Dreams, Visions and Prophecies for the Year of the Female Wood Snake.

By Lama Fede Andino

Last Saturday, we all got together for the Losar (Tibetan new year) celebration. And, as it is our custom, I explained both the general meaning of the Tibetan new year and the divinations, dreams and prophecies we got for this year in particular. Attendees’ requests led me to create written and video records. Therefore, here they are: the general and specific Dreams, Visions and Prophecies for the Year of the Wooden Snake.

The General

Tibetan cosmology incorporates the Tibetan elemental system of astrology, which integrates years and elements, and this system closely ties into broader Buddhist and Bön traditions. Now, while Tibetans believe it originated in Tibet, we know historically that it comes from China. It combines a cycle of five elements—Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal (or Iron), and Water—with a twelve-year animal cycle, creating a 60-year calendrical system. This system includes divination, personality analysis, and understanding cosmic influences on individuals and events. Usually, its new year comes a (lunar) month after the Chinese one; this year, we have just started it as today (March 3, 2025) when I’m writing this.

The Five Elements

The five elements in Tibetan astrology are dynamic forces that interact with one another, influencing both the natural world, spirits, and human life. Each element has specific qualities, associations, and relationships:

• Wood (Shing): Represents growth, creativity, flexibility, and vitality. Associated with spring, the east, and the color green.

• Fire (Me): Symbolizes energy, transformation, passion, and intensity. Linked to summer, the south, and the color red.

• Earth (Sa): Embodies stability, balance, nurturing, and grounding. Connected to the center, transitional periods, and the color yellow.

• Metal (Chak): Signifies strength, clarity, precision, and resilience. Tied to autumn, the west, and the color white.

• Water (Chu): Reflects adaptability, wisdom, fluidity, and depth. Associated with winter, the north, and the color blue or black.

The Five Elements

These elements cycle in a sequence, repeating every two years (one year as “male” and the next as “female”), and they interact in productive and destructive relationships:

• Productive Cycle: Wood feeds Fire, Fire creates Earth (ash), Earth produces Metal, Metal holds Water, Water nourishes Wood.

• Destructive Cycle: Wood breaks Earth, Earth absorbs Water, Water extinguishes Fire, Fire melts Metal, Metal cuts Wood.

  
  

  (as you might notice, they’re the same as the Chinese system)

The Cycle of Elements

The Twelve Animal Signs

The twelve animals, derived from Central Asian and Chinese influences, form a repeating cycle of years: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig. Each animal has specific traits and pairs annually with an element. The Tibetan astrological system combines the five elements with the twelve animals to form a 60-year cycle (5 elements × 12 animals = 60 unique combinations). Each year is named by pairing an element with an animal, and the element persists for two consecutive years (male then female) before shifting to the next element. For example:

Year 1: Male Wood Rat

Year 2: Female Wood Ox

Year 3: Male Fire Tiger

Year 4: Female Fire Rabbit

And so on, progressing through the elements and animals.

This cycle repeats every 60 years, with each combination carrying unique energetic qualities. The current cycle, for instance, began in 1987 (Female Fire Rabbit) and will end in 2046 (Male Fire Tiger), followed by a new cycle starting in 2047 (Female Earth Rabbit).

How does this apply? Well, in several dimensions, like most of astrology.

1. Personality: The element and animal of a person’s birth year influence their character. For example, a Fire Horse (e.g., 1966) might be energetic, passionate, and independent, while a Water Pig (e.g., 1983) could be intuitive, adaptable, and compassionate.

2. Compatibility: Elemental relationships (productive or destructive) determine harmony between individuals’ birth years.

3. Gender Aspect: The male (odd-numbered) and female (even-numbered) years add a layer of nuance, with male years being more assertive and female years more receptive.

4. And, of course, Annual Predictions: Each year’s element-animal combination affects global and personal events, with astrologers analyzing how the current year’s energy interacts with an individual’s natal element and animal.

As of March 3, 2025, the year corresponds to the Female Wood Snake (the 38th year of the current 60-year cycle that began in 1987). Wood brings growth and flexibility, while the Snake adds wisdom and subtlety, with the female aspect suggesting subtlety and receptivity. This year’s energy might favor creative endeavors tempered with strategic caution.

