Between the Moon - Ep 21: The Cosmic Reality of the Lion's Gate Portal with Bronwyn Simons

Episode Date: August 7, 2024

Re-releasing this episode from August 2024!In today’s we episode explore the myths, magic, and misinformation about the so-called Lion’s Gate. This cosmic portal is said to occur on August 8th each year, but what is it really referring to? Join us to unravel this phenomenon and find enchantment without needing to invent a “Galactic New Year” out of thin air. Themes in this episode include:* Origins of the Lion’s Gate Myth * Flooding of the Nile* Dog Star Sirius* Cosmic Technologies of Timekeeping* Manifestation Practices* Self-study in Relationship with Cycles* Longing for Authenticity* Fixed Fire Season of Leo* And more…Update for 2025: You can get on the waitlist or pre-order your moon calendar and journal in the shop/Image and text from Sirius and the Flooding of the Nile: this week on the Storyteller's Night Sky Interlochen Public Radio | By Mary Stewart Adams“Every year in August, the constellation Orion returns to northern hemisphere skies at dawn, bearing with him the brightest star in our sky after the Sun ~ the star Sirius.Sirius played a significant role in every aspect of Ancient Egypt culture, a role that carried on well into the 20th century, because its heliacal rising in mid-August each year was the signal from the natural world that the mighty river Nile was about to flood. At the heliacal rising of Sirius, people would move off the flood plain to make way for the river, which would rise up to 46 feet in some places!The ‘heliacal rising’ is the first appearance of a bright star in the morning sky, before sunrise. It’s a word that derives from Helios, the Greek God of the Sun who bore the Sun through the sky in his golden chariot (…)”“The Aswan High Dam was opened in 1970, and centuries of Nile River flooding ceased.Still, Sirius continues to rise, and ceremonies celebrating the annual flood still occur, which is understandable, given that the dam is not quite 50 years old, but the cultural life inspired by the Nile’s annual flooding has existed through all ages of recorded history, and was rooted in the stars.”More on the Constellation: Sirius and Orion’s Belt Constellation from EarthSkyThe Lion's Gate Portal: Tracing the Origins of a New Age Myth Article by Celeste Mott “Prior to the late 90's, nobody appears to have heard of the Lion's Gate (besides as one of the seven gates into Old Jerusalem). A search of peer-reviewed articles returns no results with that search term, indicating a lack of academic or folkloric interest in the subject. Searching by date, there are only three results for "lion's gate portal" between 1980 and 1999. Between 1999 and 2010, we have four pages of Google results. Today, Google returns over 87,000 results for the term.” Top searches for the Lion’s Gate craze as of this recording …Article in Women’s Health Mag UK with numerous false and unfounded claims: Lion's Gate Portal 2024: How to quantum leap your manifestation powers during this cosmic vortex“On the 8th of August, we celebrate a cosmic alignment between Sirius, the Sun, the Earth and the ‘galactic centre’, which is the central point of the Milky Way. This date is known as Galactic New Year and is thought to be the day when Light Codes are strongest.” p.s. Galactic New Year according to who? The Galactic Center is in the constellation of Sagittarius.Learn more about Islamic roots and Astrology from Historian Ali A. Olomi Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/headonhistory/postsPodcast: Head On History CurrentlyNerdy.comhttps://www.instagram.com/aaolomiThanks for listening! Love this podcast? Please subscribe and write a review - it’s such a great way to support this creative work! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themoonismycalendar.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome, dear listener, to Lunar Currents, a special feature on the Between the Moon podcast with myself, April McMurtry and predictive astrologer Bronwyn-Simon-Simonds. Lunar currents is a moonly conversation about embodying the living sky, exploring how astrology helps us enter into the mythic nature of our life story, and musing on our relationship with time, creativity, intuition, and many other magical connections. On today's episode, we explore the cosmic reality of the so-called Lionsgate, this depose cosmic portal, said to take place on August 8th. Today, Bronwyn and I are going to explore the reality of this phenomenon and the numerous streams that feed into

