The Year of the Wood Dragon

A dragon is not a slave.

“A dragon is not a slave.” - George R.R. Martin

February 10th, 2024 brings a fresh Lunar New Year, replete with a new power animal and element. According to Chinese tradition, we are entering the Year of the Wood Dragon: a time of unparalleled new growth and personal ferocity in the pursuit of our dreams.

A very tall (and very imposing) tree

In Feng Shui, the Wood Dragon year of 2024 combines the dragon's characteristics with the nurturing Wood element, generally represented together in Feng Shui by a tall redwood tree. In Feng Shui (and the I Ching), this wood element dominates the earth element, just as the large, imposing tree looms over the earth below.

While is is an auspicious alignment for rapid growth, spiritual expansion, and intellectual ferocity, with logic winning out over feelings (thank f*cking god), there’s also sure to be more than a little confrontational energy in the mix, too.

With this wood element, new ideas and businesses and beliefs want to be born. Spiritual practitioners and psychics are going to be receiving vessels for downloads from the divine. Innovation and disruption will be exploding left, right and center— and there won’t be a lot of time (or patience) for the old guard.

Because of the wood element’s dominance over the earth element, earth-oriented industries like real estate, precious metals and commodities trading, estate management funds, data storage facilities, and human resources are likely going to get pummeled.

Needless to say, it’s a very different energy than where we’ve been in the years of the Rabbit, Tiger and Rat. In this year, fortune really will favor the bold— and will notably not favor the meek or mediocre.

Revolutions and uprisings

As we wrote in our Resurrection post here on Substack early last year, Pluto’s transit into Aquarius this month was already going to be a wild time. The last time this planet of death and resurrection did this particular dance was during the American and French Revolutions. Thomas Jefferson, largely the architect of both revolutions and the very concept of our modern democratic Republic famously said, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

Boss level shit, isn’t it? But, also, probably not for the faint of heart.

Good thing we have a dragon to help us.

This tree (and revolution) reference seemed like an uncanny synchronicity when one considers that Pluto’s visit to Aquarius is happening right as we enter the Year of the Wood Dragon. After all, Dragon years aren’t exactly known for being chill on their own, let alone when supercharged with this Pluto in Aquarius shit. It’s kind of like the energy of revolution to the power of the energy of revolution. Like, orders of magnitude revolution. To infinity. And beyond.

And, as the saying goes, you can’t make an omelette (or revolution) without breaking a few eggs. So, best to just be aware of the potential proverbial broken egg shells— i.e. negative aspects— of this particular Dragon Year:

• anger

• drama and intensity

• inflexibility

• abuse of power

• impulsivity

• burnout

• war

A hack to navigate this very dynamic Wood Dragon + Pluto in Aquarius energetic landscape? Embrace logic and keep an open mind. This combination of Logos (logic) and Sophia (spiritual wisdom) will help you navigate the crucial balance between reacting too quickly or too slowly, ensuring that your timing is in simpatico with our dragon friend’s undulations. It will also help to remind you that your knowledge is limited, lest you get all zealous and go full Crusader;)

This year, facts > feelings in a big, big way.

Innovation and growth

This Year of the Wood Dragon is seen in Feng Shui as an ideal period for fresh starts and laying down the groundwork for lasting success, as well as stepping out of the proverbial closet to authentically communicate our real thoughts about real stuff.

The Wood Dragon says, “Enough groupthink. Enough sheeple. Enough algorithms and influencers and cool kid clubs. A dragon is not a slave— whether it be to an ideology, tribe or political system.”

What’s fascinating is that the wood element will balance some of the dragon’s less desirable aspects (outlined above), focusing our energies on growing and building something new as we tear down the old. In other words, this isn’t scorched earth for the nihilistic sake of it, leaving nothing but rubble in its wake. Rather, think of this year’s energy as a controlled demolition of everything that sucks— so that something that makes a lot more sense (and work for a lot more of us) can take its place.

Other highlights of this dynamic Wood Dragon Year include:

• Spiritual growth. Just like the tall tree reaches up to the higher dimensions, we humans (especially the psychic among us) will find ourselves reaching up for spiritual connection, enlightenment, and even contact— perhaps with UAPs. As a psychic practitioner, I’m personally thrilled that the elements are conspiring on my behalf this year (finally), and I look forward to working with new people and expanding my service offerings.

• Innovation. The forward-thinking Wood Dragon embraces change, pursuing new ideas that push past the boundaries of convention. As a former Director of Innovation in corporate real estate, I have an almost romantic love for all things innovative and out of the box. I can’t wait to see how this energy roots in our reality!

• Meritocracy. Type A people thrive in the Year of the Wood Dragon, so I’m basically calling a Lunar New Year “Bingo!”. The pace will be fast, an eye for details will be crucial, and it would seem that the heavens will shine warmly on those that like to get shit done. Hallelujah.

