Tending the Fire Without Burning Out
Ancient cycles, nervous system wisdom, and the year ahead
Happy New Year
I’m writing to you from Malta, where I’ve had the rare opportunity to visit the Hypogeum and the Neolithic temples of Ġgantija, Ħaġar Qim, Mnajdra, and Ħal Tarxien. I’ve been wanting to come here for some time and I’ve found it so inspiring. I’ve spent quite a bit of time writing near these temples and looking out at the Mediterranean Ocean. It’s been a huge blessing to have this space and time to follow some of the more creative, playful streams in my mind.
Standing inside these spaces (some of which are over 5,000 years old) makes it impossible not to feel awe at what our ancestors built together. These are massive stones that were cut, carved, carried, and shaped into resonant apses for rituals around a shared cosmology that was likely rooted in star worship (especially Gacrux and Avior, who are no longer visible in the skies here) and honoring the seasons that were important for the grains and pulses they were growing.
Walking through the Hypogeum was especially moving. I have never in my life seen anything like it. This underground temple-tomb, carved collectively over thousands of years, descends through three levels into a space honoring the underworld and the cycles of life and death. Rounded ceilings echo the architecture above ground, spirals painted in red ochre still mark the walls, and a resonance chamber amplifies voices around in the 100–114 Hz range, creating an intense vibratory effect throughout the space. It’s a reminder that humans have understood the cyclical nature of time for a really long time. That sense of cycles feels really present here near the Winter solstice.
An Yi Jing (I Ching) Reading:
I consulted the Yi Jing (Book of Changes) about the coming year and received Hexagram 24, Returning, with a changing line (4) that transforms it into Hexagram 51, Thunder.
Coincidentally (is it?), Hexagram 24 is associated with the Winter Solstice. Return is not about going backward or giving up momentum; it’s about restoring sincerity. This hexagram often appears when we think the path itself is wrong, when in truth we may have drifted from how or why we were walking it. It invites a quiet turning inward to examine our intention, our commitment and what we are aligned with. Progress here doesn’t look like acceleration, but looks more like simplification. It’s about how we come home to the part of ourself that hasn’t changed, even after detours or periods of exhaustion. In nature, this is the moment just after the Winter Solstice: the light has not yet returned in any obvious way, but it has turned. Something subtle is beginning again.
What’s especially important is that Return carries a hidden quality of receptivity and yielding. This isn’t a year for forcing outcomes or proving worth through effort. It’s a year for listening, softening, and allowing inner truth to re-emerge before action follows. The ancient image associated with this hexagram reminds us that when new life first returns, it is fragile and must be protected. The Yijing teaches that the wise response is to slow down and nurture what is being born. From this place of quiet sincerity, movement eventually comes on its own. When alignment is restored, clarity arrives, often suddenly and unmistakably. The reading speaks to a year in which you return to yourself without apology and trust that when the time comes to move, you’ll know: something true has finally been given space to grow.
The second hexagram in this reading (that follows Return) is Hexagram 51, Zhen, The Shocking (Thunder). If Return is the quiet turning inward, Thunder is the moment life moves again and often without asking permission. Zhen represents the unexpected events that wake us from complacency and restore circulation where things have grown stagnant. While it can arrive with fear or disruption, its purpose is not destruction but renewal. In nature, storms rebalance ecosystems; earthquakes loosen what has become rigid; thunder clears the air. Success here comes from achieving tranquility in disturbance—staying present, upright, and responsive even when the ground feels like it’s shifting. The shock itself is not the problem; resisting it is. This hexagram teaches that fear, when allowed to move through rather than harden, becomes energy, courage, and forward motion.
The Year of the Fire Horse: February 17
We’re approaching the Year of the Fire Horse, which begins with the Lunar New Year on February 17. Fire Horse energy is associated with passion, bold movement, leadership, and transformation, but only when it’s grounded. Fire without roots burns out quickly.
