I promised you a Practitioner who roars, but first, I’d like to share a little something that needs to be spoken out loud.
I spent years in the spiritual community feeling like I was doing it wrong. Sitting in group healings that made my skin crawl. Nodding along to teachings that didn’t feel right in my body but seemed to land for everyone else. Following people who spoke with such certainty that I figured the problem must be me. If I couldn’t understand it, I wasn’t evolved enough. If it felt off, I needed to push through. If I questioned it, I was “resisting.”
Here’s what I know now. That icky feeling was my intuition and it was right every single time.
The spiritual community, like every other system, has its own matrix. Its own set of rules about what’s right and wrong, what enlightenment looks like, who’s further along the path, and who gets to stand at the front of the room and tell you how to get there. If you don’t conform, something must be wrong with you.
Sound familiar? It should. It’s the same structure as everything else we’ve been told not to break free from. It just comes wrapped in sage smoke and good vibes.
So here’s what I want to say to anyone who’s coming into their knowing right now, or who’s been on this path for a while and still feels that quiet twinge of “something’s not right here”, trust yourself.
Not the guru. Not the course. Not the person on stage who seems to have all the answers. Not the group that insists you participate in something that makes you uncomfortable and then tells you the discomfort is a “lesson.” Not every experience is a lesson. Sometimes it’s just your gut telling you to leave.
Your heart knows and your body knows. That feeling you get when something doesn’t sit right. It’s not resistance, it’s your innate intelligence.
I’ll give you a small example from my own life. Meditation. In the spiritual community, it was the thing. Sit in silence, quiet the mind and if the mental chatter won’t stop, try harder. Don’t get me wrong, it works for many people but not for me. For years I thought I was failing at it because traditional meditation never felt like home to me. Turns out, my meditation is creation. When I paint, when I’m in the flow of making something, that’s where I find the stillness.
Maybe yours is music, gardening, running, reading or cooking. There’s no one way and there never was.
I'll be honest with you, some days, I'm not entirely sure what I believe about all of this. I channel paintings. I receive messages. I watch synchronicities stack up in ways that are hard to explain. And then some mornings I wake up and think, really? But then I watch someone stand in front of one of these paintings and something moves through them. Tears, truth bumps or an emotion they weren't expecting and can't hide. You can't fake that moment and it's in those moments that I have to remind myself: something is happening here, even if I can't always explain it. I see both sides, I live in that space between knowing and questioning, and I've stopped trying to resolve it. I think that's actually where the good stuff lives. Right there in the tension between faith and doubt.
The moment someone tells you they have it all figured out, that’s your cue to walk or run the other way.
NOW...THE PRACTITIONER THAT ROARS
Meet Lion’s Gate.
Before you start looking for a lion, let me save you the search. This isn’t a painting of a big cat. This is a portal.
LION'S GATE • 60" x 48" • Acrylic, Silk Paint, Vinyl, Glass Beads • $4,444
The Lion’s Gate Portal activates every year on August 8 (8/8) when the Sun, the star Sirius, and the Earth align. It runs from around July 28 through August 12, peaking on that 8/8 date. It’s considered one of the most powerful astrological windows of the year for spiritual awakening, manifestation, and transformation. During this window, higher frequency energies from Sirius are beamed toward Earth, and the energy is a lot but in the best way.
This painting was channelled as one of The Practitioners, and when it speaks, it doesn’t whisper:
“I am your gateway to higher realms of consciousness. If you are seeking accelerated ascension amidst the already potent waves of change and transformation, I ask you to tune in to me and unlock the powers of your portal gateway within.”
The painting holds layers of sacred geometry. The Merkaba, that star shape at the centre, represents our light body. Within it sits a dreamcatcher that acts as a portal to other dimensions. And nested inside the dreamcatcher is the infinity symbol, which also mirrors the 8:8 of the Lion’s Gate opening itself.
The four symbols you see are the Universal Laws of Creation, brought down from the star nations. Clockwise from the top: the Universal Law of Symmetry, the Universal Law of Free Will, the Universal Law of Judgement, and the Universal Law of Light, Sound and Vibration.
Here’s where I want to practice what I just preached.
There are people right now saying that sacred geometry was designed to suppress human consciousness or that the infinity symbol is a loop which traps you from furthering yourself. I could tell you they’re wrong and I could tell you they’re right. But that would make me exactly the kind of person I just told you not to follow.
The truth is, I resonate with both sides. Some days the sacred geometry in any painting feels like pure activation. Other days I sit with the questions and I’ve made peace with that, because this is exactly the point: your response to this painting, to these symbols, to any of it, is yours. If you look at Lion’s Gate and feel expansion, trust that. If you feel resistance, trust that too. Both responses are information worth listening to. What I won’t do is stand here and tell you there’s only one right way to see it. My role is to paint what comes through me and let you meet it wherever you are.
That’s what makes The Practitioners different from a teaching. They’re not telling you what to think. They’re asking you to feel.
I animated Lion’s Gate after a sound session at Heart of Healing. During the session, I could see how the energy would move through the painting. I could feel the way it wanted to breathe and pulse. So I brought that to life. Not because anyone told me to. Not because it was the “right” next step in some business plan. Because my intuition said do this, and I listened without second-guessing.
Which brings us right back to where we started, doesn’t it?
LION’S GATE — THE ORIGINAL PAINTING
60 x 48 x 1.5 inches. Acrylic, silk paint and glass beads on canvas.
If this Practitioner is calling to you, the original painting is available. View Lion’s Gate
Prints are also available through Pictorem. Browse prints
COMING NEXT WEEK
A painting that found its way to a stranger at three in the morning, what happened next is one many extraordinary stories I’ve ever been part of and another Practitioner steps forward.
Until next week, I will be questioning everything, trusting myself and charging the wine anyway,
Lisa