The intentional leader podcast

The main reason I wanted to do an episode about the Knights Templar is that I have been fascinated by them since childhood. However, in addition to that, when I did the Psychic Business Academy in 2017, I discovered that my protector guide was a Knight Templar called Antoine. I was also told by my Reiki Master that I had been a Templar in a past life. It all started making a lot more sense.

I have researched the Templars for this episode and wanted to give credit to Michael Haag's book on the topic.

The basics is that the Order of the Knight Templars was founded in 1119 in Jerusalem and that the Templars who were both Knights and Monks, had the mission of protecting pilgrims from Europe who went to Jerusalem. However, they also became an incredibly powerful financial organisation that spanned from Britain to Egypt. Their bravery was legendary.

On the 13th of October 1307, which happened to be a Friday, Templars were arrested throughout France and charged with heresy, obscenity, homosexuality and idol worship. The Grand Master, Jacques de Molay was burnt at the stake on a small island near the Ile de la Cite in Paris.

In 2007, the Vatican published a document called the Chinon Parchment that cleared the Templars of all charges.

In the episode I explore eight conspiracy theories about the Templars and use the tarot to find out what was true and what was not. One of the things that transpired from these tarot readings was that the Freemasons are indeed historically linked to the Templars, which really excites me as I have planned to have a Freemason on the podcast as our guest for this month of August.

If you would like me to connect you to your protector guide, why not book a session with me. Click this link to pay.

We did something a bit different for episode 100. I invited my business bestie, Stephanie Kakris, to discuss the top four episodes on the podcast and have a general conversation about why I created it and what my plans are moving forward. Only 6.17% podcasts make it to episode 100 so I am incredibly proud of this achievement.

The four most popular episodes to date are the following:

#1 EP 45: Five Things You Need to Know About Energy

#2 EP 49: The Spirit World

#3 EP 48: Dancing in the Light

#4 EP 50: Why I no longer refer to the divine feminine

As it happens, the episode is released on the Lion's Gate, i.e. the 8th of August (8/8) which is considered a powerful portal by the spiritual community, so Stephanie and I also had a chat about that and the great opportunity that it presents. We could not talk about the Lion's Gate without mentioning my power animal, a Lion who likes to be called King Lion as opposed to the Lion King. He appeared to me in a meditation over ten years ago but the story about him keeps unfolding in interesting and mysterious ways. A couple of years ago, as I went through my first regression session with a hypnotherapist and was walking down some steps that lead me to a past life, I saw King Lion walking down the steps by my side. As we arrived at the bottom of the staircase, I was shown a roman arena and realised I was to be sacrificed in the Lion's Den. That's when King Lion turned to me and told me "This is where we first met. You were my breakfast that day. You tasted rather nice so I decided to become your guide."

If you would like me to connect you to your spirit guide or power animal, book your session with this link.

This episode was inspired by a fellow Toastmasters who did a speech on how beneficial walking in forests had been for his mental health. But it's also been inspired by my childhood love of forests – particularly the Asterix and Obelix comics. And if it wasn't enough, I had an experience with my son as we visited Bowood when he was 6 or 7. To my astonishment, he reported to me how distressed the trees were in that park and how most of them were very sad. Only one "baby" tree seemed to be ok. My son, in his powerful autism, was genuinely connecting to the feelings of trees.

Since them forest science has made leaps and bounds and it has been recognised that trees have feelings and so much more.

This episode summarises what forest scientist have come to understand about tree and ends with a tree meditation to help you connect to this beautiful communities.

If you would like to purchase any of my guided meditations, contact me through this form or book a discovery call.

Leah Kern is a spiritual intuitive eating coach with a background in clinical dietetics.

She feels that her jewish ancestors and culture connect her to something very special when it comes to the work that she does. And she sees the spiritual side of her work as informed by her culture and faith because it asks her to be in awe of the smallest things. And for her, spirituality is being able to connect to that awe of life.

She has a quote by a rabbi on her website that basically says that to be spiritual is to be amazed. In her faith, there is a prayer for the first thing you do when you get up in the morning, and the first time you go to the bathroom. It helps you connect with awe all through the day.

We talked about how sometimes people who eat "clean" can think they are better than other people and how that actually takes them further from true spirituality than others. There are waves of almost fashion in the spiritual circles, such as juicing, cleansing, and we have to be careful not to fall back into the diet mentality of controlling our food. Initially when Leah chose to study nutrition, it wasn't from a healthy place. She was involved in disordered eating.

