Welcoming the Year of the Sheep

Today, we bid an official (and not necessarily fond) “goodbye” to the Year of the Horse, even though we can still feel the rumble of its hooves as it gallops off into the sunset. That rumble will continue for a little while, and yet it will soften considerably as the gentle-mannered sheep takes hold.

The Year of the [Wood] Horse was all about movement, and many people can attest to that fact – myself included. For me, it feels as though the last year went by faster than the blink of an eye; less blur and more flash. There are markers I can look to; signposts that intermittently dot its landscape and give me the chance to say, “Yes, I was there. I remember.” Their numbers are few, though, as the pace didn’t allow time for much anchoring.

The Year of the [Wood] Sheep is all about peace. There’s a languid air to the incoming energy of this year that speaks to the ability to stretch time in ways we’ve only imagined before now, and yet, at the same time, openly rejects any notion of passivity.

This isn’t a year to lay down and rest on the verdant hillside. It’s a year ripe with promise for accomplishments that are deeply thoughtful… mindful… existential. It’s a year to get things done through intuitive decision making and with divine insight such as few have experienced before now.

I was guided to draw a card from Colette Baron-Reid’s Wisdom of the Hidden Realms oracle deck, which I use for Tuesday’s Weekly Wisdom readings, to help exemplify the deeper meaning of the Year of the Sheep. The Sun Dancers is an ideal draw for its ethereal suggestion of enlightenment and alignment, and its clear statement of “abundance” in the text on its face.

The Year of the Sheep is a year to be inquisitive. It’s a year to practice curiosity in such a way that your awareness is heightened like never before. Your vision will be keener, as will all your senses, setting the stage for a year of more, and more, that has nothing to do with greed and everything to do with abundance at its most beneficial.

The Year of the Sheep is a year to take your intuitive and psychic abilities to new levels, as perceived limitations dissolve and vibrations – yours, mine, ours – rise to an all-time high. This is the near tipping point for light coming back into balance with dark, and for the sacred feminine coming back into balance with the sacred masculine.

That means that there will be plenty of unrest. Dark likes to be in charge just as much as any patriarch whose had his own way for a long stretch of time. The difference this year is that the dramatic influx of light and the nurturing tone of the feminine will match it, point for point and skirmish for skirmish, preparing the way for the neutrality that’s necessary to raise up the entire planet.

It also means that the thinned veil more often seen at specific times of the year will be prevalent throughout the year, and even more so at times like Hallowe’en. It’s a preview of coming attractions, in a way, for this is where we’re heading: forward to a mirror image from the past; an era when light and dark are equals, joining forces with nurturing strength, as they’re meant to be.

It will show up everywhere; from Hollywood to Washington. It’s the pavement that’s necessary to make possible what the Dalai Lama proclaimed in September of 2009:

The world will be saved by the western woman. ~The Dalai Lama

The time has come. The Year of the Sheep makes it possible.

What’s Your Take?

Did the Year of the Horse leave you breathless, too? What one mindful change might you want to make during the Year of the Sheep?