Lioness

At a certain point in my process play, during one of my many dark nights of the soul, a Lioness Guardian figure appeared, whom I came to know as “Sphinx”. She helped me live through an unfathomably dark time. She is the keeper of all of this work, one expression of my inner wild, and it makes sense to name all that I have to share after her. 

I wrote two songs about her when my Expressive Arts Therapist at the time gave me an assignment to do so. Sphinx is too special to write too much about at once, but I’ve put the songs below.

My invitation to you: Imagine for yourself a fierce, powerful guardian who is on your side and will protect you from anything. Capture the essence in art for your own preservation/anchoring.

The first song is a bit of encouragement from Sphinx.

Endure, endure, endure.

Something is coming that's worth waiting for. Something worth fighting for. Something worth surviving for.

New life is coming that makes it worth the harrowing pangs of birth. New life is coming that makes it worth the harrowing pangs of birth. 

Live on, live on, live on! Lean on our strength and live on!

Something is coming that will heal your broken heart, something worth living for. Something worth forgiving us for.

A new song is being sung into the earth, the heart-wrenching song of birth. Let us gather you up in the folds of our skirt and hold you in endless worth. 

Transform, transform, transform!

It hurts the soul to change form. But new life is coming that makes it worth the heart-wrenching pangs of birth. New life is coming that makes it worth the heart-wrenching song of birth. 

In the second song, she describes our relationship:

I have been known by many a name, there's many a name for me. You have been known by many a face, and I've loved them all faithfully. 

I'm golden and holding, loving you whole. The singing you heard was me. I'm the warm-bodied sand, and the lay of the land. And the healing, beautiful sea. 

Clasped to my chest at the helm of my breast, we'll sail to the glowing suns. And the one who has harmed you flies in alarm, when he sees you and me as One. 

I'm golden and holding, loving you whole, the singing you heard was for you. I'm the smile in their eyes and the pleasant surprise of a loving face looking at you. 

I'm holding you always in love. I'm holding you always in love!

I have since evolved the song a bit further, and I now play it on guitar, and intend to add it to a set when I next perform. Here is a scratch recording where I am trying out some backup vocals, singing a melody that I usually play with the guitar. This is a snapshot of where it is right now.

The lyrics expanded to include the following additions: 

And I'm holding you tight in my paws, protected by my tender claws. With my breath at the back of your neck, you can face what you couldn't face yet.

I'll fill you with oceans and fanciful notions and dances and flights and expanding lights. You're warm from within, you're a sweet little grin. You're a seed and a sprout and a shoot and shout. 

And I'm holding you tight to my chest, carried through crash, trough and crest. With my breath at the back of your neck, you can face what you couldn't face yet. 

Jeanne Moreau as Le Sphinx in a 1954 adaptation of La Machine Infernale by Jean Cocteau

Thumbnail image reverently appropriated from unknown artist on the internet