The Year of the Yin FIRE RAM
The Spring Equinox
During the week leading up to the Spring Equinox, we will gather at The Goddess Garden on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica from March 15–21, 2027.
The Spring Equinox, which occurs on March 20, is one of the great turning points of the year. Taoist philosophy honors this moment as a powerful energetic gateway when Yin and Yang stand in perfect balance before Yang begins its annual ascent. It is a threshold between seasons—a time of renewal, possibility, and conscious transformation. As nature shifts its rhythm, we too are invited to reflect, recalibrate, and choose how we will move into the next cycle of our lives.
Since its founding, Immortal Sisters has been dedicated to strengthening the Yin principle in an increasingly Yang world. Modern life continually asks us to move faster, accomplish more, and remain constantly engaged. Taoist wisdom offers another way. It reminds us that stillness nourishes action, receptivity balances effort, and true strength grows from a well-tended inner life.
For this reason, our retreats have intentionally gathered during the Yin phase of each Chinese astrological element. Rather than chasing intensity, we seek the quieter medicine that restores balance and allows authentic transformation to unfold.
The Five Element Journey
As these retreats have unfolded, something unexpected has become clear. What began as a series of individual gatherings has revealed itself to be a ten-year journey through the Yin phase of the Five Elements.
Every two years, we gather in a place that reflects the spirit of one element, allowing nature, Taoist practice, ritual, and community to illuminate its unique medicine. Looking back, each retreat has become a chapter in a much larger story.
2023 — Water: Be Like Water • Tolantongo, Mexico
2025 — Wood: Shedding • Palenque, Mexico
2027 — Fire: Tend the Fire • Costa Rica
2029 — Earth: (TBA)
2031 — Metal: (TBA)
Only in looking back did we realize that these retreats were forming a larger pattern. Like the unfolding of the Tao itself, the path revealed itself one step at a time. We now find ourselves at the heart of this Five Element journey, tending the Fire that will illuminate the way forward and tend the inner flame that will carry us through the remaining elements.
Water taught us to flow. Wood invited us to grow and shed what no longer serves. Fire asks us to cultivate warmth, clarity, and joy before we continue into the grounding wisdom of Earth and the refining power of Metal.
The Ram is a Yin Earth sign, deeply connected to the body, to nourishment, and to Mother Earth herself.
In the Five Element tradition, Earth steadies and absorbs Fire, providing the foundation that allows it to burn with warmth rather than intensity. This relationship offers an important teaching for our time.
After the dynamic, expansive energy of the Yang Fire Horse year, many of us may feel inspired—but also scattered, depleted, or overwhelmed. The Yin Fire Ram invites a different rhythm. It asks us to integrate, refine, and strengthen our foundations personally and collectively.
The medicine of this retreat is simple and profound.
Through Qigong, Tai Chi, meditation, time in nature, and the support of community, we will calm the nervous system, ground ourselves in the body, and rediscover the quiet strength that arises when we slow down.
Yin Fire is not the blazing sun overhead. It is the steady flame of the hearth, the candle that illuminates the darkness, and the glowing embers that continue to radiate warmth long after the flames have settled. It reminds us that the most enduring transformation is rarely dramatic, but is sustained through patience, presence, and daily practice.
Whether we gather around a fire beneath the stars, walk together along the Caribbean shore, or cultivate our inner light through Qigong, Tai Chi, and meditation, Tend the Fire invites us to care for what is most precious within ourselves—and within one another.
The Medicine of the Ram
The Wisdom of the I Ching
Every hexagram presents an energetic picture—a way of understanding the patterns moving through our lives. Two hexagrams are especially meaningful for our retreat:
Hexagram 30 – The Clinging (Fire) and Hexagram 13 – Fellowship with People (Community). Together, they illuminate both the inner work and the shared experience of our week together.
Hexagram 30 – The Clinging (Fire)
Fire over Fire
"That which is bright rises twice:
The image of Fire.
Thus the noble one, by perpetuating this brightness,
Illumines the four quarters of the world."
Fire is unlike any other element. It cannot exist independently. It must continually cling to its source of nourishment.
So it is with us.
Our inspiration, vitality, and spiritual clarity cannot be sustained by willpower alone. They require continual nourishment through practice, community, rest, and conscious attention.
Double Fire reminds us that true illumination begins within. The light we offer the world depends upon the care we give our own inner flame. When that fire is tended with patience and consistency, it becomes a source of warmth, compassion, resilience, and joy.
Fire also teaches us interdependence. Just as a flame depends upon its fuel, our own lives are strengthened through relationship—with nature, with practice, and with one another.
Hexagram 13 – Fellowship with People
Fire below Heaven
"Heaven together with Fire.
The noble one organizes the clans and distinguishes things."
The image is one of a fire burning beneath the open sky—its warmth and light available to all.
This hexagram reminds us that authentic community is built not upon convenience or similarity, but upon shared purpose, mutual respect, and openness of heart.
Like the sun that shines equally upon everyone, true fellowship asks us to bring our gifts generously while honoring the uniqueness of each person we encounter.
One of the quiet blessings of retreat is remembering that we do not walk this path alone.
Practice deepens in community. Wisdom grows through shared experience. Joy expands when it is celebrated together.
As we gather during this remarkable season of balance and transformation, may we each tend our own inner fire— and together create a warmth that nourishes us all.