it. As we were preparing for the episode, I sent her an article. I came across from the women's Health magazine in the UK. And it's called the Lionsgate Portal 2024. How to Quantum Leap your manifestation powers during this cosmic vortex. So this is what we're referring to when we're talking about the Lionsgate portal is this pseudo-astrological, astronomical amalgamation of all kinds of different references that seem to be, uh, invented or coming into form in the early 2000s, perhaps. If you Google Cosmic, or if you Google a Lionsgate Portal, you will find many, many articles and offerings. I will say it's a genius marketing tool to focus energy around this, you know, very significant time of year. This Lionsgate

portal, however, is a recent invention. there is an article I found after we recorded that was written in 2021 by Celeste Mott. And I'll put all the links below, the Lionsgate Portal, tracing the origins of a new age myth. And there's a lot of sources there. And it shows that to search Lionsgate Portal between like 1980 and 1999, there's three search results from then. From 99 to 2010, there's four. So it really looks like it's after 2010, then the Google results. There's 87,000 results. So something really took off after 2010.

Bronwyn and I are just really interested in looking at what are the streams, how it is we don't need to invent something that there is magic that's already there. And to dispel some of the misinformation that is out there that references things that just aren't true. And one of those is from that women's health math. magazine article that says, on the 8th of August, we celebrate, okay, who is we, we celebrate a cosmic alignment between Sirius, and I'll talk about Sirius in just a moment, the sun and the Earth and the galactic center, which is the central point of the Milky Way, which sounds like amazing, right? It just happens at the galactic center. To locate the galactic center, it's much

closer to the constellation of Sagittarius. So it's not anywhere near where this other astronomical occurrence is happening. So it goes on to say, this date is known as Galactic New Year and is thought to be the day when light codes are the strongest. That's very alluring. Like that catches my attention. If I didn't know, I'm like, oh, wow, Galactic New Year. That sounds amazing. I want to want some of that. There's no sources that are cited. If you haven't come across the Lionsgate portal, this is what we're referencing and why it's important to have a more historical and critical, like turning towards what are the sources, really, that this is coming from. As I mentioned, one of those streams is the star Sirius. Sirius is in the constellation of Canis Major or the

greater dog. And this is one of Orion's dogs. And so this constant, follows Orion through the sky. So wherever Orion's belt is, those three stars can be traced down to find Sirius. And it just happens that this time of year, seasonally, that star is rising right before the sun, that it can be seen just before dawn in the early, early hours around this later summer time in the northern hemisphere. And we go into that more in the episode. There's this astronomical basis, astrologically we're in the season of Leo but the sun is actually in the constellation of cancer so there's a difference right between the constellations and then the demarcations of the zodiac so there's lots of different things that are going on and just sorting that out and really connecting in with a reality

that makes marking this time of year significant and magical and however you want to work with that in a way that honors what some of the significant streams are and where they're coming from. All right. Before we hop into the show, I wanted to mention that Bronwyn has a free call coming up. She's offering on August 8th, and that is for anyone who's interested in learning more about astrology basics and the foundations and principles of chart reading. So there will be a link in the show notes where you can go and you can sign up to attend. that call live or receive the replay. And if you're listening to this episode after that date, I recommend getting on Bronwyn's mailing list to find out when new offerings are coming up.

And she has a lot of insightful things that she shares on her mailing list. And for me and for the moon is my calendar, I'm excited to say and share that the 2025 new moon calendar and journal and the lunar wall calendar with the moonflower artwork is about to launch from pre-sales. I don't have an exact date, but this is recording in early August. So visit the moon is my calendar.com. So you can pre-order yours. And this independent publication is made possible by the support of this community. And for all of you who are practicing self-study and relationship with cycles, I'm so, so grateful. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for making this work possible. And now we will jump in with our introductions and shining light on the realities

