third gate
funerals and firewalks
20 days in. Sitting at the edge of longing, shedding the unnecessary, unfastening the knots of a former self. Having fasted from illusion, bathed in silence, let hunger itself become a kind of prayer. And still, the wheel turns and we stand before the threshold of the third gate. Winter folds upon itself. The old sun is gasping. This is not the gentle birth of storks and roses, but the void before the rendering. A place beyond purity, beyond discipline. A place where the past has already burned and the future is already written. A 13th aeon. A liminal space between dissolution and dawn.
Sealing the Second Gate (March 10-20)The air is different now. Thinner. Sharper. The hollow space between the ending and the beginning have stretched like a a veil, a threshold, a doorway that is not a doorway but a dissolution. But the true shift is not in the outer world. It is within you. We are through the second gate, a space of alchemical undoing, where the old self has already burned but the new self has yet to rise. The space beyond the inner cycles and repeating loops of karma and fate. This is the moment where the soul is given the choice to turn back, to remain in stasis, or to step forward into something entirely new. So the question is: who you will be on the other side.
Sit with the silence a bit, perhaps count your breath, see what lingers, catch when it stops. This gate saw the eclipse, mercury retrograde, and the death of an old sun.
We exhausted the last breath of winter. A season that for centuries sighs in quiet retreat, inch by inch, so still. It is a death without mourning.
No one weeps for winter.
And yet, what a sacrifice.
Hold this realization in you. Hum in this quiet tension.
Nature exists in a state of profound trust. No resistance. No bargaining.
Have you ever known this type of intimacy? Have you ever existed fully without fear of dissolution?
When a person embodies this same trust of living without:
the anxiety of self preservation
clutching to power
manipulating to maintain control
There is a raw honesty in them. They move with the currents of life, unburdened by the need to dominate or deceive. Their presence feels safe, as nature feels safe, because it carries no hidden motives. They trust in the natural intelligence of all things. They rest in presence.
In contrast, those who fear death either literally or metaphorically cannot yet be offered the same level of trust. Fear makes one grasp, expending all sorts of energy in their fortification. A person who cannot let things die defies the cycles of nature. Those who fear endings, losses, or transformations will distort reality to protect their illusion of control. This makes intimacy impossible. Because intimacy requires surrender. Trust is not static; it is a willingness to die over and over and over again. To let go of certainty, control, and even yourself. To let go of the roles you play, the caricatures, the titles, all of it. And still, then, to trust that the soil will warm, the seeds will burst in excitement, all things dormant and baron will prove the vitality of a patient inner fire.
This ceremony will serve as a ritualized transition. To mourn yourself, to mourn winter. It is a funeral for the self. Not of sorrow, but of an honorable burial of all things outdated and outgrown that must be laid to rest so that the new form can fully emerge. It’s an act of devotion to transformation. A sacred conclusion.
Find a space, perhaps somewhere in between like the shore, perhaps a candlelit room. Wear black.
Incorporate elements of winter. Elements of earth. What speaks to you?
Hum in this quiet tension. Allow yourself to arrive. This is serious. It is your funeral, after all. Light a candle if you wish, write or speak your eulogy as you’re inspired to. Not for some far off Jetson future, but for now. Be here right now. Notice the breath that is leaving you this very second.
Imagine you die in this very moment, leaving every single thing behind.
“Here lies the self who clung and feared and held so tightly to false safety and, and, and.”
Stay with it. How precious, keep further.
You’re a shadow on the wall at your ceremony. Can you see it?
What would they say about you? Everyone in their life as they are, without you in your self costume there to correct them, would they grok the you that you know?
Would they die in your skin for you? Where do you end in this?
Oh, to love them still.
Oh, to forgive them still.
Oh, to wish to know them still.
Give winter it’s last breath. Knowing it will return. Breath out the last remnants of what has been, not to jump into something new, not to dishonor the becoming. But to signify the passage of renewal. To rest in the quiet of frost and ash; unbound.
“The winter is over. The past is honored. The path is clear. I walk forward with nothing but the wisdom gained. Thank you, beloved past. You are free.”
Drink in water to signify the renewal. Wear something new. stretch deeply.
Third Gate (March 20-30)An eclipse portal is a cosmic hallway. In these two weeks we exist in a void of profound transformation potential. Perhaps you’ve noticed the suspension, increased sensation, altered sleep/speech/routine. Time itself has bent. Venus and mercury in a retrograded union reminding us that this is a time for listening, surrendering, attuning, re-categorizing our relationships, re-creating, re-committing.. you re-name it.
Patterns, long built, may crystallize or crumble as past, present, and future all speak at once. Notice where things feel fated, as if moving with their own momentum. Notice where things far off arrive in the now without hesitation. Notice where dreams, synchronicities, and deja vu are undeniable.
Let your sadhana be to notice the world around you.
Solar eclipses initiate new cycles, bringing fated beginnings. Allow yourself to pay attention.
March 29, 2025 // Aries Solar Eclipse
This is genesis. Aries rule raw instinct, birth, war, courage, the spark that ignites existence itself. Pure, unfiltered identity. Take moments to notice this whisper within you. Just notice it, allow it, think “this too,” and relax into the divine unfolding. Aries does not question if its time to act, spring does not hesitate if it’s ready to shift the lands and wind. Trust, intimately, in your existence here. Spring moves forward despite the remaining frost or storm.
Move like you are fiercely guided.
Move like you are fiercely devoted.
Neptune at 29 degrees of Pisces
If you pay extra close attention, you will taste the glimpse of a monumental cultural shift. The last degree of pisces, the anaretic degree, shedding light on all it’s culmination and crisis. Neptune takes ~164 years to orbit the sun, spending about 13-14 years in each sign. The last time Neptune entered Aries was in 1861.. JUST THE BEGINNING OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, THE RENAISSANCE, THE AGE OF EXPLORATION.
This is the beginning of a new spiritual epoch.
(read more on it here)
magnetism is perfected absence. - LMWYou get to just make up your own quotes ??!
Send me some of yours →
Allow the next ten days to be subtle and tender in their stripping of your excess, your false names, and your illusions. You are still here. A vessel emptied and ready. The paradox of asceticism is that the more you surrender, the more you become. The less you carry, the more magnetic. Absence itself becomes perfected gravity. Winter is behind us. The ancient fire of spring is within us. There is only presence. There is only noticing. There is only worship.
with reverence and love,
L