Hey there.
I’m sending this out a day early as I’m taking the assignment for this week’s energy and retreating to the woods and camping for the next few days. I’m really looking forward to a waterfall and a campfire and no service…
What a frenzy it’s been lately, eh? I’d say the sun’s entrance to Leo and her transit through the gates of Stimulation and Influence were pretty spot on, a dramatic shift from Cancer season’s navel gazing. So much has happened on the world stage over the past week, and so much change and “Breaking News” continues to spring up every day. There’s a palpable energy in the collective air- some might call it hope, others might call it distraction, but it’s certain that the stagnancy of the mid-summer heat has cleared, and something new is on the horizon.
What exactly will it be? Not sure. I’m loving all my astrology friends and their mind boggling predictions, but I’m withholding any for the moment, and instead using astrology and the I’Ching and all these cyclical practices to tap in deeper with my body, and with the changing micro-seasons of time. A quote I love to remember, in times that feel so pressing, is an African proverb popularized by the great Bayo Akomolafe: “Times are urgent. Let’s slow down”
And another one that always comes back for me when I feel uncertainty rush in like a wave is the great Octavia Butler”
“All that you touch
You Change.
All that you Change
Changes you.
The only lasting truth
is Change.
God
is Change.”
The book that this was the preamble to, 1993’s predictive sci-fi novel Parable of the Sower, began with a journal entry from the protagonist that was dated July 20, 2024- just last week. Many fans of her work pointed this out last week, as we get closer and closer to the dystopia presented in the novel.
I love the increasing popularity of these tenets, these philosophies about slowing down, and recognizing change in our world and our bodies, in these modern times. Cycles of Time, this podcast, is really for me all about that- the radical nature of this simplicity in such overly-complicated times. This week the sun is transiting through the I’Ching/Human Design gate of Retreat, which is all about that- about retreating from the day to day busyness for a while, long enough to recognize the inherent interconnectedness and wholeness of everything, to recognize that God is Change, to recognize that when times are urgent we need not to chase answers but to slow down.
My friend Kendra Bloom, a psychotherapist and master coach (https://www.instagram.com/beyondpotentialyou), recently posted a video about a theme that has been coming up for many of her clients lately and on the world stage.
She says that zooming out, “this moment is about the request to break with the old, to allow ourselves to be transformed in some way. There’s a breaking down of the assumptions and the investments in the old way…. The phrase that I find myself saying to people right now is ‘Wildly Responsive and Fiercely Surrendered’. Instead of walking into the rigid fear based mind oriented ways of doing things, those of us who can find ourselves in this moment and allow the big questions that so many folks are trying to answer in their lives right now to be an emergent process. Fiercely surrendered means it takes so much bravery to allow ourselves to be informed by something greater. The wild responsive is this radical step toward “i’m actually just going to listen and honor’- instead of just using the brain, to be using the consciousness that comes from using our body and the earth’s larger body along with the consciousness of our hearts and intuition as it connects with the larger matrix of energy.
Just an invitation to really slow down and ask “Is there a place in my life that could be nurtured by surrendering, by allowing myself the time, the space, and the trust trust and listen instead of just do and relying on my old systems and patterns- but to repattern based on being informed by whatever the wisdom is that is arising, what’s really coming in- let your life show you what’s here and what’s not here.
She ends with the prompt that it’s time to make a choice, to ask ourselves “Am I more interested in the field of possibility, or am I more interested in the fears of my past? And where do I want to place my energy and my attention, which is really the only thing we have control over.“
Welcome to Gate 33: Retreating into a Field of Possibility.