of the Lionsgate. I'm Bronwyn. I'm a predictive astrologer and astrology mentor and really excited to be in the flow of these conversations. I love astrology and I want to share it with people and I get excited when I see people are getting excited about astrological things, but then I get sad when I see that they are making stuff up or maybe following some hype that isn't accurate and it reflects poorly on the astrology community if it's just silly, which I'm sorry, but some of the Lionsgate stuff is just silly. But what I, what I honor is that people are seeking magic and enchantment in our lives. That's what we want and what we feel like is missing. And I don't fault anybody for craving that and for following that and for looking for that wherever they can find it because

we need it and it's missing. But I think what I was saying to you is that what makes me sad is that that threat of enchantment is actually already there in the history, in the facts, in the mythology, in the culture that already belongs to us. And when I say us, I'm speaking from the perspective of a white woman in North America, us can be lots of different people, but us who follow the traditions of so-called Western astrology. So that's who us is. And we do have a beautiful, magical and enchanting tradition to tap into. So I hope that we can share some of that and give people accurate history, mythology, and astronomy to see and celebrate and be enchanted by. Yeah. I think that thread of the desire for enchantment and not having to make something up,

having a grounding and a basis in the whole long history of the many, the many astrologies and the many myths. And something I was bringing up and talking to you about was that, you know, every star and every constellation, well, who, knows if every star, but there's significant stars, stars that are significant culturally. And like you said, that the us and that belonging to the stars in the cosmos, there's so many different stories that are based culturally, based, like, place specific, and is something that connects all people to the cycles of life. Whatever the story, whatever the specific story is, there's an element of survival, like,

How can the stars help us to know what's coming, whether that's seasonally? And we can talk more about this with the so-called Lionsgate. And what are the components and elements that go into what is the Lionsgate, what it foretells? And, yeah, all of the seasons are connected to stars and to stories. And yet what I love too about in your teaching and mentoring with the layings, language of astrology, the practice of astrology, what becomes available when learning about astrology and having a strong foundation and basis of understanding?

What doors that opens up? For seeing, for understanding, for knowing, for that connection to magic and enchantment? Yeah. Yeah, to have something that exists in this kind of floating. realm of where does the Lionsgate fit in? Maybe that's a place. There's so much to dig into here. And maybe we could just rewind for a minute and talk about why did we decide to record

this podcast? Because I think both of us, when this time of year rolls around, we get excited to see so many people engaging with ideas of mythology and astrology. And then we also get all kinds of different. feelings around the misinformation that's out there. So we thought we'd have a conversation both to correct, but we don't want to be like you were saying. I don't want to rain on anybody's parade. It's important to correct the misinformation. It's important for astrology as a field, which has a hard enough time getting respect. I think it's just important in general for us to

check our sources. But that's not all we are wanting to do. do. We also want to dig into what's really there and see what is exciting and enchanting about this time of year, how it's relevant to us here and now, and how we could celebrate in a way that's authentic to ourselves, but also respectful of the histories and astronomical realities that are there. At least that's my hope. Yeah. Yeah. My desire. for this conversation, I think, as somebody who started hearing and seeing things about the Lionsgate, who knows, maybe five years ago or something, just when it was, I'd be interested to go back and see, like, when it was really on the rise, when it came into

the form that it's becoming now, looking back and seeing what sort of, what those sources were where that was coming from. And so my desire is, I think, always at the root and the base is for the practice of self-study in relationship with cycles and with the living sky. And that's part of these conversations, the ongoing lunar currents, is what is our relationship with a living sky? And connecting back into the cosmos in that way of the sphere that has, it's almost like the stories that are painted on there that. that shift and move seasonally, there is also this deep desire for that enchantment and for that magic of certain times of the year having a very, it's almost like that some kind of like a special configuration that repeats itself. And so there's within all of it too, I think

this sense of belonging of like, well, where do I fit into these stories and myths? and how to interpret them and bring them into today's context to work with whatever the energies that are present and there. And like you said, doing that in a respectful way and in a way that's understanding of a larger context. The reinventing of something of looking at how does this make sense today when I'm not living by the Nile River. And so my time isn't tracked with the flooding or the comings and goings of the Niles. So this idea of a gate as like opening something that through this conversation that there's something that is opened for more light to come in and light in that form of awareness, consciousness, understanding, curiosity. I love that. And I love as a Gemini bringing in that word curiosity because where does it?

