Hey all,
How’s everyone doing out there? I’m back in Santa Fe after my trip to Breath Camp in Colorado, feeling welcomed back by a weather forecast of late-afternoon monsoons every day. I’m trying to squeeze out the last days of summer before we’re in back to school routine in early August, while also feeling the pressure to get my business and offerings ready for fall. In the larger world of society and politics, so many changes are afoot, and everything from Biden dropping out of the race for president to the Microsoft shut-down, it’s been a challenge to stay grounded in the moment.
As we lean into the dog-days of summer, transitioning from Cancer season to Leo season, I’m definitely noticing around me that it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. I’m hoping to get a little nature-time everyday this week, because hanging out with a tree or a creek or a cloud makes it much easier to slow my breaths and feel into my body. This is your official invitation to do the same. Take 5 minutes of daily, uninterrupted and intentional time hanging with your pet rock, watching a bird, or petting the mane of your cat. You won’t regret it. :)
This week’s highlights:
Roarrrr…! Leo season begins
Human Design/I’Ching:
July 22-24 (Mon-Wed): the Sun is in Gate 56, the Gate of Stimulation
Wed-Sun: the Sun is in Gate 31, the Gate of Influence
This week’s themes:
Coming out of our shells
Traveling, wandering, telling stories
Adventure and stimulation
The intoxicating feeling of mutual attraction
Humble leadership
Our Place in the Wheel of the Year
Medicine Wheel Direction: South (Fire, Youth)
Wuxing Cycle Element: Fire > Earth
Pagan Season: Litha
Zodiac Season: Leo (July 22-Aug 21)
Moon Phase: Waning
I Ching Hexagram/Human Design Gate: 56 (last Thurs-Wed) , 31 (Wed-next Tues)
56 = Fire over Mountain (Lu: “The Wanderer”) or The Gate of STIMULATION
31 = Lake over Mountain (Xian: “Wooing”) or The Gate of INFLUENCE
Out like a Crab, In Like a Lion
Today, July 22, we say goodbye to Cancer season and welcome in a graceful, expressive pride of Lions for the next month. Get ready for a much more outwardly expressive season! Are you welcoming the pride, or keen to stay in your shell?
(Crab vs. Lion video from MalaMala Game Reserve in South Africa felt appropriate here!)
Leo is my rising sign, so I feel like this season ushers in big new-year energy for me, as I leave behind the depths of my Cancer 12th house (the house of hidden things, secrets, and spirituality) and step into my Leo 1st house (the house of self, appearance, and identity). What house does Leo live in your chart?
My monthly sun ingress article for the astrology collective Astrum Opus is out today. It dives deep into the archetype of the Lion, so I’m going to read you a little bit of that here on the podcast as an intro to Leo season. I invite you to click the link in the show notes to read more about it, and also subscribe to the Astrum Opus Substack for a lot of great content from a team of really brilliant astrologers!
Here is a link to my short 5-minute guided meditation for Leo season, if you’d like to start off by tuning into your heart, spine, and spleen, parts of the body ruled by Leo.
The 6 Human Design Gates of Leo Season
During Cancer season, the sun transited through the gates of: Extremes > Inaction > Provocation > Beginnings > Details > Stimulation. What kind of story unfolded for you during these micro-seasons in the time of year ruled by the Crab?
Leo season brings a whole set of new energies. In the I’Ching sequence, we transition from the lower trigram of “Mountain” to the lower trigram of “Water”. Remember, in the Fuxi sequence of the I’Ching, the lower trigram stays steady over the course of 8 weeks, representing our inner world during this season. The 8 upper trigrams change to form a new hexagram every 5 days, representing influences from the outer world.
Read through the Gates below (I’ll make a visual Instagram post soon!) I’ve included both the common Human Design name and the elemental hexagram and commonly used name from the I’Ching. Does your birthday fall in Leo season? Which gate is it in? Do you have any other planets in Leo in your natal chart? You can get a free Human Design chart here (or on the Neutrino app, my fave) to see if these gates are activated for you.
