I’ve always loved August. Growing up back East, it was hot, humid, and the Adirondack lakes were the warmest we’d experience all summer. If you were going to swim, August was the time to do it. As dusk approached, so too did the mosquitoes, but there were also fireflies, barbecues and the stillness and serenity of the lake before the sun finally disappeared.
Our gardens were also full, from flowers to herbs. We loved growing mint: OMG, we had so much of it. We’d rub our hands with it and breathe in the scent, and did the same with our rosemary, despite it not being as plentiful. My grandfather pulled scallions every day to accompany his lunch on our front porch, which faced the lake. Corn was priced as pennies per cob, and our tomatoes were starting to ripen, and as for the rest? Golden, warm, almost tangible.
Everything felt more embodied in August and still does, even on the West Coast.
In spiritual circles, August 8 has come to take on a new meaning, and as the years go on, there’s been an increasing buzz about Lion’s Gate. We, too, have held circles in its name over the years and led online sessions via Zoom. For some, they say there’s a connection to a celestial group known as the Hathors or Sirian energy. A connection to ancient Egypt. The list goes on.
August 8—Lions Gate—is when the Sun is moving through Leo. Despite living with what some call a full-embodied channel (others simply say “entering an expanded state of consciousness”, and people in the East refer to it as a “Samadhi” state”—call it what you will), the references to stronger cosmic portals, galactic alignments, energetic downloads, and powerful waves of spiritual energy, has never resonated with me completely . . . largely because it’s never felt grounded.
It’s one of the reasons that we didn’t embark upon a physical or online gathering this year. Voices in my head, perhaps from my higher self or who knows from where or what, say, “Ground people, Gaia, ground.” As an aside, Gaia is my nickname these days in spiritual circles. I love the earth. I believe in our connection to Her. The power of seasons. Gratitude for the abundance She gives us again and again, despite humanity’s abuse of Her resources.
For me, there is something far more compelling in simply standing on the earth and asking: What is this time revealing to me?
Because whether or not there is a literal “gate” opening somewhere in the cosmos, there is unquestionably a threshold happening in nature. And nature has always been one of my greatest teachers.
Nature’s Innate Intelligence
And btw, I believe a tree has consciousness, although Michael Pollan throws trees (and other plants) in the sentient category, a step before conscious. I love his work (and have read 3 of his books, including his latest, A World Appears), but I disagree with the categorization. For me, trees do indeed have consciousness, perhaps not the same level of consciousness as human beings, or perhaps they do, but we don’t have the ability yet to relate. I’ve always subscribed to “We don’t know what we don’t know,” and have an open mind around this idea. Psychedelics give us a glimpse into that merging with nature, and Pollan seems to agree with that.
There is something deeply spiritual about feeling that connection even though some human beings can’t relate. Thankfully, many do. (BTW, as I finished writing the last sentence, a massive hawk flew past my window . . . twice)
We spend so much of our lives trying to become who we think we are supposed to be. We take on identities, expectations, responsibilities, beliefs, and stories about who we are. We even invent new exaggerated stories around dates, such as Lion’s Gate.
Eventually, we can forget what it feels like to simply be ourselves.
Perhaps this is one reason the image of the lion speaks to me at this time of year. Like a tree, a lion doesn’t need to prove its power. Is there not a quietness to true power? You wouldn’t know it if you simply observed the perceived power in Washington these days.
True power knows when to move, but it also knows when to rest. To be silent. To step back. It doesn’t waste energy chasing every distraction that crosses its path. When distractions hit you (and there’s no shortage of them on social media these days), trust your gut. Your intuition. Go inward and ask:
Where am I spending my life force on things that are no longer mine to carry?
The Gnostic Way
Feeling into what your body is telling you (and showing you) is the foundation of Gnosis or Gnosticism, but also the Feminine Path of Embodiment, which we also teach.
This, to me, is one of the most beautiful aspects of the Gnostic tradition. Gnosis is often translated as “knowledge,” but it isn’t simply knowledge gathered from books or teachers. It points toward a deeper kind of knowing—something experienced directly, which, quite frankly, is an important distinction.
There is a difference between being told that something is true and encountering truth within our own experience. And BTW, this applies to everything, including a spiritual day such as Lion’s Gate.
There is a difference between believing that we are changing and actually becoming different. There is a difference between talking about consciousness and becoming conscious of ourselves and others. There is a difference between saying that a portal is opening on a specific date (and not other dates) and knowing that we are the portals themselves. We are consciousness. We are the universe and the universe IS us.
For me, spirituality becomes much more meaningful when it can meet us there.
- In our relationships.
- In our bodies.
- In our choices.
- In the difficult conversations.
- In the places where we are still afraid.
- In the moments when nobody is watching.
That is where the real work happens. And I don’t assert that it’s easy. Crikey. I face challenges walking a spiritual path every day, and the longer you walk it, the fewer people you can talk to about the stages you walk through.
