Ceres is in Gate 63 just now, and tomorrow will shift into Gate 22, meeting the South Node in Gate 12.   The clear message for this week is that we are well nourished when we are present for each step of the journey.  We are only hungry when we try to rush forward and miss out on the treasures that are lovingly laid on our pathway.

For a long time I wondered why Gate 63 was called After Completion and Gate 64 was called Before Completion.  There are 64 Hexagrams in the I Ching.

Surely Before Completion would come before After Completion?  After much reading and contemplation I realised that Gate (Hexagram) 64 is like a transitional stage.  It comes after the completion inherent in Gate (Hexagram) 63 and before the new beginning of Gate (Hexagram) 1.  So the Before Completion of Gate 64 doesn’t mean this completion, it means what we must do to begin moving towards the next completion in our new cycle of experience.

So whenever a planet is sitting in Gate 63, as Ceres is today, it’s clearly at the end of a cycle.  Perfect for Mother’s Day!

Gate 63 is only halfway through Pisces, and it’s interesting to have a look at what it needs to shift through before it reaches the astrological new beginning of Aries – Gates 22 and 36.  Both emotional manifestor gates.  Gate 22 reaches for something true amidst the falsity, breaking down old social structures that might keep us trapped into doing the nice thing rather than the true thing for ourselves.  Gate 36 reaches for what is trapped in darkness and confusion, seeking to free it before the new energy of Aries rushes forth to renew things.

Once I figured all this out, I began to wonder – why are Gates 63 and 64 opposite each other astrologically in the Human Design System?  An opposition represents two polarities that we tend to swing between.  We start out being unable to see how these energies can coexist.  Gradually, as we shift from one pole to the other and back again we discover ways to integrate the two.  The swings become less wild and eventually we find a balanced central resting place.

 

The swinging poles of Gates 63 and 64 are important because they teach us how to move through times of transition in our lives. Note that they are both in the Crown Chakra.  During transitional times, we are connected to ‘reality’ at the level of our spiritual inspiration.  The next port of call is our emotions – Gate 22 and 36 – and then we move to the Aries Point contained in the Gate of Innocence (25) in the Ji Centre – our soul geometry, identity and direction.

These are the natural steps we take as we move through these transitional times.  The polarity of Gates 63 and 64 remind us to hold simultaneously the understanding that we are both releasing the old and beginning the new.  We must trust in own knowing that something new has begun for us.  As yet it’s not clear, and neither do we have any idea how we will live in this new place, what will support us and nourish us there.  While taking these small exploratory steps, we also have to hold in our consciousness the need to attend to every small detail of completion of our old world.  If we don’t give this attention to the process of completion, we drag the bit of the old world that we have tried to ignore through the gate with us; we basically recreate our old reality in the new place.

A few hours ago the Moon passed through Gate 53 – sometimes considered a gate that initiates change.  It had a powerful effect because it connected with Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Eris in Gate 42.   You may have felt an intense wave of fear – I’m stuck here in this place, I’ll never be free to move on – etc.   But that 10 hour lunar transit carried a seed of the new for you.  It’s very likely you will have significant dreams over the next few days, if you haven’t already.  And even if you don’t remember them, you will probably feel like sleeping so that you can connect more easily with the collective unconscious.

 

The Moon was in Gate 53 from 8th May 6.36am till 16.52pm UT.

This chart shows how we function in our deep sleep layers when we are deeply immersed in the collective archetype of humanity.  In particular the energy format channel of cycles – connecting the Sacral to the Root – is activated.  Given the number of planets in that channel, this activation opened up a floodgate of deep subconscious material that can now move through into conscious reality.

But you don’t have to be in a deep sleep to access these archetypal layers.  As soon as you lay down – get horizontal – the theory is that you shift from a 64 gate matrix to this 15 gate matrix.  Your functional consciousness shifts and you begin accessing a different reality.  We call it a nap .

Eleanor Haspel-Portner was told by Ra Uru Hu that in this sleep chart the Design Crystal resides in the Sacral Centre, and the Personality Crystal in the Root Centre. (1)  Both were activated in this transit – you can see that both the Root and Sacral Centres are activated, giving a powerful shift in soul direction and identity for each one of us on what is the first day following a massive 6 week activation to the Ji Centre via the Channel of Initiation. Yes today is the first day that both the Ji Centre and Heart Centre have not been activated by transit since way back on 1st April. (2)

When Ceres shifts to Gate 22 tomorrow – the Gate of Grace – it will meet the South Node in Gate 12 – Standstill.   She will be there till 30th May. This will be a time when we question deeply what it is that truly nurtures us, and feel the need to act in ways that not everyone will understand.  It’s also likely that we will need to grieve what we are leaving behind, since Ceres is an indicator of loss and grief.

We have a set up here for us to  find a renewed sense of core self worth in our feminine aspects.  We can rage about what is lost or we can grieve it and move on.  Ceres shows where we have neurotically sought to have our needs met in relationship and ignored what was truly nurturing to us.  We are shifting out of trying to control what we receive and opening up to what is truly on offer.  Today the Sun is conjunct Hekate (she represents crossroads in life) in the yin Gate of Earth.  Venus is conjunct Eris in the Gate of Increase (42) tomorrow as the Sun moves in to share a gate with Sedna (in Gate 23).  The women of our starry skies are speaking to us loud and clear – we are taking the steps of transition, simultaneously birthing and dying.

 

(1) Calculations and Layers of the Multidimensional Design System by Eleanor Haspel-Portner PhD.  p. 21.

(2) We had one day 28th /29th April when there was nothing in Gate 51.