How to Cross the Threshold from 2025 to 2026 with Ritual, Release, and Renewal
A ceremonial guide to honouring the Year of the Snake, welcoming the Year of the Horse, and stepping into 2026 with intention
Introduction
Can you feel it? That strange, liminal energy of New Year's Eve, one foot still planted in everything that was, the other reaching toward everything that could be?
Most of us rush through this threshold. We party over it, make resolutions to fill the uncertainty, or simply let it pass without marking its significance. But what if this crossing, from the Year of the Snake to the Year of the Horse, from 2025 to 2026, deserves something more? What if your soul needs this transition? What if this threshold is actually sacred?
I created a New Year's Eve ceremonial podcast episode because I knew I needed it. After a year of descent, shedding, and transformation (classic Snake energy), I couldn't just leap into the bold action and momentum of the Horse without honouring what the journey taught me. And I'm guessing you might need it too.
In this post, you'll discover:
Why thresholds are sacred spaces where transformation actually happens
How to witness and honour your year without judgment
A powerful release ceremony you can do right now (fire optional)
What you're ready to call into the Year of the Horse
If you're feeling the weight of what 2025 asked of you, if you're uncertain about what's next, if you're craving a meaningful way to mark this passage—this is for you.
The Gift of Standing in Liminal Space
Thresholds Are Where Transformation Happens
Our culture has forgotten how to stand in thresholds. We treat them like inconveniences—spaces to rush through on our way to the next thing. But in indigenous wisdom traditions, ceremonial practices, and even in nature itself, thresholds are honoured as sacred. They're the in-between. The crossing. The place where one thing ends and another begins.
And here's what I've learned from a decade of training in ceremony and my work as an ecotherapist: transformation doesn't happen in the "before" and it doesn't happen in the "after." It happens in the crossing itself.
Think about it. The caterpillar doesn't become a butterfly in its caterpillar body, nor does it suddenly wake up as a butterfly. The transformation happens in the chrysalis, in that dissolving, reforming, completely vulnerable space in between. That's the threshold.
Right now, we're standing in the threshold between the Year of the Snake and the Year of the Horse. Between descent and rising. Between shedding what no longer fits and running toward what we're called to create. And if we don't pause here, if we don't mark this passage with intention, we risk carrying forward what we were meant to leave behind.
The invitation: Don't rush this crossing. Stand in it. Feel it. Honour it.
Witnessing the Year That Was (Without Judgment)
What the Snake Year Taught You
The snake is a powerful teacher in many wisdom traditions. It represents transformation, healing, the shedding of what's no longer needed. The snake moves close to the earth, feels everything, knows the ground truth. And in 2025, the Year of the Snake, many of us have experienced exactly this kind of energy.
Maybe you didn't realise you were in a snake year. Maybe you didn't have language for what was happening. But I'm willing to bet that somewhere in 2025, you experienced:
Shedding – letting go of something, or having something stripped from you
Descent – going deeper into yourself, into grief, into truth
Exposure – having something hidden come to light
Healing – whether you wanted it or not
Transformation – becoming someone different than you were
For me, 2025 brought perimenopause that stripped away my patience for anything inauthentic. It brought business experiments that failed and cost me money but taught me what doesn't work. It brought grief work with friends in Gaza that broke my heart wide open. It brought moments when I hit my edge and thought I couldn't go on, and then discovered I could. It brought the shedding of my "humble and uncertain" identity, and underneath it, I found a leader ready to serve at a completely different level.
The snake year has been intense. Confronting. Raw.
But here's the practice that changed everything for me: witnessing without judgment. Not analysing, not fixing, not even understanding yet, just noticing. Just being with what was.
When I walked back through my year month by month, winter into spring, spring into summer, the fullness of high summer, the fall into autumn, the composting of late November and December, I didn't try to make sense of it. I just let it be what it was. The beauty and the brutality. The joy and the grief. The expansion and the contraction.
Your turn: What skin did you shed this year? What old identity, role, belief, or way of being has fallen away? You might not have full answers yet. That's okay. The snake's teaching doesn't always make sense right away. But something died this year. And something was born. Honour that much. You survived the descent. You're still here. That matters.
