Embodying the 4 essential archetypes & becoming truly effective change agents | Gaia’s Custodians 05
Four archetypes—Romantic, Guardian, Genius, and Mystic—each tied to an element and a gift like love, protection, strategic thinking, and surrender. The host teaches how to embody all four to become an effective steward of Earth, with a 16-week program called Custodia offering three weeks in-person in Poland and Bali.
Welcome to the Gaia's Custodians Podcast. Today we're going to do an intense exploration of how to embody the shift that's taking place right now. The subtitle of my new book is the Emergence of a Novel Kind of Human. And today I want to unpack a little closer. What this novel kind of human that is emerging right now is characterized by? What are the different elements, what are the different archetypes inherent in these new kind of human beings that are emerging right now in order to get a grasp of where we are on our journey to be a manifestation of this shift? And what probably are our weaknesses or our blind spots where we are not living up to our fullest potential right now in order to get a sense of potential homeworks, potential potential developmental steps that we are invited to take, and potential habits or potential exercises or potential decisions that we are invited to make in order to more closely resemble what we wish to see in the world today. I want to unpack with you the four archetypes of custodianship of what it means to be a custodian. A custodian is, for me, a steward of the whole, a caretaker, a protector, somebody who makes decisions with the implications further down the road in mind instead of blindly following your own selfish desires. What do I like? And that's a very daunting task because life is so complex, the world is so complex, even our individual lives are so complex. And in order to navigate this jungle that presents itself to us in the beginning of the 21st century, we are invited to race to a completely different level in our potential. And integrating the four archetypes of being a true custodian, in my opinion, aids us tremendously in embodying what we wish to see in the world and to guide our shared exploration in this space Today, I again, as always, brought a couple of items that may steward us across this path. Let's see what I got. The first thing that I got is a mangosteen or a couple of mangosteens. Mangosteen is a fruit that is really common here in Bali or in these tropical climates. And it's a fruit that, if you are living more in the temperate climates, you probably never saw before. The mangosteen is absolutely one of my favorite fruits. It tastes so delicious, it tastes so fresh, so juicy, so yummy. But this is not the reason why I brought it today because, like, oh, it's a part of the reason I brought it today. The mangosteen, for me, is a representation of the earth. It's a fruit of the earth. The mangosteen tree, if you've ever had the chance to encounter one, is really a force of nature. It's so lush, so vibrant, with dark green leaves and strong branches in all directions. It's really, the mangosteen tree really says like, bam, I'm here. And then it bears those fruits almost all year round. They're like so many different fruits on. On one tree. If it's a mature tree and the fruits are ripening sporadically, like one after the other. So that's, that's the beauty of having a mangosteen tree. You almost always have something to eat. You climb, you climb the tree and then you harvest maybe a couple of kilograms and then a couple of days later, the ones that were previously not ripe, then they ripened and you can harvest them. And so the mangosteen is for me really a representation of the earth element. And the earth element connects us with the first archetype of a custodian. And that is the romantic. And the Romantic is an identity, is an archetype that if it's present inside a human being, leads to this human being being full of. Full of joy, full of bliss, full of wonder, full of appreciation for the incredible beauty that surrounds ourselves. The Romantic make makes life worth living. The Romantic connects with all sorts of beautiful things, be it nice food or precious art, or fine music, or well crafted architecture, or physical touch, a hug, romantic relationships, deep friendship, or immersing yourself like fully into some kind of activity, be it a sport, be it traveling, be it getting to know new cultures. The Romantic is full of. Full of zest, full of zest for life. He wants to explore life to the fullest. And that's an incredible, incredibly important archetype for us to embody if we wish to build a more beautiful world our hearts know as possible. And what are the characteristics of this archetype and how it plays with the other archetypes is something that I want to explore in this episode. But first, let's check what else did I bring. The next item that I brought is a box of matches. I broke it. Good quality matches. The matches are a representation of the. Of the fire element. It's like a little item, a little piece of wood with some special substance on its tip that enables us to light a fire. Let's see if I will be successful this time. That's it. That's the fire element. And the fire element in our four archetypes is represented by the. By the Guardian. The Guardian is the best friend of The Romantic. Because if the romantic is present and life is perceived as this incredibly beautiful, rich and infinitely precious thing, then the Guardian nicely connects to that and wants to protect it. Because if something is really valuable for you, then of course you want to protect it. And if somebody comes across and tries to destroy or harm your loved one, then of course you don't let that happen and you're protected and you're a guardian of what is truly precious for you. And this asks us to connect to our inner fire, to our inner life force, to our inner vigor. Because only if we cultivate our inner fire do we have the capacity to really protect what is sacred, to really protect what we love, to really protect what is truly meaningful and valuable for us. So the Romantic and the Guardian, they are a nice team if they are playing together. The next item that I brought, and this leads us to the. To the next archetype that we are invited to integrate in order to become true custodians of the whole. The next item that I brought is a book, a book by the amazing Bucky Fuller. Operating manual for Spaceship Earth. And as the title suggests, this is a pretty airy book, a pretty mentally driven book. It presents all sorts of incredible strategies, tactics, philosophical points of view in order to make life work, in order to create a beautiful world for the whole. How do we steer as drivers in this spaceship of Earth? How do we steer it in a way that brings truth, beauty and goodness to each and every single human being and other living being on this planet? And in the back there's a. There's a photograph of Bucky Fuller. When you see him with his huge glasses, you get a sense of how he might be. I didn't have the fortune to get to know him, but I think he was a pretty amazing human being and at the same time, one