00:00 Episode Preview

00:18 Opening

00:53 Introduction

03:56 Interview Begins with Vicki Iskandar

04:19 Boost Creativity & Navigate Change!

05:02 Navigate Snake Year with Western Astrology!

07:47 Key Dates for Cosmic Energy Shifts!

08:20 How to Use the Lunar Calendar for Festivals and New Beginnings!

09:57 Functional Feng Shui: Using Flying Stars for Harmony & Prosperity!

11:38 How to Use Personal Charts & Flying Stars for Success

12:28 Aligning Your Space with Your Energy

14:43 Declutter Your Space to Clear Energy Blocks!

17:22 How Your Sign’s Return Year Can Transform Your Life!

21:06 Unveiling Hidden Energies and Major Transformations!

23:27 AD – Join the Create Your Deck Club! https://cydc.mysticmondays.com/

26:22 Exploring Realms, Frequencies, and the Future!

32:03 Embracing Inner Joy and Avoiding Burnout!

34:42 Thrive Amidst External Changes with Fire Trigram Insights!

35:47 Heavenly Stems & Animal Signs Unveiled!

39:19 Fast Five Questions

40:07 Collective Reading from the Chinese Zodiac Oracle Deck by Vicki Iskandar

41:43 Closing Statements

43:00 End of Episode – Make Sure to Leave a Podcast Review!

44:09 End Card

Welcome to the GRACED Podcast! A space for everyday magic for your everyday life. We do this through rituals, aligning yourself to your soul’s purpose, and creating Alchemy to heal our mind, body, and spirits so that you can bring in more love and joy, manifest your desires, and believe in your dreams. Listen and watch over at graceduong.com/podcast and on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify, Instagram, TikTok and all the places you can find me on social media.

Now let’s dive into today’s episode.

💖 Introduction

Grace: Welcome to the GRACED Podcast, a space to explore everyday magic for your everyday life. Here we dive into modern spirituality, transformative rituals and so much more. I’m Grace, your host and most known as the creator behind the Mystic Mondays deck, app, and courses.

Today’s guest is Vicki Iskandar, a Chinese metaphysics consultant, Feng Shui expert, and the author behind the Chinese Five Elements Oracle, which is published with Hay House.

✨ Interview Begins with Vicki Iskandar

Grace: Hi, Vicki. Welcome to the GRACED Podcast.

Vicki: Hi Grace, so good to be here. Thank you for having me.

Grace: Yeah, excited to have you here and as we embody the energy of the new year of 2025, this year is the Wood Snake, is that right?

Vicki: That’s correct, it’s the Wood Snake year and it falls on January 29th with the new moon in Aquarius.

✨ Boost Creativity & Navigate Change!

Grace: Wow, so tell us how we can navigate those energies or what we can do to prepare for that.

Vicki: So, the Wood Snake is a yin year, so whereas the Wood Dragon is a Yang Wood year, the Wood Snake is a Yin Wood year. And it has Yin Wood in the Heavenly Frequency, which is if it’s in Chinese, it will be the character on the top, and then Snake is the Yin Fire sign, and that’s the character in the bottom.

So, the keywords for the year, it’s a highly creative year, very collaborative, transformative, because it’s the snake, it’s fast paced, it’s dynamic, and very exciting. But it’s also very unpredictable and explosive, and that’s just the nature of the in Yin Fire.

✨ Navigate Snake Year with Western Astrology!

Grace: Yeah, when I think of the Chinese Zodiac or the Lunar Zodiac, however you’d like to refer to it, I always think about how it’s grouped in years, whereas there’s so much going on, let’s say, if you follow astrology in Western society, there’s different transits going on all the time with, let’s say, Mercury Retrograde.

How do we combine aspects of that and keeping in mind the energy of the Wood Snake as we navigate the year?

Vicki: Well, yes, 2025 will definitely be exciting if you combine all those aspects. And the Chinese calendar, actually the Chinese use different calendars, so not just the lunar year and they also use the solar calendar and it’s basically a combination of both.

And then there are all these other star systems that if you have a Chinese calendar, it will be in there. And it actually does take into account the planetary movements and the elements, basically the interactions between the signs and the elements, but it’s just referred as other things. For example, like there’s the 12 Days Officers, and that takes into account the interaction between the elements and the signs, and it’s actually very similar to Western Astrology where they use the trine.

I mean all the sextile trine aspects and mostly it’s the trine because let’s say one of the best days basically is the success day and usually that’s when one of the sign is in trine with another sign and it’s not just the year basically. The astrology that I do is called the four pillars so it takes into account the year, the month, the day, and the hour which is the same you know as western astrology right when you’re doing your birth chart you need to know your birth time.

And the interactions between the elements in the four pillars give us an idea of what to expect on the day, basically, as an event chart. Or it can be read as a birth chart, too. So, it’s actually more complex and sophisticated than just the year sign. For someone to look at the year sign only, that’s actually only 25%.

So, to me, it’s, yeah, it’s, I think it’s just ignorance, or it’s basically just the more you learn about it, the more you see how sophisticated it is. And even the solar calendar uses the solar month, which actually falls precisely between the western zodiac, because that’s also the calendar. So, let’s say the year of the snake.

The lunar year falls on the new moon, so that’s using the lunar calendar. But then the solar new year falls on February 4th or sometimes February 3rd, which is the case this year. And that February 4th or February 3rd date is like our January 1st. It’s the first day of the solar year and that’s always when the sun goes into 15 degree Aquarius.

✨ Key Dates for Cosmic Energy Shifts!

Grace: Wow, that’s fascinating how we can combine all these different esoteric calendars to forecast what’s coming up. Are there any other key dates that are sticking out for you?

Vicki: You know, I haven’t really looked much into the key dates. So we have January 29th as the Lunar New Year, and then February 3rd, which is just a few days after the start of the Solar New Year.

That’s when the energy changes. And usually the dates fall with the solar calendar. So let’s say the solstice the important dates are also the festivals. Does that make sense?

✨ How to Use the Lunar Calendar for Festivals and New Beginnings!

Grace: Yeah, yeah. What I’m hearing is that I think most of us work during the day and we navigate our lives using the solar calendar. So in what cases do we use the lunar calendar to navigate our lives?

Vicki: Lunar, for me, in Chinese astrology or in Chinese culture, the lunar calendar is used as a celebration date or festival. So a lot of the festivals fall on full moon or new moon. So let’s say the lunar new year is January 29th and it’s a 15 day celebration until the next full moon.

So that will be the Lantern Festival on February 12th. So that’s one way you use the lunar calendar. And then another way, of course to use the new moon as starting point, right, as new beginnings. And then the full moon is usually the culmination. And in the Chinese culture, that’s also a way to use reason for celebration. So we always celebrate history on a full moon.

Grace: Yeah, so you mentioned the four pillars of destiny, which is also called Ba Zi, is that right?

Vicki: Yeah, Bazhi, or Ba-Zi, or Ba Zi, whatever you want to call it. I think it means eight characters, so Ba is the number eight, and Zi is characters, because there is in the four pillars, each pillar has two characters, which is the element and the animal sign, and we have Four of them times two, so that’s Ba Zi.

Grace: That’s so cool. I’m a metal horse, but I’ll have to look at what the rest of my Ba Zi looks like.

Vicki: You can go into my website, vickiiskandar.com/chart to calculate your chart.

✨ Functional Feng Shui: Using Flying Stars for Harmony & Prosperity!

Grace: Oh, very cool. So one of the other things that you are an expert in is Functional Feng Shui. What is that and how can we use that to improve our lives?

Vicki: I do mostly Flying Star Feng Shui, which is a school of Feng Shui that uses what we call the Flying Stars, which is the movement of the stars based on the Big Dipper that changes every year, every month, and there’s also daily stars. So I call it Functional Feng Shui because I want all the remedies to be functional.

There are remedies for certain situations in Feng Shui and every month you have to maximize where the stars are. auspicious and where the stars can bring some harm or possibility of just negative stuff. There are people who you’ve seen a lot of objects you see like dragons and you see a lot of objects being sold as a remedy, but for me some of those objects, I love those objects, basically.

Like, you can see the bamboos there it means something, and the number of bamboos means something.

Grace: So what does it mean?

Vicki: Well, this one actually, it’s just a leftover bamboo, so that one doesn’t have any meaning, but the one behind it, that one is to remedy star number seven, which is a metal star, and it’s a star that can be hostile.

It can bring robbery or violence and the remedy for metal is water because in the Chinese five elements, water basically is the one that exhausts metal in the exhaustion cycle. So it minimizes the effect of metal. So with Functional Feng Shui, the remedies are basically functional. I mean, bamboos are nice, so to me it’s functional.

✨ How to Use Personal Charts & Flying Stars for Success

Grace: So when you use functional Feng Shui, are you taking Into account somebody’s personal chart, like their Bazi chart, or are you looking at it as entire space on its own? Or let’s say there’s multiple people living in that space with different Bazi charts, are you looking at those charts?

Vicki: Well, for those, basically, I use the Bazi chart, but I only look at the year, just to look at their trigram number or what we call the  Gua number just to see because basically the flying stars and the  Gua numbers they’re actually they’re the same stars so I look at the space itself and I look at you know what’s which stars occupy which space and I look at the residents and their personal  Gua number if it’s compatible with the star number of the space that they’re sleeping in or they’re working in so that’s how I can use it for that basically.

✨ Aligning Your Space with Your Energy

Grace: Okay and How did you come across Feng Shui and start using it in your own life, and did you see any improvements when you did that? And also, before I forget, you mentioned these star systems multiple times, but not everybody knows what that is. So, what star systems are you using, and how are you then pointing it back to Feng Shui.

Vicki: I just grew up with it, but without knowing, without learning it, it’s a lot of myths, right? And a lot of hearsay, so it’s not until I started learning it in 2010 or 2011 that I started using it, and I find that it brings changes to your life without really you noticing it. Because you’re blending, your energy is blending with the space once you make your space Feng Shui, basically.

So, all the manifestation and all the changes happening just happen effortlessly. When you Feng Shui your place, you become part of the place, right? And it also influences you. So, let’s say someone was a Procrastinator before, but then once the place is Feng Shuied, and then you basically place yourself in a place that’s very productive, that just goes away, which is nice because you’re not really making efforts, you just you just go into that, you become part of that flow of the Chi.

Grace: Yeah, it’s like how every city has a different energy. Like, let’s say you feel the buzz of New York City when you’re in that area versus if you’re in the middle of the forest and you might feel the energy of the trees around you, and so I feel like what I’m hearing from you is that you’re really matching your space to complement your own energy.

Vicki: It’s, it’s like vice versa, because it’s both interacting, right? Because all the elements are always interacting with each other. And there are elements within us, which is from our four pillars chart, from the Ba Zi chart, and there are elements in the house, and also there are elements in, of the day, of the year, and they’re all they all just interact like the stars in the sky.

But it’s actually to me, I see it as more like in nature around us here, the Chi is actually around us instead of up in the stars.

✨ Declutter Your Space to Clear Energy Blocks!

Grace: So when you talk about, because what I’m hearing from you is also about like clearing blockages, so that you’re working Effortlessly in your space and things that might have felt hard are no longer hard.

Is that something that could be generally done, whether it’s clutter, like you can Marie Kondo your space, or find things that bring you joy into your space. Are there any general things that you would recommend? Because we all have different charts, but I would love our listeners to take away something that they could do with Feng Shui in their space?

Vicki: Well, one thing is your space is also a reflection of your state of mind. So if you just take a look around your space, even without knowing the stars, because that you will need to either know Feng Shui or need to hire someone to do the Feng Shui, but just just yourself, basically.

Just look around your house and see what bothers you, right? I mean, you see a pile of clothes there, well get rid of it or declutter it or you see a lot of clutter on your desk and or you’re experiencing writer’s block just clear the desk and see what happens. Even moving furnitures around, that moves the energy around.

So, without knowing Feng Shui, you can really see. And one good exercise is just to go through your home each room and see what bothers you and what you notice and clean it up, basically. That can really smooth things out.