And Then There’s Magdalene
Whether you depict her as real or not, still buy into her image as a prostitute who needed demons cast out of her, the wife and partner of Yeshua (Jesus) or none of the above, you can at a minimum see her as an archetype, just as the Hindu culture looks to the goddess Durga (my favorite btw) for the qualities and characteristics she carried. I don’t see Magdalene in my life as the one who was wrongly portrayed through centuries of interpretation and projection by the Patriarch, but as a strong and wise woman who is capable of seeing, questioning, listening, and knowing.
In our book and in the non-canonical Gospel of Mary, she isn’t waiting for someone else to tell her what to think. She is engaged with the teaching. She perceives. She speaks. She enters into the mystery herself despite being condemned and rejected by the male apostles. And at times, even treated like cattle, like all women during that era.
There is something profoundly feminine about who she was—not feminine as a set of qualities that belong only to women, but as a way of relating to life that values receptivity, intuition, embodiment, connection, collaboration, discernment, and direct experience.
I think this is particularly important in a time when spirituality can sometimes become another form of consumption.
- Another teaching.
- Another frequency.
- Another transmission. OMG, modern spirituality is all about their transmissions.
There’s always someone telling us what is happening energetically and what we should believe about it. That on one day, a portal opens for us, but we don’t have access to it on other days.
The Magdalene, for me, reminds us all to become our own witness. And as part of that witnessing, we can listen, question and discern for ourselves. To know the difference between something that resonates deeply within us and something we simply want to be true.
Some of you may see this as cynicism or criticism, but I see it as spiritual maturity. Let me add, “grounded spiritual maturity.”
Maturity as a Ripening, Like Tomatoes
Returning to one of the reasons I have always loved August: it precedes Fall when we change seasons. It begins the season of ripening. Let me explain. In spring, we plant, but in the summer months, we tend. We also play (at least I do). But eventually, something begins to reveal what it has become. Like the trees I mentioned earlier, tomatoes don’t suddenly become ripe because we demand that they do so.
It happens through a quiet and gradual process. BTW, we planted our tomatoes in a different location this year and are tending to them differently, including how we handle them, and yup, I’m talking to them every day. Don’t call me woo—the results are profound.
Tomatoes are in relationship with the sun, the soil, water, temperature, and time. Are we not like that too? There may be things in our lives that have been developing for years, such as a realization, a calling, a relationship, a new understanding of ourselves, a willingness to finally say no (discernment and boundaries), and a willingness to finally say yes when we’ve held back before (surrender).
Sometimes we don’t recognize that we have changed because there wasn’t one dramatic moment when something happened. Someone from our Blue Soul Alchemy wisdom school reached out recently and said, “I wish I was growing and expanding more than I feel I have by now”, somehow alluding to the notion they’re doing something wrong (we are currently on Pillar 4 of 12 btw) . The truth is that we are always shifting and changing, but we may not see the growth in the moment, just as we don’t see the growth of a child we see every day, but someone who sees that child once every 2-3 months notices things we miss.
At some juncture, we simply wake up one morning and realize: I can’t go back to who I was. I can’t spend time with the same people I once did.
Something has ripened. Our consciousness has expanded in ways we can’t describe in linear ways.
What If the Gate Is Not Above Us?
Returning to the Lions Gate, what if we don’t see it as a literal door or “gate” that opens for a few days each year? What if we saw it more as a metaphor, a symbol, a threshold, or a reminder?
What if the gate isn’t somewhere above us? What if it is within us?
What if the great spiritual movement isn’t about escaping this human experience, but about becoming more fully present inside it?
This is where the mystical and the grounded meet for me, or you might say, resonate most. We don’t need to leave the earth to experience something sacred. We can simply walk through the trees, put our hands in the soil (it’s so so underrated), watch the changing light, sit quietly beside someone we love and have gratitude, experience joy simply because, and listen to our own bodies. We can even give ourselves permission to feel grief and then release it.
And perhaps consciousness is not something separate from any of this. Perhaps this is the mystery. Can we be okay with that? And not always try to figure it out. To always need to give something meaning. I find myself asking that very question often.
A Novel Kind of Lions Gate Practice
This isn’t about manifesting harder or expecting things to shift because the energy is supposed to be stronger this time of year. I don’t believe any of this is about opening ourselves to some kind of powerful cosmic download.
Instead, simply go outside and find a place where you can sit quietly. A garden or park bench will do, or even against a tree in your own backyard. Put your bare feet on the earth and become quiet. Notice the temperature. The sounds. Your breath.
Notice what your body feels like when you aren’t asking it to perform or do something a particular way. Ask yourself: What is ripening in me? What do I feel in my body at this moment?
Ponder with that for a while and then ask yourself: What do I know now that I didn’t know a year ago?
Sit with that for a while and then ask: What am I ready to stop pretending I don’t know?
Let the questions settle into you and don’t force something that doesn’t come naturally. Even if it sounds silly or strange or not what you had hoped.
