2026 Lunar New Year Part III: the Fire Horse
Welcome to the Fire Horse Year 丙午年! Beginning today, February 17, we enter the new yearly cycle of Fire Horse energy that promises to be full of intensity, surprises and opportunities. For an in depth look at the symbols of Yang Fire 丙 & the Horse 午, respectively, see Part I and Part II of this yearly blog series.
Today, we are going to dive in with a discussion of the Fire Horse year as a whole, bringing these symbols together and seeing what emerges!
As mentioned in the previous blogs, both the element of the year, Yang Fire 丙, and the Horse 午 are Fire in nature. In any other Fire year, there is some kind of fuel for Fire to feed off, or a damper like Metal or Water to restrain the blaze. For the Fire Horse, however, there no fuel whatsoever, just pure Fire burning endlessly and creating new matter in the form of Earth, the “Hidden” element inside of the Horse. So this is not the Fire of destruction, but a fire of creation: the manifestation of life itself. Therefore, appropriate image for the Fire Horse year is the “Great Yang” 太陽 of the Sun itself!
The Sun burns endlessly, without any apparent fuel source, but in fact the source of the Sun’s blaze is the process of nuclear fusion - or the creation of matter - that occurs in the heart of the Sun. Elements come together and are transformed into something new, and in the process energy in the form of light and heat are given off. This is what creates the fireball we see, and that energy given off by the process of creation goes on to warm and illuminate our planet, giving rise to all the various lifeforms on Earth. This is a perfect metaphor for the year of the Fire Horse: an intense process of transformation and growth that brings new things into existence, illuminating everything and inspiring us to grow and change.
Just as the Sun shines equally on all things, and gives life without discrimination, the Fire Horse year is not about positive or negative transformation, it simply catalyzes all process of transformation and manifestation, bringing what has been dormant to life, and shining light on what has been hidden or obscured.
This can be immensely helpful if we have a clear sense of priorities and strong intention going in to the year: we don’t have to work at making something happen this year, the Fire Horse will provide the opportunities and energies of transformation for us. We just have to continue to move forward carrying and acting out our intentions, and they will naturally take form and come to realization!
The flip side is also true, however. If we don’t have clear intention this year, or are caught up in cycles of frustration, hatred or antagonism, those very same forces will be accelerated and come into being - transforming our lives into battlegrounds of conflict, only worsening existing problems. The same is true collectively — social movements always gain momentum in Fire Horse years, like the Cultural Revolution in 1966, or the Russian Revolution concluding in 1906. Despite the great push towards transformation, the outcome of these movements is not necessarily an improvement on what came before. Also in 1966, a collection of African countries gained independence from colonial rule, but half of them ended up under brutal military dictatorships. The momentum of transformation is carrying things forward, but it is up to us and our collective intention to determine what kind of new world we are stepping into.
The silver lining to all of this is that things have to manifest in order to be addressed and transformed. In the lens of East Asian Medicine and Acupuncture, physical and emotional symptoms are the body’s way of trying to draw attention to an imbalance, and the symptoms will get worse until the imbalance is addressed. Worsening symptoms are in fact part of the body’s intelligence, because even if we ignore a small nudge or signal, eventually we will have to pay attention and start seeking out care or help for what is going on. This is true on a personal as well as collective level: what is ignored will get worse, and in getting worse will demand more attention until it becomes impossible to ignore, and only once we begin to pay attention do we have a chance of unraveling the knots of imbalance that exist in ourselves and the wider world.
So, for any process of healing and healthy growth we are in, the Fire Horse will catalyze our potential for personal and collective transformation and healing. When we get overwhelmed with emotions or thought patterns of blame, hatred and division - which will happen to all of us! - these patterns will also be catalyzes and can blow up in our faces. This is also a helpful learning experience, because if these patterns don’t manifest and create consequences, we might just ignore them and never seek to understand or address them. The Fire Horse intensity brings everything to light for the purposes of transformation, so set a clear intention for health, community and abundance this year and buckle up, cowboy, because it’s going to be a crazy ride!
-Dr. Paul Arellano
If you are interested in learning more about your personal Chinese Astrology chart, and how the Fire Horse year will affect you personally, I offer personalized BaZi/Chinese Astrology “Inner Landscape“ readings. In these readings, we take a deep dive into who you are, looking at the resources and skills you have to draw on throughout your life. Yearly follow-up readings to look at how the overall year will land for you, and month-by-month map of the approaching energies and how to best ride them! Find out more below: