My Life as a Lioness

By Marcel van Heijzen

The story starts with the introduction of a female lion, Bahty, who is guided by her feelings, and the lion pride does not accept this behaviour. Rather than conforming to the culture of the pride, Bahty accepts that she has to leave the pride to follow her intuition.

Initially, Bahty is very upset about the non-acceptance and blames everything that comes in her way. However, on her journey of learning, she meets various other animals. Some of these meetings do not go well for these animals, but all of these animals provide small pieces of learning for Bahty, which eventually leads Bahty to accept that the world is not wrong, it is her way of living that has caused her the troubles she has.

We see Bahty going from a phase of anger with the world to a phase of acceptance of her destiny. Bahty learns to accept who she is, and more importantly, she learns to accept the foibles of other animals. Towards the end, Bahty becomes wise and finds that lions and even other animals come to her for advice.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Marcel van Heijzen
• Release date: Nov 27, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386493020

Book preview

My life as a lioness

––––––––

A Spiritual story

hidden behind an animal tale

Marcel van Heijzen

––––––––

Dedication

I dedicate this book to my friends Alex, and Dmitri

We will never lose touch!

I started writing this book in July 2017, based on a comment made by Alex.

Copyright of this book rests with Marcel van Heijzen.

All parts of this book may be copied and used, provided the author gets referenced.

––––––––

Acknowledgements

During the period that I got treated for level four cancer, and the doctors and I had the conviction that I was going to die, various people have been there in my life to give me the strength of going through the periods of doubt and pain that were part of my daily experience. My wife Anne was of course always there. I will not mention anybody else by name, but those involved will know that I will always be in their debt.

One of the worst things that happen to a person during a period like this is to get the feeling that one is completely alone, as nobody will understand, and nobody can help. The feeling is not correct; there are lots of people who can help in some way or other. We need to conquer the feelings of doubt, fright, and being alone.

After I went through these challenges, I have committed to help anybody who is in need, and who wants, assistance when going through the phase of trying to cope with a serious and possibly terminal disease. However, this commitment goes much deeper now, as I also deal with spiritual development. Anybody who feels lost when trying to follow their unique spiritual path can get in contact. Expect to find somebody who went through very harsh circumstances, and who will listen and give advice whenever this is appropriate.

To get in contact, please write an e-mail to:

[e-mail]

https://alyaconsultancy.com/

Contents

Part 1 - why a lion story?

Introduction

The members of the pride:

Part 2 - Life within the Pride

Pride life

The Pheasant Story

Thoughts and Feelings

Pride Pressure

Rejection by the Pride

Part 3 - Life without the Pride

The monkey

The Badger family

Meeting the Tree

The Snake

The deer

Mrs Crocodile

The vultures

The buffalo herd

Part 4 - Forming the team

Meeting the elephant

Energy Locations

Consolidating the team

Part 5 - Journey to find the owl

The Journey

Meeting another Pride

More learning

Forgiving the Past

Finding the Owl

Part 6 - the life of Ahwar

After removing Bahty

Part 7 - Consolidating the project

A Spiritual Lion

The return Journey

Meeting the Tree again

Assisting Others

Consulting with Friends

About the author

Part 1 - why a lion story?

––––––––

Introduction

When we study the animal kingdom, it is possible to see things happening in this world that we recognise in our human world. Rather than creating another story about humans, I felt that to follow animals in their world, with human thoughts and feelings, it may become easier to understand the way people operate. Reading the story back, I realise that children also would love a tale like this. To create this story, I needed to study animal behaviour, and the various names people give to groups of animals. To me, this was an interesting part of writing this book. I did not realise how many names exist for groups and dwellings of animals.

For those who read my stories, I have attempted to show how people work and operate, and comprehend the feelings of people. By doing this, I hope to reach out to my readers with the spiritual message that needs spreading. By using animals instead of humans, we all can spread the various spiritual messages differently, and in a funny way.

Read the story, enjoy the story, but attempt to see the truth that is behind this story, hidden within the fictional life of Bahty and the other lions and animals you will meet. The way I write is that I have a layout or a compressed version of the story I want to tell written down before I start. After this I write, trying not to think while writing. My consciousness somehow conveys the story, and my consciousness fills in the gaps around the concept of the story and the messages that I would like to tell. Normally, I edit what I wrote many times, and funny enough I always find new issues that need sorting out.

I have made this a story about lions, their interaction within the confines of the pride, and their interaction with other animals, but the real story is of course about typical human behaviour. Do therefore not look for deviations of typical lion behaviour, as you will likely find many. Being not a lion myself, my knowledge of detailed lion behaviour is seriously limited!