come from, it comes from our desire for reinvention and for meaning making. So I would like to think that's a harmless impulse, but it isn't always. So I think, well, I'm always ambitious for these conversations, but I think we can do all of that. I think we can be playful and encouraging and celebratory and inquiring and academic and corrective in a way that is appealing. I think that's what do. So let's do it. Let's do it. Where shall we begin? I think people start seeing stuff on social media and in sort of, you sent me something from like women's something daily, like these lighter publications online. And we start seeing stuff that's presented as fact. And it often says, oh, our reporter talked to an astrologer, often without naming the astrologer. And

I have yet to see a name mentioned of it. Let me just say that people who are actually professional astrologers also need to be amateur astronomers and historians. And we usually have a pretty good grasp of what's going on. But we start to see these lighthearted articles about, oh, the Lionsgate portal, it's the best day of the year for manifestation, stuff about light codes, stuff about manifestations, stuff about the number eight, stuff about Orion and Sirius and the stars aligning, and all of that is fun. It's fun, right? If you're not an astrologer and you don't usually engage with astrology, it's exciting. And the idea of there being a special, lucky day. I mean, who doesn't love that? So it is easy to get caught up in that. And it comes at this

celebratory time of year, Leo season, and things are light and bright. And we want to think that it's this beautiful summer celebration. So of course, who wouldn't want to jump on board with that? But then when you actually dig into these articles, so many of them, I'm sorry, but they're full of Nonsense. They're full of like literal made-up nonsense, like made-up astronomy, made-up history, made-up mythology, and just with some kind of new-agey tag words thrown in. And it's too bad because people are smarter than that. And I think that if we talk about what's really there, it's also all those things, exciting and fun and a way to connect with the cosmos and with our history and with our mythology and a way to be present in this season, in this moment, and to do something

beautiful for yourself. So what you see people talking about are the number eight in this idea of eight, August 8th. You see people talking about Sirius and the rise of Sirius. And you see people talking about Lamas, the Gaelic or Celtic celebration cross-quarter day that falls at the beginning of August. So all of these have legitimate histories behind them and are legitimate astrological events, but or, well, or numerological. So that's kind of, those three streams come together and then we see people talking about like, I don't even know what you sent me, that article. It was talking about light codes in the galactic center and I don't know. That's where I think sometimes it's just for the algorithm, like these keywords that are thrown in.

And they throw us off. So, you know, me is here with the history of the information. So can I talk about Sirius for a minute? Yeah, I was going to say, let's orient ourselves with the star. Yeah. And the constellation and the kind of surrounding stories of the significance of this time of year and this particular star. Yeah. So one of the journeys that I've been on this summer is rethinking what I know.

know about the history of quote unquote Western astrology. And a lot of this I attribute to the fact that I've been deeply engaging with the work of Dr. Ali A. Yolomi, and I recommend his work to everyone. If you want to really orient yourself in the culture and what our beliefs are about our quote unquote Western history and how that applies to us just as humans in North America, but also as astrologers. So we know that a lot of our astrology actually comes from the Middle East and North Africa via the Egyptians and Babylonians.

And what we call Western astrology and a tribute to the Greek tradition actually belongs more properly to the Islamicate tradition and the African traditions. So I think that in itself is kind of mind-blowing in terms of Western history for I think many people who just grow up with the idea that our culture and our astrology are founded on the Greeks and

the sort of the way that white supremacy is is knit into that. So this is one of the reasons that I say knowing the history, it doesn't have to be, you don't have to know a lot, it doesn't have to be boring, but knowing the reality is actually really exciting and it actually overturns a lot of our colonial imperialist and supremacist ideas that we don't even know that we hold and that unfortunately some of astrology and a lot of new age philosophy is founded on. So that's where I say, you know, it's all fun until it starts to veer over into white supremacy. So I think especially with something like the Lionsgate, it's really important to make those distinctions. So that's cool. A lot of what we know about astrology, the astrologies that we

practice now, a large part of it comes from the Egyptians. You can see how we love that. We get excited about it. We honor that. Most people are really intrigued by ancient Egyptian culture, these amazing artworks and things that they created and the strange but enticing philosophies, if you just know some of the surface pieces. So I think that's part of it too as we get to tap into that exciting mystery of ancient Egypt. Like who hasn't loved that since they were a little kid. We love that. So, okay, long-winded Brownwood story.

