We’re guessing that a forked tongue means you can soothe any prospective prey or hunter twice as fast as anyone else, and what a fine year this may be to make full use of that ability. The slithery path ahead of you brings all the challenges associated with cage or glue traps, Steve Irwin snake-tong wielders, and a landscape full of mongoose-shaped illusions. Looking to the heavens will only show more danger than safety - keep your infrared, thermal-vision focused on 2026!

Wood Snake:
03 Feb 2025 – 04 Feb 2026
04 Feb 1965 – 03 Feb 1966
Water Snake:
04 Feb 2013 – 03 Feb 2014
04 Feb 1953 – 03 Feb 1954
Metal Snake:
04 Feb 2001 – 03 Feb 2002
04 Feb 1941 – 03 Feb 1942
Earth Snake:
04 Feb 1989 – 03 Feb 1990
04 Feb 1929 – 03 Feb 1930
Fire Snake:
04 Feb 1977 – 03 Feb 1978
04 Feb 1917 – 03 Feb 1918

Fortune direction:

South-West

Augmenting your fortune:

Spherical celadon vases

Lucky number:

Lucky colour:

  Green

  Health

It’s a tough coil to see you through all that may ail your royal wiggleness this year. One right spot in the cosmos is the Heavenly Relief Star, designed to cast all attacks and pesky challenges this year to hiss-tory. Its job is to constrictor all manner of ill-will. For your health: be proactive, we humbly suggest that mowing your lawn will deter snakes in the grass, and allow you to glide through the year.

  Wealth

A little extra side-winding this year will help stock your fridge with sufficient frozen mammals and marsupials for consumption at a later date. Not a year to look wealth directly in the eye. A direct approach, attempting to swallow a load of treasure bigger than your flexible jaws can stomach, might only lead to indigestion.

  Love

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest snake of all? Apparently this year it’s you. Surprised? Well, all the other candidates were hissed-off and departed. The snakebite of love is a delight you wish to bestow on others, but this year you may be bitten back and the Tai Sui is there to take advantage of that and tie your sinuous self up in knots. Dare we suggest, a few drops of the mystical, righteous snake oil might make the slide of love a little smoother to move along.

  Career

If your bile is sticky enough you might liver a little better than expected this year by hanging onto those ladders that scale the heights of a career. Pack a funhouse mirror into your work satchel and wear it at all times, it’ll make you look as straight as a die and put you in a position to make more of the year than you might reasonably expect.

Guiding hexagram from the Yi-Jing (Book of Changes)

Judgement:
Revolution. On your own day you are believed. Supreme success, furthering through perseverance. Remorse disappears.
Image:
Fire in the lake: the image of Revolution. Thus, the superior man sets the calendar in order and makes the seasons clear.
The Forest of Changes:
Extending one’s neck out to see one’s feet, exhausted but not shamed. Desiring to remain hidden from one’s foes, by disaster he was harmed.
Verdict:
A revolution is not a dinner party. There is never any shame in hard work. Spend the year organising your future. Some around you may doubt your direction and purpose, but be frank with them and give them the opportunity to come around to your point of view. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Feng Shui Index 2025 report

Year of the Wood Snake

Sorcerer: Dr James Greenbaum
Sorcerer's apprentice: Susan Zhang
Wand bearer: Forest Chan
Director/Editor: Yukti Vidyarthi
Translation editor: Melanie Ng
Design/Art: Lizzie Lau; Anna Lai; Elva Lau; Patrina Leung; Jon Berkeley
Web development: Paul Ngan; Timothy Wang
Video production: Alexandra Lee; Luna Deng
Thanks to: Sandy Chen Dowling; Ellen Lo
Producer: Liz Patterson

Launched in 1992 as a Chinese New Year card, the CLSA Feng Shui Index is a light-hearted outlook for the Hong Kong market and a well-loved firm tradition. Please note that this guide is not a research report.