One day, though, she came across intuitive intuition and it was such an aha moment that her world changed completely. Even though she worked as a clinical dietician in a hospital at the start of her career, it became apparent very quickly that she was meant to have her own business. One thing led to another and Leah now offers services on a one to one basis and a course called The Return. She loves that she now works with people who are seeking her out, rather than being told to see her, as was the case in her job in a hospital. She is also able to build a much deeper relationship with her clients.

You can find Leah on her website, LinkedIn and IG.

In this episode I share about a self enquiry process that can help spiritual seekers examine through the lens of critical faculty beliefs that they hold or that they are being served by religious or spiritual leaders.

But first, we should start with us. This episode is a follow up on how the mind works which I believe is an incredibly important episode for us spiritual seekers. The mind is both wonderful and dangerous and we need to know how to use it safely. Peace starts with us, as we explore in the interview with Barbara With and that starts with examining our own thoughts.

The process is called "The Work" and was created (or received) by Byron Katie at a time in her life where she wasn't functioning any more and she realised that a big part of her suffering came from her own thoughts. It is obviously nothing new to practices such a buddhism. However, what is unique and powerful about her process is that it is incredible simple. People confuse simplicity with lack of power. Nothing could be further from the truth. Simple things can sometimes be a lot harder than complex ones. And believe me, her process packs a punch.

It rests in four simple questions:

1. Is it true?
2. Are you sure?
3. How do you feel when you believe this thought?
4. Who would you be without it? Or how would you feel without it?

Then she asks you to turn your thought around and instead of pointing the finger at others (something that the ego looooooves to do - yes I know about this because I have an ego too), and take it back to you. It's also a lesson in acceptance which ties in with the F**k It Experiment in conducted in June.

In the episode I go through the process about a belief that has been making me angry of late, and that is that my knees are ruining my life. I had a knee injury last year and just as I am finally able to run again, my other knee has decided to pack up. Grrrr.

But we also need to use this process to go through the b**sh*t that we are constantly served by spiritual and religious leaders. And I used the example of the Virgin birth and how that ties into the "divine feminine" (to hear my thoughts on that concept, listen to episode 50 here) and Jesus' celibacy which makes us all feel ashamed about our basic emotional and sexual needs.

So take it into your spiritual journey to be more discerning about what and who you believe. It's a spiritual jungle out there, remember. Keep yourself safe.

If you would like to explore beliefs in a safe space with a professional (me), why not book a discovery call with this link. You can start working with me from as little as £111 a month.

This episode explores the progress that science has made to measure or understand consciousness and is based on a book called Being You by Anil Seth. Frankly, I was a little disappointed by the content of the book, which I have yet to finish. However, I think what I discovered by reading this book is important for us spiritual speakers because it shows the limits of how much objectivity we hold.

This in turn is important to keep us grounded in our own perception of what is happening to us as we navigate the spirit world.

One of the most important ideas of the first part of the book is that consciousness is not measured or ranked by how awakened we are or whether we can speak and demonstrate that ability. It is very dangerous to assume that a human being has a superior consciousness to a turtle, for example. Because the reality of consciousness is an INNER experience that in a vast majority of cases cannot be captured by the existing methods of measurement.

However the author argues that temperature used to be a mystery and science has since demystified temperature to the point where now most people grasp the concept instantly. And that is because scientists have invented an instrument that can measure it. This has not yet been possible for consciousness, but we can be confident that one day they will.

The other interesting that surfaced from the book is that we should not confuse wakefulness with consciousness as the dream experiences that we have whilst we sleep are actually part of our consciousness.

Why do I think it's important to explore the point of view of scientists with regards to consciousness? Because we need to understand what is real and what is not as spiritual seekers. In the episode, I refer back to the episode about mental health and spirituality which you can listen to here.

In this episode I explored John C. Parkin and his wife's philosophy that rests mantras that start with the phrase "F**k it".

Their book came out in 2019 and made a lot of noise because for the first time, a swear word was associated with a spiritual practice. And although their method is not for everyone, it actually rests on sound principles.