Sirius is the brightest star in the sky. And in the southern parts of the northern hemisphere, it rises above the horizon for the first. time in midsummer. Now this changes over thousands of years, procession of the Equinoxes and all of that, but we're talking July, August, then and now. And this in like 2000 BCE in ancient Egypt, this coincided with the flood, as you said, with the flooding of the Nile, which was a big deal for the whole culture, not only for mystical purposes, but because that's literally what fed the land and how everyone survived. It was a really important marker. And it became also thinking back to the time when we didn't have the technology we have now

and we relied on celestial technologies in order to synchronize our calendars, that was the celestial technology by which the Egyptians synced their calendar every year by the flooding of the Nile, which was marked in the cosmos by the rising of Sirius. So I think it's one of those cases where there was a practical origin and cults developed around it, which is so often how the mystical layer gets created or gets acknowledged or seen. Not that the two are separate necessarily. In my belief system, they're not. But that's how, that's how it came about. People were watching that beautiful rise. I don't know. how far we want to get into the astronomy. But if there are fixed stars, the bright stars that

are around the ecliptic, the ones that hover around the path of apparent path of the sun, they will be invisible for certain parts of the year. Whereas the ones that are higher up for us in the northern hemisphere or farther down in southern hemisphere, we see those all the time. But it's a big deal when those ecliptic based stars rise and set. And they'll rise just before the sun. So this is a phenomenon that we see at dawn. That's called the heliical rise when we see it at dawn. So that's what we're talking about. When people reference the alignment of the star serious with the sun, this is what they're actually referencing is that rising with the sun that we see from our perspective on Earth that happens July or August. Depending on your latitude, you're going to see it

at different times where I live around the 50th. We see it at the end of August. People a little farther south, they're going to see it sooner. And that is a beautiful and magical cosmic event that happens every year that we can actually observe and participate in if we get up at dawn in the summer, which what a magical time. And that connects us back thousands of years to our ancestors and to these ways of being and ways of marking time that were more connected to the cosmos. to a lifestyle that was more connected to the breathing and living being of the earth. I don't know what's more enchanting than that. Yeah. The idea of getting up before dawn to observe this beautiful, bright, glistening star on the

eastern horizon. And to know that like 4,000 years ago, there were Egyptian priests and priestesses. And that's just what we know about Egypt. Never mind the rest of the world and how we are. honor holiical rises, like you were saying, different stars of different meanings in different cultures. The stars hold our stories. And how beautiful to connect with that thread of our story. And I think that's where the abundance connection comes in because it was the flooding of the Nile,

the most abundant event of the year. Like this is going to literally feed us for the rest of the year. So manifestation magic around that? sure absolutely why not there's a great precedent for that but think that too is about feeding the whole culture so right i just think the beauty the magic the enchantment the mysticism it's all already there along with some really cool history and astronomy yeah well i think that piece of the nature practice i mean that nature based earth cosmos celestial terrestrial connection an event that is cyclical and marks time in this way,

that there's a relationship. And I think that that's, you know, maybe part of with the Lionsgate is like defining this relationship with this time of year without necessarily the specificity of what is it marking. These moments where a celestial body rises before the sun, and then the sun rises and then there's this disappearance of like, it's just this little glimpse. So it's a glimpse of something.

And I wonder, you know, something that you mentioned too, and I've seen written about, and I don't know, again, because I'm not like a historic, like there's, hopefully this conversation gives also an appreciation of like the depth of historical knowledge that may be buried, but there's ways to access this understanding around the significance. but that it would be like the marking of the new year. Yeah.

