Your Weekly Overview:
Medicine Wheel Direction: East
Element: Wood
Pagan Season: Ostara
Zodiac: Aries (March 19-April 19)
Moon Phase: Waning
I Ching Hexagram/Human Design Gate: 21 (March 30-April 4) transits into 51 (April 5-10)
21 = Fire over Thunder (Shi Ho:“Biting Through”) or The Gate of the HUNTER/HUNTRESS
51 = Thunder over Thunder (Zhen: “A Powerful Jolt”) or The Gate of SHOCK
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
Hello everyone, welcome to the 3rd week of the astrological year! It is Monday, April 1st, and this is your forecast for the week ahead.
We are deep in the middle of Aries season, with the moon waning from the full lunar eclipse last week toward the new moon total solar eclipse next week, on Monday April 8th.
This time between eclipses is known in some circles as an eclipse portal, where we are feeling the dynamic push and pull between people and things from our past that we need to release and things we are feeling hungry for in the near future. This in-between time is a liminal space and can feel quite exhausting- a lot may have been catalyzed and let go of with the lunar eclipse, but we’re still waiting for what new energies want to arrive, and they haven’t yet taken root.
Since the spring equinox on March 19th, the sun has transited through the first half of the Zodiac sign aries, which has included several energetic shifts between gates of the iching. We began in the Gate of Innocence, filled with universal love and open to everything, then transited through the Gate of Opinions, forming ideas about the world around us through our experiences, but still remaining openminded, childlike, and curious.
Starting on Saturday, the sun transited into Gate 21, the Gate of the Hunter or Huntress. Then, on Thursday this week it will move into Gate 51, the Gate of Shock, where it will stay through the Solar Eclipse.
We will be talking about both of these gates this week as they relate to the wheel of the year and to the evolution of the Aries archetype, and we’ll get into what you can expect from the upcoming eclipse, as it’s a big deal especially here in America, where it’s crossing 15 states in full totality.
So, for those of you just tuning into the show, I like to think about the gates of human design and the hexagrams of the I Ching as small slices of pie. The Zodiac slices the wheel of the year into 12 pieces, giving us mythological and archetypical information about a month-long period of time. The human design system, drawing from the ancient Chinese I Ching, or book of changes, slices the wheel of the year into 64 pieces, called Gates, giving us mythological and archetypical information for about a 5-6 day period of time.
Looking at all of the archetypes that the sun is transiting through each week, from the seasonal qualities to the Zodiac qualities to the more specific qualities derived from the wisdom of the I Ching, gives us an insight into the season in a multidimensional way!
So here, in early spring, the season of water transitioning to wood, in the climax of the season of the ram, we find ourselves also in Gate 21. In the I Ching, this is known as “Biting Through”. In Human Design, it is most commonly known as the Gate of the Hunter or Huntress, and also known as the Resource Manager.
People with the sun, moon or planets in Gate 21 have a deep desire for independence, self-reliance, and financial freedom, and blossom when they are given control. Most of the time, they don’t like to feel any control from others or from society- they are self made, love to be their own bosses, and work independently.
Like a hunter, the energy of the sun in this gate, like it is this week, is to go out and get what you need, and then manage the fruits of the hunt. There is a generosity here too, the desire to share the bounty with others, as long as they have control over it. The I Ching describes it as biting through, which means that there is always problem to be tackled, and usually you are the one who needs to get your teeth into it.
This problem could be a physical one, like hunger, making the hunter go out and find food, or a metaphysical one, like the desire for truth, making the hunter gnaw through the illusions of separation. Like there is something between your jaw, in your bite, and all you want to do is bite through it to achieve unity and completion. Chewing or gnawing on something indicates success through discernment and hard work, leaving no stone unturned in a quest.
The I Ching hexagram is a combination of two trigrams, shi and ho, or fire over thunder. In Ancient China, this was a legal hexagram, that indicated justice being served by strict laws that discerned between right and wrong. To bite is to discern, to bite is to comprehend, and in order to form a harmonious society, the enforcement of justice is necessary. The hunter/huntress shows up here in the belief that no crime-against society or an individual0 should be allowed to go unpunished.
We can also think of a thorny bush that cannot be untangled, but instead needs to be cut through in order to proceed along your path and reach your goal. This is a very proactive gate, and this week’s energy involves taking action based on the opinions you formed through your experiences last week.
I always like to think of people I know personally who are born with the sun in the gate we’re talking about. Last week, in the Gate of Opinions, I gave a shoutout to my mom, and this week is my dad’s birthday week- hi dad! I always knew both of my parents were Aries- and they are both highly energetic and adventurous for sure. But learning that they are influenced by energies of different gates within the larger archetype of Aries really opened my eyes.
My father, to me, SO embodies the gate of the hunter. When he was 5 years old, a friend of his dad’s showed him a buffalo nickel, also known as an indian head nickel. He told him that because of it’s rarity and collectability that this nickel wasn’t worth 5 cents- it was worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars. My dad started hunting for rare coins as a young kid, and became the youngest coin dealer at shows across the US. He is a born entrepreneur- he’s never worked for anyone else in his life. Eventually coins turned into other rare antiques and art, and he made a business traveling to antique stores as well as basements and attics across the US and Europe looking for ‘elusive objects’, things that have rarity and thus value. As a lifelong nature lover, in his later years, he began birdwatching, and he loves nothing more than to spot a rare and uncommon bird with his binoculars. If this doesn’t scream literal “hunter/huntress” energy, I don’t know what would!
In the realm of the Zodiac, I think of week one of Aries season as a cute newborn lamb, innocent and pure. Week two, last week, the lamb finds his voice, and begins to baa and bleat to express what he is discovering in the world. In this third week, his horns are growing in, and the adolescent rams begin to play together by butting their horns, realizing where they stop and another begins.
