Ancient Gatekeepers Once Were Lions

Depiction of Aker, God of the horizon on the Khonsu wooden sarcophagus, Cairo Museum, Egypt

In the most ancient Egyptian dynasties risen and fallen many thousands of years ago now, Aker was the powerful earth god who presided over the horizon. Guarding the eastern and western thresholds to the underworld and taking the form of two lions.

The lion of yesterday faced the sunset to the west. The lion of tomorrow faced the sunrise to the east. The sun disk in the centre rested upon the point of perfect balance. Its horizon the eternal present moment in which all life on earth is lived. This very first lion's gate to the underworld that whispered the secrets of life and death as the Kemetic year rebirthed itself.

In a very different dynasty across broiling seas, the number 8 was venerated in ancient China for its unbroken flow of energy and power. Its symbolism and numeracy conferring material health, wealth and wisdom. Infinity tipped on its head or landing on its feet, its double blessing an auspicious number.

And even farther north at the top of the world, ancient druids and wyrd women paused to scry this cross quarter threshold between equinox and solstice. Tracing the sun through their skies and lives, weaving their fates to its beams and calling to its secret names.

All of those magics are weaved into this day and certainly more besides. Mythology is just the way humans sketch meaning from the ineffable. Since time began crafting stories that grant understanding, teaching us the ways of this world and our mortal selves.

I wonder what the lions of yesterday and tomorrow still roar into our hummingbird hearts. What fortune could yet smile upon us. What seeds are turning in our bellies before we keen their yearning company. I know I am in the company of all those ancient souls who have looked to the skies on this day and wondered the same before me.


Words c. Kerrie Basha 2025