Before the Heat: An Orientation for Year of the Fire Horse.

Some years arrive loudly.
Others announce themselves by changing the air before anything actually happens.

The Year of the Fire Horse does the latter.

You don’t feel it as urgency at first. You feel it as pressure — a subtle tightening. A sense that things are about to move, whether you’re ready or not.

This post isn’t about prediction.
It’s about positioning.

Heat Approaches Before It Burns

Fire Horse energy doesn’t start with chaos. It starts with acceleration.

Conversations shorten. Tolerance thins. Decisions that once felt optional begin to feel inevitable. People who relied on delay or ambiguity start to feel exposed — not because they’re wrong, but because the pace is about to increase.

The Fire Horse doesn’t ask you to hurry.
It asks whether you’re facing the right direction.

Orientation Matters More Than Speed

This is not a year that rewards speed for its own sake.

If you move quickly without clarity, you get dragged.
If you move deliberately, you get carried.

Orientation — not intention — is the skill that matters here.

You don’t need a new identity.
You need to know:

• what you’re no longer willing to carry

• where you will not negotiate

• what you’ll let burn away without chasing it

Once the Fire Horse is fully in motion, renegotiation becomes expensive.

What Belongs at the Table Now

This isn’t the moment for heat yet.

What belongs beside you now is clarity.

Something clean. Something bracing. Something that sharpens attention rather than soothing it. A drink that keeps you awake to yourself. Food that doesn’t distract from the question forming underneath everything else.

This is a holding pattern — but an intentional one.

You’re not waiting.
You’re aligning. You don’t need to explain it. Let it hover.

Something bitter and pale belongs here — gin-led, restrained, and unapologetically dry. A drink that clears the palate rather than rewarding it.

If you do want to name it:

A White Negroni which you'll find in The Cocktail Diaries (page 72)— held lightly, no garnish worth speaking of — does the job.

That’s enough.

The Thread into Unkissable

Unkissable lives here.

Not in the fire — but in the moment you realise what you will no longer dress up to be wanted. What you will no longer soften to be chosen.

Fire Horse years don’t tolerate performative intimacy.
They expose it.

The entry wound has already opened.
Now comes the decision about what you do with it.

A Quiet Check-In

Before the heat arrives, ask yourself gently:

• Where am I still standing out of habit?

• What would I stop explaining if I trusted my footing?

• What am I pretending is undecided when it isn’t?

You don’t need answers yet.
You need honest orientation.

Before the Horse Runs

There will be plenty of time for fire.

For now, this is the moment to feel your stance.
To adjust your grip.
To decide whether you’re watching — or holding the reins.

The Fire Horse doesn’t wait.
But it does respond to those who are already facing forward.