An excerpt from the Regulus Q1 2025 Financial Astrology Forecast on February 1, 2025.
Transcript edited for print.
So, 2025 — the Year of the Wood Snake.
After the bold, expansive energy of the Wood Dragon in 2024, the transition to the Year of the Wood Snake, which began on January 29th, 2025, introduces a far more intricate, unpredictable, and transformational influence.
The Influence of the Wood Snake
The Wood Snake carries a sharper, more strategic, and enigmatic energy, bringing a year of intense shifts, global recalibrations, and unforeseen disruptions. Unlike the Dragon’s grand vision and sweeping momentum, the Snake operates in subtle yet decisive ways, revealing hidden truths and reshaping power structures.
So what can we expect?
We can expect the unexpected. Dramatic geopolitical shifts that alter the balance of power. Major financial and technological disruption shaking global markets, which we just saw with the DeepSeek R1. Events and hidden revelations that redefine history. An atmosphere of secrecy, strategy, and calculated moves by market makers, by governments, by the too-big-to-fails — by, you know, people basically saying one thing to you and trading against what they say. Kind of like what happened in 2008.
Major Historical Events in Snake Years
Now if we go all the way back to 1869 and look at every Year of the Snake since then, we see major historical events.
- 1869: the 15th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution
- 1881: the assassination of President James Garfield
- 1893: the U.S. experiences its first depression, which was also felt in Europe, especially the U.K.
- 1905: the Russo-Japanese War
- 1917: the Russian Revolution — and remember, 1917 was during World War I
- 1929: stock market crash, the Great Depression begins
- 1941: Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, U.S. enters World War II — and when the U.S. enters, it becomes a total global war
- 1953: the Korean War
- 1965: the Vietnam War and the counterculture revolution
- 1977: the second Cold War with the Soviet Union begins
- 1989: Tiananmen Square and the fall of the Berlin Wall
- 2001: the 9/11 attacks
- 2013: the Snowden NSA leaks
So we can see these are periods of significant cultural and societal transformations on a large scale.
Disruptive Innovation Developments in Snake Years
Also, during Snake years, we see disruptive innovations. For example:
- 1893: Tesla’s alternating current (AC) system and the motion picture camera — the film industry begins
- 1905: powered flight, the first real airplane as we know it today — not the Kitty Hawk flight in 1903, but the true plane that takes off and lands on a runway, like the Model T of aviation
- 1917: mass production in the automotive industry — Ford’s method for producing cars that expanded to all other industries
- 1929: radio broadcasting and “talkies” in film
- 1941: radar and digital electronics, and also the beginning discussions of the Manhattan Project
- 1953: transistor and mainframe computing
- 1965: the integrated circuit, developed by Texas Instruments, and advancements in semiconductors
- 1977: the microprocessor and home computing
- 1989: the PC revolution, personal computing, and the rise of the internet
- 2001: the dot-com bubble burst
- 2013: end-to-end encryption, VPNs — the privacy tech we all use now
So, a lot of innovation during Snake years.
Now, let’s talk market implications.
Market Implications in Snake Years
Historically, Snake years tend to overlap with watershed moments. For example, the 1929 crash and the 2001 9/11 aftermath that aligned with the dot-com bust — these suggest that markets will be highly sensitive to sudden news or geopolitical and macroeconomic shifts in 2025.
The Wood Snake is strategic, adaptable, and thrives in shifting conditions — which aligns with a market prone to rapid repricing. We just saw a bit of that with the Magnificent Seven.
With geopolitical instability already in motion — elections, trade alignments, potential geopolitical conflicts, cold wars, hot wars — we can expect liquidity crunches and flash crashes as traders react quickly to emerging risks.
We’re going to see a lot of tech disruptions. Like we just saw with DeepSeek R1. Incremental advances — especially in quantum computing — could trigger a wave of creative destruction. That means formerly dominant players, like Apple for instance, could become vulnerable to new challengers.
So we need to pay attention to centralized AI, biotech breakthroughs, and advancements in the autonomous robotics sector. This sector will see exponential growth.