that was really mentally driven. And this connects us with the air element. The air element is related in our archetypes with the genius. And the genius is the one that connects to the perceived beauty of the Romantic and the strong life force energy of the Guardian and makes the master plan. How are we able to protect what is sacred? And how are we able to nourish what is truly meaningful for us, not just on a little individual scale, but on a large global scale. The genius is there for making master plans for big systemic strategies and for spreading important, important ideas and important thoughts. And of the genius is there to understand things, to make mental models and to articulate them to the world in order to broaden perspectives. And it's a really important archetype too. And this leads us to the fourth item that I brought. And as you might have already guessed, it's related to an archetype too. This is water. It's super delicious water. It's from the waterfall right behind me. It's so pristine. You can drink from the waterfall. Every morning I'm taking a jump in the cold. Really, like cold. When, when, when I tell people I, I jump into a waterfall in Bali, they're like, oh, it must be super hot. No, it's pretty cold. It's pretty freaking cold. We're like really high up here, 800 meters of altitude. And when I jump in this, in, in this water at 6:30am it's, it's freezing cold. And it's so clear. It's. It, it, it energizes you tremendously. And of course, it represents the water element. And this is tied to our fourth archetype, which I call the mystic. And the mystic is the missing puzzle piece. When our new found mission of falling in love with this incredibly perfect and beautiful hole that we are living on and protecting it with everything we have and everything we are, and then designing a roadmap, designing a. Designing a strategy of how to protect that on a global scale and how to build a more beautiful world. Just when we fall prey out of the other three archetypes, to identify too much with our newfound mission and to be too tense and too stuck and too determined and too much in conviction, then the mystic brings release of all that. Because the mystic invites us to surrender and to not force anything, to accept that everything is perfect as it is, and at the same time, everything can change in the next second. It's an invitation to surrender to the greater forces that the multitude of life on this planet that is in existence for almost 4 billion years right now possesses a wisdom that is so much greater than what we as individuals are able to perceive with our narrow minds and our inner geniuses that think we are so great and that think we are so, so wise, which we can become, but we will never become as wise as the. As the sum of all the forces on this planet. And this is the message of the mystic that invites us to surrender and to know that even though things probably appear pretty dramatic and pretty painful and maybe even wrong, that there is a. A deeper meaning behind all that and a deeper truth. And that everything is perfect as it is right now, which doesn't mean that tomorrow everything can change. And so it's a very valuable archetype because without The Mystic. We will probably not build a more beautiful world our hearts know as possible because we, we cling and we resist. We are too tight, we are too stressed, we are too, too determined. And this brings a sense of ease and a sense of relaxation, a sense of, okay, let's just play freely. Let's. Let's embody the part that I'm asked to embody and then let the chips fall. And no matter how this whole story of life will continue, I trust in its divine perfection. And these four archetypes together, the Romantic and the fiery Guardian, the airy, the airy genius and the watery mystic, they all together form a coherent and well rounded custodian. And they are all equally important. And they, and you maybe already noticed that they probably even contradict each other. While the Guardian says, let's protect, let's fight, the Romantic says, no, let's love, let's play, let's have fun. And the two of them either can be enemies because they are constantly moving in other directions, or they can be best friends if they are integrated and if they recognize the gifts of the other. If the Guardian is informed by the love and the perceived beauty of the Romantic, his power gets elevated because he has something worth, like truly worth fighting for, worth protecting, worth going to war. And the other way around, this the same, the same story unfolds. If the, if the, oh no, I'm holding the wrong one. This is the, this is the Romantic. Romantic is represented by the Mangosteen, not by Richard Bakifolu. You will be. Your stage will be soon. If the Romantic is informed by the strength and the vitality of the Guardian, he has so much more to play with and life gets so much richer. And most importantly, there's a power that protects this richness and this beauty because otherwise it will be overrun easily. And the other ones contradict each other too. While the Genius says, I need to understand everything, I need to make a model for everything. We need to have a strategy and a plan for everything. We need to think everything through. The mystic says, no, no, no, you cannot do that. You cannot think everything through. Surrender. Just surrender. Let everything happen as it wishes to be. And they could be at war with each other or they can be best friends, knowing that true wisdom, what the genius strives for, can only be attained through this attitude of surrender. And at the same time, if we surrender, like all the time, we will probably don't develop the capacity to communicate with people and to get people on board our mission that are not so much into surrendering. And that are maybe speaking a different language right now. The genius is very strong at taking other people's points of view and communicating in their language and being able to work together with different parts that together probably form a whole that is more than the sum of its parts. And so we get a sense of how they or they all bring value to each other when we develop the capacity to align them equally. And these four archetypes together, the Romantic, the Guardian, the Genius and the mystic are our collective and at the same time individual developmental homework. Because if we embody all four of them, we become a human being that's actually capable of truly, in the highest possible way serve the shift that's happening right now. These will be the future leaders of the world. People who are embodying all. These four people who are only embodying one or two or maybe three are too one dimensional. It will not work in creating the more beautiful and more beautiful world. Because probably like in your circle of friends or at work or clients or people on social media or you probably know people who are a really strong manifestation of the romantic, who are like fully into enjoying the sweet side of life. You probably know people, maybe one or two person already come to mind. And they are nice people, they are fun to be around. Life is always juicy and