Please realise that at the moment you will be challenging my knowledge of lions, you will be judging me. Hidden within the story is that people tend to judge others on a continuous basis. We all do this all the time in this physical world. However, in some cases, it is very subtle, like when we say things like, ‘if he would just change the way he reacts to people, he would have more friends!’ Sounds like good and positive advice, but it is a form of judging. Why can we not be friends with the person as he is! Judging others is the cause of a lot of much misery in this world. The world would be a fantastic place to live if people would learn not to judge others before they learn to judge themselves. I am such a dreamer!

The story starts at the moment that Bahty has become a mature lioness. The pride leader knows that Bahty does not accept pride culture automatically, and as the leader, he attempts to push Bahty back in the pride culture. Ahwar is well aware that if Bahty keeps on resisting, she risks getting pushed out of the pride, and he will not be able to prevent this from happening. Ahwar, the pride leader, is a good leader. However, as is the case with so many leaders, he is not the brightest spark in this physical world. Bahty, on the other hand, is by far the brightest spark in the pride. What we will see when the story develops, being the brightest spark is not necessarily an advantage to any living entity!

Intelligence is like a lot of gifts we received when we entered this physical world. To make any of these gifts work, we have to learn to master the gifts; else the gift becomes an abomination, the gift will take over from our consciousness. Whatever we do in this world, all these gifts we have are not important. They are part of the physical world, and this world is not our true home. As soon as we depart from this world - we call this passing away, or dying; we do not need these gifts. Be constantly aware that being proud to be better than other people is a feeling, created by the mind. We should not compare ourselves with others. We are alone on this journey that we call our life. It is our task to live life happily. Judging others is not part of the task of living our lives.

The sum of all the untrained gifts we have received we can call our ego. Our mind is also a tool we received when we entered this physical reality we call ‘the world’. Our mind uses every opportunity to create a situation where the mind can pretend it is us. The ego, therefore, is a creation of the mind and made up of all those gifts we have not managed to master, plus all the random thoughts and feelings that we constantly have. Hidden behind all this ego stuff, we find our consciousness, which contains the real you. In this book, I have called the real you the soul, but there are other names for this entity. I do not believe that the name is important. Naming anything belongs in this physical world, nowhere else is naming things important.

000000

The members of the pride:

Bahty

Bahty is our heroine. She is a young but mature lioness, who has the habit of challenging the established set of habits in the pride, which we can refer to as the pride culture. As is usual in any group, the established order is properly cast in stone. Challenging the established order, well, this is the most difficult of challenges a lioness, or for that matter, any other living entity who is part of a group can take on. Bahty, being young, has no problems addressing this most difficult of tasks, but she will find out that this is not as easy as it appears to be on the surface. Other lions do not appreciate that their security gets challenged!

Ahwar

Ahwar is the present leader of the pride. He is still a young lion, two years older than Bahty.  Ahwar is proving to be a good leader, but he struggles to control Bahty, who is craving for freedom from the rules and habits of the pride. At times, Ahwar understands the way Bahty thinks and reacts, but he has to maintain discipline in the pride. It will take a better lion than Ahwar, at least at the moment the story starts, to sell the concept of freedom of thinking and tolerance within the pride to Bahty. Although, well the story will let you know what the reality eventually will be in this case.

Jitty

Jitty is an older lioness, with the habit of staying out of the places where activities are carried out. However, Jitty is very skilled at knowing what the other members of the pride do, especially when she considers that what these members do is not correct. After having established this deviation from what Jitty sees as not being correct, Jitty tends to inform Ahwar about the perceived deviations, and she then informs all the other pride members about this wrongdoing. Jitty especially zooms in on Bahty, as she would love the attention Bahty gets from the pride leader for herself. Jealousy is not a vice only applicable to human nature!

Hughty

Hughty is a male lion in the pride. Hughty has a nice personality, but he is not a leader, very much a follower. Hughty likes his rest and comfort and does not like too much conversation. Bahty has never heard him say anything else as, ‘hmmm.’ As far as Hughty is concerned, if Bahty wants to go out on her own, she should do so. As long as Hughty gets his food and she does not bother him with extensive discussions Hughty is not bothered. Hughty is not a great communicator, and he likes to keep it this way!

Hathy

Hathy is a lioness who is younger than Jitty, but a bit older that Ahwar. Hathy has always been an excellent hunter, but Bahty is now by far the better hunter in the pride. Normally, Hathy cannot be bothered with Jitty, as Jitty is only talking and not working. However, since Bahty has moved Hathy from the position of being the best hunter of the pride, Hathy is not too pleased with Bahty. Hathy is, therefore, much more amenable to the little stories that come out of Jitty. Hathy is quite intelligent, and she realises very well the game that Jitty plays. However, as the likely outcome of the manipulations by Jitty suit Hathy, she plays along with Jitty. Hathy does ensure that Jitty will not use Hathy as the front person of what may eventually happen to Bahty.

