The Golden Thread of 8/8 - A Lion’s Gate Love Letter to the Woman Who Is Already Here

Lion’s Gate arrives with an invitation to expand, create, receive, and courageously inhabit the life that is calling us. This year, I’m exploring that invitation through the lens of presence and the realization that the woman we have been waiting to become is already here. Inside this love letter, I’m sharing why 8/8 holds such a tender place in my own heart, along with eight simple ways to weave a little Lion’s Gate magic into your day, a golden thread ritual, wishes both wild and wonderfully ordinary, a little sunshine and sweetness, and journal prompts to help you listen for what is ready to come alive within you.

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Hello, fellow moon lover.

There are certain dates that seem to shimmer on the calendar before we ever arrive at them, and 8/8 has always been one of those days for me.

It is Lion’s Gate. It is Leo season. It is birthday month, and today marks exactly two weeks until my birthday. There is something about this stretch of August that has always felt warm and golden and full of possibility to me, as if the Sun itself is reminding me to turn toward life with my whole heart.

And August 8 holds another very tender thread in my story.

On August 8, 2003, my paternal grandfather ascended.

So each year, Lion’s Gate arrives carrying all of its beautiful symbolism of expansion, abundance, courage, creativity, personal power, intuition, and heart-led expression, while 8/8 itself also carries something deeply personal for me... the memory of someone I loved, and still love, very much.

I want to be thoughtful about keeping those two things distinct. Remembrance is part of my relationship with August 8, rather than a traditional meaning of Lion’s Gate itself. What I love is the way a sacred day can hold its collective meaning while also meeting each of us inside the very human stories of our own lives.

And this year, those two threads seem to be meeting for me in one beautiful word...

Presence.

I’ve been thinking so much lately about the woman we are becoming, and about the beautiful truth that we are always changing. The conversations we have, the choices we make, the heartbreaks we move through, the boundaries we learn to hold, the courage we gather, and the tenderness we allow all shape us little by little. We are continually learning and expanding, and tomorrow’s version of us will carry something today’s version has not yet discovered.

And at the same time, there is something incredibly powerful in realizing that a version of the woman we have spent years becoming is already here.

She is here today.

Perhaps there was a time when you dreamed of having the wisdom you carry now, or the courage you have now, or the boundaries you have now. Perhaps you once longed for the freedom, relationships, home, work, spiritual connection, or self-trust that is woven into your life today.

There will always be another horizon, another dream, another layer of healing, another beautiful edge inviting us to expand. That is part of being alive.

And we also get to enjoy the woman who has already arrived.

We get to wear the dress, take the trip, begin the thing, make the oil, stand in the sunshine, use the beautiful dishes, celebrate ourselves, take up space, and eat the dessert as the women we are right now.

Maybe this Lion’s Gate can be an invitation to allow the light to illuminate what is already here, while giving us the courage to live more fully from that place.

And perhaps this is why I’ve been thinking so much about Grandpa.

Some of the most precious memories of my childhood live on my grandparents’ farm. I loved riding beside Grandpa in the Big Red Combine, looking out over the fields while we moved through them together. At the time, I was simply a little girl riding in the combine with her grandpa. I had no idea I was gathering moments that I would still be carrying in my heart decades later.

Isn’t that how so many sacred moments happen?

We are simply living them.

Then, years later, we look back and realize...

Ohhh... that was one of the moments.

Grandpa was a quiet, reserved man, stoic and a man of few words, and still, he always received my hugs.

He also loved a little something sweet at the end of a meal. Strawberries with cream and ice cream are the desserts I remember most, although there is one particular cinnamon roll that has lived in my memory all these years.

One day, Grandpa took me uptown for coffee and a cinnamon roll. This was usually something I did with my beloved Grammy, so the fact that he was taking me felt especially important.

We went to Smokey Hollow and sat at the bar, and no, it wasn’t that kind of bar. 😂 I remember looking at the cinnamon rolls sitting on the counter beneath one of those big plastic covers that looked like something straight out of an old diner on television, choosing mine, and feeling incredibly grown up and special.

Then Grandpa taught me how to put a little pat of butter on top and watch it melt down into the warm, gooey center.

That center bite was our favorite.

Even now, I can picture it. I can remember sitting beside him. I can remember how special it felt to have been invited along.

And then there was Grandpa’s relationship with our 1980s Valley Girl vocabulary.

He used to offer my sister and me a dollar a day if we could make it through the day without using the word like inappropriately.

