How Beyoncé’s Lion King Hit ‘Spirit’ Reaches Toward the Divine

Mary Rose Somarriba

Since Disney’s live-action hit movie “The Lion King” roared across screens, it has brought much delight to fans everywhere. In addition to bringing the animated classic to life, the new “Lion King” also brings a sharpened spiritual focus to the moral of its story.

While most of the film consists of scene-by-scene reenactments of the 1994 version, this latest rendition puts much clearer emphasis on Simba’s conversion from Hakuna Matata thinking to the traditions of his upbringing he had been trying to forget. Filled with shame and running from his fears, Simba leaves the Pride Lands when Scar kills Mufasa and deceives the cub into thinking it was all his fault.

While Simba tries to cope from the wounds of his past, he forgets the memory of his father and all that he was taught about life’s greater meaning and the “circle of life.” Simba’s new well-meaning friends Timon and Pumbaa gawk at the thought, exclaiming “life is meaningless” and more like “a straight line” for each living creature, not a circle of life where each is affected by others.

In time, after the prodding of his friend, Nala, and the giddy encouragement of the wise Rafiki—not to mention the voice of his father thundering from the heavens—Simba finally hears the voice of a higher calling over the distractions, and returns to the Pride Lands to fulfill his destiny.

You could say it’s a Biblical story arc: The skies open, a father speaks to his son, and a new spirit grows within him, leading him to fulfill a greater purpose. As it happens, the rousing song that plays in the scene immediately after Simba’s epiphany, while he bounds across the desert, leaves no room for doubt. Called “Spirit” and performed by Beyoncé, who voices the adult Nala, the song is unquestionably spiritual and Biblical in nature.

With lyrics about wind and flame, and imagery of rushing water throughout the video, Beyoncé’s “Spirit” employs multiple symbols referencing the Holy Spirit, surrounded by numerous invocations to look to the sky and seek a higher calling.

“The wind is talkin’ … / for the very first time / With a melody that pulls you towards it / Paintin’ pictures of paradise,” Beyoncé begins the song. “Watch the light / lift your heart up / Burn your flame through the night…” she continues, all but painting a picture of the Israelites crossing the desert to the promised land.

Hitting the refrain, Beyoncé continues, “Spirit! / Watch the heavens open … Spirit, can you hear it callin’? / Your destiny is comin’ close …” Finally, to remove any shadow of a doubt of its faith-soaked meaning, the lyrics end with this: “So go into that far off land / And be one with the great I Am.”

You can’t really get a more Biblical reference to God than “I Am.”

No matter one’s faith tradition, it’s hard not to be moved as Beyoncé’s song plays, and as viewers watch Simba bound toward the story’s redemptive climax. For me, it’s the perfect match to draw out the deeper spiritual lessons of “Lion King” that all of us can benefit from—to remember where we came from and answer the call of our destiny, despite the temptation to run from it.

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