The Lion
Leo
Royal and devouring power.
The Lion: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
In alchemy the lion is both a stage and an agent of the work: the green lion that devours the sun, the red lion of the fixed and royal matter. Jung read it as passionate, devouring desire that must be tamed and transformed, and as the kingly strength of the sun, which is strongest in the house of Leo.
The Lion: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The lion of Judah, Samson’s lion, Heracles and the Nemean lion, Daniel in the den, the lion of St. Mark, the lion-headed figure of the Mithraic mysteries.
In the Press’s Books
In “The Three Metamorphoses” the spirit becomes a lion to seize its freedom, and sets its “I will” against the great dragon called “Thou shalt,” before it can become a child. Machiavelli’s prince must be both the fox and the lion.
From the Sources
In a story Pliny reports, a slave woman attacked by lions appeals to the lion as the most generous of animals and the one that has command of all the others.
“…she implored the compassion of the most generous of animals, the one that has the command of all the others, and that she was a prey unworthy of their high repute”
Pliny the Elder, The Natural History of Pliny, Vol. II, Book VIII, Chapter 19, "The Peculiar Character of the Lion". Translated, with copious notes and illustrations, by the late John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., and H. T. Riley, Esq., B.A.; London: Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden, MDCCCLV (Project Gutenberg eBook #60230). The text, read in part
The First Epistle of Peter warns that the devil, the adversary, walks about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
“5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour”
The King James Version of the Bible, 1 Peter 5:8. King James Version, Project Gutenberg eBook #10. The text, read in part
Each passage is quoted from the text named, which the press fetched and read, and was checked word for word against a fresh copy of it; the link opens that copy. Passages are given as printed, without the editors’ footnote numbers, and with words broken across lines joined.
Where to Read
- Mysterium Coniunctionis, CW 14
- Psychology and Alchemy, CW 12
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
In the Glossary: Three metamorphoses, Fox and the lion.
Also among Beasts
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Lion.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/lion.
Symbols That Share Its Terms
Nearby in the alphabet: Lead: The heaviest and darkest metal, where the work begins. Lightning: Sudden illumination, and sudden change. The Lotus: Rising from the mud, to open on the water. The Magician: The master of hidden powers, and their temptation.