So, like, if we totally, like, talked like Valley Girls all day...

our dollar disappeared pretty quickly.

I can only imagine his reaction to today’s texting abbreviations and shortcuts, although I can almost hear his German voice giving us his wonderfully distinctive... “Ooohhhhkkkkhhh.”

His version of ugh.

And if you had a German grandfather, you probably know exactly the sound I mean. It was that unmistakable, slightly guttural German expression that somehow managed to communicate an entire paragraph without using an actual word.

My Grammy made the same sound in her own Grammy voice, which somehow made it even better. Even writing it now, I can hear them both.

And it still makes me laugh.

These are the memories I hold.

A combine.

A hug received by a stoic man.

Strawberries and cream.

A cinnamon roll with butter melting into the center.

A dollar bill hanging in the balance every time one of his granddaughters opened her mouth.

They were ordinary moments when I lived them, and today they are treasures.

Maybe that is one of the gifts Grandpa’s memory is giving me this 8/8.

Be here for your life.

Little me was fully inside that cinnamon roll moment. I was eating it, watching the butter melt, feeling grown up, sitting beside my Grandpa, and enjoying the sweetness of being chosen to go along.

I was living it.

And today, I get to do the same.

I can dream enormous dreams while savoring the life already surrounding me. I can call in what is next while loving what is here. I can honor the woman I continue to become while celebrating the woman who has already arrived.

There is room for all of it.

So this year, rather than simply offering you a Lion’s Gate ritual, I wanted to give you eight little ways to weave the energy of 8/8 through your day.

Choose the ones that delight you. Let them become invitations to slow down, listen, play, dream, create, act, receive, and savor.

Because perhaps the most beautiful ritual is the one that brings you more fully into relationship with your own life.

8 Simple Ways to Honor the 8/8 Lion’s Gate

1. Receive the Sun

Find a beautiful patch of sunlight and stand inside it for one quiet minute, letting yourself feel the warmth wherever it lands on your skin.

Imagine each warm spot as a tiny golden doorway, or perhaps a tiny yes from the Universe, reminding you of your own radiance, vitality, creativity, courage, and capacity to receive.

Place one hand over your heart and one over your solar plexus and breathe.

I receive the light.I honor the light within me.I welcome what is ready to meet me.

Then linger for another moment simply because the sunshine feels good.

2. Make a Little Bottle of Sunshine

Today I am making Sun Oil with dried calendula from my garden, and I love the idea of these tiny golden flowers holding a little of August’s warmth for me to return to later.

If creating an herbal oil is already part of your practice, you might make your own calendula Sun Oil, infusing it with intentions of vitality, confidence, creativity, courage, joy, abundance, or whatever feels most alive for you.

As I prepare mine, I will hold the jar between my hands and whisper:

May this oil remind me of my courage,my radiance,my joy,and the sacred fire that has always lived within me.

There is something so beautiful about creating a tangible reminder of the light we are experiencing today, something our future selves can hold in their hands and remember.

3. Leave a Little Room for Magic

Give yourself one open pocket of time today.

Twenty minutes might be enough. An hour might feel luxurious.

Let it belong completely to you.

Take your favorite cuppa outside, wander through the garden, sit beneath a tree, pull a card, listen to music, lie in the grass, or simply follow whatever catches your attention.

Lion’s Gate is often associated with heightened intuition and synchronicity, so allow yourself to notice what finds you while continuing to live your own beautiful story.

A song might arrive at exactly the right moment. An old idea may suddenly feel alive again. Someone might say the exact words you needed to hear.

Receive the synchronicities with curiosity, then return to the life unfolding right in front of you.

Sometimes spaciousness itself is the ritual.

4. Make Two Wishes

Take a piece of paper and write down two wishes.

Let one be wildly, deliciously enormous, the kind of wish that makes you blush a little when you admit how much you want it.

Then write one beautifully ordinary wish.

Maybe you want to create something that reaches thousands of women... and maybe you also want more mornings drinking coffee outside.

Maybe you want an extraordinary love... and you also want fresh flowers on the kitchen table more often.

Maybe you want financial abundance... and you also want enough spaciousness to make dinner slowly.

Let both desires matter.

Then ask yourself:

How can I begin meeting each of these desires today?

I suspect some of the most ordinary wishes become the very fabric of a beautiful life.

5. Tie a Golden Thread to the Woman Who Is Already Here

This one feels especially tender to me this year.

Find a piece of golden thread, ribbon, twine, or even a beautiful strand of dried grass and hold it between your hands.

