Four Energies for Navigating Life
Introducing my archetypal map for times of transition
So excited to offer a first glimpse of the archetypal navigation styles I've been working on for so long - thanks to the beautiful artwork of Jinty Smith!
I absolutely love them - not only Jinty's beautiful renderings, but the characters themselves and how they resonate both as parts of me, and as familiar strategies and energies I've noticed in the often difficult journeys we make as human beings.
Where did they come from? As a lover of the ocean, I've undergone many voyages in my life, both outer and inner. And in recent years, coaching clients through everything from procrastination to burnout, relationship breakdown to business start-ups, stagnation to identity crisis, I've been scanning for some kind of shared map for navigating change.
These are the four archetypal energies and strategies I've noticed showing up again and again - each with its shadows and its superpowers, and a capacity to either help or hinder us.
The Mutineer – this is the resistant energy that frequently forces us to seek help in the first place, the critical friend turned saboteur, great at saying “no” but often stuck inside armour that's starting to pinch. Superpowers: boundary-keeping and self-protection; Shadow: self-sabotage and avoidance.
The Drifter – master of the fertile unknown, able to surrender to the lost art of letting go, this wildcard character can change everything. Usually marginalised but as essential as sleep to the functioning of a healthy crew. Superpowers: rest and spirituality; shadow: lostness and lack of energy.
The Wayfinder - a big-picture dreamer, scanning the horizon to envision possibility and connection, but sometimes struggling to land things practically in the real world. Superpowers: vision, creativity, imagination. Shadow: Scatteredness, failure to take action, ungroundedness.
The Commander - a powerhouse of action and leadership, but battling burnout and a sneaking suspicion we might be swimming up the wrong river. Superpowers: willpower and action; Shadow: Unsustainability and narrow focus.
Do any of these sound familiar? Most of us have elements of all these navigation styles, but with definite favourites and aversions. Ideally they work in balance together as a kind of inner crew: each complements and needs the others to form a system I’ve called the Navigate Drift Matrix.
Each has a certain energy we can recognise in our body, bringing specific strengths for particular moments in any project or life-journey. In becoming conscious of where each is showing up – and cultivating our neglected energies – we can create a 360-degree navigation system for making sometimes difficult life choices.
And each also brings specific strengths for particular moments in any project or life-journey.
I'm looking forward to sharing the nuances and deep origin story of each one as I roll out my course on midlife transition - Second Wind - and begin to bring them into a structured coaching process in coming months.
Let me know if you’d like to explore further. Meantime, I'm curious to know what resonances or reactions each arouses in this simplest form. Which draws you, which repels you, which do you recognise?