Grace: Do you have any rituals for people that you would recommend to keep in orderly space?

Vicki: I usually do mine when I need to write and I’m having writer’s block, so a lot of time it’s just cleaning the desk I mean, it’s cleaning the counter. You want to keep everything clean. And as I say, if you don’t really know where the stars are, keeping everything clean also actually minimizes the bad stars. So…

Grace: How does it do that?

Vicki: Because clutters bring blockage, basically. So, and that’s just old energy, right? So, that also accumulates. So, you want to clean it up and you want to keep it tidy. So, keep your place clean and tidy. And that can be a therapy too. You know, you just want to devote maybe a few minutes a day just to clean up in a room.

That thing makes, make it a habit and it can be as simple as when you wake up in the morning, make your bed right, because that actually changes the energy. It tells your body too to like, Hey, it’s a new day. You wanna clean the bed, may you want to make the bed. And then when you go back at the end of the day into a bed that’s ready and that’s made up, it makes you feel better. Because it doesn’t remind you of the day before, or it doesn’t remind you of old energy. So I would consider that a ritual, actually.

✨ How Your Sign’s Return Year Can Transform Your Life!

Grace: Yeah, especially if it has meaning to you, whether that’s a habitual sign for your body to indicate that it is a fresh new day and that you’re starting the day having done something that is successful, like checking something off of your list that you then can do automatically once you get into that habit.

And I love that we’re talking about this at the beginning of the new year, because I think so many of us are wanting to form new habits, and I do have your Oracle Deck, the Chinese Five Elements Oracle, and we are embodying this energy of the Wood Snake, and so I would love to hear your thoughts on embodying habits for different Zodiac signs because like, let’s say I’m a Metal Horse and I don’t think I’m that clean really, but my chaos is clean, if that makes sense, meaning I know where my things are because it’s chaotically put in certain places.

Vicki: It’s a creative chaos and that can be good, yeah.

Grace: I mean, definitely not all the time, but It’s like, I know where it is because I know I put it in that area or, and if someone, I wouldn’t say like mess up the energy, but maybe like someone moves something or something and it throws me off, but I love the ritual of a clean space because you also mentioned like, let’s say you’re experiencing a writer’s block and you start cleaning your desk and sometimes I do that.

Out of procrastination to vaccinate me from what I’m currently doing or what I’m about to embark on.

Vicki: But it does help, yeah.

Grace: It does help and I think it’s funny how some of us can approach our spaces in different ways. But let’s get back to zodiac signs and how can we embody these aspects of ourselves? And what is your sign?

Vicki: We don’t tell you our signs Chinese astrologers don’t tell you our signs, but I will tell you that I have the snake in my chart, I have the ox in my chart. Why don’t you tell people? Is that a superstition? No, well, for me, it’s mostly privacy, so I usually don’t like to share my sign, but I will say, yeah, I have an ox and I have a tiger.

I have a snake in my sign, so those are all elements in my chart.

Grace: What would you say are some of the pros and cons of each zodiac sign, and how can we use them to our advantage?

Vicki: Well that’s really hard to say without knowing all the other signs in the chart, because it’s basically an interaction, right?

Let’s say someone’s born the year of the snake, then for the incoming year of the snake, this is their snake return year, which is we call that in the Chinese astrology, we call it the Grand Duke Return or Tai Sui year. And I like to call it Snake Return because it is your snake has returned.

And that is usually a very transformative year when you’re experiencing your sign return, which happens every 12 years. And the snake, it’s a very active sign. It’s a travel star in Chinese astrology. So it’s very fast. It’s also very smart, very adventurous sign. So when you know that your snake year is coming then you want to get ready for it because you know that you can make big changes during the year basically and there are a lot of superstition about having your sign return because some people really fear it you know some people fear that you know it’s a lot of change, change is bad, but that’s your mindset right so first of all of course it’s to just change the mindset and be ready when your year comes because it’s the time that you can really move mountains or you can achieve milestones and make major changes.