(Note that Human Design charts include both the planets from your time of birth (same as your astrology birth chart), and ALSO include the placement of planets from 88 days before your birth- this is known as your unconscious or “design” placements, and give insights to the hidden influences on your life.)
July 18-24 (Cancer-Leo cusp) = Gate 56
The Gate of STIMULATION
I’Ching: “The Wanderer” (Fire over Mountain)
July 24-30 = Gate 31
The Gate of INFLUENCE
I’Ching: “Mutual Attraction” (Lake over Mountain)
July 30-August 5 = Gate 33
The Gate of RETREAT
I’Ching: “Retiring” (Heaven over Mountain)
August 5-10 = Gate 7
The Gate of the ROLE OF THE SELF
I’Ching: “The Army” (Earth over Water) (This is the hexagram where WATER is the lower trigram, staying for the next 8 gates)
August 10-16 = Gate 4
The Gate of FORMULIZATION
I’Ching: “Youthful Folly” (Mountain over Water)
August 16-22 (entering Virgo season) =
Gate 29: The Gate of PERSEVERANCE
I’Ching: “Abyss” (Water over Water)
Here’s my chart:
As you can see, I have Gate 7 and Gate 4 activated (in black) -those are the parts of the Leo sign in the sky that Mars and Venus were in when I was born. I also have Gate 31 activated (in red), which indicates where Venus was when I was in Utero, 88 days before birth at the start of my mother’s third trimester. These “design” gates affect us in more subconscious ways.
The rising sign, or ascendant, isn’t typically included in Human Design Charts, but I like to include it in my Cycles of Time readings. My ascendant is at 6 degrees Leo, so it is also in Gate 31. Needless to say, I’m pretty Leo-heavy, so I’ll be curious to note how these energies show up in my life this season.
Do you have any Leo Placements in your chart? Let me know in the comments!
This week’s energies: Gates 56 & 31
Gate 56: The Gate of Stimulation, aka ”The Wanderer”
Coming out of the Gate of Details last week, the sun entered the Gate of Stimulation, also known as The Wanderer or The Traveler in the I’Ching. Fire over Mountain is the hexagram representation, which evokes how quickly fire can travel over long distances and varying terrain.
After gathering all the details last week (listen to last week’s conversation with Jackson Mathey of Spirit River sound to dive into the details ofGate 62), last Thursday we entered the energy of stimulation, travel, and expansive wandering. A big component to Gate 56 is storytelling, just as a traveler weaves yarns with various people as they wander from place to place.
As the gate that spans the signs of Cancer and Leo, this gate crosses the threshold between internal water and external fire. To me, it makes perfect sense that this would be a storytelling gate right after the gate of details- it’s a time to take all of the data points that have accumulated in your inner world over the past month of reflection, change, and introspection, and go out into the world to make sense of what you’ve discovered through new experiences and conversation with others.
In the Gene Keys, the shadow of this gift is Distraction, the gift is Enrichment, and the siddhi is Intoxication.
“To court the 56th Gift is to learn to appreciate all aspects of life, all its myriad layers and levels without judging them, without making any one better than any other. That’s the foundation we have to build – the cornerstone of Intoxication.” – Richard Rudd, 64 Ways
At the beginning of the transit through this gate last Thursday, I definitely felt the energy of distraction- after a deep, inward experience at Breath Camp, I found myself back on the road again, itching to seek out new experiences rather than coming straight home. My family and I ended up stopping at an alligator farm in rural Colorado, a tilapia farm that bought 100 alligators to eat the dead fish, which has now turned into a stinky desert-reptile exhibit.
I was looking for a distraction, something to occupy my 5 year-old’s excessive energy with on a long road trip, but it did end up being fairly enriching- there’s something about how that age soaks up new information that is truly inspiring. My daughter has been schooling me about the diversity of under-sea life lately, and holding her first snake and baby alligator expanded that fascination to the world of reptiles and amphibians.
