A shamanic perspective on leadership

A leader is sometimes the most loved and the most hated person in the room at the same time.

First and foremost we must define what leadership really means. Real, natural leadership is always rooted in love and in service to others. It never implies “power over” someone or something, and much more the capability to hold an empowering vision for the collective. That vision must come out of the heart, because that’s where our lowest and our polarities unite. As leaders, we cannot afford to abandon our hearts. We can also not deny our lower, instinctive center (base chakra), or our higher, rational center (third eye). Doing so would mean that we abandon our humanness, and that’s usually when it all goes downhill and a leader turns into a guru or a tyrant.

A leader is someone who has a natural ability to draw others in and direct their attention into a certain direction. A leader is sometimes the most loved and the most hated person in the room at the same time. A leader is in no way superior, but always offers a surface for projection. That’s because the person is unusually self-willed, vibrant, rebellious, successful, revolutionary or simply “different” from the collective. In our Western society the real leaders are often the outcasts, and many people in high leadership positions exercise power over others instead of service to others.

That means that the people who might be most capable of leading a tribe might actually be leading dogs in the park on Sunday these days, because that’s the only chance they got to share their vision without being put into a box.

And this is where it gets truly interesting, because a dog sitter actually isn’t worth any less than a president in a healthy society. Both are leaders, and both are needed. If we take a step out of the dead linear system that we live in, it’s absolutely clear that there are so many ways to lead and be led. Not all of us want to lead, and if so, not in every area. Leaders also want to be be lead, from time to time in certain areas.

Leaders always invest in their own leadership by consulting mentors, guidance and oracles.

Leaders also naturally awaken shadows in others through projection. Now projection is rooted in comparison and if applied without judgement, it’s the most efficient way to see the parts of ourselves that we’ve been in denial about. If we step into judgement, we always enter the conflict of good or bad. The idea of good or bad is the expulsion from paradise. That being said, it’s necessary to embrace our capability to be a surface for projection while at the same time refusing to be part of any blame games. Leaders don’t enter the drama triangle, they reside outside it and offer others the option to step out of it and choose authenticity over victimhood.

The guru and the dictator are dead characters. They are both figures who have traded their souls and their hearts in order to not be human.

Humanness means vulnerability, shadow, instinct, sexuality and mortality, just to name a few. Due to the stories that this world and our souls have been through, we might associate being human with suffering, but that is just one huge collective shadow. Our humanness makes us capable of the most important thing in life, which is union. On our adventure to find and experience union, we stumble over obstacles and sail through stormy seas, but that’s what makes it deep and not superficial. It’s all a part of it.

So, what makes a leader a leader? Maybe you’re the black sheep in the family. Maybe you were bullied or mobbed in jobs or at schools. How would you know if you’re a leader? 

The answer is quite simple: Real leaders see solutions instead of problems. In fact, they don’t just see the solution, they see the unique opportunity behind the obstacle and focus on that opportunity instead of the obstacle. This is absolutely necessary, because otherwise there is no progress and all we do is put out the same fires that we light over and over again by not daring to think bigger.

A real leader sees the obstacle and deals with it through nomorebullshit shadow work, but removing the obstacle is never the the focus. The focus is always the vision.

Now where does this vision come from? Again, it must come out of the heart. In our hearts our feminine desires meet with the masculine goals, and when we process them through our heart, we strip off the bullshit that might still be attached to it from where it came from. This is all shadow work and to a large extent also body work, because it requires us to process our vision with all senses. Again, this is linked to our readiness of embracing our humanness and also our mortality, which then always points us to the fact that all humans are meant to be equal.

Leadership is linked to our soul’s landscape, our destiny and soul lineage, but not only. It is also learned and earned.

However, if you have the gift of leadership, if you are someone who is often either the scapegoat or the rescuer, you are called to step into leadership. You are called to stop hiding, face your shadows and be authentic. The first thing you need to do is find your center, commit to your heart and trust that you will be heard. Remember, you don’t need to serve everyone. You are only called to serve those whose hearts are called to walk alongside you. Nothing less.