A massive raft of mallards met my eyes as I was taking my daily walk. Never have I seen even close to this many in this location. Normally, there is perhaps a handful, but on this frigid day, there were myriads of them. Dear friend,   I wonder if the journey is ever speaking When I make time to listen   Between the in-breath and the out-breath, I sometimes notice a place   Ubiquitous Yet easy to miss   It sounds like silence, Yet there is something palpable, Like a pulse   At

Sometimes a year feels both like completion and frustration Dear friend,   Moving through life these days, I notice that I am not alone,   Moving through life these days, I notice that I am  alone.   Time passes, As perspectives shift   What have I done?What haven't I done?   Does any of this matter? What if it doesn't?   Waking up. Falling asleep.   Everything is the same. Everything changes.   Holding on. Letting go.   Some conversations Can only be held Discreetly       St

Being scared, even if uncomfortable, means that we care Dear friend,   Fear is often seen as something undesirable. Perhaps even as an indication that something is wrong. That's how I felt about fear for a very long time.   Merriam Webster defines fear as "an unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger".   Cambridge defines it as "an unpleasant emotion or thought that you have when you are frightened or worried by something dangerous, painful

The birds work in close collaboration with nature – For they are nature – Like us – If we only choose to remember Dear friend,   Problem-solving is essentially a Linear activity. In its most basic form, it is about going from   Situation A – Problem   to   Situation B – Solution   A to B, like a Line: Linear.   What can the Way of Phi tell us about problem-solving?   How can we strengthen our Linear capacity through an understanding of The Way of Phi?   What is the Linear?  

The heart supports you always Dear friend,   The heart doesn't ask whether you are strong enough, It holds you when you feel that you're not   The heart doesn't boast about its accomplishments, It loves you unconditionally no matter what you do   The heart doesn't care if you're rich or poor, It supports you every moment of your life   For even though the beat of the heart might at first sound repetitive, Its value lies not in what can be measured, But in the space that canno

In the middle of the dark winter, the gift of light is abundantly bestowed upon us from above, one flake at a time Dear friend,   Nature provides As if to say Look...   Here in the darkness Here in the cold I meet you   For only in the hibernal season Can I give you this bounty Light and play   Like an echo From another plane...   Here in the emptiness Here in the void I meet you   For only in the season of despair Can I offer you relief Warmth and belonging   Like eternity R

Emotions, like the moon, reflect light Dear friend,   'The days between' or 'between the days' is the Swedish name for this time of the year; the days between Christmas and New Year.   These days the tempo is often slow.   The crescendo  leading up to the Yule celebrations has erupted in a final forte fortissimo  and then abated into a mild piano .   And so, at long last, there is  time for reflection. Sometimes even for stillness.   Not for all, of course. Some people never

The days don't get any shorter than right now. Where's your balance? Dear friend,   Yesterday was the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year here in the north. (If you are in the southern hemisphere, you will have to make some reinterpretations.)   As it is the shortest day, it's really vital to get out and let the sunlight kiss our faces, ideally around the middle of the day. That's a practical aspect of this.   On a more symbolic level, this is the time of the year w

How Slow Can You Go Without Losing Track of Your Destination? How Fast Can You Go while Maintaining Your Presence? Dear friend,   This time of the year lends itself very well to slowing down.   While many get stressed, it is really a great time to rest, reflect and turn inward. Taking care of oneself.   Reaching out, meeting others, yes, but then returning back in. Back home. With every breath. But why should we slow down?   Well, the point isn't actually to slow down, the po

Holding a grain of sand – Adding its uniqueness – The mollusc creates a pearl Dear friend,   Last week I presented Pearlosophy to the group at a Philosophical Café that I hosted locally in Lund, Sweden. This gave me a deeper understanding and appreciation of how we always co-create, whether we are aware of it or not. For as the expression goes "no man is an island".   Then, the day after, I went to a seminar on the future of research, where a question was raised about how we

The ape cannot let go of the banana. What about you? Dear friend,   Friedrich Nietzsche wrote that man is a rope between beast and superman. I understand this metaphor as a bridge between an ape and a fully realised human. And that bridge I call Phi or Dynamic Balance. For sometimes we are more apelike and in other situations we are more elevated. Thus play our lives out.   One way to catch an ape (or perhaps a monkey) is supposedly to present them with a banana that is insid

Opening Up Space – Welcoming In Impulses – Allowing Creation to Happen Dear friend,   Last week I gave a philosophical concert at the legendary Café Ariman in Lund, as seen in the image above.   Ariman is one of the names of the god of disorder, contrasted with Ormuz, the god of order. And just across the street lies the cathedral, and on the other side of a grove is the university building, both of which could certainly be seen as representatives of order.   When I moved to

Surrendering the struggle – Giving way to acceptance – Relaxing into peacefulness – The void holds us – no matter what – if we let it   Dear friend,   A couple of weeks ago, I posted about going through the darkness again. If I consider my life from a certain perspective, there has been much more darkness than light.   And still, the light has been there all along. Even when I couldn't see it. Like stars shining in the night.   I can choose where to direct my attention.    I

The Servant & The Traveller – Can you be both humble and curious at the same time? Dear friend,   This is the last issue about archetypes, at least for the time being. If you are new to this newsletter and want to read up on the previous ones, here's a link .   Today we look at the Servant and the Traveller.   The Servant   Being a Servant is a very beautiful thing. However, in this hyper-individualised time and culture we live in, the Servant is often dismissed as a lowly fi

This time of years seems to exacerbate the darkness Dear friend,   I tend to experience the end of October until the beginning of November as an unusually challenging time of the year.   And now it's here again.   So, here I am, moving through the darkness. One step at at time. One breath at a time. From one moment to the next.   This time it's intense, so I will keep this newsletter short.   To learn more about how to navigate through darkness, see my book The Way of Phi, wh

The Star & The Visionary – How do they relate to Light – and to each other? Dear friend,   Today we look at the archetypes of the Star and the Visionary.   The Star   Shining in the night sky, from a stage or the silver screen, the Star radiates energy. This energy can be used to nourish others or to light up the way, however, as with any energy, coming too close might be dangerous. The Star sends out light and is therefore a Linear archetype.   People who embody the Star arc

The Songs of Phi are currently being recorded – But why do I need three guitars?   Well, the left one is a bass which often plays repeating patterns (Circular),the right one is an electric guitar to play melodies (Linear),and the one in the middle is versatile enough to have been with me for 30 years (Φ).   Dear friend,   In the Way of Phi, a number of song lyrics are included. These serve as emotional sounding boards to reflect the concepts and ideas in the book, albeit on a

The Home & The World – Where do they meet? Dear friend,   Today we will dive into two more archetypes: The Home and the World.   – Wait, what? – Aren't archetypes like a fancy word for characters?   – Well, yes – and no!   The thing about archetypes is that they are energetic. This means that they exist on a more abstract level than you or I do. In other words, we can view archetypes as a kind of influence that we are more or less affected by, whether intentionally or by happ

Armed with a Feather I Embark on my Crusade Dear friend,   There is one problem in the world that overshadows all others.   Indeed, it's more devious and dangerous than all of them combined.   More deadly than starvation or warfare, because it causes these things. More evil than human trafficking or deliberately keeping poor people subjugated, because those  are symptoms of this. Even more lethal than biodiversity loss and destruction of nature, because this is the root cause

The Child & The Sage – Who Is Wiser? Dear friend,   This week we will dive deeper into the archetypes of the Child and the Sage.  ...