The 1994 film The Lion King is one of Walt Disney’s most beloved stories. Although set on the African savannah, the film incorporates symbolism from the mythology and religion of Ancient Egypt. In addition to solar symbolism, the story of Mufasa being betrayed by his brother Scar before being avenged by his son Simba resembles the myth of Osiris, Seth and Horus. This essay will examine these similarities and detail the history and mythology of Ancient Egyptian religion.
Before we delve into the esoteric symbolism of The Lion King, it is essential to understand the Ancient Egyptian worldview. Although today, we are used to a linear model of history in which our modern civilisation is the culmination of millions of years of evolution, people of the ancient world did not have this worldview. Indeed, they would have been unable to comprehend it since they believed the world was created for a divine purpose in which humanity had a unique role. To quote Darren Carville:
“This ancient worldview held that their civilisation was in fact a ‘fallen’ or lesser version than had existed in the remote ‘golden age’ – the time of a highly advanced, semi-mythical civilisation which was the original source of all science, astronomy, mathematics, and the founding knowledge of civilisation” (Carville, 2014, p.6).
In ancient sources, the Egyptians called this Golden Age Zep Tepi, while the Greek philosopher Plato called the highly advanced civilisation that existed during that time Atlantis.
Plato describes the civilisation of Atlantis in his two dialogues, Timaeus and Critias. According to Plato, Atlantis was an island outside the Straits of Gibraltar and was “larger than Libya and Asia” (Pl. Criti. 108). It was the home of an advanced civilisation that worshipped the sun and whose empire stretched throughout the Mediterranean Basin from Italy in the north to Egypt in the south. Indeed, according to Plato, the army of Atlantis numbered 120,000 infantry, 180,000 archers, 10,000 chariots, and 1,200 warships. Despite the vast military forces at their disposal, however, the Atlanteans regarded virtue as the highest value and were obedient to the laws handed down from their ancestors. As described by Plato, “the intents of their hearts were true and in all ways noble, and they showed gentleness joined with wisdom in dealing with the changes and chances of life and in their dealings one with another” (Pl. Criti. 120). Seagoing navigation, agriculture, and architecture were also the defining features of Atlantean civilisation (Hancock, 2016, p.183).
Plato says this way of life continued for millennia until ambition and materialism corrupted the Atlanteans, and they sought dominion over the peoples of Europe and North Africa. In 9600 BCE, the Atlanteans made war on the people of Greece, who could muster 20,000 soldiers to defend their homeland. After several years of war, the Greeks emerged victorious. However, according to Plato, “There occurred portentous earthquakes and floods…and the island of Atlantis in like manner was swallowed up by the sea and vanished” (Pl. Tim. 25). The Fall of Atlantis corresponds to the end of the last Ice Age. Many researchers believe this may have inspired the Flood myths described in nearly every culture worldwide.
Just as prevalent as the Flood myth is the account of what happened afterwards. According to many ancient accounts, seven wisdom bringers travelled around the world to teach people the religion and arts of civilisation that existed before Atlantis's destruction. As explained by Graham Hancock, “Their purpose in doing so was nothing less than to recreate and revivify the essence of their lost homeland, to bring about in short: The resurrection of the former world of the gods” (Hancock, 2016, p.171). The Ancient Egyptians believed that their civilisation was founded by Osiris and Thoth, who taught the people of Egypt monogamous marriage, agriculture, architecture, ethics, and the religion of the sun. Osiris established a monarchy which would become the basis for the Egyptian pharaohs of historical times. He was succeeded by his son Horus, who, in turn, was succeeded by the Shemsu Hor (Company of Horus), who ruled Egypt in historical times. Jay Weidner and Vincent Bridges said, “Each pharaoh, down to Roman times, was an initiate of the Company of Horus and thus privy to this secret knowledge” (Weidner & Bridges, 2003, p.43). The secret handed down by the Shemsu Hor was the alchemical knowledge of human transformation and the civilisation that existed before the Fall of Atlantis.