And so I think also as this human desire for newness of the fresh start of like any time, it's like, oh, it's a new year. And you can see even with the Gregorian calendar, the December 31st, January 1st, new year obsession of like get your act together, start new habits at this like middle of wintertime in the northern hemisphere. Yeah. Because there's something that seems like. like so deep. I mean, I know it within myself of this desire for a fresh start. And so if something

can be called a new year, then there's energy around that. And I know that from producing a moon calendar that corresponds with the first new moon after the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere, that time of year, turning a new page, kind of energy. So there's something that's definitely there to work with. And like you said, it's accessible. It's the living sky. It's right outside the door and window, you know, except I'm thinking all of the different, whether it's buildings or perhaps mountains, like if you live in a valley, that there may be some impediments to actually visually being able to see serious and see that rising. But that all that also, I don't know, for me, it's also the seed that can be planted along with that curiosity

of, oh, what if I oriented my life in this time of year to pilgrimage or to whether it's going down the street or driving up to the top of the hill or something to be able to see and honor this star and this moment and bring that curiosity to have that direct experience? And for me, that's what the self-study is, is, what is my direct experience of this? I can read what everybody else might have to say. What would I feel in the presence of this star in this time on Earth to bring in the meaning? And so meaning that's been given and being called like the Lionsgate, like you said, there's like these different streams that are all coming together that then have become.

this sort of newish phenomenon that has lots of rabbit holes. You can go on. So there's the lion and then what about the dog? Yeah, what about the dog? You know, we say the dog days of summer. That's what that comes from. And this was, I think it's, it's always an interesting perspective to point out that in ancient times, this was also a time that was considered plague-ridden, drought-ridden, dangerous. It was the hottest time of the year. It was the time when recurring diseases would recur, I guess. These weren't enchanted days that the ancients looked forward to necessarily. And here we're talking about, we're talking about so many different cultures over such a long period of time. And I think that dog days thing is from more of the Hellenistic era,

which is 2,000 years after what we're talking about with the beginning of that cult around the calendrical system around the flooding of the Nile. And I'm just wondering sort of psychologically it might be a fun thing to play with at this time of year, the dog stories and the cat stories and the Leo part of you and the part of you that identifies with that bright dog star. That's where I like to go as far as, I mean, those are the two threads of the self-study, right? We're relationship to the living sky and relationship to cycle. And then relationship to story, right?

What is that story for me? What am I embodying during Leo season? I think this is another one of the reasons that we get excited about this is Leo season can be all about our authentic self-expression. That's what the sun is really highlighting in this part of the zodiac. And in this part of your own chart, your Leo house is, all about where you show up and shine. So it's our annual cosmic opportunity to just be the shiniest self that we can be. So that's fun to explore too. What is that that lionhearted,

courageous, authentic, loving and generous Leo part of you? I always find the star stories. There's the zodiac stories which are so relatable, that journey of the sun and the relationship of the sun to the earth. They're so personal. and easy to personalize. And the role that the fixed stars play in astrology is always this kind of, I mean, we sense their foreignness. They are not our home star. And they hold this ancient mystery and their stories are much more.

I mean, if you look back at the ancient writers on the fixed stars, it's really extreme. You've got really extreme expressions and world. and ideas that are just, I think, a mark of the archetypal, those things that are kind of almost too big to make into story. So I think that's a really exciting thread, too, is that the difference between our familiar home star of the sun that's highlighted during Leo season, and then those farther reaches of the cosmos that touch in with our sense of mystery and the sense of the hugeness of things and our meaning and purpose outside of our personal meaning and

purpose. Maybe the seed here is that balancing out of the cat and the dog. Yeah. What are some of the dog stories that go along with serious? I think opening up a conversation where there aren't like the definitive answers because it's something that's not that there's ever like a resolution to resolve something, but to understand what multiple streams kind of come into modern myth, storytelling, and then sort of a version of a more new age astrology that has popularized something. Yeah. Again, that idea of meaning making and reinvention. We want to, we're curious about what those meanings have been in the past, but we're really eager to make new meaning. Yeah. That's that's just such a natural and beautiful human impulse. So there's a lot going on.