Bath

Bath is a male lion of no significance to the story. Bath likes to keep to himself, and he does not mingle much, very much like Hughty. He has made it clear to Jitty in a very polite, but very direct, way that he is not interested in her stories about Bahty. Bath himself is not interested in anything other than being provided with food and his comfort, and Bahty is excellent at providing all this. Although Bath considers that he told Jitty very politely to mind her own business, Jitty did not consider that he was very polite when he told her this. Knowing Bath and his way of expressing himself, Jitty may have a point!

000000

––––––––

Part 2 - Life within the Pride

––––––––

Pride life

‘To the readers, I would like to introduce myself: My name is Bahty, and I am a female lion, also called a lioness. At present, I am the youngest lioness in this pride. I am also the youngest of all members of the pride. Being the youngest member of the pride does not make me useless, quite the opposite is the situation. I am an excellent hunter, and I can move very fast, much faster than the other pride members. I am also very strong, so to summarise; I may be the youngest member of the pride, but I am by far the most valuable member of this pride!’

‘Having said this, the pride does not appear to recognise my skills. Some members ignore me, while others are looking at what I do wrong, with the objective to inform the pride leader. You ask me what I do wrong? To be honest, I do not know. I have to follow the rules, but I also like at times to do what I like doing. I like to be on my own in the jungle. Although lions do not venture out into the jungle normally, I do not think it is wrong. Do you consider this wrong? It appears that when following the unwritten rules of the pride, it is wrong!’

‘Life is pretty monotonous for us in the pride, we sit and rest for hours, the female lions hunt for food, we give the larger catches of the food to the male lions, and we sit and rest again. Day in day out. Resting, hunting, eating, and so on. I am very good at the hunting game, but, as life in the pride goes, the larger part of what I catch goes to the males, and I get the leftovers. Pretty shameful! Can those males not start working for themselves a bit? They just lay about, waiting for me to catch their food.’

‘The issue of who does the hunting cannot be discussed in the pride you know; this is how it is done in the pride, this is how it has always been done in the past in the pride, and this is how it will be done in the future in the pride. This set of useless, but elaborate, sentences are all the explanations I get when I ask simple questions. Another well-used sentence in this pride is; Bahty, you should behave like a proper lioness! But what do they mean with the term proper behaviour? I do nothing wrong, I am the best hunter of the pride, and I can easily catch my share without waiting for the others. However, I do not do this, I behave, and I give every member of the pride their share before I take mine. Anyhow, there is food enough in this lovely savanna where we live!’

‘To fill you in with some more details, our pride lives in a beautiful jungle environment in Africa. We hardly see any human poachers in this part of the jungle, which is fine with us, as we do not care much about humans. Food is in abundance, and the weather is really good, always warm, with sufficient rain to supply the watering holes. The main place where our pride resides is in a lovely savanna, surrounded by jungle. The savanna has three watering holes, and this attracts our food, I mean, it attracts other animals. The savanna has in most places a lot of high grasses, so it is easy for me to move downwind and sneak up to the animals around the watering holes, for food supply to the pride. As there are no humans around, the other animals are not as alert as one would normally expect them to be, and they are, therefore, easy prey! The watering holes have no connection to rivers and they, therefore, do not have crocodiles around. Thus, the whole place is relatively safe. As I said, a little heaven in a remote part of the African jungle! The jungle around the savanna is in essence primary jungle, but it is not as dense as would normally be expected in a primary jungle environment. The trees are not as high, and they are slightly more separated. The result is that this makes it an easy jungle to move about in, certainly not too dangerous, like the primary jungle environment would normally be, with falling branches and so on! Did you know that the branches that are coming down at times in the primary jungle can be as big as a full-sized tree in a secondary jungle environment?’

‘To me, the pride has become rather lazy! Life is too easy, and there are no challenges to keep us on our toes. What the pride needs are a good upset, human hunters or something of the sort! Life should contain a challenge you know; else life becomes incredibly boring! Of course, I do go off on my own in the jungle now and then, for some deviation of this boring life. When I go off on my own is not appreciated by the pride you know, a lioness is not supposed to go off on her own in the jungle, it could be dangerous! Ha, dangerous! Who on earth is going to attack me? The badgers who live near the river? I ignore the pride leader when he challenges me about going on these trips on my own. He gets the main share of the food I supply, so why should he be concerned with what I do when he is not hungry? I do not understand why the pride has an issue with me venturing out on my own in the jungle, but there it is, they have an issue. It appears that Jitty is