Buckle Up, It's the Year of the Fire Horse!

The fire horse only comes once every 60 years. Learn what's in store for this intense period of time.

Growth. Transformation. Strife. Expansion.

Whew. The year of the fire horse has barely begun and I’m already exhausted. As we transit out of the gentler fire snake year, we’ve already had a chance to shed our skin and begin to forge a new path. This theme just chugged a bottle of steroids with a pivot from Yin (Snake) Fire to Yang (Horse) Fire. Fire is THE element of transformation; it flares upward and consumes. Every element in Five Element Theory has a Yin side and a Yang side (gratuitous links to the Fire Element 101 and Fire personality types). If the Yin fire of the snake is represented by the light of a candle in the dark, the Yang fire of the horse is bright and blazing like the sun or a bonfire. In short:

Horsey gonna burn it all down.

In Chinese astrology, the horse is considered bold, strong, smart, agile, and well-liked. Horses are notoriously independent, do things on their own terms, and are as stubborn as they come. The horse possesses speed, strength, and stamina, as well as a sharp wit. Horse babies tend to take a long time to settle down in life following an often-tumultuous youth (I’ll give you three guesses what my zodiac sign is).

The idea of an element/animal combination is from a calendar that cycles and repeats itself, which determines if a year is water, wood, fire, metal, or earth, as well as what animal it is. But exclusive of that, it’s important to note that each animal already innately has an elemental nature exclusive of that calendar, and the horse’s elemental nature is that of fire. In fact, the horse is the fieriest animal in the zodiac. When you add that it’s a fire year on top of that, you get a unique set of circumstances, only appearing every 60 years, that have a lot to say about what is happening right now.

This double fire energy is such that people may feel compelled to make bold moves, start new ventures, and make radical changes in life, relationships, career, and/or interests. While the energy of the year supports this faster pace, it’s important to remember that the horse sometimes runs too fast. You might feel motivated to move all kinds of projects forward, but pace yourself is the name of the game for the year. Just like how your eyes are usually bigger than your stomach at a buffet, it’s easy to burn out just past the starting gate by tapping into all of the opportunities available this year.

From a more metaphysical perspective, fire illuminates. It sheds light on everything around us, including that which does not want to be seen. We, as a people and individually, are reaching a cosmic turning point. We are being asked to take responsibility for the choices that we have made, to rise up, and to change. It is said that fire horse years present enormous spiritual pressure. This isn’t necessarily negative, indeed, it’s a gateway to transformation for the greater good. As fire horse years only come around every 60 years, one can simply look back at the last one to see that changes it brought- the Civil Rights Movement, the first soft moon landing, the introduction of the ATM- things which have fundamentally altered the course of history.

In Five Element Theory, the fire element is associated with the heart system and its emotions. This year we can count on an uptick in cardiac-related issues, so take special care of your heart health, eating well and allowing plenty of time for relaxation. While joy is the positive emotion associated with the heart, anxiety is one of the negative ones. Indeed, all of the movement and the frenetic pace of everything around us will result in making us feel ungrounded and potentially also anxious. It’s a natural response in this case to double down on mindfulness practices and perhaps you’re already instinctively doing this.

Finally, for all you other horses out there, your zodiac year can often present a mixed bag. Being in your zodiac year is known as “insulting heaven” in Chinese astrology, and generally represents a need to be more careful and disciplined. It’s not that you can’t have a good year, it’s just that the luck isn’t in your favor, and how good or bad your year is will be through the effort you put into it. You can always think of your zodiac year as a stage setter, planting the seeds of what the next 12 years of your life will look like. Every time your zodiac year comes around, it’s always a good rule of thumb to look back 12 years ago and consider how that influenced your life, then look forward positively and act accordingly.

Yowee, another long blog post, but an important one given the energy of the year to come. Since I’m not teaching Qigong for Stress and Anxiety this year, I’ve opted to discount the on-demand version as 2026 has already gotten off to a rather tumultuous start. You can save 50% on the recorded version with the code ‘LOON50’ at checkout. Remember, we the people have incredible energy in us. You’re reading this blog post because you want to be a force for good in the world. Take the prevailing energy and make an incredible year out of it.