Lions gate portal musings

Contributed by :Dr. Haseena Chokkiyil Ponnambath

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Today happens to be the last day of the 2024 Lions' Portal journey, which started on August 8th and ends today, the 12th. In these 54 years on earth, I came to know about this spiritual portal only this year from my elder sister and again from my young physician at the hospital, where I am admitted for peaceful chemo recovery.

Earlier in the day, as I was strolling barefoot on the freshly dug soil in front of the hospital premises, I accidentally came across a YouTube video about this portal while searching for an audiobook to listen to while walking. I read the description below to confirm the dates of the Lion’s Gate Portal. From what little I knew, I thought it only lasted on the 8th of August. However, the description showed the date as till August 12th. That piqued my curiosity. Together with the excellent voice, and English accent of the speaker I felt drawn in to keep listening. And lo and behold, in a few moments, I started noticing things around me that felt like the universe was speaking to me in myriad ways.

The first thing I noticed was a plain yellow butterfly, and instantly, my home garden came to mind. Years back that  was where I first experimented with the existence of Spirit using Pam Grout’s book E-Squared, and Louise L Hay’s book Heal your life. Those were the books that taught me the principles of Law of attraction and the power of your intentions.Both of them said “you see what you focus on.” On that particular day, I had set my intention on seeing yellow butterflies and miraculously witnessed scores of them in my garden, where I had never noticed a single one before.That was my  first tangible and successful tryst with spirituality. Seeing one yellow butterfly in the hospital garden today evoked the same fond old memory together with many others associated with that time in my life—painful and devastating memories. Yet my eyes followed the butterfly as it flitted from one plant to another. Then, it started coming near me, flying around me, and suddenly, it flew up towards the back of the building,out of vicinity. I felt as if the universe was asking me to look at my past and then leave it forever. ‘You have only the present moment in your hands now,my dear,said the inner voice’. All the while, I was listening to the YouTube podcast about the Lion’s Portal, how the universe speaks to you, and how you can make wonderful shifts in your life through the subtle signs and symbols from the universe.

All of a sudden, a red and black butterfly with beautiful white little spots appeared as if  out of nowhere and started hovering around me and the plants with such vigour that its energy seemed virtually infectious. As I was following its vigorous movements, another insight dawned on me. Isn’t this reminding me of  the ever energetic, effervescent, mentalist/wholistic healer who appeared at a crucial turning point in my life when I was contemplating the treatment strategy for my metastatic cancer? He was running a healing hub called IRON BUTTERFLY,whose logo was exactly of  the same colours on the butterfly that was ecstatically flying around me. And during our first serendipitous meeting, the mentalist with his spiritual vision had given me a tantalising offer of another 39 years on this earth if I took the right treatment now,which was chemical warfare with the enemy inside,’chemotherapy’,an option which was totally out of sync with my philosophy of thought and experience as a holistic healer of three decades.If not,he prophesied that  this year would be my last year on earth.But I was so resistant and adamant on sticking on to my fixed belief systems. However when the lesion went on increasing in size,there came an inner voice from the very tumor in a meditation- “Please give me chemotherapy”. That was so illogical,unreasonable;it went against everything I had ever believed about cancer.But it was again the shout out from the Universe,I needed to come out of my fixed ideas and walk my talk.I always asked my clients to integrate all systems of medicine for the best outcome of any disease and that no system of medicine is complete in itself. And here I was rebelling against the possibilities of chemotherapy in my healing journey.That was  a truly humbling moment.I surrendered to the loud prodding of the Universe and consented to take the treatment for now.The mentalist was the spiritual catalyst for this timely decision. Oh!This was my present. 
 This butterfly was reminding me of the strategy to take at this moment—to transform and metamorphose into the strongest, most energetic version of myself, not only beautiful but also strong, really strong and vigorous. Wasn’t that what my mentalist told me on a previous visit to his surreal abode ? To shed my uncouth feminine body full of emotions and useless fat and build the muscles of my body and mind, to look like a transgender woman rather than the soft, feminine victim self that I always portray? Yes, the black and red butterfly was nothing but my present.

I followed the butterfly with my phone camera for a few minutes, but then I lost interest in it and shifted my gaze to the sky and then to the soft grass on which I was walking barefoot. And again out of nowhere, there landed a plain white butterfly, so calm and serene in its movements. I just followed it with my eyes questioningly. “Now what are you bringing to me, my dear spiritual animal?” I asked it. And the answer reverberated through my mind: “I am your future, my dear—the angelic, divinely guided life you are about to lead. Munna and his seemingly cacophonic suggestions are your portal to that higher level of existence.”Surrender to the present is all you have to  do now.

I was absolutely in awe. I was reminded of the all too common biblical verse, “Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and the doors shall be opened.” The unwavering truth of nature and the universe was manifesting again in front of the seeker. As one of my mentors of the Heal your life community, Babbu ma said, “You don’t search for God; He is already there inside you. You just have to find Him.” And here I am, at the valley of a big mountain. The journey was arduous; it still is, but at last, I feel the veils of ambiguity and doubt shifting from my inner eyes and the shimmering beauty of the real truth pervading the dark corners of my consciousness. As the podcast came to an end, the only emotion I felt was overwhelming gratitude. Nothing but gratitude could describe that satoric moment in my life. The wait was finally coming to an end.Salute to my eternal mentors Louise L Hay and Pam Grout.