It is essential to understand the link between solar religion and theocracy. Many ancient civilisations that worshipped the sun, including the Egyptians, were theocracies ruled by kings who believed themselves to be, or descended from, gods. To quote Encyclopaedia Britannica, “All of these groups had in common a well-developed urban civilization with a strong ideology of sacred kingship” (Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2024). These cultures were based on political authority, mass agriculture, and warfare, which were used to maintain control over the population. In Mesopotamia, the story of the Anunnaki was the charter myth for theocracy and was invented to justify strict top-down control over the people and the king’s divine right to rule (Lash, 2006, p.387). In other words, just because it is written down in an ancient text does not automatically mean the source has no agenda attached to it. Even Manly P. Hall admits that the story of Atlantis is partly allegorical, with the ten kings representing the tetractys, or numbers, which form five pairs of opposites. He explains, “The numbers 1 to 10 rule every creature, and the numbers, in turn, are under the control of the Monad, or 1 – the Eldest among them” (Hall, 2007, p.73). This teaching originated with Pythagoras before being passed down to Plato.
At this point, discussing the Religion of the Sun is relevant. Although it is widely assumed that the ancients worshipped the physical Sun in the sky, the Mystery Schools understood it very differently. They saw the Sun as a symbol of the spirit, enlightenment and the divine manifesting in the world within us and around us. To quote Lara Atwood, “The ancient Religion of the Sun was a great body of knowledge and metaphysical practice that taught someone how to realize this divinity within themselves and reunite with their higher Being, symbolized by the sun” (Atwood, 2021, p.9). Later, these practices were passed down into the science of alchemy, with the sun representing the masculine principle paired with the feminine principle, the moon. In addition, the sun was equated with gold, which the alchemists say symbolised spiritual enlightenment. Indeed, the alchemical process of turning lead into gold was a metaphor for transmuting one’s lower nature into one’s higher nature.
In addition to its symbolic meaning, the sun was also recognised by the initiates of the Mystery Schools as having physical effects on the earth and solar system. While most people worshipped the sun because of its heat and light, which played a crucial role in agriculture, the Mystery Schools understood its effect on a deeper level. In The Biggest Secret, David Icke explains that the sun contains 99% of the mass in the solar system; thus, when the sun changes, its effects are felt on Earth. In his words, “The hierarchy focused on the Sun because…they understood its true power as an amazing generator of electromagnetic energy which is affecting our lives and behaviour every second of every day” (Icke, 1999, p.78). Although Icke makes some dubious claims in his book, he is right that many ancient religions were based on sun worship and symbolism. Lara Atwood says, “The sun was seen as and used to symbolize the supreme manifestation of the divine, as the greatest source of light and life” (Atwood, 2021, p.9). Modern science has shown that stars have created almost all matter in the universe and are constantly producing and ejecting these elements into space.
As mentioned earlier, the Ancient Egyptians believed their civilisation originated in a remote Golden Age called Zep Tepi, which means “First Time.” The Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, who was writing in the first century BCE, states that:
“Some of them give the story that at first gods and heroes ruled Egypt for a little less than eighteen thousand years, the last of the gods to rule being Horus, the son of Isis; and mortals have been kings over their country, they say, for a little less than five thousand years down to the One Hundred and Eightieth Olympiad” (Diod. Sic. 1.44.1).
The 180th Olympiad corresponds to 56 BCE in the Gregorian Calendar, which would place the beginning of the dynastic kings at 5000 BCE and the start of the Zep Tepi at 23,000 BCE. Interestingly, while the chronology of the mortal kings is off by two thousand years, the beginning of the Zep Tepi corresponds to the period, give or take roughly nine hundred years, when the Precession of the Equinoxes last entered the Golden Age. Indeed, the “gods” could refer to celestial phenomena rather than physical beings.
The Zep Tepi was regarded as the time when the gods manifested themselves on earth and Egyptian civilisation began. As explained by Lara Atwood, “It is a time when the sun god is praised, and the gods in human form raise the first temple to it” (Atwood, 2021, p.84). To the Ancient Egyptians, while antagonism and strife were still present during the Zep Tepi, they were always resolved by truth, order and justice. As stated by Jeremy Naydler, “The latter always prevail in the First Time, whereas in mundane time such resolution on the side of order, justice, and truth cannot be guaranteed” (Naydler, 1996, p.93). This corresponds to the outcome of fairy tales, which almost always conclude with a happy ending where love, beauty and truth prevail. Fulcanelli wrote, “The Tales of My Mother the Goose (mother law, first law), are hermetic narratives in which esoteric truth is combined with the marvelous [sic] and legendary décor of the Saturnalia, paradise, or the Golden Age” (Roger, 2015, p.8). Indeed, all Egyptian mythology, including the story of Osiris, Seth and Horus, is said to have taken place during the ageless time of Zep Tepi.
