Leo - the Inner and the Outer Heart

17 May 2025, coloured pencils and photo work

The heart centre within us corresponds to the energy of Leo. The Sun rules the sign of Leo. Its symbol is the circle with a central point. Whenever the Sun transits through this sign, it stimulates the leonine qualities in us.

Leo is the sign of self-consciousness, and the Sun in the heart lotus is its symbol. The self-awareness of a personality that is proud of itself is the first level of development in a human and it is different from being aware of the Self or the Soul. The little ‘I am’ of the personality finds the great ‘I AM’ of the Soul through contemplation in the heart centre.

The heart centre is the pulsating space where we can receive love-energy from subtle sources. The heart is the divine ‘micro-space’, while the cosmic space is the ‘macro-space’ or the absolute God. This space is also located in our heart, the lion's den. We are the heart of space.

To illustrate the relationship between the inner space of the lion's den and cosmic space, I used details of the bronze figure of “A Kashmiri in Meditation” by Malvina Hoffman of the Wellcome Trust ( © ). The figure is surrounded by a circle that extends beyond the surface of the picture. At the centre of the circle there is the figure of a gold-coloured lion. It is surrounded by a blue field as the ‘lion's den’ in the heart, designed with the image of a diamond.

Elements of Nasa photos of galaxies were used for the background, in which the petals of a sunflower are integrated. They refer to the petals of the heart lotus.