One of the things I’ve learned over the years is that sometimes the deepest answers don’t arrive as words. Now that I’m thinking about it, my grandmother used to tell me that when I was little, but it didn’t fully settle until I was an adult.
Sometimes answers arrive as a feeling in our bodies. A knowing. You might even say, a loosening of sorts. I think of it as a heaviness that lifts and your body feels lighter. Have you ever felt that? And then whoah or an aha moment . . . when that lightness comes, a sudden clarity about something you have been circling for a very long time emerges.
The Courage to Know
When we tap into that courage, it’s not a feeling of power or dominance, nor, btw, is it some extraordinary spiritual achievement. I fall into it at times, too. Rather, it’s the courage to inhabit our own truth.
And perhaps that is also where I feel the Magdalene standing beside us. Not above us. Not telling us what to believe or who to believe in, but reminding us that the path inward requires both openness and discernment.
- That we can remain curious without becoming gullible.
- That we can remain mystical without abandoning the earth.
- That we can honor mystery without needing to explain everything.
- And that we can trust our inner knowing without assuming that every inner voice is the only truth.
Sometimes people we work with ask us, “How do I know that what I feel isn’t playing tricks on me? Or is simply my ego?” They are valid questions. The path of gnosis isn’t about simply following whatever we feel but learning to see clearly beyond the noise.
It’s when we become quiet enough to recognize the difference between fear and intuition, between desire and truth, between conditioning and genuine knowing.
This takes time, and as human beings, we tend to lack patience at times. Even a spiritual journey wants to become a race. I fall into this trap at times too and then catch myself. In addition to time, it takes courage and practice.
Perhaps that is why the lion is such a beautiful symbol for this moment.
We can visualize a lion that doesn’t rush through the gate but one that stands at the threshold, observing the laws of nature and abiding by the ebbs and flows of life without being in a hurry. It’s present and listening. Knowing when to move and knowing when to remain still. Knowing when to speak and when to stay silent and attune to something in front of it.
What is your Gate?
Perhaps, rather than looking outside ourselves for some kind of cosmic download or spiritual awakening to come to us, perhaps we can simply be in the present moment and see what has already grown.
To honor what has ripened and also to release what no longer belongs to us. No longer serves us. In that moment of expanded awareness, we can then step forward—not because the universe has promised us something extraordinary, but because we have become willing to live more honestly from what we innately know. I love the word innate and use it often because it resonates. It always has, and I don’t need to know why.
Ahhh yes, dear friends, the sun is shining, the earth is ripening and the lion is at the gate.
And perhaps the most important gate we will ever walk through is the one that opens when we finally stop searching outside ourselves for what is waiting to be discovered within.
That is the gate I want to walk through. Will you join me?
Renee Blodgett is the Founder and Managing Editor of We Blog the World, a global travel, culture and lifestyle publication exploring the world through the lens of meaningful experiences, human connection and cultural depth. Having lived in 10 countries and traveled to 95, Renee has spent much of her life immersed in the people, traditions, landscapes and ideas that shape how we experience the world.
Since launching We Blog the World in 2007, she has written and produced extensive editorial coverage spanning boutique and luxury travel, culinary experiences, arts and culture, wellness, adventure, technology, spiritual traditions and transformative travel. Her work is rooted in the belief that travel is about more than where we go—it is also about what a place, culture or encounter awakens within us.
Renee brings more than three decades of experience across journalism, photography, media, brand strategy, technology, wellness and global storytelling. She has worked with companies and organizations around the world on brand positioning, communications, product launches, media strategy, speaker positioning and storytelling. Through Blue Soul Media, she works with authors, entrepreneurs, thought leaders and purpose-driven brands to clarify their message and expand their impact, which includes speaker coaching/training for high-profile stages such as TED and bringing authors’ work to market while retaining authors rights.
She is also the co-founder of Blue Soul Earth, an educational platform exploring consciousness, ancient wisdom, spirituality, healing and the intersection between science and the nature of reality. Renee is the producer and host of the award-winning Blue Soul CHATS, a conversational series bringing together leading voices in science, technology, consciousness, wellness and spirituality.
Her growing body of work also includes Blue Soul Living, which extends her interest in consciousness and well-being into the spaces we inhabit, exploring how intentional design, energy and environment can support greater harmony and connection.
Renee is the award-winning co-author of the bestselling Magdalene’s Journey and founder of the Magdalene Collection, inspired by women’s voices, stories and wisdom across cultures and generations.
A longtime photographer and storyteller, Renee has documented people, places and cultures around the world and produced photographic collections focused on destinations including the Galápagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome and Ecuador. She also co-founded Traveling Geeks, an international initiative that brought entrepreneurs, journalists, creators and technology leaders together with their counterparts in other countries to exchange ideas and explore innovation across cultures.
Renee’s work has been recognized by Forbes, the United Nations and others for her influence in media and social storytelling. Across her work in travel, media, consciousness and culture, a common thread remains: curiosity about the world, the stories that connect us and the ways meaningful experiences can change how we see ourselves and one another.