And the universe is basically behind you. You have the, it’s called the Grand Duke year because it’s basically the Grand Duke Jupiter is behind you and supporting you. So, but then if you’re not really aware of it, if you’re not really aware that all these good things can happen, then a lot of things can take you by surprise.

✨ Unveiling Hidden Energies and Major Transformations!

Grace: I think in numerology and in tarot. It’s more so every 10 years because when you return to your 10th year, it’s numerology number one, which is the Magician. So then you go through the journey of going through the first 10 cards every year. And with the Chinese zodiac, since there’s 12, that would be a 12 year cycle.

So whoever is a snake, this year it would be interesting to look back 12 years ago and just seeing where you were and let’s say you know last year in preparation for the snake return then last year could be a lot about like clearing and i think that’s interesting because 2025 happens to be a numerology 9 year which is The Hermit card year so collectively we are all I think seeking our inner truth and that’s what I associate the Hermit with and that can also be about solitude and going within to find our own truth and especially with everything that’s going on nowadays I think it’s important to listen to our own inner wisdom but I’m also finding since my collective card and personal card tend to be the same because of the year I was born in. I think that’s a reason why I tend to feel collective energies very strongly personally, but what I’m finding in my personal life with a 9 year is also a clearing that is happening to prepare you for another cycle with a number one year.

Vicki: Well, yes, and also, the snake itself is, it’s a Yin Fire sign, but it has a lot of hidden elements in it, so it’s a lot of things going on inside, not, so what you see outside is not giving you the whole picture, basically, because there’s a lot of activities behind the scene, and there’s actually another signature energy of 2025, of the Wood Snake year.

There’ll be just a lot of behind the scenes activities that in the global stage, like off the record peace negotiations or sudden attacks, basically, because it’s the snake. The fire is surprising it’s, it’s unpredictable. It’s also, it can be explosive. It’s like a, it’s the candle in the dark, basically, but it can also be rapid moving fire or wildfire.

✨ Exploring Realms, Frequencies, and the Future!

Grace: And the snake tends to take on so much meaning, and depending on what culture you’re looking at the snake in, I always associate the snake with ayahuasca, and I feel like the snake is all about shedding old skin to reveal new skin, and it tends to be a transformative experience even if it’s painful.

Vicki: Right.

Grace: And I think a lot of the internal energy that you’re talking about with yin energy is that yin is dark, meaning, I think in Chinese culture, it’s also black, right? And I think that correlates with this energy of the womb, where the womb can also be dark, where you’re gestating in the womb, where you’re growing in the womb, and it’s not quite ready to be brought into the light quite yet, when you’re in a yang energy, which is white, so if you think about the yin yang symbol and how they complement and balance one another, so I think a lot of us, and especially the pandemic, I think it was a time when a lot of people turned inward to really think about their purpose and what they’re doing here on earth in this lifetime, and that sparks shadow work on a collective level, and what I’m getting from what you’re saying about this yin energy of the Wood Snake, is that there’s more of that coming in 2025.

Vicki: Yes, and also the nature of Yin Fire. So, the snake itself is a Yin Fire sign and the nature of Yin Fire, it’s transformative, right? Because it burns and, and out of that it becomes the phoenix rising, basically. So, the snake itself will actually ignite a new 20 year cycle. I mean, that started in the wood dragon year, which is period nine.

Have you heard about Period 9?

Grace: No, tell us more.

Vicki: It’s actually, it was really highly anticipated when the wood dragon come. And it’s also the end of a nine year, of a nine cycles. So like, and it’s a 20 year cycle. So it’s, it’s a major cycle because it’s 20 years. And it’s associated with the fire trigram, which is Yin Fire in nature.

And the Snake is a Yin Fire sign, so Period 9 officially started in 2024, the Wood Dragon year. But we could feel it, the energy coming since the pandemic, and that was There was one Saturn conjunct Jupiter at the end of 2020. That’s the aspect that would indicate a new cycle in this Chinese metaphysics.

Yeah, but the official one has been referred to as the Wood Dragon Year. So, we had the introduction of Period 9 this past couple years, but then it’s not going to fully ignite until now. Because the snake embodies that Yin Fire energy. And just about Period 9, basically, it’s ruled by the Fire Trigram. And the Fire Trigram is the, is associated with light, and the heart, and joy. And it’s also other realms, because fire is the element that can take us in and out of other realms.

