THE SOVEREIGN ARCHETYPE
Vision, Leadership, and the Art of Blessing
The Sovereign in Balance: Purposeful Vision, Self-Esteem, and Stewardship
When Sovereign energy is alive in us, we feel called to lead. Not for personal glory, but in service of something greater than ourselves.
We hold a strong, intentional vision for our lives, one that includes soul calling, contribution, and care for the wellbeing of others, whether that be expressed through a family, cause or organisation.
The Sovereign is the benevolent ruler, the good parent, the generous mentor. The one who leads with the heart, who inspires, nurtures, and is motivated to support the growth of those around them.
As Antoine de Saint-Exupéry reminds us in The Little Prince:
“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
We understand divine reciprocity: that true leadership is not domination, but service. We know that our ability to lead is granted by trust, not seized by force.
Sovereign energy invites us to idealise, to envision what could be better, not driven so much by dissatisfaction with the present, but from love for what might flourish if tended with care.
It grants us the confidence to act “as if” before we have the evidence of our success, to step into dreams that stretch us beyond who we have been.
Most of all, the Sovereign teaches that leadership begins with self-leadership.
When our Sovereign is empowered, we hold ourselves with dignity, self-acceptance, and a sense of moral responsibility toward the world we are shaping. We care deeply that the direction we choose serves the whole realm.
The Sovereign’s nature feels like the sun: warm, vital, enduring.
Just as sunlight helps everything grow, the Sovereign uplifts, energises, and brings out the best in those it blesses with its light.
Myths, History, and the Sovereign’s Ancient Role
Across myth, legend and history, Sovereign energy has been embodied in many forms:
The wise King Arthur gathered knights at a round table of equals.
In Egypt, Isis was honoured as a queen who used her wisdom and magic to protect the vulnerable and uphold justice. Hatshepsut, one of the few female pharaohs, led with strategic vision and brought decades of peace and prosperity to her people.
In Japan, the concept of Tenno, meaning heavenly sovereign, held that the Emperor ruled by mandate of the gods, but must demonstrate compassion and moral clarity to be worthy of that divine right.
In more recent history, true Sovereign leadership shines in figures like Nelson Mandela who, after enduring decades of unjust imprisonment, emerged with a vision not of revenge, but of reconciliation, tending a broken nation back toward wholeness.
It lives in Eleanor Roosevelt, who tirelessly advocated for human rights, improving the circumstances of many unseen and marginalised souls without seeking the spotlight for herself.
And it shines through Clarissa Pinkola Estés, one of my own guiding lights, whose life’s work in post-trauma healing and soul-tending has honoured the dignity of human suffering and nurtured the restoration of countless lives.
True Sovereigns bless, protect, and create space for others to rise.
They are not above the people, they are entrusted by them, walking alongside them, carrying the weight of responsibility with humility and fierce devotion.
From working with severely injured children and veterans, to supporting survivors of disasters and violence, she has walked faithfully beside those carrying the heaviest burdens, tending the flame of hope through every season of loss and renewal. Her work as an activist, elder, and lifelong ambassador for the voiceless is guided by an unwavering vision: to bring dignity, healing, and soul back to those pushed to the margins.
She continues to teach, write, and serve into her ninth decade; still devoted to the call of collective repair.
The Sovereign Archetype in Everyday Life
We encounter Sovereign energy in many forms.
In the teacher who notices a student’s potential and gently fans the flames of their confidence. Or in the mentor who holds a vision for someone’s greatness when they can’t quite see it for themselves. It lives in the CEO who leads with integrity and care, valuing the flourishing of their people as much as their profits. And in the parent who patiently teaches their child, learns to let them make their own choices and encourages them to find their own way in the world.
Where the Sovereign is alive, leadership inspires rather than compels.
Blessing flows naturally.
Challenges are seen as opportunities to call forth hidden strengths.
As Simon Sinek teaches in his work on Finding Your Why, healthy leadership is not about commanding others. It is about inspiring them to step into their own greatness, grounded in shared purpose and trust.
In the words of an old Greek proverb:
“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”
The Sovereign, through maturity, agency, optimism, and fortuitous circumstances, has the capacity to attend to others in greater numbers and across longer timelines. They therefore plant, tend, and bless, even when they may never personally enjoy the fruits of their labour.
Joy: The Gateway to Sovereign Energy
When we are joyful, we feel resourced. We have more to give. We can bless others without fear of losing ourselves.
Joy is the emotion that opens the doorway to Sovereign energy. When we are able to rest in genuine self-acceptance, not because of what we achieve, but because we are already enough, joy arises naturally.
From that place of fullness, we can dream without desperation. We can strive not to prove our worth, but to express the gifts already alive within us. Joy strengthens the internal flame that allows us to reach, create, and serve sustainably.
To deepen contact with our inner Sovereign, it is wise to seek activities and relationships that nourish; people who affirm our innate value and experiences that replenish the fire of self-esteem from within.
