I’m eight months pregnant sitting here with bandaged feet that just finished shedding their skin, and I’m about to tell you why 2026 is going to ask even more of you than you think you can handle.
Two weeks ago, I went to Mexico for what was supposed to be a three-day trip. Fifteen minutes in the sun. That’s all it took. I have a one-in-50,000 pregnancy autoimmune condition that makes my immune system attack minor skin disturbances. My feet reacted like they’d been scorched in a fire. Second-degree burns. Bubbling skin. They had to remove the skin from both feet.
I was stuck in Mexico for over a week, couldn’t walk, couldn’t leave, couldn’t do anything but sit with what was happening. And you know what the witchy women I was with told me? “This is the year of the snake. You literally cannot walk forward as the same woman.”
They were right.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
Letao Wang is a mythologist, astrologer, and licensed counselor who blends Eastern and Western astrological traditions with real therapeutic practice. This conversation isn’t your typical horoscope reading. We go deep into why 2025 had to break you before you could ride the fire horse into 2026.
You’ll discover why shedding old skin is a painful experience that doesn’t feel like angels putting sprinkles on your head. You’ll learn why speed without awareness creates chaos instead of momentum. And you’ll understand the mirror work that actually breaks through mental blocks when nothing else will.
Why the Year of the Snake Had to Break You First
2025 was the year of the wood snake. The snake sheds its skin. Completes its cycle. The Egyptian symbol of the snake eating its own tail, the Ouroboros, that’s what last year was about.
But we don’t like to talk about how painful shedding skin actually is.
I was there with my unborn son, singing through the pain because I realized singing took the edge off. Stuck in a foreign country asking strangers for help. The thing that kept me going was knowing I had to get through this for my baby. There was a higher calling. It wasn’t just about me anymore.
All my kids have meaningful middle names connected to what was happening when they came. My first is Bravery Summit because we moved to the mountains. My second is Maven Storm because his due date was during the biggest storm in our town’s history. This baby? Sol. S-O-L. Like sun in Spanish.
I was attached to the name but it didn’t have meaning yet. Then the sun in Mexico literally scorched my feet and brought me through the year of the snake. Everything is happening exactly as it should, whether or not I would have chosen it on a human level.
Transformation isn’t comfortable. It’s not supposed to be.
2026 Is About Speed With Awareness
Letao broke it down like this: imagine you’re riding a horse that’s being spurred. The fire horse energy means unstoppable speed and transformative fire. We’re moving fast, gaining momentum compared to the completion energy of the snake.
But you don’t look at your iPhone while riding a horse. You don’t let a small child stand behind one. Horse riding is exciting and dangerous at the same time.
2026 is about translating old ideas from the previous cycle into decisive action. But this year needs awareness of how fast we’re going and whether our actions align with something bigger than just charging everywhere creating chaos.
I said it to Letao during the conversation: time has sped up in the last few years. Everything already feels like it’s moving too fast. And now we’re supposed to go faster?
The answer is yes. But with focus. With intention. With awareness that the speed is the point, but speed without direction is just destruction.
The Mirror Work That Changes Everything
Letao shared something that stopped me: the story of Medusa and Perseus. Medusa was a priestess who got sexually assaulted by Poseidon. Athena punished her, not him. Turned her into a monster. Perseus used a mirror to kill her because he couldn’t look at her directly.
The mirror. The thing we look at every day but never really see ourselves in.
Letao does mirror work when he’s in a chaotic emotional state. He goes to the bathroom, looks at himself, and talks to himself. He says things like “I hate seeing you this way. This is not how you’re supposed to look. I don’t allow you to live this way.”
When you’re about to indulge in something you know isn’t good for you, look in the mirror. It cools you down because it’s like someone’s watching you. When you’re alone, you can let yourself indulge. But when someone’s looking, even if it’s you, you feel like you can’t do it.
This works for addiction. For breaking patterns. For getting out of negative spirals.
I’ve been doing parts work the last few months, going deep with the pieces of myself I’m ashamed of. The villain parts. The parts that act out. And what Letao said about mirror work connects to that: we never really look at ourselves. We’re always looking at other people.
The Uncomfortable Truth About Spiritual vs. Psychological Preparation
I asked Letao how he integrates spiritual preparation and psychological preparation since he’s both a trained counselor and an astrologer.
His answer: they rejected his astrology work when he worked for an online counseling company. They said it was too witchy. “We’re PhD psychologists, we don’t do that kind of stuff.”
But spiritual people embrace psychology. We study it. We do the research. We follow that way. We think it makes great contributions.
Scientific people reject spirituality because “it’s not scientific, you don’t have proof.”
Two weeks before our conversation, Letao was at a dinner in Bangkok talking about Carl Jung and astrology. A woman interrupted and said, “I don’t believe in anything you guys discussed. Astrology is for people who are bored. By the way, I’m a scientist.”
There are millions of things we believe in that aren’t scientific. Art isn’t scientific. Is a painting really worth three million dollars? Love isn’t scientific. You love people you’re not supposed to love all the time.
Astrology is about the relationship between nature and us. When dragonflies fly low, it’s probably going to rain. That’s how astrology works. Certain planetary patterns hint at certain outcomes based on history.
I told him I think so many people confuse scientism with actual science. Scientism is more like a religion. There’s a science that studies energy. Just because you’re not attuned to it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. You’re limiting yourself to the small spectrum of light and sound you can currently perceive.
That’s not scientific. That’s just limited.
How to Apply This in Your Life
The weekly challenge from this episode is mirror work. Actually do it.
Go to your bathroom. Look at yourself in the mirror. Talk to yourself. Tell yourself what you need to hear. Tell yourself you don’t allow yourself to live a certain way. Tell yourself you hate seeing yourself stuck in negative patterns.
It’s going to feel weird. It’s supposed to.
But that weirdness is what breaks through the mental blockage. You’re making yourself visible to yourself. You’re no longer able to hide from your own patterns.
And if you’re feeling that pull to indulge in something you know isn’t serving you, go look in the mirror first. Just look at yourself. See what happens when you can’t hide from your own eyes.
Resources and Links From This Episode
Find Letao Wang at his website The Healing Kingdom (thehealingkingdom.com) or on Instagram @letaowang. His oracle decks Oracle of the Mythic Heroes and Oracle of the Celestial Deities are available on Amazon. His new deck Legends Heroes and Villains Oracle is available for pre-order now and officially launches May 5th.
All links from this episode at: mindlove.com/444
Take This Work Deeper
Want to work with fire horse energy without burning out from the speed? Join the free Mind Love Collective for monthly themed calls and weekly challenge accountability. We’re doing this work together because transformation isn’t supposed to happen in isolation. mindlove.com/join
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