Close your eyes and meet the woman who is here.

You. Today.

Feel into everything she has already lived, learned, loved, survived, created, released, discovered, and become.

Then tie one loose knot in your golden thread.

Leave a little room in the knot because there will always be space for growth, surprise, discovery, and expansion.

And as you tie it, say:

I honor who I have been.I welcome all that I am becoming.I celebrate the woman who is already here.

Then ask yourself one beautiful question:

What have I been saving for the woman I thought I needed to become?

Listen for the answer.

And if you can, give some piece of it to yourself today.

Wear it.Book it.Begin it.Say it.Make it.Taste it.Write it.Enjoy it.

Let the golden thread become a reminder that your becoming is alive and unfolding... and you get to live while it does.

6. Light the Flame and Take the Step

Light a gold, yellow, orange, or white candle and bring one dream, desire, idea, or decision into your awareness.

Then ask yourself: What is one brave, loving action I can take to participate in creating this?

Perhaps Lion’s Gate becomes even more powerful when we see ourselves as co-creators of what comes next.

Let the flame illuminate your next step, however small it may be.

Write the email. Make the call. Create the page. Speak the truth. Say yes. Say no. Begin.

Before you extinguish your candle, whisper:

The flame remembers what I have chosen.

Then carry that little spark with you into action.

7. Become Part of the Abundance

As you move through your day, choose one person and silently offer them a blessing.

It might be someone you adore or someone whose name you will never know, the person making your coffee, the woman beside you in the grocery aisle, someone walking their dog, or the person in the car next to you at a stoplight.

Silently offer:

May something become easier for you.

May the answer you’ve been waiting for find you.

May you feel deeply loved today.

May something beautiful surprise you.

I love the idea that on a day associated with abundance and expansion, we can participate in that energy by becoming part of the abundance moving through the world.

We receive. We create. And we give.

8. Eat the Dessert

Oh yes, Beloved.

Eat the dessert.

Have the strawberries and cream.

Scoop the ice cream.

Buy the cinnamon roll.

Use the pretty plate.

Add the little pat of butter and watch it melt right into the gooey center.

And then taste it.

Really taste it.

Let yourself enjoy the sweetness that is here today, because so much of a beautiful life is made from moments we cannot possibly know will someday become sacred memories.

The combine rides.The kitchen tables.The gardens.The coffee dates.The hugs.The inside jokes.The dollar bills we probably didn’t earn because we said like too many times.The cinnamon rolls.The people sitting beside us.

Perhaps the sweetest offering we can make to the lives we are creating is to fully inhabit the lives we already have.

So take the best bite.

Close your eyes.

Let yourself savor it.

And perhaps whisper:

Thank you for this life. Thank you for this moment. Thank you for the sweetness already here.

A Little Lion’s Gate Journaling

For many years, I have returned to some of the same questions during Lion’s Gate, and I love what happens when an old question meets a woman who has lived another year.

The questions may remain, while our answers deepen and change.

This year, I am especially sitting with these:

1. What is already true about me that I once hoped I would someday become?

2. Where is joy asking to be experienced more fully in my life right now?

3. What have I been saving for someday that I am ready to choose today?

4. What impossible desire is asking for my courage, and what beautifully ordinary desire is asking for my attention?

5. If an old dream is returning, how am I ready to meet it differently now?

6. What is one brave action I can take in partnership with the life I desire?

7. Where is life inviting me to be more fully present with what is already here?

8. And perhaps the question at the center of everything I’m feeling this year...

   If I truly believed the woman I have been waiting for is already here, how would I love and live this day?

Beloved, Lion’s Gate invites us to look toward possibility, to dream, expand, create, listen, receive, and step more courageously into the radiant, heart-centered expression associated with Leo.

And I think there is room within all of that expansion for a beautiful paradox.

We are becoming... and we have already arrived.

We can dream about tomorrow while tasting today’s sweetness.

We can honor who we were, adore who we are, and remain wildly curious about who we will be.

We can make the enormous wish and treasure the ordinary moment.

We can reach toward the stars while standing barefoot in the garden.

And maybe today, we can look around at the woman we have spent all these years becoming and finally recognize her.

Ohhh... there you are.

Stand in the sunshine, Beloved.

Make something beautiful.

Leave room for magic.

Wish wildly.

Tie the golden thread.

Take the brave step.

Bless someone.

And please... eat the dessert.

Happy Lion’s Gate, beautiful soul.

Happy 8/8.

With all the Lioness love + golden light in me honoring all the light in you,

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