The last Fire Horse year was 1966. This year saw a lot of cultural upheaval: the Cultural Revolution in China escalated, civil rights movements intensified worldwide, anti–Vietnam War protests grew more confrontational, and youth culture and feminism challenged inherited structures of authority. Fire Horse years tend to amplify what is already under pressure, forcing suppressed tensions into the open. What 1966 did not offer was calm or gradual reform. The year demanded reckoning. This is where the Yi Jing reading feels especially relevant by contrast: rather than predicting immediate explosion, it points to an inward return before outward ignition. It’s an invitation to work consciously with Fire Horse energy so transformation comes through alignment rather than backlash.
Before that, 1906 would have been the next Fire Horse year and that also shows a year with a number of catalytic events. The San Francisco earthquake and fire destroyed much of the city, while exposing corruption in construction, failures in infrastructure, and deep social inequities which caused radical reshaping. 1906 saw major strikes and organizing efforts across the U.S. and Europe. In the U.S., the labor movement pushed for shorter workdays, safer conditions, and collective bargaining, laying groundwork for reforms that followed and marked the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act, spurred by public outrage after Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle.
Both years show times when hidden faults become impossible for the masses to ignore. Combined with the Yijing reading, we could say that this is a year to come home first and then, when the moment is unmistakable, to move without hesitation. Fire still arrives, but it is a response grounded in a clear root, rather than something that consumes us and pulls us even further from source.
The Year Compass
To support my own transition around the New Year, I love working with the Year Compass, a free, beautifully designed guide for reflecting on the past year and clarifying what you want to carry forward. It’s not a resolution tool; it’s more of a listening practice.
I tend to work with this closer to the Lunar New Year and early spring because that feels more correlated with the solar system and cosmology for me. This year, I’m offering two opportunities to work with it in community:
January 16 — an intimate fire circle at my place, with tea and reflection
February 16 — a follow-up circle just before the Lunar New Year begins
Each gathering will be small (9–10 people), by donation, and focused on reflection rather than fixing. If you’d like to join, just send me a note.
Remembering that Winter Is for Being
Winter isn’t the season for doing more. It’s the season for reducing, resting, and listening. This is something I have to remind my busy-body-self of often, and something many of us need permission to remember.
Lately, I’ve been leaning into Qigong as a daily anchor. I’ve been practicing virtually with both Mimi Kuo-Deemer and Lee Holden, and for those wanting something simple and accessible, I genuinely recommend Lee Holden’s Ba Duan Jin (Eight Pieces of the Silk Brocade) practice that helps center attention, regulate the nervous system, and reconnect with where you want your focus to be. When done regularly, this can help with balancing the adrenals, reducing fatigue and improving concentration. For $97, you get a 2-hour course that goes over the theory of the practice plus a 30-minute, downloadable (so yours forever) run through of the Silk Brocade that you can bring with you wherever you go to practice.
A Simple Winter Tea
One small winter ritual I love is a warming thyme tea, optionally spiced with cinnamon or cardamom. Thyme supports the lungs, digestion, immune system, and circulation, and in Chinese medicine (Bai Li Xiang) it’s used to warm the lungs and spleen, support the Defensive/Protective Qi, and ease colds.
Simple Thyme Tea
2 cups water
1 tablespoon dried thyme
Optional: cinnamon stick, cardamom pod, or a black tea bag
Honey to taste
Bring water to a boil, add thyme (and spices if using), simmer 5–10 minutes, strain, sweeten, and drink warm. If you’re using cinnamon and/or cardamom, add these with the thyme. If you’re making a black tea, add the tea bag after boiling and steep for 2-4 minutes.
Self-care doesn’t need to be complicated. Often, it just means taking a nap, staring out the window and definitely getting off screens.
Wishing you a gentle winter, and a steady return to yourself before the thunder comes.
With love, bex
This is absolutely brilliant. Thank you!