An animist's forecast: 2 Key Themes for the rest of 2022
August was a midpoint for the lunar new year, igniting a major portal for the remaining months chaperoned by the Water Tiger. In many ways, the first 6 months of this lunar year was like a washing machine, where energies, circumstances, intentions, and reference points are jumbled, chaotic, and unclear. August, the seventh month this lunar year, felt much like a “rinse” cycle, where we were invited to permanently wash out mindsets, habits, behaviours, and even material things, that leave us feeling rigid, dusty, worn out, dried up, unloved, or stale. We're out of the rinse cycle now this September, when we may find some release and relief, as we are now craving a drying period. This is what September through to the next Lunar New Year will be; an extended rest, reevaluation, and preparation cycle.
There's a caveat, though. Like all openings, just because a portal is open does not guarantee a thing; we must walk through it, and no one can do it for us. Thankfully, entering portals do not require exceptional skill, flair or perfection; the only necessary ingredients are willingness, intention, and a splash of ah-what-the-hell.
Two KEY spiritual themes will be present in the collective from September 2022 to January 2023 (specifically, until January 22, when the year of the Water Rabbit/Hare begins). The two key themes are:
Change (mostly felt in September and October)
in tandem with / followed by
Same-But-New (mostly felt from October through to January)
What this means is that you if you are willing, you will feel different yet completely yourself at the same time. The people or situations that typically hold an unbearable charge will feel less potent, or even neutralized. Problems will be looked at as challenges you can more calmly navigate around, counting both your resources and blessings. There may be a returning to wonder, playfulness, imagination, and fun: your eyes will see what was not seen before in things you have seen before. New can take on many meanings.
Other practical things you may notice in your life: For those who resist structure, you may find order is an immense ally to flow and intuition. For those over-planners, more trust in the present moment will loosen your chains to always have a plan B, C, and Z. How you relate with Responsibility and Accountability as teachers and friends will show up in how you spend time, set goals, approach money, view your body, share your gifts – Same-But-New will bring the closure you need (though may not totally want!). The Same-But-New will honour a balancing of the Yin and Yang, and there will be a regenerating energy that will guide your inner thoughts and body's movements. Your physical and energetic food and drink habits will also experience Same-But-New. Realizing that consumption is a way to experience safety, nourishment, and intimacy, you will choose foods, energies, and people that remind you that you are loved. This is not to say life will be always easeful, but it's precisely because life is not always easeful why the reminder of being loved is so vital. So much to say that if the foods, energies, and people you take in don't remind you that you are loved, then you may be re-evaluating if you want to continue to invite those to your table.
The Same-But-New will re-invite you to self-creation. The way you look at yourself will soften. Tenderness will no longer need to be a reminder, if you choose it. Courage over procrastination. Mysticism and the Inner Child will be parts of the self-creation: a returning to who we are. Symbols will ask us to decode them, and this skill will be very helpful even for the years 2023 (Water Rabbit), 2024 (Wood Dragon), and 2025 (Wood Snake). Spells will be calling us to be cast and received. Boogie Man will knock on our doors, not to frighten us, but to confess that we are their Boogie Man. Same-But-New.
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This is an excerpt from this September’s monthly newsletter. If you’d like to receive animist + esoteric wisdom in your inbox every month, consider subscribing!
Mimi xo