Each of us is designed in a unique way to find relationship fulfillment, the way to serve our people, and our place in society. The following questionnaire can either confirm, or help you discover, that special characteristic that determines who you really are. Start by checking the questions in each of the following three groups that most apply to you.

Group 1

• Are you a natural caretaker who feels protective of your friends and family?
• Do you love tending plants or growing your own food?
• Do you feel confident providing emotional comfort to your loved ones?
• Are you empathetic and relate easily to others?
• Do you love children and marvel at how they see the world?

Group 2

• Do you enjoy stepping up and taking charge, such as organizing an event?
• Do you typically hold positions of authority?
• Are you often the decision maker in your relationships?
• Are you comfortable speaking in front of people?
• Are you often looked to for advice?

Group 3

• Do you like to find pieces that others have missed when solving problems?
• Are you often the one to suggest adventures and new places to explore?
• Are you naturally inquisitive?
• Are you highly sensitive and in tune to the actions and reactions of others?
• Do you notice things that many people do not?

If most or all of the questions in Group 1 apply to you, you are likely a Nurturer. If the Group 2 questions better fit, you are probably a Voice. If it’s Group 3, odds are you’re a Guardian.

But what does that mean? 

To find out, imagine you are a member of a Wolf pack. You and your packmates are restless — you are not making enough kills to sustain yourselves, and you are especially concerned for your elders and pups. You have to start hunting outside the safety of your own territory.

Setting out in a new direction, you quickly hit another pack’s territory. Its boundary is clearly established with urine-marked scent posts. You were all already feeling anxious when you started venturing away from your home territory, and now after picking up the scent of the alien neighbors, you are on high alert.

Within each of you, two opposing forces rage: hunger and anxiety. One drives you out of your territory come and the other strives to keep you there. No animal likes to be stressed, yet this is the present reality, and adjustments need to be made. It is a matter of survival.

The Meeting

The closer you got to the edge of your territory, the more you fell into formation. Your alpha pair, who are your pack’s Voices, are up front. The pups are in the center, surrounded by their aunts and uncles, who serve as Nurturers. The Guardians scout ahead and watch the flanks and rear, so that they can pick up on any surprises.

Even though the scent posts were not marked recently and there is no other sign of the neighboring pack in the area, your pack cannot afford to take any chances. Your pups are your future, and they rely on the other members of their pack as intensely as you rely on your heart and lungs. The other pack—or any other challenge—could show up out of the blue, and you are ready for it.

Together, you cross the boundary. Your action is motivated by a sincere need to feed your young and elders. Yet to the neighboring pack, it is an invasion. It doesn’t take long for Nature’s ripple-effect telegraph to bring the news of a major disturbance to the home pack, and they silently speed toward the source.

Your pack and the home pack sense each other’s presence before you come in sight of each other, and the forward Guardians soon confirm it. Your pack, on new and unfamiliar territory, takes a defensive position, with its Voices up front to direct and make decisions. Without losing focus on the threat, the front pair remains acutely keyed in to the Guardians. Like set traps, the Guardians are ready to shift position or rush in the instant they are needed. What matters most to all is the safety of the pups—the pack’s future. The calm, stable presence of the Nurturers keeps the Wolflings quiet and contained.

The Parley

The home pack switches to offensive mode, with Guardians in the front line. It looks ominous, yet at the same time nobody on either side wants to fight. Invader or defender, the cost is the same. Injured pack members are a liability, and the loss of any pack members can result in fewer successful hunts. The smaller a pack gets, the more susceptible its territory is to takeover.

The much-preferred option is negotiation, which is carried out by the Voices. Tentatively at first, yet with pomp and circumstance—raised tails, flared hackles, and high on the toes—the Voice pairs approach each other. With enough rumble deep in their throats to show they mean business, but not enough to trigger an attack, they suspiciously eye each other.

The posturing gets more intense, more assertive. Whenever one of them nearly crosses the boundary of this ritual sizing-up, his counterpart launches a bluff attack to reestablish protocol. With hackles raised, teeth bared, and thunder rumbling from their pulsing chests, the Voices represent their packs by taking commanding positions to defend them.

While this is happening, Guardians on both sides scout out the other pack, to see how numerous and strong they are. This behavior is also seen with Lions, who wander at night. A pride can tell the size of a new pride moving into its territory by listening to its growls. If the new pride is bigger than the home pride, it just melts away without conflict. The reverse is true as well. Like Wolves, Lions have no love for fighting.

The Resolve

Back to the standoff: both packs have decided to take the path of least resistance. To them, we look strong, with our ranks are inflated by six nearly grown pups. And we all look hungry, which we show with the intensity of our presence.