zesty when you are with them. But maybe they didn't integrate one of the other archetypes and this makes them susceptible to falling out of this beauty that they perceive because they get all sorts of maybe financial struggles because they didn't embody the genius well. Or they are like too weak physically. So they always, they always end up in situations where like the beauty is harmed or the beauty is destroyed because they didn't integrate the, the Guardian well. Or they identify too much with these things and then they end up in, in months of, months of heartbreak when a. When a loved one leaves them because of a not fully integrated mystic that brings this surrender, this let go, surrender to the greater forces attitude. And maybe you already know a person who's a full representation of the, of the Guardian. Like the fire element is really strong on them. You maybe even see it in their, in their face like face, this is red and the body is like strong. And it's always, always you. You just need to look at them at a wrong way then. And they are always ready, ready for a fight which is too one dimensional. If they didn't embody the other archetypes too. Because if the, if the romantic is not present, then this full life force energy of the of the Guardian is likely to be expressed in ways that are not serving someone, something greater like fighting for the fight's sake, not to protect something that is sacred for you, but just to fight. And that leads to nothing. And that, yeah, in the end is one of the contributors to the world that we, that we see right now. Or people who are really a manifestation of the nice follow who. People who are really a manifestation of the, of. Of the genius and who spend a lot of time in their heads and who are incredibly smart and intelligent and have answers to almost every question, but they maybe didn't embody one of the other archetypes and lack a kind of vigor, like a kind of strength, because the Guardian is not very present and they are a little bit lost in their mental worlds and they are not grounded, not grounded in reality, not grounded in earth, not grounded in materialistic things because the, because the romantic is not very present. Or they attach too much to their whole mental concepts and ideas and they identify too much with them because the mystic is not present enough. Or maybe you know, people who are a full manifestation of the mystic, who are very good at surrendering and like being in their divine flowing female energy, but they are struggling in the material world because they didn't, didn't develop the smartness, the wit of the genius or the fire of the Guardian. And all these stories show us that if we only cultivate certain aspects of ourselves, then always something will be lacking. And our model of the four archetypes, and it's very important for me to share, is still a model. It's not reality. And the Dao de jing, it's the dao that can be told is not the eternal dao. Like the moment we put something in words and concepts and ideas and images, then it must lose certain of its characteristics and of its complexity, which is very useful because if we, if I would be sitting here with 175 different items and archetypes and words and we will all get like super, super confused and probably some of them would be like similar more closely to each other. So it makes sense to put them all in a box of like the Guardian where in the past, in the other scenario, with the 175 archetypes, we could, could create the, the Guardian and we would, could create the Protector and the fighter and the warrior. But yeah, we can simplify things and put them all under the umbrella of the Guardian, but still it's a model. It doesn't mean that if we integrate these four archetypes, then we are like a full human being, much more is necessary. But I believe these four archetypes can steer us in the right direction and can show us where we are invited to, to learn and to integrate and to embody more. And I want to take a moment for you to reflect on your own journey in life and on your own, on your own being. Like, where do you see yourself on these four dimensions that we just explored? How strong do you see yourself? Do you see your embodiment of the romantic? Check in with yourself. Maybe even, maybe even think of a couple of situations where you really embodied this archetype and maybe think of a couple of situations where you didn't embody this well and this led to all sorts of inadequacies. Maybe your inner genius tells you to put a number on it. On a scale of 1 to 10, how well did you embody the Romantic? That's the question that's fundamentally originated in the, in the realm of the guardian and not in the realm of the romantic. Because the realm, in the realm of the romantic, there are no numbers, there are no scales. In the realm of the romantic, there are feelings, there are emotions, there are colors and sound. And that's how the romantic perceives life. Yeah. Check in with yourself, like, where's your inner romantic? How present is it right now? And then do a little check in of, of your inner guardian. How well did you cultivate your inner fire, the fire element that gifts you with the life force, with the, with the zest, with the Uyghur, a vigor to protect what is sacred. To be strong, like physically strong, impulsive, with a strong energy radiating from your core. Is that something you are in contact with or is that something you sense that you're invited to embody more and maybe follow your inner genius and give it a number, if that helps. And then check in with the genius. Like how well are you in contact with the air element, with the mental? Like understanding things, creating systems, creating strategies, creating tactics, creating, creating ideas, really seeing all the complexity, how the things interrelate with each other. How present is this smartness that always has an answer, that always knows how to navigate life? How present is this inside yourself? Of course, like entrepreneurship, business, making money. Like these are all realms of the genius. He thrives in these realms when there are things to optimize and things to envision and things to strategize. That's the game of the genius. And if that's something you're struggling with, then probably that's an invitation to get into contact with Your inner genius more and more. And. Yeah, put a number on it. And then check in with yourself. How deeply are you in contact with your inner mystic? The water element, the flow of life that doesn't hold on to anything specific and really surrenders to the greater forces and is with whatever is present right now. Not with regrets in the past or with thoughts and worries in the future, but really present in the here and now, knowing that I'm just tiny speck in the whole universe flowing through life. If that's an archetype that is integrated well inside yourself, then life will be pretty flowy and pretty easy and pretty effortless. And if that's not integrated very well in you, you tend to cling and you tend to resist and things tend to be tight and stressed and dense. Yeah. How would you describe your connection with your inner mystic? And after checking in on these four different realms, you. I lost the romantic, but we have two more. Always good to have an abundance of the romantic. Check in with yourself. Like, what is something that I'm invited to cultivate more? Where are probably my weaknesses and my blind spots? And where are my areas where I'm strong and where I'm capable and where I'm. Where there's a lot to build upon. I want to. As I'm seeing this mangosteen in my hand, I cannot. I cannot not take a moment for my inner romantic to share something. Because one of the reasons why I brought this mangosteen is the moment I realized that. Let me show you something. Probably this will trigger your inner romantic, too. The moment I realized that. Let me open one of the mangosteen to show you how it looks like. This is how it looks like. It's a reddish, reddish skin and then little white segments in it, and they are super, super sweet. The moment I realized that, I already ate one of the segments. And there are five more in this fruit. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. So in total, there are six segments in this mangosteen fruit. And the moment I realized that, on the bottom of the fruit there is a little artifact. And if this fruit has six segments, then it has six. Like, there's a little flower, a little mangosteen flower. It has six. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 elements. And. No, that's not a. That's not a coincidence. Let me show you another one. This one has seven. Like, seven, seven elements. I got this little flower on the bottom. You see it? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. And then I open this fruit and let's see if it works. Let's count them. 1, 2, 3, 4. Wow. Oh, there's one more. 5, 6, and 7. It works. The moment I realized that, my inner romantic got really on fire about this incredible magic, like, how like, life produced not only this amazing fruit that tastes so heavenly, but it. Like, this was not. This is not necessary. Like, nobody needs that. The romantic is all about going the extra mile for beauty. This is absolutely not necessary. If there would be a. If there would be a. The same amount of elements of this flower on the bottom of, there would be no flower at all. Like, I think nobody would care. Like, no human being, no animal, like, nobody would care. But nature says no, that's important. We are doing that. We're putting this little flower on the top where each element of the flower is connected to one of the segments in the fruit. I'm like, that's the romantic. That's what the romantic is thriving on, like, these little wonders. The Romantic is full on these little wonders of the world. Like, he can marvel, like, for hours and hours about the incredible complexity and beauty of this existence. All right, after this little romantic sponsored break, let's continue our exploration and let's dive into what are the ingredients, each of the archetypes bring to the table? Why are they important in order to contribute to embodying custodianship? Why are they important? What are the ingredients they bring to the table? What are the unique gifts they represent? The. The romantic definitely gives the gift of. Of love. He is just here to. If we want to be a custodian of Gaia, if we want to steward this whole planet, if we want to build a more beautiful world, our hearts know as possible. The. The Guardian is just here to love. To love Gaia, to love the whole, to love everything that is there. To love ourselves, to love each other, to love the animals, to love the river, the waterfall, the. To love even the. The cities and the depression and the addiction. The romantic is just here to love everything. And that's his gift to the world because the power of love is so healing. Yeah. And through that, he brings a profound meaning, a profound. A profound drive. Because if you are in love with something or with someone, then there's a. There's an energy behind it. Like, remember the first time you fell in love, your first partner, your first boyfriend, your first girlfriend. Like, your life got so much richer and there was so much meaning, so much like, oh, my God, let's build a beautiful future together. I want to really nourish this incredible human being that gifts me with their time. And with their, with their presence and brings me so much joy and so much bliss. So like, wow. I want to nourish that. Like, for me personally, the, the inviting, the romantic is the first step into building the more beautiful world. Because it gives us a driver. If we don't have this driver. Like a not fully integrated romantic leads to a life that is, that is like, that's lacking meaning, that's cold, it's numb, it's just like, yeah, yeah, life, yeah. Okay, I'm waking up, doing my things, paying the bills, going to work, eating something, consuming a little bit, the occasional holiday here and there and then I'm going to bed. And yeah, like that's a, that's a not fully integrated romantic. A fully integrated romantic is like sparkling with joy, sparkling with like gradients the whole time. And this is so important because if we don't fall in love with the whole, if we don't fall in love with Gaia, if we don't fall in love with life itself, then we have no motivation to do anything to protect, protect the sacredness and to design with our inner genius to design systems where the sacred is protected and where the more beautiful world can emerge. So that's really the gift of the, of the romantic. This meaning, this drive. This drive, like for you individually in your life, check in with yourself. Like, do you, do you feel driven? If you, if you wake up in the morning, is there. Is there this like energy inside yourself that just wants to explore, that wants to go out there, that wants to, that wants to inhale? Like the whole richness of life or if. Or do things appear more numb and more cold and more boring? Like boring is a word that the romantic doesn't have in his vocabulary. No, it's not a word that is present for him. Everything is extraordinary and rich and colorful and juicy and tasty. So that's the unique gift the, the romantic brings to the table. Let's continue our exploration with the Guardian. The Guardian is connected to the fire element. And what is the gift that he brings to the table? He nicely connects to the romantic because if the romantic perceives something as valuable and as meaningful and provides us with this drive, the Guardian offers protection. It protects what is sacred. And if that's not present, then the sacred can easily get harmed and get hurt if we didn't embody the Guardian. The Guardian is responsible for conserving the beautiful habitat in which I'm living in right now so that not someday there will be big concrete boxes like hotels where people are enjoying all Sorts of processed food and washing it down with the occasional cocktail and smoking cigarettes? No, this space here is a home for all the birds, all the insects, and maybe even for human beings like myself. And I cherish that immensely. And I'm so grateful to, to be able to live in a place like this, where I'm able to jump in this pristine waterfall each