The Year of the Wood Snake

Michel Lewis, CFSP
January – February 2025 • Vol 4, No 14

Although the first day of the Chinese astrological Wood Snake year is actually Monday, February 3rd of 2025, the Lunar New Year begins on January 29th, and what a celebration it will be! Those who hail in the Chinese New Year love a party! The holiday begins on their New Year’s Eve, January 28th, and is a week full of festivities lasting through February 3rd. This is a joyous gathering with family and friends to usher in all the good fortune the Wood Snake would deign to bring to us.

Snakes are indeed fiery creatures who can be quick-witted and highly intelligent. They are enterprising and seem to have great insight—a 6th sense if you will—that helps them to do well in business endeavors, as long as they do not succumb to the weaknesses of being over-cautious or narrow-minded. They are slow to anger, but watch out when they do! Usually, they tend to be good-hearted and thoughtful. Snakes can also be suspicious and possessive—not the best combination in a relationship—but their gravitation to kindness and consideration can neutralize those negative traits, if they choose. Combine all these traits in a Wood Snake, and everything can be magnified, as the wood element nourishes and fuels the fiery snake with its paced but steady growth that can take us to higher places.

What will the Year of the Wood Snake bring to us? The greatest recompense will come to those who are willing to “shed their skin” and embrace pursuing the seemingly distant goal with purpose and exactitude. Always remember the childhood adage, “slow and steady wins the race.” That story might be about a tortoise, but applies magnificently here! There is so much potential for growth and expansive development of one’s inner life and outer accomplishments in this year.

No slinking around! Become the snake’s ability to stay cool and calm, but know when it’s the strategic time act and strike!
Many significant events in the US occurred in 1965, the previous Wood Snake year. Malcolm X was assassinated, the Vietnam War escalated, the Civil Rights Act was signed, and the Race Riots in Watts, Los Angeles, erupted. An important world event that occurred in 1905, another Wood Snake year, was the formation of “Tongmenhui of China” an underground resistance founded by Sun Yat-Sen with the long-term goal (notice the strategy of long-game thinking) of overthrowing the Qing Dynasty in China.

Let’s make 2025 a fruitful and productive year. Use the qualities of the Wood Snake for the betterment of our Earth and mankind, doing so with strategy, long-term thinking, and goal setting, along with patience and fortitude. We can do it!