The desire to be stimulated by my environment continued, and the day after we got back from our trip I put us back in the car again to head on a waterfall hike that I loved as a kid- it involves walking upstream through the river, a bit of rock climbing, and the potential to climb a waterfall. I got a lot of my adrenaline/adventure fixes there as a teenager, and was set on going back. It was a trip watching groups of teenagers there helping each other up the slippery rock walls to the higher waterfalls, bringing back so many memories related to the teen in me seeking independence, risk-taking, and rebellion. Senior Ditch Day often happened at this spot, as did teenage camping trips and experimentation of many kinds.
I relate Cancer season to the adolescent and teen stage of life, so having this gate as the final energy of Cancer season felt like a distillation of the energy of the sign. I hadn’t flashed back to my pre-teen and teenage years as heavily as I did hanging out at that waterfall - watching my child self splash in the river, my pre-teen self climb the rocks across the pool and brood, my later-teen self with a pack of friends showing off to each other as we climbed up the falls. The adrenaline and sense of pride in doing a physical feat like this was certainly intoxicating, the siddhi of this gate in the gene keys- feeling that lust for life.
Entering Leo season with this gate highlights the stimulation-seeking nature of our late teens and early twenties, looking to create exciting stories to tell and revel in shared experiences and adventures. Yesterday, the day of the Capricorn full moon, I met up with a friend and as our kids played, we sat in my hot tub for several hours and told so many stories, spun so many yarns- about the past week of alligators and waterfalls, about our youth, about the past 4 years, about becoming mothers. It, too, was intoxicating, to share in those tales, to feel seen, to see.
The next gate we enter this week, the first full gate of Leo season, expands on that intoxicating, shared energy. It’s Gate 31, the Gate of Influence, aka “Mutual Attraction”. It’s my ascendant/rising gate and my unconscious Venus gate, so I’m excited to learn how it will feel.
Gate 31: The Gate of Influence, aka ”Mutual Attraction”
On Wednesday July 24, the sun moves into Gate 31: The Gate of Influence. In the I’ching, Hexagram 31 is known as Mutual Attraction, and also known as “Conjoining” or “Wooing”. The trigrams that make up the hexagram are Lake over Mountain.
From Cafe Ausoul: “The Lake nourishes the mountain while it is the mountain that causes the rain to fall and fill the lake. Wooing is the idea of seeking win/win solutions where all parties benefit by coming together. In courtship, something profound happens between individuals who feel a mutual attraction. While they may not understand why, they just feel more complete being together… The hidden influence of Coming to Meet suggests that you are attracting the experiences of which your mind is currently focused. Woo your experiences the way a suitor would woo another. Focus on the positive, complimenting life for making you stronger and wiser. Cherish the gifts that come to you each day. Smile, it makes you attractive. Where the underlying cause of evaluation or Decrease was a period to understand loss and how to make the best of it, the time has now come to open to how life is affecting you. Open to how you are affecting life with your outlook.”
Gate 31 is about how we influence our lives and experiences by attracting what we want into them. It is a gate of natural leadership, embedded with the wisdom that empowered people empower others. People with this gate, if they are courageous enough to step into their heart-centered leadership potential, can become influential by expressing the possibilities and potentials for a brighter future for everyone.
In the Gene Keys, the shadow of gate 31 is Arrogance, the gift is Leadership, and the siddhi is Humility. At a lower frequency, the feeling of wooing and being wooed in return can lead to those lion-like shadows of arrogance and excess pride. I’m sure most of us know a someone with a Leo placement or two (or have it in your chart), where there is a sentiment of being self-centered, or having an inordinately high opinion of oneself. When someone with this gate defined is avoiding their gift of Leadership and taking actions that only serve themself, rather than looking out to the needs of the collective, this can be perceived and construed as arrogance.
