Li Chūn, Yang Fire Horse Year & #2 Star

Classical TCM, Feng Shui, and Italian Folk Wisdom

A TCM and Ancestral Annotation on Capacity, Care, and the Body

Li Chūn (立春), Establishing Spring, marks the first solar term of the Chinese calendar (February 4, 2026) and the truest energetic beginning of the new year. Unlike the Lunar New Year (February 17, 2026), Li Chūn is aligned by the sun’s movement, specifically when the sun reaches 315° longitude, signaling the moment when Yang Qi begins to rise again after winter’s deepest concealment. 

In the Huangdi Neijing (黄帝内经), The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon, known as the foundational classical text of Traditional Chinese Medicine, spring is described as the season when life unfolds and spreads, when the Qi of Heaven and Earth begin to move upward and outward. Yet this movement is not forthright. It is embryonic, quiet, and can be easily disrupted.

This matters profoundly in a YangFire Horse year, where the primary influence is speed, heat, and movement. Within this dynamic force, the body is often required to move faster than its reserves allow.

Li Chūn in Classical Chinese Medicine: Direction Before Force

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Li Chūn initiates the Wood phase, associated with the Liver and Gallbladder systems and the season of Spring. Academically speaking, this season governs:

• the smooth flow of Qi (疏泄, Shu Xie)

• planning, vision, and decision-making

• the sinews and connective tissues

• emotional regulation, particularly anger and frustration
  
  

The Neijing emphasizes that spring disorders arise when movement is forced instead of guided, or when stored resources are spent too quickly. What one nowadays would define as burnout. This is why early spring treatment principles emphasize moderation: gently dispersing stagnation without exhausting the Source Qi (Yuan Qi (元气 / Original Qi).

Li Chūn teaches us that growth must be paced, a valuable and imperative lesson that becomes vital under Fire Horse conditions.

The Fire Horse Year: Excess Yang and Systemic Strain

Fire Horse years are characterized by Fire in both the Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch, producing a surplus of Yang. From a Five Phase perspective, Fire governs:

• transformation

• circulation

• consciousness and spirit (Shen)

• outward expression
  
  

When balanced, Fire brings clarity and warmth. When excessive, it scorches fluids, agitates the nervous system, and consumes Earth.

Clinically, Fire-dominant years often correlate with:

• increased inflammation

• insomnia and agitation

• digestive heat or dryness

• burnout masked as productivity

But the deeper issue is not Fire itself; it is what Fire is capable of producing.

The #2 Star: Yin Earth, Spleen, and Chronic Burden

In Flying Star Feng Shui, the #2 Star (Er Hei, 二黑) is associated with Yin Earth. While often translated as the Illness Star, its pathology is not about a pathological invasion but rather internal accumulation.

This aligns closely with the TCM understanding of Spleen/Earth pathology, particularly around:

• dampness

• heaviness

• phlegm accumulation

• chronic fatigue

• worry and rumination
  
  
  

In both systems, Earth governs:

• digestion and assimilation

• immunity (post-Heaven qi/Hou Tian Zhi Qi (后天之气))

• flesh, muscle, and connective tissue

• the capacity to hold and transform
  
  
  

Fire Produces Earth: Why the Body Bears the Cost This Year

According to the Five Phase theory, Fire generates Earth. Fire is the Mother of Earth, meaning Earth is the Child of Fire. In a Fire Horse year, this generative cycle can easily become excessive.

Symbolically and clinically, this means:

• Fire accelerates life demands

• Earth absorbs the byproduct

• The body becomes the repository for unresolved strain
  
  
  

This is why the #2 Star becomes especially relevant this year. Its influence manifests not as sudden illness, but as:

• burnout after sustained effort

• digestive or immune dysregulation

• chronic heaviness or fatigue

• emotional labor showing up as physical symptoms
  
  
  

This pattern is deeply familiar to those who carry responsibility quietly, particularly caregivers and healers.

This relationship dynamic can be akin to examining a relationship between Mother and Child that is imbalanced and dysregulated. A Mother who is overbearing, demanding, and quite possibly even unhinged will have a foreboding influence on the Child. The Child will absorb this energy and become overburdened. The manifestation will play out in injuries such as burnout, chronic illness, emotional dysregulation, and so on. 

