Part 1 : Feminine leadership in business

The valley spirit never dies. It is named the mysterious feminine. And the doorway of the mysterious feminine is the base from which heaven and earth sprang. It is there within us all this while. Draw upon it as you will, it never runs dry.

- Tao Te Ching

This is the first part of an article series where I share insights and experiences from living feminine leadership in the business world. I have been working extensively in the world of progressive business, passionately exploring all aspects of self-organizing and decentralized leadership. Through my journey, I was introduced to Lovisa Alsén's path of Awakening Feminine Leadership, which set me on a deep exploration of the dynamics of feminine and masculine leadership in business, eventually leading up to the creation of Lifeforce Leadership. In this article series, I want to share with you how the power of the awakened feminine, when fruitfully backed by the masculine, is key to realizing ideas and succeeding in the emerging business landscape. How this kind of leadership can make our initiatives and ourselves come alive and, rather than merely survive, allow us to tap into pleasure and honorably thrive in chaotic times. 

My Good Girl Story

Since a young age, I have been interested in progressive technology and leadership. I have one master’s degree in engineering and one in management. At university, I founded self-organized initiatives, and when I realized there was a whole field within business following principles that had intuitively emerged for me, I declined interviews at McKinsey to follow my heart and passion. So I spent the early years of my career diving into the world of progressive leadership - working with everything from start-ups to larger businesses and even within the realm of politics. But even though I was working at the leading edge, I had a sense that important dimensions were lacking in this new world of organizing. It seemed to me that we were never fully able to thrive in more progressive ways of working; there was the consulting firm with beautiful loving values but where the climate became harsh, stressed, and toxic as soon as customer deadlines came close, or the decentralized political party that in theory had the perfect design but in reality never seemed to be able to accomplish real change. On a collective level, I witnessed how most decentralized ways of leadership often burned out with the energy of a few people in the core, collapsing under confusion, power struggles, and a general feeling of “we are not quite there yet”.

On a personal level, although I had been questioning the worldview underlying the mainstream business world, I was still too deep into what I now recognize  as a toxic masculine mode of achievement. I was struggling to leave behind a destructive way of building my self-worth solely based on my performance. In addition, I was trying very hard to change and save the world - what I now recognize as my shadow feminine. I had a lot of fire, but I often felt stuck and overwhelmed, which caused me to push even harder. I found my inner flame burning out and my body more and more drained.

Awakening to the Feminine 

At the brink of existential burnout, my friend and mentor, Lovisa Alsén, extended an invitation that again would change my world: she asked if I wanted to join her course in Feminine Leadership, at the time intriguingly titled "Divine Eros and Pussy Power." To this day, I’m not entirely sure what compelled me to say yes. Lovisa had been passionately talking about the feminine and the power of our "jewels" (her term for pussy) for months. While I deeply admired her wisdom in most areas, I couldn’t help but think she’d gone a little off the deep end with this one.

At the time, I was disconnected from my sexuality and couldn’t fathom how my pussy could possibly relate to leadership. I’d built my career—and my sense of success—in a masculine-dominated business world and somewhere along the way, I’d absorbed the belief, largely unconscious, that femininity was weak, something to be hidden or transcended. I wasn’t particularly drawn to identifying as feminine, and I had also internalized the queer worldview that gender was purely a social construct. The idea of masculine and feminine as distinct energies with embodied essences felt foreign, even nonsensical.

Yet despite my intellectual skepticism and confusion, there was a quiet but undeniable voice within me whispering, "yes." It was a clear, embodied call that my mind couldn’t explain away. And so, to my surprise, I found myself accepting Lovisa’s invitation, stepping into a journey I didn’t yet understand but somehow knew I needed.

And what a call it was. This six-week immersion into the sensual, powerful, and vibrant feminine—and the journey that unfolded afterward—became one of the most transformative experiences of my life, both as a woman and as a leader. Lovisa's practice reawakened parts of me I hadn’t realized were dormant. It brought me back into my body, rekindling my power and playfulness. I learned how to flirt with life itself, reconnecting with my life force in ways that felt electric and freeing.

This practice became my bridge from exhaustion and people-pleasing to accessing the superpowers hidden in my sensitivity and creativity. It allowed me to shift from a state of near burnout to one of inspired action, channeling energy into bringing to life whatever was calling through me. Within just a few months of diving deeply into this work, I experienced a profound bodily knowing—a visceral sense that the energy, life force, and heightened awareness I accessed through this awakened feminine power were deeply significant.

