Entering My Metal Era

Over the past few months, I’ve been spending more time looking at my astrology and my BaZi chart, and something has become very clear: I am moving into what I can only describe as my Metal Era.

In BaZi (Four Pillars of Destiny), my Day Master is Yang Yang Metal. Metal, in the language of the Five Elements, is the element of the blade. It is the energy that refines, cuts, and discerns. It separates what is true from what is not. When Metal is operating well, it does not cut for the sake of destruction but rather it cuts to restore integrity. A sword removes what does not belong.

For a long time, I have lived more comfortably in the watery and reflective parts of my chart - observing, feeling, contemplating, and trying to understand the deeper philosophical underpinnings of things. I have a lot of Water energy, and Water loves to explore ideas, stories, patterns, and meaning. It wants to understand the systems beneath the surface.

But lately, something else has been coming online. My discernment has sharpened.

Part of this is internal. Part of it is also reflected in the sky. Astrologers have been speaking about Neptune in Aries, a transit that many say will expose illusions and dissolve spiritual fantasies that no longer hold. Aries is direct. It doesn’t tiptoe around the truth. It confronts.

For me, this combination has turned my internal “bullshit detector” up to a volume I can no longer ignore. I am becoming increasingly sensitive to performative spirituality. To spiritual bypassing. To the subtle ways people and systems claim to be about healing or liberation while quietly reproducing the very patterns they say they are dismantling. And once you see it, it becomes difficult to unsee.

At the same time, another archetypal force has come alive: the Yang Fire Horse energy of 2026. The Horse is movement. It is spirit. When combined with Fire, it illuminates. Fire reveals.

It lights up the field so we can see clearly what is actually there. And the Horse does not carry what it cannot run with. When something is out of alignment, the Horse bucks.

This has felt very real in my life recently. I feel a deep internal refusal to continue carrying things (belief systems, relationships, structures, or narratives) that are fundamentally misaligned. Not in a dramatic or reactive way, but in a clear and sober one.

Metal cuts.

Fire illuminates.

The Horse moves forward.

And my Water continues to think deeply about all of it.

Because the truth is, I am not interested in critique for its own sake. My Water nature compels me to ask "why?". To understand the philosophical, cultural, and ecological forces shaping our spiritual landscapes. I want to examine the systems we are swimming in and ask whether they actually lead us toward deeper integrity with the living world or whether they simply repackage the same extractive dynamics with softer language.

Many modern spiritual spaces claim to be about healing. But healing cannot happen if we refuse to look honestly at the systems we participate in. My strong sense of justice, something that feels very Metal in my bones, does not allow me to simply look away from that. Increasingly, I feel called not only to name what feels alive and true, but also to critique what feels hollow, performative, or contradictory.

I know that speaking about these things will trigger some people. Some of what I say may not be popular. But I also believe that being triggered is not necessarily a bad thing. Often, it is an invitation. When something someone says provokes a strong reaction in us, it can be worth asking why. Sometimes the discomfort we feel is pointing toward a place within ourselves that is asking to be examined more closely. That process of reflection is part of refinement. Which brings us back to Metal.

Metal is not comfortable energy. It is refining energy. Just as raw ore must be heated, hammered, and shaped before it becomes a blade, discernment often emerges through friction and clarity. This moment in my life feels like that kind of refinement. And in many ways, it connects deeply to the work I am doing with tea.

Tea, when practiced deeply, is not just about relaxation or aesthetic beauty. It is about presence. It is about relationship with the living world. It is about allowing energy to move so that stagnation can clear. In that sense, tea is also a kind of refinement practice. It invites us to sit long enough with ourselves and with the Earth so that what is false eventually falls away.

So perhaps my Metal era is not really about cutting people down. It is about cutting through illusion. It is about asking harder questions. It is about aligning my voice and my work with what feels genuinely true, even when that truth is uncomfortable. It is about inviting others to look more honestly at the systems and relationships we are part of, and to be inspired to choose paths that hold greater integrity with ourselves, with one another, and with the living Earth. And like any blade forged well, I hope that what emerges is not harshness, but clarity.