By Dr. Catherine W. Dunne | Holistic HealthCare Wexford & Aumvedas Academy
Dr Catherine W Dunne MSc. D., RGN, Reiki Master (RGMT), M.H.I.T: Master Acupressure. Practitioner of Reflexology. Expert in Aromatherapy. Specialized in Deep Tissue/Myo-fascia Massages. Proficient in Infrared Treatments. Vibrational Sound and Colour Therapist. Tissue Salt Advisor. Pendulum Healing Dowser. Chakra Practitioner. Tao Cosmic Healing Practitioner. Practitioner of Plant and Herb Medicine and licensed Nurse.

Humans have always known something about horses that we’ve struggled to put into language.

Stand near a horse and something happens before thought can intervene. The breath drops lower into the body. The nervous system reorganises itself. The mental noise quietens. There is a subtle but unmistakable sense of being gathered back into oneself, as though the body remembers something the mind had forgotten.

This is not romance, projection, or sentimentality.
It is resonance.

A horse does not meet us at the level of words or concepts. It meets us at the level of spine, instinct, and truth. And it is here—far below the thinking mind—that the Year of the Fire Horse shifts from poetic symbolism into something far more physiological and real.

Across cultures and mythologies, the horse has been associated with life force, sexual vitality, courage, momentum, and the ability to move between worlds. Yet beneath all of this symbolism lies something simpler and much older. The horse moves from the spine. Its power is not forced or manufactured; it arises as a coherent wave that begins at the ground, travels upward through the body, and expresses itself as motion.

This is the language of Kundalini.

When a human rides a horse, stands beside one, or even watches a horse move freely, the body recognises that wave. The nervous system begins to entrain to it. Something long dormant stirs—not because we decide it should, but because the body remembers how energy is meant to move. This is not imagination. It is somatic memory, carried far deeper than culture or belief.

In the Year of the Fire Horse, this spinal intelligence does not remain subtle.

Fire Horse energy does not gently awaken what is asleep. It ignites what is already coiled. For many, this year may not resemble “spiritual awakening” in the neat, meditative sense people expect. Instead, it may arrive as sudden surges of energy, emotional heat rising without warning, pressure along the spine or pelvis, or a restlessness that demands movement. There may be a growing intolerance for repression, stagnation, or unspoken truths—both personally and collectively.

This is Kundalini attempting to move through bodies that have been trained, for generations, to remain still.

The Fire Horse does not ask whether we are ready. It asks where the channel is blocked.

What makes this year particularly potent is that the stirring is not confined to individuals. Humans are not designed to awaken in isolation. Despite our modern insistence on individuality, we are fundamentally a herd species—highly sensitive to one another’s nervous systems, emotions, and states of being. The Fire Horse agitates not only personal energy but the collective nervous system itself.

This is why emotions feel contagious, unrest spreads quickly, and truth-telling accelerates. When one nervous system breaks free of an old constraint, others feel it immediately. Just as horses move as a unified field—responding instantly to subtle shifts—humans are being pulled back into somatic coherence, whether consciously chosen or not.

And this movement does not stop with us.

Gaia, too, has a spine. Ley lines, mountain ranges, mid-ocean ridges, and volcanic belts are all expressions of vertical energy rising through matter. Historically, Fire Horse years have often coincided with seismic activity, volcanic movement, social uprisings, and rapid civilisational course corrections. This is not punishment or chaos for its own sake. It is energy seeking expression.

When rising energy meets a blocked channel, pressure builds. When it is allowed to move, transformation follows. The same rule applies to the human body as it does to the body of the Earth.

What the Fire Horse asks of us, then, is not discipline, suppression, or spiritual bypassing. It asks for embodiment. For movement. For honesty that begins in the body rather than the story we tell about it. It asks us to respect instinct, to ground before attempting to ascend, and to stop pathologising vitality simply because it feels intense.

This is not the year to force awakenings or chase experiences. It is the year to walk more, breathe deeper, allow heat to rise without panic, and ground excess energy back into the Earth. Kundalini is not dangerous when respected. It becomes destabilising only when denied.

The Fire Horse is not here to burn us.
It is here to remind us how to move.

It carries an ancient memory of spine-led power, heart-led courage, and fire that remains connected to the Earth rather than severed from it. If something stirs in you this year—restlessness, heat, urgency, or truth—do not rush to explain it away. Listen to the body. Ground the feet. Let the spine remember what it already knows.

The horse knows the way.
It always has.

I hope you feel inspired. Look after your body, and it will keep you healthy.

Catherine

CWD 01 February 2026/Ireland