Spiritual Sexual Shamanic Podcast · International School of Temple Arts

Dependency & Sovereignty in Transformational Spaces: Elica Lorde-Syzygy

·1 hr 40 min·3 clips

Simon Marvell welcomes Elika Lord-Siziji into a long conversation about sexuality, transformation, and freedom. He traces her path from a middle-class Australian upbringing and a career in finance, interrupted by crisis, into psycho-spiritual work, transpersonal psychotherapy, and a practice shaped by the idea that the psyche contains many parts and that a self beyond ego can be reached for healing and empowerment. The conversation then settles into parts. Elika and Simon spend time sorting out exiles and protectors, with exiles framed as younger or more vulnerable aspects of the psyche and protectors as the forces that step in with rigidity, reactivity, fire, retaliation, and defence. That stays abstract for only a moment. They connect it to retreats and other charged settings, where a trigger can surface fast and the protectors can appear inside a short exercise or gather into a wider recruitment pattern around the ego's agenda. The conversation keeps circling back to a practical question. If someone enters an edgy retreat wanting to do the work, what should they actually know, and what does it mean to approach the space with clarity instead of another layer of protection? Elika's answer is to respect the process. A first-time participant should understand how the retreat works, because trying to protect against protectors only creates another protector and misses the point of the work. That gives the episode its spine. It moves the focus away from dramatic breakthrough and toward ordinary discernment, making room for the quieter work of noticing what rises, what defends, and what needs to be met with awareness rather than force. Simon gives the ideas room to breathe, and Elika keeps restating them in a way that makes them feel lived rather than polished. The exchange also stays grounded in the body. Instead of chasing a grand conclusion, it keeps returning to how these patterns might feel in a group, in a retreat room, or in the small pressure of a real interaction. By the end, the talk has moved from theory to participation. The closing stretch is warm and grateful, and the tone softens without losing the sense that the subject matters. What remains is a patient invitation to pay attention before trying to fix anything.

As heard by us

A patient parts-work conversation about protectors, recruiting, and edging into difficult inner work.

The episode moves from a finance career into transpersonal psychotherapy, then into the harder terrain of exiles, protectors, and recruiting in retreat settings.

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Why you'd press play

If you want a spacious talk about parts work, protectors, and what can surface in a retreat, start here.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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