Lion-man fights Lion-beast

Apollo plays his Golden lyre

amidst the Solar flowers

The Spirit-Lion roars above

Melting into the Sun-Light

Illuminating his Lion-Heart

Causing his claw-clad paws to flail

as the luminous royal crown radiates

down.

 

Melanie, Bali 2010

 

 

 

 

Dazzled by the heat and light

The lion combusts with pride.

The big cat purred as he danced with the Gladiator,

Swirling and curving in the parched heat

Basking in the dream of the crown.

 

Anonymous, London 2014

 

 

 

 

 

On a hot summer’s day

I look at you

Big, burly King of Hearts

My spirit leaps

 

I bow to joy

I bow to life

Loudly, rowdily, visibly

 

We circle around you

Always

 

Ursula D., London 2014

 

 

 

 

 

The Lion

 

I wrestled with my pride too long,

 

Forgot the sunflowers you brought.

 

We wore a crown of Summer then,

 

But courage faded with the dark.

 

I always loved you – gambler, rascal –

 

Still love your daring, restless heart.

 

And so I remember our future,

 

And fight my way to another start.

 

Sophie Juneau 1st Jan 2014

 

 

I roar in anguish.

The world is burnished, burning.

Where is my light?

 

I destroy everything and everyone,

Seeing that they cannot be this light.

 

While silently, the heart and crown

Radiate down,

Pulsating again and again

Sending balm to this unbearable pain

 

But I neither see nor hear.

 

The angels watch in pity.

 

Melanie, Old Warden, 31.1.2016

 

 

The lion’s light brings strength to fight

 

The dreaded inner beast

 

Who’d quell the flight to higher realms

 

The crown above the lyre below

 

Awash the golden glow

 

The wooded nymph awaits the night

 

From heaven looking down

 

The sun commands the crown

 

                                                                        Kim S., Phoenix, 31.12.2019

 

 

Beneath the mythic crown

Beyond parched lands

In shade and shadows the sunflower grows

 

Golden light, yet harsh

demands a safer place

to rest and gently shield its face

Jacqueline, 1.1.2021, online

 

 

 

Meditation on the Leo glyph:

The natural progression of fun and exertion after the carefulness of Cancer. I see the shape of a roller coaster or slide. I imagine Mother Mary's hair or veil when the angel came to her to tell her she would have a child and she responded "Let it be done unto me": Ultimate trust and love. The loop at the end of the glyph reminds me of the question mark of self-expression. Something doesn't exist in its form until you create it. I also see the unraveling of potential from a closed circle to an extended hand. Finally, the image of a pinball machine occurred to me: What you create goes for a ride you can't fully control. Surprise and delight.

Amy Alexandro Jones, January 2021, Queens, NY

 

 

 

Leo

 

and the Sun shines with no concern

 

for the great battle with Hercules,

 

for the song of Apollo,

 

for the adoration of the Sunflower.

 

All on Earth must adore,

 

Except......the eyeless shrimp,

 

the blind fish, the unconcerned fungus.

 

King, don't burn us, don't leave us.

 

All the stories of the child eating gods

 

start here and spread into the misery of power.

 

But the great joy and majesty of heat

 

and gold and Helios, and ego. 

 

 

Sarah Fuhro      January 2, 2022