World Lion Day 2025

World Lion Day was yesterday, August 10. I think lions are worth our meditation and appreciation—as is any beautiful and wonderful creature. Such meditations are a spiritual practice for those who walk the path of creation spirituality, after all. 

Wisdom is synonymous with “beauty and terror” as Nicolas of Cusa and the poet Rilke, among other mystics, remind us.

A lion is stately and noble—a royal person?—and beautiful and, if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time, terrifying. A lion’s roar is “second to none” and can be heard at a distance of five miles! Interestingly, it is the female lions—the lionesses—who do the major hunting—90% of it in fact.

I recently had a personal lion experience when I was extending a blessing to Joanna Macy on her death bed. Her immediate family was in attendance, and her good friend (and former student of mine) folk singer Jennifer Berezan blessed her with her powerful and iconic song,

I went through a certain litany of holy ones to welcome Joanna to the next life, among them the Buddha, the lineage of Dalai Lamas, her friend Thich Nhat Hanh, St. Francis, and Hildegard of Bingen—and when I came to Hildegard Joanna visibly responded, rising from her bed with a shout. Intuitively, I added, “Hildegard, a lion…” and Joanna responded again. And I added that Joanna too was a lion.

I am reflecting on where that intuitive moment came from and its meaning. A lion for me represents elegance and grace—and fierceness. I did not know two weeks ago that it is the female lions who do the hunting, but I did know that lionesses carry plenty of masculine energy. As did Hildegard who urged her sisters to be virtuous “and manly.” She wrote an opera (the oldest opera in the West by 300 years) on the virtues called “Play of the Virtues” (Ordo Virtutum). 

There was a sense of lion energy in Joanna—a deep strength and purpose that would not be deterred. As there was in Hildegard. In my book on the Sacred Masculine, I offer the “Hunter-Gatherer” as one of the rich archetypes by which to recover the healthy masculine (along with Father Sky, Green Man, Blue Man, Spiritual Warrior, Fatherhood, etc.).

Lions are hunter-gatherers and they are very communal, their community called a “pride.” They care about the common good. Baby lions are raised by the pride itself and especially the females of the pride. The lion is known as the “king of beasts” for a reason.

I have had several important friends in my life who were Leos–lions by their astrological charts. Symbolically, the lion symbolizes “continual struggle, solar light, morning, regal dignity and victory.” Joanna and Hildegard shared those features. “The lion victorious represents the exaltation of virility” writes Spanish artist and symbolist J. E. Cirlot.  The wild lioness is also a symbol of the Magna Mater, the Great Mother.*  Surely Joanna and Hildegard were about the Magna Mater as well.

The idea of Lion Day came about in 2013 under the leadership of Dereck and Beverly Joubert, who aligned with National Geographic to preserve the wild cats. The lion population is in danger, it has depleted in Africa by 45% since 1990. The lion is the second largest cat, only its cousin tiger being larger.

There is much to celebrate and be grateful for and to work to defend on behalf of the lions and lionesses of this world. May they—and the Magna Mater—thrive in us all and the cultures we give birth to.

* See J.E. Cirlot, A Dictionary of Symbols, pp. 180-182.

See Matthew Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine, pp. 77-104.

And Fox, “Spiritual Warriorhood,” in Fox, One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Faith Traditions, pp. 404-423.

And Fox, Hildegard of Bingen: A Saint For Our Times.

And Fox, Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen.

And Fox, Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations.

And Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice.

And Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.

And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society.

To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video meditation, click HERE.

Banner Image: A lion roars in Maasai Mara National Park, Kenya. Photo by Byrdyak. Wikimedia Commons.

Queries for Contemplation

Do you find this meditation helpful for developing your own lion energy, including your regal dignity, healthy virility, and heralding of the Magna Mater?

