The Year of the Fire Horse: An Invitation to Walk in Beauty

For the past several years, a word of the year has been chosen for me. I don’t pick it—it arrives. And for that year, I work with the full expression of that word as both a spiritual practice and a lived experience. Over time, this expanded to include angels, ascended masters, and one major arcana tarot card. And a few years ago, as my work deepened and our spiritual community expanded, my guides began dropping in archetypes.

The archetype becomes a unifying concept—something a community can energetically focus on together so that, even while working in different ways and at different times, we move as one. My counsel, in their wisdom, knew this would be a powerful point of focus. In years past, we have embodied archetypes such as the Musician, the Nurturer, and the Magician—each calling forward a different expression of who we are and how we serve.

How the Archetype Arrives

As part of my daily spiritual practice, I rise very early and meditate as the sun comes up. This is often when guidance and ideas arrive most clearly. The archetype of the year is no different. It usually makes itself known around October.

This year, however, it arrived at the end of July—and it made me nervous.

It felt big and challenging, and I remember thinking, I want a different one. But I know better. And I also know that it came exactly when it was meant to.

At the time, Alison and I had just returned from guiding twelve incredible women through a powerful Avalon retreat, followed closely by journeys through Italy and a Mary Magdalene pilgrimage in Southern France. I was already steeped in deep transformation.

I was familiar with this archetype—not fully, but as a form. One of Plato’s forms. And my first thought was, How am I going to explain this to others? Never mind get people to embrace it?

Then the words of the Chinese master teacher Yang Mun came to me:

“Take one step at a time and the staircase will appear.”

When I stopped resisting and began allowing the ideas to take shape, everything opened.

Plato, Beauty, and Soul Remembrance

First, I returned to Plato’s teachings on Beauty. He named Beauty as one of the most powerful forms because it brings about anamnesis—the Greek word for recollection, or soul remembrance.

When we look at a sunset, a rose, hear music, or witness someone’s kindness, something awakens in us. A remembering of our perfection. Beauty is a portal to the magnificence of our soul. Before we were born into this world, we lived in harmony and beauty. The form of beauty stirs this remembrance within us.

St. Augustine and the Alchemy of the Heart

Another thought leader who legitimized Beauty’s power was St. Augustine, a Christian theologian and philosopher who lived in Northern Africa. He believed that Beauty was the doorway through which we experience harmony, goodness, closeness to God, and the pathway to truth.

St. Augustine placed such importance on Beauty that much of his writing centered on it. For him, Beauty did not awaken the soul into anamnesis—it alchemized the heart into love.

What’s fascinating is that these two men bookended the dawning of the Age of Pisces:
Plato around 400 BC.
St. Augustine around 400 AD.

Both recognized the transformative power of Beauty in the human experience.

Unfortunately… so did the patriarchy.

When Beauty Was Stripped of Its Power

I’m not talking just about men—I’ve known some pretty horrible women too. I’m talking about the systemic hierarchy that dismantled sovereignty.

And Beauty became a casualty of that duality.

It fell victim to the Madonna/Whore narrative:

Mother Mary = Virgin
Mary Magdalene = Whore
Good vs. Evil
Pretty vs. Ugly

Beauty became diluted—reduced to something vapid and shallow. It was stripped of its substance. And this dismantling permeated every part of society. The stories changed.

Guinevere, Queen of the Fairies, became the adulterer.
Women became witches.
Even the plant kingdom reflected this split.

Roses vs. Dandelions

The rose, the physical embodiment of Venus, Aphrodite, the Goddess, the Divine Feminine—had its thorns stripped away. The rosebud alone was exalted.

No.

The thorns are the medicine. It is through the thorns that one receives the lessons and the blessings. It is the unfolding of the petals that is transformative.

So they dumbed down the rose.

The dandelion, on the other hand, is the physical manifestation of Chiron, the Wounded Healer.

Chiron was the mighty immortal centaur who gave up his immortality to save Prometheus after pricking himself on a poisoned arrow. As a result, he landed between Saturn, the third-dimensional taskmaster, and Uranus, fifth-dimensional quantum consciousness. In this liminal space lives the constellation of Chiron.

Through the medicine of the dandelion—root to leaf—we can heal our core wounds and watch our greatest gifts emerge.

Holy cow, the transformative power of this “weed.”

Of course, they had to dedicate an entire industry to killing it with chemicals.

The Year of the Fire Horse

Now we find ourselves on the doorstep of the Year of the Fire Horse.

Some will grab the fiery reins and blaze outward—dramatic, external transformation.

This year, I am choosing a different path. I am taking the flame of the Fire Horse to ignite a spark within me. I offer this to you too.

Ride the flames of change with grace and quiet radiance. Stay calm. Stay present. Because when we are present, we notice the sweet drops of nectar.

Those drops of nectar—that’s Beauty:
A rose.
A sunset.
Music.
Someone’s kindness.

Beauty reminds the soul of the perfect form from which it came, according to Plato. Naming and claiming beauty brings us closer to the Divine, goodness, and harmony, according to St. Augustine.

Walking in Beauty

When we walk as if the world were sacred—and name and claim the beauty inside of us and around us—we reawaken the infinite healing potential of this form.

And perhaps then, we create a shift in consciousness.

We are wayshowers and lightbearers.
What we do matters.

Our Initiation

So this year, we become initiates of Beauty.

We will walk through the door of Beauty guided by our Fire Horses.

Through intended action—through walking in Beauty—we will use this transformation medicine to heal.

To heal ourselves.
Our community.
And the world around us.

About Christy Abate
Christy Abate is the co-owner of The Angel Cooperative®, a celebrated metaphysical store and spiritual center in Ridgefield, CT—home to the first Shungite Room in the U.S. and voted Best Spiritual Store by 068 Magazine and inRidgefield.com. A Reiki Master, ordained Reverend, and Priestess in the Rose Lineage, Christy blends ancient wisdom with modern healing in her workshops, retreats, and yoga teacher trainings. With a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and over two decades of experience as a business owner and community leader, Christy brings depth, heart, and soul to everything she creates. Through her work, she helps others awaken to their divine spark and live with purpose. She is also a contributor to Natural Awakenings magazine.