2. The Lion: Warmth and the Rhythmic System

A Contemplation on the Heart of Courage

When the Eagle beholds from above, the Lion lives from within.
It does not hover over the world — it breathes it.
Its domain is the golden middle, the field of warmth that joins what thinks and what wills.

The Lion is rhythm made visible.
Its breath is measured but alive, its stride both powerful and graceful.
Around its head radiates a mane of light — a living sun that seems to pulse outward from the chest.
Wherever it moves, the air itself seems to quicken.

So too, in the human being, the rhythmic system is the sun within the body.
It shines through pulse and breath, through the music of life that never ceases between waking and sleep.
Here the heart beats not as a machine, but as a moral center — translating cosmic balance into living warmth.

1. The Field of Warmth

Warmth is not merely temperature; it is a subtle state of relationship.
Cold divides; warmth unites.
When the human heart generates warmth, it is not only heating blood — it is transforming separation into sympathy.

Every act of true interest, of courage, of compassion, releases warmth into the etheric world.
This warmth nourishes not only the body but the surrounding life-field.
The Lion knows this law: that to live is to radiate.

Thus, the rhythmic system stands as the living middle between thinking’s clarity and willing’s gravity.
It is the place where perception and action find reconciliation, where the human being learns to live from the center outward.

2. The Gesture of the Lion

The Lion’s gesture is expansive composure.
Its power does not rush forward like the bull’s; it emanates.
When it roars, it does not scream; it declares being.
Its movements are sovereign — controlled strength suffused with warmth.

When this gesture lives rightly in the human being, we act out of centered calm, our will illumined by heart’s rhythm.
When it is distorted, courage becomes pride, confidence turns to domination, and warmth to rage.

To redeem the Lion within is to let power become presence —
to act not out of impulse, but out of inner harmony.

3. The Gospel of Mark

Mark’s Gospel breathes movement.
It begins not with lineage or vision but with the voice that cries in the wilderness: “Prepare ye the way.”
Its Christ is ever in motion — healing, touching, awakening.
The word that echoes throughout it is “immediately.”

This immediacy is the Lion’s virtue: not haste, but readiness.
Mark reveals the Christ as the Lion of Judah — the living heart of the world, whose strength is service and whose sovereignty is compassion.

Thus, the Lion in us is the place where knowledge becomes deed, and will becomes love in motion.

4. The Heart as Solar Organ

Physiologically, the heart is rhythm; spiritually, it is sun.
It neither rules from above nor labors from below — it mediates.
Every beat is a wave of balance: systole and diastole, contraction and release, offering and receiving.

This dual rhythm echoes through every living process — in breathing, in day and night, in giving and forgiving.
Through such balance, the soul learns to dwell on earth without losing heaven.
The Lion thus stands as guardian of equilibrium — the keeper of courage that knows both tenderness and strength.

5. Contemplative Practice

Sit quietly and place your attention on your breathing.
Notice how the inhale gathers the world into you, and the exhale returns yourself to the world.
Now bring awareness to the region of your heart.
Feel the warmth that lives there — not sentiment, but quiet radiance.

Let it expand as a sun within you, steady and generous.
Then imagine it extending outward — not through effort, but by nature —
a field of calm courage encircling you.
This is the Lion’s gesture in the human form:
the courage to act from love, and the love to act with courage.