Evil on the Rise and on the Table: A Call for Lion Energy

In yesterday’s DM, we meditated on the beauty, majesty, nobility, communal consciousness, fierceness, strength and virility of lions. And on two lion-like individuals, Hildegard of Bingen and Joanna Macy.

Hildegard of Bingen took on Evil in her day with the strength and assurance of a lion. Read her letters to emperors, popes, abbots and archbishops (I reproduce 50 of them in my book, Hildegard of Bingen’s Book of Divine Works plus Letters and Songs). Read them and stand back! She does not mince words. She is a lion. Here are some examples:

She told the emperor he was an “infant and a madman” and calls the greedy, “snakelike” and “hellish” who say, Nothing excites me except what benefits me directly….If I am always busy being compassionate, what good will it do me?…Let others take care of themselves. She paints the antichrist.

Today we need to recover this lion energy as individuals but also in our work worlds and professions and citizenship. Evil is very much afoot in our time and it is above table, just as Jung said it would be in the Age of Aquarius. But do we have the courage and the political will to do something about it?

This is where the lion comes in. The lion-energy that signifies, as we saw in yesterday’s DM, “continual struggle, solar light, morning, regal dignity and victory.”

An interesting fact about lions is that they sleep up to 20 hours per day. Which is to say, they take care of themselves. All prophets, all spiritual warriors, need to take care of themselves. Didn’t Jesus—a lion for sure—say to “love others as you love yourself”? Not as you hate yourself or neglect yourself but as you love yourself.

When I call the mystic a “lover,” I am applying the love of the mystic to oneself as well as to others (including endangered species like lions). Take care of oneself spiritually as well as physically and relationship-wise. Know your needs and attend to them as you can.

Among the needs we have are to nurture the mystic and prophet in us and one way to do this is by bringing mystic-warriors or lions into your life. Read the mystics. Use the four paths of creation spirituality to assist you to draw out what is most useful for your own spiritual journey that is also named by the four paths. The via positiva, negativa, creativa and transformativa are there to build you up for the battles of our times.

Evil is in the headlines daily: corruption, genocide, ecocide and more. That is the world we are living in. The lion in us roams and hunts for something better. And is unafraid to look evil in the eye and say, “Be gone!” The lion performs exorcisms on the demons of our time including savage capitalism, power for power’s sake, pseudo-masculine power-over dynamics, reptilian brain conquest at any cost, greed.

Find your pride–that is your allies and community to assist you along the way. Like lions do. Care for the young and those not yet born by loving Mother Earth and making present and visible the return to a society and soul that is gender-balanced, where the Magna Mater has a place at the table. Again.

Where Wisdom and not just knowledge is taught in all our schools from kindergarten through law school and medical school and seminaries and business schools. And some day maybe in a Supreme Court?

How appropriate that we set aside the Sabbath day this week to remember and honor the Lion, the Magna Mater, in our midst and in our souls.

See Matthew Fox, Hildegard of Bingen: A Saint For Our Times: Unleashing Her Power in the 21st Century, pp. 97-109.

And Fox, Hildegard of Bingen’s Book of Divine Works with Letters and Songs, pp. 270-363.

And Fox, Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen.

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.

And Fox, Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ.

Banner Image: A rare white lion, considered sacred in the South African region of Timbavati, where Andrew Harvey leads pilgrimages to encounter them. Learn more HERE. Wikimedia Commons

Queries for Contemplation

Is Evil no longer under the table as Jung predicted it would be in the Age of Aquarius? Are you entertaining the lion in yourself and  others at this critical time in planetary and human history? Is the Magna Mater returning with your help?

Related Readings by Matthew Fox

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.

Hildegard of Bingen’s Book of Divine Works: With Letters and Songs

Today there are many websites and Hildegard groups that celebrate and honor Hildegard’s teachings, philosophy, art, and music. Author 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. A sixteenth century follower of Martin Luther called her “the first Protestant” because of her appeals to reform the church. As a writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, Benedictine abbess, healer, artist, feminist, and student of science, Hildegard was a pioneer in many fields in her day.

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.

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

Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election

Matthew Fox tells us that he had always shied away from using the term “Anti-Christ” because it was so often used to spread control and fear. However, given today’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables in this book employing the archetype for the cause of justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a moment, for examining the archetype of the Antichrist, it is now…Read this book with an open mind. Good and evil are real forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.
For immediate access to Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, order the e-book with 10 full-color prints from Amazon HERE. 
To get a print-on-demand paperback copy with black & white images, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE. 
To receive a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for immediate download.