A New Frequency of Leadership: What does it mean to lead & Do Business in the Spirit of temple?
We are amidst a global transition; economically, ecologically, socially, spiritually. Many Indigenous prophecies and ancient calendars spoke of this time: a turning of the ages, when the masculine and feminine within humanity would seek to find union again. When the Earth herself would demand a new way.
We are living in a time between worlds.
The old systems are undeniably crumbling, those built on extraction, domination, and disconnection. For centuries, we have lived within a system shaped by a distorted form of masculine energy, one that values dominance over cooperation, profit over ecological health, output over personal wellbeing.
This is the architecture of patriarchal capitalism: a system that severed us from our bodies, our Earth, and often, from our own humanity.
In this model, success is measured by growth at any cost. Productivity is prized over presence. The bottom line outweighs the wellbeing of people and the planet. We have been conditioned to believe that to be professional, we must sever emotion from decision-making, that power means control, and that leadership means conquest.
Beneath boardrooms and the stock markets, a different current is rising. We are entering a time of rebalancing, where the long-suppressed feminine principles; care, intuition, collaboration, cyclical thinking, are returning to inform how we live and how our systems operate. Quietly, and yet undeniably, a new rhythm is calling. One that is slower, deeper, and rooted in something far more ancient than the industrial machine.
This is not a dismissal of masculine energy, far from it. What is emerging now is an integration. As the empowered feminine reclaims her place in the world, not as subordinate, but as equal, the masculine, too, is invited to evolve and return to his true essence and power.
No longer driven by force or detachment, but by clarity, integrity, and stewardship.
We see this shift even within the very structures that once upheld the old ways. The global sustainability movement is one clear sign. Corporations are waking up to the reality that business cannot thrive on a dying planet. ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) frameworks are being integrated into investment strategies. Climate considerations are being factored into financial decision-making. Companies are learning that to lead in the 21st century is to care, not only about profit and the best interests of shareholders, but for stakeholders: communities, ecosystems, future generations.
And while some of this shift may be driven by pressure or necessity, something deeper is also taking root. A widespread recognition and acceptance that long-term success is about authentic connection and reciprocity. With the land. With each other. With life itself.
This is the return of the feminine wisdom that understands the power of the pause. That honours the unseen. That knows timing, intuition, and interconnection is part of strategy.
And it is this rebalancing, within our systems, and within ourselves, that clears the path for a new kind of leadership to emerge.
Bridging ancient ways in a modern world….
Many of us feel the ache of dissonance. We yearn for meaning in our work, for purpose and connection in our lives. We want to create with integrity, to walk lightly on the earth, to feel like our contributions are real. But we’ve inherited a world of spreadsheets, social algorithms and overstimulated nervous systems that forgot the old scrolls that held the wisdom of the stars.
At this time, I pause to contemplate; What does it mean to do business rooted in ancient wisdom, to lead in the spirit of temple, like we once did?
For me, this is about bridging worlds. To infuse the tools of the modern world with heart and ancient wisdom. To design strategy with intention. To make decisions not only with the mind, but with the body, the heart, the gut. To track the cycles of the cosmos and nature, thinking in cosmic rhythms rather than fiscal quarters. To co-create with each other in the true essence of our soul rather than societally-prescribed roles.
For me, this work of bridging these ways has been a calling that has been slowly revealing itself in the unfolding of my life.
Since my early twenties, I felt a deep pull to the ancient ways, to the codes hidden in the ancient temples. It began in the most unexpected of places, in the heart of one of the world’s most fast-paced and capitalistic cities: Hong Kong.
In those years, I was still in what I consider as a more unconscious chapter of my life — immersed in the rhythm of the city and of a “successful” life, at least from a capitalistic lens. Work hard, play hard. Life was full of movement and excitement: cocktails, weekend hikes, boat parties, a weekend in Tokyo, a quick trip to the Philippines, social events layered on top of each other. I was living the dream of capitalism in one of the most capitalistic cities on Earth.
And yet, something else was quietly stirring beneath it all, something ancient whispering to me.
I often found myself wandering through the old Daoist temples close to where I worked. In these little pockets of stillness nestled between skyscrapers and neon lights, smoke curled from incense sticks. The air was different there. Time moved differently. And sitting in those courtyards, sometimes for just a few minutes, I felt a kind of presence and quality that nothing else in my fast-paced life could give me.
These temples, scattered through Hong Kong’s bustling streets, hold the living transmission of Daoism, a philosophy rooted in harmony with nature, with the Dao, the great unfolding. Right under the nose of the capitalist machine, these sacred sites preserved the wisdom of flow, balance, and simplicity, the very antithesis of the world I was operating in and the life I was experiencing day-to-day.
At the time, I didn’t yet understand the significance of what I was seeking and yearning to connect with. I only knew that what I found in those moments touched something deep and were giving me transmissions that, in time, would come to shape my life and work. I began to sense the subtle call of something ancient surfacing from beneath the concrete of the modern city. Something that would continue to call me home, again and again, in the years to come.
In the years since, this call has taken me deeper into the mysteries of Ancient Greece and Egypt, into the forests and ancient sites of my ancestral lands of Ireland and Britain. As I delved deeper into these ancient wisdom paths, life called me to the study of modern systems; technology, sustainability, finance, governance. For most of my adult life, I have walked both worlds, the mystical and the material. Dedicated to understanding these ancient wisdom teachings while simultaneously contributing to the creation of our future systems.
And now, I see my role as a bridge between them. To bring the spirit of the ancient temples into the way we live, lead, and create today. To weave ancient wisdom into the very structures we are rebuilding.
To remind us that business can be a vessel of transformation, and that true leaders are merely conduits for the divine.
The High Priest/Priestess Archetype in Business
In ancient cultures, the temple was the beating heart of the community. It was not separate from daily life, it was daily life. The High Priest or Priestess were conduits for the divine, they knew how to operate from a place beyond ego so this essence could make itself manifest in the world through them. They understood timing, cosmic cycles, the power of the word and living a life led by ritual. Their role in the community was spiritual yes, but it was also political, social, ecological. They stewarded energy, ensuring balance, and stood as intermediaries between the material and the divine.
To bring this archetype into business and the systems of today is to reimagine entrepreneurship and leadership as an offering to community and to the world from the essence of soul.
It is to ask:
What am I truly in service to?
Does my business, or what I am bringing to the world, reflect the values of truth, harmony, and reverence?
Am I aligned in thought and word — not only to the world, but to my own deepest calling?
Now, I find myself in a new chapter. Not with all the answers, but with a deeper commitment to the question.
What does it truly mean to build future systems rooted in ancient wisdom? What does it look like to lead, and to do business, in the old ways of temple?
This inquiry is transforming from a quiet inner wondering to a living exploration, one that in this first instance is coming into form through a co-created gathering rooted in this very question.
This first step forward will take place in Aswan, Egypt. An ancient power place where the spirit of sacred leadership once guided one of the world’s greatest civilizations.
This land is steeped in the mysteries of the feminine. The story of Isis and Osiris (Auset and Ausar in the Ancient Kemetic language), of fall and resurrection, of the broken pieces of wisdom being gathered once more. It holds the memory of a time when leadership and service were one and the same.
When temples were centres of both spiritual and societal life. When the masculine and feminine worked together in divine reciprocity, and when their fall set into motion the very cycles we now seek to heal.
In this place, we begin again. Not to recreate the past, but to remember what was once known. And to imagine….
What might be possible, when we choose to lead with reverence, purpose, and heart.
