How to Work with Your Personal Year to Manifest Your Dreams

Clock strikes midnight and it is January 1st. What do most people do? They make resolutions—some call them goals—for the year ahead. For some, they complete those goals. For many, the timing may feel a little off, and as a result, their plans become part of the "maybe somedays."

Can you relate? I know I could. That is, until I found a book three years ago. In this book, I learned that we each have a Personal Year—and when we work with the timing of that year, it becomes easier to bring our dreams into this existence.

Now when I say Personal Year, I don’t mean numerology. In astrology, your Personal Year isn’t tied to January 1st—it’s based on the movement of the Sun through the houses of your birth chart. It begins when the Sun enters your 11th house, which is tied to dreams, visions, and what you hope to grow in your life and your community.

What is is this book?

It is called The Book of Houses: an Astrological Guide to the Harvest Cycle in Human Life by Robert Cole and Paul Williams

How Do You Find the Timing of Your Personal Year?

In this book, Cole and Williams share how you can use your birth chart to find the timing of your Personal Year, based on where the Sun is located in the sky in relation to your chart.

It starts with you casting your birth chart. For that, you’ll need to know your time of birth, location, and birthday. Yes, the exact time matters because it helps you set up the houses you’ll see below.

If you don’t know where to find your birth time, you can check out the suggestions on the “I don’t know my birth time”page on my website. I share ideas for where to look.

Once you have your birth time, you can click [HERE] to sign up and get directions on how to create your chart sent straight to your email.

After you cast your chart, you’ll notice it has 12 slices—like a pie. Cole and Williams explain how each slice of the pie (we call them houses in astrology) represents a different part of your Personal Year.

When Does Your Personal Year Start?

According to this book, your Personal Year begins when the Sun in the sky crosses into your 11th house. This is the time to reflect on and choose what you’d like to work on for the year ahead. Spoiler alert: it likely isn’t January 1st.

For me, it’s around the end of January. From then until midway through Pisces season, I have time to figure out what really matters—to me and my loved ones. What do I want to do in my business, for leisure, or for personal growth?

One of the things I love most about this approach is that it’s not just one day to figure it all out.

You have time.

Time to thoughtfully consider what would work best. Time to plan, talk with the people you want to collaborate with, and set goals in a way that feels natural. Cole and Williams even include simple, grounded practices you can do as the Sun moves through the sky and your Personal Year unfolds.

Once you’ve figured out your dreams or the seeds you want to plant in the 11th house, you’ll start to plant them in the 12th. Just like planting a seed in the soil, we don't always know if a goal will take root—we just trust that something is beginning to grow, even if it’s unseen at first.

In 2017, I had the amazing honor of helping plant trees in Brownie Wise Park in Florida. We were blessed to see eagles that day. It was such a lovely experience.

The Four Checkpoints of Your Personal Year

Then comes the first of four key checkpoints in your Personal Year:

🔸 Rebirthing Day – When the Sun crosses your Ascendant (AC line) and enters your 1st house, things begin to move. It’s like the official “launch” of the cycle. What I love about The Book of Houses is how it invites you to pause and honor this moment. That pause feels really important. For me, it’s a time to celebrate where I’ve been and where I’m heading.

🔸 Heritage Day – When the Sun crosses your IC (the lowest point in your chart) and enters your 4th house, connected to home, roots, and your family of origin. For me, that day is today—July 10th.

To celebrate, I did a Celtic Ogham (pronounced omm, like in the chant) pull. It showed me where I am now, where I’m heading, possible outcomes, and how to work with any course corrections that might show up along the way.

Celtic Ogham and Personal Insight

The Celtic Ogham is a divination system that uses wooden pieces with symbols burned into them to represent different energies. It’s an alphabet, not a language, that’s been around since the time of the Druids.

I use four crystals to represent the four elements—Air (East), Fire (South), Water (West), and Earth (North)—and cast a circle where the wooden pieces fall. From there, I look at what’s moving into the center (which represents me or the person I’m reading for) and what’s moving out.

The direction is shown by what way the “feet” are planted (they look like an upside-down “v”). Since this system is based on trees, the idea of roots—and knowing which direction they’re growing—matters!

If this feels like something that could help you answer a question or gain some insight, you can check out the process HERE.

After the reading I did for myself, I took another look at my goals for the year. This time of year is all about pruning, after all. Sometimes we need to pull weeds or deadhead flowers so others can bloom. Some goals that felt true back in January don’t feel the same now—and that’s okay. It’s helpful to check in and see what still works, and tweak the things that don’t.

Next will be when the Sun crosses my Descendant, known as Sharing Day, and then finally, when it crosses my Midheaven, known as Harvest Day.

Each of these checkpoints brings an opportunity to reflect:

Do my goals still make sense? Or do they need to shift?

Results

By working with my personal timing instead of the world’s calendar, I’ve experienced more successes than setbacks.

Do all of my goals unfold exactly the way I imagine?

Nope.

Do some unfold in ways I never could have imagined?

Absolutely.

That’s the beauty of this system—it works with you, instead of following what the world says is the “right” time to begin.

Dreams to Reality

It’s because of this system that I created my Dreams to Reality program. It’s a way to support you in discovering your own timing and aligning your goals with it. I’ve seen how powerful this approach can be—for myself and for my clients.

That’s why I offer a free, no-obligation 30-minute session to explore whether it’s a good fit for you. We’ll talk about your goals, what you’re working toward, and how your Personal Year can help you bring those dreams into reality—step by step.

This approach has worked for me and my clients. I believe it can work for you, too.

Thank you for celebrating my Heritage Day with me. It means a lot that you took the time to read this. Feel free to comment with your thoughts—or share this with someone you know who might benefit from a more aligned approach to their year.

With love and stardust,

Sarah