For the Body That’s Ready to Do Something More Than Just Write It Down

So, an intention on paper is maybe 10% of the work when it comes to manifestation.

You can write the most gorgeous, specific, nervous-system-informed intention on earth and it’ll still just sit there, inert, unless you give your body a reason to believe it.

That’s what ritual actually is. Not decoration on top of the intention. Think of it more as the mechanism that helps it land.

This is a version of the ceremony I actually build my own 8/8 practice around, scaled down so you can run it solo at your kitchen table or use it as the skeleton for a full group circle.

I’ve been doing this kind of thing for almost thirty years, long before there was a business or a blog attached to it, so consider this an unusually direct look at what a session with me could actually look like.

What You’ll Need

Nothing exotic. This isn’t really a shopping list so much as a quick inventory of what can actually help:

• A cup of ceremonial-grade cacao, prepared however you like (More on this soon. I love Ora Cacao if you’re looking for a rec)
• A stone or two you’re drawn to (more on which ones below)
• A journal and a favorite pen or pencil
• A candle, if you want one (gold, orange, or plain white all work)
• A glass of water
• Somewhere to lie back for the journey part (couch, bed, floor with a blanket, whatever your knees will forgive you for)
• A question or situation that you’d like to gain deeper insight into, written on a piece of paper (don’t overthink it, this can be a sentence or two)

Optional: A drumming track. Or just silence. Silence works fine.

If you want to focus your ceremony around an intention, I’ve talked a bunch about that over here. Worth checking out.

Step 1: Create Your Space

Clear a spot. Doesn’t have to be an altar with gold cloth and thirty candles (I mean, but that can be fun, too).

Phone somewhere you can’t see it.

Candle lit if you’re using one.

Cup of cacao, stone, and journal within reach so you don’t have to stand up mid-ritual.

That’s the whole setup.

By the way, the tidying isn’t superstition. It’s a cue. You’re telling your body something different is about to happen here.

Step 2: Arrive, Then Roar

Start with a few slow breaths just to get out of your head and into your heart.

Try breathing in for a count of four, and out for six or seven. Nothing fancy…just enough to signal to your nervous system that nothing’s chasing you.

Then do this one, because it’s the actual doorway of the ritual: Lion’s breath. (Simhasana, if you want the Sanskrit.)

Inhale through your nose.

Open your mouth wide, stick your tongue out toward your chin, and exhale hard through your mouth with sound.

A real exhale (a roar is even better if you can make noise), a forceful sigh if you can’t (thin apartment walls have never once ruined a ritual).

Do it three times.

It’ll feel a little ridiculous the first time.

Good.

That’s the performance mask cracking. Leo season and this portal are both asking the same question underneath all the astrology: What are you still performing, and what would it feel like to just be it instead?

The roar is where you start to find out.

Discover Leo Season and the Lion’s Gate Portal: What Leo Energy Is Actually Asking of You

Step 3: Drink Your Cacao

Before you drink, hold the cup and say a little something, out loud or in your head.

You could thank the plant. Or the land it grew on. That’s not flourish, it’s the start of treating cacao as a relationship with a plant spirit instead of just a recipe.

Drink it slowly.

You don’t drink cacao the way you drink your morning coffee while you’re in traffic trying to get to work.

Let it warm your chest and give it a few minutes to land before you move on. That heart-opening sensation is real, not just a nice story, and it’s worth letting it arrive before you ask anything of it.

One practical note: Ceremonial cacao is a genuinely active plant medicine, not cozy hot chocolate. If you have a heart condition, take MAOIs, or are pregnant, check with your doctor before drinking it, and always source it as ceremonial-grade from a supplier you trust.

Step 4: Sit With Your Stone

While your cacao settles, pick up your stone and hold it against your solar plexus.

You want it right below your sternum, where personal power actually lives in the body. That’s Leo’s seat, not the heart.

Citrine, tiger’s eye, and pyrite are the classic trio here, and any one will do the job. (That said, use whatever stone you’re called to.)

