Year of the Fire Horse: Boldness, Story, and Becoming

There are years that feel like embers. And there are years that feel like sparks.

According to the Chinese zodiac, we’re entering a Year of the Fire Horse, a combination associated with energy, courage, independence, and dramatic forward motion. In traditional Chinese astrology, the Horse is spirited, intelligent, and action-oriented. Add the element of Fire, and the symbolism intensifies: passion, visibility, transformation, heat.

Fire does not stay contained.
It spreads.
It illuminates.
It changes what it touches.

I’m not a particularly woo-woo person. I don’t make decisions based on horoscopes, and I don’t believe symbols dictate our fate. But I do love tradition. I love folklore. I love the way humans across centuries and continents have tried to understand time by telling stories about it.

The Chinese zodiac is one of those stories. So are Celtic tree calendars. So are birth flowers, gemstones, Viking runes, and Mayan day signs. They are cultural attempts to say: this moment in time carries a certain flavor. This season shapes us in particular ways.

Whether or not you take it literally, symbolism gives us language.

Last year, for me, was inward. Quiet. Intense. A year of reckoning and reflection and deep, unseen work. Necessary, but heavy. Now I feel something stretching toward the light. I’m ready for growth outward and upward.

And if I’m being honest, I need to create some breathing room. Some margin. Some funds this spring that will let me refill the well and tend the fire. Fire needs fuel. So do artists.

I’m putting my Illustrated Birthday Charts on sale right now for a very practical reason. They are half off: $50 instead of $100.

If you’ve ever considered commissioning one for yourself, for a baby, for a partner, or for a rite of passage, the beginning of a new year is a powerful time to do it. I love making these because I get to learn something each time and create a story, a moment of identity and reflection for the recipient.

These charts are not fortune-telling. They are story-maps. I weave together symbols from astrology, botany, gemology, and global traditions: birth flower, birthstone, zodiac sign, Celtic tree, Viking rune, Mayan zodiac, Chinese zodiac. Not as prediction, but as portrait.

What I love most is how intimate they feel. Each one is different. Each one feels like creating a small visual biography for someone special.