Cord Cutting for the New Lunar Year: Releasing What No Longer Serves You

Shedding limiting beliefs, patterns and relationships.

By: Le’ Jai’ La Troi 

As we step into the new lunar year of the Wood Snake, the energy of renewal invites us to shed what no longer serves us. Yesterday, January 29th many celebrated the first day of the Lunar New Year. Guided by the essence of the Wood Snake, this year brings a time of transformation, wisdom, and strategic growth. Like the snake shedding its skin, we need to release outdated energies, habits, and relationships to fully step into our personal power. We're already a month into 2025, and there is still plenty of time to get serious about manifesting your resolutions this year. But first, we need to release the limiting patterns, beliefs, and programs we carry that hold us back from our true potential. A profound practice to assist in this transition is cord-cutting—a ritual that helps sever energetic ties to people, situations, and emotions that don't serve our greatest good. Discover why this practice may be the key to your liberation and success. 

What Is Cord Cutting?

Cord cutting is a spiritual practice that involves releasing energetic attachments that keep us bound to past experiences. These energetic cords can form through relationships, trauma, emotional entanglements, or even self-limiting beliefs. While some connections are nurturing, others may deplete our energy and hinder our ability to grow. By performing a cord-cutting ritual, we cleanse our field, reclaim our energy, restore emotional balance, and create space for new opportunities to emerge.  Cord-cutting practices date back to ancient healing traditions, with roots in shamanic ceremonies, Reiki healing, and esoteric spiritual teachings. Many cultures recognize that unresolved emotions or lingering attachments can manifest as energetic blockages, leading to stress, fatigue, and physical ailments. By consciously severing these cords, we honor our sovereignty and create space for deep healing. 

Why Try Cord-Cutting For Overall Well-being?

The lunar new year is a powerful reset, making it an ideal time to release attachments and recalibrate our energy. Cord cutting can benefit us on a mental, physical, and spiritual level, supporting our emotional well-being. The more we release limiting ideas of ourselves and unhealthy relationships or situations from our lives, the more space we have to embrace the things we love. Cord cutting helps you release past relationships or experiences that continue to cause pain or stagnation, allowing you to reclaim the energy once drained by unhealthy emotional ties. It creates mental and emotional space, offering enhanced clarity to set new intentions and attract aligned opportunities. This practice also protects you from lingering energetic influences that no longer support your highest good.

How to Perform a Cord-Cutting Ritual

There are many ways to perform a cord-cutting ritual, from a guided meditation to a fire ceremony. You don't need elaborate tools to perform one, just an open heart, clear intention, and a willingness to let go. Depending on your process and what you release, you should try various techniques to discover what works best for you. Try these simple steps: 

1. Prepare Your Space

Cleanse and clear your space to prepare for the ritual physically and energetically. Use smudging herbs like sage, palo santo, or sweetgrass to purify the environment and create a sacred, peaceful atmosphere. You can also play soft, calming music to support the energetic shift.

2. Set Your Intention

Clarify your reasons for performing the ritual. Please write down the people, situations, or patterns you're ready to release on paper and reflect on the emotions or beliefs tied to them. Intention is key—be clear about what you want to release and what you're calling in to replace it. 

3. Create Your Container

Create a small altar or sacred space to hold your intentions. (Optional) The altar could include a cloth, glass of water, candle, crystals, candles, flowers, or other items that symbolize the energy you're inviting or releasing. This space serves as a physical representation of your internal work. Once your physical space is ready, take a moment to close your eyes and begin a light visualization. Imagine a golden light surrounding you, forming a protective shield around your body, the room, and home. This golden light acts as a barrier, ensuring that only positive and healing energies can enter while blocking out any negativity. Feel the warmth of this light cocooning you in safety, tranquility, and peace, creating a sacred and protected space for your ritual.

4. Call Upon Your Spiritual Support

Invite your spiritual guides, ancestors, or higher self into the ritual to support you. You can also call in the four directions and elements. Whether you work with a specific deity, spirit guide, your higher self, or your inner wisdom, connecting with these forces provides strength and protection.

5. Visualize the Energetic Cords

Close your eyes and begin to focus on the energetic cords that bind you to the person, situation, or belief you're releasing. Visualize the cords as physical strands of energy connecting you to these attachments. See the cords clearly and imagine them being severed with a tool like a sword or scissors or simply by your own inner strength. Allow your spirit guides to support. 

6. Ground and Refill Your Energy

After visualizing the cutting of the cords, ground yourself back into the earth. Imagine roots growing from your feet, anchoring you deeply into the ground. Feel the earth's energy rise through your body, replenishing you with vitality and clarity. Breathe deeply and fill yourself with light, letting go of the past and embracing new energy.

Optional Step: Burn It Away!

Use the fire element to burn away what you've written down on your list of things to release. Safely burn the paper in a fireproof container, symbolizing the destruction of the old energy and the transmutation of that space into something new. As the paper burns, feel the release and transformation occurring within you.

The Wood Snake's energy teaches us patience, resilience, and the wisdom of transformation. To grow, we must be willing to shed our old layers. By practicing cord cutting, you align with the flow of this lunar cycle and open yourself to new abundance, clarity, and spiritual elevation. As the lunar year unfolds, embrace the art of release. Cord cutting isn't about rejecting your past—it's about freeing yourself from attachments that weigh you down. Through this ritual, you step boldly into a future where you are empowered, energized, and aligned with your highest potential.

Ready to deepen your healing journey? Explore our offerings at Akashic Remedies for more spiritual practices, rituals, and coaching to guide your transformation.

written By:

Le’ Jai’ La Troi

Meet the founder of Akashic Remedies and a medicine woman based in Mexico who works with sacred plants anfd modalities to help others come back into alignment. She is a wellness expertise with 12 years of experience. As a writer, coach, consultant, reiki master, herbalist, teacher, and channel she weaves her understanding of various indigenous and traditional healing practices to empower clients.