Italian Folk Parallels: The Body as Vessel

I mention here my correlation as I see within Italian folk tradition, because it resonates with my heritage, especially Southern and Catholic-inflected practices, illness is often understood not only physiologically but energetically. In fact, you can see this in many folk traditions the world over. 

Concepts like malocchio (the evil eye) reflect the belief that:

• the body can absorb envy, stress, or ill intent

• prolonged exposure leads to depletion

• protection and repair are as important as removal
  
  

The image of a cracked vessel, an earthen pot still holding water but under strain, appears in both Mediterranean folk symbolism and Chinese Earth metaphors. The remedy is never more pressure. It is sealing, blessing, and strengthening the container. This can also be seen as a connection in astrology with the Age of Aquarius, especially as we live in this Aquarius season and the New Year begins in Aquarius season. Aquarius is known as the Water Bearer, even though they are an Air Sign. The water is an element, but more importantly, many have discussed that the cracked vessel often depicted in images of Aquarius as the Water Bearer is that water can also represent currency, energy, and vibration. 

Likewise, the Italian hearth, il focolare (literally “the hearth”), is the spiritual and energetic heart of the home in Italian tradition, thus mirroring the Chinese Earth center: nourishment, warmth, repetition, and care. When the hearth burns too hot or too long without tending, the house and the nourishment meant to be provided suffer.

The Maternal Line: Earth as Caregiver

Both Italian and Chinese traditions place Earth in the realm of the maternal:

• the one who feeds

• the one who holds

• the one who absorbs excess for the sake of continuity
  
  

In Fire Horse years, the maternal principle is often overtaxed. The #2 Star surfaces where strength has been relied upon without reciprocity. The world over has seen the painful abuse of the mother figure, the caregiver, as she holds it all in the shadows and is expected to be good, to hold without complaint, and to suffer in silence. 

From a TCM lens, this is an Earth Qi Deficiency/Spleen Qi Deficiency with Damp Accumulation. From a folk lens, this is the cost of being the one who keeps everything together. 

But the wisdom of both traditional views does not see rest as weakness, as so many have been taught and modeled for centuries. Rest and true nourishment are the maintenance of the sacred vessel.

The Medicine of This Year: Repair, Not Resistance

Li Chūn reminds us that spring emerges gradually. The Fire Horse reminds us how easily momentum becomes overreach. The #2 Star reminds us that the body records everything. In both TCM and Italian folk wisdom, prevention is superior to cure.

The medicine this year is not withdrawal from life, but sustainable participation:

• supporting digestion and Spleen Qi

• moderating stimulation

• prioritizing rest before collapse

• engaging protective rituals, boundaries, and rhythms
  
  
  

And my mind drifts so much to the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum, Kintsugi (金継ぎ). Instead of hiding cracks, Kintsugi acknowledges them and honors them. The break becomes the most beautiful part of the vessel because it is seen and repaired, making it stronger than it was before. Kintsugi energy for me feels like Jing repair (Jing (精) is Essence) without pretending depletion didn’t happen. This is so important to integrating wounds with care, allowing them to become sources of strength, beauty, and interrupting despairing patterns and even lineages. This aligns with Hearth wisdom, with Fire that creates but doesn’t destroy, it serves the ancestral medicine longing to be tended and shared…also allowing the space and resources for women, healers, and caregivers the way to tend to what is vital in their repair and nourishment. 

Welcome Spring

Spring does not announce itself loudly. It begins underground. It is time to allow the movement to begin to stir. To allow the space for the soul's eyes to observe where we might need attention, care, and even repair before we get swept away with even more.

In honoring Earth early, through nourishment, repair, and reverence for our own personal capacity, Fire has something stable to rise from and to be used for construction and vitality. 

Intention helps us to be honest and be a part of our creation, our voice.
Protecting the vessel and repairing it to maintain strength and capacity is crucial.
Our utmost devotion is required. Growth unfolding is gentle and just what our nervous systems require for creating and then living it. 

Intention and care are the medicine for this New Year.

Author’s Note

This essay was developed through original synthesis and interpretation by the author, informed by classical Chinese medical texts, Feng Shui theory, and ancestral Italian folk traditions. Conversational AI (ChatGPT, OpenAI) was used as a generative and editorial tool to support idea development, organization, and language refinement. All interpretations, correlations, and conclusions are the author’s own.