Mirror, Mirror, Magic is Immediate
2026: The Year of Mirrors
My spiritual healer (introduced to me via my best friend) shared that 2026 is the Year of Mirrors, after we had just ended a nine-year cycle with 2025 being the Year of Revolving Doors. What that meant was that 2025 was a cleansing, collective year of shedding and clearing out — revolving doors spinning like a washing machine, busy cleaning loads of laundry, in and out.
In addition to that, my personal year, according to her calculations, would place me in Personal Year 7, which also happens to be my Life Path number. She described it as being like the scythe — 7s are great at cutting and clearing away what’s no longer needed. With so much cutting, clearing, cleansing, shedding, and ending energy amplified, there was indeed a lot of major clearing in my life. I also happened to have started working with her just a month before the numerology cycle changed.
What Remains After 2025's Clearing
But back to my point in bringing up this thematic concept — with so much having been cleared away in my life (much of it naturally, without my effort or intention), there is now all this “space” for me to pay attention to, to notice the debris and dust bunnies hiding in the nooks and crannies of my inner landscape that I wouldn’t have seen before. And the Mirror Year exemplifies that.
You have to clean your own mirror and see what is truly your reflection — or whether it’s a distortion. These are ripe opportunities to change what you do not like about what’s being reflected back to you. True or distorted, it does not matter. Unless you’re a fabled vampire, no one escapes their own reflection. These mirror moments can occur in our day-to-day interactions with other people, in life events, or within yourself — but all you have to remember is that what you are seeing is light being reflected back into your eyes to form what you perceive.
No One Escapes Their Own Reflection
Mirrors. Reflections.
The only change you can enact, control, and actively participate in is changing yourself. It doesn’t matter if you were right or wrong. It doesn’t matter — good, bad, ugly, sad. You are you; you are with yourself the most, 24/7/365+, until your time here is up. If you have the time to complain, ruminate, spiral, blame, or bed-moss mind-rot… you know what to do. You know what you can do. And even if you think you don’t know — really ask yourself: do you truly not know (for now), or is there an inkling underneath that “I don’t know…”?
Keep the Engine Running
I feel like this year is about taking that one step — the next step — step by step, until the many steps appear all at once for you to run on ahead. But only if you’ve started and maintained that forward movement, no matter the pace. Even if you need to slow down at different parts of the year (snail-slow), the “car” is still inching forward no matter what.
We can pause. We can keep the engine running. But we cannot turn off the ignition. (I don’t drive so please ignore any illogical parts of this analogy like, “how would we fuel our car then?”)
Or maybe it’s like floating down a river in a small motorised tugboat. You must keep the motor running, even if the river’s natural current allows for free-floating. You can take in the sights and sounds, but the boat operator never takes their hand off the steering — in case of sudden changes in undercurrents we can’t see or anticipate until they appear.
Keeping the Mirror Clean
Hannah @grace.pilled has a post on mirrors that really spoke to me in 2024, and I am reminded of it again: There is a mirror in your heart that reveals the true nature of reality - if you remember to clean it. (For the full post: Instagram) We have to maintain and keep our mirrors clean and clear. We get to do that. It is one of the greatest acts of self-love, in my belief.
When we see ourselves for who we are at any given point in time, we are able to navigate and reconfigure where we are, where we want to go, and who we are meant to become — the more we practise and grow in awareness. Every year, we look at ourselves in the mirror and may not notice much difference… until suddenly, one day, everything seems different. Though even then, we tend to notice only when drawn to the visible marks of time and our relationship with ageing.
Mirror work is a practice my energy healer prescribed from our very first session. In fact, it’s essentially the onboarding, must-do “homework” that all her clients are initiated into.
If you’re someone who believes in, or even feels the benefits of, talking to plants and animals, this practice won’t seem unusual. If you love being around babies and pouring joy and pure love into those interactions, I hope you also offer the same to yourself, for yourself. (And if you think this is all bullshit, my blog might not be the right space for you in the long run. 🙃)
Meeting Myself in the Mirror
What’s been interesting in my experience is how my face, as seen in the mirror, can be so beautifully, humanly varied at different parts of the day — and how I feel about myself, my life, my energy, can change that in an instant.
The first key moment of truth came during the second or third week of the breakthrough sessions. I stepped into the bathroom, and my attention was immediately drawn to my reflection. My immediate response was, “Wow, I am so beautiful. Radiant, even.”
Another recurring example is how I start my mornings. On days when I’ve been true to the “miracle morning” power hour I’m still cultivating, there’s a noticeable difference.
On days when I sleep too late, wake up groggy, and skip my bed-to-washing-up habit stack because I have to rush out to start my day almost immediately, I don’t just see tiredness in my reflection through the mirror. I see someone strangely unfamiliar — like the usual passer-by I'd occasionally see at the neighbourhood supermarket but never spoken to nor have our eyes ever met.
But on the days I follow through with my routine? The first thing I notice and feel when I see myself is: Lovely. Beautiful. Radiant. Me!
Seeing Without Judgement
At this point, it’s not only about fuelling loving energy back to yourself through mirror work, but also about acknowledging and noticing yourself and your reflections for what they are — without judgement, without criticism, without spiralling endlessly. Just holding what needs to be held and seen, so it can be released and changed, for good, for the better, for your Highest Best.
I had my first “year-of-mirrors moment” within the first few days of this new year. It was really hard to ignore compared to past years; it felt visceral, almost chemical. There was a rapidly growing need for early attention and intervention, and intentionally choosing to act on it. It all unfolded within less than a week, from the moment itself to resolution. Whereas in the past, I might have let it simmer and fester for weeks, and then typically suppress and dismiss it (within me, by me).
No Lag Time
I suppose this is the speed and energy we are working with this year. Remember the boat analogy? If something gets caught in the motor, it needs to be dealt with immediately. You can’t ignore it — especially when the motor needs to keep running so that, at any moment, when tides shift and currents change, there’s no lag.
Unlike restarting a stopped engine, if we keep the motor running, we’re ready. We can adapt as things arise, yes — but if we can prepare, set the stage, and reduce the mental load before emergencies, detours, or firefighting moments happen, why wouldn’t we?
Below are the oracle cards I had pulled for myself in preparation for 2026 and these were specifically for Q1 (or rather, last December's solstice to the recent March Equinox, for my fellow astrology geeks). Now as we've just passed the Equinox mark and in the final week of Q1, I'm able to share that these anchor cards have held true for my personal experiences that inspired this post initially a private journal entry. :)
Mirror | Mirror : There is elegance in accepting honest, unflattering reflection. Your refusal to see will not make unpleasant truths disappear any more than putting your hands over your eyes will make you invisible. Everything you are capable of perceiving is a mirror, and the willingness to regard it as such is an invitation into greater self-awareness.
Magic Is Immediate : Magic will be detectable within moments of seeking it. Follow when found. The place it guides you to may divert your attention from something else that was not producing a magical result for you at this time. You cannot bottle magic or decide which form it will appear, but it is the most reliable force in the universe.
Oracle deck: Postcards from the Liminal Space — created by Bakara Wintner and Christian Berry, illustrated by Kaylee Christenson
Gardening Notes
Total writing time: 5 hours 50 minutes
Cultivation period: 5 Jan - 24 Mar 2026
Resonance/Vitality: 98%
Moon Cycles: Full Moon in Cancer (Jan 2026) - New Moon in Pisces (Mar 2026)