So this next 20 years, it’s just going to be easier for us to jump into other realms, and that includes the metaverse, virtual reality, AI. So all those things will stay and become even more active, basically.

So we can’t really fight them, we just have to work with them. So a lot of us right now looking at AI like enemies, right? But it’s something that will stay and also that the spiritual and energetic realms will be more open because of the Fire Trigram because that really facilitates opening up all these other realms and

Grace: What are the other realms?

Vicki: Like, yeah, like AI, virtual, you know.

Grace: Oh, okay, I thought you meant like, the Dragon Realm, or Heavenly Realms, or…

Vicki: or Spiritual Realms, and actually a lot of realms will be connected to more realms, because even social media I see it as a different realm, but then we’re so used to it now I’m talking to you, or like, digital, the web, or all this talking to you here.

I mean, before, we never really imagined it let’s say 20 years ago, we probably couldn’t imagine this, but it is a different realm because I’m not talking to you face to face, right? So anytime where we’re not seeing people in our realm, it’s a different realm. That’s what I meant by realm. Even our dreams are a different realm and when we connect with spirit, that’s the spiritual realm. So that’s another realm. And in Period 9 this will be easier to just go into different realms and then jump back into where we are.

Grace: I love aliens. And I was on a Reddit thread about the whole situation with aliens appearing in the Miami mall and one of the commenters says something along the lines of how the frequencies are shifting where human consciousness frequency is rising so that we are now able to see it.

Let’s say more aliens or more beings of higher frequencies, and the lines are a bit more blurred now.

Vicki: I love that, yeah.

Grace: Yeah, so that’s what I was, my mind jumped there when you said realms, because…

Vicki: okay, so fire is the element that helps us raise our frequency, so that’s why the higher our frequency, the more we can see. You know and the more we can, we can get it.

✨ Embracing Inner Joy and Avoiding Burnout!

Grace: Yeah, so my Western astrology Sun sign happens to be a Fire sign, and something I really associate with fire is this ability to forge a path forward, but also the ability to burn, and there’s both sides to it. So with fire, I think what I’m hearing is that it’s burning down old paradigms of what we’re able to access.

Let’s say other realms, whether it’s AI or social media influence, even though I suppose that’s already been happening, and other ways that we’re communicating with one another. But what do you think, in some ways, fire could be a negative influence on the upcoming year?

Vicki: Well, fire, as I mentioned, is also explosive, so our emotion or energy can be up and down, and especially, basically, with the snakes, so we really want to take care of the self like you want to be able to rest right like imagine a candle it can easily burn out so it will be really easy for us to burn out from just being active. So yeah it’s very important to really be aware of you know the body itself.

Grace: I love that you said that because i think as once we evolve to integrate like new ways of being, whether it’s like how much screen time we’re having or maybe we’re adjusting to things that we’re seeing on the news or maybe we’re just adjusting to overall frequency change, I think what I’m hearing you say is that we just need more time to integrate that so that we can then process it better.

Or prepare for the upcoming changes that are up ahead with the Trigram, is that right?

Vicki: With the Trigram, well 2025, the Wood Snake year, will really immerse us into the influences of the Trigram. And the nature of the Trigram is Yin Fire, and again, the Yin Fire burns out, so it’s okay to just completely go in the dark.

Basically, it’s easy to be an influencer, it’s easy to influence others, it’s easy to share your light. But then it’s also okay to just retreat and just turn off, basically, because you need to. You can’t always be on, and you want to take time to just really take some off time, and because the snake itself is a very joyful sign, actually, because Yin Fire is also joy in the heart, and that’s one thing with the Yin Fire, and it’s about light.

But it doesn’t mean that there’s always light within us I mean, that, I mean, that light can dim, right, that light can burn out, and it’s actually a really good practice to start cultivating inner joy, especially in the year of the snake, because it’s really important to have that inner joy or to have that ability to turn on that inner joy in the next 20 years, there will be a lot of Events or things happening in the world that basically try to to dim the light.