The Release Ceremony: Leaving What's Done at the Threshold
You Can't Ride If You're Still Carrying Dead Weight
Here's what I know about the Year of the Horse that we've just entered: it's going to ask you to move. To rise. To reclaim your direction and chase what your spirit has been longing for. The horse brings renewal, independence, clarity, bold action.
But here's what I also know: the horse can't run if we're weighed down with what the snake showed us was dead weight.
This is the heart of threshold work…..the release ceremony. Not forcing yourself to let go of something you're not ready to release, but honouring what's already ready to go. What's already composted. What the fire has already burned, even if you're still holding the ashes.
So let me ask you: What are you ready to release?
Maybe it's:
The belief that you're not enough
The pattern of playing small
The expectation that you should have it all figured out
The relationship that's been over for months but you haven't admitted it
The dream that was never really yours
The resentment you've been carrying
The fear that's been making your decisions for you
Here's the ceremonial practice:
If you have an actual fire, write what you're releasing on paper and burn it. Watch it transform from solid to ash to smoke to nothing. But even without a physical fire, you can do this.
Close your eyes. Imagine the fire in front of you. See it clearly—the flames, the heat, the light. Smell the smoke. Feel the warmth on your face. Now take what you're ready to release, and offer it to the fire. Watch it catch flame. Watch it burn. Watch it transform and rise up into the night sky.
It's not yours anymore. It's ash. It's smoke. It's gone.
Breathe. Feel the lightness of letting go.
You don't have to carry that anymore. The snake has taught you its lesson. You can leave it here, on this threshold, as you cross into the Year of the Horse.
Opening to Receive What the Horse Is Calling You Toward
Nature Abhors a Vacuum
Here's what's true about thresholds: they're not just about releasing. They're about receiving. About opening to what wants to come in.
When we release what's no longer serving us, space opens up. And life, spirit, the sacred, the universe, however you name it, rushes in to fill that space. But we have to be intentional about what we're calling in. Otherwise, we'll just fill it with more of the same.
So I want to ask you: What are you calling in for 2026?
This is the Year of the Horse. The horse awakens momentum. The horse calls us to rise, to move with power and grace, to reclaim our direction, to chase what our spirits have been longing for.
So what are you saying YES to?
Not what you think you should want. Not what would make other people happy. Not what seems sensible or safe or realistic. What is your spirit calling you toward?
Feel it. Don't think it, feel it. Where in your body do you feel the YES?
That's your answer. That's your direction.
Speak it out loud if you can. Or write it down:
"In 2026, I am calling in..."
Let your voice give it power. And as you speak it, feel yourself opening to receive it. Feel yourself becoming the person who already has this. Who already lives this. Who already is this.
Because here's the truth: The horse isn't calling you to become someone different. The horse is calling you to become more fully who you already are.
Conclusion: Don't Cross This Threshold Alone
Beautiful one, you've done the work, even just by reading this far. You've witnessed your year. You've honoured what the snake taught you. You've considered what you're ready to release and what you're ready to call in.
Now here's my blessing for you as you cross this threshold:
May you trust the descent that brought you here.
May you honour the skins you've shed.
May you know that who you are now is exactly who you need to be.
May you release the weight that was never yours to carry.
May you step into the Year of the Horse with a heart that refuses to settle and legs that will carry you exactly where you need to go.
And may you remember: you are not alone.
There is a field of us, all crossing this threshold together, all moving from snake wisdom to horse power, all holding connection at the core of who we are.
Ready to Go Deeper?
🎧 Listen to the full ceremonial journey: New Year's Eve Special: Honouring the Snake, Welcoming the Horse – This 25-minute guided experience will walk you through the complete threshold ceremony, with space for reflection, release, and calling in what's next.
📖 Start your journey with clarity: Download my free Purpose Foundations guide to begin exploring the deeper questions of who you are and what you're here to create. It's the perfect companion to this threshold work.
💬 I'd love to hear from you: What are you releasing from 2025? What are you calling in for the Year of the Horse? Email me directly or tag me on social media—I read every single message.
The threshold is here. The fire is burning. And you are always, always welcome.
Until next time, may you walk—and run—in beauty.