They are just over half our numbers, yet they have much at stake. If they lose this territory, it will be a long time before they can find new land and a new food source. Even though their Guardians shoot questioning looks at those who are ready to defend, they find it impossible to retreat. In a flash, a scuffle breaks out. Only the Voices and a few Guardians from each pack jump in. The Nurturers stay back to protect the pups if needed.

Right away it becomes apparent to the home pack that they will be torn to shreds if they try to drive us off. They back off, yet maintain their integrity by standing tall and baring their teeth. The message is clear: we have established our presence here, but if we dare to venture any farther than necessary in order to meet our needs, we better watch our backsides.

Now, to confirm who you are

To the indigenous Human People across Europe, Asia, and America, they and the Wolf People are sisters and brothers to each other. The old legends tell about how together they were the first to walk on our Mother Planet. They learned from each other how to hunt and live in honor and respect.

That closest of kinships is still alive and well. In the story you just read, there were all of the same social, political, and familial relationships that exist in our culture. And you experienced the roles of the three archetypes: Voice, Nurturer, and Guardian.

Which role did you relate to the most? If it matches with the role indicated in the questionnaire, that is likely your archetype — your inner calling to serve your people, your plant and animal relations, and your Mother Planet in the way that is unique for you.

If you are still not clear

Here are two more ways to find your archetype:

1. Role-play

Reflect on notable roles you have played in your life. What characteristics have you exhibited yesterday and today in group situations? Ask for perspective from family members and close friends. Clarity can come from within as well — note the roles you play in your dreams.

Now, close your eyes, go back to the Wolf story, and again become a member of the pack. Where do you feel most comfortable: in the middle taking care of the pups, up front at the apex of all the action, or drifting in the shadows, watching and gathering information?

Feel while you’re role-playing. Do you experience a deep sense of calm in one of the roles? Do you feel anxious and out-of-place in another? Tune in to both your emotional and bodily responses.

2. Observe how you handle stress

The way you respond to stressful or threatening situations: fight, flee, or freeze, is an accurate indicator of your archetype. A Guardian’s response protocol is to first scout and observe, while a Nurturer assesses core needs, and a Voice listens, then directs a course of action. These tendencies lead to different threat responses, which become apparent when we immerse ourselves in each archetypal role:

• Voice = fight or flight
• Nurturer = gather together or tend
• Guardian = fade or blend

In the Wolf story, you saw each of the three stress responses. Take a moment to reflect on how you usually respond to stress in your daily life. When you’re with others and there is tension, do you wish you could just disappear like a Guardian? Do you try to fix things and make everyone feel comfortable, as a Nurturer would? Or do you take action and either stand up for someone’s rights or get involved in the argument, which is consistent with the Voice archetype?

False Readings

If you felt innately comfortable with the role or roles these exercises identified for you, it’s a solid indication that you are in touch with who you are and it is manifesting in your life. However, if you were emotionally triggered by the exercises, or if they left you feeling apathetic, some of the scripts you play out in your life may not be the real you.

Other factors might be masking your natural inclination to respond according to your archetype – even causing you to react as though you were of another archetype. The most common factors are cultural and family conditioning, behavioral patterns adopted to survive high-stress situations, and personality changes resulting from trauma.

A Nurturer who was continually exploited as a child may have learned to respond aggressively to her environment as a survival mechanism. She carried this behavior into adulthood, which now causes her to appear as a Voice. Another child learned to endure abuse by fading into the background, so he now passes as a Guardian.

Even though you may have learned to function in this adopted role, you will never feel completely at ease in it. There will always be some level of stress — even resentment or dread — followed by a sense of relief after the situation is over.

The way to determine your authentic response, then, is not by what you do, but by your first impulse. What did you immediately feel like doing before you switched gears and went with your patterned behavior?

The Next Step

If you are a Guardian…

there is a home training for you — the Like a Shadow Intensive. There, you develop your sensory, physical, and mental attunement to the level where you can reach your full potential and best serve your people. Your training is enriched by the camaraderie you share with other Guardian Trainees.

After successfully completing the Like a Shadow Intensive, you have earned a place in the Shadow Camp Immersion, where you learn the secret time-honored stealth, deception, and self-mastery skills to conduct successful Missions and emerge triumphant in conflicts.

If you are a Voice, Nurturer, or some of each…

Guardian Training may still be for you. In traditional cultures, people train in all three archetypes, so they can take care of themselves and step forward to serve their people, no matter what the circumstance. Imagine how much better a Nurturer could defend her child if she had Guardian training.

Come and join the pack, and together we will revel in the spirit of the traditional Guardian Way!