But if you have it within you, then it’s easier to thrive, basically, in the next 20 years.

✨ Thrive Amidst External Changes with Fire Trigram Insights!

Grace: And I think with so much going on in the world, with typical media sources or just external sources, whether it’s like people around you who have the best intentions, they can influence in some ways also, and I think a lot of times when so much is changing around us and we’re used to depending on external sources for validation or happiness, Or whatever it is, there’s so much outside of our control that if we are able to learn how to master our own inner happiness, that is something that we can control and something that you can nourish over a lifetime because you do have your relationship with yourself forever.

Vicki: Right. And also, the fire trigram itself, it’s a lot of light work, even entertainment, because that’s a lot of light, right? Entertainment is a fire industry. So, and there will be a lot of people who will inspire us all of a sudden, right? Like, like new stars or new influencers, basically, or new ideas taking shape.

✨ Heavenly Stems & Animal Signs Unveiled!

Grace: Yeah, so I do want to talk about your deck and what it was like creating the Chinese Five Elements Oracle. And for those that don’t know, what are the Heavenly Stems and how are you integrating the Heavenly Stems in both Yin and Yang energies into your deck?

Vicki: So the Heavenly Stems are what I call the Heavenly Frequencies.

So let’s say the Wood Snake year, so the wood element itself is the Heavenly Stem or the Heavenly Frequencies. And the snake itself is called the Earthly Branch. So, basically, the Heavenly Stem in the cards are represented by the landscape. So, let’s say, the Wood Snake here has Yin Wood in the Heavenly Stem, or Heavenly Frequency, and Yin Wood is like flowers and leaves, and you can see it in the card here, with the snake surrounded in the woods.

And actually, that’s another thing I’d like to add about the snake. But the Wood Snake, because the snake is very at home in the woods, right? So there’s a little more harmony in the Wood Snake year than the Wood Dragon year. And that’s also the nature of Yinwood, because Yinwood is flexible and peace loving, and it’s the diplomat of the elements, basically.

So, there are 10 Heavenly Stems, which is the yin and yang manifestations of the five elements, and there are 12 animal signs. So, if you combine them all together, it’s called the 60 pillars. So, there are 60 pillars, which is the possible combinations of the five elements and then the animal signs. So, when the heavenly frequency is yin, the animal sign also has to be a yin animal.

So, Wood Snake. Since the snake, or since it’s a Yin Wood, the snake is a Yin sign, so it cannot be a Yang Wood, basically. So the pillar has to match the yin and yang? Does that make sense?

Grace: Yeah, I think if someone were to dive in more deeply, it would make sense. I’m a visual person, so I always need to see the visuals behind things, but I understand the Heavenly Stems, where It connects to each animal, is that correct?

Vicki: Well, the Heavenly Stems itself, they’re just, they’re the yin and yang manifestation of the five elements. So, if you have your chart if you’re seeing the four pillars chart, there are eight things, right? And then all the elements, the Heavenly Stems are the ones on top, and then the animal signs are the ones in the bottom.

Grace: Awesome. I love all the different illustrations, and I pulled The Earth Monkey earlier right before our interview and if you’re still listening stick around because Vicki is going to do a collective reading which I will ask you one more question before we move into our fast five questions.

In your bio you mentioned getting your graduate degree in business. But you answered your ancestors call to go deeper in Taoism, Qigong, and Chinese metaphysics. What did that call look like to you and how did you connect to your ancestors?

Vicki: Through the movement of Qigong, I would say, after I started doing Qigong, someone like a family, a family friend or a family consultant just handed us our family tree and I learned about my ancestors more at the time who actually came from a line of just a very strong Taoist lineage basically.

And every time I do every time I have Qigong workshop or every time I’m in a Qigong intensive with my Qigong teacher, there was always messages from my ancestors like given to me one way or another without me asking whether it’s from a dream or from one time my roommate gave me a poem that was a message from my ancestor and then another time someone just told me right away this is blah blah blah blah blah.

So yeah, it’s just given to me.

Grace: Very cool.