and every morning. And my inner Guardian gets really, really on fire when I think about that. This delicate ecosystem could be, could be harmed. So that's the gift the Guardian brings us and gifts us with protection. Protection of what is sacred. He gives us security. And you can check in for your, for yourself, like in your individual life too. Do you feel safe? Do you feel secure, like on all levels, like physically secure and financially secure? Do you feel that if not, maybe there's an invitation to develop your inner Guardian? And if your inner Guardian is strong, you know you can protect yourself. And even if something goes really wrong, you have the capability, you have the life force energy to, to bring things into order again. So if there's a Guardian that is not present enough, then this manifests as a lack of vitality and as a passivity, like, as a, just like, yeah, I'm like, yeah, I don't know, let's see where life leads me. Not in a surrendering, mystic kind of way, but more in a like passive, listless, vigorless kind of way where there's a, almost a sort of resignation. A resignation of. Yeah, I don't know. I don't. I'm. I'm not, I'm not capable, I'm not capable of doing what I really want. And that's why I resign. And I'm like, yeah, okay, things are how they are and I cannot do anything. And interestingly, this creates destruction too. When the, when the Guardian is too present, this creates destruction. As we already explored, like fighting for the sake of the fight. Fighting wars for power and fighting wars for power and for dominance. The microphone almost fell. Fighting wars for, for power and for dominance and an over presence of the Guardian and not really a Guardian that is not really in connection with the, with the inner romantic fights all sorts of wars and therefore leads to destruction. But a Guardian that is not integrated leads to destruction too, because we don't have the power to this to, to protect what is sacred for us. And that's why it will just, it will get, get destroyed by other people who are too over the top in their Guardian and don't, don't respect what our inner romantic loves and takes joy out of so it will get destroyed too. Only with the right, with the Guardian and the right, right balance do we ensure peace. So in our like whole consciousness, spirituality, environmentalism, circle, the Guardian doesn't have a good connotation because the Guardian is responsible for so much of the destruction that we see in the world. But it's not the Guardian, it's too much of this fire element and not being balanced, not being balanced out with the other archetypes. And so we are throwing out the baby with the bath water and think of the Guardian as something bad at all. Think of the like, the strong, masculine, forceful, impulsive, like physically energetic, maybe even dominant version as something bad. And that doesn't do us any good either. Let's take a moment to connect with a genius. What is the unique gift that the genius brings to the table? When the romantic has the task to love Gaia and the Guardian has the task to protect Gaia, then it's the task of the genius to steward Gaia. Because the genius acknowledges that we are by far, we as human beings, we are by far the most powerful species on this planet. Planet. Like through our use of technology, cultivating fire for ourselves, building tools from the first stone tools like some spears in order to hunt a mammoth, to this modern microphone or this artificial intelligence that will, that will aid in post producing this video and, and cut it into small chunks that are ready for posting on Instagram and subtitle that and so on. Like, through our use of technology, we race to the top of the food chain. Up to a level that we are more powerful than the rest of the biospheres combined. Like with, with our weapons, with our technology that we cultivated, we can destroy like everything. And there's no natural, there's no single species that is powerful enough to stop us from doing that. So when we really tap into our inner genius and realize how immensely powerful, how immensely intelligent, how immensely capable we are and we, when we immerse ourselves in all the, in all the dynamics at play in our world, what is really going on and what I refer to as the meta crisis, the convergence of crises in our lifetimes with the destruction of the biosphere and the loneliness epidemic and the social media addiction and the overfishing and the climate change and the melting of the Arctic ice and the species extinction and the artificial intelligence and everything that's going on that we can sum up under the umbrella of the meta crisis, when we connect with all that and without, when our inner genius taps into that and tries to understand like the intricacies of how everything is interlinked, Then it's the genius task to realize that in order to complement the immense intelligence that we as a species developed, we must also develop the wisdom to use this intelligence. To use this power in a way that is serving the greater good. If we continue to use our intelligence, our tool making capacity, our narrow focus, problem solving, our optimizing for a single metric, if we continue to use that just for our own personal self interest, we will go extinct. Because we are debasing our own habitat. We are destroying like the planet that's that in the end nurtures us each and every day. Like it's so crazy when I'm out here in nature. The. The air quality, like it's so crisp, it's so fresh. When I compare that to when I'm in a city like the capital of Indonesia, Jakarta, with its millions and millions and millions of people and cars and product production and pollution and so on, I almost cannot breathe. I really almost cannot breathe there. And this shows me if we transform the whole planet into a big giant, giant Jakarta, we will all die. And until we die, we die. We will all suffer because we cannot breathe. We cannot, we cannot thrive like physically, because the air cannot nourish us and the water is not clean and the food is not pristine. So we are not doing ourselves a service in taking advantage of everything and everyone around us just for our own personal self interest. Because the genius realizes in the end, we are not serving our self interest when we are at the disservice to the whole, we are at a disservice to ourselves. We can only make life work for somebody if we make life work for everybody. And this is what the genius realizes. And that this is the wisdom we need to cultivate to use our intelligence in a way that is of service to more than just us, more than just our family, more than just our tribe, more than just our company, more than just our nation. It needs to be something that is in service for the whole. And that's why the. The genius gift gifts us with a gift of, I would say order, alignment, equilibrium. Like on a planet where most people are not in contact with the inner romantic and lost sense of the sacred, and therefore are exploiting the sacred. We not only need the Guardian to protect one what is sacred, we need to the immensely important genius to design systems how to protect what is sacred. Because like the. The big oil companies and the big farmer and the big ag, like the Guardian is pretty helpless against them. Because you cannot fight personally, you cannot like fly to the headquarters and then punch the CEO in the face. No, that doesn't work. We are invited to design alternative systems only. This is an adequate response to the meta crisis. Of course we need the vitality and we need the power of the Guardian to do that. But it's the, it's the genius who creates the strategy for that, the master plan. While the Romantic provides the direction, provides the why. So they all play nicely, nicely together with each other, which is very nice. So the genius gifts us the gift of order, of alignment. If the genius is really present and things are in order, then the family is in order. When each of the family members are at their place fulfilling their role, then there is order. The same is true for a community. The same is true for a company. If the genius is real present, the genius knows like this person is really good at design. This person is really good with people. This person is really good at strategy. This person is really good with finance. This person is really good at like building physical things and planning and make. Making schedules and so on and so on. And everybody is at their. At their place. If we are really have an integrated genius, then our companies are in order and our communities are in order and our families are in order. And if there's a healthy genius present, then the, the whole ecosystem Gaia will come into order. And if that's not the case, if the, if the genius is not really integrated, then yeah, we are probably getting. Getting exploited. We are probably getting used because we are not smart enough to. To combat the, the big companies of our times in a way that truly works, that is truly meaningful. And like, as nicely as a, as the, as the Romantic and the Guardian can work together in. Well, as nicely as they can work together in going to protests and saying like, no, we need to get rid of the CEO and we need to cut their salaries and so on. Like, it will not solve the meta crisis. We need the genius. We need the inventiveness and the wisdom of the genius. It's very, very important. Yeah, the genius is responsible for innovation, for a sense of progress. Progress in the right direction. Progress guided by, by the wisdom the genius can, can possess. Of course, if the genius is like too present, if there's too much change genius, then we are too much in our hands, then we are ungrounded, then we are too airy, we are floating around and all our ideas and we are not able to get our feet on the ground and actually do something which is very, very present. And a lot of people too. An over presence of the genius, which is. Yeah. Which is not healthy too. All right, what is the last gift that we. Sitting next to us, that's the mystic. And the mystic gifts us with the gift of trust, A deep trust. Trust is something that is very hard for all the other three archetypes. Very hard for the. For the Guardian. Because the Guardian is always like, no, no, no. Not trust, but need to fight. We need to be ready. We need to be up. And the. The genius always wants to observe more and wants to understand more. The genius has a hard time trusting. And trust is the gift that an integrated mystic gifts us like as much as we explore the intricacies of the meta crisis and what is going on in the world and how overwhelmed it may sometimes feel and how heartbroken our inner romantic is when we connect to the state of the world and how everything is playing out in the beginning of the 21st century with the rapid rate of species extinction and the rapid rate of deforestation and the turning of the natural world into money. It takes an integrated mystic to. To not fall into utter despair. Because this is what can. What can happen if the mystic is not present, if we identify too much, and if we are too like, too, Too determined, if we are like, too, too fully in our Guardian and too fully in our heads and too fully in our. In our hearts, then, yeah, we lose the ease and the playfulness that arises when we trust into the divine flow of life. That no matter how this story of humanity, the story of life itself should play out, it will play out in the right time and in the right setting and in the right fate. Yeah, of course there's a. There's a. Too much of a good thing. As it's the case with anything. Too much of the. Of the mystic leads to a certain kind of passivity. I don't need to do anything. I just sit on my meditation cushion and I surrender, like all the time. Okay, I'm just flowing. No, sometimes it's important to embody your inner guardian and to say like, no, I'm not surrendering. I'm not trusting. I'm fighting unprotecting. And at other times, it's important to let our inner guardian chill and to surrender. And that's what I meant. They are all contradicting each other. Sometimes it's very appropriate to just sit there for hours and hours and contemplate the incredible beauty of nature and how the. How the mangosteen like, ah. And sometimes it's not the right time to just indulge in sweetness. Sometimes it's the right time to. To train your head and train your mind and train your. Your inner genius and to really get to work and understand things and to design systems. And at other times it's important to. To turn off your head and to sit in meditation for 90 minutes and to connect with your inner mystic and to let go of everything, including yourself, including the sense of you let go of all the separation and tap into this inner being. And then there are other times where it's not about inter. Being. Then there, there are times where, where it's about fighting and where it's about saying to an opponent, no, no, you will not destroy the sacred ecosystem. No, you will not do that because I will protect it. So as we see the delicate dance within all these four very, very different worlds, the delicate b. The delicate balance that is required is really an art. It's absolutely not easy to balance out your. Your inner guardian and your inner mystic, your inner romantic and your inner genius. It's definitely an art. And I hope that today's exploration nudged you in the direction of where you are called to do more embodiment work. Of course, we can run through a couple of examples what we can do. Like the first thing that comes to mind in order to cultivate our inner guardian. You can do martial arts. You can train your body. Like, what I'm doing every morning is like a little morning routine for all the, for all the different archetypes. Like three, three sets of pushups I'm doing every morning to get like my body on fire. Like really bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, fast as much as I can. Like three, three in a row. This morning I did 95. I like, I see. I see a huge, huge, huge effect on. Of doing it every morning. Like a couple of months ago, I was at 50, 60 after three sets. So this gifts me with a strong foundation for the day because I activated my body and then I jump into this beautiful waterfall and I gift my. My inner