Unlocking Your Potential Leveraging Archetypes

Throughout history, wisdom traditions have used wheels to map human experience. Whether we look at the medicine wheel, the dharmic wheel, or even modern coaching tools like the Wheel of Life, we see a fractal truth embedded within them—reality is not linear. Life moves in cycles, and when we find ourselves stuck, it is rarely due to an external force, but rather a misalignment in the structure of our meaning-making.

In my work, I’ve found that blending archetypes, human needs, core emotions, and the transcendent energy of awe into a unified model unlocks the deeper nature of our reality blocks. Many people focus only on one aspect—addressing their emotions, reframing their story, or shifting their identity—but without a cohesive structure, these changes can feel disjointed.

This is where the Wheel of Life comes in as a profound tool. Used properly, it helps us:

1. Identify where we are stuck.
2. Understand the meaning structure holding that pattern in place.
3. Engage with archetypal energies to move beyond those limitations.

Some practitioners dedicate their entire lives to working within this framework, integrating and orienting their awareness through the wheel itself, and the results can be profound.

Tony Robbins teaches six core human needs: certainty, uncertainty, significance, connection, growth, and contribution. However, I’ve found that one is missing—purpose. Without purpose, we lack a unifying center, a force that integrates all other needs into something meaningful.

Each of these needs aligns with an archetype, giving us a directional guide for working with them. By adding a need to the archetype, I found the idea takes form and integration becomes easier.

Connection (not love) – Lover (East)

• The part of us that craves intimacy, love, and belonging.
• When overused: Becomes needy, overly enmeshed, or loses self in others.
• Unlocking stuckness: Self-love as the foundation for all relationships.

Certainty – Warrior (South)

• The part of us that seeks stability, security, and strength.
• When overused: Becomes rigid, controlling, or fearful of change.
• Unlocking stuckness: Cultivating adaptability while still holding presence.

Significance – Sovereign (West)

• The part of us that desires impact, recognition, and self-respect.
• When overused: Becomes ego-driven, power-hungry, or dependent on validation.
• Unlocking stuckness: Learning to serve instead of control.

Uncertainty – Magician (North)

• The part of us that embraces mystery, innovation, and possibility.
• When overused: Becomes reckless, distracted, or addicted to novelty.
• Unlocking stuckness: Learning to step into the unknown and leverage fear as a tailwind and not a headwind.

Beyond these, there are three higher-order needs that move us into deep alignment:

Contribution – Sacred Mother (Below)

• The part of us that gives beyond the self, nurturing life itself.
• When overused: Becomes martyrdom, self-sacrifice, or avoidance of personal needs.
• Unlocking stuckness: Learning to give without losing the self.

Growth – Genius (Above)

• The part of us that longs to expand, learn, and evolve.
• When overused: Becomes obsessed with progress and unable to rest.
• Unlocking stuckness: Integrating growth as a natural rhythm, not a chase.

Purpose – The Hero (Center/Within)

• The integrating force that ties all others together.
• When missing: Life feels aimless, fragmented, or dictated by external forces. The shadow archetype is the victim. 
• Unlocking stuckness: Finding your axis mundi—the center of your being.

To move through these archetypes and needs, we must also understand how emotion and energy inform our experience. There are four core emotions, two feelings, and one energy that transcends them all:

Core Emotions (The Primordial Energies We Must Integrate)

• Fear (linked to Uncertainty/Magician)
• Anger (linked to Certainty/Warrior)
• Sadness (linked to Connection/Lover)
• Joy (linked to Significance/Sovereign)

Core Feelings (The Emotional States That Guide Us)

• Love (Contribution cultivates love)
• Wonder (Unlocks the Genius Archetype)

The Transcendent Energy

• Awe (The experience of direct connection to the mystery of existence itself, The pure Hero archetype)

The Hero archetype reorients us toward the axis mundi—the central pillar of meaning within us. When we are disconnected from our center, we live on the surface, trapped in constructs rather than actively shaping them. When we are resisting the story we are living out of, the result is projected suffering and a disconnection from our authority.

In many spiritual traditions, the axis mundi is the world tree, the cosmic pillar, or the central point of connection between heaven and earth. In our own lives, it is the internal structure that keeps us from being pulled apart by competing needs, emotions, and stories.

When we feel lost, it is often because we have become stuck in one quadrant of the wheel, mistaking a single archetype for the totality of who we are. We see ourselves only as a Warrior (always fighting), only as a Magician (always seeking), only as a Lover (always yearning), or only as a Sovereign (always ruling).

The key to true reality creation is to return to the center, to balance the forces within us, and to live as the full expression of meaning—not a fragmented version of it.

Some practitioners spend decades orienting themselves within this framework, using the wheel as a map of consciousness, a tool for integration, and a method for breaking through limitations. The deeper you engage with this work, the more you recognize that everything that has felt stuck was simply meaning waiting to be reoriented.

This is why Turning Within is not just shadow work, not just transformation, but learning to wield meaning itself as the primary creative force of existence. Meaning Mastery.

The Wheel of Life is not just a diagnostic tool; it is a living framework for creation. If you are feeling stuck, the question is not why—the question is where. Which part of the wheel have you lost connection to? What meaning are you resisting? Where have you mistaken projection for reality?

These are the inquiries that unlock your next evolution.

This is the work of reclaiming your axis mundi.

This is the path of Turning Within.

Come sit with us Thursday as we unpack this powerful tool for transformation.

1. The 7 archetypes & their human needs
2. The emotional structure & how to recalibrate it
3. The axis mundi & overcoming the victim archetype
4. The Wheel of Life as a tool for conscious creation