It is crucial to explain the role of myths in shaping reality. Although today we see them as made-up stories, myths were seen in the ancient world as allegories and metaphors for humanity's inner life. As Stephen Hoeller explains, the Gnostics and other mystical philosophers “were more interested in understanding and realizing the world within than in explaining the world around and above them. The world within pointed to the world beyond, to transcendence, which was all-important” (Hoeller, 2002, p.34). To the Ancient Egyptians, the Zep Tepi was a nontemporal time before the mundane world had become manifest, and which, by definition, was also an interior, spiritual realm: the realm of gods, myths and archetypes. Jeremy Naydler explains, “The further back they gazed, the more internal did the universe seem” (Naydler, 1996, p.33). This understanding was based on the Law of Correspondence, summarised in the axiom: “As within, so without.” Indeed, John Lamb Lash said, “The beauty of the myth you love matches, and generates, the power to live it” (John Lamb Lash, 2024). This is the ability of the soul to express itself through art and imagination.
What does this all have to do with The Lion King? A careful examination of the film shows that it incorporates sun symbolism into its storyline. For example, the rising sun, which appears at the film's beginning, symbolises illumination and knowledge in various secret societies. To quote Jordan Maxwell, “The sun and its rising brings light into the world, and so it became a very powerful symbol for secret societies, especially Freemasonry, to give the idea that they’re bringing light into the world” (Maxwell, 2018). In addition, the lion was used in ancient Persia by the kings of the Achaemenid and Sassanid Empires (550 BCE-642 CE) as part of their religious and cultural practices. As Shahin Nezhad and Oriana Coburn explain, “The Sasanian [sic] rulers, like their Achaemenid predecessors, utilized lion imagery to represent their divine right to rule and their role as protectors of their land and people” (Nezhad & Coburn, 2024). In addition, Manly P. Hall explains that the Egyptian priests “wore the skins of lions, which were symbols of the solar orb, owing to the fact that the sun is exalted, dignified, and most fortunately placed in the constellation of Leo” (Hall, 2007, p.117). The Persians and Egyptians probably associated the lion with the sun because its mane symbolised the sun's rays, and its strength symbolised authority.
In addition to sun symbolism, the story of The Lion King also parallels the Ancient Egyptian myth of Osiris, Seth and Horus. At this point, providing a synopsis of the myth is relevant. Initially, Osiris ruled Egypt with Isis as his consort, under whom “The land flourished and the people were happy” (Tyldesley, 2019, p.20). However, his brother Seth grew jealous of Osiris and murdered him so that he could rule in his place. Filled with grief, Isis searched for the body of her beloved husband so that she could bury him. She found him at Byblos, but Seth discovered her plan and dismembered Osiris’ body, scattering his body parts far and wide. Eventually, Isis found all of Osiris’ body parts, and she brought him back to life through magic and conceived a son named Horus. Fearing Seth’s wrath, Isis fled with her son to the marshes, where she protected him until he was old enough to defend himself. With his mother’s help, Horus defeated Seth and became the new pharaoh of Egypt.
While repeating the plot of The Lion King is unnecessary, it is worth pointing out how the film corresponds to the myth of Osiris, Seth and Horus. Put simply, Mufasa represents Osiris, who is betrayed and murdered by his brother Scar, who represents Seth. After a period of exile, Simba, who represents Horus, returns to avenge his father’s murder and rule over his kingdom. In The Mysteries of the Great Cross of Hendaye, Jay Weidner and Vincent Bridges reveal that in ancient times, two significant groups emerged that believed that they alone should have the right to possess the secret of alchemy. The first group, represented by Osiris, were the Priest-Kings, who thought they had the right to possess the secret based on tradition and monarchy. The second group, represented by Seth, wanted to possess the secret exclusively and would do anything to get it or prevent others from getting it. Bridges said, “What we have been taught to regard as history looked a lot like the residue of a millennia-long global conflict over control of the secret and its ramifications” (Weidner & Bridges, 2003, p.2). Just like the split in the Magian Order during the sixth millennium BCE, this conflict was based on two different ideas about human potential [For more information on the split in the Magian Order, read my essay, 2001 and The Dark Crystal: The Great Work on Film – BB].
In Temple of the Cosmos, Jeremy Naydler explains that the myth of Osiris, Seth and Horus was a metaphor for the rise and fall of the Nile River during the year. During the drought, Osiris was said to have been lost and dead before Horus’ victory over Seth restored the land with rain and abundance. Naydler explains, “It was at this time that his son Horus battled with Seth, the inundation betokening Horus’s victory and Seth’s defeat” (Naydler, 1996, p.8). Ancient Egypt was always described as “Two Lands”, with the Lower Nile being the domain of Horus and the Upper Nile being the domain of Seth. Like Scar in The Lion King, “Seth was always an outsider god, encountered when a person stepped outside the socially cohesive fertile land into the desert” (Naydler, 1996, p.5). His domain was in the West because this was the direction where the sun god Ra descended into the underworld, followed every day by his rebirth in the East. This explains why the Great Sphinx of Giza has a face pointing east to the rising sun.
The myth also symbolises the sun’s journey through the year. The ancients taught that on 21 December, the sun symbolically died before being reborn on 25 December, when it began its symbolic journey back to the peak of its power in summer. As explained by David Icke, “The ancients also symbolised the Sun as a baby in December, a youth at Easter, a strapping, immensely strong, man in the summer, an ageing man losing his power in autumn, and an old man by the winter solstice” (Icke, 1999, p.80). In The Secret Teachings of All Ages, Manly P. Hall wrote that the “Sun God was symbolized as a dependent infant who in some mysterious manner had managed to escape the Powers of Darkness seeking to destroy Him while He was still in the cradle of winter” (Hall, 2007, p.119). In The Lion King, this is symbolised by the Hyena’s attempt to kill Simba following Mufasa’s death. Simba’s subsequent transformation from a cub to an adolescent to an adult symbolises the sun’s journey from the winter solstice to the spring equinox to the summer solstice when the sun is most potent and fecund. The film's end symbolises the Sun's rebirth, represented by Simba and Nala’s newborn cub.
In The Lion King, Mufasa tells Simba, “The great kings of the past look down on us from those stars” (Allers & Minkoff, 1994). This is precisely what the Ancient Egyptians believed regarding Osiris and the pharaohs. The Egyptians believed that when their pharaoh died, he was reborn as a star in the Orion constellation and thereby attained immortality. To quote Jay Weidner and Vincent Bridges, “By being reborn as a star in Osiris’ company, the pharaoh reenacted on a local level the original creation of the universe” (Weidner & Bridges, 2003, p.423). The constellation of Orion was associated with Osiris, and the star Sirius was associated with his consort, Isis (Hancock, 2016, p.295). In preparation for their journey, the pharaohs were initiated within the Great Pyramid of Giza. As explained by Manly P. Hall, “The Great Pyramid was not a lighthouse, an observatory, or a tomb, but the first temple of the Mysteries, the first structure erected as a repository for those secret truths which are the certain foundation of all arts and sciences” (Hall, 2007, p.102). Through these initiations, the pharaohs gained access to a state of consciousness inaccessible to most people.
The Sphinx was the guardian of the Mysteries. In Magicians of the Gods, Graham Hancock argues that the Sphinx was built during the Age of Leo in 10,500 BCE [The Age of Leo lasted from 10,960 BCE to 8800 BCE – BB]. This argument is based on the idea that the Sphinx and Pyramids align with the Orion constellation as it was 12,500 years ago. He says:
“Looking east in the predawn, about an hour before sunrise on the morning of the spring equinox in the epoch of 10,500 BC, we see the constellation of Leo lying with its belly on the horizon, directly in line with the gaze of the Sphinx” (Hancock, 2016, p.197).
Hancock believes that the alignment of the Pyramids and Sphinx to the constellation of Leo marks the date for the Zep Tepi (Hancock, 2016, p.188). Indeed, in Ancient Egyptian religion, the East was associated with Osiris, who triumphed over death, while the West was associated with Seth, who had authority over the desert (Naydler, 1996, p.246). Although Manly P. Hall denies that the Sphinx was used to measure time, he does acknowledge that it “served as an entrance to the sacred subterranean chambers in which the trials of the initiate were undergone” (Hall, 2007, p.100-101). Whatever the truth, the Sphinx undoubtedly symbolised the wisdom of the Mysteries.
It is likely that the Great Sphinx was also mapping the sun's position in the Precession of the Equinoxes. The precession and the cycle of the ages were among the greatest secrets taught in the Ancient Egyptian Mystery Schools. As explained by Graham Hancock, “The cycle is the result of a motion of the earth itself, a slow circular wobble of the planet’s axis of rotation unfolding at the rate of one degree every 72 years” (Hancock, 2016, p.189). The Mystery Schools divided the precession into twelve months of 2,160 years, each corresponding to the zodiac signs. In 160 BCE, the sun moved into the Age of Pisces, defined by the Maccabean Revolt and the rise of salvationist religions like Christianity. In 2001 CE, the sun entered the Age of Aquarius, defined by mass communication and group consciousness. Overall, it takes the Earth 25,920 years to go through all twelve zodiac signs, with Plato calling one complete cycle the “Great Year”.
As already mentioned, the pharaoh was believed to have been reborn with Osiris in the Orion to guide and protect the next pharaoh. The role of the pharaoh in Ancient Egypt was to maintain Maat, or “truth”, a concept that embraced social harmony through the ideals of order, justice, and the status quo (Tyldesley, 2019, p.6). In The Lion King, Mufasa tells Simba, “Everything the light touches is our kingdom. A king’s time as ruler rises and falls like the sun. One day, Simba, the sun will set on my time here and will rise with you as the new king” (Allers & Minkoff, 1994). As Joyce Tyldesley said, “Each new pharaoh brought a new beginning; each was a renewal of the pharaohs who had gone before” (Tyldesley, 2019, p.217). This truth is expressed in the Law of Rhythm, which is present:
“In the affairs of the Universe, suns, worlds, men, animals, mind, energy, and matter. This law is manifest in the creation and destruction of worlds; in the rise and fall of nations; in the life of all things; and finally in the mental states of Man” (Three Initiates, 2012, p.19).
In other words, the Law of Rhythm manifests throughout the universe and is a part of the great circle of life.
The circle of life is one of the major themes in The Lion King. In the film, Mufasa tells Simba, “Everything you see exists together in a delicate balance…When we die, our bodies become the grass, and the antelope eat the grass. And so we are all connected in the great circle of life” (Allers & Minkoff, 1994). This was also one of the central teachings of the Religion of the Sun, which said, “Everything eats and absorbs forms of solar energy, either directly, as in when plants photosynthesize, or indirectly, when we eat plants or animals that have eaten plants themselves” (Atwood, 2021, p.339). The energy derived from the sun, fire, and electricity gives us vitality, power, and life force stored within ourselves. George Gurdjieff called this concept the “Ray of Creation” and taught that the Earth receives life energies from the Sun, which in turn receives them from the ultimate source of creation: The All (Carville, 2014, p.10). As explained by Lara Atwood, “This is why both fire and the sun held such a central place in the rituals, texts, temples, etc., of the ancient Religion of the Sun” (Atwood, 2021, p.339). It also follows the First Law of Thermodynamics, which states that energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only change from one form to another.
As we approach the end of this essay, it is worth reflecting on the fact that Ancient Egypt and other early civilisations looked at the world far differently than we do today. While they may not have had modern science and technology as we understand it, they were much more connected to each other, nature and the cosmos. Indeed, when Ancient Egypt was rediscovered following Napoleon Bonaparte’s invasion of Egypt in 1798, this coincided with the birth of the Romantic movement in Europe, which emphasised a return to nature and emotional and imaginative thinking. The Romantics understood imagination as a higher form of cognition that made the person aware of the more subtle forces in nature. As explained by Jeremy Naydler, “Through the Imagination, one is able to see into that “inner space” with which the ancient Egyptians were all too familiar, and in which move the spiritual powers that the ancients knew as gods” (Naydler, 1996, p.284). Given that Western civilisation is inwardly linked to ancient Egypt, perhaps it is time to reconnect with the values our ancestors once held sacred: the world of imagination, feelings, and intuition.
The Lion King is one of Walt Disney’s most well-known films. Although set on the African grasslands, Ancient Egyptian mythology and religious beliefs are incorporated into the film. In addition to the Religion of the Sun, the myth of Osiris, Seth, and Horus closely resembles the story of Simba avenging Mufasa's death by challenging his uncle Scar after a period of exile. Ultimately, Walt Disney Studios infused Ancient Egyptian symbolism into their narrative to produce one of the most beloved animated films of all time.
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