamese culture celebrates as new beginnings. I’m just now learning that the lunar new year is also observed in the astrological and spiritual world as well. It isn’t just about welcoming what’s new, it’s about honoring what has ended. Traditionally, it’s a time to clean homes, settle debts, and release lingering attachments.

For me, this Lunar New Year marked a crossing.

I wasn’t just entering a new calendar year, I was stepping into a new identity, a new life, a new future. One shaped by truth, not endurance. Movement, not stagnation. Courage, not comfort. Alignment, not illusion. 

Final Reflection

If the Snake year taught me how to survive, the Fire Horse year is teaching me how to choose myself without guilt. Choosing myself with love, compassion, truth and intention. 

This isn’t a season for clinging to what once worked or the illusion of what can be. I am called to live in the reality of the present. It’s a season for walking away from anything that requires you to abandon who you are or who you are becoming.

It’s time to move with intention into alignment and truth. Whatever that means for you, I wish you peace and growth this year. As the world seems to be “Towering” around us all over the world, be The Sun.