In the Daoist 5-element Wuxing Cycle, this time of year is the transition from the Water element of winter to the Wood element of spring. Similar to the ram, I see the early days of a tree as an innocent sapling, absorbing the influences of the world around it from its fresh new leaves. Over time, the sapling grows thicker bark, more of a differentiation and discernment between itself and the world around it.
So too, the hexagram “Biting Through” and the gate of the hunter/huntress comes at a time in the wheel of the year where we are beginning to truly distinguish where we end and the other begins, what we believe to be right and wrong, and what we truly desire to go after in this life.
The sun is transiting through this gate until Thursday, so I invite you to spend the beginning of the week contemplating these ideas, leaning into what you are willing to work hard to seek out in your life. There might be a lot of exhaustion or an excess of built up energy this week, as your baby ram horns are coming through, so I recommend getting into your body and get some exercise so that you can rest better at night.
Then, On Thursday, the sun transits into gate 51: The Gate of Shock. The sun will be in this gate until next Tuesday, right after the Solar eclipse, so I’ll speak about it now and a little bit next week as well, as the next episode will come out on the day of the solar eclipse.
The hexagram of gate 51 is represented by two thunder trigrams- thunder over thunder, and symbolizes arousal, initiation, and, yes. shock. In Gate 51, that energy of the budding ram horns and sprouting trees is met with the shock that when we insert ourselves into the world, the world fights back. It’s kind of like the saying “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.”
To us little teenage rams here in Aries season, the actions- and reactions to our actions- from the larger world can come as quite a shock. If we think of this period of time in spring as so fresh and new, it can also feel truly shocking to see the power of our own impact on others and on the larger world. Think about the adolescent rams with their baby horns playing with each-other, having fun, and then, as their horns grow bigger, they actually getting hurt by a head butt, or hurt someone else. This is shocking!
Shock can be a scary realization, but it has the power to transform us through cracking our hearts open to what is really valuable to us individually and beyond. Each time the world truly shocks us, we have the potential to discover a deeper truth about ourselves, to consider why the event that happened was so shocking to begin with.
If your birthday is this week or next, that means that the sun was transiting the gate of shock when you were born. You may have encountered shocking experiences along your lifepath, or find that you tend to shock others with your risk-taking aptitude! For everyone, as you go about your life during the end of this week, this weekend, and into early next week, you may feel more desire to take risks, and you may feel a certain shock or arousal from things that happen to you. Take note of this, and try to look at these moments as initiations into a deeper and more aligned version of yourself and your personal truths.
Next Monday, we will have a solar eclipse in Aries in the Gate of Shock. To me, this fact in itself is quite arousing and shocking! Eclipses occur at different times throughout each year, so the fact that this eclipse is happening to fall in the Gate of Shock is pretty incredible. Eclipses, in folklore around the world, are known to be shocking, catalytic moments that usher in endings and new beginnings.
At this upcoming solar eclipse the sun and the moon meet in Aries in this Gate of Shock. Also hanging out in this part of the sky, right in the Gate of Shock, is the asteroid Chiron, also known as the wounded healer, an archetype that shows us how we can heal ourselves by confronting our deepest fears and secrets. Needless to say, this planetary configuration and eclipse could be quite shocking.
This eclipse is being popularly referred to as the Great American Eclipse because it passes over western Mexico, 15 US states. and eastern Canada. There are already so many conspiracy theories floating around about the Eclipse. I was sick last week and instead of watching Netflix, I let myself indulge in way too many instagram reels about the upcoming eclipse. Luckily it was the gate of Opinions, so I heard all of these opinions and also kept a curious open mind about them!
Everything from the government using the eclipse as a scapegoat for a cyberattack to the rapture and the second coming of Christ have been considered for this eclipse, so as we approach next week, something you see, read, or hear about may indeed shock you.
I by no means want to add any fear to anyone’s heart, and am saddened by a lot of the information out there being so fear mongering. But even so, hearing the word “shock” does something immediate to my body- like no, I definitely don’t want to be shocked, thanks! So as we move through these transits and this exlipse portal, I’d like to reiterate and reimagine the word shock as “arousal” instead.
Think about how shocking it feels to jump into a cold pool, lake, or ocean. This isn’t something many people would choose to do for fun, but it has been shown how healthy it is for our immune systems to shock them in this way, between hot and cold. I’ve personally become a huge fan of this type of therapy- my partner and I built a cedar hot tub in our yard last year and recently added a horse trough cold plunge to the mix. I’ve seen great benefits, but it’s still never easy for me jump in the cold plunge. Over time, I’ve heard, you grow more accustomed to the cold, and can learn techniques like deep breathing patterns to overcome the initial shock to the system.
If you feel a shock from your interactions with the world in the upcoming week, I invite you to think about it like jumping into cold water. The shock, whatever it is, won’t last forever. And to get through it, it’s important to move slowly and breathe deeply, knowing that arousing experiences can be shortcuts to better alignment with yourself and your truths.
And not to worry- a couple days after the Eclipse, by next Wednesday, April 10, the sun will move out of Shock into Gate 42, the Gate of Growth. This gate will help us grow out of what shocked us and tap into the widsom of cycles, realizing that nothing is permanent and that growth happens in bursts, rather than a continuous steady flow.
I hope all of you out there are taking care of yourself as if you were a baby ram or a sapling. Be slow when you need it, but also don’t be afraid to show the world what you’re made of. It’s all a process of growth.
Thanks for listening to the cycles of time weekly forecast! I’ll see you next week for the solar eclipse in Aries. All my love.
xo,
Alison
PS.- If you’d prefer, you can also subscribe and listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere you listen to podcasts! Thanks for listening!
The Huntress Bites Through: Weekly Forecast for April 1-7