As I began embodying this new form of leadership, I felt an irresistible pull to share it with the women around me—I simply couldn't keep it to myself. The divine feminine had awakened in me like a sexy, intoxicating new lover, and I found myself unable to stop talking about her with anyone who would listen. She was dripping off my tongue, spilling into every conversation, and I couldn't help myself.

My transformation was so visible, so palpable, that it became irresistible to other women. Most of my female friends and some colleagues joined me to explore this powerful feminine energy, and my amazement grew as they, too, began to transform. It was extraordinary to witness these powerful women begin to bloom—radiating confidence and energy as they reconnected with themselves and their own life force. Several of them, who had been battling burnout for years, finally felt free of symptoms like brain fog for the first time in ages.

Something deeply and profoundly vital had been restored in their connection to themselves. I watched as they stepped into their power with a grace and magnetism that was undeniable. The transformation wasn't just personal; it rippled out into their relationships, their work, and their entire approach to life. They were coming alive in ways that made me realize why this awakening felt so urgent—not just for each of us individually, but for what we could create together when women remembered who they truly were.

Even though I could not cognitively fully grasp how and why, my being just knew that this leadership was a big part of what is still missing in the progressive business world. 

The greatest deception

“When we as women lead from a playful, conscious and sacred sexual energy with a heart-connection, it connects us with our inner strength, allowing us to desire, create and call in what we want, which creates movement AND clear delineation and differentiation. We are then able to call, or even seduce, anything and everything into being without effort. If this sounds like it might be too good to be true, we encourage you to try it yourself. We, as two intellectuals who mainly used to live in our heads, keep discovering the surprising power that comes from being turned on. And how it exponentially increases the more women that connect to it. It is like a super-power we never even knew existed.

The power that is liberated through an embodied turn-on creates a powerful hereness - a particular form of mindfulness - in contrast to a leaning-forward motion of performance, of wanting to merge, or save someone/something. When we as women are turned-inward and connected to our life-force, our turn-on, we can stand in our integrity with a deep sense of self - which together creates the call and shows us how our jobs can go from disconnect and meaninglessness to a true meaningful homecoming and a sense of joy and aliveness.”  - Lovisa Alsén 

So, let's talk about female sexuality and leadership. Because, feminine leadership at its core is about connecting women back to our sexual energy—to what we call our jewels in Awakening Feminine Leadership, the divine diamond between our thighs, our pussies—and learning how to open up for our lifeforce energy to start flowing freely again in our bodies. 

The biggest lie we have been told is that our sexual energy is primarily about having sex, that it belongs in the bedroom, or worse, that it is sinful, manipulative, or shameful. Our sexual energy and lifeforce does certainly not only belong in the bedroom—it belongs everywhere, and it is our everything. It is the source of our wisdom, our power, our creativity, our love and our aliveness. And it is the exact opposite of sin and shame—it is the most sacred, lush, powerful and precious part of our existence.

I love this poem by Maya Luna.

I remember once reading about a scientific study that was done on the nature of sexual arousal.

Men and women had various body parts connected to sensors that could detect subtle fluctuations in blood flow, heartbeat, breathing and so on, measuring the f-physiological symptoms of arousal.

Then they were shown images and videos of various things. Some explicitly sexual and some not.

When they measured the results what they found was that straight identified men were aroused by straight sex and naked women.

Gay men were aroused by gay sex and naked men.

Women?

They were aroused by anything and everything with no predictable pattern.

Flowers blooming. Lions roaring.

Men. Women.

Gay sex. Straight sex.

Crying. Laughter. Tears.

Rivers flowing. Tidal waves crashing.

Elephants mating.

Bones decaying.

Bees pollinating.

Smoke curling.

Violins swelling.

Nothing was out of bounds to elicit subtle female arousal.

Because at the heart of the sex of woman is the poetry of creation.

Woven inextricably with the pulse at the center of existence.

Riding waves of feeling with no beginning and no end.

With no logical conclusion.

A bottomless... groundless... insatiable ocean of revelation.

A dark cave of undefinable, never to be fully known mysteries.

Just like life itself.

There is no map.

No logical conclusion.

You cannot conquer.

You will never fully grasp it.

But you can immerse, on your knees in worship and devotion.

You can pray by listening.

You can't contain, name, or understand.

But you can dance and swim.

You can practice the yoga of wonder and awe...

…If you want to fall in love with life.

If you want to meet the goddess of Reality.

In the flesh and heart of Being.

Turn towards the secret cosmos stitched into the ordinary.

Apprentice yourself to the Body of

Woman

“...at the heart of the sex of woman is the poetry of creation..the pulse at the center of existence.” Women and sacred female sexuality are the source of eros, and eros is what awakens people to their sovereignty, their power, and their autonomy. Shutting down and shaming female sexuality was the most potent path religion and the state could take to create control in a society.

Feminine eros is what awakens deep integrity and service from the masculine. It's what makes it possible to build society in relationship with the deeper mycelium and ecosystems of life. It's what separates us from our symbolic mother and father in a healthy way, allowing us to become our own alive, adult human beings rather than perpetual children seeking external authority.

Instead of encouraging autonomous, powerful adults, large parts of Western religion and societal discourse have historically been designed to shut down eros and have us project mother and father onto the church or the state instead, keeping us in a childlike state of dependency. This is excellent for scaling large systems built on control and order, but disastrous for decentralized, self-organized societies in sync with the ecosystem requiring autonomous, creative, thinking people.

I believe that success in building an open, decentralized society and avoiding a totalitarian, centralized digital age can only be achieved through the erotic awakening of sufficient numbers of women. The stakes could not be higher.

So no, women’s eros is not only about having sex. Feminine eros is the foundation and fuel of aligned and alive creativity and innovation in a business – it is what enables us to build a world tuned in to the mycelium of life. It's the life force that could save us from the authoritarian, sterile and disconnected future that awaits if we continue to suppress the very energy that makes us most fully human.

Some of you might be thinking these statements are a bit bold. And perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself in the unfolding of this story. Before we continue, let's examine why this—what I call true feminine leadership—is (a) so unheard of, (b) potentially provocative (did she really imply that women should bring their sexual energy to work?! gasp), and (c) so difficult to wrap one's head around.

The great split and fear of her power 

As I have already alluded to, it is not due to your individual ignorance if you have never had the connection between women's sexuality and their power and leadership presented to you before. We have had thousands of years of splitting the feminine from her true integrated fullness into either the soft mother or the madonna—innocent and acceptable to bring to work, but also meek and powerless—or the whore—powerful and alluring but definitely not appropriate in any civilized context.

From the time of nomadic tribes, where the Great Mother was revered across all cultures globally, this deep split in the human psyche goes way back. As humans left the cyclical lives of tribes and began creating larger organized settlements, they disconnected from nature and the earthly feminine in favor of the transcendental sun god. Organized Abrahamic religion sealed the deal, making all parts of the feminine—except for the soft, loving mother—sinful, leading up to the brutal witch hunts during which any sign of feminine leadership or power was literally and violently destroyed.

While this separation from the great mother was in many ways an inevitable and constructive development of the human species—leaving a childlike, dependent relationship to the great mother and becoming a more creative, agentic adult was a prerequisite for the amazing development of western civilization—the way Christianity completely demonized the feminine was not the most constructive way to the individuate. Although very effective for quickly seizing power, it was like a teenager who rebels and individuates but then holds onto a worldview of his mother and women being evil well into adulthood.

Ultimately, our collective disconnection from the true feminine stems from a fundamental fear of her power: the power in ourselves, in other women, and over men. As you explore these lost aspects of the feminine, I encourage you to examine the source of your attachment or resistance.

We are deeply steeped in a masculine way of viewing the world.

With two thousand years of suppression, the true feminine essences have largely vanished from our conscious constructs of the world and from modern institutions—especially in business. Because she has been missing for so long, it becomes difficult to speak about her in a leadership context; the frameworks and perspectives we have access to are steeped in the masculine.

The business world is structurally and culturally biased toward masculine measures of success: linear, quantifiable, and goal-oriented. Even when feminine leadership does emerge, it is so far from our conventional notion of leadership that we often fail to recognize it for what it is.

The feminine is inherently evolutionary, spiral, and unilocal (more on what this means further on) in her nature, whereas the masculine is much more linear and binary. Since the agricultural age, we have increasingly adopted a linear perspective of the world, so truly embracing the feminine requires a profound deconditioning of the mind and soul.

She cannot be understood through the mind

Furthermore, feminine leadership cannot be understood through the mind alone—it must be experienced through the body. Feminine leadership is a way of being, not something we do. Recognizing her requires opening up to ways of perceiving the world that are decidedly not taught in business school.