We’re also going to see asset re-evaluations and shifting capital flows.
Snake years are historically correlated with valuation resets. Sometimes it happens through crashes. Sometimes it’s just a repricing of bubbles. AI-driven productivity gains may upend legacy sectors, while real estate and commercial properties could face renewed pressure due to the work-from-anywhere trends and evolving urban dynamics.
So what we should be looking for are undervalued industries that are poised for breakout — not chasing last cycle’s winners. The winner of 2024 will most likely not be the winner of 2025.
Global Realignment, De-Dollarization, and the Role of AI
We’re also going to see global realignments and strategic wealth positioning.
Central banks are going to struggle to manage both inflationary and deflationary forces. We’ll see inflation due to currency debasement — but at the same time, we’ll see deflationary forces collide with that, especially because of AI and tech, which are inherently deflationary.
We’re seeing a possible de-dollarization trend picking up speed.
Trump is now threatening to use severe and swift sanctions on the BRICS nations — saying that if they come out with a currency this year backed by gold for trade settlement, any nation that participates will be severely sanctioned.
And he means it. Because every country needs to trade with the U.S. If you don’t, you’ll go broke. Period. If you take the U.S. out of the trade equation, no matter what country you are, you’re heading into recession — and possibly depression.
China, for example, would actually go into a depression. Over one-third of their income comes from the U.S., and a majority of their assets are in U.S. Treasuries. Their sovereign wealth funds aren’t holding gold — they’re holding U.S. debt. So sanctions would be a serious blow.
That’s why this global realignment is so important.
When Trump says he’s going to do sanctions, he really means it. And Snake years, historically, involve trade wars, currency wars, cold wars, and hot wars. Sanctions are part of that.
We’ll also see possible threats to the dollar, and alternative stores of value like crypto, gold, and digital commodities like NFTs will begin to gain more traction.
Emerging markets and Asia’s role in a new economic order will be critical — especially with the Snake’s association with strategic maneuvering and stealth power.
So we’re going to see shifts occurring under the surface.
But now, thanks to AI, we can detect these stealth shifts. Before, you wouldn’t be able to unless you were an insider — like Nancy Pelosi, for example — someone with access. But now, with AI, you don’t need to be connected. AI is better than any hedge fund out there, but most people don’t realize it. They’re not using AI in their trading or their strategy.
Meanwhile, we’ve got the newest version of ChatGPT, ChatGPT-03, which is considered the first generation of artificial general intelligence. And that was just released yesterday.
To watch the full forecast webinar and gain in-depth astrological insights on global markets, key economic events, and investment strategies, register for the Regulus Quarterly Financial Astrology Forecasts today.
A trends forecaster, William’s annual global forecasts are backed by a deep study of economies, geopolitics, archetypal cosmology, and modern astrological forecasting techniques. William’s predictions for the outcome of the U.S. Midterm and Presidential Elections are well documented on his blog.
William Stickevers is a strategic astrological advisor, advising clients from 28 countries for over three decades with strategy and cosmic insight and foresight to gain an asymmetrical advantage in their investing, business planning and decisions, and to live a more fulfilled life according to their soul’s code and calling.
William has been a regular guest on Coast to Coast AM with George Noory and The Jerry Wills Show, and featured on The Unexplained with Howard Hughes, Beyond Reality Radio with Jason Hawes and JV Johnson, We Don’t Die Radio with Sandra Champlain, Supernatural Girlz, Paranormal Podcast, and Alan Steinfeld’s New Realities. An international speaker, William has lectured at the New York Open Center, Edgar Cayce’s Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.), two Funai Media events in Tokyo, Japan, the United Astrology Conference (2018), for the National Council for Geocosmic Research (NYC, Long Island, New Jersey, San Francisco chapters), American Federation of Astrologers (Los Angeles), the Astrological Society of Connecticut, the San Francisco Astrological Society, and in Europe (Munich and Bucharest) and Japan (Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama).
More information on Programs, Consultations and Forecast Webinars are at his website www.williamstickevers.com.
