The Archer
The Archer Arrived Quietly
The Archer's arrival into my field of perception was so subtle, so quiet, I almost missed it.
In images I discussed in past posts, the Knight came back from the Crusades defeated, his armor ripped and dangling. The two Samurais were clashing, white goading black out of the shadows. While both images announced themselves, the Archer did not.
It was facing away, stripped of all, wearing nothing but a loincloth, the entire body exposed. The bow was tensed and the arrow ready to spring. The scene was quiet, the Archer focused, present, in control. All that focused intensity rested on the tip of the arrow. The bow and arrow are set in motion only when the target is in sight.
The Knight triggered a period of artistic exploration for me. The Samurais ushered in a period of rigorous physical training. The Archer simply asked one question
What is the one thing that matters most right now, after you have dropped all roles, masks, costumes, and need for external validation?
The Archer Does Not Fight
This Archer kills not for ideology, or honor, or pride, or country but to sustain life.
Many of the causes we take up, the ideals we endorse, the pride we carry, the honor we commit to, the country we serve, the justice we fight for, may be very noble, laudable and necessary. But it does not make them less external.
The Archer does not concern itself with any of that. The Archer fights nothing and nobody, and kills only to sustain life.
That is the main difference between the Knight and the Archer. The former took a life in the name of an idea. The latter took a life to sustain life, according to an equilibrium ruled by the laws of nature. The Archer does not fight and is only animated by inner authority. It then flows, aligns, then strikes.
Most of my earlier, younger years — and most people can relate — were spent fighting for an ideal, an external form of validation, a place of belonging. The institutions I chose to join for my studies, for my work. The way I conducted myself in the world. The way I chose to have a family. It is also called playing by the rules.
None of this mattered when the big disruptions hit.
For me, right now, sustaining life means creating products and services that serve others, helping them grow into more of themselves. Service, Growth, Beauty, my three core values, are embedded in the work that I do. That is my assignment. That is my own unique way to sustain life. And each of us has our own.
It Is Extremely Hard to Stay Still When Chaos Erupts
Putting down the armor has been a challenge for me. Only life disruptions forced me to do it.
The armor came off in pieces, but dropping it was not the same as being steady. I recently found myself overextended, over-enrolled in more initiatives and programs than I could genuinely dedicate my full attention to. In the name of keeping up with the breakneck pace of technological advance being unleashed upon us, also known as FOMO. The costume I was wearing here was a very familiar one: competence and skill.
Many, not all, of these programs are still sitting on a shelf, waiting for me to click them into life. All I gained in the process is a frazzled, overwhelmed, and distracted nervous system.
I would have gained from pacing myself. From acknowledging the disruption and the need to embrace it with new capacities, but also from the sober reckoning that my physical limits, and therefore the need to prioritize and focus, had to come first.
Things had to reach a breaking point where, ironically, I leaned on technology to help me stay disciplined and focused on the one thing that will move the needle each day.
We Are Electric Circuits
The message of the Archer thus revealed itself. The distinction between the Archer and the other warriors could boil down to one elemental thing: Energy.
We, as humans, are walking electric circuits in a universe we now know to be a massive energetic field. Emotions, which influence our thoughts and ultimately our actions, are electric signals traveling through the wires of our nervous system.
The Archer's nervous system is calm, relaxed, alert, focused, present. No story, no noise, no drama, no pretense, no costume. Only the task at hand.
What I learned is that discernment is a powerful regulation for our nervous system. The Archer is showing exquisite discernment in what it chooses to engage with, and the resulting nervous system is regulated, present, focused, and in communion with its surroundings. Discernment and regulation feed each other.
When our circuits are in overdrive, we cannot aim. All we can do is fire.
Trimming, purging, letting go of old identities, roles, and assumptions become an existential necessity.
The questions the times demand of us:
What must I be ruthless about, to build, to receive, to exchange, to charge for?
Where do I need to purge and trim:
relationships, possessions, sources of pleasure and adornment?
Where have I developed an attachment, a dependency?
What the Knight and the Samurais Made Possible
The Archer represents the place we return to after we are stripped, voluntarily or involuntarily, of our roles, titles, costumes, society-dictated strictures, masks. The place we return to after trials, travails, losses, ordeals, and wins. A place of understanding, of ourselves and others, of our space in the larger universe. A place of inner authority, devoid of external interference.
The first two warriors were not separate lessons. They were the pre-requisites. The Knight's armor had to come off before there was a body to regulate. The Samurai's shadow had to be forced into the open before there was anything honest to aim at. Strip, then expose, then steady, in that order.
The qualities of the Archer include presence, communion with the outside environment, sharply honed instincts, ruthless clarity about what matters and what we value and are offering, and the capacity to navigate between contemplative solitude and community engagement.
But We Are Not Productivity Machines
Until some of these qualities and capacities are embodied, the new behavior cannot really be sustained over time. Transformation cannot happen in a sustainable manner.
A regulated nervous system is essential to build the capacity to embody the archetypes and behaviors that will bring the sustainable transformation we seek. Productivity is not part of this equation. Instead, returning to our fundamental human wiring and tending to it is the way.
It started with small acts of vulnerability. Admitting to a struggle to an acquaintance. Then the momentum built from these small admissions. A few days ago, I found myself retelling my entire arc story to a friend I had not connected with in ten years. The difference today is that I could tell it with gratitude, conviction, realism, while reaffirming my faith in a benevolent, yet uncertain and chaotic universe.
That is when I realized that my nervous system's capacity to endure more uncertainty had leapt up to a new floor.
Less Armored Knight, more Archer.
What is the Archer telling me now?
What costume needs to come down?
What is the one thing to attend to today?
What distractions must be removed?
What is frazzling my nervous system now?
The Archer, for me, is still an aspirational state. But I am getting closer, and that is all that matters.
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