The Lioness Encounter
We’ve just returned home from our South Africa Retreat, and my heart is still stretched wide open from Back to the Roots—the spiritual retreat and sacred tour we had the honor to facilitate. There’s a moment I want to share with you. It caught me by surprise, cracked something open, and showed me what it means to walk through fear with reverence.
We were on a wildlife safari experience, surrounded by golden grasses dancing in the wind, the kind of African landscape that awakens something ancient in the body. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, a lioness emerged. She walked straight toward our open-air safari vehicle… and kept walking until she was right beside us.
Facing Fear
To some, this might have been awe-inspiring. For me, it was the exact edge I had dreaded.
Because here’s the truth: one of my biggest fears in leading this spiritual journey was that something would go wrong in the wildlife safari. That I would be responsible for leading people into danger. That someone might get hurt. That I or another might get eaten. The fear wasn’t metaphorical, it was primal, bodily, alive in my nervous system.
And yet, there I was. Right next to a wild lioness in her natural habitat. No fences. No guarantees. Just presence.
The Lioness Walked with Power, not Threat
But, as it turns out, she didn’t come to scare. She came in total sovereignty. Just a quiet, powerful knowing of who she was. And because of that, I saw the fear I’d been carrying: the fear of the wild, fear of leadership, of responsibility… it wasn’t rooted in the reality of danger, but in a deeper discomfort of the wild within.
It wasn’t about whether the lioness should be feared. It’s about understanding the kind of fear she can awaken.
Not panic. Not avoidance. (Even if both were totally present for a moment.)
But the kind that reminds you that you’re in the presence of something real, raw, and worthy of reverence.
And the same is true of the wildness within ourselves, especially the parts we’re afraid to bring into the light. That wildness is not here to harm us, but to lead us back to who we truly are.
This is the heart of our Alchemical Constellation work
It teaches us that these moments, both external and internal, are not random, but relational. That the world is not just happening around us; it’s speaking to us. Every emotion, every synchronicity, every unexpected encounter is part of a greater unfolding; a message from the invisible field that holds our ancestors, our soul, and the deep intelligence of life itself.
Our Alchemical Constellations invite a deep exploration. The path we walk is widened but also, we learn to expertly navigate the route and over time, we change the question of “Why is this happening to me?” to, “What deeper truth is being revealed through this moment?”
The lioness moment acted as a mirror for what was deep. She demonstrated sovereignty and an undeniable primordial spirit. Her presence sparked something in me… and if I’m honest, that first spark was a reaction, but when I tuned in… it was a remembrance.
The Alchemical Leadership
True leadership begins where certainty ends. It’s born from trust, the kind that allows us to step into the unknown and attune to the quiet movement beneath the moment.
I’m still integrating everything the lioness showed me. But one thing is clear.
I’m still integrating everything the lioness showed me. But one thing is clear:
I’m not leading from fear.
I’m walking forward, like the lioness, rooted, sovereign, and with my inner wildness awake and respected.
To lead like the lioness is to know who you are without needing to prove it.
To move with presence instead of performance.
To trust the land beneath your feet.
And to recognize that the wild is not something outside to be feared… but something inside, waiting to be reclaimed.
This is the invitation I extend to those ready to meet their own wild, sovereign truth;
To lead from within. To remember your heart as a compass.
And to honor the wild, in all of us..
