"..so the first basic characteristic of the coeur de lion is that thought does not appear as thought because it emanates like the sun into the world and remains disguised in that conformity with its motion.." (Hillman, Thought of the Heart)
Last night Jodi gave me a roar, and this morning I thought of lions, forgetting about tonight's full moon in Leo.
Its not unusual for me to think of lions - they are potent symbols and often used in alchemy - red, green, pointing to desire, to the work of making gold.
They remind me that Venus and the Sun are not so very far apart, of the tarot card, Strength (also called Force) in which a pregnant woman gently holds the mouth of the beast.
Something else that Hillman writes stays with me - that the dry desert of the heart is the birth place of lion cubs - stillborn - needing to be roared into life.
Perhaps I love this image - of cubs being roared into being inside my heart - because of the promise it holds, awakening the poetic, beautiful animal side of love.
None of the transcendental, 'spiritual' models of love hold me like this. To me there must be sulphur - desire - and salt - experience, for love to be made whole.
But this passage seems to say that heart-love is like the sun, that hearts-thoughts and imaginings are akin to consciousness, solar, central and essential to the point of taken-for-granted-ness.
It makes me wonder what else the heart has to say other than what is always there, circulating, beating out its rythym and keeping the body alive.
Are lion cubs, deserts, romantic poetic images the thoughts of the heart or just ideas about the heart?
Last night Jodi gave me a roar, and this morning I thought of lions, forgetting about tonight's full moon in Leo.
Its not unusual for me to think of lions - they are potent symbols and often used in alchemy - red, green, pointing to desire, to the work of making gold.
They remind me that Venus and the Sun are not so very far apart, of the tarot card, Strength (also called Force) in which a pregnant woman gently holds the mouth of the beast.
Something else that Hillman writes stays with me - that the dry desert of the heart is the birth place of lion cubs - stillborn - needing to be roared into life.
Perhaps I love this image - of cubs being roared into being inside my heart - because of the promise it holds, awakening the poetic, beautiful animal side of love.
None of the transcendental, 'spiritual' models of love hold me like this. To me there must be sulphur - desire - and salt - experience, for love to be made whole.
But this passage seems to say that heart-love is like the sun, that hearts-thoughts and imaginings are akin to consciousness, solar, central and essential to the point of taken-for-granted-ness.
It makes me wonder what else the heart has to say other than what is always there, circulating, beating out its rythym and keeping the body alive.
Are lion cubs, deserts, romantic poetic images the thoughts of the heart or just ideas about the heart?
Was there not stuff written around the idea that there is a seat of consciousness in the heart? That there is wisdom contained there?
ReplyDeleteMy darling Leo soul sister roared her daughter out ... and it reminds me that often babies do not breathe or cry until they hear their mother's voice. I remember saying to Karen to talk to Sabriyya to get her to start breathing once she was born.
All this talk of Lions and roaring is so Leo is it not ... I even had great hair today (as a side comment!)
I think from now on I'll imagine all my small fledgingly ideas and projects as tiny lion cubs and I will roar them to life. After this past week I'm not going to sit down and be 'nice' any more. I'm going to roar my truth out loud and proud!