By Susan K Furness, Edgewalker Senior Associate
I love playing with polarities or opposites. I embrace their canny ability to help recognise positive learning, naming my truth through observation and not opinion. I mean, if I am unable to describe the liberation in fearlessness, could I tackle the paralysis of fear? Likewise, if I haven’t lived in dark or darkness, could I name light?
In her book, Edgewalkers Dr. Judi Neal unleashes truths in the experience of the moment. Indeed, the book was birthed after years in the corporate world, and she later integrated her business experience with academia-based research. As her professional insights were compared with freshly harvested data she was able to ground her intuitive knowing.
Published in 2006, her book cements more than 25 years of research. She describes Edgewalkers as on the cutting edge of human evolution suggesting when an Edgewalker archetype is awake to self-truth they become committed to making a positive difference in the world.
Not surprisingly, Dr. Judi embraces the realization we each show up with different worldviews or what we call “Archetypes of Change.”
I joined the Edgewalker community in 2007 joyfully embracing her glossary describing eclectic approaches to communications, planning, innovation, risk-taking, and openness to change that I witness in business and life.
As with polarities, such words help flick the switch to understanding. In a ‘blink’ as experience is named, my individual worldview and response is ripe for evolution. In that moment, I resemble Dr Judi’s profiling of an Edgewalker : ‘using human potential to integrate intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual energy in service to something greater (than myself)’.
Dr. Judi cautions : “It can be lonely being out on the edge, and people often think you are crazy….”.
Ain’t that a fact; one I receive as good news, least not in the these curiously lingering corona times as many seek the ‘new useful’. In this hazy light, I welcome a guiding light and in pops the second archetype, the Flamekeeper.
Dr. Judi describes : Flamekeepers are those people who keep the original vision of the organization or community system alive. They keep wise counsel and are focused on what is best about the past … open to change, using experience to honor what has worked in the past.
These attributes influence my toolkit as I step willingly yet cautiously into 2021 – some pundits label it ‘twenty twenty won’. I opt to carry luggage not baggage, appreciating the courage required to bless goodbye to what doesn’t serve anymore. This takes de-cluttering to a new place, often on the edge of surrender.
Dr. Judi reminds us a Flamekeeper orientation pays homage to the guiding mission and purpose : “A strong sense of stewardship permeates the culture of a Flamekeeper organization, allowing the business to carry into the future the best of the past, while also remaining adaptive and nimble.”
The Flamekeeper also appreciate values : ‘…values are clearly articulated, and employees are able to name when actions are in alignment with these values.’
I deeply value the vault of vocabulary unleashed by Dr. Judi’s work especially the nimble relationship to change and a graceful relationship to time akin to the five archetypes.
And there is no time like the present to face our truth and douse the flame that no longer serves. These times call us as beacons; to illuminate an expansionary view of our world as we walk the bridge to oneness in love, prosperity and peace.
You can read more about Edgewalker Organizations and the Archetypes of Change (called “Orientations” in the article, by clicking in this website on Resources/Articles by Judi Neal/Edgewalker Organizations.
Dear Susan,
A smile passes as I inwardly hear your voice offering these thoughts, and I recognise the same feelings and thoughts I had too when reading Judi’s work. Especially when you consider ‘using human potential to integrate intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual energy in service to something greater than my-self’, and then….., and then……
I realise a more profound spiritual truth that lays beneath this too, one that is even more disturbing in its truth and far older as it speaks from the vastness of time before, long, long ago. It doesn’t undermine Judi’s work at all,, but it does make it easier to fulfil when you resolve this question too…
It relates to a paradox that we need to be aware of, even if we cannot accept it at this moment. It expresses the relationship we are taught to believe in that defines our perception of reality, and this viewpoint is so rational and logical that it takes a huge effort to see beyond it. It is a question that some consider only later in life if at all, and yet it is the most important one to answer because it reveals a truth that enables anyone to make the difference that matters. It begins with a simple statement:
‘There is no such thing as union or separation for me or for you. There is no me, no you, no manifold world. All is the self, and the self alone.’
It continues and encourages you to reflect on this and invites you to enter a dialogue with yourself that exposes the relationship within self, and self and other. I wrote a comment before to Patricia about this sense of separation between an Edgewalker and others and maybe its presentation was too obtuse, but it applies here too. The quote is taken from ‘Dattatreya’s Song of the Avadhut’ which offers a transliteration and translation of this ancient story and if resolved opens up an entirely different reality. In modern terms it is about the relationship we have between ego and soul, and self and other. When the idea of being an ‘Edgewalker’ disappears, you become one….
Best wishes to you all
Susan, no wonder I was drawn to this article’s title before I even realized you wrote it! Thank you for naming a number of things I am experiencing and placing them within the archetype of Flamekeeper. This makes me eager to read a review of all the archetypes and to finally read Dr Neal’s book. Love your naming of “luggage not baggage” that we can choose to carry into the new year. Interestingly, I’m aware when I read some of the Flamekeeping descriptors, I feel weary. It is lonely at times to have bigger view, to know what is possible, and to carry that around amid much unconsciousness. Thanks for this series of blogposts, Edgewalkers, and for this one in particular, Susan.
Hello Sue, thanks so much for contributing as always. As well as for sharing your sense, sensibility and sensitivity. I hear you, and resemble that remark. Chuckle.
Indeed, I don’t know about you but I can draw comfort in knowing we are not alone. The playful part of me calls this ‘being in great company’. A bit like we all are, world over, with corona….what precious Universal company we are all in as this curious, awkward time lingers.
Weariness is something we all get to ‘wear’ at times (as in wear-y).
With the help of Judi’s work and support, I have come to recognise these times as the call to ‘rest on the edge’….take a bit of a pause. A sacred pause.
Also, I observe it can help me if I ‘find another word’ to describe whatever it is….to give an energetic shift, from a low energy to a higher vibe. This is the Polarity enthusiast in me coming out to play!
Indeed, the next blog will be published any time now. It honours the Guardian archetype of change. Do have a read, as the Guardian in me may have landed some realisations that just may nourish the ‘collective energy’ in ‘lonely’.