• Transformation. 2024 is a year when complete renewal is possible. We may burn away old habits and transform every aspect of our lives down to the ground level, all while building something newer and better. If you lose your job or are facing an unexpected move, roll with it. Fresh starts are particularly auspicious this year, so on to bigger and better things!

New TOTEM Services

At TOTEM, we’re leaning into the Year of the Wood Dragon vibes kind of hard. I feel energized and ready to tackle new challenges, learn new modalities, meet new clients, teach new workshops— and even publish a new deck! Here are a few of our new offerings and updates in honor of the Wood Dragon:

TOTEM Feng Shui Session

Our TOTEM Feng Shui Consultation makes the powerful gifts of spatial energy balancing accessible for everyone, regardless of space or lifestyle type. We’ve simplified the robust world of Feng Shui to arm clients with immediately actionable insights into their living or working space, arming them with easy tips, tricks and to do’s that will radically shift the energies around: love, work, fame, health, luck, and much, much more. TOTEM’s Feng Shui Consultation distills the robust, ancient Chinese practice into manageable (and easy and affordable) bits for modern folks living in the modern world. Feng Shui is a game-changing, potent modality that can move mountains in your life, empowering you to take the world by storm—and all with a few simple adjustments! Feng Shui clients receive a free gift via UPS as a part of their session; this gift will include a tailored mix of hanging crystal, incense and/or sage or palo santo depending on client space needs.

Learn more and book your session HERE.

TOTEM I Ching Reading

TOTEM has just launched our newest service: TOTEM I Ching Readings. This session offers unique and actionable insights from the oldest divinatory tool in the world. The I Ching, otherwise called the “Book of Changes”, provides answers to client questions and advice from spirit through the metaphysical power of 64 hexagrams, all of which represent the interaction between natural forces. Using a tailor-made set of I Ching “coins”, Rachel takes a look at the elemental forces, influences, landscapes and other factors coming into play for the client in the next year. How can you position yourself for greatness? Secure your small business? Find a romantic partner? Focus on your health? Will there be helpful people to assist you along the way? This service is ideal for new clients and those new to psychic work, distilling this more than 3,000 year-old tradition into tangible to do’s in our very modern world. detailed insight and guidance as they navigate life. A TOTEM I Ching Reading provides a truly unique, data-intensive spiritual snapshot that can illuminate and affirm in all the ways that matter for you.

To celebrate the lunar new year, I’m offering this service at 50% off for a limited time.

Learn more and book your session HERE.

TOTEM Service Packages

We’re also offering packages for both TOTEM Shamanic Energy Sessions and TOTEM Feng Shui Sessions for those of you seeking to invest in deeper, more intensive shifts. These packages reflect substantive discounts vs. the one-off booking options:

• 3 sessions: $500 ($100 savings)

• 6 sessions: $900 ($300 savings)​

​​To learn more or book, email me directly to get the details: rachel@totemreadings.com

Workshops at Within Center

Starting in February, I will be facilitating in-person Shamanic Journeying Meditation workshops every other month of 2024 at Within Center, a psychedelic therapy and functional medicine sanctuary here in Austin, TX.

To learn more or register to secure your spot, visit my website’s events page HERE.

I Ching- 49. Ko/ Revolution (Molting)

Above: Tui: The Joyous, Lake

Below: Li: The Clinging, Fire

From the Book of Changes: “The Chinese character for the hexagram is represented by an animal’s pelt, which is changed in the course of the year by molting. From this word is carried over to apply to the “moltings” in political life, the great revolutions connected with changes in governments.

THE JUDGMENT

REVOLUTION. On your own day

You are believed,

Supreme success,

Furthering through perseverance.

Remorse disappears.”

When I pulled this I Ching coin with the intention of getting an energy preview for the Wood Dragon year, I thought to myself, “Well, well, well. It’s not going to be a very smooth ride in this Year of the Wood Dragon, is it?”

And then I got kind of pumped up.

After all, I think we’ve all had enough of the status quo— so much so that we’re ready (if not downright itching) to molt, regardless of the short term discomfort inherent in the process.

Political revolutions, as the I Ching warns, are extremely grave matters. But they are also natural and crucial phenomenon, as inevitable as the snake shedding its old skin. The Book of Changes describes a war between the the fire below and the lake above (the two elemental trigrams of the I Ching coin). This war is such that they seek to destroy each other through combat.

But this is no typical petty political matter or standard proxy war. No sir. Rather, this is combat that “takes place between the forces of light and the forces of darkness, eventuating in the revolution of the seasons.” From this war between the primordial forces of light and dark comes a strange clarity and order as we— the collective— experience the cleaving away of the old, dead and desiccated.

For those that want to cling to old ways of thinking and being, this molting process is likely to be quite traumatic. A key aspect to transmuting this trauma will be to remember that you are not your ideas or ideologies and, in fact, these core “beliefs” may have actually been thought prisons that stifled your growth and stunted your perspective. Worse yet: they may be the dogma of the army of “darkness”— and not the side of the light.