But when they step into leadership in the right way, using that mutual attraction to serve and lead others based on a common need, that arrogance tends to fade away. There are many ways to lead, but this specific gate is all about being elected into leadership through being recognized for your gifts. It’s being in a situation of mutual attraction from people who recognize you and you recognizing yourself as able to lead from a place of integrity. It has to come from both sides.
I resonate with this gate a lot, and know that when I am trying to lead something that doesn’t need or want my leadership, it feels off, and don’ts work out well. On the other side, when other people want me to lead and I don’t feel in integrity to do so, it also feels off. It is the gate of the voice of the collective, so one has to be attuned to more than just oneself- but you also must be sure to include yourself and your feelings within the collective, too! Like the lion, it’s about leading from a heart-centered place.
The Wisdom of the Gate of Influence, at its siddhi level of humility, is oneness. Seeing how interconnected we all are: humanity, nature, animals, the earth, the stars etc. Richard Rudd, author of the Gene Keys, says this about the 31’st siddhi:
“The person manifesting the 31st Siddhi does not even see human beings as divided into those who are awake and those who are asleep. There is no such thing as being enlightened or unenlightened to such a person. If there were, that would assume the existence of separate beings rather than the reality of one unbroken chain of consciousness. Because the 31st Siddhi is truly humble, it has no agenda. It is not necessarily interested in freeing people from their illusions, even though it may unwittingly do so. Such a being realises that it is not possible to influence anyone in this world. […] The 31st Siddhi says whatever it must say, knowing that the words come from the collective and go back into the collective.“
It’s interesting to learn more about this gate at this moment in time, because I have felt the shadow, the gift, and also the siddhi of this gate. As the part of the sign of Leo that was rising over the horizon when I was born, I do believe that I radiate this type of energy, which I know can come across both as overly confident or in an inspiring way as a leader.
I saw this clearly in myself last week at my Breathwork certification camp, where I had the opportunity to meet a couple dozen new people, from mentors to peers to teachers. The theme I chose for the final breath-work journey that I led was “radiance and interconnection”. I guided people through a conscious meditative breath journey to recognize their inner radiance, coming from their heart, and led them to feel into how interconnected their personal radiance was with the radiance of others in the room. Several of the people breathing said that my words helped them see themselves as radiant beings, as worthy of love, as interconnected with other people in a beautiful way. It was really touching.
Then, in the feedback session for my breath journey, I got some good constructive feedback, and several of the people assessing me also said things like “You are radiant” and “You’re already a pro”, and “I’m in awe- sign me up for the next session”. It was hard to take in the recognition in some ways, I felt arrogant and overly-confident to receive those words in front of a class full of people. But I stepped into it anyway, thanking them. I feel like I was able to do this because I did feel in integrity with the recognition I was receiving. I have worked hard and put in the time and intention to facilitate groups in this way, and I felt deeply honored to be able to lead people to find this inner recognition of beauty and radiance within themselves. It felt SO different than trying to lead something without being explicitly asked, which I have done out of pride in the past. It also felt SO different than being recognized for a skill and asked to lead something that I didn’t feel inwardly confident in or inspired by.
I love the totem of the lion, and I am happy to be a part of the lion’s Zodiacal pride, but such an expressive creature definitely comes with many shadows, judgements, and misunderstandings. This past week has given me a much deeper insight into how these energies from my birth chart show up in my life, and how to deal with the shadows of them, and I’m excited to look deeper into the gates, the more specific micro-seasons, that show up in my chart.
Wishing you all a beautiful beginning to the season of the Lion! If it’s your birthday this week, Happy Birthday! Are you stimulating or influential? Let me know! And, as always, thanks so much for your likes, comments, shares, and subscribes! <3 <3 <3
Talk to you next Monday,
Alison
Leo Season's Stimulating Influence: Weekly forecast for July 22-28