🦁 Lions, Lions and Lions – Oh My!

Whilst my yellow brick road is a little less biodiverse than Dorothy's in The Wizard of Oz, one creature keeps roaring its way into my path: Lions.

From ancient ruins to European palaces, football pitches to fantasy literature, lions seem to be everywhere I turn. Most recently, they greeted me at the Palais Longchamp in Marseille. Two male and two female lions flank the grand entrance, quietly majestic yet unmissably symbolic. It was less of a gentle nudge and more of a mighty roar: Lions mean something. And often, that "something" is leadership, power, and presence. Funny how visiting somewhere new can reopen your eyes and awareness to something you had held at the back of your mind.

🕰️ A Roaring Legacy

Lions have held symbolic weight for millennia.

They once roamed as far north as Greece and the Balkans, with Europe's wild lions going extinct by around 100 CE. The Barbary lions of North Africa, featured in Roman arenas and European heraldry, vanished from the wild in the 20th century. But in the arts, spirituality, and collective imagination, lions have never gone extinct.

Across continents, from Mesopotamian temple gates to Thai shrines and Chinese palaces, lions have guarded the thresholds of power, often paired in male and female forms. In these stone or stylised forms, lions echo the values of strength, vigilance, authority, and protection.

♌✨ Lions in the Stars: Leo, the Sphinx & Regulus

The lion’s symbolism stretches beyond Earth, right up into the stars.

In astrology, Leo is the sign ruled by the Sun, representing courage, creativity, leadership, and self-expression. At the heart of this constellation lies Regulus, the “heart of the lion” and one of the four Royal Stars of ancient Persia, considered a gateway of kingship and power.

Some esoteric traditions even suggest that the Great Sphinx of Giza, which combines the body of a lion and the head of a human (with most scholars agreeing it was initially a Lion and later changed to feature the head of Pharaoh Khafre, at some point) was aligned with the constellation Leo during the Age of Leo (approximately 10,500 BCE). Whether literal or symbolic, this alignment reinforces the lion's ancient link to sovereignty and cosmic significance.

Then there’s Hercules and the Nemean Lion, a myth over 2,000 years old. Slaying the lion was Hercules’ first labour—and unlike other beasts, the lion's hide was impenetrable. He defeated it through strategy and strength, wearing its skin as a symbol of triumph. This myth still holds space in our collective psyche today, resurfacing in pop culture, spiritual iconography, and even superhero origin stories.

🗽Sculpted Styles of Leadership

Lions in sculpture offer insight into the leadership ideals of different cultures.

At Palais Longchamp, the four lions create a sense of balance—two male, two female. In medieval European art, lions became more stylised, sometimes resembling oversized dogs on coats of arms. Meanwhile, in Asia, lions were more compact, decorative, and symbolic. Chinese guardian lions (shishi), often a male-female pair, protected sacred spaces. In India and Thailand, lions (or singha) stood at temple entrances, strong and divine.

Despite artistic differences, one thing remained: lions always stood at the front of temples, palaces, and gates. Like true leaders.

Leadership: to go first. To lead the way.

At its heart, leadership is the act of stepping forward — before the crowd, before certainty, before applause. It’s about presence, direction, and courage. Just like the lions that flank the entrances of temples, palaces, and city gates across the world, leadership stands at the front. Not only as a guardian, but as a signal. A symbol of strength, of clarity, of protection.

Lions don’t hide at the back. They take up space at the front. Bold, still, and seen.

To lead is not always to roar the loudest — sometimes it’s simply about standing where others hesitate, holding space, and showing the way.

🦁 Lions and Teams: A Female-Led Pride

Unlike most big cats, lions live in prides. They’re not lone hunters. They’re social, strategic, and fiercely protective of their group.

Echoing the gender labour divide in humans, lionesses do most of the work—hunting, raising cubs, and maintaining the group’s cohesion. Yet for centuries, lion symbolism has fixated on male attributes: power, dominance, control.

Today, maybe it's time for a different interpretation. Consider England’s national football identity. ⚽The famous Three Lions crest has become a symbol of pride and potential. Despite the decades of roaring hot air from the media tabloids, it’s the Lionesses, England’s women’s team, who’ve brought home the Euros in 2022, showing the world that leadership, determination, and victory don’t belong to one gender.

Whilst leadership, like life, isn't as binary as winning or losing or pitting one gender against another (➡️signpost to The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek expanding on game theory, Finite and Infinite Games by James P.Carse), it does neither gender any justice to ignore the realities of this and the consequences of such.

📚 Stories and Song

Lions reign in modern storytelling, too.

In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Aslan is a Christ-like figure—noble, self-sacrificing, wise. In The Lion King, Simba’s journey (inspired by Hamlet and African storytelling) explores what it means to take rightful leadership—how courage, grief, and maturity shape a ruler. The Disney live-action remake reintroduced these themes to a new generation, but with more nuance, questioning what kind of leadership truly sustains a kingdom.

🦁💖My favourite reference though? Kate Bush’s haunting song, “Oh England My Lionheart”. A poetic, melancholic tribute to a nation’s spirit, it evokes honour, bravery, and lost chivalry. The term lionheart—once associated with Richard the Lionheart and the crusades—still captures something noble and defiant. Though we can now critique the colonial violence of that era, the symbol of a lionheart persists in our language as a shorthand for courage, resolve, and soul.

🦅🐻 🐲🦄🥝More Than Lions: Global Totems of Power

Of course, lions aren’t the only symbolic beasts.

Eagles are revered for vision and dominance—iconic for the USA, Germany, and Rome.

Bears symbolise strength and introspection—often tied to Russia and indigenous cultures.

Dragons, unicorns, elephants, and the noble kiwi also feature across national symbols and spiritual traditions.

So why do these symbols matter?

Because they’re shortcuts to values: Power. Honour. Protection. Wisdom. Strategy. And more importantly, they ask something of us.

🪞Symbols as Mirrors: Are We Living Up to Them?

When we drape ourselves in symbols—whether lions on a football shirt or eagles in government seals—we’re saying something about who we are and what we aspire to.

But here’s the real question:

• Are we actually living in alignment with the values those animals represent?

• Do we embody the courage, integrity, and responsibility we assign to those creatures?

• On a geopolitical level, it’s a worthy debate.

• And on a personal level, it’s a reflection worth sitting with.

🛡️ What’s Your Leadership Crest?

If you had to choose an animal—real or mythical—as your personal leadership symbol, what would it be?

🦁 The lion—proud, present, social, and strong?

🦊 The fox—clever, agile, resourceful?

🐳 The whale—wise, emotionally attuned, steady?

Whether it’s the solar sign of Leo with its radiant heart star Regulus, or a more subtle creature of the shadows, ask yourself:

What animal sits at the gates of your values?

And more importantly:

Are you living up to the symbol on your own personal crest?