It’s OPEN! 🪷 Lion’s Gate Portal August 2025

Posted on August 7, 2025 by Enchanted Seashells

We’re in the middle of Lions Gate Portal 2025, which occurs annually from around July 28 to August 12, and will peak tomorrow, August 8.

It’s an enchanted, magical period when the Earth, Sirius, and the Sun in Leo align in the cosmos, creating a powerful burst of energy.

Sirius, known as the “Dog Star,” is a beacon of light and wisdom. This alignment opens a gateway to higher energies, enhancing our intuition to help us connect with the divine.

This alignment is thought to amplify manifestation energy and encourage self-expression and authenticity. It’s a time when many believe we can tap into our inner power and manifest our desires.

This portal is supercharged by a rare cosmic phenomenon—the Major Lunar Standstill which occurs every eighteen years. There’s also a Full Sturgeon Moon on Saturday, August 9 — a lot going on! In fact, this full moon will be a special two-night event with the moon appearing full Friday and Saturday.

These events create a once-in-a-generation wave of celestial energy to enhance emotional healing, ancestral connection, and karmic closure.

The universe conspires to make our dreams come true. Isn’t that lovely?

it’s a powerful time for setting intentions and manifesting desires related to abundance, love, clarity, and positive transformation.

What can we do to enhance this enchanted celestial energy?

🪷 Meditate: To connect with our inner self and the portal’s energy.
🪷 Set Intentions: Clearly define our intentions and desires for manifestation.
🪷 Self-Reflect: Reflect on our current state and identify areas where we want to grow and transform.
🪷 Release: Let go of limiting beliefs and emotional blockages that may hinder our progress.
🪷 Authenticity: Embrace our true self and express our authentic nature.
🪷 Crystals: Use crystals like citrine and amber, known for their manifestation properties.
🪷 Burn Sage or Palo Santo: To cleanse our space of anything negative.

As above, so below…

Image credit to Lsmorescience.com

August is Full of Full Moons

Posted on July 28, 2023 by Enchanted Seashells

A tale of two moons.

There’s a ball of light
close to the sea
on a calm clear night
the waves move free
what comes to mind
is a lovely dream
there’s joy to find
in this timeless scene… Richie Cho

There are two full moons in August!

The Sturgeon Moon is August 1 and the second full super moon, also called a Blue Moon — will be August 30.

A Blue Moon is not actually blue but referred to as a second full moon in a calendar month, an occurrence that happens every two to three years.

This full moon is associated with the goddess Hecate, who is connected with the elements of the moon; waxing and waning, cycles, and transformation. It’s a time to contemplate our inner transformation and to embrace the power of the moon.

The second full moon presents a time to practice gratitude for what you have, where you’ve come from, and the nature all around you.

I hope we have clear skies so I can see at least one of these beauties!

A Full Moon and a Lost Whale

Posted on August 8, 2017 by Enchanted Seashells

The Full Sturgeon Moon rises tonight. A perfect time to set intentions and believe in magic!

I wonder if these intense lunar energies had anything to do with a baby gray whale who lost his way in our little beach town entering Agua Hedionda Lagoon from the ocean.

I happened to be in the right place at the right time with my lovely Canon and a decent lens and was lucky enough to snap these photos.

SeaWorld came to assess the situation and told me that he didn’t seem to be in distress; he was spouting every couple of minutes or so, which is completely normal, and he was rubbing his body against the rocks to try and dislodge all of the barnacles.

I did a little research and learned this about barnacles…
from https://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/gwhale/Hitchhikers.html:

Gray whales are more heavily infested with a greater variety of parasites and hitchhikers than any other cetacean. Imagine carrying a load of hitchhikers on your back that can weigh several hundred pounds! Gray whales do this all their lives. Who’s riding, and why?

Big Batches of Barnacles
Those patchy white spots you see on gray whales are barnacles. Grays carry heavy loads of these freeloaders. The barnacles are just along for the ride. They don’t harm the whales or feed on the whales, like true parasites do. Barnacles don’t serve any obvious advantage to the whales, but they give helpful lice a place to hang onto the whale without getting washed away by water. Barnacles find the slow-swimming gray whale a good ride through nutrient-rich ocean waters.

As larvae, the whale barnacles swim freely in the ocean. But they time their reproduction so the larvae are swimming in the water of the nursery lagoons when the baby whales are born. Then the larvae jump aboard the whales arriving in the lagoons–as well as the newborn calves—to start their lives as hitchhikers. The most common barnacles on gray whales are host-specific, which means they occur on no other whales. One type of barnacle, Cryptolepas rhachianecti, attaches only to gray whales. Once this type of small crustacean has settled on “its own” gray, the barnacle spends its whole life hanging onto that whale.

Life is good if you’re a barnacle. Snug inside their hard limestone shells, the barnacles stick out feather feet to comb the sea and capture plankton and other food for themselves as the whales swim slowly along. As the young whales grow, the barnacle clusters grow too. Gradually the barnacles form large, solid white colonies. The colonies appear as whitish patches, especially on the whale’s head, flippers, back and tail flukes.

Whale biologists look at the pattern of barnacle clusters in order to tell individual grays apart. This is possible because no two barnacle clusters, like no two human’s fingerprints, are alike!

When the tide changed, he finally made it out beyond the jetty waves; hopefully he finds his mom and doesn’t wander into shallow water again!

Just another amazing day in paradise. So much magic and beauty to be grateful for!