One of the participants in this year’s Lion’s Gate Portal Experience was born during the portal.
For him, Lion’s Gate was not simply a meaningful energetic moment on the calendar. It coincided with his birthday and the beginning of another year of his life.
He entered the program knowing that the way he met this threshold mattered.
He wanted to receive as much as he possibly could from the experience—not by waiting passively for something to happen, but by participating fully in what was being offered.
And that is exactly what he did.
A Birthday Gift with Meaning
When his girlfriend asked what he wanted for his birthday, he told her that what he truly wanted was a private 1:1 session with me.
So she gifted him a session shortly before Lion’s Gate.
I find something incredibly meaningful in that.
He could have asked for something tangible, but what he most desired was an experience that would support him as he entered the next year of his life.
And she honored that desire.
There is something beautiful about being known well enough to receive a gift that reflects not only who you are, but who you are becoming.
Although this private session was separate from the Lion’s Gate program, its timing allowed him to enter the portal having already created intentional space to meet himself and explore what was unfolding in his life.
But his participation did not begin or end with that session.
He completed every piece of content inside the Lion’s Gate program.
He watched every video.
He answered every journal prompt.
He attended the group ceremony and allowed himself to participate fully.
He brought his attention, intention, emotions, willingness, and presence.
He did not simply purchase access to an experience.
He entered into a relationship with it.
Availability Is Only the Beginning
One of the foundational truths within The Sacred Unfolding is:
Everything is available. The question is whether we are available to it.
But availability is not always the same as participation.
We may sense that something is available to us. We may feel the invitation. We may even say that we want it.
But then Life asks us to enter the conversation.
It asks us to show up.
To listen.
To meet what arises.
To engage with what has been placed before us.
And to follow the invitation when it becomes an action.
This participant did not approach Lion’s Gate as something that would transform him while he remained at a distance. He made himself available—and then participated in his own unfolding.
He did the internal work.
He met the journal prompts honestly.
He allowed the teachings to move beyond intellectual understanding.
He entered his private 1:1 session ready to explore what this moment in his life was asking of him.
He then entered the Lion’s Gate group ceremony prepared to be witnessed and willing to cross the threshold.
What Happened Next
Within 24 hours of the group ceremony, an opening appeared within the business he is beginning.
Clients came forward.
New possibilities became visible.
And he shared that his income had increased tenfold.
I do not share this as a promise that participating in a ceremony will produce a particular financial result. His experience belongs to him, and every person’s unfolding will look different.
I share it because it offers such a beautiful reflection of what can happen when a person becomes available to Life—and then participates when Life responds.
The external opening did not occur in isolation from his internal willingness.
When the opportunity appeared, it met someone who had spent weeks expanding his capacity to recognize it, hold it, and respond to it.
The portal may have marked the threshold.
The ceremony may have helped anchor the transition.
But he was the one who chose to cross.
The Relationship Between Intention and Participation
There is a meaningful difference between setting an intention and building a relationship with that intention.
An intention says:
This is what I desire.
Participation asks:
How am I willing to meet what I desire?
It asks whether we are willing to engage with the practices, face what arises, listen to what Life is showing us, and take action when the invitation becomes clear.
This participant treated Lion’s Gate as the beginning of the next year of his life.
He did not wait until after his birthday to decide how he wanted to meet the year ahead. He entered the threshold intentionally, allowing the work to prepare him for what might become available on the other side.
His devotion to the experience did not control the outcome.
But it changed his capacity to meet the outcome.
Crossing the Threshold
Transformation is not created by the date alone.
It is not created by the portal alone.
It is not created by the ceremony alone.
Ceremony creates a place where we can intentionally meet ourselves, meet Life, and mark the moment when we are ready to relate differently to what is becoming available.
But we still have to enter.
We still have to bring ourselves.
We still have to participate.
This man came to Lion’s Gate ready to receive everything the experience had to offer. He honored the threshold with his attention, effort, and willingness.
And within a day of the ceremony, Life presented him with an opening that reflected the expansion he had been preparing to hold.
His experience reminds me that sometimes the question is not:
Is Life offering me something?
Sometimes the deeper questions are:
Am I available to recognize what Life is offering?
Am I willing to participate in the invitation?
And when the opening appears, have I developed the capacity to hold it?
He entered Lion’s Gate at the threshold of a new year of his life.
He met the experience fully.
And when Life opened the next door, he was ready to walk through it.
But this is not where the story ends.
This was the first opening—the first visible movement after a deeply intentional crossing.
There is more unfolding for him, more becoming visible through this work, and more I will share as the next chapter reveals itself.
More to come.