Ultimately, the feminine is a lifeforce that resists containment. It is the root of creation—wild, sensual, and profound. And while models and concepts can help highlight how much of her is missing in the business world, they cannot capture her essence. Instead, they can serve as a mirror, reflecting the ways in which we have distanced ourselves from this lifeforce and how essential she is for the evolving, decentralized, and interconnected business landscape.

For women who have experienced it and men who have felt it, the presence of true feminine leadership can be described in detail. However, words alone cannot convey the experience to someone who has never encountered it. This means the descriptions of the feminine that I share will be most useful for those who have already touched the essence of the true feminine or are on the verge of doing so. At the same time, hearing the stories of women embodying their feminine essence can evoke this essence in others—if they are open enough to feel it.

As we begin exploring feminine leadership, I invite you to engage with curiosity, courage, and a playful awareness of the absurdity of trying to confine the boundless feminine into something as small as words. You can name her to honor her, but not to control or fully understand her. The feminine can only be shared through words as an invitation, not a definition. Read about her, let her wisdom flow through you, and follow what brings you alive. With that said, let’s dive in.

The three awakenings of Feminine Leadership

So what is true Feminine Leadership? Inspired by Lovisa’s Awakening Feminine Leadership path I have clarified the three awakenings of Feminine Leadership; the erotic awakening, power awakening and the mystic awakening. In the name of clarifying how feminine leadership can be applied in a leadership or business setting, I have defined the three main feminine leadership intelligences that come with each of these awakenings; the erotic intelligence, natural intelligence and mystic intelligence. 

The erotic awakening and the erotic intelligence

The feminine leadership journey starts with an erotic awakening—a deep return to sacred power that has endured centuries of systematic suppression and shame. At its core lies pleasure: all that brings vitality and joy to existence, rooted in our deepest desires and longings. This is where the heart unites with jewel force, anchoring our sacred life-force.

This practice combines a profound sense of connection to our bodies, sensuality, and life force—what we on the Awakening Feminine Leadership path call our "jewel force"—with a playful curiosity and grounding that allows us to navigate life with aliveness, flow and ease. As one woman described, "I become open and enjoy my everyday life in a completely different way. It's this energy that flows out of me and then that is also what comes back to me. It feels like I am shining like a sun, and that I see my sunlight landing on others. I feel so alive, that everything is possible, that I can create. I feel myself wanting and longing more, and that I can act better on what I want."

Through alignment with our pleasure, we transform into channels for the call, for magnetism and seduction. This isn't about persuasion or manipulation—it's about becoming irresistible simply by being ourselves. We become a living invitation to awakening, to greater life, to the very essence that generates existence.

Our jewel force awakens when we focus on what turns us on and what we truly desire in life. From this center of vitality, we learn to harness our sexual energy as a wellspring of power rather than relying on the depleting cycle of adrenaline and our increasingly overwhelmed adrenal system. The feminine, inherently evolutionary, invites us to shift from overdoing and constant action—traits highly valued in the masculine-dominated business world—to embracing the natural ebb and flow of creation and re-generation. Our jewel force becomes a wellspring of energy we can tap into, one that feels almost regenerative. As one woman shared, "When everyone else was depleted, it was like I had found a renewable energy source that grounded me in my feminine power and enabled me to move through challenges with playfulness and ease."

When women fully embody their erotic intelligence, they become radiant and magnetic. This luminous presence awakens life itself—in people, in initiatives, in entire societies. The Sacred Seductress calls forth inspired action, drawing the masculine into creation that serves life's deepest impulses. This becomes the most potent force of attraction, capable of transforming how others engage with any initiative.

A woman filled with erotic intelligence fundamentally shifts the entire atmosphere of a space. The room begins vibrating at a different frequency, transforming decisions toward greater truth and aliveness. Inspiration flows not just as productive creativity, but as a profound experience of being moved by life's calling.

Feminine leadership is about stepping into a flow that feels natural, tapping into a power source that is regenerative, fierce and endlessly creative. When women embody this way of being, they not only thrive but also become a seductive inspiration for others, radiating an energy that gets all the women around them thinking, "I want what she's having."

The Sacred Seductress doesn't seduce through manipulation, but through an irresistible call to life itself, challenging us to evolve, to break free from stagnant patterns, and to embrace the full, pulsing potential of our existence. Erotic intelligence cannot be "used" to perform or to control or actively change something or someone, rather it emerges when we surrender into our pleasure and connect deeply with our hearts.

