As we count down the hours to the lunar new year, marked by a solar eclipse to bring an official end to the Water Snake year and catalyze us into the Fire Horse, there’s a palpable energy in the air of the new chapters that are waiting to be born. As if they’re desperately trying to hint to us from behind the veil before we’re allowed to fully step into them.

I opened my calendar back up for the first time in almost a year to offer space to talk about the perceived challenges or the decisions you’re facing as you move through this energy. And while every conversation has been unique, there were undeniable themes that surfaced that I believe hold messages for all of us.

“I feel like I’m shedding”, “I’m molting”, “My old identity is falling away and I don’t know what’s underneath it yet”

We’re in the final hours of shedding. The Snake year has been about going deep and doing the invisible inner work that’s required to allow parts of ourselves die and so that something truer can emerge. And in these final hours, the transformation is completing while what comes next remains unclear.

There seems to be a shared sense of being “behind the curtain” or “in the cocoon”, knowing something is happening and feeling the movement beneath the surface gaining momentum before it’s ready to fully emerge.

The solar eclipse in Aquarius that marks this lunar new year is going to cut away whatever old skin we’re still clinging to, whether we’re ready or not.

The fear that’s surfacing now isn’t about lacking skill in your craft or feeling like an imposter in your work. You know what you can do - you’ve been preparing, studying, healing for years and have seen results in the clients that you’ve worked with one on one. But the thought of being seen by many or having an audience of any kind is paralyzing — the idea of stepping onto a stage that leaves you vulnerable to judgement or ridicule feels like a threat to your survival.

The fear you’re feeling could be something much older. Ancient, passed down through lifetimes or generations. An deep knowing that being visible as a healer, as someone who sees the world differently, or someone who operates outside the mainstream is historically dangerous.

Many call it the “witch wound”, and it’s activating. With Neptune and Saturn now both in Aries soon to be conjunct, we’re being asked to embody our spiritual truth in bold, visible, and individuated ways while building something real and sustainable for the future.

The kind of fear or anxiety you’re feeling may feel disproportionate to what you’re facing on the surface — but the chapter we’re collectively stepping into is much bigger than any one of us can see. So your fear is warranted, and I deeply believe that the way we move forward is by joining forces and sticking together, remembering that we were never meant to do this alone.

There is an uncomfortable void between what was and what will be. It’s the space after everything familiar has fallen away but before the new thing has revealed itself. The liminal zone where you can’t go back but you don’t yet know how to move forward.

In a culture that celebrates productivity, achievement, and constant forward motion, spending time sitting in uncertainty feels like failure. There’s an external pressure we’re feeling to do something that’s arguing with our internal knowing that insists that the lesson is the sitting, teaching us to strengthen our skills of patience and trust that will be required before we’re allowed to walk through the next door.

There’s a tremendous of strength required to resist the urge to fill the gap because the emptiness is uncomfortable. But as uncomfortable as it is, it’s a necessary step in our collective transformation. Slowing down now will allow us to move faster when it’s time.

The split between soul-aligned work and financial reality has been an ongoing struggle for many of us. Admittedly, I’m there myself, still waiting to see if I can find the underlying purpose of being back in corporate. There’s this ever-present duality between the thing that lights up our soul and the thing that pays the bills. Between the life being built in secret and the life still being lived because the mortgage is due.

There’s a growing tension between these two worlds. The old structure that doesn’t fit anymore but provides safety and security and the new vision that feels true but hasn’t materialized into something that can be sustainable yet.

Over the next ~2.5 years Saturn in Aries will ask you: what will you risk to build something that’s truly yours? What structures do you need to create so your authenticity can become viable? How do you honor both your mission and your physical, material needs without betraying either?

The answer isn’t “just quit your job and follow your passion.” I have a lot more to say on this based on my own experience… but that’s for another day. The path is more nuanced and can start by simply bringing regulated presence and spiritual awareness into whatever space you’re in right now, even if you know it’s not your forever home.

Energy is everything. So as you wait for clarity about your next step, you can start to live your purpose just by bringing your authentic energy into the space. It may not be your “dream”, but it makes a difference in the spaces that likely need it the most. Maybe that’s even why you’re being held there, for now. Because with Pluto traveling through Aquarius, the greater mission isn’t about you anymore — it’s about how you can serve and support the collective. Something to ponder.

If you’re here, you probably feel different than the majority of others around you and operate outside the mainstream. You see things others don’t see. Feel things others don’e feel. And for most of your lifetime, you may have been trying to fit that otherness into acceptable boxes.

But this eclipse in Aquarius will invite you to see how your weirdness is your gift. The people who need you aren’t looking for someone who fits in. They’re looking for someone who’s done the deep work of accepting their own otherness and can help them do the same.

Aquarius doesn’t tone it down in fear of your friends or family finding your spiritual instagram page. The work, no matter what you do, depends on finding your people. The ones who recognize themselves in you. Who need exactly what you have to offer because you’ve walked through the fire they’re in.

Aquarius medicine is celebration of what makes us different. Community built not on conformity but on authentic connection between people who refuse to be anyone other than who they are. Sometimes the simple act of being you is the service. What if that was enough?

Somatic healing, regulation practices like breathwork will help you reorient your body to a slower, softer, more attuned way of being. This is foundational before taking the next big, bold step that we you will be called to take.

You cannot step into greater visibility or take bigger risks to show up authentically if your nervous system still believes that being seen as who you are equals danger or certain death.

With Saturn and Neptune moving through Aries — the sign that rules the the self and represents taking action, we’re being asked to embody our spiritual truth at the physical, nervous system level. To become warriors who can hold their presence in the storm. To regulate ourselves so thoroughly that we can hold space for others without losing ourselves. It’s needed now more than ever.

Aries demands action. But our bodies need to feel safe enough to take it first.

We are in the final hours of the Water Snake, the final hours of the dark moon before the first eclipse of 2026. This is the void between death and transformation. The time to do the invisible work that will never get applause but will serve as the foundation for everything that comes next.

The solar eclipse will illuminate what’s ready to be born. Neptune and Saturn in Aries will demand movement towards building your vision.

And when that moment comes, it will require moving on faith alone. Without knowing the outcome. Without guarantees. Without being able to see the full picture.

It will require inspiration, the yes you feel in your body, and for your trust in what you feel pulled towards to be strong enough to override the mind that demands proof first.

This void is where we learn to trust ourselves more than external validation. To know ourselves more deeply than any expert opinion. To regulate our nervous systems so completely that we can walk through the first without burning.

The void has been preparing you. And when it’s time to move, you’ll know.