This week’s highlights:
Human Design/I’Ching:
Monday: the Sun is in Gate 31, the Gate of Influence
Tuesday-Sunday: the sun is in Gate 33, the Gate of Retreat
New Moon in Leo: Sunday, August 4
This week’s themes:
Retreat and regroup, take a break
Reevaluate everything
Personal sovereignty
Connect with your own idea of heaven
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: New moon in Leo (August 4)
I Ching Hexagram/Human Design: Gate 31 (Monday), Gate 33 (Tues-Sun)
31 = Lake over Mountain (Xian: “Wooing”) or The Gate of INFLUENCE
33= Heaven over Mountain (Dun: “Retiring”) or The Gate of RETREAT
The Gate of the Week: 33 > “Retreat”
Looking at the hexagram in the I’Ching, one might see a cave within a mountain, a perfect place to retreat for a little bit and regroup. Or you could see it as a tall, solid mountain, perfect for a little trip up to sit and gaze at the heavens above.
This week’s energy, after the past week’s energy of traveling about and influencing the community, is about retiring to your own personal sovereignty, connecting with the heavens above, and regrouping before moving on. Creating enough distance from the external frenzy, especially in these excessively media-saturated times, is key to tune into what you really think and feel, without the constant feedback from others. Retreat, here, has the sense of retreating into something bigger, submerging and hiding yourself within it, like someone on the top of a mountain might feel that the heavens were encompassing them.
‘Below heaven is the mountain. Retreat.
A noble one keeps small people at a distance,
Not with hatred, but through respect.’-The I’Ching
The great sages have guided us to look within ourselves for the kingdom of heaven, and the Gene Keys interpretation hits this on the head. Gene Key 33’s progression from shadow to siddhi:
Shadow (seed): Forgetting your true nature, retreating from yourself.
Gift (flower): Mindfulness- attuning to your subconscious patterns, objectively viewing your thoughts, retreating inward to listen to yourself.
Siddhi (pollen): Revelation- illusion is cracked around the edges… death of the ego- retreating from the attachment to your false self, the world, and time itself- connection to heaven and infinity
“This Gift can turn the whole of our life into a blaze of presence and peacefulness. Retreat does not have to be something we do after we’ve been in action. The retreat can be in the action itself. That is a Gift from heaven.” – Richard Rudd, 64 Ways
The myth of the Great Flood, a deep symbol within the human psyche, represents revelation. After the flood, there is always a sign- a dove, a rainbow, a symbol of a new world. A sign of revelation.
The flood itself is a memory of our own future. It is a testament that one day we will be washed clean by the overwhelming tsunami of consciousness.Your existence as a separate, individualized creature, will one day end. Revelation brings an end to endings. It ends all myths, it ends the world, it dissolves time itself.
In the Gene Keys, 33 is associated with a genetic Stop Codon, along with Gates 12 and 56. Every stop codon in DNA precedes another strand of DNA. True revelations always end certain times and reveal the hidden secrets or prophecies of a new era. This Gate accelerates the evolution of human consciousness.
“Every individual goes through a progression of revelations until they reach the ultimate revelation: that consciousness within form has a storyline to follow. The trick is to fall in love with your own story, and follow it without holding anything back. Two things are then assured: firstly, you will arrive at the end of the story, and secondly, your own story will be utterly unique and unlike anyone elses.” (Rudd, Gene Keys)
It is so rare to attain these states because there is no one to follow - it is impossible to hear other people’s story of reaching revelation or enlightenment because it is not your story. Only your story can reveal your revelation.
Sunday’s New Moon in Leo: Retreating onto Pride Rock
After all the usual talk about Leo’s being radiant, shining leaders who take the center of attention, it’s curious to have Retreat as the Gate for this part of Leo season, and the gate of the Leo New Moon.
But it makes a lot of sense. Like the Sun has a natural gravitational pull but doesn’t ask planets to orbit it, the Lion has a natural gravity but doesn’t necessarily enjoy being the center of attention. Oftentimes, because of their nature, they are put there and must respond to all of the animals in the kingdom that surround them, and that is why having a cave or a mountaintop to retreat to is essential for the lion.
This new moon, make retreat the action itself. If you do it before you’re burnt out or running for the hills, you can think of retreat as a respectful process of filling up your cup so that you can pour from it when you return back into the frenzy of the animal kingdom.
Have a beautiful week ahead!
<3
Alison
Retreating into a Field of Possibility: Weekly Forecast for July 29-August 4