The power awakening and the natural intelligence

The second awakening is the power awakening, where women discover their inherent worth and embody the black panther. This transformation awakens her from victimhood and collapse into the primordial force itself, releasing the trembling rabbit within and emerging as the fierce, untamed wolf.

This power comes from awakening the wild and holy woman in our bodies—a felt interior experience that encompasses our jewels, lower belly, and heart. As we recognize our sacredness, we become lion-hearted, accessing raw primal power that is strong without victimhood or aggression. We develop clean and clear assertion of our will, easily handling push-back with an underlying wildness that is neither intimidated nor reactive.

For many women, this awakening brings a profound sense of trust in oneself and one's capacity. It's not about striving or proving but about embodying an innate sense of worth. One woman expressed it beautifully: "I used to know my capability on a mental level, but now that knowledge fills my body. It's deeper, heavier, and takes up space within me, making me feel whole and grounded."

This shift allows women to navigate uncertainty and complexity with calm, grounded presence. Feminine leadership provides the tools to stay open and curious, meeting life as it unfolds rather than trying to control it. As one woman described, "I no longer feel the need to plan for every possible future. I trust myself in the moment, and my actions feel more grounded and impactful."

From this embodied place, she loves collaborating with men and masculine energy, having integrated masculine clarity and fortitude while maintaining her alive, fierce and loving feminine essence. In collaboration with men, feminine leadership creates a new dynamic—one rooted in aliveness, mutual respect, and clear boundaries. By stepping into their own power, women inspire men to do the same. As one woman explained, "The more I come from my feminine power, the more the men around me seek my advice and listen without me having to demand attention. It feels like I'm bringing playfulness and life into spaces that are often too rigid."

At the heart of this awakening lies the Black Panther's natural intelligence—the feminine ability to discern truth and recognize life's natural rhythms with intuitive wisdom. She embodies the Mother archetype, nourishing life and guarding the cycles of life, knowing precisely what needs nurturing and what must be released for regeneration and growth. Like a mother lion protecting her cubs, she carries wild protection of what she loves, standing up for truth and integrity. The black panther understands that personal power and magnetic attraction emerge from complete honesty, allowing life force to flow freely when aligned with internal truth.

She holds accountable, nurtures, protects and unifies groups at the deepest relational level. With unwavering presence, she speaks truth with clarity, combining profound compassion with fierce authenticity when needed. Her magnetic energy can shift group dynamics through pure presence alone—feminine power is like a black panther entering a room; the panther need not roar, there is no question who holds the power in the room.

The mystic awakening and the mystic intelligence

As we deepen our embodiment of the feminine, we awaken to the mystic intelligence of the Crone. This is the feminine's ability to perceive the invisible threads that weave all of life together. This perception transcends intellectual understanding. It feels less like thinking and more like seeing with our entire being, accessing an embodied knowing that reveals the invisible energetic mycelium underlying all existence. This goes beyond transcendent experiences— a truly trippy embodied knowing of being both thread and weaver in the cosmic tapestry of life. Through this intelligence, we sense intangible patterns and relationships, naturally speaking and acting from a place that creates truth and coherence.

Mystic intelligence weaves energetic fields among people, projects, and initiatives, ensuring these connections have both depth and alignment with what authentically wants to emerge. By tapping into this underlying mycelium, we gain access to profound intuitive guidance that enables the creation of cohesive visions, compelling narratives, and living contexts—building fields and initiatives that feel genuinely real, interconnected, nourishing, and vibrantly human. When women connect through this intelligence, it catalyzes synchronicities and emergent possibilities that could never be strategically designed or rationally planned. 

The transformative nature of erotic intelligence and the elemental cyclical nature of natural intelligence together form what we might call the optimizing force—the fundamental drive of existence that propels us toward higher and higher levels of complexity. Mystic intelligence is the capacity to hold space for, tap into and make sense of this optimizing force, to read the deeper patterns that govern all transformation and growth.

The crone holds a fundamental paradox: while her narrative of the world comes closest to reality—rooted in her ability to tap into the underlying aliveness and interconnection of everything—she simultaneously knows that no narrative can ever encapsulate the ever-evolving, interconnected nature of reality.

She intimately knows the optimizing force as utterly real, while also knowing that reality unfolds unpredictably in every moment with no one or nothing out there orchestrating it all. There are sacred patterns and nothing is predetermined. All is evolving and all is heading towards inevitable death. Like all unilocal reality of the feminine, this kind of knowing—where truths are simultaneously utterly true and utterly untrue—cannot be explained but must be experienced firsthand.

The unfolding of the feminine awakenings

None of these awakenings can, as concluded, be fully explained with words or grasped through intellect alone—feminine leadership is an embodied, deeply felt way of being that radiates embodied and deep presence, primordial power, and sacred pleasure. Women who step into this leadership exude an irresistible energy that not only transforms their own lives but also challenges and inspires everyone around them. It’s a return to our natural power, one that has been buried for centuries but lives in all of us waiting to be awakened.

These awakenings are, of course, not a linear path. We cycle through all three awakenings during different phases of our lives, and we always need our erotic, natural, and mystic intelligence—our jewel, gut, heart and mind—in everything we do. The feminine moves in spirals, not straight lines, returning again and again to deepen each intelligence as we grow and evolve.

Yet there is also truth in an order of these awakenings. There is a correlation between the awakenings and the initiations of a women’s life through the erotic maiden, the powerful mother and the mystic crone. Each builds upon the foundation of the previous one, creating fertile soil for the next to unfold. 

Much of the feminine shadow comes from not being sufficiently awakened in one's eros or power. When we enter our sexuality without a proper erotic awakening, we risk using our sexual energy to be liked or to please men, falling into patterns that diminish ourselves and others rather than enliven us.

Similarly, the fierceness of natural intelligence without eros can become destructively aggressive, leading to destructive mob dynamics or the impulse to subdue men. Our eros calls forth our true power—without sufficient erotic awakening, it becomes difficult to harbor our own authentic power. When we don’t have access to our own power, to feel safe and in control, we risk falling into shutting down other people's power.

When it comes to the compassion of natural intelligence without eros it risks becoming co-dependent, leading us to lose ourselves in over-empathy. With firm grounding in our jewels and our own life force, we can instead expand our heart and care without losing ourselves.

Finally, the weaving and wisdom of mystic intelligence without the foundation of both eros and power can become like a moralistic wet blanket—too much unity, too little individuation and personal power. Without the life force of our erotic intelligence and the grounding fire of our natural intelligence, the mystic risks drifting into spiritual bypassing or leaning out from actually taking part in the world.

This is why it's important to honor both the non-linear spiral nature of the feminine and the developmental foundation each awakening provides. We need all three intelligences dancing together, but we also need the solid ground and fertile soil that comes from moving through each awakening with depth and integration.

Discovering the authentic masculine 

Back to the story – within six months of beginning my own journey with feminine leadership, I was flourishing in my leadership. My transformation didn’t go unnoticed, and one of my clients, a large european wide e-commerce company, invited me to join their team as Chief Marketing Officer.

The impact of this shift within me was profound, but even more remarkable was the ripple effect I witnessed in my colleagues and the organization as a whole. As I delved deeper into embodying feminine leadership within the management, marketing, and tech teams, I began noticing something extraordinary: the men around me started showing up in their masculine energy in new and powerful ways.  I noticed that when I began embodying this feminine energy in its fullness, the way men and masculinity responded to me also changed. The more I leaned into my feminine lifeforce, the more they responded with integrity, strength, and focus. They had my back, listened deeply, and engaged in a collaborative dance with me that was profoundly creative and highly effective. Although I’ve always had good relationships with men, this was different—a deeper, more alive, and dynamic connection. This experience sparked a realization: we’ve fundamentally misunderstood the nature of feminine and masculine energies.

Traditionally, the masculine and feminine have been framed as simplistic polar opposites. If you search for “masculine and feminine leadership,” the masculine is often described as assertive, execution-oriented, selfish, and driven, while the feminine is seen as soft, nurturing, passive, and group-focused. These outdated narratives reduce both energies to one-dimensional stereotypes that fail to capture their true complexity and power.

A common misconception in leadership theories is the tendency to view the feminine as purely passive yin and the masculine as purely active yang. However, as I reclaimed and embodied my active, yang feminine energy, I noticed how some men began showing up in their holding, yin masculine energy. This made me realize that the relationship between the masculine and feminine isn’t about simple opposition; both contain elements of yin and yang within them.

Discovering tantric teachings—particularly Sally Kempton’s Awakening Shakti, which frames the feminine as the life force and the masculine as consciousness—and encountering Genia Haddon’s model of active and passive masculine and feminine energies—brought greater clarity to my understanding. These insights helped me further distinguish the yang (active) feminine and the yin (receptive) masculine. That’s when my lived experiences truly clicked into place, and I realized that masculine leadership comprises two distinct poles: an active, dynamic pole of action and execution, and a receptive, grounding pole that provides stability, holds space, listens, and offers direction.

The creating and holding masculine 

The masculine energy we are most familiar with is what I call the creating masculine. This is the force of action, passion, and drive—the relentless energy that gets things done and executes. For a long time, this was the only dimension of the masculine I recognized, and it’s often mistaken for the entirety of masculine energy. But my experience revealed another equally potent and vital aspect: what I call the holding masculine.

The holding masculine is like a mighty tree or an unshakable mountain—stable, supportive, and unwavering in the face of chaos. This energy is deeply grounded, present, and still, yet it holds space with profound strength. It listens, clarifies, and provides direction without forcing. Though the creating and holding masculine are vastly different they are both distinctly masculine. For any creative endeavor to thrive, these two poles must not only be recognized but honored and unleashed. 

The integrated feminine 

When it comes to the feminine, my journey opened me to a much more expansive and empowering understanding than the one-dimensional stereotypes I'd been conditioned to believe. Yes, the feminine includes nurturing and receptivity, but it also radiates wildness, sensuality, raw creative power, mystic wisdom, and fierce strength. The shallow and one-dimensional description of feminine leadership as only receptive, vulnerable and caring was very far from my experience of leading from my feminine. The more I experienced it, the more it became clear how rare true feminine leadership is in the business world.

When I first discovered the holding and creating masculine polarities, it was tempting to apply this same binary framework to the feminine—splitting her into an active, creating feminine and a more receptive, holding feminine. Those who followed my work from the start know that I initially did exactly this. But this categorization of the feminine never sat right with me. 

Finally, I realized that this separation of the feminine into active and passive, creating and holding, was actually contributing to the deep split of the feminine—feeding into the ancient madonna-whore dichotomy. As we have already uncovered, the feminine cannot be split. 

Constructive feminine leadership requires that we have access to all our dimensions: our jewels and our lush, erotic aliveness, our hearts and guts and primal power, and our mind and mystic intuition. The erotic intelligence and life force emerges from our natural intelligence's ability to guide us back into the void and death, while the power of mystic intelligence comes from the aliveness of erotic intelligence and the fierceness of natural intelligence. The black panther and crone can only come into existence when the sacred seductress is fully activated. When a woman's body is filled with her own life force, she becomes the black panther.

Rather than trying to be one aspect or another, the feminine needs to surrender into what is true for this moment. Feminine leadership cannot be done or performed—it can only be. It is not about changing into something else, but about remembering who we really are. Feminine leadership comes through deep embodiment: awakened life force energy, a strong core, an open heart, and a felt knowing of your true nature as the source of life.

The masculine, while also requiring deep embodiment, operates much more binarily than the feminine. The masculine thrives when the holding and creating aspects are clearly separated. When we need to listen and create clarity, we must step out of execution mode. Powerful masculine execution requires undisturbed single focus and determination to complete the task at hand—a completely different mode than listening, taking in information, and creating direction.

Most men, depending on where they are in life, lean strongly toward either the creating or holding masculine. Rather than expecting that one man can do it all, men need to deeply understand their unique strength and learn to call upon their brothers who complement them, instead of attempting the solo hero's journey.

To fully unleash the power of feminine and masculine leadership in any creative process, we must embrace the inner polarity within the masculine and the full integrated essence of the feminine. Without this understanding, we are left with shallow, incomplete versions of both—failing to realize their richness, depth, and full potential, both individually and in collaboration.

Socially constructed and biologically anchored gender 

Before we dive any deeper, let me share my view on gender. I believe gender is both biologically anchored and socially constructed. Yes, we contain multitudes. Women and men carry both the feminine and masculine within us—including the two poles of the masculine and the intelligences of the feminine. To function we need all within. I’m all for embracing a partly socially constructed lens on gender and calling out the harm that comes from tossing biological arguments at dynamics clearly rooted in social constructs.

But here’s the thing: biological differences do matter. Let’s face it—different genitals, hormones, and wiring between men and women shape us in ways that can’t be ignored. If we don’t honor the unique design of women’s bodies, we’ll keep building societies fit for male bodies, leaving women disempowered and disconnected from their inherent strengths. And since true feminine leadership comes alive through the body, ignoring these differences is like cutting off the very lifeforce that powers us.

Eliminating the feminine intelligence, especially the erotic intelligence, isn’t just a blow to women—it’s a loss for everyone. The magic lies in the interplay between these energies, and if we can’t embody and celebrate our differences, we’ll never tap into the wild creative potential they hold. The way forward? It’s a juicy both-and: holding the truth of social constructs and honoring the undeniable beauty of biological differences. It’s in this dance that the real power is unleashed.

The collapsed mothering feminine and toxic boyish masculine 

The deeper I embodied my feminine leadership and explored the business world from this state, the clearer these two dimensions of the masculine and three intelligences of the feminine became to me. After yet another conversation with a colleague about an organization he was supporting, the final puzzle pieces fell into place. I could see—and feel—how the creating and holding energies of the masculine and  three intelligences of the feminine fit together in the creative process. And I understood how much we struggle when any of these energies are missing or out of balance.

The organization my colleague was helping was stuck in a cycle of obsessive doing. They lacked clear direction, burnout was rampant, and the overall climate felt harsh and destructive. His conclusion? The organization needed more feminine energy because it was overwhelmed by creating masculine energy.

But as I listened to his analysis, it became clear he was only thinking about a soft, mothering version of the feminine—completely overlooking the power of the true feminine. I instinctively knew this alone wouldn't be enough to address the organization's challenges sustainably.

This scenario is all too common in today's business world as we try to evolve beyond the creating-masculine-dominated industrial paradigm. Many of us recognize that we have "too much" creating masculine energy on personal, organizational, and societal levels. This excess manifests as overdoing, burnout, and a lack of meaningful purpose. It drives short-term thinking, prioritizes profits over people, and literally burns up our planet—what we often call toxic masculinity.

The response from many—including my colleague—is to call for more feminine energy. Yet the only feminine most people know how to invite is a soft, mothering feminine. We talk about the need to slow down, listen more, follow intuition, and prioritize care.

While these are valuable qualities, the holding feminine alone, when disconnected from her power source, cannot truly shift the balance. When she is not integrated as the full feminine as well as supported by the holding masculine, she becomes disempowered.

This disempowered holding feminine shows up as a collapsed, overburdened energy—like a mother desperately trying to keep the peace among unruly children, oscillating between exhausted collapse and reactive anger. Instead of embodying her full power as a feminine leader, she tries to subdue the toxic creating masculine by overemphasizing care, safety, and ensuring everyone feels heard. While well-intentioned, this disempowered version of the feminine simply isn't enough to make a meaningful difference. Many organizations trying to bring in more "feminine" energy find themselves stuck. Without the full feminine and the holding masculine present, massive tensions arise between the toxic creating masculine and the collapsed holding feminine.

Most "feminine" initiatives in the business world fail because they focus on removing the masculine rather than understanding how to empower both the feminine and masculine to create a thriving collaboration. In an effort to move away from a toxic, results-driven culture, the focus often shifts entirely to building a caring culture. But when the true feminine and holding masculine are missing, this approach leads to stagnation, lack of direction, and the eventual slowing down of the organization's core functions.

At a societal level, this disempowered holding feminine can act as a dampening force, stifling creativity, entrepreneurship, and even autonomy and free speech. As this imbalance persists, the creating masculine begins to feel shamed and excluded. When the bottom line starts to suffer, the toxic creating masculine inevitably surges back with even more force in an attempt to regain control. This destructive cycle repeats, creating constant tension at best and full-blown cultural wars at worst.

This dysfunctional dynamic lies at the heart of the struggles faced by many progressive and decentralized organizations attempting to bring in more feminine energy. They find themselves torn between focusing on results or fostering a caring culture, balancing profitability with meaningful purpose, and reconciling individual autonomy with collective unity.

Breaking free from this cycle requires more than token efforts—it demands a deeper understanding and integration of the full spectrum of both the feminine and masculine. Only then can organizations truly thrive.

The potential of polarities unleashed 

Dark indeed—but let’s not lose hope for humanity just yet. The stark contrast between the dysfunctional dynamics my colleague described and the thriving teams I’ve experienced illuminated powerful patterns at play when the masculine and feminine energies truly collaborate. I’ve witnessed firsthand the profound impact of this flourishing partnership in terms of creativity, efficiency, and teamwork. The times when I and other women have fully embodied the full feminine, the energy we radiate seems to inspire men to step into the holding masculine, which in turn creates the clarity and inspiration  for the creating masculine to thrive in execution. This is the dynamic we need more of—an intensely creative interplay that unlocks unparalleled potential.  

The creative tension of eros, clarity and action 

The core insight of Lifeforce leadership is that any time we want to take something from idea to reality we need three key elements: Eros, Clarity and Action.