Lion’s Gate, Discernment and the Folklore We Are Creating

Following the thread from Sirius and ancient Egypt to Lughnasadh, harvest, modern spirituality and the stories we are still writing today.

Every year, on 8/8, millions of people turn their attention towards the Lion's Gate Portal. I found myself wondering where that story began. Following the thread took me somewhere I wasn't expecting...

What are we creating together when we decide that something is sacred?

Today is 8/8, a date that has become known throughout the spiritual community as the Lion’s Gate Portal.

Every year around this time, we begin to hear about Sirius, Leo, manifestation, abundance, light codes and the opening of a powerful energetic portal.

This morning I found myself wondering where the Lion’s Gate Portal actually came from.

How old is it? What are its ancient roots? And how much of what we share today has evolved through modern spirituality?

So I started following the thread.

And, as so often happens when I follow these threads, I found something much more interesting underneath.

Following Sirius Back to Ancient Egypt

One of the oldest threads takes us to ancient Egypt and Sirius, the brightest star in our night sky.

The ancient Egyptians knew Sirius as Sopdet, later called Sothis by the Greeks, and personified her as a goddess.

For a period each year, Sirius disappears from our visible night sky as its position becomes too close to the Sun for us to see it.

Eventually it returns.

Its first visible appearance in the eastern sky shortly before sunrise is known as its heliacal rising.

For the ancient Egyptians, this was an important celestial marker because the return of Sirius occurred around the time of the annual inundation of the Nile.

The star returned.

The waters returned.

The land became fertile again.

Life regenerated.

There is something about that image that I find incredibly beautiful. A star disappearing from sight and returning with the waters that bring life back to the land.

Over time, Sopdet became increasingly identified with Isis, which adds another beautiful layer to the story.

In Egyptian mythology, Isis searches for Osiris after his death. His body has been scattered, and she travels across the land gathering the pieces and bringing him back together. Through her love, magic and devotion, there is restoration, regeneration and ultimately new life.

I couldn't help noticing the familiar thread within this story. Something has been scattered and must be gathered. Something has been lost and must be remembered. What has been separated is brought back towards wholeness.

And all of this sits alongside the returning Sirius, disappearing from sight and then appearing once more as the waters return to the land.

Death and return.

Water and fertility.

Restoration and regeneration.

The beginning of another cycle.

And What Is Happening Here on the Land?

Following this thread also made me think about where I am standing as I write this.

Here in Britain, we are already within another ancient seasonal threshold.

Lughnasadh, one of the traditional Gaelic seasonal festivals, marks the beginning of the harvest season at the start of August. Here in England we also find the tradition of Lammas, associated with the first grain harvest and the baking of the first loaf.

There is no historical reason to join Lughnasadh and the Egyptian rising of Sirius together as though they belonged to the same ancient tradition. But I find the resonance between them fascinating.

In ancient Egypt, people were looking towards the sky for the return of Sirius and towards the Nile for the waters upon which fertility and life depended.

Here, at this point in the turning year, our ancestors were looking towards the land and recognising that the first harvest was ready to be gathered.

Different lands. Different peoples. Different stories.

Yet both are rooted in relationship with the cycles of nature.

And perhaps that gives us another way of thinking about manifestation at this time of year.

The harvest asks us to look at what has actually grown.

What seeds did I plant?

What have I tended?

What has ripened?

What is ready to be gathered?

Perhaps there is wisdom in remembering that manifestation was once something people could see growing in the fields around them.

A seed became grain.

Grain became bread.

Intention required tending.

And eventually came the harvest.

So How Did This Become Lion’s Gate?

This is where different threads begin to weave together.

At this point in the year, the Sun is travelling through Leo within tropical astrology.

There is our lion.

Then we have the date itself.

8/8.

Within modern numerology, 8 is commonly associated with personal power, achievement, abundance, manifestation and our relationship with the material world.

Its shape has also become associated with the infinity symbol. Turn the 8 on its side and we see that familiar continuous movement, giving it another layer of symbolism around cycles, flow and infinity.

And on 8/8 the number is repeated.

Repeating numbers have become particularly significant within modern spirituality, with repetition often understood as amplifying the qualities of the number.

8/8 is also sometimes described as a mirror number. I find that language interesting, although “mirror number” isn't an ancient or universally recognised numerological category. It is another layer that has developed around the meaning we give to repeating and symmetrical numbers today.

So we can begin to see how the threads have gathered.

Sirius and Sopdet.