Related Readings by Matthew Fox

The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine

To awaken what Fox calls “the sacred masculine,” he unearths ten metaphors, or archetypes, ranging from the Green Man, an ancient pagan symbol of our fundamental relationship with nature,  to the Spiritual Warrior….These timeless archetypes can inspire men to pursue their higher calling to connect to their deepest selves and to reinvent the world.
“Every man on this planet should read this book — not to mention every woman who wants to understand the struggles, often unconscious, that shape the men they know.” — Rabbi Michael Lerner, author of The Left Hand of God

One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths

Matthew Fox calls on all the world traditions for their wisdom and their inspiration in a work that is far more than a list of theological position papers but a new way to pray—to meditate in a global spiritual context on the wisdom all our traditions share. Fox chooses 18 themes that are foundational to any spirituality and demonstrates how all the world spiritual traditions offer wisdom about each.“Reading One River, Many Wells is like entering the rich silence of a masterfully directed retreat. As you read this text, you reflect, you pray, you embrace Divinity. Truly no words can fully express my respect and awe for this magnificent contribution to contemporary spirituality.” –Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit

Hildegard of Bingen, A Saint for Our Times: Unleashing Her Power in the 21st Century

Matthew Fox writes in Hildegard of Bingen about this amazing woman and what we can learn from her.
In an era when women were marginalized, Hildegard was an outspoken, controversial figure. Yet so visionary was her insight that she was sought out by kings, popes, abbots, and bishops for advice.
“This book gives strong, sterling, and unvarnished evidence that everything – everything – we ourselves become will affect what women after us may also become….This is a truly marvelous, useful, profound, and creative book.” ~~ Andrew Harvey, author of The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism.

Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen

An introduction to the life and work of Hildegard of Bingen, Illuminations reveals the life and teachings of one of the greatest female artists and intellectuals of the Western Mystical Tradition.  At the age of 42, she began to have visions; these were captured as 36 illuminations–24 of which are recorded in this book along with her commentaries on them.
“If one person deserves credit for the great Hildegard renaissance in our time, it is Matthew Fox.”  – Dr Mary Ford-Grabowsky, author of Sacred Voices.

Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations

As Matthew Fox notes, when an aging Albert Einstein was asked if he had any regrets, he replied, “I wish I had read more of the mystics earlier in my life.” The 365 writings in Christian Mystics represent a wide-ranging sampling of these readings for modern-day seekers of all faiths — or no faith. The visionaries quoted range from Julian of Norwich to Martin Luther King, Jr., from Thomas Merton to Dorothee Soelle and Thomas Berry.
“Our world is in crisis, and we need road maps that can ground us in wisdom, inspire us to action, and help us gather our talents in service of compassion and justice. This revolutionary book does just that. Matthew Fox takes some of the most profound spiritual teachings of the West and translates them into practical daily mediations. Study and practice these teachings. Take what’s in this book and teach it to the youth because the new generation cannot afford to suffer the spirit and ethical illiteracy of the past.” — Adam Bucko, spiritual activist and co-founder of the Reciprocity Foundation for Homeless Youth.

A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice

In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox delivers a profound exploration of the meaning and practice of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the future that promises personal, social, and global healing, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, leading the way toward a gentler and more ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate activity.
“Well worth our deepest consideration…Puts compassion into its proper focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register

Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality

Matthew Fox lays out a whole new direction for Christianity—a direction that is in fact very ancient and very grounded in Jewish thinking (the fact that Jesus was a Jew is often neglected by Christian theology): the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way.
“Original Blessing makes available to the Christian world and to the human community a radical cure for all dark and derogatory views of the natural world wherever these may have originated.” –Thomas Berry, author, The Dream of the Earth; The Great Work; co-author, The Universe Story

Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society

Visionary theologian and best-selling author Matthew Fox offers a new theology of evil that fundamentally changes the traditional perception of good and evil and points the way to a more enlightened treatment of ourselves, one another, and all of nature. In comparing the Eastern tradition of the 7 chakras to the Western tradition of the 7 capital sins, Fox allows us to think creatively about our capacity for personal and institutional evil and what we can do about them. 
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a better vision and depth of perception far beyond the grasp of any one single science.  A breath-taking analysis.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, author of Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics