The animal within is not tamed and integrated through struggle and repression, but through affirmation and surrender. The strength you gain in this process helps you overcome old fears and restrictive conditioning, represented by the folded hands and the faces of the saints seen dimly in the background.

The ten faintly radiating circles, scattered behind the woman and lion, show the fading old moral ideals which will now be replaced by the fresh ones pulsating at the top of the picture, symbolizing the new light which streams snake-like in all directions to destroy the world and create it anew. This process of recreation is again symbolized in the lion’s tail, a serpent with a lion’s head.

The woman’s head is turned completely toward the urn of fire. She is totally absorbed in the energy of transformation inherent in any total and conscious surrender. This is the secret of Tantra, the awareness which perceives the fullness of each moment and accepts all of life, rejecting nothing.