romantic with a, with the, with the, with a nice, nice sensation of. At the same time, like a little bit cold and then after it warm and, And I, I just like sometimes I stand there and like for a couple of minutes I'm like, wow, wow, this waterfall and this jungle and oh my God, my. There's a deep sense of why for the day to nourish that and to, to perceive everything that I can perceive. And my, my inner romantic is ready for the day. And of course, the, the cold water gives me the mental clarity to really think and to push my ideas into the world and to make the highest contribution I can in order to build a more beautiful world. My heart knows possible, my inner romantic knows is possible. And the mystic gets cultivated with a meditation every morning. One hour I sit there just in silence without doing anything. No moving, no thinking, no nothing. Of course there are thoughts coming up and then I let them pass. And then new thoughts coming up and I let them pass. I'm counting my breath all the way to 18. And when I'm at 18, I'm starting again. And when I lost track of where I am, when I lost, got lost in some kind of thoughts, I'm starting at one again, all the way the full hour. That for me is a nice morning routine to activate all your archetypes. And of course it's just a, like a small part of a day where lift and I want to invite you to check in for yourself. Like what could be valuable habits, valuable routines, valuable exercises, valuable action steps in order to integrate the archetype that is calling you right now. If you listen, if you really tune into yourself, if you take a moment, you know which archetype is calling you right now. Yeah, maybe all four are calling you. Maybe, maybe two are calling you. Maybe one is calling you. Maybe you sense you are already pretty far on your embodiment journey of all four, which is very nice. Which might deserve a moment of celebration by your inner romantic, of celebrating your journey that you already went through in life. Congratulations. And at the same time, your, your inner genius always knows that there's more. There's more to learn, there is more to grow, there's more to embody, there's more to integrate, there's more, more to bring forth into the world. Yeah. To close this space, I want to invite you, I want to invite you into a space where we work on integrating all four, all four of the archetypes for a total of 16 weeks together. 16 weeks is the duration of a space that is very, very, very dear to my heart. It's called Custodia. Custodia is an elevated playing field for new paradigm leaders. Three weeks in person, the second cohort of custodial tech here in Bali, where we, where I live right now in Jatilui, in the center of Bali and the foot of the Mount Batukaru. And the first cohort, even earlier this year in August, August 2024, will take place in Europe. I'll be coming to Europe probably for the last time of hosting something because I strongly sense an energy of settling down here in Bali, connecting more with the land, building my own house, I sense that strongly. So coming to Europe for an extended time period, I don't know, will maybe be my last time. So I want to invite you to the first cohort of Custodia, which is taking place in Poland next to Germany, in the Bialowieza forest on the border of Poland and Belarus. It's the last primeval forest in, in Europe. It's a feast for our inner romantic, like the beauty of this forest with the European bison, like very, very rare species that is still present there, with huge animals like birds, like all, like mammals, like all sorts of animals. Amazing vibrancy in this, in this forest, which is really nice tooth to cultivate our inner, inner guardian, to connect with the, with the, yeah, with the primal, with the primal spirit of the forest. And that gives us the space to develop our inner genius, develop like the capacity for broad system thinking and for designing measures for our individual lives and collectively in order to bring forth the more beautiful world. So we will start with three weeks in person in Bialowieza in Poland in August or here in Bali and Jatilui in December. And then the three weeks in person, like full on immersion, are followed by 16 weeks of working together online in different group settings, one on one settings, masterminds, sparing sessions, and so on and so on. I will contribute everything I am and everything I have for you to race to a completely new level in your embodiment of the four archetypes so that you are able to serve at a completely different level like the four. Integration of the four archetypes brings us to a level of custodianship that we embodied, that enables us to serve in our families, serve in our communities, serve in our companies and our organizations, and serve the whole of Gaia on a completely new level. And this is what we are here for, to be the custodians. This is what, this is the unique role humanity was given to 2 million years ago by the saber toothed tiger. According to an aboriginal story, two million years ago, the saber tooth tiger really, like a force of nature approached the first, the first, the first human beings even before Homo sapiens. Like really, really, really, really primitive human beings. But they invented, they like played around with the first stone tools and then disabled tooth tiger approached them and said like, well, you now have the power to destroy the whole ecosystem with your use of technology. May you have the wisdom instead to steward it, to guide it, to be a custodian of it. Here I'm handing over the role as the Custodial species as the most powerful force on this planet. Over to you human beings. And this is the North Star for Custodia, hence its name. And I will support everything I am and everything I have, along with amazing guest teachers. Three weeks in person, 16 weeks online. So that you are able to rise in your embodiment of what you are here for. The custodian that guides, that serves as a beacon of light in your family, that brings order, that brings love, that brings in your whole family structure with your. With your. With your parents, with your children, with your siblings, with all your loved ones and. And that you are able to become a person who actively builds community. We are all like, longing for community. We all sense that it takes a village to raise a child. We all sense that the traditional setting of the. The nuclear family of mom, that one children to one, one child, two children, that this is not working anymore. We are here for community. We're here to thrive together. And at the same time, like. And I'm a living testament of that. It's hard. We embarked on this journey with our thrive villages. We built a community in Bali, we built a community in Portugal and Portugal. And they are both not existent anymore because, yeah, I wasn't the full embodiment of all the four archetypes like my. My inner genius was not as developed to design the setting where this community is actually working. My inner romantic was not as developed as it can be. My inner guardian was not as developed as it can be. And my inner mystic, too, was not developed as it can be. And I made significant steps on this journey over the past years. And still I'm far, far away from reaching any kind of finish line, which we, I guess, will never reach none of us, but we can always lean more in this direction. So this is custodia. 