Isis and the Nile.

Leo.

The symbolism of 8.

8/8.

Manifestation.

And our contemporary understanding of energetic portals.

Over time these threads have become woven into what many of us now know as the Lion’s Gate Portal.

And this is where I became really interested.

Discernment and Spiritual Practice

I talk about discernment a lot in my own work because I think curiosity is such an important part of spirituality.

I want to know where something came from.

I want to understand what can be traced historically, what belongs to mythology and symbolism, what has developed through modern spiritual practice, and what comes through our own intuitive experience.

The ancient Egyptians were working with a completely different calendar from the Gregorian calendar we use today. So the date 8/8 itself would have held no meaning for them in the way that it does for us now.

Their relationship with Sirius came from observing the star itself, particularly its heliacal rising and its relationship with the changing season and the Nile.

The significance we now give to 8 August, and to the repetition of the number 8, came much later.

And I think that distinction matters.

It allows us to honour the ancient relationship with Sirius while recognising that new layers of meaning have continued to gather around it.

And that opens another question for me.

How does something become sacred in the first place?

Perhaps the history of Lion’s Gate isn't finished.

Perhaps we are living inside it.

Can Collective Attention Create a Portal?

This is the part I keep coming back to.

Every year, as 8/8 approaches, thousands, perhaps millions, of people around the world consciously turn their attention towards the same moment.

People meditate. They gather in ceremony. They set intentions. They pray. They work with energy. They create ritual. They share messages and experiences.

And I find myself wondering what happens when that much collective attention is directed towards one point in time.

If we understand energy as responsive to consciousness, attention and intention, could our collective focus begin to create an energetic threshold of its own?

Could returning to the same symbolic moment, year after year, give that moment an energetic pattern of its own?

Perhaps, in some way, we create the portal together.

And that thought took me down another thread entirely.

Folklore.

Are We Creating Folklore in Real Time?

I used to think of folklore mainly as the stories that had survived from long ago. Legends, fairy tales, local beliefs and stories carried from one generation to another.

But folklore is much broader than stories.

It includes the beliefs, customs, rituals and traditions that are shared within communities and passed between people.

And folklore is continually evolving.

Which made me wonder whether we are watching the creation of spiritual folklore in real time.

Imagine someone hundreds of years from now looking back at the early twenty-first century.

They might discover that every August, people across the world gathered around a date they called the Lion’s Gate.

They might trace the threads back through Sirius and Sopdet, Isis, the Nile, Leo and the symbolism of the number 8.

They might find our ceremonies, meditations, writings and stories and see how the meaning evolved as it travelled from one person to another.

Perhaps that is how living traditions grow.

We experience something.

We give it meaning.

We create ritual around it.

We share it.

Someone else experiences it through their own lens and adds another thread.

And gradually something begins to belong to the collective.

I find that fascinating.

The Wisdom We Are Creating Now

It also makes me think about the wisdom we are creating in our own time.

We can study ancient wisdom and respect its origins.

We can understand the mythology and traditions that have travelled through generations.

And we can remain open to what is emerging through our own lived spiritual experience now.

Because we are part of the continuing story too.

A Dragon Wisdom Code for 8/8

For a year, I worked with the dragons to channel the repeating Portal Numbers, which became part of my Dragon Wisdom Codes Oracle.

So today, on 8/8, I wanted to share the message I channeled for the 8/8 Portal Doorway:

8/8 Portal Doorway

You are infused with the natural world around you and as nature is rich in abundance; to be abundant is your birthright.

Hold your vision as you see your abundant life coming closer towards you.

It is done, it is done, it is done!

There is something I love about bringing the exploration back here.

I can follow the ancient thread of Sirius across thousands of years, explore the layers that have been added through astrology, numerology and modern spirituality, honour what I experience energetically today, and stay curious about all of it.

Perhaps hundreds of years from now, someone else will follow these threads backwards just as I have today.

They may look at the rituals we created, the stories we told and the meaning we gave to this moment in the turning of the year.

Perhaps they will call some of it folklore.

Perhaps they will call some of it tradition.

And perhaps it will have evolved into something we wouldn't recognise at all.

There is something rather beautiful about that.

Because spirituality lives through our relationship with the sacred.

Through the stories we tell.

Through the rituals we repeat.

Through our relationship with the Earth and the sky.

Through what we experience and choose to carry forward.

And so the question I am left sitting with today is the same one I began with:

What are we creating together when we decide that something is sacred?