What does this mean for you? That this is a wonderful year to do things like start therapy, a meditation practice, yoga or a new scholarly pursuit. It is a terrible time for going to war (when isn’t, though?) or trying to build a career as a fighter, for example.

This is the general view of the year. If you want, we can talk more about the Tibetan system, but I think this is good enough for now.

The Specific

Having done the general things that happen every single Losar, let’s focus on the specifics of this. What result of the dreams, divinations and prophecies for this year?

(I think I should emphasize here that this results from my divinations, dreams and visions, i.e. Lama Fede’s and they are not from any other source. Caveat emptor)

This year’s key word is ACCELERATION.

Probably you’ve already seen it. Either in politics, in society trends, or even in your day-to-day life. Everything seems more intense, faster and more in-your-face.

This is a good thing (if you’re a tantrika).

What do I mean by that?

Let’s start by saying that I’m not judging the events. You might think that current events are terrible. Ok. You might think that they’re the best thing ever. Also, ok.

What are we, as Tantrikas, trying to shortcut and dispel?

Samsara.

And what is Samsara, at its core?

Confusion. Samsara is confusion arising from ignorance.

Nirvana it’s the awakening from that confusion.

So let’s be very clear: we’re not looking for a bettering of Samsara. Not an improvement, but a radical change. We’re trying to exist totally differently that what most beings exist today.

The problem is: Samsara is not entirely bad. If it was, everyone would try to short-circuit all the time. The problem is that Samsara can and often is pleasurable, nice and beautiful. And yet, critically, that same mix of pleasure and displeasure, Sukha and Duhkha, is what ties us to it.

When Samsara is gentle, nice, aesthetic, we like it here and want to stay.

This is where most people who think themselves as Buddhist really are. I was here myself, for a long time. Renunciation is a difficult thing.

A nice temple, aesthetic monks, retreats with tea and silence.

Perhaps a delightful view from the temple?

Who doesn’t like that?

And yet, that is still Samsara.

Or, as I wrote in Buddhistdoor (https://espanol.buddhistdoor.net/el-futuro-del-budismo-cyborgs-vs-aliens/), perhaps this idea of immortality, not understanding the Skandhas as empty, but getting better Skandhas.

This is also Samsara.

If you’re a person who like their Buddhism aesthetic, I have bad news. This year is going to be not like that.

But if you’re a Tantrika? This year is going to rock.

You see, if you’re a charnel ground dweller, you already know this intensity.

You know how to slither like a serpent through the passages of the earth, through the secret spaces.

If that’s you (and if you’re here, there’s a good chance it is) then, remember your Bodhicitta vow. You must encompass all beings without exception.

And remember this: the world has no fixed destiny. It has no doom.

It arises from causes and conditions.

Now Is the Time to make sure that the world that arises tomorrow differs from the one that exists today.

But you must do it in the tantric way; in secret.

Not only you will face resistance from those who want the world of tomorrow be like the world of today, but more so, exclusive and full of exploitation. No, your fiercest opponents will be those who are full of confusion. Those who had privileges that are now stripped. Those who yearn for an earlier time, one where they weren’t part of the suffering of the world, but could live in privilege.

That place does not exist anymore, if it ever did. And that’s so bitter a truth that they will lash out at you. They will fight against allies. "Don't rock the boat or we'll drown". We are corpses already, matey. Let's learn what's at the bottom of the Ocean and bring it up.

They will insist “it is impossible”, “show me where it worked”, “it is better to change the system from within”.

This is their own fear and ignorance, speaking. They do not know interdependence. What they’re saying is “I was better off before”. That might be so, but that being better was also based on causes and conditions, often worse for other people.

People thought kings had the mandate of heaven. That wasn’t just an opinion. It was how the world worked.

Until it didn’t.

This is the year where the charnel ground fires are in your face.

Go inwards.

Slither; don’t get burned.

Organize.

Become wise in the ways of power.

Share it with your like-minded companions.

And grow like the Wood grows, silent, until it is used to fuel the fire that consumes the world as it is right now and gives birth to the world that can be.

Have a nice Losar!