✨ Fast Five Questions

Grace: Okay, we’re going to move into our fast five questions. Do you know your sun, moon, and rising western astrology signs?

Vicki: Yes. Sun, Moon, it’s Gemini. I actually have five Gemini planets, including Sun, Moon, Venus, and Saturn, Mercury, and my Rising Sign is Aries.

Grace: Wow. What advice would you give to your younger self?

Vicki: To take it easy, one step at a time.

Grace: How would you define everyday magic?

Vicki: Just things that bring you joy.

Grace: What are your favorite rituals?

Vicki: I do my manifesting rituals on specific days, so that’s my favorite ritual, and it’s based on Qimen Dunjia. So it’s choosing specific time and specific direction and specific sector, so that’s my favorite ritual.

Grace: What are you looking forward to in the near future?

Vicki: Rest.

✨ Collective Reading from the Chinese Zodiac Oracle Deck by Vicki Iskandar

Grace: Okay, let’s move into the collective reading. So Vicki’s gonna pull from her deck and see what comes out.

Vicki: Alright, I’m gonna shuffle. So I’m gonna do just one card spread just because each pillar has already has at least two elements. There’s a lot of messages you can gain in just one card from the oracle here.

Grace: Sounds good.

Vicki: And we get Fire Rabbit. So if you’re seeing this, this is for you. And the Fire Rabbit is Yin Fire and Yin Wood in the rabbit. And it’s about artistic, about sharing your light, about stepping into the spotlight. and Welcoming the Muse and that is actually take advantage of or something that we can listen to for the Wood Snake year because it’s a Yin Fire year and this Yin Wood actually this is the reverse of the Wood Snake.

It has the same elements. The rabbit is Yin Wood and then Yin Fire is the element of the snake. So, it’s about sharing your light. The more you share your light, the more joy you can cultivate which is important in the next 20 years, and you really want to work with the Muse within because your creativity is what stokes the inner fire.

Grace: Aww, it’s so cute with the rabbit in the spotlight.

Vicki: Yeah, the rabbit is a very artistic, very creative sign. It’s like the artist of the Zodiac, and that is also the the rabbit is Yin Wood the Yin Wood in the snake, it’s very artistic and creative, so we actually, we want to work on our creativity and cultivate that inner joy through it, basically.

✨ Closing Statements

Grace: That’s beautiful. I feel like so much of creativity is done in solitude, which also correlates to with the Hermit year. So I feel like maybe a trend that is coming up is seeing this resurgence of creativity and imagination once everybody’s had a chance to really have a chance to work at it on their own and then when they’re ready to share it. They hear it.

Vicki: Yeah, and that is the way and that’s the best way to go about it because it all starts from within, right? So you really have to work within first before it comes out.

Grace: That is true. Well, Vicki, this was such a pleasure. Thank you for sharing your wisdom on the Chinese Zodiac and also embodying the energy of the Wood Snake.

And I feel like there’s so much juice in here for learning how to integrate Chinese astrology into, as another practice for people who want to integrate more systems and are always learning about different spiritual systems that we can integrate, grow with, develop, and learn as we go on the journey of life.

This was very appeasing for that, so thank you.

Vicki: Thank you for having me. So happy to, yeah, to share all this with you. And Happy New Year to everyone who’s watching.

Grace: Happy New Year! Bye!

✨ End of Episode – Make Sure to Leave a Podcast Review!

Grace: Thanks for tuning in to today’s episode with Vicki Iskandar. It was truly fascinating to learn about Chinese astrology, star systems, and Heavenly Stems, and how we can use these modalities to better understand ourselves. I’m a lover of metaphysical systems, and I feel like the more that we know about ourselves, the more that we can work with our cosmic energetic signature rather than against it. Like when you’re flowing with a river rather than going against the current. I’m also excited about the energy of the Wood Snake and how it can impact this upcoming year of 2025. What have you noticed so far? Well, I’d love to hear in the comments. And as a reminder, we will be doing a giveaway of Vicki’s Deck the Chinese Five Elements Oracle over on Instagram, YouTube and all the socials. So make sure to check that out.

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