There's a lot that we can do in terms of self-exploration and connection with the sky at this time of year. Yeah. And it can be as simple or as complex and multi-layered as you want it to be. This crossover between the dog and the cat, there's that loyalty. loyalty and I think because it's here again in the northern hemisphere summertime with so much sun I mean with so much light that I don't know there's something that for me taps into like this thirst like dehydration and thirst and with the thirst I know it's like an expression like with a connotation like negativity of like to be thirsty. There's, you know, like to be overly like eager or speaking about a thirst for something,

like a hunger for something. But in this case, in just thinking of like a dog and panting and this, the water and the element that like what quenches that. And so that's a little bit of what I'm connecting in with. And for me in the summer, there's often this visiting of water, these like bodies of water that are like I'm going up to a river that I've gone to since I was two years old. And so it's like this visiting of the water that quenches some of that thirst of the heat. But that deep down like really what is my soul and spirit, this longing for something that would actually be, you know,

quenched when speaking about manifestation. There's like this gap. I'm here, but then there's this something else, this other like life or reality or circumstances or whatever that might be. And so that's a tricky place to live in when there's always a gap. Yeah. It might even be a kind of a looking back over the year with that gratitude and appreciation of like, what are all the ways that life has been nourished? Yeah. Like what are the forms?

And like you said, we live in such individual. individualistic times in society that promotes that, that, well, you mentioned about the flooding of the Nile being something that served the collective, you know, that it was for everybody's well-being and the ways that we all depend on each other and the bounty of the earth.

Yeah, those are some of the considerations. And I think also that piece of the shininess, you know, I think there's, we can have a whole conversation. Oh my gosh. So rich. The shining, the shininess and the brightness and why we'd be called to

serious or any star that really stands out. Yeah. And depending on, you know, where you live. And again, in the summer I go somewhere where I'm able to see the Milky Way and where the stars are really have that powerful brightness where it's like, whoa. Yeah. They've been dimmed so much. And I know there's lots of people who write about this and are.

are focusing efforts on the light pollution that really dims, that really has dimmed a lot of our connection to the power of the sky and the cosmos. And these, like you said, the star and remembering that our sun is a star and these other stars are sons with their own light. So many threads to follow, so much richness there are so many things that were sparking in my mind as you were speaking. And that one thing is that elemental. balance, right? We're in the season of fixed fire where maybe we are craving or thirsting for

the element that's missing. That's such an interesting contemplation in and of itself. Like fixed fire puts us in that place that can feel really dehydrated and that that matches with the history as well. And it's reflected in the reality of this now being drought season, fire season, both where I live and where you live, it's fire season. That's a terrible reality of that negative aspect of fixed fire. And how all of this is reflected within us, where are the places that are parched and not nourished, like that poor plant in the yard that you maybe left too long without watering and just where is that lack and that drying out within us that has us thirsting for something or reaching outside ourselves for the shiny object or

feeling that gap between what we are and what we want to quote unquote manifest. And I love how you honor that that's a, it's a tricky place and it's a thin line because it is so important to hold that space within ourselves of gratitude and awareness of what we have. And I think it's also really important to honor our longings and to, it takes courage to go beyond the sort of shiny object syndrome level of our longing. Like, oh, I want to manifest a new car. I want to manifest a new sofa right now. Like, I do. But what happens when you drop down beneath that and look at what your longings are?

I work with clients a lot with this because people come and they have longings. And longing is a tender place that sometimes it helps to sit with somebody who can honor your longings and just be with you. Will you experience that vulnerable state of being in longing? If you can rest in that state for long enough, it's going to inform you about what you want to create. And that's maybe a better. I mean, Manifest and Creator kind of the same, they mean the same thing, but Manifest has taken on this kind of weird marketplace sort of connotation, something I can get.