Swear words and profanities are looked down upon and sometimes even banned by religion, especially the three Abrahamic ones (i.e. Judaism, Islam and Christianity). It is considered disrespectful, negative and a sign of lack of control. I have to admit to partaking to that point of view myself at the start of my spiritual journey. But then, I unpacked both my prejudice and my privilege and have now changed my views. Swearing is not something I do often, but I no longer consider it "unspiritual". I think this ties in with the episode I did about whether spiritual people get angry, which you can listen by clicking on this link.

To get an idea of what the F**k it philosophy is like, I did a fourteen day experiment on my social media, which I also share on the podcast. It was both fun and interesting.

Of the six basic mantras that are at the core of the F**k it revolution, I have retained one: "F**k it, I can relax now".

In conclusion, I have enjoyed this experiment and would recommend it to beginners on the spiritual path. I would love to know what you think though, so please feel free to comment below.

This month's guest, Cindy Stal, brings a whole new level of wisdom that comes from her first hand experience at healing incredible pain with pleasure. Her awakening happened as she was sitting in her corporate job, in a grey office, with a grey carpet, a grey ceiling and when she looked outside, she saw the grey sky and thought to herself, "I can't do this anymore". She started thinking about how she dreaded going to work on Sunday afternoons, and I am sure some of you will relate to this.

A second powerful moment in Cindy's life was when her first husband was in hospital for cancer and she wandered into the hospital chapel and prayed. It's not something she did often at the time, and she heard "Follow your passion". She looked around, only to find out she was alone in the church.

When she gave birth to her still born daughter and experienced pain like never before, the voice came back and said "You have to keep your heart open or you will lose everything". So she listened to the voice. Keeping her heart open was the simplest yet the hardest thing she had been asked to do. It is so much harder than to close it down to protect us. And thanks to keeping her heart open, her husband and her became closer instead of growing apart. They were able to be there for each other.

Cindy challenges the narrative of the grief industry that tends to reinforce the victim mentality. Instead, Cindy wants to invite us to embrace pleasure as the powerful healer that it is. Pleasure is about choosing life again. This lead her to create the Pussy Oracle, a beautiful deck laced with gold, pink and purple, that talks about so much more than pleasure and sex. To find out about Cindy, head over to her website. You can also find her on IG and FB.

Angel numbers are a very special way that they can get your attention, through digital clocks, car plates or house numbers. And this is great.

In this week's episode, I am going to explore the meaning of numbers 1 to 9 in traditional numerology, then dive into the meaning that Diana Cooper, the angel lady in the UK, assigns to them only to invite you to check how it lands with you.

It can be confusing to see that each spiritual teacher assigns a different meaning to angel numbers. Who is right? You are right, inasmuch as what matters is how you feel about one particular teacher or number. Number 3, for example, reminds me of my dad. But to a Christian, it will have the particular association with Christ consciousness or the trinity.

Angel numbers are one of the signs that angels use to communicate with you but what I have come to learn is that they use a sign that is significant to you rather than what it is supposed to mean universally. For this reason, I invite you to do an audit of the symbols that mean something special to you. One number can mean something different to you because it is the day you met a certain person, or got your first job, or whatever.

I also encourage you to listen to EP 23 about signs from the Universe to get a broader understanding of how signs work.

The BBC has released a powerful documentary called Backlash, the murder of George Loyd. This documentary is the foundation for today's episode. All spiritual people should care about black lives and equality. I felt called to do this episode also because in my interview with Barbara With last month, we talked about World Peace and the fact that peace starts within. I do not believe that anger at systemic oppression falls into that category. That anger is righteous anger. It obviously should be channeled positively but I will be the last one to judge people who have taken part in riots in response to systematic oppression. I will also not tolerate people who call out "wokism" when it is about human rights and basic decency.

We live in times where there is a rise in fascism and fascist ideas, which can be very seductive and keeping silent in those times leads to validating these ideas. It is right to be upset when human rights are violated. It is not enough not to be racist, we need to be anti-racist.

The spiritual community is mostly white. It is rare to see people of colour as attendees not to mention as speakers and that needs to change. In the UK, 18% of population is black and there should be a proportionate representation in all spaces, but there is not.

White spiritual communities still violate the culture of indigenous people by selling white sage and palo santo in "spiritual" shops. I still see dream catchers sold in Mind Body Spirit Fairs. And no one bat an eye lid at it. Even Lee Harris, who i respect and love, has a lit white sage wand in his videos. This needs to stop. Please listen to Episode 75 to educate yourself around what cultural appropriation is.

Listen to the episode for book recommendations to educate yourself on the topic of racism.