Ultimately, if the I Ching is to be believed, we can at least look forward to this prophetic line from the Book of Changes: “Changing the form of government brings good fortune.”

So, all is well that ends well?

Head’s up: I’ll be pulling an I Ching coin alongside our TOTEM Tarot Cards for our monthly Full Moon readings for paid subscribers here on Substack, so stay tuned for more of these awesome esoteric insights!

TOTEM Tarot Card- Lilith

Our TOTEM Tarot Deck’s version of the classic High Priestess card is Lilith, and she couldn’t be more perfect for the energy of this Wood Dragon Year.

Lilith wants us to remember our origins. To remember what it felt like when we were surrounded by what Carl Sagan called “the Dragons of Eden”. To become reconnected to the full miracle of our very existence.

We’ve largely been tricked into believing we are limited, frail and alone. But Lilith knows. Lilith remembers. And, in this Year of the Wood Dragon, she’s coming to remind us all.

When the Lilith card appears in a reading, it’s time to embrace the spiritual mysteries of our creation. This knowledge comes from esoteric studies, meditation, books and our dreams, but most of this insight is stored within our own DNA. Sit quietly with yourself, spend time in nature with animals, and keep a dream journal to capture insights. She loves the spiritual growth that dragon years bring.

Lilith ushers in a time when you’ll embrace quiet rebellion. You may walk away from the pervasively codependent society of social media and constant “connection” for a deeper, more meaningful, quiet connection. Like other powerful female figures in religious history, Lilith was demonized and marginalized; be prepared for your fellow humans to react strangely, perhaps even negatively, to you during this time, but that’s par for the course in a Dragon Year of shedding and molting.

TOTEM Flower Essences for the Dragon Year

As a shaman that’s had a life-long dragon totem animal, let’s just say I’ve been fixated on this energy— and quite literally how to bottle it— for some time.

We offer several dragon-infused TOTEM Flower Essences that are perfect for this Wood Dragon Year:

Dragon Lady

TOTEM Dragon Lady Flower Essence, made of snapdragon flowers, energetically enables balanced assertiveness without hostility or aggression. This is the BEST Flower Essence for any female leader, executive, or entrepreneur, supporting responsible communication. Dragon Lady infuses the energy body with a lively, dynamic appetite for new opportunities, new experiences and a healthy libido. Dragon Lady infuses your verbal communication with kindness and compassion while ensuring you're not giving your power away. Generate interest. Manifest opportunities. Step into the spotlight. Ride high with Dragon Lady!

Learn more or purchase Dragon Lady on our Etsy shop HERE.

Alpha Draconis

Alpha Draconis Flower Essence provides a connection to cosmic dragon medicine.

Made of Red Flame Iris Flowers, this flower essence infuses the energy body with celestial “dragon medicine”, a cosmic connection to dragon as a totem animal. It helps to instill focus, mental clarity, discernment, strength of will and commitment to excellence and personal development. This is an ideal flower essence for anyone wanting to step into their power or undertake their life’s work with purpose.

Learn more or purchase Alpha Draconis on our Etsy shop HERE.

Plumed Serpent

TOTEM Plumed Serpent Flower Essence, made of Passion flower, activates your kundalini energy to help you achieve transcendent states of consciousness. Plumed Serpent, named after the Mayan dragon deity, awakens and uncoils the kundalini energy at the base of your spine, a crucial step in spiritual awakening. Plumed Serpent also assists in the energetic decalcification of your pineal gland, opening the third eye and stimulating endogenous DMT. This Flower essence supports your connection with spirit guides, totem animals, and ancient civilizations. Plumed Serpent is ideal for any shamanic practitioner, or those who undertake intensive meditative techniques.

Learn more or purchase Plumed Serpent on our Etsy shop HERE.

All TOTEM Flower Essences are currently 60% off, so stock up while the getting is good (and while they’re in stock)!

TOTEM Flower Essence Consultations

And TOTEM Flower Essence Consultations are now $100— and include two full-sized TOTEM Flower Essences and free 2-day UPS shipping. Learn more or book a Flower Essence Consultation HERE.

Not a slave

The most important singular message of this Wood Dragon Year?

You are not a slave.

You’re a grown, sovereign human being with full rights to think, speak and act how you like— as long as you’re not impeding on anyone else’s rights.

Don’t like something about your job or industry? Get a bad feeling every time you use social media? Feel like you need to self-censor for fear of being exiled from your circle? Spend your weekends going from one obligation to another, never building “that thing” you’ve wanted to create?

Now is the time to break free of these limiting beliefs, thought prisons, and exploitative dynamics. You won’t find a better energy to harness to take your chance, so live boldly in this Year of the Wood Dragon!

And stay tuned for Wood Dragon-themed Feng Shui posts here on Substack— we plan to expand what we write about and go for the gusto!

-Rachel