Yeah. That's okay. I have a manifestation practice. It's okay to get things we live in a consumer culture. It's not evil. I mean, it is evil, but it's not, oh, there's another thread. It's okay to want things superficially, deeply. and I think what's important to follow there is, you know, what's underneath. What is the longing? And that's a difficult place to sit, but also a really rich and creative and generative place to sit. It's where in terms of the cycle, it's kind of where we encourage people to sit during the dark phases, right? Yeah. That place of honoring emptiness, honoring darkness and being loving of oneself and careful when we,

think about what to fill, how we want to fill that with light, with life, with activity, with stuff. So before we jump to manifestation, which is fine, which is fun, to sit with the longing and maybe that helps us hone in on what's actually missing. The gratitude practice 100% yes. It's also okay if there are pieces missing and it's okay to, I mean, this is a human life. They're going to be pieces missing. We're not completely fulfilled. I don't think we're meant to be. We're not going to accomplish that before we die.

But what are the pieces that are most important to fulfill? And if you don't touch that vulnerable place of longing, I think that's what's really underneath that brave lion heart. Like that's where we touch our authenticity. It's not with the shininess and bravado that we sometimes associate with Leo. I heard somebody talking about like the characters in the Wizard of Oz. Yeah. Represent the element.

The signs of the zodiac. Yeah. And the lion being Leo. And just thinking about the vulnerability and sweetness of that character and how that really is true for a lot of our Leo placements. That there's a vulnerability with that desire for authenticity and heart. there's some more threads yeah right and the courage to go for that yeah I mean I think for me it's like the

the longing for connection and relationship and whether that's with myself with people in my life with a larger community and then extending to plants and animals and the stars and the cosmos and that feeling of belonging I feel like so much of the ruptures and the things that stem from a disconnection are this aftermath, living in a world that has so much rupture. Yeah. Where the stars themselves have become faded.

Yeah. It's a lot. It's a lot to hold. Just being alive in these times. I'm sure this has been so true for many other times, too. we kind of tend to see ourselves as the only set of humans who have felt themselves to be living in apocalyptic times. But there wouldn't be so many apocalyptic stories if this wasn't sort of part of many, many people's experiences over time during plague times.

Right, the cyclical nature of the apocalypse. Yeah. And on that note, welcome to the lion's case. This is where we end up. This is going to be lighthearted. I know, lighthearted. Longing in the apocalypse. Yeah.

I mean, that is, that's, all the myths are there. I mean, I think that's, that's a part of what's accessed that may feel more like on a universal level. And hopefully this conversation brings in a little more of the specificity of context of where stories come from. And there's so many more and hopefully, yeah, my curiosity is there for learning more of the stories of serious as well as having that direct experience. Yeah. In marking this season. I think I did last year peripherally, like realized early one morning like, wait, maybe that star, maybe that bright, shiny thing in the sky is serious. That's serious?

It was a beginning of the door or the gate or the whatever, that awareness of like coming in, of understanding to have a direct experience. So that would be my encouragement, hopefully from listening to this conversation is that encouragement for a direct experience with the Star of Serious and marking this moment in this time, connecting in with that longing and finding someone or a place to, express belonging and what that opens up for and even how that opens up the heart like you said for vulnerability and also to be in a place of receiving and sort of putting the call out. Well, thank you, Bronwyn. This has been fun. Thank you. It was really fun. I love the different threads that we pulled on in places that we went in this conversation that I wasn't expecting. Yeah. And yeah, I guess the encouragement is just to do your best to re-enchant yourself and to honor that longing for enchantment

and be gentle with yourself. If you've gone astray with some misinformation about this time of year, there is a magical reality underneath that. That's really worthy of knowing and honoring. Beautiful. Right. Well, we'll connect next time here on lunar currents and in other spaces. Thank you. Thank you. If you like this podcast, please subscribe, leave a review, share it with a friend, all the things to help it reach more people who will benefit in some meaningful way. I'm April, and I'll be with you next time on Between the Moon.