A young Suhaila Salimpour girl

Tonight we welcome the Year of the Black Water Snake in Chinese Astrology and also celebrate a New Moon in Aquarius. Water Bearers and Water Serpents - messages from the Stars and the deep Earth Dwellers carried through the intuitive and healing element of Water. I always feel as if the true New Year starts on this day with much of the last month taken up in tying up loose ends from the 2012 and making plans for changes in 2013.

The prophecies for this Black Water Snake year are that we will experience more turmoil with the crumbling of old structures and outdated ways of thinking and the gift of the Snake will be to find new ways to create abundance. I believe we must learn to shed our old skin like the snake and also to be inspired by its fluid and graceful serpentine movement. When we develop grace and presence in our bodies we can begin to feel and understand the subtle vibrations of the shifting body of our Great Mother, Gaia - the Earth.

We began to feel the call of the forest last year after receiving shamanic dreams telling us that we would be moving to Sherbrooke Forest. Recently we made the move from Williamstown an inner city suburb of Melbourne and indeed found a house in a deep green dell in Sherbrooke. Even though we had been given so many messages and signs to move it was still a time of upheaval, massive change, release, and a bit of a leap into the unknown. But a leap that felt so very natural at the same time. We simply had to trust. And we are so glad that we did, the deep presence of the giant Mountain Ash trees that surround our home are already helping us to anchor our shamanic work more easily and in the ceremonies and sessions that we have held over the Dark Moon of the last few days we have seen such profound and quick shifts in our clients. The word I kept hearing over and over when we first stepped onto this land was 'immense' - boundless, beyond the measurements of man. We had to bring our work into the Deep.

And so, if I can give any advice in these changing times, it would be to encourage you to keep an open heart and strong boundaries, trust in your intuition and pay attention to your dreams. Whenever you can, find time to sit quietly in nature. I believe that 2013 will be a year of change and upheaval but also a deepening of our ability to grasp the mysteries of our bodies and our earth. 2013 has also been called the Year of the Witch and I believe this is because we are finally waking to the true and natural essence of this deeply feminine magic. The rise of the Divine Feminine is bringing a much needed balance to our world. This does not have to be a confusing or difficult time if we can keep letting go of the past, take responsibility for our actions in the present and dream with fearless love a new future.

The beautiful totem of Snake is so very potent and alive in Australia and embracing the Serpentine energy of the Divine Feminine to be received by the noble integrity of the Divine Masculine is an integral part of many of the new sessions and ceremonies we will be holding here in the forest. We will be announcing these new offerings over the next few days as the New Moon ripens. Love your way for your New Moon dreaming with Water Snake tonight.

Eve by Lucien Levy-Dhurmer