The Green Lion Devouring the Sun
alchemy, poetry, and a couple prompts
This week I have been offline for the most part, being a mom, and enjoying a more analog summer. It has been life-changingly good for me, and so I will offer you a very short, simple letter today. Just a poem and a couple of prompts to write from.
The Green Lion
I wrote this poem before I knew about the alchemical symbol of the green lion eating the sun. In alchemical lore, the green lion devouring the sun represents transformation: the volatile wildness of nature consuming the ego’s radiance to create something entirely new. Look it up, it’s so weird and wonderful!
This poem was originally titled, “The Summer of Summer” but when I discovered this ancient alchemy concept, I realized I had written directly to it, without conscious knowledge. Carl Jung would be so pleased!
The Green Lion
I crave the summer of summer
the deepest part of heat and life.
I eat the sun, transform into something
green and miraculous, a slowly unfurling
fiddle head, a strawberry moon.
dappled light and a vase full of marigolds
a wooden window painted in pealing teal
I run until I become a ghost of lace and
filtered sunlight, a subtle dust
of ecstasy.
Leave me here in the
height of summer, leave me here
with my pockets full and my grief undone.
-Alix Klingenberg (from Hermit Season)
Poetry Prompts
What do you crave?
What is the summer of summer?
How do you find yourself when you are lost?
What is alchemizing within you?
What are you letting the heat burn away?
What miraculous green thing might you become?
A longer letter is brewing for next week—but for now, I’m letting the heat do its work, and I hope you are too.
Go outside. Eat something ripe. Become a creature again.
And, if this poem found you at the right moment, send it to someone who might need it or just click the share button <3
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In the dappled light,
Alix
this is great! summer has its own poetry, I like these prompts.
Love the poem and love that you are taking time to be in the real world and in the summer energy. I feel this need so strongly too.