I love the idea of the Lion’s Gate portal. A mysterious, starlit gateway leading to awakening and ascending, guarded by the fiercest and most powerful of the animal kingdom, the Lion. I can imagine me and all of my loved ones walking square shouldered, heads back, hair blowing, bravely marching to the promised land of wokeness. We are exultant to have finally reached that doorway beyond the beyond that has been promised to us by so many religions and spiritual traditions in so many ways. Isn’t heaven after all the biggest portal of them all? And how do we find this portal? Well, funny you should ask. A ritual here, a ritual there, a mysterious opening of my heart. I can’t seem to find many specific details. Aug 8 comes and they say it will open and if I am ready I will pass through.
But wait, I am not religious, am I? I am SPIRITUAL. Doesn’t this sound a little like we are waiting for the Kingdom of Heaven? Be ready and you will be let in. I am SPIRITUAL. What exactly has happened here?
Why am I marching in the woke parade like a triumphant angelic herald calling us all towards the promised land? Why are all my peeps talking about rituals and cleansings and promising some alien-like ascension into the clouds?
But wait, Leo calls. We MUST answer after all. Leo commands and demands. Leo can razzle and dazzle you into believing he has moved through the portal while he stands completely still! The art of showmanship and self-aggrandizement excels in the sign of Leo. Are we all following a spiritual pied-piper and listening to the slippery forked tongue of the snake in the garden?
I believe we have this wrong my loves. And as much as my air loving, water-bearing, community loving Aquarius self is attracted to and tantalized by the energies of my opposite sign Leo the lion in whatever form he/she comes in, I must say let’s stop the madness of looking for doors to the unknown until we fully appreciate, explore, and command the living energies all around us.
What if I told you that this portal that we seek is INSIDE OUR VERY HEARTS? And that the path by which we enter is through experiencing our world with our five senses and our big beuatiful under-used hearts?
What if I told you that there is no magical snap of the fingers or ritual that will guarantee our entrance to the promised land.
The portal that we are looking for is inside each and every one of us. We are all aspects of the divine radiating here on earth if we could just get out of our own way and cleanse ourselves of our self-loathing and judgement and SEE IT. Better yet, FEEL IT. The snap of the fingers that will accomplish this is a life time of self reflection and expanding our consciousness to the point of all inclusivity. I am YOU. YOU are ME. I cannot hate what I am and so I cannot hate you. A wholeness that recognizes all of life as nothing separate from MYSELF.
And in that wholeness I perceive a joy that is limitless and boundless. I hear angels in the pitter patter of raindrops. I see God in the face of the homeless addict and the snake that crawled into my cellar crawlspace. I feel the breath of life in the wind and allow myself to be lifted by the buoyant strength of the ocean’s waves. I choose to live in my wholeness, growing step by step closer to an understanding of Me as Divine as I explore and learn and practice what I preach.
Passage through the portal takes the ferocity of the lion after all. It is daily practice. Sometimes monotonous practice. It is days without change after all. It is days waiting and wondering if you have made any progress at all. It is also the joy of a summer’s day and your lover’s smile when you walk through the door. It is the sweetness of the pain when you take a splinter out of your foot. It is the relief of a good night’s sleep. Passage requires not giving up. And not relying on magical spells and incantations to make your heart transform.
The heart is a muscle after all. This Lion’s gate, let’s use it!
