May 2026 Newsletter – Month of the Yin Water Snake – Gui Si 癸巳
Find your personal I Ching Hexagram
– May 6 to June 6, 2026 –
As the Yin Water Snake slithers into view on May 6, 2026, it brings with it a powerful current of behind-the-scenes talks, secret negotiations, and clandestine activities— dragging them into the light of day. Snakes are notorious for their mysterious ways, yet this particular Water Snake, reveals hidden truths almost involuntarily. Each new revelation, however, may bring more confusion and uncertainty into our lives—especially in this already volatile double Fire Horse year (Bing Wu, 2026).
It is vital to remember that cosmic and earthly cycles play a fundamental role in our existence. They influence not only our daily affairs, but also our physical, psychological, and spiritual growth. From the motion of planets to the rise and fall of stock markets, from personal biorhythms to the changing seasons — we unwittingly externalize myriad cyclic influences.
The ancient image featured above, from an ancient Chinese tomb, carries profound symbolism about cosmic and earthly cycles. It depicts two important serpent-like demigods: Nuwa and Fuxi.
In Chinese mythology, they were the sole survivors of a Great Flood ordered by Pangu — the god who separated Heaven from Earth. They brought order out of chaos and created humanity. Their elongated serpentine bodies intertwine, evoking other powerful serpent imagery: the caduceus (symbol of healing and balance), the DNA double helix (blueprint of life), and the Ida and Pingala (the two energy channels in yogic tradition). Fuxi, the king, holds a square—he rules the four-cornered Earth, representing stability, law, and material order. Nuwa, his wife and sister, holds a compass (pointing upward) — she rules the circling heavens, representing creativity, cyclical time, and cosmic rhythm.
This imagery also carries Masonic resonance (the compass and square), and Nuwa is known for repairing the heavens after the great flood—closely paralleling the story of Noah. At its heart, the painting reminds us that we are part of a natural, cyclic order — and that remembering this is an act of restoration.
In this Yin Water Snake month, with uncertainty, disorder, and chaos swirling around us, it is important to embody the serpent wisdom of Nuwa and Fuxi — to hold both compass and square, to honor the heavens and the earth, and to remember that even amidst revelations and uncertainty, we are part of a sacred, cyclic whole. Like those ancient demigods, we too can bring hidden things into the light, and from confusion, create conscious order.
The charts I’ve created below in English, connect the hexagrams to the compass direction your house faces, allowing you to tap into the I Ching’s deep association with space and the flow of energy through the environment, a principle central to Feng Shui which I explained last month.
This month, I will show you how to find your personal I Ching. There are five types of each animal – for example water pig, wood pig, fire pig, earth pig and metal pig. The following link https://chinesenewyear.net/zodiac/years/ will take you to a site with a of the animals and elements. Once you know your type, you can find your hexagram number and then go online and check its meaning.
XUAN KONG DA GUA
In the chart above there are four signs which have two hexagrams. There are 64 hexagrams and only 60 element/animals combinations – when the 12 animal signs are paired with each of the 5 elements the total is 60 . The four with double hexagrams are Jia zi, Geng yin, Jia wu and Geng shen. The four are listed in the following chart. If you are lucky enough to have two hexagrams, try to figure out which one is more accurate.