The Element of Fire: Tending the Flame of Purpose
The Sovereign is linked to the element of fire, which, like the sun, is warm, life-giving, energising. We often speak of someone being “on fire” with an idea, or having “fire in their belly.”
In ancient traditions, the eternal flame symbolised the enduring spirit of leadership, vision, and hope that must be tended carefully across generations. An acorn carries the destiny of an oak tree within it, but the sun does not rush its unfolding. It simply offers warmth, light, and consistency, and in time, the oak tree emerges.
So too the Sovereign. True leaders do not force others to become who they are meant to be. They create the conditions, the warmth, the vision, the patient encouragement, that make flourishing inevitable.
As Clarissa Pinkola Estés writes:
“We were made for these times: to find the truth that burns within us, to live with hearts aflame, clear vision, and unwavering desire to see any endeavour through, no matter the weather, no matter the season. No matter the obstacles. Fire! Give me Fire!”
These are the words of a Sovereign. One who does not abandon the flame, even when storms come, but tends it faithfully, holding onto vision and a sense of possibility through every season of life.
The Conditional Love Wound: Losing the Sense of Inherent Worth
Our access to balanced sovereign energy is wounded when love is made conditional. Children who grow up feeling unwanted, unseen in their essence, or valued only for their achievements, appearances, or performance often internalise the painful belief that they are not good enough just as they are.
Even those cast as “golden children”, praised for their brilliance, may silently struggle with deep unworthiness, never having been loved simply for being. This is the conditional love wound. It severs the natural joy and generosity of the Sovereign. It replaces inner radiance with striving, self-judgment, and endless attempts to earn love that persist long into adulthood.
Many parentified children, those who had to step into adult roles far too young, carry this wound. They learned that care, approval, and safety were tied to how well they could serve, perform, or protect others.
When this wound remains unhealed, it distorts the natural, giving flow of Sovereign energy into survival-driven patterns.
Inflation and Deflation: Two Faces of the Shadow Sovereign
Like all archetypal wounds, the Sovereign wound can polarise into inflation or deflation.
Deflated Sovereign:
✦ When Sovereign energy collapses, the inner flame dims.
✦ Self-doubt clouds vision. Optimism gives way to “I can’t,” “It’s too hard,” “What’s the point?”
✦ At its extreme, deflation may show up as burnout, depression, or a sense of profound despair.
Inflated Sovereign:
✦ When Sovereign energy inflates, the wound drives compulsive overachievement.
✦ The person may take on ever-bigger goals such as degrees, leadership roles, but no success feels satisfying.
✦ There is a restless hunger to be enough but because the wound was never about deeds, external achievements can never fill the inner emptiness.
When power is in shadow and unmediated, and ego defences are at play such as denial, displacement and deflection, inflation can harden into rigid superiority, leading to controlling or tyrannical behaviour through over-identification: insisting on being right, refusing to hear dissent, punishing others or seeking to damage their reputation for perceived disloyalty to the system, whilst bypassing harm in the name of being ‘neutral’, ‘spiritual’ or ‘more evolved’.
Both inflation and deflation stem from the same deep ache:
The longing to know: “I am worthy simply because I am here.”
Healing the Sovereign: Restoring Worthiness and Support
When Sovereign energy has been wounded, it is not through personal fault or failure, but often through an absence, of care, attunement, protection, and the steady presence of supportive adults who could reflect our worth back to us without conditions.
Healing the Sovereign does not come through harder striving or greater achievement.
It comes through receiving what was once missing:
Support,
Encouragement,
Unconditional affirmation.
In Shadow Work and Jungian coaching, we often invoke the presence of an ideal figure, real or imaginal, who can offer the support that was withheld.
This figure may appear as a wise mentor, or loving elder, some kind of benevolent guide who can stand beside us, hold our vision tenderly, and mirror back the goodness we came to doubt. In a coaching journey, this role is also held for a time by the coach, who is trained to offer steady co-regulation as we find and strengthen our own inner light.
We learn to bless ourselves, to offer unconditional love to the parts of us that feel small, exiled or unworthy, not by demanding more performance, but by bringing the gifts of self-acceptance and generosity.
This is a reclaiming of the right to lead our own lives with dignity, hope, and confidence, through a foundation of trust in our inherent goodness.
Awakening the Sovereign: Living with Vision, Warmth, and Purpose
Awakening the Sovereign within is an act of quiet, steadfast grace. It is choosing to know our own inherent worth before anyone validates us. It is leading ourselves with kindness first, then extending that generosity outward into our relationships and the world.
When the Sovereign is alive in us, we plant trees whose shade we may never sit under.
We dream dreams that may bloom beyond our lifetime.
We bless, we build, we steward.
It is recognising that true leadership is not about commanding others. It is about tending the fire of hope, vision, and courage in all those we touch.
As Mary Parker Follett first distinguished and Brené Brown recently popularised, it is a shift from power over to power with- a relational strength that liberates rather than dominates.
And we do so not from emptiness, but from the steady flame of joy, dignity, and devotion to something greater than ourselves.