the sage

○ the explorer, the wanderer, the pilgrim, the pioneer, the wayfinder, the adventurer, the wolf, the hermit ⁕

Whatever is mine is looking for me.

— alice walker

tarot ⁕ The Fool, The Hermit, Wheel of Fortune, The Devil

The Seeker desires a freedom to explore. I think of them a bit like the young baby who is putting everything in their mouth to understand it, one item after another dripping with drool even as mother say “no, no, don’t put that in your mouth!” THere is something in them that must! They learn by doing, by trying, by failing, by making the mistakes and missteps themselves, by gaining the knowledge and wins and wisdom in their own skin and bones. THey cannot and will not sit in a chair compliantly and receive someone else’s information as truth, it simply will not seep in. There are too many questions and holes and curiosities they must investigate themselves.

The Seeker also notices what's unsatisfactory, limiting, boring with an astuteness that other archetypes seem to fly past. They are less inclined toward a gratitude list, maybe more likely to have a list of things that bother them, keep them up at night, bother them to no end. they notice what everyone else accepts And instead of resigning themselves to it, they struggle with it and against it.

“A world’s cruelty that destroys it own young in passing… I have never been able to blind myself to that cruelty, which accord to one popular definition of mental health, makes me mentally unhealthy.” -Audre lorde

seekers come in different flavors: some are sponetinety magnets, who seem to always attract and make weird adventures materialize out of nothing and nowhere. THey are the world traveler who bops from place to place, with no itenerary or map but always seems to land in good company, well fed and with a better story to tell than the last time.

Or there are those who are more spiritual, internal seekers. those who are on a quest for answers to big existential questions about the nauture of consciousness, who they are in the big picture of the cosmos, and how it all fits.

And there are rationalist seekers too, those with more scientific minds who are on eternal searches for answers to questions that seem implausible to even ask — theorists who are imagining time, light, space, climate, regeneration.

each of these seeker types has something in them that burns: there's more, what’s more?

seekers offer to the collective permission to leave the ordinary, the understood, the routine, the accepted, the culturally sanctioned and go explore into the unknown. they are also masters at being in the beginner’s mind, of allowing themselves a process of making mistakes on a path to deeper and greater understanding. They are like an anti-perfectionist because they never demand a standard of themselves (and one might see how this trait could be abbrasive or repelling for some types of people).

They also invite people into a reminder that the journey itself is more important that the destination. When a Seeker shares their journey, you feel like maybe you're allowed to explore too. Maybe you don't have to settle for the status quo either. Maybe your restlessness isn't a flaw.

if you find this archetype resonate with your project or brand, you probably find that You're excellent at independence and exploration. the invitation for deeper integration is: what becomes possible when you balance that with connection? because You know how to leave. Can you also learn to stay? Or stay longer? seekers will benefit from bringing in a little of the Balance of the Lover who is the master of presence and intimacy.