16 weeks of embodiment of the romantic. The guardian, the genius, the mystic. In order to be able to serve on a completely different scale, to build truly meaningful communities, to. To meet people in this container with whom you can build like physical communities, to bring more service into your organizations, to design companies, to design organizations, to design nonprofits, NGOs that really work for everybody, that work for the employees, work for the. For the. For the investors, work for the clients, work for the local ecosystem, work for nature, really design and build products and services that bring so much value to the world and to everybody that touches them. And in the end, serve to Gaia the bigger, the bigger, the bigger whole the ecosystem on this beautiful planet, to design our lives in a way that is really in alignment with the whole. To eat in a way that's in alignment with the whole. To live in houses that are in alignment with the whole. To work that is work in alignment with the whole. To. To conduct our relationships that is in alignment with the whole. To travel in a way that's in alignment with all. To travel less and really live in, in contact with the land, with your community, with your tribe. So Custodia is a program that is not pinpointed in just one direction. It's not a, like, it's not get rich quick or lose a lot of weight or enhance your relationship or start your YouTube channel or whatever. No, it's not everything at the same time. And I believe this is what's needed because all the pinpointed measures got us in the mess we are in in the first place. Like when we only optimize for, for one metric, we cause harm on so many levels that we are unaware of. So for me personally, the only goal definition makes that makes sense is to contribute to, to the thriving of life now and into the indefinite future. That's, that's, that's, that's my North Star. That's my goal that I'm like each and every day leaning more and more towards it. Contribute to the thriving of life now and into the indefinite future. And I think it's the only goal definition that makes sense for each and every company, for each and every community, for each and every family. For like whatever we are doing and if we are approaching life from this perspective, then it doesn't make sense to book a pinpointed business course, or a relationship course, or a lose weight course, or change your diet course, or build your start your online business course, or build your brand course or whatever. No, it needs everything at the same time. And this is what is Custodia. Custodia is everything at the same time. Custodia is embodiment of the romantic, is embodiment of the, of the Guardian, is embodiment of the mystic and embodiment of the genius. Custodia plays out on a mental level and on a physical level and on an emotional level and on a spiritual level, on a relationship level, on a community level, on a company level, on an ecosystem level, on all levels at the same time. Because I believe that's the only sensible way to design programs. And that's why it takes 16 weeks. And that's why they are three weeks in the beginning where we go super, super deep. And in the remaining 13 weeks that we work together online, each of us at their own place where we are currently living. It's going to be a super deep and intense journey too, with group settings, with one on one settings, without any, like, okay, only this, like, 90 minute call Friday morning and then it's over. No, I will contribute everything I am and everything I have into this space. And if it's necessary to do a one on one call, we will do a one on one call. If it's necessary to, to make a session on a topic that I didn't plan for, we will do that. And if it's necessary to do X, then I will, I will, I will find a way to contribute X because it's important. And no, there is no fixed price tag. Custodia lives in the gift. Like it should be. Like it should be. In the last podcast episode, I. You probably watched that or listened to it. I. I went on a rant about the state of the, of the coaching industry and how stepping into the gift might not only bring it into alignment for the client, but into alignment for the creator too. Because we can just serve. I'm not here to pitch you anything. I'm not here to convince you of anything. I'm not here to sell you anything. I'm here to put out an invitation. I'm hosting the space in Poland and in bali and then 2025 again and again and again and again. This is what this is like, my service. I'm contributing, like, many, many hours each and every day into the space. That's not like I'm not doing it once, and then I'm earning a lot of money and then I'm finished. No, it's like when the first cohort of, of Custodia ends end of November, two days afterwards, the second cohort starts. This is like a marathon that's like, ongoing. I'm here to serve big time. And I want to invite you into the space if you feel a calling to embody your inner custodian and to be a force of beauty, a force of truth, and a force of goodness for Gaia, for the whole, for all human beings, for all animals, for all fungi, for all plants, for all drops of water and stones and sticks and everything that is present on this beautiful planet. And maybe in the future, we will someday even become a custodian of other planets. I don't know. Let's. Let's surrender to that. That's not the topic for today, all right? It's living in the gift. I want to invite you to fill out my form and we will have a call and if it resonates, we're going to go on a 16 week transformative journey, which might be the most important thing you are doing this year. Except, or maybe it will be the second most important thing. If you're becoming a parent this year, that's even more important. But I cannot think of many things more important than the journey we are up to. If you're becoming a parent this year, this may be your ultimate motivator, your ultimate driving force to embark on this journey in order to create the more beautiful world for your children. Which is my biggest, biggest driver, Lionel, my son, a little bit older than two years old now. He always connects me with my inner romantic like the way he explores the natural world. He marvels at each and every butterfly and everything he he encounters. This always draws me in. Yeah. All right. The link is in the description. More information there you can apply. Looking forward to this journey will be an intense one, will be a beautiful one, will be an important one. And let me know if today's exploration of our four archetypes of being a custodian was valuable to you and what it stirred up inside yourself. Looking forward to hear from from you. With that being said, sending love from the jungle of Bali. And I look forward to our next time here in the Gaia's Custodians podcast. See you then. Thank you, Sa.
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