Star of Hope and Chinese Lunar New Year

This month we celebrate the light in the darkness, and it is brilliant to behold. The Star of Hope and Chinese Lunar New Year radiate the joy of new beginnings, renewal, and the sparks of light that re-connect us with the magic of life. Tomorrow, February 15, we will experience a new moon in Aquarius. Aquarius is associated with The Star Tarot card – healing, hope, and the unlimited possibilities for growth, joy, and abundance. It is the promise of things unseen, and the ethereal water that restores and elevates the spirit.

The Hermit of the Tarot holds the Star of Hope within his lantern. While we travel through the darkness in the absence of a full moon this month, feel yourself as the Hermit, holding your own lantern of light within. This is the time to nurture and delight in the illumination of your own wisdom. Chinese Lunar New Year is a beautiful display of “as within, so without”, with a bright show to reflect the creative light within and emergence of spring. In China, the streets and sky will be filled with exuberant sounds, lights, and colors under this dark new moon. This new moon is a harbinger of spring that unites us across the Northern Hemisphere. I am holding a special new moon event tomorrow, on February 15. I hope you will join me in person or online as we set forth our new intentions and unite with community.

Are you ready for spring? Do you feel the quiet, darker, introspective time of winter drawing to an end? Perhaps at first you welcomed the excuse to withdraw and rest; to do less and ease up on pushing yourself and life forward. Winter is a natural time for restoration and dreaming. It’s necessary, and yet, it cannot go on forever. Spring is stirring, within us and without. It’s time to feel your lifeforce rising up to a new occasion. What have you been dreaming about, visioning, and keeping close to your heart in these months of long nights? Have your guides or ancestors imparted new wisdom or guidance that is just waiting to be initiated? The Wheel of the Year is turning – it always is. I see the Hermit’s lantern shining brighter and the lantern no longer able to contain this light. Imagine it shooting out, an uncontained star, released to come into new form with the spring, like all the plants that push through the hard, dry earth into the sun’s light. If you have been longing to be reborn or rebirth something in your life, your time is fast approaching.

Chinese Lunar New Year begins at the new moon that falls between January 21 and February 20. This year, in China’s time zone, the new moon day of the first Chinese lunar month is February 16. Lunar New Year, or the Spring Festival, is one of the most colorful events in the world, and the celebration continues beyond the day, often two weeks or more. This is the beginning of the year for China, and in timeless tradition, they will make sure it starts with an auspicious, delightful display! Imagine bells ringing, firecrackers popping, a sea of color…powerful reds and golds, lanterns, costumes, dancers, and fireworks illuminating the night sky, all overtaking the streets. Offerings are made to the ancestors, and the old is swept away, to usher in only the best fortune.

We are entering the Chinese Year of the Earth Dog, and let’s pause and feel into it…Earth…Dog. The element of earth combined with dog brings a focus on work, communication, and brotherhood. Dog instills the ability to professionally excel, because it is efficient, proactive, kind, loyal, and happy to lend a helping hand. We admire the attributes of integrity, loyalty, and directness that dog embodies. From dog, we can learn to be more selfless and generous, observing how this generates greater results in the long run. Dog is not concerned with money and doesn’t expect things from life. Dog is willing to sacrifice for others, especially for those it fiercely loves. Dog time is 7pm – 9pm on the Chinese clock, a time associated with the duty of guarding the house. People born under the sign of Dog are known as the most humanitarian individuals. If you have ever spent much time with a dog, you have witnessed pure loyalty and pure instinct. A dog takes care of itself, its pack, its people – no questions asked, ever. Have you experienced this kind of loyalty and comradery?

With all these changes upon us, we are not alone, as dog reminds us. How will we work together to bring light to the darkness, in our personal, political, environmental, financial, and social circumstances? If this new moon and new year signify hope for working together to build a better future, how can we give it real shape and put it into action? I believe it starts with the Hermit – allowing the light of spirit and love within you to grow and blaze. Listen to your own wisdom and do not be afraid to share it with others. Your experiences, joyful and suffering, have prepared you to live more fully and with more compassion. Do not doubt your expertise, for you are the ultimate expert when it comes to yourself, and you are on this planet to be you. You are what we need – the real, exposed you. The you that truly sees me, just as I see you.

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