Reimagining Power as a Force for Interconnection and Innovation 

with Larissa Conte, 6 Feb 2025

Summary 

This session used associative and somatic exercises to unpack collective, often conflicted, preconceptions of power. Drawing on shamanic perspectives and her own physical healing journey, Conte redefined power not as a monolithic tool for domination, but as a fluid capacity to move energy through nested systems. A framework of 36 distinct types of power was presented in two categories:

1) “power that serves the whole”- generating flow, connection, and regeneration
2) “shadow power,” – dominance over others or (self-sabotaging) power surrendered

Key Learnings

• Redefining Power as a Capacity: Power is defined not as a static resource or monolithic force, but as the capacity to move energy through systems. Because it is a capacity, it is fluid; it can be actively tended, expanded, or ignored and left to atrophy. It is electrical in nature, encompassing both illuminating/exhilarating forms and searing/numbing elements.
• The Two Forms of Conducted Power: Every individual acts as a conductor for two overarching expressions of power:
  • Shadow Power: Rooted in the illusion of separation and the belief that we are inherently better or worse than others. Its markers include blockages, confusion, disconnection, exhaustion, and systemic degeneration.
  • Power that Serves the Whole: Rooted in the truth of absolute interdependence, interconnection, and sovereignty. Its markers are flow, clarity, aliveness, belonging, and systemic regeneration.
• The Anatomy of Shadow Power: Shadow power operates through a pendulum that traps leaders in a continuous cycle:
  • Power Over: Dominance, control, judgment, aggression, and treating others as “less than”.
  • Power Given Away: Feeling like a helpless victim or artificially shrinking one’s own capabilities. For heart-centered leaders and network weavers, dimming or sabotaging their own “shine” due to a fear of becoming a power abuser is a hidden, inward form of violence that is just as detrimental to the systemic web as outward dominance.
• Shadow Power as a Sensei: Instead of being demonized, shadow power should be embraced as an internal teacher or “sensei”. It naturally manifests whenever individuals approach their growth edges, highlighting exactly where they still perceive themselves as small or flawed.
• The 36 Types of Power: There are 36 core types of power (or “base codes”) that express across five nested scales of existence. For instance, caretaking power in its whole form uplifts others while maintaining healthy personal boundaries, whereas its shadow form manifests as over-giving to the point of exhaustion and eventual resentment.

Key Action Points

• Track Internal Puppeteers: Shift the focus from strictly identifying and fighting external power abuses (e.g., in capitalism, white supremacy, or oppressive structures) to tracking how your own internal shadow power holds you back or controls your center.
• Deploy Upfront Power Literacy: Rather than waiting for conflicts to arise and focusing on reactive repair work, introduce power definitions, baseline dynamics, and self-awareness tools at the very beginning of organizational changes, coaching engagements, or community programs.
• Practice Staying Located in Your Center: Train yourself to remain firmly centered in the face of both internal anxieties and external resistance (such as encountering individuals operating from closed, non-sharing, or dominant mindsets).
• Build Capacity for the “Muchness”: Treat network weaving as active capacity building. Commit to regular self-reflection to expand your energetic threshold, enabling you to sit comfortably with the overwhelming complexity and “muchness” of systemic transformation.
• Skip the Lose-Win Trap: Consciously bypass the retaliatory “win-lose to lose-win” societal pendulum. Actively design network spaces to move immediately toward unifying, relational “win-win” structures by recognizing that the whole ocean of biodiversity and potential resides within each participant.

References

1. Mary Parker Follett (Early 20th-century management theorist who pioneered the distinctions of Power-Over versus Power-With).
2. José Luis Stevens (Shamanic definition of power as the process of taking ever-increasing responsibility for oneself).
3. Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (The Orchard and the Orchard Keeper metaphor regarding internal consciousness).

Knowledge Base Categories: 1) Decolonisation, Equity & Inclusion 2) Inner Work