The Lion sleeps tonight, they say, but it will soon awaken. In fact, it has woken in many already and you may be one of the woken ones. This lion, like all lions, is a dangerous animal. It is not dangerous, however, to its own kind and does not devour kindred spirits.

It is only dangerous to herd animals that find their protection in numbers and in obedience to group-think.

For example, the gazelle is a beautiful animal but cannot survive alone. The moment it steps out from the herd, it is devoured. Obsessed by fear, its frightened eyes are an invitation to the waiting jaws of its own demise. If the lion doesn’t get it then its own fear will surely consume it. Its only means of survival is constant obedience to the migrating moods and rules of the herd that has no rock to stand on … no Rock of Truth, no soul-based certainty in which to dwell.

Without a Rock of Certainty, the herd members flit across the flat grasslands, following the seasons, water, grass and away from predators, ever scurrying after a truth without stillness.

Yes, the lion must follow these harassed herds but is prone to moments of stillness, of contemplation and reprieve. Beholden to no one and no predator, the lion regulates its own heartbeat and its own momentum.

When it is ready, it pounces. When it is not ready, it rests.

You will recognize a lion but may not know why you do. There’s a stillness and a peace that exudes from these people. You will meet them in the most unexpected places and they may not look, initially, like your kind of person. But, somehow, you’ll be drawn together in a conversation and a smile of recognition will beam into each other’s hearts. Like you, the laws of man will be subservient to the Laws of Soul, the Laws of Truth, the laws that have existed since consciousness birthed itself.

You will, however, only recognize a lion if you are one. And how do you become one? Well, many ways and most are painful on some level.

It may be through some serious health issue – cancer, loss of a limb, an abiding disability and so on. When we are in excruciating and/or constant pain, the cares of the world recede into insignificance and, when we surface above it, the cares of the world stay receded. Only the abiding – like Love, forgiveness and kindness – concern you any more.

It may be through some sort of family dysfunction – abusive parents, distant/uncaring parents, being excluded from parents’ wills, being treated differently from your siblings and the final recognition that there is no law that states that all family members need to actually get on. Through this process you will probably realise that birth families are not there to support you and, most likely, they are there to challenge you. Some people say that highly evolved beings attract lower-evolved beings as parents.

It may be through the despairing realization that you just do not fit into this fickle, dysfunctional world. You may wander for many years, feeling very much alone. Then, when you finally accept that you are, indeed, different, and that’s okay, you’ll start to recognize other loners and lions.

Near death experiences, spiritual awakenings and other events contribute to our lion essence emerging. And, when it does, your real family – your tribe – will start to turn up.

And the lion sleeps no more for, having woken, it can never return to sleep. So, welcome to the tribe!