This brand is not being built. It is being revealed
Cathrine LionHeart stands at the meeting point of courage, compassion, and remembrance — as the co-founder of Panthera Africa, a teacher of self-mastery, and a voice for peace.
Brand Story
A voice for the voiceless, a guide for the awakening heart
Cathrine's story begins with movement: born in Luxembourg, she moved to Singapore as an infant, then to Norway at the age of five — a childhood already blessed with a life of great adventure, long before adventure became her life's work.
At her grandparents' home in Oslo, five-year-old Cathrine's favorite game was pretending lions prowled just outside — creeping out from her hiding place to check if the coast was clear, then reporting back with pride. There wasn't a lion within thousands of kilometers of Oslo. She had no way of knowing that three decades later, real lions would share her life in South Africa.
The signs kept appearing throughout her twenties — small, quiet breadcrumbs she wouldn't fully understand until much later.
Then, in 2011, after seven years of building a career in Oslo's commercial real estate world — the kind of life that looked complete from the outside — a two-week volunteering trip to a big cat sanctuary changed everything. She met a white lion, and something in her finally recognized African soil as home. She kept returning — a Christmas holiday, an Easter break — until an eight-month leave of absence quietly became a permanent move, and the planned-out life gave way to one built from the heart instead.
In 2014, Cathrine co-founded Panthera Africa Big Cat Sanctuary on raw land outside Stanford — a true sanctuary for lions, leopards, tigers and other magnificent cats from the exploitative big cat industry.
The relationships formed there didn't just change her career. They reshaped Cathrine's entire understanding of love, loss, presence, and truth. It was through this work with the animals that the Cosmic Heart was first activated within her — an eight-layer sacred symbol, later tattooed between her shoulder blades, that remains central to everything she now teaches.
Today, Cathrine channels everything this journey has taught her into her own body of work — courses, activations, journeys, workshops, mentoring, keynote speaking, and sacred transitions — offered from South Africa and Norway, and anywhere in the world the work calls her.
"Sometimes you need to roar in order to create peace."
The Journey
- 1984
The First Lion Game
At her grandparents' home in Oslo, five-year-old Cathrine's favorite game was pretending lions prowled just outside — a first, unknowing brush with the energy that would one day become her life.
- 2011
The Meeting
A two-week volunteer trip to a big cat project. A single encounter with a white lion. A soul remembrance took place, recognizing African soil as home, at last.
- 2012
Saying Yes
Christmas, then Easter, then an eight-month leave of absence. Each visit deepened the pull, until Cathrine made the leap in May 2012 — and never really looked back.
- 2014–2015
Building From Raw Land
Cathrine co-founded Panthera Africa Big Cat Sanctuary on raw land outside Stanford, building it from the ground up. Opened its doors in 2015 and welcomed its first visitors, beginning over a decade — and counting — of rescue, education, and advocacy.
- 2015
Learning to Listen
Cathrine's first animal communication course became an unexpected gateway — into truly connecting with and understanding the animal world, and into her own scared, brave heart.
- The Remembrance
The Cosmic Heart
Through a life-changing, deeply sacred moment with one of her lions, an eight-layer sacred symbol was revealed and activated within Cathrine, and later tattooed between her shoulder blades.
- Today
Cathrine LionHeart
Teacher, guide, singer-songwriter, animal communicator, and keynote speaker, offering the accumulated wisdom of this journey to anyone ready for their own.