Citrine for warmth and ease. Tiger’s eye for courage. Pyrite for abundance and also protection while doing something visible.

If you want to pull the Sirius thread, a small piece of lapis lazuli at the throat is a nice addition. Sirius has been tied to the throat and the voice in more than one tradition, and a roar has to come from somewhere.

Hold the stone. Breathe into it. Let it just sit there being solid while everything else about this ritual goes a little soft and fuzzy.

Step 5: The Journey

This is the center of the ceremony, and it’s the part I can’t fully script for you. The method itself is built to be responsive, not scripted. But here’s the shape of it.

Try this.

Lie back. Close your eyes.

Let your breath settle into whatever rhythm it wants.

Start your drumming track now if you’re using one.

In your mind, find a threshold.

A gate, a doorway, an archway of light. Whatever shows up first. Don’t overthink it or try to make it pretty.

Walk toward it.

Somewhere near that threshold, a lion is waiting.

Greet it however feels right to you.

Ask it the question or about the situation you wrote on your paper.

Then walk through the gate together.

On the other side, something gets offered to you.

A word, an image, a color, a physical sensation, a memory surfacing out of nowhere.

This is sort of what people mean when they say the Lion’s Gate “activates light codes.” Strip away the language and it’s just information your body already had, finally surfacing where you can use it.

Receive whatever comes without editing it.

Thank the lion. Walk back through the gate the way you came.

Slowly come back to your breath. Wiggle your fingers and toes. Stretch a little. Let your body remember it’s lying on a couch or a floor.

Open your eyes when you feel ready.

Give this ten to twenty minutes. If you tend to fall asleep during this kind of exercise, a quiet timer is not cheating.

Step 6: Come Back and Write

Open your eyes, drink a little water, and pick up your journal before you do anything else. Before you check your phone. Before you talk yourself out of what just happened.

Write down whatever you remember, in whatever order it comes. Can just be ideas and fragments. Don’t worry about composing anything formal.

Don’t analyze it yet. Just get it out of your body and onto the page while it’s still warm.

Then, if you did one, go back to the intention you wrote for 8/8.

Go deeper on How to Set Intentions at the Lion’s Gate (That Actually Work)

Read your intention against what just happened on your journey.

Does it still fit? Does one word need to change? Sometimes the journey confirms exactly what you already knew. Sometimes it quietly rewrites the whole thing.

Both are correct.

Close It Out

To close your ceremony, say thank you. To the cacao, the stone, the lion, and whatever else joined you that you want to name.

Snuff out your candle. Drink a little more water. Eat something with actual substance in the next hour to help you get grounded.

Running This as a Group

Everything above scales up neatly. A few adjustments if you’re holding it in circle with friends:

Have everyone brew their own cup of cacao, or make one large pot and serve it (but ask everyone not to drink) before you all settle.

One person reads the steps aloud and keeps time, including the roar (three lion’s breaths together, out loud, in a room full of people, is genuinely one of my favorite sounds to facilitate).

Use a single drumming track for the journey so everyone’s moving through it on roughly the same rhythm.

There’s a real reason group ritual tends to hit differently than solo practice, and it’s not just vibes — I wrote about the actual mechanism of coregulation here if you want the science underneath why breathing rates and nervous systems entrain to each other in a circle.

Short version: The room’s steadiness becomes contagious, in a good way.

You Don’t Have to Do This Work Alone

If you’d rather sit in a circle where someone else is tracking the timing and the cacao’s already ceremonial-grade, I hold sacred cacao ceremonies and offer Spirit Walking sessions, both online and in person.

This time of year they’re built around exactly this type of ceremony.

Solo ritual is real and valid. And so is wanting someone steady in the room with you.

Disclaimer
The information shared in this post is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. What I share here reflects my own personal experience, research, and practice — it is not a substitute for the guidance of a qualified healthcare provider. If you have a medical condition, are managing a health concern, or are considering changes to your care, please consult your physician or licensed healthcare professional before making any decisions. Your health is your own — honor it accordingly.